UN prosecutor tells Serbia remaining war crimes fugitives must be captured

18/04/2008

Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz urged Serbia on Thursday to improve its co-operation with The Hague's tribunal and step up efforts to arrest the court's four remaining fugitive indictees.

(B92 - 18/04/08; AP, AFP, Reuters, DPA, AKI, BBC, Euobserver, Balkan Insight, Beta, B92 - 17/04/08)

UN war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz (left) meets with Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica (right) in Belgrade on Thursday (April 17th). [Getty Images]

Serbia must improve its co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), chief UN war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz said on Thursday (April 17th) as he arrived on a two-day visit to Belgrade.

"I particularly insisted on the search for and arrest of the four remaining fugitives," the Belgian magistrate said after talks with senior Serbian officials.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander Ratko Mladic, both charged with genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, top the ICTY's list of indicted war criminals. The other two are former Bosnian Serb police commander Stojan Zupljanin and wartime Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic.

"It is crucial that they be brought to justice as soon as possible," Brammertz told reporters after a meeting with Serbia's war crimes prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic.

The UN prosecutor also met with pro-Western President Boris Tadic, outgoing nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Rasim Ljajic, the head of Serbia's council on co-operation with the ICTY.

Brammertz also discussed other aspects of Serbian co-operation with the tribunal, such as the transfer of requested documents, access to state archives and the investigation of networks aiding the fugitives.

Tadic gave assurances to the UN prosecutor, conveying "a clear determination from Serbia for all those who committed war crimes in former Yugoslavia to be tried in The Hague regardless of ethnic origin".

Both he and Kostunica, however, expressed Serbia's anger over the ICTY's recent acquittal of former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj.

Tadic voiced hope that UN prosecutors will appeal what Kostunica described as "a mockery of justice".

Brammertz concurred that UN prosecutors were not satisfied, noting several witnesses failed to show up in court.

"My office is currently studying the 300-page judgment [for] possible grounds to appeal," he said.

The Haradinaj ruling prompted nationalists to demand no more handovers of indictees to a "biased, anti-Serb" court.

Full co-operation with the ICTY is not only a UN member obligation for Serbia; it is also a key condition for the signing of its Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU as it pursues Union membership.

Most of the EU's 27 members say they would be ready to sign the accord even if the remaining fugitives remain at large, as long as Belgrade visibly makes every effort to capture them. The Netherlands, however, insists that Serbia must first meet its obligations.

ICTY spokeswoman Olga Kavran told reporters that EU officials would likely meet with Brammertz to discuss Serbian co-operation. He will include an assessment in his regular report to the UN Security Council in mid-May before a personal presentation in June.