(5 Dec 1996) Eng/Serbo-Croat/Nat

An international conference on implementing peace in Bosnia has ended with a warning to Bosnian leaders that future aid depends on their full compliance with the year-old Dayton peace accord.

The conference also agreed to give more support to the international war crimes tribunal at the Hague, including extra resources.

In turn, the Bosnian leaders agreed to take "urgent practical steps" to ensure full freedom of movement of people, services and capital across the country.

The two-day talks in London, bringing together 43 nations, were called to consolidate progress on the Bosnian peace deal clinched in the United States a year ago.

At the top of the agenda during the second day of the two-day conference on Thursday were refugees and war criminals.

Frustration over repeated delays in implementing the civilian aspects of the so-called Dayton agreement has led Western leaders to link aid to a renewed commitment to genuine peace on the ground.

Among the most contentious issues yet to be resolved is the fate of indicted war criminals, the vast majority of whom remain at large despite widespread evidence of crimes against humanity.

Delegates agreed that the Hague tribunal should be better equipped in its investigations.

British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind announced more support for the international war crimes tribunal at the Hague, including extra resources.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Dealing effectively with war crimes is an urgent moral and political requirement, and we are strengthening the international criminal tribunal, enhancing information sharing and information gathering so the tribunal has its own ability to identify the location and the circumstances of alleged war criminals, and that we hope will lead to improved opportunities for apprehension."
SUPER CAPTION: Malcolm Rifkind, British Foreign Secretary

High Representative, Carl Bildt, said the go-ahead had now been given for the international community to look at other ways of bringing war criminals to justice.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The council charges the steering board to consider what further measures can be taken to facilitate the delivery of indictees, or persons indicted, to the tribunal for trial. If you try to interpret that, the interpretation is of course that if things don't happen by themselves then the steering board - this is the first time this has been said - will consider what measures can be taken."
SUPER CAPTION: Carl Bildt, High Representative

But a top European Union official expressed doubt that authorities in the former Yugoslavia were ready to comply with the West's calls for greater cooperation.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I would hope anyhow that also the international community today makes clear to the authorities it may concern that further action will be sought for if they do not take their own responsibilities."
SUPER CAPTION: Hans van den Broek, E-U External Affairs Commissioner

Van den Broek said he was not convinced Bosnian authorities would comply and that the international community must force them by "whatever means".

But the head of the U-N delegation said it wasn't a matter of force being used.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I wouldn't say we're talking about force. I think we're talking about the responsibility of the authorities in the area to do what they committed themselves to do in the Dayton agreement, which is as you say to bring those indicted for war crimes to The Hague to be tried there."
SUPER CAPTION: Marrack Goulding, Head of U.N. delegation


SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)


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