PODGORICA, June 13 (Hina) - Serbia's Justice Minister Vladan Batic said on Friday in Podgorica that he advocated the prosecuting of all crimes, regardless of a certain feeling of injustice.
PODGORICA, June 13 (Hina) - Serbia's Justice Minister Vladan Batic
said on Friday in Podgorica that he advocated the prosecuting of all
crimes, regardless of a certain feeling of injustice. #L#
Batic made the statement following a meeting of the Council of
Ministers of Serbia-Montenegro, in reaction to the arrest of a
former Yugoslav army Lt. Col., Veselin Sljivancanin.
Batic expressed hope that "the number of indictments against
Serbian and Montenegrin citizens will soon come to an end, and that
further cases will be taken over by local courts".
"The time has come to make the final reckoning. My stance is well
known, that anyone who has been indicted should face justice,
regardless of their nationality, because crime does not have a
national characteristic," Batic said.
Due to a feeling of injustice, the justice minister confirmed that
he had not been in contact with the Hague tribunal's chief
prosecutor Carla Del Ponte for over a year. He said he had raised the
question of former Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic, but
that Del Ponte had no reply and the conversation ended
immediately.
Batic added that an identical situation existed with regard to
Kosovo Albanian leaders Hashim Thaqi, Agim Ceku and Ramush
Haradinaj, as well as other leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Batic stated that the ICTY had been supplied with 40,000 pages of
written documents accusing individual Albanians.
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