UN-Truth

The UN Spokesperson told journalists at UNHQ/NY on Friday that “The Security Council extended the terms of the current prosecutors for the two international tribunals in back-to-back formal meetings today. By a unanimous vote, the Council extended Hassan Jallow’s term as Prosecutor for the Rwanda Tribunal by four years. Carla Del Ponte, the Prosecutor of the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, was extended for a final period ending this 31 December. Her extension was approved with 14 votes in favour and Russia abstaining”.
This UN Daily Briefing transcript is here.

Carla Del Ponte, a former Swiss prosecutor from the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland who had a reputation for toughness in going after Mafia-linked crime in Switzerland, has been rather less successful in her role as Prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia. Yes, Slobodan Milosevic, the former President of the fomer Yugoslavia, was eventually captured and put on trial — but died before any verdict was in, so the trial was discontinued, and his victims feel deprived of full justice.

However, two other Bosnian Serb bad guys are still on the loose — Del Ponte has made numerous predictions, over several years, that they will be captured and put on trial “before the end of the year”, but this has not happened yet. She has accused U.S. and French forces in multinational service in the former Yugoslavia of being, in the best case, lax, and in the worst case, complicit. And she has offended the Serbian Government, to which Russia is rather sympathetic as a ethnic cultural and linguistic ally.

The Swiss Government must have made a strong case to keep her on.

(Her hair is actually more lemon-yellow in color than the silver tone shown in the photo above.)

Del Ponte was originally the Prosecutor for both the International Criminal Tribunals on the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, but in August 2003, over her protests, then-UNSG Kofi Annan nominated Hassan Yallow for the Ruwandan Tribunal.

Still, she stayed on.

Filed under: Former Yugoslavia, International Tribunals, Kofi Annan, Rwanda, UN Security Council