ICTY PRESIDENT ADDRESSES U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY ( Editorial: --> 8208 )

( Editorial: --> 8208 ) WASHINGTON, 4 Nov (Hina) - The President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Antonio Cassese, called on U.N. member-states to offer all the necessary assistance to the Tribunal - from handing over indictees to securing financial and other conditions for the Tribunal's work, in New York on Tuesday. "...I would like to urge all Member States to lend to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague all the support the Tribunal is entitled to receive," said Cassese in his report on the Tribunal's four-year work to the U.N. General Assembly. The Tribunal's most crucial problem is the fact that the indicted political and military leaders have not been arrested, Cassese said, adding those indictees should be tried in The Hague while the others should be tried before their national tribunals. The ICTY, founded in 1993 with the aim of contributing to peace by securing justice and preventing further crimes and recording the truth, thus preventing historical revisionism, had, according to Cassese, achieved 'considerable success', considering the means it had at its disposal. Eighteen public indictments plus a number of sealed indictments have been issued by the Prosecutor, 20 indicted individuals including some leaders are currently in detention at The Hague and several trials are under way or are completed, Cassese recalled. The Tribunal had to cope with many obstacles in its work - from financial and legal obstacles to practical ones, including problems in securing cooperation, in particular of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the two Bosnian entities, in arresting and handing over indictees, Cassese said. "Our most crucial and urgent problem is the need for more arrests of military or political leaders. Individual criminal responsibility applies to all who violate the law, particularly to those in military or political command". The Office of the Prosecutor should be strengthened by increasing the number of investigators and securing three or four courtrooms. The efficiency of the Tribunal is impeded by financial limitations as well, Cassese added. He called on national courts to initiate proceedings against persons who committed crimes in the former Yugoslavia and who are on their territory. "States have jurisdiction and indeed a customary law obligation to prosecute offences such as 'grave breaches' of the Geneva Conventions, or to extradite the alleged offenders to the relevant country," Cassese said. "We are not capable of trying every war criminal at The Hague and it would help the Tribunal in its task if there were more national prosecutions for the multiple crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia. The two approaches - international and national - should go hand-in-hand". The U.N. General Assembly discussion on the work of ICTY included representatives from some ten countries. (hina) rm 042340 MET nov 97