Del Ponte seeks Serbia support after Milosevic death
Posted on: Wednesday, 22 March 2006, 10:05 CST
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.
Source: REUTERS
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