President Ivo Josipovic was asked at a press conference in Zagreb on Friday to comment on the statement by his predecessor, Stjepan Mesic, that the key transcripts had been delivered to the Hague war crimes tribunal by the then chief of the Counterintelligence Agency (POA) and present Interior Minister, Tomislav Karamarko, saying that "all such talks are counterproductive."
Josipovic recalled that all state officials had a duty to cooperate with the tribunal under a constitutional law inaugurated in 1996 by the late President Franjo Tudjman, and stressed the importance of establishing the truth and removing the unfavourable allegations against Croatia's defensive war.
When asked if in the process of cooperation with the Hague tribunal someone had made a mistake, Josipovic said it was hard to say now.
"The situation is emotional and everyone is now trying to find someone to blame, but I want to stress once again, the cooperation with the Hague tribunal has been the state policy since President Tudjman. What is most important is that there are no forgeries and untruths, while all procedural matters will be cleared up," Josipovic said.
When asked to comment on the government's proposal that the law regulating the rights of war veterans should become a constitutional law, Josipovic said he regarded it as a political and moral message because a constitutional law is also a law.
"Not much will be achieved by it except on the symbolic level, and I do not know whether it will achieve the expected result," he said, adding that "judging by the way it was presented, it would not amount to a change to the Constitution."
