The Croatian government has been plunged into crisis after deciding to co-operate with the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. The government voted late last night to hand over two suspected war criminals to the tribunal, triggering the resignation of four cabinet ministers. The fate of the five-party ruling coalition is now hanging in the balance and the 18-month-old government could lose a vote of confidence later this week.
Mass demonstrations are expected ahead of the confidence vote in support of the suspects, who have not been named but are thought to have been commanders during the wars which followed the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The requests for extradition came from Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. Croatia's decision followed Serbia's dramatic handover of former Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, last month.
Croatian President Stipe Mesic today backed the government decision and said that crimes had been committed on the Croat side during the 1991-95 Serbo-Croat war. "It is well know that during the war crimes were committed on the Croat side," he said in a statement, stressing that the ICTY "does not judge nations, but suspects."
