Global Policy Forum

By Irwin Arieff

The top U.N. prosecutor accused Yugoslavia on Tuesday of shielding from justice the indicted Bosnian Serb wartime military commander, Ratko Mladic, and urged the international community to insist on his arrest. Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes tribunal for Yugoslavia, said she had Mladic's address in Belgrade and told the 15-nation U.N. Security Council to insist on his arrest, as well as that of his fellow fugitive, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

Their continuing liberty "is an affront to the authority of this council, and mocks the entire process of international criminal justice," Del Ponte said.

In Belgrade, Yugoslav Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic dismissed as "completely unfounded" Del Ponte's charges that Mladic was being shielded by his government.

"If Ms. Del Ponte knows that Mladic is in Yugoslavia, then she must know where in Yugoslavia. She should say where the army is guarding him so the army and everyone else can respond," he told Reuters.

Karadzic and Mladic were indicted by the tribunal six years ago for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys. They became the tribunal's most wanted suspects after former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic was transferred to The Hague in June.

Milosevic, the most prominent European to face a war crimes court since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders at the end of World War Two, was charged on Friday with genocide and other atrocities in Bosnia in the third and most serious indictment to be filed against him.

Del Ponte said the list of wanted persons shielded by Belgrade had grown longer over the years despite the tribunal's efforts to wrap up its task of bringing to justice those responsible for atrocities in the 1992 to 1995 Bosnian war.

DISGUISED AS A PRIEST?

"Instead of clear, unambiguous support to the government of Serbia, instead of taking a clear stand on cooperation with the tribunal, the federal authorities are doing everything possible to stop even limited cooperation by the (Serb) republic authorities, who have been most helpful," she said.

Yugoslavia is made up of two republics, Montenegro and Serbia, with a federal government in place in Belgrade.

Del Ponte said Mladic was living "under the official protection of the Yugoslav army," which "depends directly on the president of the federation," Vojislav Kostunica.

As an army officer, "General Mladic is said to enjoy military immunity, and he is being shielded from both national and international justice," she told the Security Council.

As for Karadzic, the tribunal had information that Karadzic was in Serbia, although he had no fixed address, she later told reporters. "And so we are pushing the (Serb Republic) and NATO to execute the arrest of Karadzic."

There have been media reports that Karadzic has disguised himself as a priest and shaved off his signature shock of thick grey hair. Yugoslav media have repeatedly reported he was under the protection and cover of Orthodox priests in Montenegro. Del Ponte blamed domestic politics for what she saw as Belgrade's lack of cooperation with the tribunal.

She said the federal authorities argue that working with the tribunal threatened the country's political stability and that domestic legislation must be put in place to precisely define the relationship. "I see no effort on their part to ensure adoption of such legislation," she said.

Yugoslavia's U.N. ambassador, Dejan Sahovic, told the council that cooperation with the tribunal was "proceeding well" and would improve once a legal framework was in place.

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