Security Council

5453^rd Meeting (AM)

SECURITY COUNCIL HEARS BRIEFINGS ON WORK OF INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS

FOR RWANDA, FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

CORRECTION

In Press Release SC/8740 of 7 June 2006, the statement of France should read, as follows:

BRIGITTE COLLET (France) said that it had been hoped that all indicted fugitives would be arrested and transferred rapidly, but those hopes had been dashed.  Their arrest and transfer was a prerequisite for the integration of Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina into European family.  Cooperation with the Tribunals was also an obligation for all States and institutions, and France welcomed Argentina’s efforts in that regard, although the Russian Federation had yet to do the same.  France also expected full cooperation by all States in transferring fugitives, including Félicien Kabuga and others who remained at large more than a decade after the genocide, and wished to have more details about investigations that were still under way.

Regarding the death of Milošević, she said the Tribunal and the Dutch authorities had carried out the required investigations.  France also found it encouraging that judges were playing a more active role.  In addition, France appealed to the Yugoslav Tribunal to respect scrupulously the status of the working languages, and called for a more reasonable time for the rendering of justice.  Regarding the trial of those accused in the Srebrenica massacre, organizing it as a single case would make the work more significant.  On the Rwanda genocide, the idea of increasing the number of judges in the Appeal Chamber should be carefully examined.  Referral to national jurisdictions could not be considered for the highest level of indictees, who could not escape the international jurisdictions, especially Karadžić, Mladić and Kabuga.  They must be transferred to The Hague and to Arusha.

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For information media • not an official record