DEL PONTE EXPECTS SERBIA, MONTENEGRO TO COOPERATE BETTER

BELGRADE, May 19 (Hina) - The chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, said after a day-long visit to Belgrade on Monday one could speak about a "new era" in relations between the tribunal and Serbia and Montenegro and that her hosts promised her a smooth cooperation. #L# Del Ponte said she received assurances that the cooperation would no longer be burdened with problems. After meeting Serbia and Montenegro's President Svetozar Marovic, Del Ponte said the future would show if this would be so, but she did not doubt it. The talks with Marovic focused on the arrest of indictees who are still at large, access to state archives and the government's granting consent to witnesses who are to testify before the tribunal. "Anybody who obstructs or works against cooperation with the tribunal stands in the way of the future of Serbia and Montenegro and its citizens," Marovic said. He added that the cooperation would be proven with "new actions" in coming weeks and months and that persons wanted by the tribunal would have to surrender or be arrested. "If this is not done, Serbia and Montenegro will remain isolated," Marovic added. After talks with Serbian Premier Zoran Zivkovic, Del Ponte told reporters she was ready to transfer some war crimes cases to be tried by domestic courts, once the country passed a law on war crimes courts. She stressed that it was the country's duty to arrest and transfer to The Hague Ratko Mladic, Veselin Sljivancanin and other indictees, as it was Croatia's duty to arrest and transfer Ante Gotovina and Bosnia's to hand over Radovan Karadzic. The Serbian premier said Del Ponte handed to the authorities in Belgrade eight boxes with documents on the 1991 war crime at Ovcara outside Vukovar, for which the tribunal indicted three former Yugoslav army officers of whom Sljivancanin is the only one still at large. (hina) rml sb