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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:
6 September 2000
Time:
13:00 p.m.
REGISTRY
AND CHAMBERS
Christian
Chartier, Head of the Public Information Services made the following statement:
I
would firstly like to draw your attention to the fact that, as of next week,
the proceedings will again be in full swing. The Kordic and Cerkez trial and
the Kvocka and others trial will continue and the trial of Kunarac, Kovac and
Vukovic (the Foca case) will resume.
Secondly,
following questions by some of you this morning, I would like to confirm that
the Trial Chamber sitting on the Kordic and Cerkez trial has indeed issued a
subpoena to General Petkovic to appear as a witness. The subpoena is a confidential
order, so I cannot elaborate any further. It is not the first time that a Chamber
has issued such a subpoena. In 1999 the Trial Chamber sitting on the Blaskic
case summoned six witnesses; at that time the Chamber’s Order was based upon
Rule 98 of the RPP, providing that "a Trial Chamber may order either party
to produce additional evidence. It may proprio motu summon witnesses
and order their attendance". I am not saying this is the case in Kordic
and Cerkez, I am using this as a background example.
Finally,
two announcements concerning the Outreach Programme.
Courtesy
of the Outreach Programme, two important documents released before the summer
have now been translated in BCS. Namely the Judges Report on the operation of
the ICTY and the Report to the Prosecutor by the Committee established to review
the NATO bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Those
two translations are available on hard copies from the Outreach Programme but
they are also being filed on the BCS page of the Tribunal’s website.
Last
weekend the Outreach Programme held in association with the Croatian Helsinki
Committee a two-day symposium entitled "ICTY and Victims of War".
This symposium was held in Zagreb and brought together Tribunal’s representatives
with Croatian legal professionals, NGO’s and victim-support groups to discuss
the role of witnesses and victims in the work of the ICTY. The symposium was
sponsored by the Peace and Stability Fund of the Danish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. It was a most timely and interesting meeting on which the Outreach
Programme will be happy to provide those interested with further information.
OFFICE
OF THE PROSECUTOR
Paul Risley, Spokesman for the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) made the following
announcement:
The
Prosecutor is in the second day of her trip through Romania and Bulgaria.
QUESTIONS:
Asked
whether the arrests of Ante Sliskovic and Tomo Vlajic reported on Croatian
State television were made at the request of the Tribunal, Paul Risley replied
that he had no comment on the two arrests. He added, however, that if the
OTP intended to make a statement he would issue it in due course.
Asked
whether the subpoena issued to General Petkovic to appear as a witness in
the Kordic and Cerkez trial was to be made public, Christian Chartier replied
that the Chamber had issued the document on a confidential basis for good
legal reasons and any announcement of the documents being made public was
not expected.
Asked for
more information on the visits by the Prosecutor to Bulgaria and Romania,
Paul Risley replied that the visits to both the countries was in line with
earlier visits to countries surrounding the former Yugoslavia. He added
that the Prosecutor was expected to meet with the Defence and Justice Ministers
and Prime Ministers in both countries. He concluded by adding that he expected
the chief topic of the discussions would be cooperation by those States
with the Prosecutor and with the Tribunal in general.
Asked whether
any of the documents requested in a court order issued by the trial chamber
in the Kordic and Cerkez case from the Netherlands and 11 other European
Union states had been received by the Registry, Christian Chartier replied
that this order was issued one month ago with a deadline of 30 September.
Until that date had passed he was not in a position to say whether documents
had begun to arrive. It was too early in the process to say, he concluded.
Asked whether
the Prosecutor had requested that NATO set up a special unit with the purpose
of arresting indicted war criminals, Paul Risley replied that the Prosecutor
had made calls for the formation of such a unit in the past. He added that
the Prosecutor had publicly made mention of such an idea when she addressed
the North Atlantic Council in Brussels in February. The idea was to create
a more or less permanent unit contributed to by the NATO military forces
that would act to bring about the apprehension of persons wanted by the
Tribunal. He concluded that it could presumably coordinate the work of national
governments outside the former Yugoslavia.
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