The Hague war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said in Brussels on Tuesday that in Croatia's cooperation with his office he regarded as positive the continued search by the inter-agency task force for missing military documents dating from 1995's Operation Storm and expressed hope that in the coming weeks and months he would receive fresh information on the whereabouts of those documents.
At the invitation of the Belgian EU Presidency, Brammertz attended a meeting of EU foreign ministers to inform them about the cooperation of Croatia and Serbia with his office. He later met with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.
Addressing the press after the talks, Brammertz said there had been fewer questions about Croatia.
I have thoroughly informed the ministers about current cooperation. The task force has continued searching for the documents, which is positive. Just like in my report to the Security Council, I said that the task force is now investigating the areas we identified two years ago. We mentioned certain inconsistencies in the interviews conducted, and we have received assurances from the Croatian authorities that they will look into those inconsistencies. We strongly hope that we will have new information about it in the coming weeks and months, Brammertz said.
Brammertz said that his office had been receiving reports from the task force on a regular basis and that three such reports had come in since June. He added that his office responded to such reports with feedback information as to what further steps could be taken.
When asked if there was the political will in Croatia for full cooperation, Brammertz said that his office was not assessing the political will, but the situation in the field.
We are monitoring what is going on in the field. As I have said, there are positive elements, the avenues of inquiry we identified long ago are being pursued. It is late, but it's not too late, and I think it still can be done, the chief prosecutor said.
As regards Serbia, Brammertz said the biggest problem was the fact that the two remaining fugitives, Bosnian Serb wartime military commander Ratko Mladic and Croatian Serb political leader Goran Hadzic, were still at large.
The best proof of cooperation will be the arrest of the two fugitives and we will closely follow what is going on on the Serbian side. We think there is a gap between political statements, that is between the political will and what is being done in the field. I think more can be done. I'm not saying that nothing is being done about it, but more can be done, Brammertz said, adding that it was regrettable that most people in Serbia were against Mladic being arrested.
