http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2083750758
ADN KRONOS INTERNATIONAL (ITALY) Serbia: President and PM protest Haradinaj's acquittal Belgrade, 17 April (AKI) - Serbia's leaders have protested to the chief prosecutor of the UN's Yugoslav war crimes court in the Hague, Serge Brammertz, at the tribunal's acquittal of former Kosovo prime minister Ramus Haradinaj (photo). Serbia's president Boris Tadic and prime minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Thursday that the acquittal of Haradinaj made a "mockery of justice". "The decision of the Hague tribunal to free and declare innocent a war criminal Ramus Haradinaj opens the question of legitimacy of this tribunal," Kostunica stated. He said Serbia has given plenty of evidence against Haradinaj, who was cleared of all charges of killing Serbs during the 1998-99 Kosovo rebellion. Brammertz arrived on his first visit to Belgrade since taking office in January, to prod Serbian leaders to arrest the remaining four fugitives wanted by the Hague tribunal. But the talks were marred by Haradinaj's acquittal earlier this month for lack of evidence. Serbian leaders claim they have no knowledge of where the fugitives may be hiding and Tadic said Serbia was doing everything possible to bring them to justice. "Apart from a moral obligation, it is also an obligation towards international and domestic laws," Tadic said. Kostunica demanded that the tribunal should investigate reports that soldiers from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) trafficked human organs removed from kidnapped Serb civilians during the Kosovo rebellion, who were allegedly left to die. The allegation were recently published in Brammertz's predecessor,Carla Del Ponte's autobiographical book, 'The Hunt'. Brammertz said the Hague tribunal hasn't found evidence to launch an investigation, pointing out that it was up to Kosovo and Albanian authorities to investigate the alleged organ thefts, which reportedly took place on their territory. The arrest of the remaining four fugitives, including wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his general Ratko Mladic, was of a "critical importance" for Serbia's advances towards European Union membership, he said. The EU has made Serbia's entry to the bloc conditional on its full cooperation with the ICTY and the arrest of all fugitives. Since it was founded by the United Nations Security Council in 1993, the ICTY has indicted 161 persons, mostly Serbs, and more than fifty have been sentenced to over 700 years in jail. Serbian leaders told Brammertz Haradinaj's acquittal has turned the public against the tribunal and would make more difficult their endeavors to bring the fugitive war crimes suspects to justice.
