Croatian minister resigns after scandal

CROATIA’S interior minister has resigned after being photographed on a hunting holiday with a war crimes suspect.

Ivica Kirin expressed his “regrets and apology” for the incident in a letter to prime minister Ivo Sanader after photos were published in Croatian newspapers showing him with retired general Mladen Markac, facing trial over the 1995 killings of Serb rebels.

Markac, 52, was arrested at his home in Zagreb and is in custody. The UN war crimes tribunal ordered his return to the Netherlands for breaching conditions of his 2004 release while he awaited trial.

Markac will be tried with General Ante Gotovina, the country’s top military commander, and his right-hand man, General Ivan Cermak.

The three are accused of orchestrating the killing of at least 150 Serbs and the expulsion of thousands of others in Zagreb’s 1995 offensive to regain lands seized by Serb rebels in the 1991 war. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.