ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 7th Apr 2006

Please note that this
is not a verbatim transcript of the Press
Briefing. It is merely a summary.

Date:
06.04.2006

Time: 12:00

Registry
and Chambers:

Christian Chartier, Senior Information
Officer, made the following statement:

Good Afternoon.

As you may know, I will be giving the
weekly briefing until we secure a replacement
for Jim Landale. Alexandra Milenov is
now back doing her work as the Registry
liaison officer in the Tribunal's Belgrade
office.

During the extraordinary plenary session
held on Wednesday, 29 March, the Judges
amended Rule 15bis (Absence of a Judge)
and adopted a new Rule 15ter (Reserve
Judges). Entering into force today, the
new rules reflect Security Council Resolution
1660 passed on 28 February 2006. As a
reminder: Security Council resolution
1660 permits the Secretary-General to
appoint, at the request of the Tribunal
President, Reserve Judges from the Tribunal’s
pool of Ad litem Judges to specific trials.
Reserve Judges will be present at each
stage of a trial and may replace a judge
on a bench if he or she is unable to
continue sitting. This measure assists
the Tribunal in its efforts to complete
its work by avoiding situations in which
a specific trial would have to be restarted
if one of the judges on the bench is
unable to continue.

At the request of the Tribunal's
President, the UN Secretary General has
appointed two additional ad litem judges
- Judge Stefan Trechsel from Switzerland
and Judge Arpad Prandler from Hungary.
Both Judges have been assigned to the
Prlic et al. case, which will be presided
over by Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti.

Judges Trechsel and Prandler will
be sworn-in tomorrow in Courtroom I at
9 AM. To accommodate this, the trial
against Milan Martic, a high-level political
leader of the war-time Croatian Serb
entity, will sit from 10:30 to 15:30.
Next week this trial will continue in
Courtroom II at 9:00.

In terms of the courtroom schedule
for the days to come, the sentencing
hearing against Ivica Rajic, former Commander
in the Croatian Defence Council, will
take place this Friday at 15:00 in Courtroom
II.

The closing arguments against Bosnian
Army officer Naser Oric will continue
tomorrow at 14:15 in Courtroom III and,
if necessary, will continue next week.

The trial against Yugoslav Army officers
Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin
Slivancanin continues this Friday at
9:00 in courtroom III. Next week it will
sit in Courtroom I at 14:15 on Monday
and Tuesday and in courtroom III on Wednesday
and Thursday at 9:00.

The trial against Momcilo Krajisnik,
a former high-level leader of the Bosnian
Serb political entity, will continue
this week on Friday morning at 9:00 in
courtroom II. The trial will sit next
week Monday through Thursday at 9:00
in courtroom I.

A status conference against former high-level
Commander of the Croatian Army, Ante
Gotovina, will be held this Friday at
8:00 in Courtroom II.

There will be a status conference next
Tuesday in the case against former Minister
of Interior of the Former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia, Ljube Boskoski and former
ministry of Interior bodyguard, Johan
Tarculovski in Courtroom II at 14:15.

There will also be a status conference
in the case against a number of the highest-level
leaders of the Bosnian Croat wartime
entity, and one of the Republic of Croatia,
the Prlic et al. case, next Wednesday
at 9:00 in Courtroom III.

As a reminder, the Tribunal will be
closed next Friday, 14 April and the
following Monday, 17 April for Easter.

Office of the Prosecutor:

Anton Nikiforov, Advisor to the Prosecutor
and acting Spokesperson of the Office
of the Prosecutor, made the following
statement:

I would just like to make a couple
of comments on the meetings the Prosecutor
had last week. As you all know she met
European Union Commissioner for Enlargement
Olli Rehn and we just wanted to reiterate
our gratitude to all support we were
provided from the European Union in terms
of conditionality of the states of the
former Yugoslavia for cooperation with
the Office of the Prosecutor. This meeting
provided us with strong and clear support
in terms of cooperation provided by Belgrade
authorities and as a result of that we
also received clear assurances from Prime
Minister Kostunica in Belgrade
for the delivery of Ratko Mladic by
the end of April which is obviously very
important not only for the Office of
the Prosecutor but for the Tribunal in
general.

Prosecutor also met with the French
Justice Minister Pascal Clément
who visited the Tribunal and had a very
useful discussion with the Prosecutor
in regard to the law of the Tribunal,
legal proceedings in the ICTY and the
future of the ICTY. France provided full
support to the Tribunal through the visit
of Minister Clément and through
recent discussions in the United Nations
Security Council.

Finally in regard to the change
of the Office of the Prosecutor Spokesperson
I would like to say the following: The
Prosecutor has decided to reassign Florence
Hartmann to other special project within
the Office of the Prosecutor. We will
not go into further details regarding
this decision. The Prosecutor is grateful
to Florence for all her past valuable
and very special contribution to the
activities and efforts of the Office
of the Prosecutor.

Questions:

Asked
to comment on a statement made by Michael
Johnson, former Registrar of the BiH
State Court, in which he stated that
both Mladic and Karadzic could
be tried in by the BiH Court, Chartier
replied with the following:

The suggestion that high level alleged
perpetrators Mladic and Karadzic
could be tried in BiH Courts is highly
improbable.

The Statute of the Tribunal explicitly
provides that it has primacy over domestic
courts in cases of concurrent jurisdiction.
Moreover, in Resolution 1503 (2003)
the Security Council specifically mandated
the Tribunal concentrate on the prosecution
and trial of the most senior leaders
suspected of being most responsible
for crimes within the Tribunal’s
jurisdiction and, pursuant to Rule
11bis of the Rules of Procedure and
Evidence, only cases of low level or
intermediate responsibility may be
transferred to competent national jurisdictions.
The Tribunal has begun to transfer
lower level and intermediate accused
to the Special War Crimes Chamber ("WCC")
of the BiH court.

Apart form these legal considerations,
it is also unlikely that the WCC of
the BiH court would have the capacity
to hold the trials of these high level
individuals due to security concerns
in the region. The trial of such high
accused in the region could have a
destabilizing effect on a still fragile
security situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Another noteworthy aspect is that
several member states to, such as the
United Kingdom, France and the USA
to name a few, have made various statements
in which they very clearly stated that
the Tribunal could and should not close
its doors without the arrest and the
transfer to Ratko Mladic and Radovan
Karadzic to the Hague in order to be
tried. The European Union also made
an announcement to the same effect,
in December 2005.

Asked to elaborate on the clear
assurance that Kostunica had given to
the Tribunal, Nikiforov replied that
the Tribunal could not give any further
information on this issue, except for
the fact that same assurances were given
not only to the Prosecutor but also to
Commissioner Olli Rehn. He added that
Belgrade had requested to work in quiet
in order to achieve results without any
media pressure.

Asked about the status of evidence
handed over to the Defence in the Milosevic
case,

Chartier replied that great caution
should be exercised by the holders of
the documents disclosed by the Office
of the Prosecutor to the Defence. He
stated that the mandate of the legal
advisers to the accused had been terminated
with the termination of the case but
that that did not mean that the documents
had become private documents. Some documents
have a public character and are publicly
accessible; but some others have been
filed confidentially, are confidential
and must remain so until a Trial Chamber
orders otherwise, if ever.

Finally a journalist asked to comment
on rumors that Dragomir Andan (director
of the RS police) was removed from his
position at the request of Carla Del
Ponte, Nikiforov answered that he could
not comment on this.

Documents: