She announced many cases would be turned over to national courts in the future, but added this required cooperation by the authorities in Belgrade. She told reporters she would return to Belgrade on Monday to meet representatives of the authorities of Serbia and the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, and voiced hope cooperation with the political authorities would be as good as her cooperation with Serbia's judicial bodies.
Del Ponte declined to say which case was turned over to Serbian courts or whether the Hague tribunal would issue new indictments against Serbia and Montenegro citizens. Asked if she took seriously the Serbian authorities' efforts to arrest Ratko Mladic, she said she would answer this question on Monday, after talks with government officials in Belgrade.
Del Ponte visited Belgrade today to attend an international conference called "Dealing with the Past in ex-Yugoslavia - Post-Conflict Strategies for Truth, Justice and Reconciliation," organized by the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre in association with the Council of Europe.
She told the conference the Hague tribunal intended to refer cases, in which indictments had not been issued yet, to national courts as early as next year. She said the countries of the former Yugoslavia should see the tribunal as a means of relieving their peoples of the feeling of collective responsibility.
Del Ponte said she was not interested in who the aggressors or defenders were, nor in the big words any side was using to justify their truths. She added she was interested in the victims of the conflicts and their right to justice, and appealed to prosecutors to be on the same side.
About 50 demonstrators gathered today in front of Belgrade's Hayat hotel, where the conference is taking place, bearing photos of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who is on trial in The Hague.