Del Ponte Says Croatia Not Co-operating Enough

09/06/2005

NEW YORK, United States -- Croatia has not made enough progress in trying to arrest fugitive Ante Gotovina, chief UN prosecutor Carla del Ponte said in a report to the UN Security Council released Wednesday (8 June). She described Zagreb's efforts as neither focused nor convincing, adding that a few more months would be needed to determine whether the government would implement its new action plan to nab Gotovina by clamping down on his support network. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn issued a statement of his own, urging Croatia to "build on its recent efforts" and noting full co-operation is key to launching accession talks. Those talks were originally scheduled to begin in March. According to a report in the Croatian weekly Globus, del Ponte told a recent OSCE meeting that Gotovina is hiding in Mostar, a mainly Croat-populated town in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Bloomberg, EU Observer, Index.hr, Tanjug - 08/06/05)