[Kcc-news] U.N. War Crimes Prosecutor Sets Out Kosovo Strategy; Bob Dole Backs Kosovo Independence

[Mentor Cana]

1. Bob Dole Backs Kosovo Independence
   http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19990929/wl/dole_kosovo_1.html

2. U.N. War Crimes Prosecutor Sets Out Kosovo Strategy 
   http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19990929/ts/kosovo_tribunal_1.html


http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19990929/wl/dole_kosovo_1.html

Wednesday September 29 3:33 AM ET

Bob Dole Backs Kosovo Independence

By TOM RAUM Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Kosovo should seek independence from Yugoslavia, but
it must hold free elections and support democratic principles if it
wants international support, says former Senate Majority Leader Bob
Dole.
     Dole cautioned, however, that Kosovo's Albanian majority, in
particular the Kosovo Liberation Army, could lose that support if it
should turn its back on those principles.
     The 1996 Republican presidential candidate from Kansas, who served
as an envoy to Kosovo this year for the Clinton administration,
testified Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
     Dole criticized both the Republican Bush and the Democratic Clinton
administrations for not dealing more firmly with Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic.
     ``We could and should have acted against Milosevic much earlier,''
Dole said, which he said would have avoided much bloodshed.
     ``Early intervention is far less costly and often just as effective
as belated intervention,'' Dole said. ``Half-measures yield
half-results.''
     So long as Kosovo's leaders agree to hold free elections, renounce
violence and move toward a market economy, ``then I believe independence
will be forthcoming and should be.''
     At the White House, President Clinton said the administration has
not changed its support for an autonomous but not independent Kosovo
within Yugoslavia.
     ``What we have supported for Kosovo, and what we continue to
support, is autonomy,'' he said during a White House meeting with
Turkey's prime minister, Bulent Ecevit.
     Dole served as a go-between with Kosovo Albanians for the Clinton
administration this year in an effort to get support for a peace plan
from Kosovo activists.
     More recently, he traveled to the region in July in his capacity as
chairman of the International Commission on Missing Persons.
     While Milosevic's troops heavily damaged Albanian homes and
businesses, Dole said, ``his forces did remarkably little damage to
Kosovo's infrastructure and natural resources.''
     He said multibillion-dollar reconstruction projects many had
envisioned may not be necessary.

Copyright © 1996-1999 The Associated Press



http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19990929/ts/kosovo_tribunal_1.html

Wednesday September 29 7:55 AM ET

U.N. War Crimes Prosecutor Sets Out Kosovo Strategy

By Janet McBride

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - New U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte set
out her strategy on Kosovo Wednesday, narrowing her investigative focus
to Yugoslavia's leaders and the perpetrators of only the most heinous
crimes.
     The local justice system in Kosovo, under the aegis of the United
Nations, would try cases that fell outside the scope of the
International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia as she defined it,
Del Ponte said in a statement of prosecution policy.
     For example, nine Serbs arrested in Kosovo over the weekend by
French, Dutch and German troops would not be brought to The Hague,
prosecution spokesman Paul Risley explained, although the tribunal would
assist any local investigation.
     ``The primary focus...must be the investigation and prosecution of
the five leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic
of Serbia who have already been indicted,'' wrote Del Ponte, a former
Swiss attorney general.
     Prosecutors have publicly indicted Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic and four associates, including Serbian President Milan
Milutinovic, for alleged crimes in Kosovo.
     Concluding that investigation and extending charges, possibly to
include genocide, was a top priority. Beyond that, investigators would
focus their energies on other power brokers.
     ``Investigative resources must...be applied...to high-level
civilian, police and military leaders,'' wrote Del Ponte, who took over
from Canadian judge Louise Arbour on September 15.
     The tribunal, set up in 1993 when the Bosnia conflict was at its
height, has insufficient resources to pursue all those accused of recent
atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
     Thousands of bodies have been exhumed from over 150 mass graves in
the province, according to U.N. officials, and over 500 potential burial
sites have been reported so far.
     Although the tribunal could not hope to prosecute every low-level
war criminal active in Kosovo, it would take a close interest in
particularly heinous or notorious crimes, including crimes of sexual
violence, Risley told reporters.
     Landmark judgements by the U.N. court relating to Bosnia have
already established rape and sexual assault as war crimes.
     In the two weeks since Del Ponte took office, she has met officials
from the United States, Britain, France and Germany and the commander of
SFOR peacekeepers in Bosnia, General Montgomery Miggs.
     Thursday, she will speak with the director of the U.S. Federal
Bureau of Investigation, Louis Freeh. The FBI has offered the tribunal
valuable insight into events in Kosovo.
     ``They will discuss the recently completed work of the FBI forensic
team in Kosovo and ongoing cooperation between the FBI and the
tribunal,'' Risley said.

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