FULL COOPERATION WITH HAGUE TRIBUNAL STILL CONDITION FOR EU INTEGRATION OF SERBIA, DEL PONTE AFFIRMS

 

“The Stabilisation and Association Agreement process between the EU and Serbia should only be finalised when Ratko Mladic is located or arrested” said yesterday (Friday) Carla Del Ponte, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal, addressing the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s 67th Rose-Roth seminar taking place in the Serbian parliament in Belgrade.

 

“I believe we are close to seeing the desired outcome – the remaining four fugitives in The Hague” Del Ponte added. She also indicated that members of the government in Belgrade were “working hard” to track down war criminals. “I also know that there are those who could do much more” she insisted, while urging the European Union “to insist on Serbia’s full co-operation with the Tribunal as a condition in the pre-accession and accession process”.

 

Ms Del Ponte also spoke candidly about efforts to put political pressure on the  work of her Office. She said that she had never yielded to political interference but she strongly regretted, for instance, that political pressures had led the judges in the Tribunal to grant provisional release to Ramush Haradinaj, former Prime Minister of Kosovo and a Tribunal indictee for war crimes.

 

The 67th Rose-Roth seminar, organized by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in co-operation with the National Assembly of Serbia is gathering in Belgrade, 25-27 October, some 60 legislators from NATO and partner countries, together with a significant number of academics and experts, to discuss with government officials, international officials and opinion leaders from the Balkans about the major regional political and security issues.

 

 

 

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