BELGRADE, Jan 25 (Hina) - Chief Prosecutor at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Carla del Ponte, on Thursday said it was only the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) that could try former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes. At a news conference she held in Belgrade at the end of her three-day-long visit to Yugoslavia, del Ponte did not rule out possibilities for a Yugoslav court to try Milosevic for other crimes he perpetrated in the country, but she excluded the possibility that he could be processed outside the ICTY for war crimes. Commenting on her talks with the incumbent Yugoslav President, Vojisav Kostunica, del Ponte said the meeting did not mark the start for any significant dialogue, and added that the Yugoslav head of state must change his opinion about the ICTY. She added that other Yugoslav officials promised to begin more active co
BELGRADE, Jan 25 (Hina) - Chief Prosecutor at the U.N. war crimes
tribunal in The Hague, Carla del Ponte, on Thursday said it was only
the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) that could try former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
for war crimes.
At a news conference she held in Belgrade at the end of her three-
day-long visit to Yugoslavia, del Ponte did not rule out
possibilities for a Yugoslav court to try Milosevic for other
crimes he perpetrated in the country, but she excluded the
possibility that he could be processed outside the ICTY for war
crimes.
Commenting on her talks with the incumbent Yugoslav President,
Vojisav Kostunica, del Ponte said the meeting did not mark the start
for any significant dialogue, and added that the Yugoslav head of
state must change his opinion about the ICTY.
She added that other Yugoslav officials promised to begin more
active cooperation with the Tribunal only after two or three
months.
However, the Chief Prosecutor is encouraged with the talks she led
with new authorities of Yugoslavia and Serbia.
She explicitly said that she insisted on the apprehension of
General Ratko Mladic (the military leader of Bosnian Serb hard-
liners) and three officers of the then Yugoslav People's Army (JNA)
- Veselin Sljivancanin, Mile Mrksic and Miroslav Radic - notorious
as Vukovar butchers who committed horrendous atrocities in that
eastern Croatian town in 1991.
Del Ponte also made public that she had handed over two sealed
indictments to Yugoslav authorities, during her stay in Belgrade.
(hina) sb ms