Del Ponte calls UN for extra powers to arrest top Balkan fugitives

Carla del Ponte, the chief UN prosecutor for the Hague tribunal on crimes in the former Yugoslavia, has called for more powers and resources to arrest top war crimes suspects - Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic - on her own as "no one else seems to have the political will to locate and arrest" the top fugitives.

Speaking before the Security Council on Wednesday (7 June), Mrs del Ponte voiced concerns over the lack of progress on arresting the Bosnian Serb leader Mr Karadzic and his military commander Mr Mladic over the ten years since they have been indicted.

Both men feature at the top of the most wanted list of fugitives issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) based in The Hague.

They are accused of being involved in crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, including the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica.

Mr Karadzic is suspected of being in Bosnia and Mr Mladic is allegedly hiding in Serbia.

The chief prosecutor expressed frustration at the current situation, pointing out that Serbia must do more to arrest general Mladic while to catch Karadzic is the shared responsibility of Belgrade, Bosnia's Republika Srpska, NATO and EUFOR.

"It is pathetic that today, nobody is searching actively for Karadzic. The planned downsizing of EUFOR will further aggravate the situation," she said to the UN's top body.

"Since no one else seems to have the political will to locate and arrest Karadzic and Mladic, I will have no choice but to seek from the Council the powers to arrest fugitives where ever they are and to allocate to my Office the necessary resources for this."

Serbia has been under increased pressure from the EU to co-operate more actively with the Hague.

Belgrade renewed its efforts mainly after the EU broke off the talks for closer ties with Serbia as the country's authorities did not deliver general Mladic by the end of April deadline.

Another push for Serbia came with the decision of Montenegro, formerly part of the ex-Yugoslav federation to announce its independence, with the argument that it will be easier for the mini-state to negotiate with Brussels without the burden of suspected war criminals.

But Mrs del Ponte is not satisfied with Belgrade's recent activities despite some improvement.

"Since the beginning of this year, it seems that more was undertaken. In particular, his [Mladic'] support network was targeted, and several of his supporters arrested. These actions were sometimes spectacular, they fed many news articles, but they lacked the necessary discretion that would have allowed to acquire information leading to Mladic."

The prosecutor made clear on Wednesday she was not planning to back down from her battle to capture the top Balkan criminal suspects.

"I want to stress again before the Council that impunity for these two most serious architects of the crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, both accused of genocide, would represent a terrible blow not only to the success or failure of the Tribunal, but to the future of international justice as a whole," she said.