New ICTY prosecutor reaffirms pledge to arrest top war crimes fugitives News
New ICTY prosecutor reaffirms pledge to arrest top war crimes fugitives

[JURIST] New International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz [ICC profile; JURIST report] reiterated in a Sunday interview with Serbian news site B92.net [media website] that he will do everything in his power to ensure that fugitive Bosnian Serb leaders Ratko Mladic [BBC profile; ICTY indictment] and Radovan Karadzic [BBC profile; ICTY indictment] are arrested as soon as possible. In January, Brammertz said that finding and prosecuting Balkan war crimes suspects would be a top priority [JURIST report] under his leadership. Mladic and Karadzic are believed to have masterminded the 1995 Srebrenica massacre [BBC timeline, JURIST news archive] in which 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed. EUObserver has more.

Brammertz took over the court's leadership in January, saying that he would continue his predecessor's tough stance on Serbian cooperation [JURIST report] with the tribunal. Former chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte [JURIST news archive] had long criticized Serbia for its apparent reluctance to cooperate with the ICTY. The EU has made Serbia's cooperation with the ICTY a key element of its membership negotiations [EU accession materials].