Global Policy Forum

By Ian Traynor

Some war crimes suspects in the former Yugoslavia are likely to escape international justice because of a drive by Washington, with strong British backing, to curb the powers of Carla Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Under American plans to reconfigure the way power is wielded at the tribunal, judges would decide who goes into the dock, for the first time in the court's 10-year history. Tribunal judges are blocking indictments submitted by Ms Del Ponte, sources said, while awaiting the outcome of the power struggle which could see far fewer suspects tried. Ms Del Ponte is angry at the fresh attempt to rein her in, after she was taken off the war crimes tribunal for Rwanda last year. A draft security council resolution by Britain, which is opposed by Russia, France, and Germany, would transfer some of her powers to the tribunal's judges, jeopardising the freedom and independence of the investigation and prosecution service at the tribunal. Critics said the move was an attack on Ms Del Ponte because of her refusal to bow to political pressure. They said the prosecutor's office had gained great expertise during the last 10 years, while the judges in The Hague are not qualified to decide who should be tried.

Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch said: "This is clearly an attack on the prosecutor. They want to put the prosecutor on a very short leash." The security council decided last year, under pressure from the US, to close the tribunal on former Yugoslavia by 2010. Ms Del Ponte has to complete all trials by 2008 and issue indictments by the end of this year. She has already reduced the scope of her investigations and hopes to charge about 25 suspects by the end of the year. But Judge Theodor Meron, the tribunal's president, said that some of those indictments may be thrown out, not on the usual grounds of prima facie evidence, but because the suspects were not senior enough. "If the security council wants the judges to scrutinise prosecutorial decisions, the judges can't do that without a clear mandate," he told the Guardian in an interview. "The security council has been discussing the possibility of an additional resolution which would ... want the judges ... to take also into account the factor of seniority." Since the setting-up of the tribunal in 1993, the prosecutor has decided who to investigate and charge. The indictments are then sent to judges who decide if the case will stand up in court. The Bush administration has been critical of the tribunal and Ms Del Ponte. "The Americans will settle just for Karadzic and Mladic," said another tribunal source of the two Bosnian Serb leaders still at large. "Del Ponte has got too much independence. You'll never see such extensive powers vested in one person in international justice again."

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