YUGOSLAVIA: UN WAR CRIMES CHIEF PROSECUTOR CARLA DEL PONTE HAS TALKS WITH SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER ZORAN DJINDJIC OVER WAR CRIMES INDICTMENTS

Record ID: 208488

  • Title: YUGOSLAVIA: UN WAR CRIMES CHIEF PROSECUTOR CARLA DEL PONTE HAS TALKS WITH SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER ZORAN DJINDJIC OVER WAR CRIMES INDICTMENTS
  • Date: 4th September 2001
  • Summary: (W5) BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA (SEPTEMBER 04, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF THE MEETING OF THE HAGUE CHIEF PROSECUTOR CARLA DEL PONTE WITH SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER ZORAN DJINDJIC AND SERBIAN JUSTICE MINISTER VLADAN BATIC (6 SHOTS) 0.37 2. SLV , DEL PONTE AND DJINDJIC WALKING TO PODIUM FOR PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER THE MEETING 0.43 3. SMV SOUNDBITE (Serbian) ZORAN DJINDJIC, SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER SAYING: "So there have been no spectacular conclusions. We have analysed the situation very realistically and we have agreed that the speed of our co-operation with the Hague tribunal is according to the previously agreed schedule, that we do not take any unnecessary risks. The co-operation should go on and bring certain results but not under pressure but in line with a clear decision of our political institutions which wish to decisively get it over with crimes of individuals which are being blamed on the whole nation." 1.22 4. SCU CAMERAMAN 1.28 5. SCU SOUNDBITE (English) CARLA DEL PONTE, CHIEF PROSECUTOR OF THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL SAYING: "No, no particular name (has been discussed). You know the first important (thing) is to locate the fugitives. So, it is because they are all under the list of arrests persons and so it is not important to know who but to know if they are located here or in Bosnia or in the Republic of Srpska. What we spoke also, it was about sealed indictments. And because apparently it is not known that sealed indictments are only indictments which are not public before the arrest is done. I feel it is better to call it normal indictments." 2.14 6. SLV DEL PONTE LEAVING 2.23 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 19th September 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA
  • City:
  • Country: Yugoslavia
  • Reuters ID: LVA6R0TDFWT1T5EJXTTFGNLR00NE
  • Story Text: The U.N.s chief war crimes prosecutor has held talks
    about further co-operation with Serbian officials after signs
    of disagreement on handing over President Milan Milutinovic to
    the Dutch-based tribunal.



    Carla Del Ponte had meetings on Tuesday (September 4)
    with Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and Justice
    Minister Vladan Batic, who said on Monday (September 3) he
    would demand that the U.N. court indict leaders of the
    formally disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which battled
    Serb forces during the 1998-99 conflict.

    A spokeswoman for U.N. prosecutor Carla Del Ponte,
    visiting
    Belgrade for the first time since the handover of the ousted
    leader, said local immunity did not protect those indicted by
    the tribunal for wartime atrocities.

    Del Ponte, who last week said she would also indict
    Milosevic for genocide during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, was in
    the afternoon expected to visit a mass grave near Belgrade
    believed to hold ethnic Albanian victims of the Kosovo war.

    Analysts say the reformers revelations of the existence
    in Serbia of such sites helped prepare public opinion for
    their extradition of Milosevic more than two months ago,
    paving the way for Western financial aid and loans of $1.3
    billion.

    Officials at the U.N. court earlier said 37 people wanted
    for alleged atrocities during the violent break-up of the old
    socialist Yugoslavia in the 1990s were still at large and that
    several live in what remains of the federation.

    They include Milutinovic, the only senior Milosevic-era
    official publicly indicted by the U.N. court who has remained
    in his post.

    Djindjic, the driving force behind Milosevics transfer,
    last week stressed the need to work with the U.N. tribunal to
    bring the country closer to the rest of Europe and said Serbia
    will have to extradite some of the 15 known accused.

    But he made clear on Monday that Milutinovic, whose term
    in office expires in 2002, would not be transferred to The
    Hague as long as he remained president.

    The U.N. tribunal indicted Milutinovic together with
    Milosevic and three other senior officials of his government
    in 1999 for atrocities by Yugoslav and Serb forces under their
    command against Kosovos majority Albanian population.


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