Zagreb (IKA) — The Croatian Conference of the Superiors of Religious Orders (HKVRP), representing the authorized superiors of all the men’s religious communities of the Catholic Church that operate in Croatia, issued a declaration in connection with recent statements by the chief prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte, regarding the effects and consequences of these statements among the Croatian and world public.

The declaration, signed on September 23 by the president of the Croatian Conference of the Superiors of Religious Orders, Fr. Ivan Iko Mateljan, states that it is unacceptable and intolerable for the chief prosecutor of the International Tribunal, established by the United Nations, to voice public suspicions, without any evidence whatsoever, that an entire religious community in Croatia, in this case the Franciscan community, is hiding the indicted General Ante Gotovina in one of its monasteries.

It is incomprehensible and in violation of Roman law and the principles of modern law, ethics and good practice, to voice public suspicions against a religious community or any other institution or public or private person such as the chief prosecutor cites on the basis of sheer fabrications and unreliable, unconfirmed and unproved indications.

The declaration states that the chief prosecutor “behaves with equal impertinence, ruthlessness and impudence toward the leadership of the Catholic Church, toward the Holy See as a sovereign state and subject of international law, and toward its sovereign Pope.”

“None of us knows where General Ante Gotovina is, and it is our general conviction that he is not in Croatia,” emphasize the superiors of the religious orders, expressing concern that “the bill for his absence is being collected from Croatia on the political level and the beginning of negotiations for entry into the European Union is being obstructed for this reason.”

“If there were serious indications that he were hiding in some monastery in our country, neither we nor the Holy See are the address that should be contacted in order to get to him. We religious are not the address because it is neither our civil nor canon duty or authorization to be engaged in police, detective or security operations, and the Holy See is not the address because its sovereignty and civil jurisdiction do not extend to the territory of other states,” the religious superiors emphasize.

In the declaration, there is also condemnation of media prejudice, i.e. the magnification of someone’s guilt merely on the basis of an indictment by the chief prosecutor. “Such notorious defamation of any person who has not been convicted” is deemed to be the twilight of journalistic ethics, justice, fairness and the responsibility for public statements and public acts.

Such behavior, in which numerous untruths and lies, insinuations and constructions at the expense of Croatia and its citizens, its war of defense and liberation, its authorities and state officials from the period of the establishment of the independent and democratic Croatia and its liberation from the Greater Serbian occupier are put forth, can have, if not as a goal then certainly as a consequence, the serious and long-range defamation of the Croatian nation and Croatian state, caution the superior generals in their declaration.