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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:
13 September 2000
Time:
11:30 a.m.
REGISTRY
AND CHAMBERS
Jim
Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers made the following statement:
The
Judges of the Tribunal will be holding a plenary session this afternoon here
in The Hague to examine in detail the issue of compensation for victims. This
matter had been previously discussed at the 13 July Plenary and following that
by the Rules Committee, however it was felt that more time was needed to explore
the issue. We will issue a press release on the results of the plenary tomorrow.
On
12 September, Trial Chamber I issued a scheduling order for the Krstic trial,
which sets out in detail a time frame for the remainder of the trial. The schedule
stipulated is as follows:
-27
September 2000, 1530 hrs: status conference (if required);
-5
October 2000, 1530 hrs: pre-defence conference;
-16
to 20 October 2000, 25 to 27 October 2000, and 30 October to 3 November 2000:
first defence case session;
-20
to 24 November 2000, 27 and 28 November 2000 and 4 to 8 December 2000: second
and final defence case session;
-22
to 26 January 2001: prosecution evidence in rebuttal;
-5
to 9 February 2001: defence evidence in rejoinder;
-21
February 2001: filing of the parties’ final trial briefs; and,
-26
February to 2 March 2001: closing arguments.
Copies
of this order will be made available after this briefing.
On
11 September, Trial Chamber III issued its decision on Miroslav Tadic’s application
to provisionally leave his residence for a medical examination in Banja Luka
granting him leave to do so under certain specific conditions.
The
Trial Chamber had previously denied Tadic's applications to travel to Belgrade
for medical examinations on 29 June 2000 and 27 July 2000.
The
conditions specified by the Trial Chamber are as follows:
(1)
Tadic may leave the municipality of Bosanski Samac to travel to the Clinical
Hospital Centre in Banja Luka and receive the specified medical examination
for a period of seven consecutive days in September.
(2)
During this time, Tadic must continue to report to the local police in Bosanski
Samac every day. However, if hospitalisation is required, Tadic shall report
each day for the duration of that period from the Clinical Hospital Centre by
telephone to the police in Bosanski Samac.
We
have also received a copy of a supplement brief from a military expert witness
for the defence in the Foca trial, General Radinovic, who testified on 11 July
2000, as well as some Prosecution expert witness statements in the Kvocka and
others trial. These documents will be available to you on request.
Also,
courtesy of the Outreach Programme, the 18th Edition of the Tribunal’s Rules
of Procedure and Evidence are now available in BCS.
Finally,
copies of the newly revised Status of Cases fact sheet are now available. This
gives a brief summary of all cases before the Tribunal and is updated on a weekly
basis. It is produced by the Legal Unit of the Public Information Services.
OFFICE
OF THE PROSECUTOR
Paul Risley, Spokesman for the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) made the following
announcement:
The
Prosecutor is in the office today.
Regarding
the reports of the arrests in Croatia, I can confirm that Ivan Andabak was under
summons from the Tribunal for questioning by the staff of the Prosecutor. The
assistance of Croatia in facilitating such an interview was requested by the
Prosecutor. Following his arrest, an interview of Ivan Andabak by the Prosecutor’s
staff was carried out yesterday.
There
are no indictments by the Tribunal of the persons reported as having been arrested
by Croatia. These arrests are a Croatian matter and questions should be directed
to them.
QUESTIONS:
Asked
to comment on alleged reports that the Croatian authorities would like the
Tribunal to try the two people previously apprehended by Croatia, one being
Ante Sliskovic, Risley replied that there were no indictments for any of
the persons arrested including those two persons. The OTP was reviewing
information provided by the Croatian authorities regarding them.
Asked
whether Ante Sliskovic was summoned to answer questions by the OTP, Risley
replied that generally speaking in regards to all of these arrests, the
OTP could have an interest in questioning persons other than Andabak.
Asked
to confirm reports that Ignac Kostroman was also arrested at the request
of the Tribunal, Risley replied that the OTP might have an interest in interviewing
other persons under arrest including Kostroman. He confirmed that Andabak
was interviewed yesterday based on a request from the OTP. He added that
as far as he was aware, this was the only summons the OTP had sent to the
Croatian authorities.
Asked
whether the OTP had attempted to speak to General Andabak before they issued
the summons and whether General Andabak was aware of the summons on him,
Risley replied General Andabak was aware that he was under summons. Risley
concluded that this was the reason a request was made to the Government
of Croatia to facilitate such an interview.
Asked
whether a case completed by the Tribunal could be reopened if any of these
arrests or the documents found in Tudjman's archives brought forward new
evidence, Risley replied that it was too early to ask such a question. He
added that the meetings held in the Tribunal on Friday and on Saturday morning
with Deputy Prime Minister Granic and Minister of Justice Ivanisevic were
directly related to the issue of OTP access to witnesses, documents and
evidence. On both of those very important matters agreement was reached
and yesterday and today’s activities in Zagreb could be seen as a direct
outcome of the successful talks.
Asked
whether General Andabak was one of the individuals that the OTP had sought
access to, Risley replied that he was.
Asked
to confirm that General Kostroman was not arrested at the request of the
Tribunal, but that the Tribunal was interested in him, Risley replied that
this was correct. All he could say was that General Kostroman was not under
a summons for interview, but General Andabak was.
Asked
whether the Croatian media reports were correct that there were two arrests,
Risley replied that he was aware of an apparent contradiction in the reports.
He added that for General Andabak there was a specific summons for an interview
outstanding. There was not such a summons for interview on any of the other
persons who were reported under arrest.
Asked
whether that meant that General Andabak was going to be released once the
interviews were concluded or whether the Croatian authorities were also
interested in him, Risley replied that this was a question for the Croatian
authorities.
Asked
whether the Tribunal had further interest in speaking to General Andabak,
Risley replied that the OTP had an open investigation, however, the question
of whether he would be released was a question for the Croatian authorities.
Asked
to confirm that the OTP only asked the Croatian authorities to summon Andabak
and not to arrest them, Risley confirmed that this was the case. The OTP
had asked for the Croatian Government’s assistance in bringing about this
interview.
Asked
whether it was therefore the Croatian authorities’ choice of means by which
to act on this summons, Risley replied that it was.
Asked
to confirm reports in Croatia and Serbia in which he was quoted as saying
that the OTP had secretly indicted KLA members including Thaci and Ceku
and that there were five separate incidents involving the KLA, Risley replied
that during the Prosecutor’s last trip to Kosovo at her press conference
in Pristina she announced that her office was investigating alleged crimes
committed by the KLA in 1998 in Kosovo.
When
asked for elaboration from reporters the Prosecutor had said that specifically
her investigators would look into five separate alleged incidents. This was
the only detail provided. Any response as to who the individuals were who
might ultimately be charged under such an investigation was pure speculation,
he added.
Risley
added that this investigation as a whole only began several months ago. It was
therefore very early to think of who the ultimate targets of such an investigation
would be.
Asked
whether it was true that Ceku was under investigation and possible secret
indictment for crimes committed in Croatia because he was allegedly a senior
ranking officer, Risley replied that as always the answer to this question
was that he could not confirm or deny the investigation of a specific individual
with regards to an open investigation by the OTP.
Asked
for a comment on an article in a Banja Luka magazine which printed a list
of 35 Bosniaks supposedly indicted or under investigation by the Tribunal,
Risley replied that the Prosecutor during her last visit to the region in
Sarajevo made public that there was an investigation into alleged crimes
committed against Bosnian Serbs in the period of conflict in Bosnia.
No
indictments had been revealed or issued publicly with regards to that investigation,
he added. He reiterated the OTP’s interest in bringing charges against the
senior most individuals responsible for specific crimes carried out during
a period of conflict. This was why the publication in this magazine in Banja
Luka, both last week with a list of 30 people allegedly under sealed indictment
and this week with 35 people, was shear speculation, he said. The mandate
of this Tribunal was to look for those senior most persons responsible for
a crime, he concluded.
Asked
to comment on reports quoting the Deputy Prosecutor as saying that Karadzic
might be arrested before the elections, Risley replied that he was sure that
the Deputy Prosecutor would strongly assert the compelling need for Radovan
Karadzic to be arrested based on his public indictment.
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