Tribunal calls for help to nab fugitives

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Top officials of the U.N. war crime tribunals Friday called for greater cooperation by Serbia and Kenya in bringing war crime fugitives to justice.

The officials told the U.N. Security Council Serbia's cooperation was "critical" in bringing Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb military chief in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbian politician Goran Hadzic to justice, the United Nations said in a release.

"The most critical aspect of Serbia's cooperation is the need to apprehend the fugitives," said Serge Brammertz, prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. "Serbia must maintain these efforts (tracking operations) with the clear objective of apprehending the fugitives."

Mladic faces many charges, including genocide, extermination, murder, persecutions, deportation, hostage-taking and inflicting terror on citizens. Hadzic is charged with murder, persecutions, torture, cruel treatment, and other war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Fugitives also were a major concern for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda trying suspected perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by extremist Hutus, the U.N. said.

The tribunal's prosecutor, Hassan Jallo, reported "no progress in the matter of cooperation" from Kenya in the case of suspect Felcien Kabuga.

"Repeated requests to the government of Kenya for details of Kabuga's reported departure from that country have gone unanswered for the past 12 months," Jallo said. "This situation should not be allowed to continue. Kenya should be required to comply with its legal obligations ... ."