ICC – Potential Prosecutions in Former Yugoslavia Delayed

While appearing at the United Nation Security Council session on June 19, 2007, the Chief Prosecutor of the Hague-based United Nations War Crimes Tribunal, Carla del Ponte suggested suspending the decision on the recognition of Kosovo’s independence until the former Bosnian Serbs leader Radovan Karadzic and former Bosnian Serbs Army Chief Ratko Mladic are arrested.^[1]

She considers that the premature recognition of Kosovo, the Albanian enclave of Serbia, could hinder the tribunal from cooperating with the Serbian government because Serbia refuses to recognize Kosovo’s independence.^[2]

Both Karadzic and Mladic are wanted by the tribunal on genocide charges.^[3] The former Bosnian Serbs leaders are charged with allegedly killing over eight thousand Muslims near Srebrenica and organizing the three-year blockade of Sarajevo, capital of that region. At the same time the UN’s highest court cleared Serbia of genocide at Srebrenica although it pronounced Belgrade guilty of failing to prevent genocide.^[4]

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[1] UN Urged to Delay Kosovo Independence Decision, http://www.euronews.net/, Press Release, June 19, 2007. See also, Evelyn Leopold,UN Prosecutor Urges Delay on Kosovo Future Status, Reuters, June 18, 2007.
[2] See UN Urged to Delay, supra note 1.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.