The chief UN war crimes prosecutor urged the UN Security Council to pressure Serbia and Bosnia to arrest fugitive leaders from the Bosnian war, saying it was clear after 11 years that neither country was willing to do so.
Successive Serbian and Bosnian governments have lacked the political will to arrest wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief, General Ratko Mladic, Carla Del Ponte said.
"My assessment remains that the Serbian government could easily arrest Ratko Mladic should the authorities want to do it," Del Ponte told the Security Council on Friday. "It is simply a question of political will."
UN prosecutors believe Mladic is hiding in Serbia with the help of hardliners in the police and military, as well as Serb loyalists.
Del Ponte also said Bosnia's government institutions are not working effectively and officials in the Bosnian Serb-controlled region of the country have not shown "a robust willingness" to arrest Karadzic, who is most likely there along with another wanted fugitive, Stojan Zupljanin.
"Strong messages must be passed to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina so that they finally deliver the fugitives from justice, especially Karadzic and Mladic," she said.
The two leaders are accused of orchestrating the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim boys and men from Srebrenica and laying siege to Sarajevo. Zupljanin was the wartime commander of Bosnian Serb police in Banja Luka.
Del Ponte told the council that most of the detailed information she passed to top Serbian officials in 2001 and 2002 was accurate.
"But these officials, some of whom still hold key positions today, were simply pretending my information was wrong," she said.
In 2002, she said, Serbia's then-president Milan Milutinovic signed a decision on Mladic's retirement from the military.
"Therefore, despite his denials at the time, he knew perfectly well that Mladic was sheltered by the army as I was telling him," Del Ponte said.
Del Ponte called on the council to state whether it believes the tribunal should stay open until Karadzic and Mladic are tried in The Hague.
"This is very important for the tens of thousands of victims who have placed their hope in the justice provided by the United Nations," Del Ponte said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not