| Press Release | TRIBUNAL |
(Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document)
The Hague, 18 April 2000
CC/ P.I.S./ 490-E
Canada to provide Experts to assist the Investigations of the Office of the Prosecutor in Kosovo
On Tuesday 18 April, the United Nations and Canada signed an agreement for the provision of qualified personnel to assist the investigations being currently conducted in Kosovo by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Canada has agreed to dispatch six teams of Royal Canadian Mounted Police, totalling 24 experts. Each team will stay in Kosovo for approximately one month. The first team will depart for Kosovo on 1 May 2000.
This agreement was signed at the seat of the ICTY by Mr. Paul Heinbecker, Canada’s Assistant Deputy Minister, Global and Security Policy, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and by Ms. Dorothee de Sampayo Garrido-Nijgh, Registrar of the International Tribunal, on behalf of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
The latter informed the President of the General Assembly on 27 January of his intention to accept gratis personnel for the Office of the Prosecutor, and the Registrar of the ICTY sent a letter on 4 February 2000 inviting United Nations’ Member States to provide qualified personnel.
Canada is one of the 14 States that signed similar agreements in 1999. Discussions are on-going with a number of other States prepared to assist the operations of the Office of the Prosecutor in Kosovo.
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International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
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