SECURITY COUNCIL ASKED TO SECURE YUGOSLAV COOPERATION WITH ICTY

( Editorial: --> 5359 ) THE HAGUE, Oct 3 (Hina) - The head of the international war crimes tribunal has demanded the United Nations Security Council adopt effective measures to ensure that Yugoslavia extradites three former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) officers charged with war crimes in Vukovar, Croatia. International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) president Gabrielle Kirk McDonald stressed in a letter to the Security Council, dated September 9, that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) constantly refused to cooperate with the ICTY and thus violated international law and its obligations with the Security Council. All the signatories of the Dayton Agreement have assumed an obligation to cooperate with the ICTY, and Yugoslavia is the only signatory which refuses to extradite its citizens to the Tribunal, emphasised McDonald in her speech before the Security Council on Friday. In November 1995, the ICTY brought charges against three former JNA officers (Veselin Sljivancanin, Mile Mrksic and Miroslav Radic) who are charged with organising the killing of 260 unarmed men taken from Vukovar hospital on November 20, 1991. Judge McDonald emphasised that the Security Council should no longer tolerate Yugoslavia's obstructive actions which interfere with the work of the ICTY, an institution formed by the Security Council. (Hina) is jn /mbr 031836 MET oct 98