WASHINGTON: DEL PONTE SPEAKS ABOUT PROSECUTION'S PLANS

WASHINGTON, May 16 (Hina) - Carla Del Ponte, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), this week visited New York and Washington, where she spoke about the prosecution's plans to wrap up investigations and the issuing of indictments by the end of 2004. She also spoke about problems the prosecution was encountering in the search for runaway war criminals and in that context mentioned General Ante Gotovina, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic. #L# At the beginning of the week, Del Ponte visited the United Nations in New York, where she addressed the Security Council about the prosecution's plans to complete investigations and the issuing of indictments by the end of 2004. In the autumn, Del Ponte will present the prosecution's programme at the Security Council, which established The Hague-based tribunal. The ICTY chief prosecutor met the charge d'affaires of the Croatian mission to the U.N., Zoran Bosnjak, whom she informed about plans to transfer some war crimes trials to the Croatian judiciary. Bosnjak told Hina Del Ponte had voiced hope that Croatia would cooperate well and stressed that the case of General Gotovina was the main priority. Speaking about cooperation between the U.S. government and the tribunal, Del Ponte said she had not been able to obtain possible documents on cooperation between the administration of former US President Bill Clinton and Croatia in the 1995 Operation "Storm". As regards Serbia and Montenegro, Del Ponte said she would travel to Belgrade on Monday to discuss the authenticity of documents related to the Milosevic case which she had in her possession and had been previously denied by the Serbian and Montenegrin governments. During the visit, Del Ponte will also again address the issue of Ratko Mladic's arrest. During her address at the US Congress' Helsinki Committee, Del Ponte said the prosecution still had 30 suspects whose names would be revealed to governments in the region after Karadzic, Mladic and Gotovina were arrested. The 30 suspects are divided into several groups, according to their citizenship i.e. nationality - into Serbs, Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Croats, Bosniaks and Albanians, Del Ponte said on Thursday evening when asked if new indictments would be forwarded to Croatia soon. Following the arrest of the main indictees, Mladic, Karadzic and Gotovina, things would be much easier for all three countries, Del Ponte said. Once the three men arrive in The Hague, there will be no more political problems which currently hamper cooperation, she added. The prosecution will wrap up investigations and issue all indictments by the end of 2004, after which trials and appeals will follow, she said. Speaking about the cooperation of individual countries in the region with the ICTY, Del Ponte said that Serbia and Montenegro should hand over indictees like Mladic and Sljivancanin and enable access to archives. Del Ponte's testimony is important for Serbia and Montenegro because it will be taken into account by US President George Bush who on June 15 will decide about financial assistance to the country, which also depends on cooperation with the ICTY. Speaking about Croatia, Del Ponte said the cooperation had improved and there was strong will to cooperate with the tribunal following Croatia's application for membership in the European Union. However, she stressed that the case of the runaway General Ante Gotovina was still a problem, as were Ratko Mladic in Serbia and Radovan Karadzic in Bosnia. The tribunal knows Gotovina's whereabouts and has provided Croatia with the information and a request that he be arrested. The government claims it does not know his whereabouts, however, the tribunal does and insists on his arrest, she said. The prosecutor claimed that the Croatian government, too, knew where Gotovina was. She believed that the general was in Croatia and that it was only a matter of political will to arrest him. The ICTY prosecutor also mentioned that she had problems obtaining documents related to the military in Croatia as well. Speaking about the possible transfer of war crimes trials from the ICTY to national courts, Del Ponte assessed positively the Croatian trial of General Mirko Norac, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for war crimes committed against Croatian Serbs in the central Lika region. The prosecution is satisfied because that means that Croatian courts are capable of conducting such trials, according to her. The prosecution is planning the transfer of other cases as well, including the case of an indictee who was arrested and temporarily released, she said. (hina) rml sb