http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=07&dd=27&nav_id=52237
Vecernje Novosti (Serbia)
July 27, 2008
Russia questions Hague objectivity
-"Take the average sentences issued to Serbs and the
rest. What happened to Haradinaj and Oric? What kind
of objectivity is that?"
-"In all our statements, we have said that the
Tribunal's work has been politicized. That's why we
believe that its work should be brought to an end."
BELGRADE - The former Russian ambassador to Serbia
says Russia is uncertain whether Radovan Karadzic's
Hague trial will be objective.
Aleksandr Alexeyev told daily Vecernje Novosti that
the Hague Tribunal was politicized and that it was
being used as an instrument of pressure, which was why
Moscow insisted on its closure by 2010.
"Were we sure that the trial would be objective, we
would not have warned that the Tribunal needed to be
depoliticized," said the former ambassador, who is now
head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Fourth European
Department, effectively the head of Russian diplomacy
for the Balkans.
Stating that the Hague's work was such that it
"frequently became a prisoner of political games," he
pointed to the amount of Serbs indicted compared to
those of the other sides.
"Take the average sentences issued to Serbs and the
rest. What happened to Haradinaj and Oric? What kind
of objectivity is that?" Alexeyev noted.
"That's why we stress that the Tribunal should address
what a court should be addressing. In all our
statements, we have said that the Tribunal's work has
been politicized. That's why we believe that its work
should be brought to an end," said the diplomat.
He pointed out that the Hague Tribunal was created at
a time when the legal system in the former Yugoslavia
was not functioning, but that the states now had
everything in place for trials to be held there.
Asked whether the Tribunal's work would finish by
2010, as Russia insists, Alexeyev responded with a
question of his own: "What do you think?" adding that
it was "undeniable that the court was being used as a
political instrument."
Serbian News Network - SNN
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http://www.antic.org/
