ZAGREB, May 7 (Hina) - The President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Theodor Meron, has notified the Council of Europe of cooperation of countries in the area of the former Yugoslavia with this
UN war crimes tribunal. Meron has described Croatia's cooperation as positive and considerably improved, giving such assessments mostly on the basis of the opinion of the tribunal's Chief Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte.
ZAGREB, May 7 (Hina) - The President of the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Theodor Meron, has notified
the Council of Europe of cooperation of countries in the area of the
former Yugoslavia with this UN war crimes tribunal. Meron has
described Croatia's cooperation as positive and considerably improved,
giving such assessments mostly on the basis of the opinion of the
tribunal's Chief Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte.#L#
Meron gave the assessment on Friday at a session of the Council of
Europe ministerial committee's rapporteurs, authorised to control the
fulfilment of obligations which Serbia-Montenegro and
Bosnia-Herzegovina assumed when they joined the Council of Europe.
Commenting on Croatia, Meron said that del Ponte had assessed that its
cooperation had improved significantly in the last few months. Meron
went on to say that the Chief Prosecutor was satisfied with the
cooperation Croatia showed during the transfer of six indictees who
voluntarily surrendered last month, the Croatian Foreign Ministry said
in a statement.
Croatia was praised for its efforts to ensure access to pertinent
documentation and witnesses.
The ICTY President said he fully agreed with the Chief Prosecutor's
positive assessment of Croatia.
He stressed the importance of additional efforts to be taken so as to
arrest the fugitive general Ante Gotovina, indicted by the tribunal.
Croatian Assistant Foreign Minister Neven Madey, who attended the
session, reiterated that his country was firmly committed to full
cooperation with the ICTY.
This policy was confirmed by recent concrete evidence on Croatia's
legal cooperation with the tribunal in all areas, including efforts to
solve the Gotovina issue, he added.
With regard to the national judiciary's capability of taking over war
crimes trials, Madey said that four courts, which would be authorised
to put war crimes suspects on trial, would be fully and duly prepared
to process such cases, in accordance with UN and ICTY standards, and
that the UN tribunal and friendly countries would help Croatia in this
segment.
At the session in Strasbourg, representatives of the Netherlands,
Germany and Ireland also positively commented on Croatia's cooperation
with the tribunal, the Ministry's statement read.
During his visit to Strasbourg, Meron met for talks with the Council
of Europe Secretary-General, Walter Schwimmer, and the President of
the European Court of Human Rights, Luzius Wildhaber, spokespersons
for the ICTY and CoE told Hina.
According to unofficial sources, Meron notified the Council of Europe
that Serbia-Montenegro had frozen its cooperation with the ICTY and
described Bosnia's cooperation as relatively good, adding that
problems were made only by the Bosnian Serb entity.
(Hina) ms