Del Ponte seeks Serbia support after Milosevic death

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Chief U.N. prosecutor Carla del Ponte
hopes for reassurance from Serbia next week that the death of
Slobodan Milosevic will not hamper its cooperation with the
Hague war crimes tribunal, an aide said on Wednesday.

Del Ponte will visit Belgrade next week and then report
back to Brussels as a deadline set by the European Union
approaches for the arrest of fugitive Bosnian Serb general
Ratko Mladic.

The EU told Serbia in February it risked its bid to join
the bloc if it did not cooperate and threatened to cancel a
round of talks due on April 4-5 if Mladic is not in custody by
then.

Some commentators have suggested nationalist anger
following the death of former Yugoslav president Milosevic in
jail in The Hague on March 11 could make Mladic’s arrest less
likely.

“We don’t see how the death of Milosevic could in any way
change the international legal obligations of Serbia and
Montenegro,” an adviser to Del Ponte told journalists.

“The government has been saying they stay firm in their
willingness to fully cooperate with the tribunal.”

Mladic and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic top
the list of the remaining fugitives sought by the tribunal.

Both are indicted for genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica
massacre of 8,000 Muslims and the 43-month Sarajevo siege in
which over 11,000 people were killed.

Karadzic’s whereabouts are unknown, while Mladic is
believed to be hiding in Serbia.

Meanwhile, a tribunal spokeswoman said she expected more
results from a Dutch investigation into Milosevic’s death next
week. An internal investigation at the United Nations court is
likely to take a few weeks to conclude.

She said the tribunal also wants to conduct an independent
review of the detention unit where Milosevic died. Former rebel
Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic committed suicide at the same
jail earlier this month.