USA OBJECTS TO HAGUE TRIBUNAL

USA, UK "HAVE GREAT OBJECTIONS" TO WORK OF HAGUE TRIBUNAL - SERBIAN TV
BBC Monitoring International Reports - October 29, 2004

Source: BKTV, Belgrade, in Serbian 1655 gmt 28 Oct 04

(Presenter) London and Washington are losing patience with (the Hague tribunal's chief prosecutor) Carla Del Ponte and they are not ready to finance the Hague tribunal indefinitely, our correspondent in London has learnt.

(Telephone report by Dejan Lukic, captioned BKTV correspondent in London) Strong signals have been sent to both addresses in The Hague, the tribunal and the prosecution, urging that all (court) proceedings should end in 2008. Washington and London have great objections to the manner in which the tribunal, especially the prosecution, is handling proceedings, and Carla Del Ponte has not been given indefinite time to present evidence against the accused, so one can hear in London.

Prompted by a statement by Undersecretary of State John Bolton in the State Department that the tribunal is becoming a source of problems for Washington, and that Carla Del Ponte threatens to cause further intolerance in the region, diplomatic sources here claim that Bolton's statement is precisely in line with the view of the White House, despite the fact that this was denied by the State Department using diplomatic language. Washington is losing patience and is not prepared to finance indefinitely badly prepared indictments, our source said.

Prompted by yesterday's (request to tender) resignation by the lawyers imposed on (former Serbian and Yugoslav president) Slobodan Milosevic, today's issue of The Guardian says that the accused has won the battle and outwitted the judges, and that now the whole process is threatened with total uncertainty at best or total paralysis at worst.