Global Policy Forum

By Jim Wurst

The prosecutors for the war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia told the Security Council yesterday they will have difficulty completing their work by the time their mandates expire at the end of the decade. Carla Del Ponte, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and Hassan Jallow, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, said there are still incomplete cases and fugitives, and that some cases will likely be turned over to national authorities. Both jurists said they will have to concentrate on those suspects deemed primarily responsible for war crimes while letting lower-level suspects be dealt with by national courts.

Resolution 1503, adopted by the council in August, set a timetable for the tribunals to end investigations by the end of 2004, complete trials by end of 2008, and conclude all their work by 2010. The ICTY's mandate covers war crimes committed in the various wars in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s, and the ICTR's mandate covers those responsible for the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

"I am confident that the remaining most-senior leaders who are suspected of being most responsible for crimes falling within the ICTY's jurisdiction will have been indicted by the end of 2004," Del Ponte said. She added, however, that "a lack of cooperation by the concerned states can endanger the completion strategy." Without greater cooperation among the parties and improved domestic legal mechanism, "any realistic prospects of dealing with the cases referred by the ICTY to the domestic courts of the former Yugoslavia will be grim," she said.

She accused Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, Republika Srpska — the Serbian part of Bosnia and Herzegovina — and the "Bosnian Croat party in Bosnia and Herzegovina" of not cooperating with the tribunal. Concerning the Belgrade government, she said, "There is no true commitment for cooperation or readiness to take difficult steps" on former president Slobodan Milosevic or any other suspects.

She said 17 suspects, including former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, are still at large, "well over half" of whom are in Serbia. "The authorities of the Republika Srpska have still not located and arrested a single indicted fugitive to date," most notably former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, Del Ponte added.

Del Ponte said she needs to finish 13 investigations in order to complete her work "in a responsible manner." These investigations involve 30 suspects "all at the highest levels of responsibility. At this stage, there is hardly any prospect that these cases could as assumed locally," she added.

Jallow said in the time remaining he will "concentrate on the prosecution and trial of the most senior leaders suspected of being most responsible for crimes falling within the jurisdiction" of the tribunal. "I will devote some considerable effort at reviewing the case load with a view to determining which charges should be proceeded with or transferred to national jurisdictions and the measures which need to be taken to attain the target date with regard to conclusion of all investigations," he said. This was Jallow's first appearance before the council as prosecutor for the ICTR. Del Ponte had been the prosecutor for both tribunals until Resolution 1503 separated the positions. He was appointed on Sept. 4.

He said he was reviewing the cases of 21 people awaiting trial, "with a view to reassessing the level of responsibility of each of the accused." If he decides the suspects do not meet the standard of being most responsible for war crimes, he will suspend the prosecutions and recommend that they be referred to other jurisdictions, meaning the national courts of Rwanda or the countries in which the suspects are caught. Jallow said there are 16 "indicted fugitives," 26 "targets of investigations" and 40 cases that could be transferred to national courts. In addition, he said, investigations are being conducted against 26 new targets.

Responding to Del Ponte's statement, Serbia and Montenegro Ambassador Dejan Sahovic said he could not understand why she would say his government was not cooperative, when it had turned over suspects including Milosovic, a former head of state security and several army officials. Croatian Ambassador Vladimir Drobnjak said there was only one "outstanding issue" between his government and the tribunal and that Croatian courts had initiated "several relevant cases."

The Rwandan government has always had an uneasy relationship with the tribunal, accusing it of not doing enough to pursue those responsible for the genocide and to protect victims and witnesses. Ambassador Gerald Gahima said Rwanda had fully cooperated with the ICTR and regretted that the assistance by the Rwandan government and people "often went unrecognized or was under-appreciated."

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