Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

The Minister's information and mine seem to be at variance. On 20 September the chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz had very harsh things to say about the lack of progress in respect of the arrest of Mr. Mladic and company. Is the Minister aware of the statement of 20 September, which reads, "Political support from the European capitals and from Brussels is of paramount importance in pressing Serbia to arrest Mladic and the only other remaining fugitive, former Croatian-Serb leader Goran Hadzic." He also noted that the tribunal cannot wait indefinitely for Mladic to be arrested as the UN Security Council is pushing the tribunal to complete all its cases and shut its doors. The tribunal is due to close down in three years. He said, "We need arrests now in order to be able to have a trial which represents the magnitude of the crimes committed". Brammertz says Serbian authorities are doing all they can to track down Mladic but he "senses a gap between political pronouncements and the actions he sees on the ground".

I would support the progress being made in Serbia and in many other areas, but this is a point of principle. If we set up an international tribunal to deal with the worst atrocities in the history of Europe since the Second World War and are then seen to walk away from our responsibility of bringing these two monsters to justice, it would be a slight on all of us. A small neutral country like Ireland should show example here.

I ask the Minister not to bring the Stabilisation and Association Agreement motion before the House until I have asked the Joint Committee on European Affairs to have Mr. Brammertz attend the committee and report to it on what he is saying in his reports. This is the last remaining tool to support that international court.

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