(New York) - Today's surrender of a former Bosnian Serb mayor to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague should not be considered real Yugoslav government cooperation with the tribunal, Human Rights Watch said today.
By U.S. law, the United States cannot resume aid to the Yugoslav government until Belgrade cooperates with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague.
Blagoje Simic, indicted by the tribunal for persecution and ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Croats and Muslims while he was mayor of the town of Samac, arrived today in The Hague from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Before he left the Belgrade airport, Simic and his lawyer insisted the surrender was a voluntary act. A spokesperson for the political party of Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica also emphasized that today's surrender did not reflect a change in the government's policy to transfer indictees to the Tribunal.
Human Rights watch said that real cooperation with the tribunal must include the arrest and transfer of indictees such as Slobodan Milosevic and four others indicted for crimes against humanity in Kosovo, as well as former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, who was indicted for genocide in connection with the massacre of 7,000 Bosnian men after the fall of the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in July 1995.
To date the Kostunica government has refused to arrest other persons indicted by the Tribunal and take the necessary steps to transfer them to the custody of the Hague Tribunal.
"Too many people indicted for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity are still at large in Serbia," said Holly Cartner, executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "The Yugoslav authorities are eager to portray Simic's surrender as 'voluntary,' to avoid creating any precedent that might bind them. But that doesn't change the fact that Belgrade has a clear legal obligation to surrender indictees to the Hague Tribunal."
Simic had apparently been living in Yugoslavia for some time and had acquired Yugoslav citizenship.
Human Rights Watch urged the United States and European Union governments to cut off aid to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia if Belgrade fails to demonstrate real cooperation with the tribunal. According to U.S. law, no aid except for humanitarian assistance can be extended to the Yugoslav government after March 31 unless it cooperates with The Hague, which must include "the surrender and transfer of indictees or assistance in their apprehension." The Simic surrender does not in any way fulfill the requirements of U.S. legislation.
