Today, 23 July 1999, Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), will meet with the Austrian Minister of Justice, Nikolaus Michalek, and the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, in Vienna. During the meetings two important agreements between the Austrian Government and the United Nations will be formalised.

The first is an Agreement with the United Nations on the Enforcement of Sentences imposed by the ICTY, allowing persons convicted by the Tribunal to serve their sentences in Austria. This will make Austria the fifth United Nations Member State to enter into such an agreement, after Italy (signed on 6 February 1997), Finland (7 May 1997), Norway (24 April 1998) and Sweden (23 February 1999).

The second agreement concerns the provision of gratis personnel to work on a temporary and urgent basis with the Office of the Prosecutor in its investigations on the ground in Kosovo. Similar agreements have already been signed with France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden (see Press Releases 412 and 418).

President McDonald would like to express her sincere gratitude for these most recent examples of Austria’s support for the Tribunal’s work. She would also like to note that Austria has actively assisted the ICTY in other areas since its inception, including through substantial voluntary contributions to the Trust Fund to support the exhumations project, and the provision of prison guards to the Tribunal’s Detention Facility.