Del Ponte: Mladić is in Belgrade

Del Ponte: Mladić is in Belgrade

The Chief Prosecutor sees the Serbian government’s Action Plan as inefficient.

“There’s a lot of talk about it but no results”, she told the newspaper, adding that she nonetheless hoped it would soon become efficient.

Asked to comment on the fact that it only took a few months to transfer former Serbian president Slobodan Milošević to the Hague in 2001, while Mladić has been at large since 1995, she said the political circumstances in Serbia in 2001 worked in the Tribunal’s favor.

“We were in a position to pressure Belgrade. Besides, then Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić was there, and he was a politician looking to the future. Lastly, Milošević was already under arrest before he was extradited”, Del Ponte explained.

Asked why Radovan Karadžić seems to be almost forgotten, Carla Del Ponte said he is less talked about because the Tribunal’s focus is on Mladić’s arrest.

“It’s a matter of priorities. Mladić is the priority because the Srebrenica trial is under way, seven persons have already been indicted, now is the right time to include Mladić in this mega-process”, the Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor was reported as saying.