WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (Hina) - The U.S. Ambassador in charge of war crimes issues, Pierre-Richard Prosper, has said that authorities in Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia should try find out where Radovan Karadzic, Ratko
Mladic and Ante Gotovina, wanted by the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal (ICTY), are hiding and extradite them to the tribunal.
WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (Hina) - The U.S. Ambassador in charge of war crimes
issues, Pierre-Richard Prosper, has said that authorities in
Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia should try find out
where Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic and Ante Gotovina, wanted by the
Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal (ICTY), are hiding and extradite
them to the tribunal.#L#
Our message remains the same: Karadzic, Mladic and Gotovina are a key
to progress, Prosper told a news conference in Washington on Friday.
According to him, the hand-over of the three men would solve the most
important issues in cooperation of the countries in the region with
the Hague-based tribunal and remove other obstacles on the path
towards the Euro-Atlantic integration processes.
Speaking of Croatia, Prosper said he could tell the new Croatian
government to continue cooperating with the tribunal.
If they (Croatian authorities) could work with us, the tribunal and
others in order to locate Gen. Gotovina and extradite them, we shall
arrive at the point when major issues of the tribunal would be behind
them and they would be able to enter European EuroAtlantic
institutions, Prosper said.
The ICTY Chief Prosecutor said last Wednesday that Belgrade has
become an haven for war criminals and that war-time Bosnian Serb
leaders, Karadzic and Mladic were there.
The United States should decide whether to approve a plan of
assistance to Serbia-Montenegro on 31 March, but this help is made
conditional on Belgrade's cooperation with the ICTY. Commenting on the
date, Prosper said his country was expecting some action.
(Hina) ms