Opening Belgrade's Archives

Geoffrey Nice, the prosecutor presenting the war crimes case against former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, has been particularly vocal in the past about the difficulty he says his office faces in trying to get hold of key documents from the Serbian authorities.



A planned trip to Belgrade by chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte next month is partly intended to increase pressure to hand over such material, according to her spokesperson Florence Hartmann.



A senior source within the prosecution told IWPR that "it remains to be seen" what the outcome of the latest promise of cooperation will be. The decision still needs to be approved by the Council of Ministers and, even then, much will depend on how effectively it is actually implemented.