Croatia votes for war crimes trials

Croatian troops are accused of massacring Serbs in Gospic

By the BBC's Pierre Vicary

The Croatian parliament has reaffirmed its commitment to co-operate with the international war crimes tribunal, prompting a walk-out by deputies from the former ruling party.

The vote in the assembly, or Sabor, followed a stormy and bitter debate, with hard-line right-wingers accusing the newly-elected coalition government of national betrayal and capitulating to the West.

Delegates from the former ruling party, the HDZ or Croatian Democratic Union, argued that any war crimes suspects should be tried in Croatian courts.

President Tudjman's government rarely carried out the tribunal's demands

They then staged a walkout from the chamber before the declaration agreeing to full co-operation with the war crimes tribunal was formally approved by 77 votes to five.

The issue of war crimes remains a sensitive issue in Croatian politics - many believe that Serbia holds major responsibility for the collapse of the former Yugoslavia.

They believe that the Hague tribunal should first investigate allegations of Serb war crimes rather than later Croat reprisals against the Serb minority in Croatia.

Serb graves

The tribunal is currently investigating the disappearance of about 100 Serbs near the town of Gospic in 1991.

They are presumed to have been executed and their bodies buried at scattered locations.

Veterans of Croatia's war for independence also campaigned strongly against the coalition government's draft declaration and have strongly criticised its adoption.

The new declaration ends years of ambivalence by the Croat authorities to the war crimes tribunal.

The former HDZ government of the late President Franjo Tudjman, agreed under intense international pressure in 1996 to co-operate with the Hague tribunal, but rarely carried out the tribunal's demands.