Carla Del Ponte settles accounts with the international community Former Attorney General of the ICTY gave last night in Geneva a conference full of chili. And humor

Carla Del Ponte

Andres German It glows, Carla Del Ponte. She brags, indeed, making people laugh last night 400 people came to listen to Uni Bastions, at a conference organized by the Association of university graduates. Is that the former Attorney General of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) knows that Ratko Mladic has been transferred to The Hague. The man chased the Ticino during his eight years in office will finally be judged. His efforts were finally rewarded.Exactly. Where did she find the strength to track down serious criminals throughout his life, asks the journalist Jean Roman, responsible for channeling the public's questions. Where does this vocation? Carla Del Ponte laughs. "I chose law instead of medicine because it was only four years. And I chose the University of Geneva, it seemed less daunting. If I became a criminal lawyer, because it was not too technical, there was human contact. That's where I got my motivation by meeting with victims seeking justice. "Yet it took years to catch Ratko Mladic. Which was an obstacle? "From the start, Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic and Slobodan Milosevic were the main suspects wanted. But the third was president of Serbia, so untouchable. For cons, the Bosnian Serb president and his military chief lived in Bosnia controlled by NATO. The trouble is that the international community was afraid to create disorder. The Atlantic Alliance had not been mandated to cooperate with the ICTY. And when she started, Karadzic and Mladic had already taken refuge in Serbia. ""Even after the political defeat of Milosevic in 2000 and his arrest in 2001, his successor, Vojislav Kostunica refused to help me track them, said Carla Del Ponte. He summoned me to give me hell. So as we could to nothing, we tried to convince countries of the European Union to block the accession of Serbia. It was hard, it was necessary to canvass every capital. And Kofi Annan wrote to me begging me not to mix justice and politics. I reminded him of the independence of the Attorney General. "And why do we judge the criminals and not Serbian Kosovo? "An attorney working with the material he may have. Serb crimes, we had the evidence and testimony. But the KLA (note: the Kosovo Liberation Army), we have opened three investigations that were unsuccessful because the witnesses withdrew. I understand it: Kosovo is the only place I have seen witnesses killed after participating in trials. "What does she say to Bernard Kouchner, former administrator of Kosovo, when he asserts that allegations of organ trafficking in the KLA, it's anything? "He said anything! He has not seen the report. I could not believe it but I opened the investigation, it was my job. And I discovered that there was indeed concrete evidence. But we neverhad permission to travel to Albania to see the mass graves. The international community would not help us. "His great regret is Rwanda. "I wanted to investigate the genocide but also the charges against President Kagame's men, I was summoned to Washington and they told me that the Rwandan justice system would take care of. London then proposed that the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda is now an attorney general than the one on the former Yugoslavia. I was rejected. And these investigations have never occurred. "

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