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Please
note that this is not a verbatim transcript of the Press Briefing. It is merely
a summary.
ICTY
Weekly Press Briefing
Date:
15 November 2000
Time:
11:30 a.m.
REGISTRY
AND CHAMBERS
Jim Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers made the following statement:
The
President of the Tribunal, Judge Claude Jorda, will be in New York next week.
On Monday 20 November, he will present the Tribunal’s Annual Report to the General
Assembly and give a speech on the current situation at the Tribunal. The following
day, he will address the Security Council in an open briefing along with the
President of the ICTR and the Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte. He is also due to
meet the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, at some point during his visit, as well
as other senior officials from the Secretariat. We will try to provide you with
copies of the Annual Report, as well as President Jorda’s speeches to both the
General Assembly and to the Security Council, when we receive them.
I
can also inform you that a letter from the United Nations Under Secretary-General
for Legal Affairs, Mr. Hans Correl, has been sent to all UN Member States, inviting
them, on behalf of the Secretary-General, to nominate candidates for the election
of the Tribunal’s Judges. The term of office of the current 14 Judges serving
at Tribunal will expire on 16 November 2001. The elections in the General Assembly
from a list submitted by the Security Council, pursuant to Article 13 of the
Tribunal’s Statute, could take place as early as the beginning of March 2001.
I would just note that, in accordance with paragraph 4 of Article 13 of the
Statute, a Government may nominate for re-election persons who are currently
Judges at the ICTY.
This
afternoon the Prime Minister of Norway will visit the Tribunal to meet with
President Jorda, the Registrar, and the Prosecutor. There will be a press opportunity
on the Prime Minister’s arrival, at around five o’clock, in the main lobby,
to which you are all invited.
We
have received copies of a number of court documents, which I will run through
with you now.
Firstly,
the Prosecution and Defence’s closing briefs in the Foca trial and a chart of
the various witnesses who testified for the Prosecution. The closing briefs
are very lengthy documents, so copies will be made on request.
We
have copies of the Defence pre-trial brief for Dragan Kolundzija, which was
filed on 9 November.
We
also have copies of Mladjo Radic’s motion for judgement of acquittal, which
was filed on 6 November.
In
addition, we have an order in the Naletilic and Martinovic, or Tuta and Stela
case, concerning the depositions of 23 witnesses under rule 71.
And,
we have also received copies of the reports of the two medical experts who testified
in the Foca trial on Friday.
Finally,
copies of the latest Judicial Supplement, issue number 19, which is prepared
for you by the Public Information Services Legal Unit, are now available.
OFFICE
OF THE PROSECUTOR
Florence Hartmann,
Spokesperson for the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), made the following statement:
The
Prosecutor has applied for a visa for Belgrade. Yesterday the OTP made its first
official contact with the new authorities in Belgrade and the Prosecutor is
planning to travel there soon to re-open the OTP offices. This is the first
step in the process of normalising relations between Yugoslavia and the ICTY.
It will be the first time the Prosecutor has visited Belgrade and she is very
pleased to do so. She is very pleased with the news.
The
Prosecutor’s closing arguments will begin in the Foca trial on Monday. It is
due to continue on Tuesday and Wednesday.
QUESTIONS:
Asked whether
the Prosecutor’s visit to Belgrade was routine, Hartmann replied that it was
not a routine visit and re-emphasized the fact that the visit was the beginning
of the normalisation of relations between Yugoslavia and the ICTY.
The visit would
be made to re-open the office of the OTP in Belgrade, previously open from
August 1996 till March 1999. Hartmann added that there were no real relations
between the ICTY and Yugoslavia under the Milosevic regime. This first meeting
in Belgrade was to decide and discuss how cooperation between Yugoslavia and
the ICTY would be established .
During the visit,
the Prosecutor would explain the task of the OTP in Belgrade, discussing a
number of issues namely, access to victims and cooperation with Yugoslav authorities
on financial investigations, for instance investigations into the assets of
Milosevic and others. The Prosecutor's Office was carrying out these investigations
outside Yugoslavia, but they required the cooperation of the Yugoslav authorities.
The Prosecutor would also discuss the delivery of documents to the Tribunal.
The OTP expected the same kind of cooperation the ICTY had with other ex-Yugoslav
republics. Finally, the arrest and transfer of fugitives hiding in Yugoslavia
would be discussed. The OTP believed there to be around 10 indictees hiding
on the territory of Yugoslavia.
Asked whether
the visa had been granted yet, Hartmann replied that the Prosecutor had applied
for the visa after the first contact with the Yugoslav authorities. She added
that the Yugoslav Embassy in The Netherlands was asked by Belgrade to deliver
visas to members of the OTP in order for them to go to Belgrade.
Hartmann added
that, when discussions on cooperation between Yugoslavia and the ICTY began
the issue of fugitives would be one of the first topics to be discussed. The
Prosecutor would discuss all fugitives in the territory of the former Yugoslavia
including Milosevic as he was under indictment by the Tribunal. The Prosecutor
would ask the Yugoslav authorities if Milosevic was still in Yugoslavia to
arrest him and to deliver him to The Hague as with all fugitives in Yugoslavia.
Asked when
the Prosecutor expected to meet with the Yugoslav President, Hartmann replied
that the Prosecutor expected to meet President Kostunica when she was in Belgrade.
Asked whether
she was expected to travel there before the end of the year, Hartmann replied
that she did.
Asked whether
this could be in terms of weeks, Hartmann replied that it could.
Asked whether
the Prosecutor would give out the final figures for Kosovo during her meeting
with the Security Council, Hartmann replied that she would. On Tuesday before
the Security Council she would give the final figures of the results of the
exhumation programme for this year.
Asked whether
the Krstic trial was due to resume on Monday and whether Krstic was well enough
attend, Landale replied that it was due to resume and it was expected that
the accused would be back in court on Monday as he had undergone only a routine
operation on his leg.
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