| Press Release | TRIBUNAL |
(Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document)
CC/P.I.S./452-E
Visit of Massimo d'Alema, Prime Minister of Italy, underscores the Quality
and Soundness of the Partnership between Italy and the Tribunal.
His Excellency the Prime Minister of the Republic of Italy, Massimo d’Alema, made an official visit to the seat of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Monday 29 November 1999, during which he underscored the soundness of his country’s support for the institution.
Accompanied by his Excellency, Mr. Giorgio Testori, Ambassador of Italy to The Netherlands and several of his close colleagues, Mr. d’Alema met with the President of the Tribunal, Judge Claude Jorda, the Registrar, Mrs. Dorothee de Sampayo, and the Deputy Prosecutor, Mr. Graham Blewitt. The meetings focused on the quality of Italy’s unstinting co-operation with the Tribunal in its mission.
President Claude Jorda expressed the gratitude of the Tribunal and pointed to the exemplary and multi-facetted support provided by Italy to the institution ever since it was established.
After recalling that the Italian Judge Antonio Cassese, the first President of the Tribunal who held two successive mandates (1993-1995 and 1995-1997) has announced his departure from The Hague as of the beginning of next year, President Jorda expressed his conviction that Judge Cassese’s successor would continue to represent the highest standards of Italian legal culture within the Chambers.
He also recalled that in December 1993 Italy was the first United Nations member State to adopt a law on co-operation with the ICTY and that in February 1997 it signed the first ever Agreement on the enforcement of penalties imposed by the Tribunal (see Press Release 154). In the interim, Italy has seconded several senior legal specialists to the Office of the Prosecutor. As of today, 11 Italian nationals work at the Tribunal, eight within the Office of the Prosecutor and three within the Registry.
A staunch supporter of the Tribunal, Italy demonstrated its generosity on three occasions (October 1994, December 1997 and April 1998) by donating a total of two million United States dollars to the Tribunal’s Voluntary Fund.
Finally, President Jorda emphasised that Italy’s unfailing co-operation with the mission of the International Criminal Tribunal was in line with the active role it has always played in support of the establishment of a permanent international criminal court whose statute proudly boasts the name of Rome, the city where it was adopted.
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International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
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