Perfect Belgian Takes Over as Hague Prosecutor

Serge Brammertz, known in his homeland as “the perfect Belgian”, was this week appointed chief prosecutor at the Hague tribunal. with three years left to find top Bosnian Serb fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.



Brammertz, who was formerly in charge of the United Nations investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, replaces Carla Del Ponte who stepped down at the end of December after eight years at the tribunal.



He will have his work cut out as the tribunal continues to put pressure on Belgrade to arrest Karadzic and Mladic, who are both indicted for atrocities including the massacre of 8,000 Bosniak men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.



He will also be responsible for bringing the tribunal to a close at the end of 2010, by which time all trials and appeals must have been completed, unless Karadzic and Mladic are brought to The Hague in the mean time.



Brammertz is the fourth chief prosecutor at the tribunal, succeeding Richard Goldstone, Louise Arbour and Carla Del Ponte.



Unlike his immediate predecessor, Del Ponte, he does not welcome media interest.



“Mr Brammertz is very discreet, I can hardly remember [him] giving an interview since he has held international jobs and I do not think that he will be doing so straight away,” said Belgian journalist Jan Balliauw.



With degrees in law and criminology, Brammertz was professor of law at the University of Liège in Belgium.



He has worked in Hague institutions before, as a prosecutor at the International Criminal Court leading investigations into war crimes carried out in Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Having climbed the ranks of Belgium’s national prosecution service to become federal prosecutor, Brammertz is highly regarded in the fields of international legal cooperation and human rights.



But despite his international success and reputation for diplomacy, Brammertz’s appointment was not the popular choice among tribunal staff. Many had asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to promote David Tolbert, the deputy prosecutor. It was felt that Brammertz would have to learn the job from scratch, whereas Tolbert knew what was required from having worked under Del Ponte.



Simon Jennings is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.