More straight talk from Stipe Mesic:

Asked if Milosevic could be hanged, he said "Why not? He is a criminal...He planned the war, he ordered the massacres."

Croatia leader says Milosevic could hang

PARIS (Reuters) -- Croatian President Stipe Mesic said in an interview published on Thursday that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic could end up being hanged by his own Serb people. Mesic at an official visit to France, also said Croatia would cooperate fully with the U.N. war crimes tribunal and provide any information requested, even on Croatian military officers.

He told the daily Le Figaro he had warned Milosevic at the start of the Yugoslav

conflict nine years ago his drive for a greater Serbia would lead to Serbia shrinking to just to the constituency of the capital Belgrade.

"I told him: 'When the Serbs understand who is responsible for the tragedy, they will hang you'. He was smoking a cigarette and replied: 'Who will hang remains to be seen'," Mesic, who was then president of the Yugoslav federation, said.

"The end of Milosevic gets nearer every day... He may lose the elections, he may be ousted," he added. Asked if Milosevic could be hanged, he said "Why not? He is a criminal...He planned the war, he ordered the massacres." Milosevic has been indicted for war crimes by the United Nations International

Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia.

Cooperation with the tribunal is one of the key demands Croatia has to meet to

facilitate its entry into Western organizations, including NATO's Partnership for Peace. "All documents will be given to the tribunal. No state or military secret can protect a war criminal," Mesic said. "We want war criminals -- Croats, Serbs and Bosnians -- to be identified by name as soon as possible. It's up to them to take their responsibilities," he said.