UN/FILE: Prosecutor of Yugoslavian war crimes, Carla Del Ponte tells the United Nations Serbia has not put in "serious efforts" to arrest and hand over four remaining suspects charged with the genocide of Bosnian Muslims

Record ID: 726050

  • Title: UN/FILE: Prosecutor of Yugoslavian war crimes, Carla Del Ponte tells the United Nations Serbia has not put in "serious efforts" to arrest and hand over four remaining suspects charged with the genocide of Bosnian Muslims
  • Date: 11th December 2007
  • Summary: (BN15) PALE, BOSNIA (FILE) (AGENCY POOL) RADOVAN KARADZIC KISSES SERBIAN FLAG VARIOUS OF KARADZIC WITH BOSNIAN SERB MILITARY COMMANDER RATKO MLADIC VARIOUS OF KARADZIC AT MEETING VARIOUS OF SFOR TROOPS
  • Embargoed: 26th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Reuters ID: LVA7FXYV87P9USBEHF82MJV89R2W
  • Story Text: Prosecutor of Yugoslavian war crimes, Carla Del Ponte tells the United Nations Serbia has not put in "serious efforts" to arrest and hand over four remaining suspects charged with the genocide of Bosnian Muslims.
    In a bitter farewell address to the United Nations, Yugoslavia war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte accused Serbian authorities on Monday (December 10) of deliberately failing to arrest the two top suspects.
    Del Ponte urged the European Union to make the arrest and handover of Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic a condition for Serbia's accession to the bloc.
    Del Ponte told the U.N. Security Council that six months ago she hoped Mladic, and his political boss Radovan Karadzic, would soon be held by the Hague-based tribunal for former Yugoslavia, but now her optimism had "waned considerably".
    Mladic and Karadzic are both charged by the tribunal with the genocide of Bosnian Muslims during the 1992-95 Bosnian war that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia.
    Del Ponte, whose eight-year tenure as prosecutoron December 31, charged Serbia with failing to arrest the fugitives.

    "Despite the Serbian authority's declared commitment to fully cooperate with my office and improve procedures, there is no clear road map, no clear plan in the search for fugitives, no serious leads, and no signs that serious efforts have been taken to arrest the fugitives," she said.
    Although only Mladic, Karadzic and two others remain at large out of 161 people initially indicted by the tribunal, Del Ponte said she was leaving disappointed.

    "I'm disappointed because of commitments that were not honoured and the legacies that may be left behind for the many victims who will not see justice. It is for them that the International Tribunal was established by the Security Council to try those who are still at large. Let us not, by our failure to act, give them reason to feel that any stone was left unturned in the pursuit of justice for those most responsible for the terrible crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia," she said.
    Next year, Belgian Serge Brammertz will take over the prosecutor's job from Del Ponte, who will become Switzerland's ambassador to Argentina.
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