Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Del Ponte commends government’s action in apprehension of Srebrenica suspects

Belgrade, 2 June 2005

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said today following a screening of a film of the crime in Srebrenica as part of the proceedings at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, that the competent authorities in Serbia apprehended and placed into custody several suspects for that crime who were shown in the video recording. ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte characterised this action of the Serbian government as brilliant, as the competent bodies responded immediately.

Kostunica said at a press conference held after his meeting with del Ponte, that the government and those bodies in charge of this investigation took the appropriate measures in order to bring to justice all those who took part in that shameful crime and who are still in Serbia.

Del Ponte expressed gratitude to the government for this action and voiced her overall satisfaction with the level of cooperation in the past few months. She went on to say that she hopes that all other fugitives still at large will be apprehended and that the government would continue to cooperate fully with the ICTY.

Del Ponte especially emphasised that she was very pleased with the response of the Serbian government to yesterday’s film, as it is very important in the fight against war crimes. She assessed that this also shows that the country is capable of conducting criminal investigations in Belgrade for crimes against humanity.

The Prime Minister said that now, over half a year after the last meeting with the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, there is visible progress in the country’s cooperation with the tribunal in fulfilling its international obligations.

Kostunica said that this progress was achieved through the efforts of several state bodies of the state union of Serbia-Montenegro, as well as Serbia.

Regarding the state union, the National Council for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal contributed the most to the submitting of documents to this court and releasing high and lower ranking civil servants from the obligation of keeping state and military secrets, the Prime Minister underlined.

He said that the greatest progress was achieved regarding the voluntary surrender of those indicted before this tribunal, and reminded that the strategy favoured by the Serbian government provided quick results.

In talks with del Ponte, Kostunica assessed that this kind of cooperation could not be possible without the understanding of the tribunal and explained that mutual cooperation is very important in this respect. He said that of the 15 indictees who surrendered voluntarily, six of them have been released pending trial.

Kostunica stressed that the ICTY’s actions in the past few months, especially in regards to their actions towards certain high officials of other nationals, was also important in creating a different image of the tribunal’s image among the local public.

Kostunica reminded that during his talks with del Ponte he had said that this country is aware of the fact that full cooperation with the ICTY entails the resolving of remaining cases, and repeated that in this respect all necessary steps would be taken to complete cooperation.

“We will do everything so that this happens quickly and in the same manner as before”, the Prime Minister pointed out adding that yesterday’s voluntary surrender of the wartime president of the Zvornik municipality represents another confirmation of the cooperation with the ICTY and the fulfilment of the country’s obligations.

According to him, this case points to the possibilities that are opened as part of the strategy of proceedings before the ICTY, as well as the possibilities of the domestic war crimes court.