SARAJEVO, Oct 22 (Hina) - Upon her arrival in Sarajevo on Tuesday, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Carla Del Ponte, reiterated her dissatisfaction with the fact that
Croatian General Janko Bobetko still had not been arrested and handed over to the tribunal.
SARAJEVO, Oct 22 (Hina) - Upon her arrival in Sarajevo on Tuesday,
the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Carla Del Ponte, reiterated her
dissatisfaction with the fact that Croatian General Janko Bobetko
still had not been arrested and handed over to the tribunal. #L#
During her stay in Sarajevo, Del Ponte told reporters that the
failure to extradite Bobetko, for which she directly accused the
Croatian government, and the lack of cooperation of the authorities
in Belgrade were the best indicators of the problems the ICTY was
still facing.
Del Ponte said that instead of dedicating herself fully to
investigations and trials, she still had to spend almost half of her
time travelling across the Balkans, Europe and the United States to
secure the arrest of the accused and access to evidence and
witnesses.
Stressing that twenty indicted people were still at large because
of the failure of countries in the region to cooperate, Del Ponte
mentioned the drastic example of former Bosnian Serb army commander
Ratko Mladic.
Mladic's arrest exclusively depends on political will. He could be
arrested immediately if Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica
issued such an order to the Yugoslav Army's chief-of-staff, she
said.
Commenting on a reporter's remark that during her last visit to
Sarajevo she had said that she expected Radovan Karadzic to be
arrested and sent to The Hague by the start of the trial against
Momcilo Krajisnik, which has been announced for October, Del Ponte
said she still believed that a joint trial was possible, since
Krajisnik's trial had been postponed for January or February next
year.
If Karadzic is not in The Hague by then, he will be tried separately,
Del Ponte said.
A deputy to the High Representative to Bosnia, Donald Hays, who held
talks with Del Ponte, said the international community and local
authorities in Bosnia would step up efforts to establish a special
court for war crimes.
Del Ponte said that once the court was established, her office
would, without any hesitation, transfer to it a large number of
cases for which the necessary evidence had been collected, but the
ICTY would not be able to process them.
Del Ponte will on Wednesday meet SFOR's commanding officer, US
General William Ward, after which she will leave for Zagreb.
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