"Apart from all the good the Hague tribunal has done, unfortunately, it hasn't fully used the possibilities to meet the principles of full fairness and equal accountability criteria," Josipovic told the press.

For him, it is "all too important" that all the crimes that were committed in the war, in Croatia as well as in its neighbourhood, be justly punished, so that the victims can have a feeling of justice. "That's the only possible foundation for building healthy relations in Croatia as well as good relations with neighbours."

Josipovic said that in his criticism of the UN court during talks with Croatian emigrants in New York he underlined, as he did in 1999, when he resigned as a member of a war crimes commission, that Croatia had not cooperated appropriately for a long time, citing the example of Tihomir Blaskic, as it turned out that he had been wrongly accused in the Ahmici case.

"In that context, I spoke of other wrong persons as well," he said, citing the example of General Ivan Cermak. "He was a wrong person in The Hague. And there were persons like him not only on the Croatian side, but on the Serbian, Bosnian and Albanian sides as well."

Josipovic said a lot of funds and resources had been used for the trials at The Hague, yet the result, first and foremost justice and fairness, had not been achieved. "When we are talking about war crimes trials criteria, I always advocated and will always advocate equal criteria."

Asked if General Ante Gotovina was also "a wrong person at The Hague," Josipovic said he had not mentioned names. He also recalled verdicts handed down for crimes committed in Vukovar, saying that many high-ranked commanders did not end up at The Hague and that there had been crimes against Croatian Serbs that were not prosecuted.

Josipovic said he was pleased that "now we have changed the story and it's good that Croatia is working on that." "I expect the Hague tribunal to rule fairly in all cases," he added.