British deception proven

…It all started on 10 June 2003 when Nacional ran an interview with the runaway General Gotovina. That I had met with him was a fact known not even by his attorneys Luka Misetic and Marin Ivanovic, as I worked out the details in the greatest discretion with attorney Marijan Pedisic, a friend of mine, who passed away just over a year ago. We met with Gotovina in a hotel in Venice…

Both Mesic and chief Hague prosecutor Carla Del Ponte were informed of the messages and the interview before it was published. Del Ponte sent her top crew, headed by Patrick Lopez Tereza, to Pantovcak to see what could be done about it. Mesic charged his chief of staff Zeljko Bagic to speak with them, who he informed of what Gotovina had said…

And when I was already convinced that the crisis would end favourably for all and that Gotovina would finally come home, the blows came, above all from the press, but from all quarters. They led to a break off of the talks, and a loss of mutual trust, with serious consequences for Croatia, which as a result of the sabotage of those talks did not accede to the Union three years ago.

The responsible parties are known today. Some media houses, Jutarnji list and Globus foremost among them, followed by Feral and HTV, criticised both the initiative and me. President Mesic, who publicly supported the idea, was also attacked, even so far as to demand he relinquish his post. Journalists like Gordan Malic, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, Ivica Djikic, Denis Kuljis, from HTV led by Zoran Sprajc, right up to the most ridiculous of them, Zeljko Peratovic, who claimed from his laughable Internet portal that I had met with Gotovina at Mesic’s Pantovcak residence. I was subject to daily attacks. I could not believe the just how much malice there was among journalists. The chief theory put forward by the press at the time was Gotovina was in Croatia, and there were constant alleged sightings of Gotovina in Croatia appearing the newspapers…

Ivo Pukanić, Nacional, 18.09.2008. | nr. 670