Post by Bozur on Feb 17, 2005 18:48:13 GMT -5
Appeal to Bosnian Serbs
SARAJEVO (AFP) - Bosnian-Serb authorities must start arresting war crimes suspects this year in order to remove obstacles on the Balkans country’s path to the European Union and NATO, the international community’s High Representative Paddy Ashdown said last Friday.
In his New Year’s message to the Bosnians, Ashdown welcomed Bosnian Serbs’ pledge for full cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal but warned that a “new spirit and hopeful words are not enough.” “Results have to be delivered,” he said.
The Bosnian-Serb entity, Republika Srpska, which along with the Muslim-Croat federation makes up Bosnia following the 1992-95 war, has yet to arrest a single war crimes suspect wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
This year NATO twice rejected Bosnia’s membership in the alliance’s Partnership for Peace program due to Republika Srpska’s reluctance to arrest war crimes suspects, including the two most wanted ones, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
Improved cooperation with the ICTY is also a precondition for starting negotiations on signing a stabilization and association agreement with the EU, the first step toward membership in the bloc.
“By the spring the EU and NATO will be judging Bosnia-Herzegovina again. You simply cannot afford to fail a third time,” Ashdown said.
Ashdown, who has far-reaching powers under the peace deal which ended Bosnia’s war, last month sacked nine Serb police officers and officials for allegedly protecting war crimes fugitives.
www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=51320
SARAJEVO (AFP) - Bosnian-Serb authorities must start arresting war crimes suspects this year in order to remove obstacles on the Balkans country’s path to the European Union and NATO, the international community’s High Representative Paddy Ashdown said last Friday.
In his New Year’s message to the Bosnians, Ashdown welcomed Bosnian Serbs’ pledge for full cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal but warned that a “new spirit and hopeful words are not enough.” “Results have to be delivered,” he said.
The Bosnian-Serb entity, Republika Srpska, which along with the Muslim-Croat federation makes up Bosnia following the 1992-95 war, has yet to arrest a single war crimes suspect wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
This year NATO twice rejected Bosnia’s membership in the alliance’s Partnership for Peace program due to Republika Srpska’s reluctance to arrest war crimes suspects, including the two most wanted ones, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
Improved cooperation with the ICTY is also a precondition for starting negotiations on signing a stabilization and association agreement with the EU, the first step toward membership in the bloc.
“By the spring the EU and NATO will be judging Bosnia-Herzegovina again. You simply cannot afford to fail a third time,” Ashdown said.
Ashdown, who has far-reaching powers under the peace deal which ended Bosnia’s war, last month sacked nine Serb police officers and officials for allegedly protecting war crimes fugitives.
www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=51320