The ICTY has been demanding for years that one of the most wanted fugitives, Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic, be located, arrested and transferred to The Hague.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic, Del Ponte said she had come to Podgorica to thank the Montenegrin government for its cooperation and to discuss ways of improving it, because the recently arrested Serb police general Vlastimir Djordjevic had been hiding in Montenegro for a long while under the name of Karadzic.
"We find this unacceptable," the chief prosecutor said, adding that "every Karadzic in Montenegro will be investigated in order to catch the real one."
Del Ponte demanded that the Montenegrin police intensify cooperation with the police in Serbia for that purpose.
Vujanovic said that Del Ponte was willing to cooperate with Montenegrin Chief Public Prosecutor Vesna Medenica and exchange data on possible war crimes in Montenegro, including those allegedly committed against Croatian prisoners of war at Morinj.
Montenegrin prosecutors have requested an investigation against six persons suspected of committing war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war in the Morinj detention centre in 1991 and 1992. Around 350 people, mainly from the Dubrovnik area, were held there.
Medenica has announced she will seek assistance from the ICTY in connection with the Morinj case, the Bukovica case (expulsions of Muslims) and the Kaludjerski Laz case (killings of Kosovo Albanians).
Asked if she had information that Radovan Karadzic was hiding in Serbian Orthodox Church monasteries in Montenegro, Del Ponte answered in the negative.
I have no information about his whereabouts. I repeated that in the UN Security Council recently and the situation has not changed since then, she said.
Del Ponte reiterated the proposal that persons convicted by the Hague tribunal should serve their sentences in their country of origin. She said that after talks with authorities in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, she believed it was a good idea.
Asked if her mission at the tribunal would be a failure if Karadzic and Bosnian Serb wartime military commander Ratko Mladic did not end up in The Hague, Del Ponte said that this issue should not be connected with the chief prosecutor.
The person holding the office of chief prosecutor is not important and we cannot regard that as his or her success or failure. It is certain that my successor will continue the present activities, and the most important thing is that Karadzic and Mladic do not go unpunished, Del Ponte concluded.