EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER URGES CRACKDOWN ON WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS

LONDON, Dec 5 (Hina) - The European Commissioner for Central and Eastern Europe, Hans van den Broek, on Thursday urged the international community to consider tougher measures to bring indicted war criminals from former Yugoslavia to the international criminal tribunal in The Hague. Van den Broek told a press conference as part of the London conference on the peace process in Bosnia-Herzegovina that the political and economic pressure had failed to get the parties to cooperate. He stressed that the international community should take a more aggressive approach to arresting war criminals. The European Commission cannot decide which police or military steps should be taken, he said. On Wednesday, judges of the Hague-based tribunal sent a protest letter to the London conference, expressing deep concern over the failure of conference organizers to dedicate enough attention to cooperation with the tribunal. Organizers responded that the tribunal was not a permanent member of the Peace Implementation Council, which is currently holding a session in London, but that chief prosecutor Luise Arbour had been invited to attend the conference as an observer. (hina) vm jn 051413 MET dec 96