Little news of the summer
(BRUSSELS2)
Hadzic the last on the list
Goran Hadzic, the latest fugitive wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for crimes against humanity and war crimes, is arrested on (July 20). He had committed the Vukovar hospital massacre in 1993 and was the last of the 161 indicted by the court since its creation (in 1994). 35 suspects are being tried. 64 people were convicted (32 of whom have already served their sentence), 13 were handed over to a national judge, 20 were found not guilty, 16 died before a possible conviction.
Kosovo: Acquittal for war crimes
Martinovic, Srecko Martinovic and Svetlana Stojanovic were acquitted on July 22 by a mixed jury, composed of Kosovar judges and EULEX (the European Union's “Rule of Law” mission). The judges ruled that there was a lack of evidence to convict them of war crimes against the civilian population. The prosecutor has 15 days to appeal this decision.
Libya: the milestone of 6000 exits for strikes crossed
Since the start of Operation “Unified Protector”, aircraft under NATO command have carried out a total of 16.028 sorties, including 6.040 strike sorties, according to the report drawn up by the Atlantic Alliance on July 22.
Cyprus: a new personal envoy from the European Commission
Jorge César das Neves is the new personal representative of José-Mauel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, to the UN good offices mission in Cyprus which is trying to obtain a settlement on the status of the divided island since 1974, the northern part being occupied by Turkey. Portuguese, with a degree in philosophy from the University of Lisbon and the University of Munich, he joined the Portuguese diplomatic service and is stationed in Brussels (Permanent Representation to the EU), Ankara, New Delhi and Algiers. Member of the Political Unit of Javier Solana, High Representative, he works on crisis management in Africa. Since October 2007, he has been advisor for Dialogue with religions, churches and communities of belief at the Office of European Policy Advisers at the European Commission. (Wednesday July 20)
Armies: the Defense Diplomacy plan. It's new, it's Spanish.
The Spanish Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs have jointly adopted a “defense diplomacy plan”, the first of its kind in Europe. Carme Chacon, the Minister of Defense, presented it on Wednesday accompanied by the former High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Javier Solana. Objective: “optimize and rationalize efforts and resources devoted to diplomacy and defense activities” and better promote Spain in the world. Download here (in Spanish) (Wed. July 20)