The Vatican: The Catholic Church is hiding Croatian war crimes fugitive Ante Gotovina and the Vatican has ignored appeals to track him down, UN chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte was quoted yesterday as saying.
"I have information he is hiding in a Franciscan monastery and so the Catholic Church is protecting him," she told London's Daily Telegraph. "I have taken this up with the Vatican and the Vatican refuses totally to co-operate with us."
The Vatican said in a statement that "checks in the past" about where Gotovina may be hiding had "turned out negative" and it asked Ms del Ponte to provide specific information.
It said she had "thus far not responded in any way".
Croatia's bishops' conference dismissed the accusations.
Ms del Ponte said she was "extremely disappointed" that months of secret appeals to leading Vatican officials, including the pope, had proved fruitless, and had decided to go public.
She said Gotovina, a former general wanted for atrocities against Croatian Serb civilians by his troops in 1995, was being sheltered in one of 80 monasteries in Croatia and the Vatican could probably find out where "in a few days".
Ms del Ponte said she spoke to Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican's equivalent of foreign minister, in Rome in July but was told the Vatican had no obligation to help the United Nations track war crimes suspects.
She wrote a direct appeal to Pope Benedict but several weeks later there was still no reply, she said. - (Reuters)