WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Hina) - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will not stop working until it tries all indictees, who are charged with gravest war crimes, namely Bosnian Serbs Ratko Mladic and Radovan
Karadzic and the retired Croatian general Ante Gotovina, the ICTY President Theodor Meron said in Washington on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Hina) - The International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will not stop working until it tries
all indictees, who are charged with gravest war crimes, namely
Bosnian Serbs Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic and the retired
Croatian general Ante Gotovina, the ICTY President Theodor Meron
said in Washington on Tuesday. #L#
Presenting his report to U.S Congress human rights commission,
Meron said the strategy for the work of th Hague-based UN war crimes
tribunal, adopted by the Security Council, envisages that
investigations should be completed by the end of 2004, trials by the
end of 2008 and the appeals procedure by the end of 2010.
Meron said the fulfilment of the plan would depend on whether
Mladic, Karadzic as well as Gotovina would be arrested and
transferred to the tribunal.
Of persons who have to date been indicted by the ICTY, 16 accused
men, including the above-said three indictees, are on the run.
Meron went to say that the completion of the work of the ICTY was
also made conditional on cooperation which south-eastern European
countries were offering to the tribunal.
He assessed that those countries had recently improved their
cooperation with the ICTY but there was still room for its
advancement.
According to him, improvement has been noticed in cooperation which
Zagreb and Belgrade have recently offered, but the Bosnian Serb
entity still does not at all cooperate with the court.
Commenting on Croatia, Meron said Zagreb had ensured legal
frameworks for prosecution of war crimes committed by Croats.
He stressed that the ICTY expected of Zagreb and Belgrade to
cooperate fully with it.
As regards Bosnia-Herzegovina, the ICTY is directing its efforts in
bids to set up a special war crimes tribunal in Sarajevo. Meron and
the international community's High Representative to Bosnia, Paddy
Ashdown, will on Wednesday inform the UN Security Council of this
topic.
A conference of donors will be held in The Hague on 30 October when
funds, worth some $40 million, should be raised for the start of the
functioning of the special court in the Bosnian capital.
According to Meron, ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte has
announced the issuing of a dozen new indictments.
(hina) ms