MOSTAR, Oct 1 (Hina) - In Bosnia-Herzegovina that are currently 26 war crimes suspects still at large and wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), said an ICTY representative at a two-day
seminar on this topic in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar. During the seminar entitled "The ICTY - facts and models for cooperation," the Tribunal's experts said it was planned to launch 36 investigations of some 150 war crimes suspects in the area of former Yugoslavia by 2004 when the term of office of the incumbent ICTY Chief Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, expires. A senior legal advisor at the Tribunal, David Tolbert, said no direct orders were given to the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia to apprehend war criminals, as the SFOR had its own legal activities. The Tribunal only initiates such moves, while SFOR commanders make decisions on arrests. Tolbert has empha
MOSTAR, Oct 1 (Hina) - In Bosnia-Herzegovina that are currently 26
war crimes suspects still at large and wanted by the Hague-based
International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), said
an ICTY representative at a two-day seminar on this topic in the
southern Bosnian city of Mostar.
During the seminar entitled "The ICTY - facts and models for
cooperation," the Tribunal's experts said it was planned to launch
36 investigations of some 150 war crimes suspects in the area of
former Yugoslavia by 2004 when the term of office of the incumbent
ICTY Chief Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, expires.
A senior legal advisor at the Tribunal, David Tolbert, said no
direct orders were given to the NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR)
in Bosnia to apprehend war criminals, as the SFOR had its own legal
activities. The Tribunal only initiates such moves, while SFOR
commanders make decisions on arrests.
Tolbert has emphasised that there must not be collective punishment
as this can cause new injustice.
We are concentrated on what an individual did and not on what
governments or states did, said another ICTY legal advisor, Gavin
Ruxton.
An advisor to the ICTY Prosecution, Anton Nikiforov, explained that
a government had a right to ask for the protection of information it
produced to the Tribunal and such information could be used only in
court proceedings with the consent of the government that had
offered it.
According to him, it is most difficult to cooperate with the Croat
side in Bosnia. Only Bosniaks (Moslems) fully cooperate with the
Tribunal, while Bosnian Serbs have started to work with us since
Milorad Dodik came to power in the Republic of Srpska, he added.
A spokesman for the ICTY, Jim Landale, expressed hope that the work
of the Tribunal would be completed in 2016.
ICTY representatives at the Mostar seminar, which ended on
Saturday, called a few times on Bosnian judicial experts and other
public figures to follow the example which new authorities in
neighbouring Croatia have set in the cooperation with the
Tribunal.
(hina) ms