BELGRADE DISSATISFYING, DIFFICULT BELGRADE, March 21 (Hina) - The chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague (ICTY), Carla Del Ponte, on Friday took part in a seminar entitled "Serbia and Montenegro: New Hopes, New
Challenges", at which she said that the cooperation of Belgrade authorities with the ICTY was dissatisfactory and difficult.
BELGRADE, March 21 (Hina) - The chief prosecutor of the U.N. war
crimes tribunal in The Hague (ICTY), Carla Del Ponte, on Friday took
part in a seminar entitled "Serbia and Montenegro: New Hopes, New
Challenges", at which she said that the cooperation of Belgrade
authorities with the ICTY was dissatisfactory and difficult. #L#
Almost no arrests have been made, although the tribunal believes
that 19 indictees are on Serbia/Montenegro territory, said Del
Ponte. She added that the fact that some indictees had surrendered
was important, but that this was not enough. The authorities in
Belgrade have a duty to grant access to witnesses and documents, she
said.
The ICTY chief prosecutor said she was encouraged by Serbian and
Montenegrin President Svetozar Marovic's public pledges about a
consensus on cooperation with the ICTY, adding that a full and
constructive cooperation would be the best investment into a
permanent stability of Serbia and Montenegro, as well as of the
entire region.
Serbia and Montenegro should accept the ICTY as their tribunal and
consider its work as assistance in removing the feeling of
collective guilt for the crimes of Slobodan Milosevic's regime and
messages imposed by that regime according to which the tribunal is a
problem and burden, while indictees, such as Ratko Mladic and
Radovan Karadzic, are openly glorified as heroes, she said.
Speaking at the seminar, organised by NATO and the
Serbia/Montenegro assembly, Del Ponte paid tribute to the recently
assassinated Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, describing him
as a key force of cooperation with the tribunal since the fall of the
Milosevic regime in October 2000.
(hina) lml