Del Ponte Urges EU to Press Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro for Full Co-operation With ICTY

02/09/2005

Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte urged the EU on Thursday to keep talks with Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro on hold as long as key fugitives wanted by The Hague court remain at large. Neither country is co-operating fully with the UN tribunal, she said.

(Radio Netherlands - 02/09/05; Reuters, AFP, BBC, HINA, Makfax - 01/09/05)

Pressure from the EU has played a key role in securing better co-operation with the UN war crimes tribunal, according to chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte. [AFP]

The EU should not move to build closer ties with Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro until they hand over those indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte said Thursday (1 September).

"Full co-operation with the ICTY is one of the conditions set by the EU for the countries of the former Yugoslavia to join," del Ponte said at a conference on the Balkans in the Swiss capital, Bern. "Without the strong European support, the process of justice in the Balkans would be a sad failure. Croatia and Serbia-Montenegro, in particular, have been co-operating with the tribunal only thanks to the international pressure," the prosecutor added.

Describing the two countries' current co-operation with the ICTY as "not perfect, nor full", del Ponte urged Brussels to pressure them to meet their international obligations and hand over war crimes indictees sought by the tribunal.

"As long as a country remains a candidate, the EU has the power to force reforms," del Ponte said. "As soon as it will be in the club, this power will get lost."

Croatia was due to begin accession talks with the EU in March, provided the authorities had handed over retired General Ante Gotovina to the ICTY by that time. But as Zagreb failed to meet this sole condition for proving its full co-operation with the UN tribunal, the negotiations were put on hold. Serbia-Montenegro, meanwhile, is scheduled to begin talks on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU on 5 October.

Both the EU and the United States have in recent months stepped up their pressure on Serbia-Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to extradite former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic -- who is believed to be hiding in Serb-controlled parts of BiH or in Montenegro -- and his wartime general Ratko Mladic, who del Ponte insists is in Serbia.

"Impunity for them means a huge blow to the international community and to international justice," del Ponte said in Bern. She rejected claims, made by Croatian Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic at the European Parliament on Tuesday, that Zagreb has done all it could to find Gotovina.

"There has been no substantial qualitative change in the operations conducted by Croatia. The indications that I have still show that Gotovina is in the region," del Ponte said.

Insisting that Croatia is implementing its action plan for co-operation with The Hague, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader on Thursday cited the arrest of Hrvoje Petrac, a suspected Gotovina supporter, in Greece earlier this week.

In her comments, del Ponte also noted Petrac's arrest, describing it as a positive development, a good example of international co-operation among intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and an opportunity to finally infiltrate the network that is protecting Gotovina.

"We will be monitoring very closely Croatia's actions in the coming weeks," said the prosecutor. "We truly expect Croatia to act aggressively based on this new development in order to bring Gotovina to The Hague."

Del Ponte's remarks coincided with the start of an informal, two-day meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Welsh city of Newport. Croatia's bid to join the Union is among the issues on the agenda.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was quoted as saying Thursday that the EU would review Croatia's bid in mid-September to decide whether to give the green light for the start of its entry talks. Del Ponte will be asked to report to the EU task force on Croatia's co-operation with the ICTY before a decision is made.