War Crimes (Hansard, 26 October 1998)

§ Mr. Austin
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what efforts SFOR have made to apprehend and arrest(a) Ratko Mladic and (b) Radovan Karazic to face trial before the International Criminal Tribunal. [56481]

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
All indictees, including Karazic and Mladic, belong before the Tribunal in The Hague.
Under Dayton, the primary responsibility for transferring war crimes indictees to the Tribunal lies with the Parties. We continue to press them to fulfil these and other obligations but their performance so far is variable. For this reason SFOR continues to take action to detain indictees: of ten indictees successfully detained in Bosnia, seven have involved British forces either directly or in support. We cannot give details of specific plans or operations.
SFOR's approach has helped ensure that over half of those currently indicted have appeared in The Hague.

§ Mr. Austin
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps have been taken to ensure that the International Criminal Tribunal is able to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo. [56482]

§ Mr. Tony Lloyd
On 31 March this year, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1160 (1998) which urged the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to begin gathering information related to the violence in Kosovo that might fall within its jurisdiction. The Council also noted that the authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had an obligation to co-operate with the Tribunal.
In its Resolution 1199 (1998) adopted on 23 September, the Security Council called upon both the authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the leaders of the Kosovo Albanian community to co-operate fully with the Prosecutor of the Tribunal in the investigation of possible violations of international humanitarian law within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal. The UK took the lead in drafting this resolution.
My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has also urged the Tribunal to investigate the massacres in Gornje Obrinje and near Vucitern in Kosovo. A team of investigators from the Tribunal has recently returned from Kosovo and the Prosecutor has publicly announced her intention to lead the next investigative mission.