Belgrade Officials Visit Hague to Discuss Cooperation

The Hague tribunal’s chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz met this week in The Hague Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor, Vladimir Vukčević, and the chairman of the National Council for Cooperation, Rasim Ljajić, to discuss issues related to Serbia’s cooperation with the tribunal and plans for the prosecutor's upcoming visit to Serbia.



Bramemrtz, who took over this post on January 1 this year from Carle Del Ponte, recently visited Bosnia and Croatia, but his trip to Serbia was cancelled due the unrest in this country following Kosovo’s declaration of independence.



At this week’s meeting with the Serbian officials, Brammertz said cooperation of states was crucial for the work of the tribunal’s prosecutors. He said this included access to and protection of witnesses, access to documents and archives, as well as the arrest of remaining fugitives.



Out of 161 persons indicted by the Hague tribuinal, four of them are still at large - Ratko Mladić, Radovan Karadžić, Goran Hadžić and Stojan Župljanin.



All of them, except Karadzic, are believed to be hiding in Serbia.



Vukčević and Ljajić informed Brammertz about the current situation in Serbia, and reiterated Serbia’s commitment to achieving full cooperation with the tribunal.



They all agreed that Brammertz would travel to Belgrade at the earliest opportunity.



After the meeting, which lasted for two hours, neither Ljajic nor Vukcevic were available for comment.



So far, Brammertz refrained form commenting on Serbia’s cooperation with the tribunal, and only said that his predecessor’s final assessment that Belgrade was not cooperating sufficiently “remains in force”.



The date of Bramertz’s first visit to Belgrade hasn’t been set yet.



Merdijana Sadovic is IWPR’s Tribunal programme manager.