ZAGREB: Croatia’s reformist government knew it was stepping into a political minefield this week when it refused to hand over a former army chief of staff to the United Nations war crimes tribunal.

It knows defying the court in The Hague could trigger serious economic sanctions against the pro-Western government, which has pledged to cooperate with the tribunal.

It also knows obeying the handover order would almost certainly unleash a popular backlash that could put the government’s very survival at risk.

Janko Bobetko, 83, who nationalists regard as a hero of the 1991-95 independence war, says he would rather die than stand in the dock on war crimes charges he flatly rejects.

The retired general is the highest-ranking Croat and the oldest person to be indicted by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Zagreb refused his indictment on Monday, saying its formulation ran counter to the Croatian constitution.

More precisely, it said Croatia had not been in armed conflict with a breakaway rebel Serb state when the alleged crimes were committed in 1993, but had launched a limited military action against terrorists shelling its towns.

Prime Minister Ivica Racan referred the matter to the Constitutional Court — which can take weeks or months to make a ruling. Parliament will debate it on Friday. Only President Stjepan Mesic, a fervent supporter of the tribunal, has urged Bobetko and the government to cooperate fully with the court, ignore rightwingers’ demands and avoid international isolation.

The tribunal dismissed Croatia’s challenge of the indictment as “absolutely ridiculous” and urged Zagreb to comply.

“The government is on the losing side. They will either go along with what the rightwingers ask, or against it. Any way, it’s a no-win situation,” said a Zagreb-based Western diplomat.—Reuters