DEL PONTE COMMENTS ON ARTICLES IN LE MONDE, GUARDIAN

BRUSSELS, Feb 11 (Hina) - The chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Carla del Ponte, said in Brussels on Wednesday she believed that apart from some trips abroad, General Ante Gotovina was still in Croatia.#L# Del Ponte gave the statement when asked by reporters to comment on a recent article in Le Monde, which said that Gotovina was in France. She said she had read the article and was very surprised that Gotovina was issued with a French passport in 2001, before he was indicted by the tribunal. She said that she had requested her political advisors to resolve the issue in cooperation with the French authorities. The tribunal knows that Gotovina was a member of the French Foreign Legion and that he keeps in touch with his friends from the time he was in the Legion, del Ponte said. Fugitives of the war crimes tribunal are hiding in their own countries because the risk of arrest in foreign countries is much higher, she said. Asked about an article in today's issue of The Guardian, del Ponte dismissed claims that the United States and Great Britain were trying to stop some of the tribunal's investigations by limiting her authorities and increasing the judges' authorities with a UN Security Council resolution, while the judges were blocking some of her indictments in the anticipation of such a resolution. Describing the article as entirely incorrect, she said she hoped that the prosecution would wrap up all investigations by the end of 2004 and that all fugitives would be placed in the tribunal's custody by that time. (Hina) rml sb