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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Cooperation with The Hague must be two-way

Belgrade, 2 September 2004

Serbian Minister of Justice Zoran Stojkovic said in an interview with the Tanjug news agency today that our country is committed to cooperation with The Hague tribunal but he added that such a cooperation calls for a “little more” than just handing over those indicted. It includes testimonies and handing over documents, not only to the prosecutors but also to the parties involved in proceedings, he said.

Zoran Stojkovic

“We have a legal obligation to cooperate with the tribunal, but it must be a two-way cooperation, and the state is obliged to provide all necessary assistance to our citizens who surrender voluntarily,” said Stojkovic.

He stressed that the other countries do provide such assistance – neither Croatian nor Bosnian citizens feel rejected, whereas in Serbia, there is a belief that cooperation is a burden to the state and those indicted feel rejected.

For this reason, our country is not in the same position as Croatia, whose citizens are giving themselves up to the court voluntarily because they know that they will have the state’s guarantees for a pre-trial release. Moreover, The Hague is transferring certain cases to the Croatian judiciary.

According to Stojkovic, the domestic trial for the war crimes committed at the Ovcara farm in November 1991 is a kind of test, after which The Hague will decide whether to transfer other trials to our judiciary.

“There is a possibility that a certain number of indictments will be handed over to us, which has already happened with one case,” he stressed.

Stojkovic said that we must show that we have good laws and judges to conduct such trials, and he added that we must be allowed to gather evidence from other courts and from abroad, so as to use them in domestic war crimes trials.

As for the complaints that some of our citizens have lodged at the Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg, the minister said that it was agreed with the Montenegrin Ministry of Justice to open an office of the state agent there.

There are some 500 charges against Serbia-Montenegro filed by its citizens, Stojkovic said, expressing his expectation that some cases will be returned to Serbia-Montenegrin authorities since the Court of the State Union has been established. He reminded that all legal sources need to be exhausted before Strasbourg court is addressed.