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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: 14
February 2001
Time: 11:30
a.m.
REGISTRY
AND CHAMBERS
Jim
Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement:
The
list of nominations for the election of the Tribunal’s permanent Judges has
been forwarded from the Security Council to the General Assembly at the UN Headquarters
in New York. I won’t read out all the names now, but the list of 25 nominations
will be available to you after this briefing (see below).
Next
Monday, 19 February, the President of the Tribunal, Judge Claude Jorda, will
travel to Brussels with the Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, to meet with the President
of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, and the Secretary-General for the
Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana. The purpose of the meeting
will be to discuss support for the Tribunal, both in terms of finance and in
terms of state cooperation. In particular, the President and the Prosecutor
will discuss the problem of those indictees still at large and explore ways
of increasing the pressure for them to be arrested and transferred to the Tribunal’s
custody here in The Hague.
Next,
President Jorda is due to go to New York between 21 and 23 February, where he
will continue to discuss the arrangements for the ad litem judges.
The
Spanish Ambassador at Large for War Crimes, Antonio Janes, met with President
Jorda yesterday here at the Tribunal. Again the discussions focused on the ad
litem judges. Ambassador Janes expressed his full support for the President’s
reform programme and encouraged the President to keep the momentum going.
Procedural
Matters:
The
Judgement in the case against Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovac and Zoran Vukovic,
commonly referred to as the ‘Foca rape camp trial’ in the media, will be rendered
by Trial Chamber II, comprising Judge Mumba (presiding), Judge Hunt and Judge
Pocar, next week on Thursday 22 February 2001 at 2 p.m.
The
Judgement in the case against Dario Kordic and Mario Cerkez will be rendered
by Trial Chamber III, comprising Judge May (presiding), Judge Bennouna and Judge
Robinson on Monday 26 February 2001 at 2 p.m. in courtroom I.
And,
I remind you that next Tuesday 20 February, the Appeal Judgement in the Celebici
case will be rendered at 3.30 p.m. in courtroom I.
And,
also a reminder that hearing on the Jelisic appeal is scheduled to take place
on 22 February 2001 at 10 a.m.
You
are, of course, invited to attend all of these hearings.
Finally,
we have, as usual, the latest status of cases fact sheet for you after this.
OFFICE OF THE
PROSECUTOR
Florence
Hartmann, Spokeswoman for the Office of the Prosecutor, made the following statement:
The
Prosecutor is going to Montenegro this afternoon for a one day visit. It is
her second visit to Montenegro, the last one was on 22 June 2000. The Prosecutor
will meet with the Montenegrin President, the Minister of Justice, Mr. Vujanovic,
the Minister of the Interior and the State Prosecutor. Montenegro has cooperated
with the Tribunal for several years. Through the years under Milosevic’s rule
this cooperation was quite difficult. The Tribunal was now meeting with the
Montenegrin authorities to discuss further cooperation including the possibility
of arrests in Montenegro. Officials in Montenegro last week said publicly that
they were ready to arrest fugitives if they crossed the border into their territory.
After
Montenegro the Prosecutor will visit Rome. She will have meetings with Mr. Dini,
the Minister of Foreign Affairs, amongst others.
On
Monday the Prosecutor will go to Brussels with the President of the Tribunal,
where she will meet with Romano Prodi and Javier Solana. They will hold discussions
on various issues including cooperation. The Prosecutor will give information
concerning the cooperation received by the ICTY from Belgrade.
Other visits around Europe and the United States are planned for the following
weeks and months, to discuss the situation in Belgrade and the will of Belgrade
to cooperate with the ICTY.
QUESTIONS:
Asked whether
the Prosecutor was concerned that during her meetings in Brussels she may
face the willingness of certain officials only to allow Milosevic to stand
trial locally and to allow Kostunica not to cooperate with the Tribunal in
the way the OTP wished, Hartmann replied that the position concerning Milosevic
was quite varied in Belgrade. She added that the position of the Prosecutor
concerning a local trial remained unchanged.
The ICTY had
primacy and this primacy would be used in the case of Milosevic and other
known fugitives in Yugoslavia. The Prosecutor was against a local trial and
the law allowed for trial in The Hague, therefore the OTP required his arrest
and transferal to The Hague, she concluded.
Asked whether
the Prosecutor understood that certain European politicians preferred to let
this issue ‘slide’ to help President Kostunica’s political position in Yugoslavia,
Hartmann replied that there was public pressure in Serbia on the politicians
in Belgrade to surrender Milosevic to The Hague. The issue was not solved
and it was not clear what Belgrade was ready to do. This was something the
OTP was working on.
The OTP expected
to discuss the law for transfer of fugitives and cooperation with the ICTY.
The problem of trying war crimes cases under domestic jurisdiction in local
trials were being faced by Croatia with regard to the case of General Norac.
It was clearly very difficult to prosecute war criminals at the local level,
especially high ranking criminals.
The Tribunal
had primacy and it was very clear in the case of Milosevic and others that
the OTP was still expecting them to be transferred to The Hague.
Landale added
that the President’s and Tribunal’s policy on this matter was clear: all
indictees should come to The Hague for trial, including Milosevic. That
had been the case in the past and continued to be the case. This was what
they would be pressing for during their meetings with Romano Prodi and Javier
Solana in Brussels on Monday, he concluded.
Asked whether
the Prosecutor was worried that Kostunica continued to say that he did not
want to send Milosevic to The Hague and was adding the condition of opening
new investigations into the NATO air campaign, Hartmann replied that Mr. Kostunica
was not adding conditions. She added that he was against any cooperation on
this issue at the moment, however, this was Kostunica’s point of view, which
at the moment seemed quite isolated.
Hartmann added
that it was not clear at the level of Federal Government and at the level
of Serbia what the opinion was. She added that the Prosecutor was going
to Montenegro today, part of Yugoslavia which was willing to cooperate with
the ICTY and to arrest and transfer fugitives to The Hague. Others were
willing to cooperate with The Hague, Vojvodina for example. The Serbian
government was also not against discussing the issue.
Hartmann concluded
that there was no more she could say on this issue as it related to internal
politics and the Tribunal was not a political institution.
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List
of nominations for the election of permanent Judges
to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
Mr. Carmel A.
Agius (Malta)
Mr. Richard Allen Banda (Malawi)
Mr. Mohamed Amin El Abbassi Elmahdi (Egypt)
Mr. Mohamed El Habib Fassi Fihri (Morocco)
Mr. David Hunt (Australia)
Mr. Claude Jorda (France)
Mr. O-gon Kwon (Republic of Korea)
Mr. Liu Daqun (China)
Mr. Abderraouf Mahbouli (Tunisia)
Mr. Richard George May (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
Mr. Theodor Meron (United States of America)
Mrs. Florence Ndepele Mwachande Mumba (Zambia)
Mr. Rafael Nieto Navia (Colombia)
Mr. Leopold Ntahompagaze (Burundi)
Mr. Alphonsus Martinus Maria Orie (Netherlands)
Mr. Fausto Pocar (Italy)
Mr. Jonah Rahetlah (Madagascar)
Mr. Patrick Lipton Robinson (Jamaica)
Mr. Almiro Simoes Rodrigues (Portugal)
Mr. Wolfgang Schomburg (Germany)
Mr. Mohamed Shahabuddeen (Guyana)
Mr. Demetrakis Stylianides (Cyprus)
Mr. Krister Thelin (Sweden)
Mr. Volodymyr Vassylenko (Ukraine)
Mr. Karam Chand Vohrah (Malaysia)
*****
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