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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: 10.09.2003
Time: 12:20
REGISTRY AND
CHAMBERS
Jim Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement:
Good afternoon.
First, the President of
the ICTY, Judge Theodor Meron, will make an official visit to Paris from 15-17
September, 2003. Among other senior officials, President Meron will meet with
Ms. Marie-Noelle Lenoir, Minister of European Affairs on 15 September and Mr.
Dominique Perben, Minister of Justice Minister on 17 September.
Then, President
Meron and the Vice-President, Judge Fausto Pocar, will pay an official visit
to Serbia and Montenegro on 18 and 19 September 2003. This follows an invitation
from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro, Goran Svilanovic,
in his capacity as the Chairman of The National Council for Cooperation with
the International Tribunal.
The visit will
be the first by a President of the ICTY to Belgrade. President Meron and Vice-President
Pocar will meet with the President of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marovic,
the Foreign Minister, Goran Svilanovic, the Prime Minister of Serbia, Zoran
Zivkovic, and other high officials.
President Meron
has expressed the hope that this official visit will further strengthen links
and enhance the progress of cooperation between Serbia and Montenegro and the
International Criminal Tribunal and will be a welcome opportunity to advance
international justice, hasten the ending of impunity and promote the rule of
law.
In terms of scheduling:
The Appeals Judgement
in The Prosecutor v. Milorad Krnojelac will be rendered on 17 September
at 3 p.m. The Appeals Chamber will be comprised of Judges Jorda (presiding),
Schomburg, Shahabuddeen, Guney and Agius.
On 1 September in The
Prosecutor v. Ranko Cesic, we received a Scheduling Order, ordering the
following:
-the Prosecutor to file
her Pre-Trial Brief on Monday 22 September 2003;
-the Defence to file its
Pre-Trial Brief on Monday 13 October 2003; and,
-that a Pre-Trial Conference
be held on Monday, 3 November 2003.
On the same day in The
Prosecutor v. Radovan Stankovic, we received a Scheduling Order ordering
the following:
-the Prosecutor to file
her Pre-Trial Brief on Monday 6 October 2003;
-the Defence to file its
Pre-Trial Brief on Monday 3 November 2003; and,
-that a Pre-Trial Conference
be held on Monday, 24 November 2003.
A reminder that the further
initial appearance for Mitar Rasevic will be held on 16 September 2003 at 3.30
p.m in Courtroom I.
You are of course all invited
to cover these events.
From the Registrar of the
Tribunal, Hans Holthuis:
On 5 September, in The
Prosecutor v. Vojislav Seselj, we received a "Decision"
from the Registrar of the Tribunal, Hans Holthuis, assigning Mr. Aleksandar
Lazarevic as standby counsel to the accused. For more information on the Decision
to appoint standby counsel in this case I have a hand-out for you, taken from
the Tribunal’s June 2003 Judicial Update, which I will distribute at the end
of this briefing.
On 9 September, in The
Prosecutor v.Milan Milutinovic, we received another "Decision"
from the Registrar withdrawing the assignment of Mr. John Livingston as lead
counsel. I would like to point out that in the Decision, the Registrar notes
that "the Registry has found no fault with the competence of Mr. Livingston
or the quality of the representation he has provided before the International
Tribunal in this case".
Of the court documents we
have received from the last briefing:
On 3 September, in The
Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milosevic, we received the "Prosecution Motion
for the Admission of Written Statement of David Harland In Lieu of Viva Voce
Testimony Pursuant to Rule 92 bis".
In the same case on the
following day, we received the "Partly Confidential Prosecution Motion
for the Admission of Witness Statements relevant to events in Brcko, Foca, Bijeljina
and Bosanska Krupa Municipalities in Lieu of Viva Voce Testimony Pursuant to
Rules 54, 75 and 92 bis"
On 3 September, in The
Prosecutor v. Stanisic and Simatovic, we received the "Defence Preliminary
Motion on the Form of the Indictment".
On 4 September, in The
Prosecutor v. Ivica Rajic also known as Viktor Andric, we received the "Prosecution
Response to Defence Motion on the Form of the Indictment Pursuant to Rule 72".
On 9 September, in The
Prosecutor v. Vojislav Seselj, we received Vojislav Seselj’s "Motion
number 19".
On the same day in The
Prosecutor v. Kordic and Cerkez, we received "Dario Kordic’s Renewed
Motion to Set a Date for Oral Argument of the Appeals Noted by All Parties –
Publicly Filed Version".
As ever, copies of all the
documents I have mentioned are available to you on request.
On behalf of the Outreach
Programme:
Ten Judges from the Indonesian
Human Rights Tribunal (IHRT) commenced yesterday a four-day study visit to the
ICTY, as part of an intensive two-week seminar on international humanitarian
law.
The seminar is being organized
by the Human Rights Center and the War Crimes Study Center (both of the University
of California, Berkeley) in collaboration with the East West Center (Honolulu)
and the ICTY Outreach Programme.
The East West Center accommodated
last week the first leg of the seminar; this week, Outreach will facilitate
numerous working sessions with ICTY representatives from Chambers, OTP and Registry
to discuss a wide range of legal, procedural, and investigative issues pertinent
to trials of suspected war criminals and human rights offenders in Indonesia.
Visits and meetings at the ICJ and the ICC have also been included in this Hague-leg
of the seminar.
Jean-Daniel Ruch, Political
Advisor to the Prosecutor made the following statement:
I have just two announcements
to make. Firstly, the Prosecutor will give a press conference here at the Tribunal
this Friday. The objective of this press conference is to present her priorities
for her second mandate of four years.
Secondly, on Sunday the
Prosecutor will fly to the United States, where she will have meetings firstly
in New York and then in Washington with various officials of the administration,
of the Congress and also of certain NGOs.
Questions:
Asked for a comment, confirmation
or denial of reports that a delegation from the Serbian Justice Ministry would
pay a visit to the ICTY, Ruch replied that the OTP had heard this news from
the media, but that there had not been any sort of official letter asking for
a visit. He added that the OTP office in Belgrade was now in contact with the
Minister of Justice to set an appropriate date for such a visit. He reiterated
that Carla Del Ponte would not be here next week, so it was felt to be inappropriate
for the Minister to come in her absence. The OTP was working with the Serbian
Government to find appropriate dates for a visit. It was not yet confirmed when
this would take place.
Asked for an update on the
situation relating to Mr. Djukanovic and whether the OTP would take legal action
to force him to come to The Hague, Ruch replied that the OTP had heard that
Mr. Djukanovic had said that he had done enough against Milosevic and that he
did not plan to come to The Hague. The OTP regretted this as it believed that
he would have a lot to say in the Milosevic trial. He concluded that he could
not say much more at this stage regarding the action the OTP might or might
not take while the matter was under consideration.
Asked if the OTP was confident
it would win an action to compel him to come to court if he refused to come,
Ruch replied that the OTP was still considering the issue and at the end of
the day it was the decision of the Trial Chamber. He could not say more at this
stage.
Asked whether he could elaborate
as to what the OTP wished to ask Djukanovic, Ruch replied that he could not
comment, but added that by looking at Mr. Djukanovic’s curriculum vitiae, he
believed it was easy to imagine.
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