War Crimes Cause Eu Rift Over Croatia

Britain and Germany are at loggerheads over Croatia's push to join the EU, a week before a summit is supposed to set a date for the start of membership negotiations.

While Croatia's centre-right government is betting much of its credibility on obtaining an April date for the EU talks, Britain is leading the resistance unless the Croatian authorities capture the fugitive war crimes suspect General Ante Gotovina and transfer him for trial to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Germany wants to set a date for the EU negotiations at the Brussels summit next week, arguing that the EU's expansion policy should not be held hostage by Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor in The Hague.

"There are talks going on and [tribunal] conditionality has got to be part of the outcome," said Denis MacShane, the minister for Europe. "We can't just let that drop."

Mr MacShane was in Berlin yesterday for talks with German officials on the issue, which echoes the row that raged between Britain and Germany in 1991 when Germany successfully pushed for EU recognition of Croatian independence against bitter British opposition.

The German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, said last week that EU negotiations with Croatia should start in April. A paper prepared by the current Dutch EU presidency for next week's summit does not, however, specify a starting date.

The Austrian chancellor, Wolfgang Schüssel, is also in favour of talks with Croatia. British reluctance to acquiesce unless the Croatian government is much more active on the war crimes issue is supported by the Dutch, the Poles and some Scandinavian EU members, diplomats said.

Two weeks ago Ms Del Ponte told the UN security council that Croatia's cooperation with the tribunal was unsatisfactory and that a Croatian state security network was sheltering and protecting Gotovina.

After Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, Gotovina is the tribunal's third most wanted man, accused of overseeing the murder of at least 150 Serbs and the expulsion of more in 1995.

That Gotovina remained at large more than three years after being indicted meant that "the networks protecting war criminals are more powerful than this part of the government that genuinely wants to cooperate fully with the tribunal", Ms Del Ponte said.

Mr MacShane said that made Croatia unfit for talks on EU membership and also sent the wrong signals to Serbia, which is much more obstructive on war crimes.