Whether or not Croatia will be allowed to open negotiations on Chapter 23, Justice and Fundamental Rights will depend on the report by Chief ICTY Prosecutor Serge Brammertz, though he has not recognised Croatia's progress and there are only two outstanding documents that Croatia cannot locateThe Croatian government has achieved substantial new progress in its efforts to locate the artillery logs that the European Union and Chief ICTY Prosecutor Serge Brammertz have set as the main benchmark for Croatia to meet before it will be allowed to open Chapter 23 - Justice and Fundamental Rights within the EU accession talks. The working team assigned by the Croatian government to find the artillery logs have succeeded in finding the majority of the 23 key documents Brammertz is insisting on.

A high ranking source close to the government commented for Nacional last week that the working team has already submitted 9 of the 23 documents to the office of the ICTY prosecutor. Furthermore, the prosecution has received a written report claiming that 6 of the said documents were destroyed. This has been definitely confirmed, and the competent institutions have initiated criminal proceedings against 19 people. In some cases, binding verdicts have already been passed. The working team has succeeded in reconstructing the fate of another 6 documents.

The ICTY prosecution has received an explanation as to why the government, allegedly out of objective reasons, cannot access these documents at this time. There remain only two documents on the list that the government has not yet located, though Brammertz has received a dozen written reports on the issue to date. Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko and Justice Minister Ivan Simonovic, together with some members of the working team, held several official meetings last week in Zagreb with diplomats representing the US, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Sweden and several other countries. At the meetings, they described in detail all that has been done on the issue of the artillery logs and the progress achieved, and the situation Croatia is currently in. High ranking government sources have commented for National that they believe they have succeeded in convincing the diplomats that Croatia's cooperation with the ICTY is unconditional.

"It is clear to everyone now, but we are again depending on the capriciousness of one man, and not on the real state of affairs," was the comment made for Nacional by a high ranking government official.
At these meetings, the Croatian representatives told the foreign diplomats that Croatia has been engaged in a much broader campaign to compile the archives of military documents, primarily from the military operations Flash and Storm. However, this campaign is primarily a reflection of the pressures by the international community regarding the artillery logs. A high ranking government source told Nacional that the government believes that the issue of the artillery logs and the issue of opening the talks on Chapter 23 is now a purely political issue that should not be brought into any other context.

Our source claims that this is particularly true since the trial proceedings against Generals Mladen Markac, Ivan Cermak and Ante Gotovina are almost completed, and finding any of the remaining missing documents cannot have any significant impact on the court conclusions as to whether or not there was excessive shelling of hostile targets during Operation Storm, particularly in the Knin area. Despite this, the government is still nervous over mention of the artillery logs. The reason for this is the fact that Brammertz is standing fast on this issue. A high ranking political source told Nacional that in his communications with Croatian representatives, he continues to insist on the finding of these documents. Some sources claim that at meetings Brammertz has stated that he is not at all interested in reports, and that he does not want to hear how many people have been prosecuted for destroying the documents. From his comments, the Croatian representatives have received two messages. The first is that Brammertz has begun to take this issue too personally, and that he is looking for justification if the process against Markac, Cermak and Gotovina does not end the way the prosecution would like to see it end. If Brammertz loses this trial, this will reflect poorly on his career, believes a high ranking government official. The second message is that this is in fact a continuation of the already inappropriate British political pressures against Croatia. According to some distinguished Croatian politicians, some inappropriate pressures in recent days could be partially due to the fact that Britain is in the midst of an election campaign.

BRITISH FOREIGN MINISTER David Miliband"During political campaigns, the diplomatic initiative is often taken by persons within the Foreign Office, and high ranking state officials are focused on other activities. These persons are not inclined towards Croatia, and the diplomatic lobbying in Croatia's favour at that level is virtually negligible," was the comment by an experienced Croatian diplomat for Nacional. The same source told Nacional that the Croatian government in that context should rely primarily on diplomatic activities and lobbying towards the US, and towards all its allies within the EU. Their political pressures could be key in the formation of the Brammertz's final report to the UN Security Council. The Chief Prosecutor is due to submit his new report on Croatia's cooperation with the Tribunal to the Security Council at the end of May, and to defend it orally before the Council on 2 June. This is one of the very few chapters that Croatia has yet to open, due in part to the previous superficiality of the Croatian government in this sector, and in part due to the inappropriate political pressures by Britain and several of its allies within the Union. The ICTY Prosecution opened the issue of the artillery logs on 13 June 2008 by requesting that Croatia be given a binding warrant to submit the documents. This request came only one week after the questioning of the final witness for the prosecution, General Alain Forand. Forand was the last in a string of witnesses who was supposed to testify to the excessive shelling of Knin, but his testimony did not meet the prosecution's expectations. The Prosecutor's office began to seek allegedly key documents at a more than unusual moment, as the trial was already ongoing, all the witnesses for the prosecution had been questioned, and then someone in the prosecution remembered that they were missing some key evidence to prove the allegations in the indictment.

If the missing artillery logs are truly key evidence in the proceedings, then one must pose the question as to what the indictment was actually based on. At the end of 2008, the government and Ante Gotovina's defence team had received a request for the submission of 158 missing documents. At that time, Gotovina's lawyers discovered that they had received from the prosecution, amongst the evidence and documents delivered at the start of the trial, 73 of those 158 listed documents.

Therefore, the prosecution requested 73 documents that were already in their files. Later the list was reduced to the 20-some artillery logs. Initially, the response by the Croatian government to that request was superficial. In February 2009, the government received a demarche from the European Union stating that not enough was being done on the issue, which the government hid from the public for a week. It then began to take action, and a series of operations were carried out in an attempt to find the documents. Over a period of several months, numerous searches were carried out, and many military officials detained and questioned. Recently, this farce was ended by ICTY Justice Alphons Orie. Several months ago, he accepted the request by Gotovina's defence and gave a binding warrant to Croatia to cease the searching the documents and computers seized from members of Gotovina's defence team in a police operation.

In this operation, thousands of pages of various documents were found in the possession of several members of Gotovina's defence team, and former high ranking military officers holding key roles in the liberation operation Storm 1995. In essence, this was yet another repressive action primarily initiated on pressures by prosecutor Brammertz, who persistently claims that Croatia has not done enough to find the artillery logs which, in his belief, should be key evidence against the indicted generals.

TRIAL PROCEEDINGS against Generals Markac, Cermak and Gotovina is almost complete and finding any of the remaining documents can no longer have any impact on the final verdictAfter the ruling by Justice Orie, Croatia continued to resolve the issue, though somewhat more discretely, without the unnecessary media show put on for the ICTY prosecutor. Further progress has been made, though diplomatic priorities have been redirected. In May, intensive lobbying with the US and Croatia's allies within the EU will continue to apply pressure on Brammertz to allow Croatia to formally enter into the final stage of negotiations for accession to the EU. Croatia is aiming to complete the negotiations in early 2011, but is yet to open the chapters on foreign and security policies and market competition. These are areas in which Croatia is expected to invest great efforts in adapting to the EU acquis, though it has been assessed that the Croatian government will complete the negotiations in almost a routine manner, and then head out to the polls to try to regain the support of the Croatian voters.