ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 17th May 2006

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

Date:
17.05.2006

Time: 12:00

Registry
and Chambers:

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

Good Afternoon,

As we speak, the President of the
Tribunal, Judge Pocar, is completing
a three-day visit to Sarajevo, his first
visit to the Bosnian capital since he
was elected.

A main focus of the President’s
visit has been the State Court of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, a close partner of the
Tribunal in the fight against impunity
for war criminals. The Tribunal has to
date transferred six intermediate and
lower rank accused to Bosnia and Herzegovina
for trial before the State Court’s
War Crimes Chamber; it has also provided
considerable materials to assist further
indictments and cases, as well as being
engaged in a broad range of capacity
building activities. From the President’s
visit to the Court, it has transpired
that the working relations between the
two institutions will be intensified.

This morning, Judge Pocar attended
the follow-up donors’ conference
and called upon the international community
to strengthen its financial support to
the State Court in general and the War
Crimes Chamber in particular.

During his stay in Sarajevo, President
Pocar also met the Chairman of the Presidency
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sulejman Tihic,
the High Representative, Christian Schwarz-Schilling,
the Chairman of the Council of Ministers
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Adnan Terzic
and the Minister of Justice of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Slobodan Kovac.

A follow-up on Dragan Zelenovic,
an accused who was arrested last August
in the Russian Federation and who has
not yet been transferred.

I told you last week that the Tribunal
had been disappointed to learn from media
reports about the release of the accused,
and had been seeking clarifications on
the actual status of the accused.

To date, the Tribunal has not received
the expected information and has been
again in touch with the Russian authorities.

TURNING TO COURT PROCEEDINGS

We are looking forward to a busy
week with three status conferences in
addition to the on-going trials.

Let me begin by mentioning the status
conference to be held this Friday in
the Seselj case. It will take place in
courtroom I at 14:15, before Trial Chamber
I to which the case has been reassigned
(it was dealt with by Trial Chamber II)

Another status conference will be
held in the Sredoje and Milan Lukic case
tomorrow at 14:30 in courtroom III. Both
accused should be present.

There will also be a status conference
in the Popovic et al. case (Srebrenica)
at 11:00 on Friday morning in courtroom
II. Two accused, Milan Gvero and Radivoje
Miletic, are on provisional release and
are not required to return for the status
conference. All other accused will be
present.

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 12:00 to 17:00 and on Tuesday
and Wednesday all day again from 9:30
to 16:30.

The trials of Momcilo
Krajisnik will continue for the rest
of this week in the afternoons in courtroom
II sitting in the mornings. Next week
the proceedings will continue in the
same courtroom but in the afternoons,
starting at 14:15.

The trial of Milan Martic, which was
adjourned last week due to the ill-health
of the accused, is scheduled to start
up again next week in courtroom II from
9:00 to 13:45.

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,
will pick up again next week, 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.

WITH REGARD TO COURT FILINGS,

I have singled out the following Chambers’ filings
for your attention:

1) First two decisions on provisional
release:

- on 9 May, a request filed by Ljubomir
Borovcanin (one the nine co-accused in
the Srebrenica case) was dismissed by
Trial Chamber II, which was not satisfied
that the Accused, if released, would
appear for trial. I note that the Defence
lodged this morning an appeal against
this Decision.

- on 11 May, Trial Chamber III agreed
to modify the conditions of provisional
release of Momcilo Perisic, who was authorized
to visit a relative during part of the
months of May, June and July.

2) Then two decisions, by the Appeals
Chamber, related to the Milutinovic et
al. case, and more specifically to the
application, by Dragoljub Ojdanic, that
the NATO and a number of States be ordered
to produce documents of intercepted communications
during the conflict in Kosovo in 1999.
This application was partly granted by
a Trial Chamber, in November, but appealed
against by the NATO and the United States.
The appeal by the United States was granted
in part on 12 May, and the appeal by
the Nato was granted on 15 May.

Office of the Prosecutor:

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

Questions:

A journalist asked for confirmation
that in last week’s briefing it
had been announced that the Russian authorities
would send information on Zelenovic on
Monday. Chartier clarified the matter
by stating that the Tribunal had been
in touch with the Russian authorities
on the Monday before the last briefing
when clarification of the situation with
Zelenovic was requested. To date no information
had been forthcoming.

Mentioning President Pocar’s visit
to Sarajevo and the State Court of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, a journalist pointed
out that in the context of the 11bis arrangements,
the Tribunal had to send material to
the State Court for use in trials. The
journalist wondered about the safeguards
to protect this material and the information
in it, specifically the witness testimonies
taken from rape victims who gave their
testimony on the understanding that it
would only be used at the ICTY. The journalist
added that rape victims were concerned
that trials relying on their testimony
would now be held in Sarajevo, in a court
which they may not trust as much as they
would the ICTY. Chartier replied that
when the War Crimes Chamber was set up,
significant attention was paid to the
witness protection programme and the
mechanisms this took. The ICTY was confident
the necessary safeguards were available
to the court. Witnesses should therefore
put as much trust in this court and the
safeguard mechanisms as they would in
the Tribunal.

He added that proceedings at the War
Crimes Chamber, at the Tribunal’s
request, were monitored. There were therefore
mechanisms in place for any difficulties
to be reported and acted upon.

Nikiforov added that investigators maintained
contact with victims and witnesses after
taking their statements, including during
the process of referring cases to the
national court. Witnesses were encouraged
by the OTP to continue co-operation with
the local courts as well. He pointed
out that a transferred case, the substance
of which is rape in the context of war,
would not be able to take place without
the testimony of the rape victims and
their co-operation with local courts
and prosecutors. He added that the court
was encouraged to provide proper protection
to witnesses. Nikiforov pointed out that
this co-operation from victims had already
been forthcoming on several occasions
and during several trials. He added,
however, that the witnesses were not
always happy with the situation and had
complained to the Prosecutor. The Prosecutor’s
office had responded to these complaints
and concerns from not only rape victims
but other victims as well. He reiterated
that there could be no local trials without
the participation of these victims and
witnesses.

Responding to a query as to why the
Seselj case had been reassigned to Trial
Chamber I, Chartier stated that many
other cases had also been reassigned
and that it was a purely organisational
matter.

Journalists also wondered how this fit
in with the completion strategy, pointing
out that reallocating permanent Judges
Robinson, Kwon and Bonomy, who had been
sitting on the Milosevic trial, as presiding
judges with two ad litem judges would
enable three new trial chambers to be
formed and thus more trials to start.
Chartier answered that the Milosevic
trial chamber was now preparing for the
start of the Milutinovic trial which
was a multiple accused case. He added
that the Srebrenica case which had nine
accused, was also due to start shortly
and that other cases were also being
prepared for trial. He further stated
that he was aware that two further ad
litem judges would be sworn in soon which
could result in a further reallocation
of work.

He added that the status of the implementation
of the completion strategy was something
which was going to be discussed soon
by the President and the Prosecutor in
New York when they reported to the Security
Council sometime before the summer. Their
report should provide a clearer picture
on the implementation of the completion
strategy.

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