Washington, 6 October 1997 (RFE/RL/) - The U.S. State Department says special envoy Robert Gelbard and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman had a positive and productive meeting Friday on a broad range of issues concerning implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords.
State Department spokesman James Rubin said the two sides agreed on measures to be taken in Eastern Slavonia to make it possible for the United Nations to end its administration of the region as scheduled next January. International officials have warned Zagreb the region's return to Croatian control may be delayed if the concerns of Croatian Serbs are not adequately addressed.
Rubin said there was also a good discussion on Bosnia and what needs to be done to give more content to the Bosnia-Croat Federation.
He said Tudjman and Gelbard also talked about a program for the voluntary surrender of indicted war crimes suspects with guarantees of a speedy trial.
Rubin said Tudjman gave assurances that he would work hard on the war crimes issues. Rubin said the U.S. hopes to have some results from that effort very soon.