Del Ponte stressed that no political pressure was being exerted on her office and that the statement she had made during her recent visit to Zagreb, when she expressed her disappointment about the fact that Gotovina was not yet in The Hague, was taken out of context and seen as her intention to assess Croatia's cooperation with the tribunal as unsatisfactory.
Reiterating that she was still disappointed about Gotovina still being on the run, del Ponte said that Croatia had begun fully cooperating with the ICTY thanks to pressure from the European Union, but rejected allegations about the Hague-based tribunal being a political institution.
"What we are doing at this tribunal is not politics. I am underlining this and that is very important to me. We do not accept the interference of politics in our work and it has no access to our offices. That, of course, is not easy to prevent, but so far we have been fully successful," del Ponte told the leading Slovene newspaper ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Dayton peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"The trial of Slobodan Milosevic will most probably be concluded next year," the prosecutor said, adding that there was enough evidence against him for a conviction. "The punishment is to be determined by judges, and I as chief prosecutor claim we have presented enough evidence for Milosevic, who is responsible for ten years of crime in the former Yugoslavia, to be convicted."
Del Ponte said that her office and the tribunal were trying hard to meet the deadlines defined in a UN resolution under which the tribunal is to wind up its work in 2010.
"It is of utmost importance to bring before the tribunal those responsible for the Srebrenica tragedy and other crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina," she said, referring to Mladic and Karadzic. "Whether we will meet the deadlines defined in the resolution depends on when they will be arrested," she added.
In this context, del Ponte also mentioned Croatian general Ante Gotovina as the third most wanted fugitive.
"We have been given the tasks which we are carrying out and we have proved that it is possible to try top political and military leaders who are guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes or genocide. The fact that we have brought to The Hague so many important politicians and soldiers is a success. However, our mandate will be fulfilled with the trial of Karadzic, Mladic and Gotovina as the only real measure of our success and our goal. The remaining seven war crimes suspects, whom we have not yet managed to capture, are of course also important," she said.
Del Ponte said that the fact that Mladic and Karadzic had been hiding for ten years was frustrating, but noted that this year Belgrade "completely changed its attitude towards The Hague."