Posted on 06/29/2004 7:16:36 PM PDT by Jane_N
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. court officials on Tuesday accused fugitives and their backers in the Balkans of trying to escape prosecution by stalling until international pressure brings an end to war crime trials.
Carla del Ponte, the prosecutor of the tribunal on the former Yugoslavia, and Theodor Meron, the court's chief judge, told the U.N. Security Council a dire shortage of funds was hindering and delaying completion of work. Japan owes nearly half of the $88 million arrears.
The Hague-based war crimes tribunal and a second in Arusha, Tanzania, on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda are to complete probes by the end of 2004, end trials by 2008 and close down before the end of 2010.
"An unintended consequence of the completion strategy is that fugitives and their protective networks are trying to buy time until 2008, in hopes of evading justice, as they believe the time to be tried in The Hague will soon expire," Del Ponte told the 15-nation council.
"It certainly appears that some in the former Yugoslavia think that, by hiding from arrest, they can 'wait out' the tribunal until it goes away," Meron said.
Del Ponte appealed to keep the court running until key fugitives were locked up. The main ones are Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, indicted Bosnian Serbs, blamed for massacres during the Bosnian war as well as Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina, accused of ordering killings of Croatian Serbs in 1995.
Mladic is thought to be in Serbia and Karadzic in the Serb-dominated part of Bosnia. Del Ponte expressed hope that Karadzic would be in the Hague soon, without elaborating.
"Since December, the authorities of Serbia and Montenegro provided almost no cooperation, and this country has become a safe haven for fugitives," Del Ponte said.
Belgrade's U.N. ambassador, Nebojsa Kaludjerovic, said his country had cooperated with "somewhat lower intensity" because of elections but would now "honor its obligations as soon as possible."
HANDED OVER MILOSEVIC
He noted that Serbia had handed over to the tribunal former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. He has been on trial for two years.
Del Ponte, Meron and Erik Mose, president of the Rwanda tribunal all urged member states to pay the assessments for the courts, now over $250 million a year, if they expected work to be completed on time. Arrears amount to more than $88 million, leaving the courts with a $73 million deficit and forcing a hiring freeze and a curb on investigations. Japan, which has been objecting to its high U.N. dues, owes 46 percent of the deficit, Russia 12 percent, Brazil 11 percent and Argentina 5 percent. The United States owes 14 percent but Washington is expected to pay up before the end of the year.
"The international community cannot expect the tribunal, on the one hand, to complete its work in an efficient and effective manner, while on the other hand, withholding the necessary resources to ensure that the tribunal is able to function," Meron said.
"Should the arrears and the freeze continue, it is only a question of time until serious slowdowns occur," he said. "In a court of law ... such delays are unacceptable."
Del Ponte said she had been unable to replace people who left. The tribunal, she said, was losing staff "at an alarming rate" especially to the new International Criminal Court, also in The Hague.
"The Japanese should be a bit more mindful of the importance of bringing to justice those accused of horrific crimes," said Richard Dicker, counsel for Human Rights Watch.
Orwellian.
I'ld say Del Ponte sounds like she's really getting desperate. Maybe she's worried about an early unemployment.
She has wasted years of her life on a project that she thought would make her famous, and instead has been a complete waste of time for the sponsors. No one has followed these show trials. She might have been a contender, and now she's a has-been.
Couldn't have put it better myself Cicero. Even her staff is abandoning her.
Maybe Kofi and his son can contribute a billion or two of their oil-for-food rake-offs. That should keep the UN's kangaroo court going for at least the next 6 months.
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