Serbian cooperation with UN tribunal 'still irresolute', Del Ponte says
Serbia's cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal is still not sufficient, its chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte told EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday (15 October).
She said some progress could be noted, but in order to prove its full cooperation with the International Crime Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, Belgrade has still to arrest and hand over former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic.
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Former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic (l) is still at large (Photo: wikipedia)
"Cooperation with Serbia - yes, it has improved but it's not enough. It's slow, it's without results, it's irresolute", Ms Del Ponte was quoted as saying by the AFP.
"I cannot give a positive assessment of full cooperation until Ratko Mladic is arrested and transferred [to The Hague]", she added.
The general was the chief of staff of the army of Republika Srpska - the Serbian entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina - in the 1991-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He has been indicted by the ICTY on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide after a massacre in 1995 of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the small town of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Last Friday (12 October) Serbia said it would offer €1 million for information leading to the arrest of the wanted fugitive.
Ms Del Ponte said this was "an encouraging sign of the Serbian authorities' commitment to cooperate" and affirmed that "the situation today is better than it was a year ago".
But she also remained firm in her stance saying this was not enough.
The EU had been waiting for the UN prosecutor's assessment before offering Serbia closer ties.
Last month, it agreed with Belgrade on the technical aspects of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) - a first step towards EU membership for Balkan states.
But in order to sign the SAA, Brussels is demanding that Belgrade cooperate fully with the ICTY.
EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said following the prosecutor's assessment that "her findings will be strongly taken into account when we effect the initialling of the SAA with Serbia".
"Serbia's cooperation is now at a level which can be described as half full, rather than half empty, but it is essential that Serbia intensify its work", he added.
Ms Del Ponte will visit Belgrade again at the end of this month, on 25-26 October, to make a new assessment of Serbia's progress.
The EU will wait for an update after this visit before deciding what step to take next with Serbia.
Other important war crimes suspects that the country has been criticised for failing to hand over include the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, former Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic and Bosnian Serb police commander Stojan Zupljanin.
