This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

041730Z Jun 04

C O N F I D E N T I A L  ZAGREB 001025 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR S/WCI:PROSPER, EUR/SCE:KABUMOTO 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/04/2014 
TAGS: KAWC KJUS PREL HR
SUBJECT: DEL PONTE SAYS CROATIA FULLY COOPERATING WITH ICTY 
 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Ralph Frank, Reasons 1.5 (b) & (d) 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1. (C) ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte briefed the 
diplomatic community on June 4 on her day and a half visit to 
Zagreb.  Del Ponte said that although Croatia's cooperation 
with the tribunal was the best of any country, she had warned 
the GoC leadership that she could change her assessment at 
any time.  Del Ponte supports transferring ICTY indictments 
to Croatia for prosecution, beginning with the 
soon-to-be-joined Norac and Ademi cases.  The ICTY is looking 
to the OSCE to monitor the performance of Croatian courts. 
However, ICTY Diplomatic liaison Jean-Daniel Ruch separately 
warned Ambassador Frank that past, simplistic OCSE 
assessments of Croatia's local prosecution capabilities could 
bias ICTY President Theodor Meron against approving the 
transfer of cases.  The assembled ambassadors were wary of 
OSCE mission creep, suggesting that the ICTY and OSCE look to 
developing local capacities to monitor war crimes cases.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
CROATIA COOPERATING FULLY 
------------------------- 
 
¶2. (C) On June 4, ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte 
briefed the diplomatic community on the results of her day 
and a half visit to Zagreb.  Del Ponte reiterated her public 
statements that Croatia is fully cooperating with the ICTY, 
including the continuing search for fugitive Ante Gotovina. 
The GoC has engaged in direct communication with the ICTY and 
has responded promptly to requests for assistance.  Del Ponte 
said she had made it clear to both President Mesic and Prime 
Minister Sanader that she would withdraw her positive opinion 
if she felt the GoC was slacking off on cooperation, 
particularly regarding Gotovina. 
 
¶3. (C) Del Ponte said that she had complete confidence in 
Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic, who is a "brilliant" 
prosecutor, in leading the search for Gotovina.  Del Ponte 
expects the GoC to find Gotovina and to work actively with 
other governments to find him if he is not in Croatia.  She 
said within the next few months she expected the GoC to 
either confirm Gotovina was in Croatia or in a specific other 
country.  Prior to del Ponte's briefing, ICTY Diplomatic 
liaison Jean-Daniel Ruch, told Ambassador Frank separately 
that President Mesic and Prime Minister Sanader has assured 
del Ponte in their meetings that there was absolutely no 
interest among Croatian authorities in protecting Gotovina. 
 
READY TO TRANSFER CASES 
----------------------- 
 
¶4. (C) Chief Prosecutor del Ponte told the diplomatic 
community the ICTY was getting ready to transfer the Norac 
and Ademi cases, once they had been joined into a single 
case.  She welcomed the work of Justice Minister Vesna 
Skare-Ozbolt to prepare Croatian judges and prosecutors for 
this transfer.  The issue for the Tribunal was whether the 
new special war crimes courts were ready to process 
transferred cases.  Most of the assembled ambassadors, 
including those from Germany, Canada, The Netherlands, and 
Ireland, said that despite some concerns, they felt that 
Croatia was ready to take on a test case.  The only way to 
know for sure was to send a case for prosecution. 
 
¶5. (C) In their separate meeting, ICTY's Ruch told Ambassador 
Frank that the transfer of cases could heavily depend on the 
OSCE.  Ruch complained that the OSCE was the only 
organization with a credible capability to assess the 
performance of Croatian judiciary.  However, the OSCE's 
reports for 2002 and 2003 (draft) appeared to be sterile 
number crunching exercises, which focused on the performance 
of small courts processing locally generated indictments and 
did not reflect the capabilities of the four courts 
designated to take on ICTY cases.  He feared that ICTY 
President Theodor Meron would rely only on these reports and 
assess that the Croatian judiciary was not ready to take on 
ICTY cases.  Ruch asked the Ambassador to weigh in with the 
OSCE Mission to provide a richer, more dynamic assessment of 
the evolving capacities of the four war crimes courts that 
would facilitate the transfer of the first test case to 
Croatia. 
 
ROLE OF THE OSCE 
---------------- 
 
¶6. (C) Del Ponte welcomed the role of the OSCE in monitoring 
local war crimes cases.  She noted that the ICTY does not 
have the resources to monitor transferred cases, and would 
look to the OSCE to assist.  German Ambassador Gebhardt Weiss 
cautioned against expanding the OSCE's role in Croatia and 
 
urged that Croatian NGOs be helped to grow into this role. 
Irish Ambassador Barrie Robinson, speaking on behalf of the 
EU, said with 25 member countries, the EU would have an 
enhanced capability to perform a monitoring function. 
 
¶7. (C) OSCE Head of Mission Peter Semneby said that the OSCE 
was working with the Ministry of Justice to identify issues 
and potential solutions regarding fairness issues in local 
prosecutions.  That said, he noted that he had told Judge 
Meron that for individual cases, there was no reason not to 
believe that the Croatian judiciary can handle prosecutions. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶8. (C) The ICTY is probably right that there is no realistic 
short-term alternative to the OSCE playing a key monitoring 
role.  However, if our objective in transferring ICTY cases 
back to Croatia is to help Croatia come to terms with its own 
checkered war legacy, Croatian civil society will have to 
play a larger role in monitoring Croatian government 
institutions.  Longer term, we would agree with the German 
view that the OSCE could play a useful role in developing the 
capacity of Croatian NGOs to take on the monitoring function. 
FRANK 
 
 
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