The international community earmarked 16 million euros for this purpose and funds were spent for the reconstruction the facilities of the Bosnian state Court and Prosecution and construction of new court room in accordance with ICTY standards. There is also a special detention centre where 21 persons can be kept in custody.
The project of the Sarajevo-based war crimes tribunal has been carried out together by the international community and Bosnian authorities since September 2001 as part of the exit strategy of the Hague-based UN tribunal which should be closed by the end of 2008.
Addressing the ceremony, ICTY President Meron said that regardless of the current plans, the Hague tribunal would not close its door until it puts on trial the most wanted war crimes indictees, including Croatian General Ante Gotovina, he added.
According to Meron, the UN tribunal will not cease operating until it puts on trial people such as war-time Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic and Croatian general Gotovina.
Meron also described today's event in Sarajevo as a turning point in creating conditions for transferring war crimes cases from The Hague to national judicial systems. He also called on local authorities to offer full support to the newly-established court.
ICTY Chief Prosecutor del Ponte highlighted the importance of conducting war trials in the interest of justice and victims of those crimes, and urged that politics should be kept out of those trials.
Del Ponte also warned that it would be unfair and unnecessary to try make differences "between the aggressor and the defenders or between us and them".
My message is that 'defenders' should not be in a privileged position if they killed or ordered killings of innocent civilians, she said.
The Bosnian Court President, Medzida Kreso, and Chief Prosecutor Marinko Jurcevic on Wednesday urged authorities in Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro not to allow war crimes perpetrators to use their dual citizenship to avoid trials in Bosnia.
"Those who committed crimes in Bosnia should answer for them here," Jurcevic said, appealing to Zagreb and Belgrade for not tolerating artificial legal reasons which might prevent transfers of indictees from those countries to Bosnia.
Earlier in the day Jurcevic said that over 10,000 citizens were under investigations on suspicion that they had committed war crimes in Bosnia.