ICTY PROSECUTOR SPEAKS ABOUT WITHDRAWN CHARGES FOR 14 BH SERBS

( Editorial: --> 2660 ) THE HAGUE, May 9 (Hina) - Judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) okayed the withdrawal of charges against 14 Bosnian Serbs. The withdrawal of the charges was done on request of the prosecutor's office which wishes to concentrate investigation on those most responsible for and the direct executors of the most brutal crimes in the concentration camps of Keraterm and Omarska, near Prijedor in north-western Bosnia. The tribunal's judges on May 5 okayed that charges be withdrawn for five persons from the bill of indictment for Keraterm, and on May 8 for 11 persons from the bill of indictment for Omarska. Not one of the 14 accused in question is detained in the ICTY prison in The Hague. In a statement issued Saturday, ICTY chief prosecutor Louise Arbour said she decided to withdraw the charges against a certain number of people for Keraterm and Omarska as the strategy of the prosecutor's office stipulates that investigation focus on people who are most responsible and who are personally responsible for the most brutal and most serious crimes. The charges have been withdrawn not due to lack of evidence but due to the tribunal's inability to separately try people who can simultaneously be tried by national tribunals, Arbour said. The ICTY chief prosecutor added she did not intend to withdraw any other charges against persons from other bills of indictment who are still free. I call on these people to surrender to the tribunal, Arbour stressed. (hina) ha 091435 MET may 98