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Statement
by
the Secretary General of NATO, Lord Robertson,
in Response to the Report given by the Chief Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte, to the UN
Security Council
The statement by Chief Prosecutor Del Ponte that the ICTY is not opening
an inquiry into NATO's actions comes as no surprise. NATO's civilian leaders
and military authorities took extraordinary precautions throughout the
entire air campaign to ensure that NATO consistently acted in accordance
with international law. But by acting as it did, NATO put an end to massive,
premeditated ethnic violence by Serbian forces which was itself a gross
violation of international law.
NATO is as committed as the ICTY itself to bringing war criminals to
justice. The ICTY's decision should help ensure that the world's attention
is focused exactly where it belongs - on bringing the real war criminals
of the Balkan wars to face justice in The Hague.
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