Croatian President Stipe Mesic on Friday welcomed European Union leaders' decision on opening membership talks with Croatia in April, providing Zagreb cooperates with the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The decision "has crowned the process that started after elections in 2000, when Croatia embarked on the road toward membership in the united Europe", the president said in a statement. Mesic said Croatia should not be disheartened by the fact that the start of entry talks was conditional on full cooperation with the tribunal in The Hague. "All countries were required to meet certain conditions and standards, and Croatia was no exception," he said. "I have always been resolute and consistent in advocating that Croatia should take its place in the European family of nations, confident that our country has and can have only one European future," he added. Besides Mesic, Croatian Premier Ivo Sanader also said he was "satisfied" with the European Union leaders' decision. "This is one of the important dates in Croatian history," Sanader said. "... We need to solve the only remaining outstanding issue." In the case of Zagreb, full cooperation with the war crimes tribunal means the arrest and extradition of the fugitive war crimes suspect General Ante Gotovina, whom the tribunal charged with war crimes against the Serbs in 2001 and who has been on the run ever since. "I want to believe that Gotovina will realize that any delay (in surrendering) will harm both him and Croatia as well," Sanader said. Opposition parties, including the Social Democrats, the party of former prime minister Ivica Racan, also said they were satisfied with the E.U. decision. However, the leader of the far-right Croatian Party of Rights, Anto Djapic, said: "Croatia got nothing in Brussels today."
