JURIST - Paper Chase: ICTY prosecutor urges capture of war crimes fugitives on indictment anniversary

[JURIST] Carla Del Ponte [official profile], the top prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website], called on Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro to renew efforts to capture war crimes fugitives Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic [BBC profiles] in a statement [text] released Wednesday marking the 12th anniversary of the indictment against the two men. Del Ponte went on to say that:

I would also like to call upon the international community, all states who believe in the importance of international justice and the rule of law, to maintain and increase their crucial support. Without it, we would not be able to do our important work. Without it, there would be impunity.

Mladic and Karadzic are suspected of orchestrating the genocide of nearly 8,000 people in Srebrenica [BBC backgrounder] in the 1990s.

Serbia [JURIST news archive] has come under increased international pressure from the European Union (EU) [official website] and the United States to prosecute war criminals and arrest war crimes fugitives. In June, Serbian President Boris Tadic [official website] announced the creation of the National Security Council, a special body headed by the president that will coordinate police and military security resources to hunt for suspected war criminals. On May 15, the chief war crimes prosecutor of Serbia told reporters that the search [JURIST report] for Mladic "has not stopped for even a moment" and hinted at progress following statements by the EU that EU-Serbia pre-membership negotiations could resume depending on Serbia's commitment to bring war crimes suspects to justice.

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