WASHINGTON -- Croatian President Ivo Josipovic says that if accused Bosnian Serb wartime criminal Ratko Mladic is captured after the mandate of the international court overseeing Yugoslav war crimes expires, he should be tried in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"In principle, I would like to remember the practice after the Second World War, when the allies took the decision that all war criminals, outside of the international court in Nuremberg, will be prosecuted in the state where they committed crimes," he said. "This decision had a moral message, and I think it will be appropriate to prosecute Mladic in countries -- especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he did most of his crime."
Josipovic was speaking at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington, a day after he met with U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Mladic is accused of orchestrating the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys near the town of Srebrenica and of masterminding the siege of Sarajevo, which claimed some 10,000 lives, during the Bosnian War. Considered the Balkans’ most-wanted man, he is believed to be hiding in Serbia among supporters.
The mandate of the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, or ICTY, is set to expire in 2014. ICTY officials have said that a procedure will be agreed for prosecuting Mladic should he be apprehended after that date.
"In principle, I would like to remember the practice after the Second World War, when the allies took the decision that all war criminals, outside of the international court in Nuremberg, will be prosecuted in the state where they committed crimes," he said. "This decision had a moral message, and I think it will be appropriate to prosecute Mladic in countries -- especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he did most of his crime."
Josipovic was speaking at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington, a day after he met with U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Mladic is accused of orchestrating the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys near the town of Srebrenica and of masterminding the siege of Sarajevo, which claimed some 10,000 lives, during the Bosnian War. Considered the Balkans’ most-wanted man, he is believed to be hiding in Serbia among supporters.
The mandate of the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, or ICTY, is set to expire in 2014. ICTY officials have said that a procedure will be agreed for prosecuting Mladic should he be apprehended after that date.