[ALBSA-Info] [www.washtimes.com] Del Ponte Statement

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UN PROSECUTOR: BELGRADE SHIELDS GEN MLADIC

William M. Reilly
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

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     The U.N. prosecutor said Tuesday Yugoslavia was
protecting Bosnian-Serb commander Gen. Ratko Mladic from
justice and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was
free in the Serb Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

     Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the International
Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, sitting in The Hague,
complained to the Security Council at a meeting considering
additional judges for the war crimes court.

     "Mladic is enjoying protection as a Yugoslavian army
officer in Belgrade," she said. "He's granted a safe haven
by a member state of the United Nations, namely by the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. So much for Yugoslavia's
commitment to justice, truth and reconciliation.

     "As for Karadzic, he will soon begin his seventh year
as a fugitive," she told reporters, after making her formal
presentation. "Also, authorities in the Republic of Serbia
are very aware of his whereabouts. Behind (the Serbian
capital) Banja Luka's constant stonewalling, this
unacceptable fact also questions seriously the alleged
resolve of the international community to arrest Karadzic
and particularly of its capacity or lack of cooperation.

     "I cannot tell whether the result, or rather the lack
of results, speaks by itself," Del Ponte said. "More than
six years after the war in Bosnia and at a time when huge
resources are being devoted to the war against terrorism and
the arrest of the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, I
think the victims' survivors of the Bosnia conflict rightly
deserve that a real effort be made towards the arrest of
Karadzic and Mladic."

     She was referring to the coalition's search in
Afghanistan for Osama bin Laden and his al Qaida followers.

     The prosecutor said that "if the Security Council wants
the tribunal to conclude its work as soon as possible it
must ensure that all indictees be promptly arrested and
transferred (to The Hague). There is no way we can finish
our task otherwise."

     Del Ponte said she has an a Belgrade address for
Mladic, "but that's it." She expressed hope the
international community would pressure Yugoslavia to arrest
and transfer Mladic for crimes in the Bosnian war of
1992-1995.

     Failing to apprehend the two, indicted for the 1995
Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys, "is
an affront to the authority of this council, and mocks the
entire process of international criminal justice," she said.

     Ambassador Dejan Sahovic, of Yugoslavia, told the
council the transfer of Milosevic was an indication of
Belgrade's cooperation with the tribunal which he described
as "proceeding well."

     However, he added, that cooperation was a two-way
process and the tribunal should make an effort to show to
Yugoslavians how its mission was balanced and impartial.




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htm)
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