Belgrade Refuses to Give Secret Files to Tribunal

Yugoslavia will not hand over state files to officials of the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, the federal interior minister said, indicating that cooperation with the court might not go as smoothly as expected.

“There is much we can provide the tribunal with, but there are also such things that are state secrets, documents which will remain sealed for 20 to 30 years,� Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic said.

His comments came in response to those of U.N. tribunal chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who said this week that “true cooperation between Belgrade and The Hague will start once Belgrade allows the tribunal access to its archives.�