Del Ponte calls for support over Serb war crimes
Source: Reuters
(Adds quotes, background) By David Brunnstrom BRUSSELS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte expressed concern on Wednesday that the international community was losing interest in supporting her efforts to bring Serbian war crimes suspects to justice. Speaking after talks with Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, Del Ponte urged the European Union to stick to a key condition set last year for resuming talks on closer ties with Serbia -- the arrest of Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic. Mladic has been indicted for genocide over the 1995 massacre of about 7,000 Muslims at Srebrenica. "We have to close the doors in 2010 ... and we have the international community that is no longer so engaged to help us," she said, referring to the end of the mandate of the U.N International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. "If we still believe in international justice, I need the international community to support our mandate," Del Ponte told a news conference. Her remarks came after EU foreign ministers expressed readiness on Monday to resume talks with Serbia if it showed "clear commitment and takes concrete and effective action for full cooperation" with Del Ponte's tribunal. Del Ponte said this was not the time to relax conditions. "Last year the European Union decided to suspend the negotiatons until there was full cooperation. We must maintain this situation because not only is the cooperation not full, it has ceased since last October," she said. "Full cooperation with Serbia will be that they locate Mladic, and because Mladic is in Serbia -- all information we have is that he is in Serbia -- then our people arrest him." However, a growing number of EU countries, among them Spain, Italy and central European states, favour resuming talks even without his arrest to encourage pro-European forces after inconclusive elections in Serbia last month. "CLEAR COMMITMENT" ENOUGH EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told Serb leaders this month full cooperation with the U.N. court was a condition for concluding talks on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement -- the first step towards EU membership. However, he indicated a clear commitment from a new government to cooperate fully with the court could be enough to allow a resumption of the negotiations. De Gucht, whose government, like that of the Netherlands is insisting the European Union stick to a tough line, said Belgium opposed resuming talks without a "green light" from Del Ponte. "I think it would be a complete disaster and we would pay for it in the future," he said adding it would have consequences for the rest of the Balkans. De Gucht said some countries hoped relaxing the EU position would encourage Belgrade to accept a U.N. plan effectively envisaging independence for the breakaway Kosovo province. "That's simply not correct. Those who are making that kind of political analysis are wrong," he said. Del Ponte complained that European leaders and ministers were nowadays "too busy" to meet her. She was to travel on to Italy on Wednesday to meet Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema. She said she hoped also to see Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who she had been trying to see since December, but added: "He doesn't seem especially interested to see me."
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