International Criminal Tribunal

The competence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) covers all cases of war crimes committed in the territory of the former SFRY, regardless of the victims' or perpetrators' citizenship.

The Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP) has a professional, continued, constructive and interactive co-operation with the ICTY.

In November 2003, the OWCP initiated professional co-operation with the ICTY investigators. The OWCP efforts have resulted in the existing high level of co-operation with the ICTY investigators. As professional and expert bodies working towards the same goal, namely the prosecution of war criminals, the Offices of the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor and the ICTY Prosecutor exchange data, documents and witness statements collected throughout their investigations.

In this way, the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor has obtained extensive information/evidence, which provides a good starting point, not only for its investigative efforts, but also for substantial clarification of certain events that took place in Kosovo. Specifically, the ICTY investigators, being close to the sites of incidents, had access to relevant information/materials at the time of their investigations, and were therefore able to collect evidence and interrogate first-hand witnesses of the crimes. Owing to its co-operation with the UNMIK judicial authorities, the OWCP officials are now able to directly examine witnesses of Albanian nationality in Kosovo.

Co-operation with the Hague Tribunal has resulted in the following:

• Transfer of the case addressing the 1992 Zvornik events from the ICTY to the OWCP competence;
• Motion by ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte for the transfer of two ICTY cases - namely the case against the Vukovar Troika (Mrkšic, Šljivancanin and Radic), and that against Vladimir Kovacevic aka Rambo, accused of the 1991 Dubrivnik shelling - to the OWCP competence;
• Numerous actions undertaken upon requests for assistance; and
• As of 19 July 2006, permanent OWCP access to the ICTY databases.