Croatia to hand over 'war criminals' for EU membership

Croatia has promised to hand over to the United Nations two retired generals accused of war crimes as part of its campaign to join the European Union.

The pledge from Tonino Picula, Croatia's Foreign Minister, could lead to the extradition of two men seen by many in Croatia as war heroes. Their surrender, with other war crimes suspects, would be politically risky for the coalition government because it could provoke a public backlash. But ministers know that co-operation with the UN tribunal is vital if they are to fulfil their objective of joining the EU.

Until last year the Croatian government refused to serve the indictment against Janko Bobetko, an 83-year-old former army chief accused of crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the deaths of Serbs in Croatia in 1993. In December the government declared that General Bobetko was too ill to be sent to The Hague. Although Mr Picula voiced doubts on the general's physical ability to stand trial, he promised to abide by the findings of a UN team of doctors that examined him. "We will obey and comply with any decision made in the tribunal," he said.

Mr Picula said another former army officer accused of atrocities, Ante Gotovina, who has been backed by a host of Croatian public figures including the Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, was being "chased by police" in an inquiry involving Interpol.

Mr Picula said Croatia had "changed policy towards the ICTY [International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia]", adding: "In three years we have received almost 300 different requests [from ICTY] and we are fulfilling each and every one of them."

UN officials remain to be convinced. Florence Hartmann, spokeswoman for the chief UN war crimes prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, said: "We were in a position to expect full co-operation from Croatia and they failed on this issue. We don't know what will happen if there are new indictments relating to Croatia."

Zagreb's approach towards war crimes is crucial because it will be one yardstick by which the EU judges the country's ability to stick to the EU's democracy and human rights standards. Britain and the Netherlands have so far declined to ratify a European co-operation agreement with Zagreb because of lack of co- operation with ICTY.

The Croatian government will make its formal EU membership application at a ceremony in Athens on 18 February. Mr Picula said its goal was to become a member "around 2007".

Croatia's economic performance surpasses some of the countries that will join the EU next year, but the country's politics is still scarred by the Balkan wars of the 1990s and the nationalism of former president Franjo Tudjman, who died in 1999. Mr Picula said the task facing the government was to "re-engineer a complete country because we inherited so many problems". He admitted that the EU's assessment of Croatia's political progress would be decisive. Continuing economic and political reform was the only way to defuse the nationalist tensions that affected all countries, he argued.

A spokeswoman for the European Commission said: "Croatia has made good economic progress; where there is room for improvement is on the political side. Co-operation with ICTY is certainly one of the yardsticks."

Croatia must hold elections by the summer of 2004 and some fear a resurgence of Mr Tudjman's HDZ party. But Mr Picula insisted: "It is impossible to run the country in Tudjman style. Even if the HDZ wins the next elections it is unimaginable that it would turn back time. Tudjman's time is over."