ROME, March 18 (Hina) - The chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, told the Italian daily "La Repubblica" Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic, who was assassinated in Belgrade last week, had told
her a month ago he would be killed.
ROME, March 18 (Hina) - The chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes
tribunal in The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, told the Italian daily "La
Repubblica" Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic, who was assassinated
in Belgrade last week, had told her a month ago he would be killed.
#L#
"They will kill me," Djindjic said to me in Belgrade on February 17,
Del Ponte said.
On February 17 Del Ponte held talks with Djindjic, and before they
were joined by other members of their delegations, she met him in
private.
"Djindjic explained to me that since he had launched economic
reforms, it was time he started making changes in the army and the
police. This was a sensitive and dangerous reform. He was fully
aware of that," Del Ponte told the daily, adding that her
relationship with Djindjic was friendly.
"To me Djindjic was a friend and we could calmly discuss reforms and
objective obstacles which crop up when one tries to deal with the
powerful military or police lobby, which gained importance during
years of the Milosevic regime," Del Ponte said.
The ICTY prosecutor said that her informers had told her 40 days ago
about "a plan for the toppling of Serbia's legal authorities", of
which she informed Djindjic, who replied: "In this country
everything is possible".
"I was surprised at his responding calmly and with a smile on his
face, because I could not believe that such threats could exist".
"Djindjic knew that the fight against organised crime had to be
simultaneous with the arrest of war criminals, he knew that the
paramilitary apparatus and the mob were linked. He believed that it
was necessary to democratise the army and the police and fight the
mob," she said.
"Until the police and the army are fully purged of those who are
linked to the former regime, it will not be possible to arrest" war
criminals such as Ratko Mladic, Del Ponte stated.
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