[JURIST] Carla Del Ponte [official profile] said Tuesday that she will step down as chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] at the end of her current term in September. Del Ponte, who has served for 8 years as chief prosecutor, expressed disappointment about the death of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive], who died from heart failure [JURIST report] in March 2006 while his genocide and war crimes trial at the ICTY was in its fifth year. She also added that she has yet to see actual remorse from those who were tried and has witnessed only a few signs of reconciliation in the former Yugoslav republics.

Del Ponte has also repeatedly criticized Serbia's lack of progress[JURIST report] in capturing former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder; BBC profile] and his military commander, Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive], who 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]. As a result, Del Ponte has discouraged [JURIST report] the European Union [official website] from resuming membership talks with Serbia. The ICTY is scheduled to finish all trials by 2008 and all appeals by 2010. Reuters has more.