Prosecutor Del Ponte will visit Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia on 29 and 30 September. All details regarding her visits to Belgrade, Zagreb and Podgorica will be released soon, Hartmann said at a weekly press briefing at the tribunal.
Hartmann said Del Ponte welcomed recent calls by the United States, the European Union and NATO for Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic to be arrested and transferred to The Hague before the 10th anniversary of the Dayton peace agreement on November 21 or the date of its signing, December 14, but added that those calls would be useless unless backed up with concrete action.
The next crucial date is October 5, the fifth anniversary of the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, Del Ponte said, reiterating that the tribunal's strategy of completing all proceedings by 2010 would be jeopardised if Karadzic and Mladic were not transferred to The Hague by the end of the year.
Hartmann said the prosecution had been informed by the Bosnian Serb entity and Serbia and Montenegro that indictee Sredoje Lukic, who had been hiding in Russia, had returned and surrendered.
She added that the tribunal had been informed that Lukic was expected to be transferred from Banja Luka to The Hague in the next few days.
The prosecution also expressed hope that Dragan Zelenovic, who was arrested in Russia in late August, would also be transferred to The Hague soon, and recalled the need for the immediate transfer of General Vlastimir Djordjevic, who is believed to be hiding in Russia, so that he could stand trial together with six other Serbian officials indicted for crimes committed in Kosovo.