Sarajevo - The president of the UN War Crimes Tribunal, Judge Fausto Pocar, expressed dissatisfaction Monday in Sarajevo with the fact that a convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Stankovic remains at large more than a year after he escaped from prison.

Stankovic, whose case was one of the ten cases transferred from The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), was convicted before the War Crimes Chamber of Bosnia-Herzegovina's State Court to 16 years jail and was sent to the eastern town of Foca to serve the term.

In May 2007 he managed to escape the prison and simply vanished.

"It is clear this would have not happened if there were proper facilities and proper training," Pocar told reporters at the beginning of his three-day tour to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Being "upset and concerned by the fact that Radovan Stankovic has been on the run for a year," Pocar said he would visit Foca on Tuesday to inspect the prison.

He said that after the tour would be hand recommendations to the international community on how to help Bosnia's authorities improve prison security.

The ICTY, which is set to close down in 2011 and transfer all the remaining cases to local courts, is concerned where and how the convicts would serve their terms once they are convicted before the local courts, Pocar said.

The international community should ensure that "people tried in Sarajevo can be properly detained," he added.

"The legacy of the tribunal will be entirely achieved if the local judiciary is able to continue our work," he said.

Pocar, who started his visit to Bosnia by meeting Zeljko Komsic, a member of Bosnia's tripartite state Presidency, also reiterated he would insist before the UN Security Council to keep the ICTY open until the most wanted war crimes suspects appear before it.

The war crimes list includes the most wanted Bosnian Serb former leader Radovan Karadzic and his army commander general Ratko Mladic, as well as former high military official Stojan Zupljanin, who remain at large more than 12 years after the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia- Herzegovina, as well as Goran Hadzic, a Croatian Serb indicted for war crimes in Croatia.

"Karadzic, Mladic, Zupljanin and Hadzic must be arrested and they must stand trial before the tribunal," said Pocar. (dpa)