In a recent interview with a Dutch newspaper, Lord Owen, until the beginning of June Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia, said:
[W]e were instructed by the conference to make recommendations on the establishment of a war crimes tribunal. We decided that this tribunal should be completely disconnected from the negotiating process. It should have a life of its own in order to enable us the negotiators for the UN and the EU to say that we had nothing to do with it in case the matter would be brought up to us.