During a debate on the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), leading members of the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday were divided on recent ICTY acquittals of Croatian Generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac and former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj. The United States, Germany and Great Britain called for the respect of those verdicts and expressed their full support to the tribunal, while Russia described the acquittals as unfair and China said the ICTY must be unbiased.
Russian representative Vitaly Churkin said the two verdicts discredited the idea of international justice and left the issue of who is responsible for the war crimes open.
Justice has not been served, Churkin said adding that the ICTY had neither shown justice nor efficiency.
He said Russia was surprised " how blithely, even carelessly, " the verdict in the Gotovina and Markac case was quashed with three against two votes.
China said that when it comes to controversies about the appeals verdicts in the Gotovina and Markac case, the ICTY must be unbiased and respect the principles of independence and the rule of law so that justice could be served.
German ambassador to the UN Peter Witting supported the ICTY, saying that its contribution was immeasurable and that both the ICTY and the ICTR respected the highest standards of justice. He praised the tribunals for upholding "high standards of justice" and fairness.
Statements binging into question the ICTY's impartiality are only undermining the mandate and jurisdiction of the tribunal and are detrimental for the reconciliation process in the region. This must not be tolerated, Wittig said, calling on the countries of the region to intensify efforts in prosecuting war crimes.
We entirely support the tribunal and its rulings, US representative Jeffrey De Laurentis said, adding that the ICTY had made a historic contribution to justice.
British Ambassador Philip Parham said Great Britain support the ICTY, adding that all countries must respect the independent and unbiased work of the tribunal.
He called on the Croatian authorities to show dignity and respect in commenting on the acquittal of Gotovina and Markas, underlining that those rulings were handed down in an unbiased and independent trial.
It is critical that both sides respect that verdict, he said.
France's representative said that reactions to the recent acquittals showed acute sensitivity, stressing that people in the region must be reassured that justice would be secured for all victims.
The Security Council was also addressed by Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic who said that international justice must apply to all, calling the acquittal of Gotovina and Markac shameful.
"Do Serbs have the right to justice'" Vucic asked saying that the ICTY had not punished anyone for crimes against Serbs in Croatia.
He used this opportunity to describe Operation Storm as an indiscriminate attack on the Serb population because of which, he claimed, 250,000 Serbs had to flee their homes, calling it the biggest humanitarian disaster since the start of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
He also complained to the ICTY that not a single top official from Croatia or Bosnia was charged although crimes were committed by all sides.
Croatian Ambassador to the UN Ranko Vilovic said Croatia could understand frustrations of those who tried to equate individual crimes committed by one side with the criminal politics of the official authorities, but it cannot accept reactions that are about "questioning or even dismissing tribunal's decisions."
He said that every responsible member of the international community must respect verdicts, whether they agree with them or not.
