Zagreb Daily Report - December 10, 2009

UNCLAS ZAGREB 000721 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL HR AF ECON SUBJECT: Zagreb Daily Report - December 10, 2009 ¶1. (U) Minister announces planned new agreement with Bosnia on fugitive convicts: Croatian Justice Minister Ivan Simonovic on December 9 said publicly that he expects Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina to sign, by the end of this month, an agreement on the execution of final verdicts delivered in the other country. This would address the problem of dual nationals who have escaped serving their sentences by fleeing to the other country, from which they cannot be extradited because both countries' Constitutions currently forbid extradition of their own nationals. The new agreement would retain a provision giving each country the right to decide whether it would enforce the prison term in cases involving criminal acts of a military, political or financial character. ¶2. (U) Mesic and Vujanovic Praise Croatian-Montenegrin relations: On December 9 President Mesic met with his visiting Montenegrin counterpart Filip Vujanovic. Mesic described bilateral relations as excellent and stated that it was thanks in part to the courage Podgorica showed when it admitted to having been involved in unfortunate events during the war. Vujanovic described relations between the two countries as meaningful, intensive and friendly, and cited the hiring of a Croatian consortium led by the Split-based firm Konstruktor for the construction of a major motorway in Montenegro as an outstanding example of bilateral economic cooperation. Mesic congratulated Montenegro for its progress towards NATO membership, and added that Croatia was ready to help Montenegro in every way on its path to the EU. ¶3. (U) FM expresses strong support for U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan during trip to Washington: The Croatian press reported that on December 9, in his remarks to the Atlantic Council in Washington, FM Jandrokovic said Croatia strongly supports the new U.S. strategy for Afghanistan and believed that the international community's mission there would succeed. The media also noted that FM met with U/S of Defense Flournoy, NSC Senior Director Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall and members of Congress including Senator Mark Begich, Senator George Voinovich, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Howard Berman, and members of the Croatian Congressional Caucus. The MFA spokesman said that Minister Jandrokovic thanked the Congress for US support to Croatia on NATO and EU membership, raised the possibility of greater economic ties, noted Croatia's support for the Butmir process in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and asked for Congressional support to include Croatia in the Visa Waiver Program. FOLEY