EU Council: "Belgrade most responsible for the crisis in Kosova"Brussels,

1 December 1998 (ARTA)

The secretary General of the Transnational Radicals, and MP at the European Parliament Olivier Dupuis, requested from the EU Council, to declare itself and support the initiative to petition for "sending Milosevic before the Hague Tribunal", a request also expressed by the European Parliament in a special resolution.

This NW recalled how during the most tragic moments of the war in Bosnia, the EU and its member states, due to formal and political reasons, did not weigh Milosevic's responsibility in the commanding structure, the way it did with Karadzic and Mladic.

Dupuis stressed further that "the present events in Kosova, are a direct responsibility of Belgrade, and consecutively, of Milosevic".

The written answer given by the EU Council states: "The Council completely supports the evaluation that Belgrade is to be held most responsible for the crisis in Kosova". He also recalls that in several cases it supported the stands of the Prosecutor's Office at the Hague Tribunal for War Crimes in former Yugoslavia, that the events in Kosova are under the jurisdiction of this Court.

The EU also emphasized that they have made calls to the Belgrade authorities to start investigations and condemn the authors of such acts in Kosova.

The EU Council openly supports the activities of Finnish experts, who in the name of the EU will be conducting investigations in Kosova. They will be focused on several cases, which are believed to include crimes that could fall under the jurisdiction of the International Tribunal for war crimes.

The EU Council, also considers that "the crimes conducted in Kosova, were exploited for

propagandistic reasons by both sides, and that even though the majority of the crimes are attributed to the Serb police and military forces, it is too early to make final, objective conclusions on the issue".

At the end of its reply, the Council emphasized that the results of the investigations of European experts could cause judicial implications, which could most surely lead to pressing charges by the Hague Tribunal. Nevertheless, it is the EU stand, as well, that it is the Tribunal itself that has the competence to decide against whom to press charges for war crimes, based on the existing resolutions of the EU Security Council.