NETHELANDS: Serbia is unlikely to capture a major war crimes suspect in the coming weeks because potential Kosovo independence is distracting Belgrade, the chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte says

Record ID: 863516

  • Title: NETHELANDS: Serbia is unlikely to capture a major war crimes suspect in the coming weeks because potential Kosovo independence is distracting Belgrade, the chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte says
  • Date: 7th December 2007
  • Summary: (BN13) THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS (DECEMBER 6, 2007) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE TRIBUNAL FOR EX-YUGOSLAVIA UN FLAG PORTRAIT OF CARLA DEL PONTE REUTERS PHOTOGRAPHER IN ACTION
  • Embargoed: 22nd December 2007 12:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVAD30WZ3OUU0D6BIDMUG07HO5NL
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  • Story Text: Serbia is unlikely to capture a major war crimes suspect in the coming weeks because potential Kosovo independence is distracting Belgrade, the chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor said on Thursday (December 6).
    Carla del Ponte, the U.N.'s war crimes prosecutor said that Bosnian Serb suspect Mladic is unlikely to be captured soon because potential Kosovo independence is taking Serbia's attention away.
    Del Ponte, who visited Belgrade on Monday, said she had become much less optimistic that former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, suspected of genocide, would be caught before she steps down at the end of the year. She had recently said she saw an "80 percent" chance of his arrest in December or January.

    "Politically it is a very delicate situation," del Ponte told Reuters in an interview. "In the end the Kosovo decision, in my personal evaluation, prevents the arrest of Mladic."
    Negotiations between Serbia and its breakaway Kosovo province formally end on Monday and international mediators have said there is no chance of a compromise, with Kosovo's Albanian majority expected to declare independence in early 2008.
    Despite Serbia's potential loss of its medieval heartland, del Ponte said it was crucial for the European Union to keep up pressure on Serbia to hand over Mladic. EU foreign ministers will discuss the issue at a meeting on Monday.

    "How can you speak about reconciliation or feel reconciliation if the most responsible for the genocide in Srebrenica and for many other crimes commited in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the conflict are still at large?" she said.
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