ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 24th May 2006

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

Date:
24.05.2006

Time: 12:00

Registry
and Chambers:

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

This week’s focus is on COURT
PROCEEDINGS.

Yesterday, in the Krajisnik case, the
Bench announced that the testimony of
the accused would finish in three weeks
time, with the following schedule: the
examination-in-chief will end tomorrow,
the Prosecution will start with its examination
on Monday 29 May and from that day on,
the cross-examination and the questions
by the Judges will take together no more
than 15 days.

The trial of Momcilo Krajisnik continues
for the rest of this week in the afternoons
in courtroom II. Next week the proceedings
will continue in the same courtroom but
in the mornings, starting at 9:00.

As far as today is concerned, let
me remind you of the status conference
to be held in the Cermak and Markac case,
at 17:00 in courtroom 1. Both accused
are on provisional release, and will
not be present in court.

The
Vukovar trial of former Yugoslav Army
high-ranking officers Mile Mrksic,
Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin,
will continue this and next
week in courtroom I. Tomorrow it will
sit from 9:30 to 16:30, on Friday from
9:00 to 13:45. Next Monday it will
sit from 12:30 to 17:00 and on Tuesday
and Wednesday all day again from 9:30
to 16:30.

The trial of Milan Martic will continue
for the rest of the week at 9:00 in courtroom
II. Next week the trial will sit in the
afternoons at 14:15 also in courtroom
II.

The proceedings against the six accused
in the Prlic et al. case Jadranko Prlic,
Bruno Stojic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj
Petkovic, Valentin Coric and Berislav
Pusic, former high-ranking political
and military officials of the then Herceg-Bosna
wil continue tomorrow at 9:00 sitting
in courtroom III. On Monday the proceedings
will begin at 14:15 and on Tuesday and
Wednesday will sit from 9:00 to 17:15.

Office of the Prosecutor:

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

There are three issues about which
I would like to comment on today. First,
there were quite serious misinterpretations
in the Croatian media of the statements
made by the Deputy Prosecutor David Tolbert
in Budapest, where he attended a meeting
of the Committee on Legal Affairs and
Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe on 18 May 2006.
Mr. Tolbert made a presentation and answered
a number of questions during this meeting.
However, in regard to a specific question
from Mr. Slaven Letica Deputy Prosecutor
clearly stated that he could not and
would not comment on any specific case
or investigation of this Tribunal. This
is our general policy, we don’t
speak about specific investigations or
cases and we don’t give reasons
why a particular incident or a person
was or was not investigated. Mr. Tolbert
also gave a number of general comments
about the way investigations and prosecutions
are conducted and about the basis for
indictments to be issued. However, he
made it absolutely clear that his comments
were not related to any specific case
or individual. His remarks were unfortunately
inaccurately presented in what appears
to be the press release of the Croatian
Embassy in Hungary and then they were
further misinterpreted by some media
reports. I would like to clarify that
allegations which appeared in the Croatian
media afterwards in regard to the lack
of cooperation of the Croatian government
or the Office of the State Attorney are
completely inaccurate. The cooperation
of Zagreb in regard to the perpetrators
from Serbia has always been forthcoming.

Second, there were a number of speculations
in the Macedonian media concerning the
Boskoski/Tarculovski case and alleged
intention of the Prosecutor to transfer
this case to the national authorities
in the country. I wish to say that this
has never been an intention of the Prosecutor
and this possibility is not contemplated
by the OTP now.

Third – more a statement than
a comment: In regards to the recent developments
in Serbia and Montenegro, the Office
of the Prosecutor expects that the cooperation
of both states, once the referendum results
are officially and finally confirmed
and accepted, continue in the best possible
manner with regard to all aspects of
cooperation including all remaining fugitives,
access to documents and witnesses. We
also expect that the relevant authorities
take all the necessary steps right now,
to ensure that the process of answering
our requests for assistance, such as
clearing the documents and witnesses,
will continue smoothly and efficiently
in the future. It is very important that
there is no interruption in our cooperation
with Belgrade and Podgorica at present.
The international obligations towards
the Tribunal remain valid until the end
of our mandate.

Questions:

Asked what comment could be made
about the cooperation of the authorities
in Podgorica, Nikiforov said that cooperation
would be assessed separately for each
state, once the results of the referendum
were confirmed officially. Nikiforov
added that at present the prosecution
was satisfied with cooperation with Podgorica
and the government of Montenegro. The
last several years there had been direct
and separate cooperation with Montenegrin
authorities apart from everything that
was going on with or through Belgrade.
Nikiforov said that the prosecution was
satisfied with all their efforts for
the time being in terms of operative
information and operative efforts to
find the location, possible movements
of remaining fugitives.

A journalist referred to comments
made by General Leaky and the OTP last
year stating that Karadzic was going
back and forth from Bosnia to Montenegro.
Asked if this was true, Nikiforov said
that there were indications in the past
that Karadzic might have been crossing
the border and staying in Montenegro.
Recently there had not been any information
and the Prosecutor has said publicly
many times that she has no concrete information
from anyone where Karadzic might be.
Nikiforov reiterated that the prosecution
has a very good relationship at present
with relevant services in Montenegro
and that there were no complaints about
level of cooperation. Nikiforov said
- if we are asked to do so, the Prosecutor
would give her assessment.

Asked if the raw materials from
the Dutch investigation into the death
of Slobodan Milosevic had been given
to the Tribunal for Judge Parker’s
investigation, Chartier answered that
he was not familiar with the substance
of the work of Judge Parker’s investigation
and that he could not confirm nor deny
that materials were received. Chartier
stated that he did know that the investigation
was nearing the completion stage.

Asked if there was a comment on
the request made by a lawyer of the Gotovina
family for the French government to get
involved Gotovina’s provisional
release, Nikiforov said that this lawyer
was not Gotovina’s lawyer in front
of the Tribunal so there would be no
comment.

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