UN’s Balkan war crimes tribunal re-elects President and Vice-President to new terms

The two most senior officials of the United Nations war crimes tribunal set up to try people accused of committing the worst offences during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s have been elected to another stint in office, the court announced today.

Judge Patrick Robinson of Jamaica and Judge O-Gon Kwon of the Republic of Korea (ROK) were re-elected on Monday as President and Vice-President by the permanent judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The tribunal, which is based in The Hague, elected President Robinson and Vice-President Kwon by acclamation to new two-year terms starting on 17 November. Both judges took up their posts on the same date in 2008.

Since its establishment in 1993, the ICTY has indicted 161 people suspected of war crimes.

While proceedings are ongoing against 41 of the accused, including the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžic, proceedings have been concluded against 120, with two suspects – Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic and the ethnic Serb politician Goran Hadžic – still at large.