ZAGREB: The upcoming visit of Carla del Ponte, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), to Croatia is widely regarded in Zagreb as a turning point which might bury the country’s ambitions of joining the European Union in 2007.

Del Ponte is set to arrive in Zagreb today (Monday) for talks with Prime Minister Ivica Racan on the country’s cooperation with the ICTY. She is also expected to meet with President Stipe Mesic.

The chief prosecutor is expected to demand the immediate extradition of army general Ante Gotovina, whom the ICTY charged with war crimes more than two years ago. He remains at large.

Two years ago, the ICTY issued an indictment against the general for war crimes allegedly committed in 1995 when the Croatian army regained territory that had been occupied by rebel Serbs in an operation called “Storm”.

The ICTY blames the Croatian army, in which Gotovina was then a commander, for committing war crimes against Serb civilians while retaking the area — almost one-third of the country’s territory. Gotovina disappeared when his indictment was unsealed in the summer of 2001.

However, the Croatian government insists that the fugitive war crimes suspect is not in Croatia and that Zagreb cannot arrest him, since he is not in its area of jurisdiction.

But Del Ponte says that Gotovina is in Croatia and is expected to exert more pressure on the country to find and arrest him.

On October 9, Del Ponte will submit a report to the United Nations Security Council on Croatia’s progress in cooperating with the ICTY.

If her report is negative, and Croatian media speculate it will be, the country fears it might not get a green light for European Union membership which Zagreb applied for last February in Athens.

The president of the European parliament Pat Cox, who officially visited Croatia earlier this week, told Zagreb to do its best to convince Del Ponte that it would cooperate fully with the ICTY.

“I call on you to do everything that is possible to persuade Del Ponte that Croatia does cooperate with The Hague tribunal,” Cox said said in an address to the Croatian parliament last Monday.

Cox indicated that the EU would observe Del Ponte’s report to the UN carefully.

EU membership is the country’s most important foreign policy objective and support for it is overwhelming.

Croatia hopes to become an EU member in 2007 when Romania and Bulgaria are expected to join. However, unlike Croatia, the other two nations do not have unresolved war crimes issues from the past.—dpa