ICTY Weekly Press Briefing - 6th Dec 2006

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing

Date: 06.12.2006

Time: 12:00

Registry and Chambers:

Refik Hodžić, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement:

The President, the Prosecutor and the Registrar yesterday briefed representatives of the international community from some 70 embassies on the activities and on-going processes of the Tribunal.

President Pocar announced in the Diplomatic Seminar that seven trials will be conducted simultaneously as of January 2007, noting that the Tribunal was "realizing one of the most productive periods in [its] history". The President also ensured that "the Tribunal remains absolutely committed to doing all within its power to meet its obligations under the Completion Strategy while upholding norms of due process."

Both the President and the Registrar briefed the diplomats on the situation of Vojislav Seselj and the steps taken by the Tribunal to address it.

The Registrar, Hans Holthuis, expressed the Tribunal’s grave concern about the actions of the Mr. Seselj, who by continuing to refuse to accept food, medicine and medical care while in the custody of the Tribunal’s Detention Unit is seriously jeopardizing his health. He called upon the international community to assist the Tribunal in ensuring that Mr. Šešelj and the Serbian Government are aware that legal remedies are available to address Mr. Šešelj’s requests. The Tribunal, the Registrar said, welcomes any advice that the international community deems appropriate and necessary to bring this situation to a close.

In view of this, Tribunal was satisfied that the doctors Babic of Serbia, Harkin of Russia and Barriot of France accepted the Tribunal’s initiative and invitation to come and assess the medical condition of Mr. Seselj. The Tribunal arranged for this team of doctors chosen by Seselj in view of his deteriorating health caused by his refusal to take food and medicine and the refusal to be examined by the ICTY Medical Officer, other independent doctors or ICRC representatives. Prior to the examination, the visiting doctors were briefed by the MO and UN DU Commander, in accordance with the Rule 31 of the Rules of Detention. They conducted the examination in the presence of the MO and upon its completion reported to the UN DU Commander and the MO on their findings.

The doctors had two main observations to report: Firstly, that they were satisfied with the conditions provided to Mr. Seselj in the Dutch Prison Hospital, where he is kept under close observation in order for a prompt medical intervention to be undertaken should a medical necessity arise. Secondly, they reported on Mr. Seselj’s medical condition, expressing their grave concern with the state of his health due to his refusal to take foodstuffs.

The Tribunal takes note that doctors expressed their satisfaction and had no complaints with the conditions in which Mr. Seselj is being provided care in the Dutch prison hospital. The Tribunal also shares the doctors’ concern with Mr. Seselj’s actions and the impact they have on his health, and once again calls upon Mr. Seselj to stop endangering his health, start taking food and medicine and engages in the court process again to address any requests he may have in relation to his trial.

SCHEDULE:

Moving on to the schedule:

There are a number of status conferences scheduled for this and next week: on Monday at 8 am in Courtroom II in the Hadžihasanović case; also on Monday but at 4pm in Courtroom I in the Krajisnik case and on Tuesday in Courtroom II at 2.15pm in the Boškoski and Tarčulovski case.

The appeals hearing in the Brđanin case will sit in courtroom I: tomorrow in the afternoon and on Friday in the morning.

The trial for Domagoj Margetić will continue this Friday at 5 pm in courtroom II.

All the on-going trials: Popović et al, Prlić et al, Milutinović et al and Mrksić et al continue to sit until the Christmas recess which begins on 18 December. As I mentioned last week, the Šlivančanin defence is scheduled to close this Friday.

FILINGS:

I would now like to highlight several important filings from this week. On 1 December, the Defence for Vladimir Kovačević filed its appeal against the Referral Bench’s Rule 11bis decision to refer the case to Serbia.

Yesterday, the Trial Chamber in the Milutinović et al. case filed its decision denying provisional release of the accused over the winter break.

Office of the Prosecutor:

Anton Nikiforov, Advisor to the Prosecutor, made the following statement: it is my pleasure to announce my replacement Ms. Olga Kavran as the new spokesperson for the Prosecutor. We will distribute a statement from the Prosecutor as unfortunately she was not able to come due to conflict of schedules.

The Prosecutor will address the Security Counsel next week on 15 December 2006, I understand that the president will also be going. This is a regular report on the completion strategy, an assessment of cooperation and all the usual things we say in the Security Counsel.

For the time being, just to tell you that Olga is taking over. Next week she will be fully in charge. In the meantime I will continue to answer your calls. I very much hope that you will treat Olga with a lot of respect.

Questions:

Asked to confirm that according to Rasim Ljajic, the Serbian president of the National Council for Cooperation with ICTY, the cooperation of Serbia in the Prosecutor’s report to the Security Council on 15 December 2006 will again be negative and that the assessment is that Serbia is not cooperating with the Tribunal, Nikiforov replied that we will have to wait and listen to the report, even though a draft exists, as last minutes changes may occur at the last moment. He continued to say that the report, generally, is about the Completion Strategy, its implementation and the effective measures taken by the Office of the Prosecutor, together with Chambers, in order to speed up trials. Obviously, there will be a short assessment on cooperation of States and it will be clear that OTP can not be positive regarding the arrests of fugitives. As you know, we have not had any arrest for a long time and we do not have any indications of any positive developments in that area. Therefore, if there is nothing positive to report, we will not be able to give a positive assessment.

Question: Asked if the Office of the Prosecutor is not worried that with the upcoming pre-elections campaign in Serbia and with a new government not in place before February of next year there will be a gap in cooperation with the Tribunal.

Nikiforov: When we met with Mr. Ljajic we did not only speak about the implementation of the action plan (to arrest fugitives) but also about a number of regular issues regarding requests for assistance, documents and witnesses. He continued to say that this is going without any interruptions and that there are regular activities like missions to archives and exchanges of documents. He added that Mr. Ljajic is really doing his best to push these requests through and that we are receiving them. The OTP has no problems with this kind of cooperation but fugitives are the key to the completion strategy of the Tribunal in general, not only for OTP’s work. To finish the work of the Tribunal without Karadzic and Mladic, we believe, is absolutely unacceptable.

In regard to the cooperation issue of Serbia a journalist asked what kind of action has been taken by Mr. Ljajic in the meantime. Nikiforov replied that a lot of issues regarding the action plan have been discussed which are of operative nature and that he could not speak about this. He added that Mr. Ljajic is one of the coordinators of the implementation of the action plan, together with Vladimir Vukcevic. He continued that he can simply say that there is no progress or any indication of any of the accused’s location. In regard to the regular requests like documents, there is a good cooperation.

Another question for the Tribunal: We have some urgency in terms of Seselj’s state as doctors said yesterday, they said actually that the situation could be possibly fatal in next few days or weeks, and it seems that the Tribunal is not taking this very seriously. One of the doctors described the situation, the communication between Tribunal and Seselj, as being ‘a dialogue of deaf people’. What steps are you actually considering apart from placing Seselj in some other hospital here in Holland?

Hodzic replied: "First of all, the Tribunal is taking the situation very seriously and in particular the health of Mr. Seselj. You can see that, while most people are talking about his death, the Tribunal keeps talking about his life and his health. I will emphasize that Mr. Seselj has the legal avenues to pursue his requests. Many of his original requests have already been addressed, including the visitation of his wife and family, including the translation issue, and the issue of his legal advisors. The only way for him to address the issue of self-representation is through the courtroom, through him taking part in the court process and I will again draw your attention to the fact that when he started refusing food he was representing himself. But, I would also like to emphasize that, while the Tribunal is doing everything in its power to provide Mr. Seselj with medical care and ensure that he is under the conditions which will enable a prompt medical intervention should there a medical necessity arise, it is Mr. Seselj’s decision to take this action, it is Mr. Seselj decision to refuse food and medicines, it is Mr. Seselj who actually holds the key to his health and life, it is not the Tribunal. The Tribunal’s position is that we would like to see the resolution of this issue by having Mr. Seselj start taking food and medicine again, engage in the court process again, address all his requests within the framework and the rules of the Tribunal".

Question: The three doctors [who examined Seselj yesterday] are quite a special bunch. Do you, could you imagine having an independent medical assessment of Mr. Seselj’s health?

Hodzic: Well, he has been refusing medical examination by the medical officer of the Detention Unit, by the doctors in the Dutch prison hospital, by an independent French doctor, he refused to see representatives of the ICRC. We then turned to doctor Babic as someone that Seselj mentioned previously as someone he would be ready to receive. As I said, this illustrates our intention and our preoccupation with insuring his health. We want to see doctors see him and establish exactly what his medical condition is, in order to be able to know how his actions have impacted on his health.

The journalist interrupted and said: "I understand, but about Dr. Barriot for example is not anybody". Hodzic replied: "These are the doctors he has accepted to see and we are happy that they have responded to our invitation to examine Mr. Seselj. As I said, he has refused all the doctors that I mentioned before.

Question: Is the OTP concerned that the international community is more worried about propping up a more moderate regime in Belgrade than it is about having Karadzic and Mladic arrested? Solana commented on Monday about possibly resuming negations after the elections.

Nikiforov replied that the Prosecutor’s concern is that conditionality is important to be kept in regard to both Bosnia and Herzegovina and, especially, Serbia. It gives us hope that we will receive these fugitives. We are afraid that if conditionality is dropped it will simply not be important for these countries to cooperate fully. The conditionality was kept and accepted by the international community as a strong tool of influence on any government. We think that it is extremely important for us to obtain this full cooperation, and especially arrest of the remaining fugitives, and we believe that without this conditionality we will not be able to obtain it. Our experience for years tells us that on a voluntary basis we will never obtain full cooperation.

Question: If Seselj’s health condition deteriorates seriously, would you consider sending him back to Serbia for medical treatment, or is that completely out of the question?

Hodzic replied: The Tribunal operates within its framework of its rules. No motion to that effect has been submitted to the Tribunal. However, since reports of this idea have come up, we have been receiving questions from various reporters whether this is an attempt for Seselj to avoid standing trial. We certainly hope this is not the case. We will re-emphasize that the Tribunal is committed to providing Mr. Seselj with a fair and impartial trial according to the highest international standards. Mr. Seselj has been charged with serious crimes and we are committed to providing a fair and impartial trial to him.

Question: You said that you would intervene should a medical necessity occur. Mr. Seselj has been on hunger strike for twenty-four, twenty-five days. Is it a moment now for the intervention or not, having in mind yesterdays assessment of three doctors?

Hodzic: That will be a decision of the medical officer and the doctors in the Dutch prison hospital to make. They are keeping him under close observation and they will make that decision if they asses there is a medical necessity to intervene.

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