Prosecutor Urges Continued Operation of ICTY

The Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (UN ICTY) urged members of the international community to keep the tribunal operating until top war crimes suspects can be tried.^[1]

Serge Brammertz, who took over the position of Chief Prosecutor for the ICTY in January, continued to push for the arrest of Serbian war crimes fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. During his visit to Sarajevo last week, Brammertz also advocated the continued operation of the ICTY until Mladic, Karadzic, and two other war crimes suspects, Bosnian Stojan Zupljanin and Croatian Goran Hadzic, could be apprehended and tried, stating "[i]t is difficult for me to imagine that the tribunal could close its doors without these persons prosecuted.” ^[2]

Karadzic, the former president of the Republic of Serbia, and Mladic, former Serbian Army General, were both indicted by the ICTY for their alleged involvement in the perpetration of war crimes and genocide, most notably arising from the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, where over 8,000 Muslim men were killed.^[3] Both men are currently at large, despite years of continued pressure by ICTY prosecutors on Serbian government officials to effect their apprehension.

The ICTY was established in 1993 by a UN Security Council Resolution aimed at trying war crimes suspects from the Balkan conflicts during the 1990’s.^[4] The ICTY is currently scheduled to end operations in 2010.^[5]

Douglas McNabb has written extensively about the ICTY here. Previous reports on Ratko Mladic can be found here, and Radovan Karadzic can be found here.
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[1] Reuters; U.N. Prosecutor Calls for Arrest of Karadzic, Mladic; March 7, 2008 (available at www.reuters.com).

[2] Id.

[3] Karadzic-Mladic, ICTY Case Information Sheet, (available at www.un.org/icty).

[4] UN Security Council Resolution 827, available at www.ohr.int.

[5] Reuters.