ROUNDUP: Del Ponte "pessimistic" over Karadzic or Mladic arrest

The UN prosecutor for war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, Carla del Ponte, expressed pessimism Wednesday over the prospects of fugitive Bosnian Serbs Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic ever being arrested. "We are still waiting for full access to requested government archives," she said in a statement read by her spokeswoman Olga Kavran to reporters on Wednesday. "Mladic, Karadzic, (former Bosnian Serb police commander Stojan) Zupljanin and (Croatian Serb Goran) Hadzic remain at large. I am increasingly worried that this slow progress may not lead to a positive outcome." Mladic was the chief of staff of the Bosnian Serb Army and is primarily accused of the massacre of thousands of Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995, while former Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic stands accused of genocide. Zupljanin is accused of "ethnically cleansing" the region of Krajina of Muslims and Croats. Hadzic is accused of 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but primarily he is accused of the 1991 massacre of 250 Croatian and non-Serb civilians from Vukovar hospital. Del Ponte did welcome assurances by Belgrade officials that they were willing to cooperate fully with The Hague-based tribunal, but added that progress was slow. "Although we have seen some results in the past four months, progress has been rather slow. We are still waiting for documents, some of which were requested last year." "This is why I would like to take this opportunity to again urge the authorities in Belgrade to take more effective action towards full cooperation with my office." The prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) reiterated "the remaining fugitives, and in particular Ratko Mladic, must be located and arrested." "Any further delay in fulfilling these obligations jeopardizes the successful completion of the tribunal's work and interferes with the tribunal's ability to fulfil its mandate," she added. "It also inevitably brings into question Serbia's willingness and ability to fulfil its commitments of full cooperation with the ICTY." Del Ponte also said that she was still waiting for the former Yugoslav Army archives that were promised to her during her September visit to Belgrade. dpa ts bb sc rl wjh