KOSOVO: EVIDENCE OF THE DIRECT RESPONSIBILITY OF PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC IN WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY COMMITTED IN KOSOVO IN 1998.

PRESENTATION AT RAMBOUILLET OF A REPORT BY NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE ON THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE BELGRADE REGIME.

EMBARGOED UNTIL THURSDAY 18 FEBRUARY 12:00

Brussels, 17 February 1999 - In the framework of the "No Peace Without Justice" campaign, Radical Party deputies Olivier Dupuis and Gianfranco Dell'Alba will hand over to the Special Representative of the European Union to the Rambouillet talks, Mr. Wolfang Petrich, a report prepared by a group of legal experts on the direct criminal and political responsibilities for the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo in 1998.

The report emphasizes the full competence of the Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia over the crimes committed in Kosovo and, in particular, on the full direct responsibility of the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic in the planning of the criminal campaign.

The document - transmitted to the Prosecutor and the President of the Hague Tribunal - sends a clear message to the negotiators in Rambouillet that it would be inacceptable to consider as part of any agreement a clause that would exclude the competence of the International Criminal Tribunal's jurisdiction or that would grant immunity for the serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Kosovo in 1998.

The document will be presented to the press at 15h00 CET on Thursday 18 February in front of the Rambouillet City Hall by Niccolo' Figà-Talamanca Coordinator of the Team of experts.

For more information please contact: Olga Cechurova

Tel: +32-2-230.4121

Fax: +32-2-230.3670

www.radicalparty.org