NETHERLANDS: U.N. PROSECUTORS DEMAND ACTION FROM BOSNIAN SERB PREMIER TO ARREST FUGITIVE WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS RADOVAN KARADZIC AND RATKO MLADIC

Record ID: 648483

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: U.N. PROSECUTORS DEMAND ACTION FROM BOSNIAN SERB PREMIER TO ARREST FUGITIVE WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS RADOVAN KARADZIC AND RATKO MLADIC
  • Date: 7th July 2001
  • Summary: (U6) THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS (JULY 5, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. SLV EXTERIOR OF INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA 0.03 2. SLV YOUNG WOMEN SITTING BY POND; SLV UNITED NATIONS FLAG FLYING PAN DOWN TO BUILDING (2 SHOTS) 0.21 3. SLV CAR CARRYING BOSNIAN SERB PRIME MINISTER MLADEN IVANIC; MV SECURITY POLICE OUTSIDE TRIBUNAL (2 SHOTS) 0.35 4. MV IVANIC TALKING; SCU SECURITY POLICE WATCHING; MV IVANIC WALKING IN ZOOM OUT (3 SHOTS) 0.58 5. MV IVANIC SHAKING HANDS WITH CHIEF PROSECUTOR CARLA DEL PONTE; MV IVANIC AND DEL PONTE SHAKING HANDS IN FRONT OF FLAG; SCU IVANIC (3 SHOTS) 1.19 6. MV DELGATIONS SITTING DOWN FOR TALKS; MV TALKS GOING ON (3 SHOTS) 1.37 7. SLV DEL PONTE AND IVANIC STANDING TO GIVE NEWS CONFERENCE 1.41 8. SOUNDBITE (English) CHIEF PROSECUTOR CARLA DEL PONTE SAYING "Karadzic and Mladic have been at large for the past six years. This could not have been possible without the support of the Republika Srpska. This unaccaptable situation must come to an end now. I will not be satisfied by hollow promises or excuses." 2.05 9. MV SECURITY POLICE STANDING 2.09 10. SOUNDBITE (English) IVANIC SAYING WHEN ASKED WHEN KARADZIC AND MLADIC WOULD BE HANDED OVER TO THE TRIBUNAL "This government has been in position just for six months. There is a lot more authorities for that question than just my self. But not to find excuses, like Del Ponte said. I think there is a duty for all persons responsible for the crimes to protect themselves if they have arguments to protect themselves, in a legal way or be responsible for the crimes they did. That has to be applied on both sides, at all times without thinking of their ethnicity. I think it is a necessity to have this kind of an approach. When the time will come I don't know, I really don't know and I can't say at this stage." 2.59 11. SCU DEL PONTE STANDING 3.03 12. SOUNDBITE (English) IVANIC SAYING "As you know, even Mr Djindjic wanted to have a legal basis. He didn't succeed in that and I hope that I will." (QUESTION FROM JOURNALIST 'Do you rule out acting on your own like Mr Djindjic did') "This is the option that has to be discussed after discussion in the Parliament. (QUESTION FROM JOURNALIST 'So you don't rule it out?') Well I didn't say so." 3.22 13. SLV NEWS CONFERENCE; MV DEL PONTE AND IVANIC LEAVE (2 SHOTS) 3.41 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 22nd July 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Reuters ID: LVA3823ABG2JK53MNDZL6BC8JE3W
  • Story Text: U.N. prosecutors on Thursday (July 5) demanded action
    not words from the Bosnian Serb premier to arrest fugitive war
    crimes suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.

    Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic arrived at
    the Tribunal building in The Hague on Thursday (July 5) to
    meet with Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte and Tribunal
    President Claude Jorda.

    Del Ponte said recently it was "scandalous" that Karadzic
    and Mladic had not been arrested, implicitly criticising the
    20,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia for its
    failure to seize more suspects.

    Del Ponte's spokeswoman on Wednesday said the Bosnian Serb
    republic had become the last "safe haven" for fugitives
    indicted by the tribunal.

    Following the meeting Del Ponte, speaking to the media,
    said, "Karadzic and Mladic have been at large for the past six
    years. This could not have been possible without the support
    of the Republika Srpska. I will not be satisfied by hollow
    promises or excuses."
    Ivanic said on his arrival in the Netherlands on Wednesday
    evening that once the Bosnian Serb parliament passed a law on
    cooperation with the tribunal, there would be no alternative
    but to arrest war crimes fugitives.

    But Ivanic would not speculate on when the two suspects
    would be arrested and sent for trial.

    "When the time will come, I don't know at this stage," he
    said.

    Ivanic reiterated comments made the previous day that he
    was optimistic the Bosnian Serb parliament would pass a law to
    cooperate with the tribunal. But he did not rule out arresting
    and shipping Mladic and Karadzic to The Hague without the
    measure.

    "This is the option that has to be discussed after
    discussion in the Parliament," he said.

    Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic last week shipped
    former strongman Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague, despite a
    court ruling there that his extradition was illegal.

    Aside from his meeting with Del Ponte, Ivanic also held
    afternoon meetings with tribunal registrar Hans Holthuis and
    Jorda.

    Bosnia's Serb republic is under mounting pressure to play
    ball with the U.N. court after Serbia's handover of former
    Yugoslav President Milosevic.

    The United Nations believes its top fugitive war crimes
    suspects, wartime leader Karadzic and his military chief,
    Mladic, are in Bosnia's Serb republic, along with more than
    20 other indictees.

    A Western news agency on Wednesday quoted a Karadzic
    associate as saying Karadzic was willing to hand himself in to
    the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

    The Bosnian Serb government on Tuesday approved a
    long-delayed draft law on cooperation with the tribunal, but
    analysts predicted parliament would, like its Yugoslav
    counterpart, refuse to pass it.

    The new draft law recognises the tribunal's supreme
    authority over the Bosnian Serb judiciary and defines
    precisely the terms for cooperation between the region and The
    Hague, according to the Bosnian Serb justice minister.

    Yugoslavia's reformist government passed a decree late
    last month paving the way for indicted war criminals to be
    handed over. Days later, Milosevic was whisked to The Hague,
    and Belgrade won $1.28 billion in international aid pledges.


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