| Press Release |
PRESIDENT
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| (Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document) |
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The Hague,1 February 1996
CC/PIO/029-E
President Cassese has engaged in a series of high-level European contacts
At the end of a meeting held in Rome on Wednesday 31 January 1996 between the President of the Council of Ministers of the European Union, Mrs. Susanna Agnelli, and the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Judge Antonio Cassese, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the following press release:
"Rome, 31 January 1996 - In her role as current President of the Council of Ministers of the European Union, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Susanna Agnelli has today received at the Farnesina (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Professor Antonio Cassese.
The meeting is part of a series of contacts that the President of the Tribunal has been engaging in over the last few days with the principal participants of the peace process in former Yugoslavia to bring them up to date with the activities of the Tribunal in the two years since its creation. Professor Cassese has also recently visited Belgrade, Sarajevo and Zagreb, where he held high level talks with the competent authorities.
Professor Cassese's purpose was to make the Presidency of the European Union sensitive to the need to exercise renewed pressures on the Parties to ensure full co-operation with the Tribunal, as required by the Peace Agreements themselves. He has emphasized in particular the requirement that the Parties adopt legislation implementing the Statute of the International Tribunal and, above all, that they execute the warrants of arrest issued by the Judges of the Tribunal.
Minister Agnelli has restated the full and dedicated support of Italy and of the European Union to the activities of the Tribunal. The Minister emphasized that the achievement of the Tribunal's objectives is, indeed, a fundamental element for the re-establishment of the inter-ethnic dialogue in the former Yugoslavia, and is indispensable in guaranteeing conditions of peace to future generations."
Following this series of contacts, President Cassese will soon meet the President of the European Commission, Mr. Jacques Santer and two European Commissioners, Mr. Hans van den Broek and Mrs. Emma Bonino, in order to bring them up to date with the activities of the Tribunal and with the results of his visits to Zagreb, Sarajevo and Belgrade. He will visit them in Brussels on Monday 12 February 1996.
President Cassese also intends to meet the fifteen Foreign Ministers of the European Union when they convene in Brussels on 26 and 27 February 1996.
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International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
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