Ivanisevic backs Croat suspects

Ivanisevic says he and fellow stars are dismayed by government decision

ZAGREB, Croatia -- Wimbledon tennis champion Goran Ivanisevic and 10 other Croatian sports stars have urged their government to ditch plans to handover military generals wanted by a U.N. court.

Observers saw Ivanisevic's triumph this week as a chance for Croat Prime Minister Ivica Racan to divert national discontent away from his decision to co-operate with the International War Crimes Tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands.

But Ivansevic has joined some of his country's most successful sports stars to write to the reformist government asking it to protect army generals who may be wanted as war crimes suspects.

The tennis star, who won the Wimbledon men's singles championship at the fourth attempt this week, returned to a hero's welcome in his home town of Split on Tuesday. Tens of thousands took to the streets to cheer him, some holding banners saying "Ivanisevic for leader."

In an open letter, carried by state news agency Hina, the 11, including six members of the national soccer team, said they were "dismayed by the government's decision to hand over two generals to the Hague tribunal."

The letter added: "We do not understand politics, but we are reasonable people hurt by injustice. Croatia was the victim (in the war) and its soldiers and generals were heroes."

Among the signatories were AC Milan soccer star and former Croatia captain Zvonimir Boban and Alen Boksic, a striker for the English football club Middlesbrough.

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"Our human and moral obligation to our greatest heroes does not allow us to remain silent," the letter said.

Other signatories included soccer stars Aljosa Asanovic, Slaven Bilic, Igor Stimac and Davor Suker, and former NBA basketball stars Dino Radja and Stojko Vrankovic.

"We are political laymen, but we are reasonable people and sportsmen who are sensitive to injustice," said the letter.

"Evidently there is an effort to distort historical facts as to who was the victim and who was the aggressor" in the 1991 Croatian war for independence.

But Prime Minister Ivica Racan told The Associated Press in an interview: "I regret that it has come to this. Some of these stars were absent from the country when we explained the trying circumstances under which our decision was made."

But the sentiments expressed by the sports stars are shared by many politicians, including Ivo Sanader, leader of the Nationalist HDZ party founded by former president Franjo Tudjman, who has also pressed the government to reconsider.

Racan had agreed to co-operate with the tribunal in the knowledge that failure to do so could dry up international financial aid.

His coalition cabinet voted to comply with the tribunal at the weekend, despite four ministers of the Social Liberal party resigning over the issue.

The government has said it might contemplate a referendum on the question of an amnesty for alleged war criminals as nationalist organisations are suggesting, and Racan has been forced to stage a parliamentary vote of confidence in his government on Sunday over the proposed handover.

Defeat in the vote would see the collapse of the 18-month-old government and necessitate new elections.

Last year, the entire national soccer team signed a letter of support to a group of army generals who were sacked by reformist President Stipe Mesic for publicly criticising the government's policy of co-operating with The Hague tribunal.

The move backfired on the team when it was attacked in the media, regardless of the players' sporting achievements, for meddling in political affairs.

The public fury forced the long-time coach Miroslav Blazevic to step down and some key members of the team that came third in the 1998 World Cup in France -- including Stimac and Boksic -- to retire from international soccer. All the signatories to Thursday's letter had been in Split to welcome Ivanisevic home earlier in the week.

Stimac, a former Hajduk Split player who spent much of his career in England, is a member of an ultra-nationalist National Democratic Party.

Boban has given public support to another nationalist group, HIP, founded by Miroslav Tudjman, the son of Tudjman.

Ivanisevic had trained with Hajduk Split and been offered a place in the team.