MEMBER OF BOSNIA'S PRESIDENCY DEMANDS THAT UN ASSESS WORK OF ICTY

NEW YORK, March 23 (Hina) - Member of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Presidency Ante Jelavic on Thursday proposed to the United Nations Security Council to examine and assess the so far work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), to appoint a special body which would deal with appeals and to ensure an appropriate defence. In his letter to the Security Council, Jelavic said that after almost eight years of work, and particularly because of recently passed verdicts, the lack of progress in the Srebrenica issue, the composition of indicted persons and indictments, the overall work of the ICTY must be assessed. Jelavic also proposed that the Security Council set an independent expert commission which could motion amendments to the statute and the rules of the tribunal. He believes that former Yugoslav countries must participate in the election of members of the commission. Without this, Jelavic stressed, the tribunal could find itself in a position of spreading and not calming the feeling of collective guilt. In his opinion, the appeals to the ICTY, should, in the future, be solved outside of the tribunal. Jelavic therefore proposed that The United Nations form a special a special body which is to deal with appeals. At the end, Jelavic stressed that the defence and prosecution before the ICTY were not equal. Finances of ICTY prosecutor Carla del Ponte's office are incomparably greater than possibilities of defence attorneys, therefore an appropriate defence and a fair trial could not be expected. Jelavic called on the Council to hold an open session and a discussion on his motions. (hina) it jn