JURIST - Paper Chase: ICTY prosecutor slams Serbia over war crimes fugitives

[JURIST] Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website], told the UN Security Council Thursday that Serbia and other European countries are contributing to a "dysfunctional" situation as the UN-backed war crimes tribunal struggles to arrest two top fugitives from the Bosnian war. Del Ponte blamed Serbia and NATO and European troops for their failure to arrest Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounders], who have been indicted for genocide and other war crimes, and also said that Western governments do not generally effectively share intelligence with the court. Del Ponte said that Serbian cooperation with the ICTY has "deteriorated in the past months" and she called for both Serbian and Bosnian officials to "be made accountable for their failure to bring Karadzic and Mladic to justice." Del Ponte's comments [text] were part of her annual progress report to the Security Council. Just last week, retired Croatian general Ante Gotovina [ICTY case backgrounder], the third most-wanted suspect still at-large, was arrested in Spain [JURIST report] and transferred to the court. Del Ponte thanked the Spanish and Croatian governments for their cooperation in Gotovina's arrest. Reuters has more.

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