[JURIST] International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte [official profile] will serve as Switzerland's ambassador to Argentina [press release] when her term as ICTY prosecutor expires at the end of the year, the Swiss Foreign Ministry said Thursday. Del Ponte, former Swiss attorney general, has served two four-year terms as the ICTY chief prosecutor. She was initially expected to step-down in September [JURIST report], but in June Del Ponte said she would stay until the end of the year while the UN chooses her replacement. It is expected that Serge Brammertz, a former federal prosecutor in Belgium and former deputy prosecutor for investigations at the International Criminal Court, will serve as the next ICTY chief prosecutor [JURIST report]. Brammertz currently heads the UN investigation into the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri; the UN investigation's mandate expires in December.

When she first announced she was stepping down from her post in January, Del Ponte expressed regret about not being able to bring former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] to justice. Milosevic died from heart failure [JURIST report] in March 2006 while his genocide and war crimes trial at the ICTY was in its fifth year. She also said that she has yet to see actual remorse from those who have been tried before the ICTY and has witnessed only a few signs of reconciliation in the former Yugoslav republics. Del Ponte has also been a vocal critic [JURIST report] of Serbia and other countries in the region for failing to capture war crimes fugitives Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounders]. AP has more.