Balkan Cooperation on War Crimes Issues: 2005 Update: RS22097.

A combination of intensified international pressure and deadlines associated with Euro-Atlantic integration processes has prompted a spate of transfers of persons indicted for war crimes to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague from late 2004 through early 2005. Full cooperation with The Hague tribunal has been established as a key prerequisite to further progress toward a shared long-term goal for the western Balkan countries: closer association with and eventual membership in the European Union (EU) and NATO. The Euro-integration efforts of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro have stalled (to varying degrees) over ICTY cooperation, although recent substantial progress in turning over indicted persons has been achieved. Three top-ranking war crimes suspects remain at large: wartime Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, and former Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]