JURIST - Paper Chase: US wants ICTY kept open until most wanted war crimes suspects caught

[JURIST] US ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina Douglas McElhaney has told the Nezavisne Novine [media website] daily that the US wants the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] to stay open beyond the end of its scheduled trials in 2008 and appeals in 2010 until police arrest two of the tribunal's most wanted fugitives. Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder; BBC profile] and his military commander Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive] are wanted by the ICTY for alleged crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, including organizing the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica [JURIST news archive]. Both Karadzic and Mladic have been charged and indicted [BBC report] at the ICTY in absentia. AFP has more.

Earlier this week departing ICTY chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte [official profile] told a conference that the tribunal had achieved marked success [JURIST report] in bringing international war criminals to justice, noting that while six war crimes suspects are still at large, the court has succeeded in putting on trial more than 160 people, including presidents, premiers, and military commanders.

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