Carla Del Ponte arrives in Belgrade

Carla Del Ponte arrives in Belgrade

She first met with Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica and War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukčević.

The prime minister’s cabinet issued a statement saying that Koštunica informed the chief Hague prosecutor that cooperation with the Hague was one of new government’s priorities.

According to the same statement, Del Ponte told Koštunica that full cooperation with the ICTY and handing over of the remaining indictees was required.

B92 has learned that Del Ponte did not commend Serbian officials to the extent they expected in light of the May 31 arrest of Zdravko Tolimir. The same sources said that the meeting was “moderately cordial.”

Del Ponte's visit is important because it will be her last before leaving her post at the Tribunal in September. 

Her spokeswoman, Olga Kavran, told journalists earlier Monday that Del Ponte would, during her four days in Serbia, meet with President Boris Tadić, Prime Minister Vojislav Košunica, and "numerous other government officials as well as representatives of the various services involved in the operational aspect of cooperation with the Tribunal."

She went on to say that Del Ponte, "welcomes the declared readiness of the newly elected government to do everything in its power to fulfill its international obligations so that Serbia can move forward."

Kavran added that Del Ponte also hopes "that her visit to Belgrade will be fruitful and will demonstrate that this declared commitment is confirmed by concrete action and results."

"The ICTY Prosecutor is ready to work with the new government on their efforts to achieve full cooperation with the ICTY, which includes the arrest and transfer to the Tribunal of Ratko Mladić, Radovan Karadžić and the remaining fugitives," Kavran went on to say.

Asked about announcements from the EU that negotiations with Serbia are to continue very soon, Kavran replied that Del Ponte will announce her opinion on the matter once she returns from Belgrade.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has said that he will set a date for the resumption of the talks after receiving Del Ponte's assessment.

President of the National Hague Cooperation Council Rasim Ljajić told B92 that it will be very important to Belgrade for Del Ponte’s report on cooperation with the Tribunal to be positive, in order to return trust to the relations between Belgrade and The Hague.

“We will show everything that has been done in the last several months, what we are doing now, and what we are planning to do. I think that there will be arguments and evidence that will be convincing enough to return the trust and credibility in the eyes of the international community,” Ljajić said.

Del Ponte’s last visit to Belgrade was in October of last year, when she said that she was not content with the coordination between Serbia’s security services in the efforts to find Hague fugitive Ratko Mladić.

Political analyst Dejan Anastasijević said that “it looks like Belgrade finally realized that ‘charming Carla Del Ponte’ would not be bad for Serbia at all.”

“The entire mechanism was started up in this sense. There was the formation of the National Security Council, the reactivated Action Plan, which however did not yield results, but taking into consideration the arrest of Tolimir, I think that Belgrade has a good chance of convincing Carla Del Ponte that it is serious this time and that its stance has changed.” Anastasijević said.

As far as the most wanted Hague fugitive Ratko Mladić is concerned, Rasim Ljajiić said, “we are doing everything as if Mladić were in Serbia, and Mladić must be located and extradited.”

European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said that talks for the Stabilization and Association Agreement between Serbia and the EU could be restarted in the next ten days, though Mladić’s arrest was a condition for signing the agreement.