War crimes prosecutor receives praise

Carla Del Ponte spoke of the challenges bringing war criminals to justice Keystone

The United Nations war crimes prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte, has received the peace prize from a leading women's organisation.

The 60-year-old Swiss was honoured by the European federation of Soroptimist International on Friday.

Soroptimist, an international organization for business and professional women who provide volunteer service to their communities, gave the 2007 peace prize to Del Ponte at a ceremony in the southern Swiss city of Lugano.

They commended the prosecutor, who will become Swiss ambassador to Argentina next year, for her championing of human rights, peace and social justice.

Del Ponte received a statue, certificate and cheque for €20,000 (SFr33,000) which she said she would donate to a women’s clinic in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The UN prosecutor, who had just returned to Switzerland from a working visit to Belgrade, was visibly pleased to have won the award. In her acceptance speech, she described the challenge of tracking down war criminals in the former Yugoslavia.

“I’m not the emotional type and one cannot do this job if emotions get in the way,” she said. But she added it was very difficult to maintain her composure during hearings with witnesses and victims, such as those who had been raped.

Many victims feel responsible when offenders are not made to account for their crimes. But new obstacles constantly prevent her from doing her job, she said.

Among her work are efforts to find those responsible for the massacre of Srebrenica where up to 8,000 Muslim men and youths were murdered in 1995.

Justice and peace

“I used to believe that justice led to peace,” she added, explaining that she was no longer certain this was the case.

She still hopes to see the main Bosnian Serb leaders during the war, Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, captured before her mandate expires at the end of the year.

Last week, the UN Security Council voted to extend her term by three months until the end of 2007 since no one has been found to succeed her.

Del Ponte said the fact that Russia – considered close to the Serbian government – abstained from the voting had a positive side effect. “The representatives of France and Britain spoke very highly of me,” she said with a touch of irony.

The Swiss prosecutor’s biggest success came in 2001 when the former president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, was extradited to the court in The Hague. However, Milosevic died before judgement could be passed on charges of war crimes.

This was Del Ponte’s week in the spotlight as she also won the Corporate Women Award Switzerland 2007.

It was given to her on Thursday by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

swissinfo, Gerhard Lob in Lugano

Carla Del Ponte

Del Ponte, who was born in 1947, became prosecutor of canton Ticino in 1981.

She made a name for herself in the fight against money laundering, organised crime and the smuggling of arms.

Del Ponte was Swiss federal prosecutor from 1994 to 1999, before her appointment by the UN as chief prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

She had originally wanted to step down in September but is now expected to leave her post at the end of the year. She is set to become Swiss ambassador to Argentina in 2008.

Del Ponte is divorced and has a 30-year-old son.

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

The ICTY was established by Resolution 827 of the United Nations Security Council in May 1993.

Based in The Hague, it is the first international body for the prosecution of war crimes since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials held after the Second World War.

The tribunal has jurisdiction over individuals responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the territory of former Yugoslavia after January 1, 1991.