EU must back Balkans justice

4.25.00pm GMT Wed 11th Mar 2009

The European Parliament is calling for a 2-year extension to the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the Hague tribunal, which has delivered precedent-setting judgements on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. MEPs are urging the UN Security Council to ensure that tribunal remains operational until it concludes all trials against high-level indictees.

London MEP Sarah Ludford, Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokeswoman, said:

"The impressive work of the ICTY in bringing justice to the war-torn Western Balkans must be supported to its conclusion. The international community must stand strong in its conviction that impunity for gross atrocities is not tolerated."

Sarah Ludford has also pressed the European Commission to block further progress in Serbia's accession to the EU unless Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, the two remaining fugitives from ICTY warrants, are delivered to the Hague, as well as confirmation that Croatia's accession depends on its government's full cooperation with the ICTY in providing evidence and facilitating witnesses. She added:

"Trials at the ICTY, including of Karadzic, Mladic and Hadzic, must be conducted with full defence rights as well as respect for victims and their families. Although the ICTY has successfully transferred many lower-level cases to courts in the Western Balkan states, the impartial pursuit of justice must not be compromised by an abrupt curtailment of ICTY's mandate."