ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 9th Oct 2007

Date: 09.10.2007

Time: 13:00

Registry and Chambers:

Liam McDowall, Senior Policy Advisor to the Registry made the following announcement:

Next Monday, The Tribunal's President, Judge Pocar, will appear before the General Assembly of the United Nations to present the Tribunal's fourteenth Annual Report. The report, covering the period up to 31 July 2007 , is now available. We have a few hard copies available here or you can access it through the Tribunal's website.

A key study, addressing the future of both the ICTY and ICTR archives commenced this week in The Hague with the first meeting of a team of experts, the Advisory Committee on the Archives of the UN Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda .

The committee that will compile the study is chaired by former ICTY and ICTR Prosecutor, Justice Richard Goldstone, and will among other things provide the Tribunals with independent analysis on how best to ensure future accessibility to the archives, protect their security and preservation, as well as assess possible locations.

The study has been commissioned on behalf of the Tribunals by the Registrars, Adama Dieng of the ICTR and Hans Holthuis of the ICTY. The committee's first interim report should be provided to the Tribunal's Registrars during the first quarter of 2008.

A press release with fuller information about the study will be made available shortly.

SCHEDULE:

As mentioned during last week’s briefing, the closing arguments in the Dragomir Miloševic case will begin this afternoon and are scheduled to conclude tomorrow afternoon.

We have two appeals hearings next week: next Monday morning there is an appeals hearing in the Zelenović case in courtroom I and on Tuesday, the Appeals Chamber will render is appeals judgement for Safer Halilović. This hearing will be held in courtroom III at 2:15pm .

In terms of on-going trials, the Haradinaj et al, Prlić et al, Popović et al and Delić trials will all continue this and next week. The Milutinović trial will pick up again next Tuesday.

As a reminder, the Tribunal is closed this Friday to observe the Eid-al Fitr holiday.

Office of the Prosecutor:

Olga Kavran, Spokesperson for the Office of the Prosecutor, read out the following statement from the Prosecutor:

The Prosecutor was in Paris yesterday where she met with the French Foreign Minister, Mr. Bernard Kouchner. The Prosecutor and Mr. Kouchner discussed issues relevant to the work of the Office of the Prosecutor and particularly the issue of the remaining four fugitives and Serbia ’s cooperation in that regard.

The Prosecutor will be in Monaco tomorrow where she will attend the first international meeting for socially conscious cinema. The Prosecutor was invited as a guest of honor and will receive an award for her active role and daily battle for the protection of human rights and dignity.

On Thursday, the Prosecutor will meet with the EU Enlargement Commissioner Mr. Olli Rehn here at the Tribunal. This meeting is part of their regular ongoing discussions on issues of cooperation of states with the Office of the Prosecutor.

At the invitation of the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union, the Prosecutor will travel to Luxembourg on Monday, the 15 th of October where she will attend the meeting of the General Affairs and External Relations Council of the European Union. At this meeting, she will provide the EU member states with her current assessment of Serbia ’s cooperation with the Office of the Prosecutor.

Questions:

Asked if the Prosecutor’s meeting with Olli Rehn was behind closed doors since his office denied that a meeting was scheduled to take place, Kavran said that it could just be a miscommunication as the meeting was part of ongoing discussions and was not secretive. Kavran added that she would look into the possibility of a press opportunity but she could not promise anything at the moment.

Asked if there were any new developments since Friday in the Tolimir case, McDowall said that subsequent to Friday there has been no significant developments, but in part, it could be put down to the fact that it was very difficult for the Tribunal to actually access his medical condition as long as he refuses an examination, either from Tribunal physicians or external medical practitioners from Belgrade or anywhere else. McDowall emphasized that it was a serious situation.

A journalist asked if Tolimir has given any new reasons for refusing medical attention or if he was sticking to the reasons he had given in his status conference. McDowall replied that his position has been variable and changing. Soon after his arrival into the Tribunal’s custody, he had complained of extreme bad health on a number of occasions and later he has said that he did not wish to have a medical examination for unspecified reasons. McDowall added that Tolimir has cited in his submissions a variety of reasons which could be studied in these public documents.

Asked if Tolimir has requested to be sent back to Belgrade , McDowall said that he was not aware of any such request.

Asked if there were any details on the Prosecutor’s talks yesterday with the French Foreign Minister, Kavran said that they had a brief discussion about issues regarding cooperation. Kavran referred the journalist back to the statement that the Prosecutor made last week in terms of her current position on these issues.

A journalist pointed out that the Prosecutor was quoted by the BBC today as saying that she will ask for stronger pressure on Belgrade . Kavran cofirmed that the Prosecutor did say that in an interview to the BBC, and that it referred to the consistency of the European Union's approach. She did not say anything that was new in respect of her position, Kavran added. The Prosecutor did request this pressure because it assisted the Tribunal in the past. She was also consistently monitoring the progress of cooperation of Serbia and this was why she periodically makes statements in respect of any changes that occur.

Asked if there was any information regarding the letter that Tribunal President Pocar sent the Presidency of the UN Security Council, McDowall said that he could confirm that President Pocar last week sent a letter, the subject of which related to the Republic of Croatia, to the President of the Security Council. He understood that the letter would in due course be made public from headquarters. Other than that he did not have any further information the matter, said McDowall.

Documents: