ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 26th Apr 2006

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

Date:
26.04.2006

Time: 12:15

Registry
and Chambers:

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

Good Afternoon,

Let me first wish a warm welcome to
a number of additional journalists, from
Croatia and The Netherlands, who are
in attendance of today’s briefing.

This briefing is a weekly forum at which
representatives of the various organs
of the Tribunal inform, explain, comment
and dialogue with reporters. My name
is Christian Chartier and I am speaking
on behalf of the President, the Chambers
and the Registry. I am joined today again
by Anton Nikiforov, who will be speaking
on behalf of the Prosecutor and her Office.

So, welcome. And please feel free to
ask whatever question you wish!

Your presence today allows me to start
by telling a story which shows an unknown
facet of the Tribunal.

The Registry of the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
is about to dispatch a shipment containing
306 used computers which, instead of
being thrown away, will be donated to
schools, youth centers and non-governmental
organisations in the Republika Srpska
and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The computer equipment is donated through
the AidNet Foundation, a humanitarian
organisation based in Sarajevo, which
will distribute the computers to the
end-user organizations. The equipment
will be transported from The Hague to
Sarajevo by Voerman International moving
company, free of charge.

This is the 24th donation
made by the ICTY over the past year.
In March 2005, a special Unit was established
within the Administration Department
which endeavors to supply replaced office
equipment to those in the former Yugoslavia
who may benefit from it. This is unique
initiative within the UN system, and
we are proud to invite you to witness
the send-off of this new shipment.

The shipment will be officially sent
off by Registrar Hans Holthuis, the Ambassador
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, His Excellency
Fuad Sabeta, and Robert-Jan Voerman,
manager of the moving company transporting
the shipment from The Hague to Sarajevo.
Starting at 1pm., the official dispatch
ceremony will be held on the steps of
the Tribunal's entrance if the weather
remains dry. Otherwise the ceremony will
occur in this press briefing room.

Please note that because of time constraints,
there will be no opportunity to ask questions;
so if you have any questions regarding
the donation, this briefing is the only
appropriate forum.

Tomorrow afternoon, 25 members of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe will be paying a working visit
to the Tribunal. All members of the Assembly’s
Committee on Legal Affairs and Human
Rights, they will meet with the President,
the Prosecutor and the Registrar.

The backdrop of their visit is the completion
strategy and their focus will be "the
cooperation between States and the ICTY,
stressing on national judicial means
(already in place or to be developed)
in order to continue this work."

Following the visit to the ICTY, the
Committee on Legal Affairs and Human
Rights will hold in Budapest on 18 May
an audition on the subject-matter. It
is expected that the Ministers of Justice
of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia
and Montenegro will be in attendance
to this audition.

Both the visit to the ICTY and the Budapest
audition are designed to help the Committee
in preparing a report (to be issued by
early next year) dedicated to the "prosecution
of offences falling within the jurisdiction
of the ICTY, both from the perspective
of the continuing work of the ICTY itself
and from that of domestic jurisdictions." This
Report will include "appropriate recommendations,
including to the Committee of Ministers."

WITH REGARDS TO COURTROOM PROCEEDINGS,
the event of the day is the opening of
the trial of Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic,
Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic, Valentin
Coric and Berislav Pusic at 2.15pm, in
courtroom 3.

They stand accused for the alleged
ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims and
other non-Croats from areas in the territory
of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
which were claimed to be part of the
so-called Herceg-Bosna, declared as a
Croatian political and territorial entity
in November 1991.

Most of the accused are former high-ranking
political and military officials of the
then Herceg-Bosna. This trial is also
the largest held at the Tribunal since
the Kupreskic et al. case (also six accused)
in 1998.

An important pre-trial conference
was held yesterday at which a number
of issues were discussed. A written Decision
is expected today which will sum up the
Judges’ views on issues such as
the testimony of expert witnesses, the
admission of exhibits or the right of
the accused to ask questions to witnesses.
Most importantly, the Chamber yesterday
decided that the Prosecution case will
last a maximum of one year, being 46
weeks or 920 hours in court. This time
will be divided as follows: 400 hours
for the examination of Prosecution’s
witnesses and evidence, 400 hours for
cross-examination by the Defence of the
six accused jointly and 120 hours for
Chamber’s question and procedural
hearings.

When you attend the trial session,
you will notice four Judges on the Bench.
This is due to the appointment, the first
ever in the Tribunal’s history,
of a Reserve Judge, namely Judge Antoine
Mindua, from the Democratic Republic
of Congo. As a "reserve Judge", Judge
Mindua will be present in court at each
stage of the proceedings and will replace
any of the three other Judges who would
become unable to continue sitting (Article
13 quarter of the ICTY Statute and Rules
15bis (G) and 15ter of the Rules of Procedure
and Evidence). The appointment of Judge
Mindua marks the first implementation
of the resolution adopted on 28 February
2006 by the Security Council.

2) Two on-going trials have resumed
and will continue in the coming days:

- the trial of Milan Martic, former
President of the war-time Croatian Serb
entity. It will sit tomorrow at 14:15
and on Friday at 9:00 in courtroom II,
and continue next week in the same courtroom,
again in the afternoon.

- and the Vukovar trial against Mile
Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin,
all former Yugoslav Army high-ranking
officers. It will continue on Friday
9:00 in courtroom I. The hearing will
sit next Tuesday all day. Due to the
Martinovic/Naletilic appeals judgement,
on Wednesday the case will only be heard
in the morningC.

3) Yesterday’s event was the resuming
of the trial of Momcilo Krajisnik with
the long-awaited beginning of the accused’s
testimony.

Momcilo Krajisnik will be on the witness
stand for a maximum of seven weeks, as
an Order issued on Monday by the Trial
Chamber says that the accused's testimony "must
come to a close on or before 13 June
2006." During his testimony, the accused "may
not speak to anyone," including his Defence
lawyers unless he is authorized to do
so by the Chamber, which has designed
a specific procedure for Momcilo Krajisnik
to seek the Chamber's permission on a
case-by-case basis. The detailed Chamber's
filing sets forth a "finalized procedure
for Chamber witnesses," and disposes
of a number of "evidentiary and procedural
matters," including scheduling matters.
Paragraph 24 reads as follows: "The Chamber
will deliver its judgement in the case
on or before 29 September 2006."

The trial will sit today tomorrow at
9:00 in courtroom I and next week in
courtroom II, again at 9:00.

4) Also scheduled is a status conference
in the Blagojevic et al. case this Friday
at 14:15 in courtroom II.

AS FAR AS FILINGS ARE CONCERNED…

The usual weekly list will be handed
over after the briefing. I would like
to single out two filings both related
to Rule 11 bis cases:

1) On Monday, Pasko Ljubicic filed a
Notice of Appeal against the Decision
of the Referral Bench on 12 April to
refer his case to Bosnia and Herzegovina
for trial before a domestic court.

2) The week before, the Prosecution
had filed an application requesting a
hearing to discuss the case of Vladimir
Kovacevic, who, as you may know, was
recently found "unfit to stand trial."

FINALLY, I would like to remind you
that the Tribunal has a holiday next
Monday.

Office of the Prosecutor:

Anton Nikiforov, Advisor to the
Prosecutor and acting Spokesperson of
the Office of the Prosecutor, made no
statement.

Questions:

Before any questions were asked, Chartier
mentioned that he had no further details
on the reports into the deaths of Milan
Babic and Slobodan Milosevic.

A journalist asked whether we could
confirm that Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice
is facing a sexual harassment complaint
and if this is connected with his departure
from the Tribunal. Nikiforov said that
this question has also been raised yesterday
by the same agency (AFP) and that he
did not know anything about this particular
case. He continued that as he mentioned
yesterday the termination of Geoffey
Nice’s contract is because he was
here for the Milosevic case and since
this case was finished his post was in
the process of being abolished in mutually
agreed terms, there was no other reason.
He added that Geoffrey Nice was assigned
to the post of Principal trial attorney
specifically for the Milosevic case and
there will be no such position in the
Office of the Prosecutor further; there
are only posts of Senior trial attorneys.
He continued that in respect to any other
information of a personal nature which,
if there was anything like this, would
be conducted by the Human resources department
in New York. He ended that there was
no connection.

Asked if the Prosecutor would change
her opinion about the cooperation of
Serbia if by the end of this month Ratko
Mladic has not been arrested, Nikiforov
answered that as he already had mentioned
on many occasions and was misquoted on
many occasions as well, the Prosecutor
will not commend until the end of the
month and we will give our assessment
in due course, no date has been set,
in the beginning of May.

Asked if the Prosecutor would accept
any other sign of cooperation less than
the arrest of Mladic, Nikiforov said
that at this particular moment the priority
was Mladic and we have said it quite
clearly when the previous deadline was
passed that we saw the positive progress
and there was some need for additional
time, the additional time and the promises
was that they would deliver Mladic by
the end of April. We will make our assessment
of that basis once the deadline has been
passed. He added that he saw some speculations
about new dates like the 3rd and
the 11th of May which has
nothing to do with the actual deadline
which is by the end of April.

Asked if on this Saturday, when the
Netherlands is celebrating Queens day
the Tribunal could operate under normal
circumstances, Chartier answered that
the Tribunal is used to work whenever
the situation requires regardless of
any kind of external circumstances.

Asked if the Tribunal has only donated
computers or whether other materials
have been donated in the past, Chartier
said that mainly computers have been
donated but that we also have donated
a mini-van to an orphanage in Kosovo.
Other donations have been given to organizations
in Zagreb, in Belgrade and in Macedonia.
Nikiforov added that the OTP had donated
some forensic equipment and expendables
to different organizations.

In relation to an indictment issued
by the Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecutor’s
Office against eight policemen related
to crimes committed in Suva Reka in Kosovo
a question was asked if there was any
cooperation within the OTP and the local
prosecutor. Nikiforov answered that indeed
that was the case and he hoped that this
was not the last indictment in relation
to crimes committed in Kosovo. The OTP
was constantly in touch with the war
crimes prosecutor and his people, they
conducted several investigations in relation
to Kosovo and he added that this specific
case of eight accused was related to
the Suva Reka the execution of 48 people
but in the mass grave in Batajnica more
than 800 bodies were found.

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