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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: 21 June 2000
Time: 11:30 a.m.
REGISTRY
AND CHAMBERS
Jim Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers made the following statement:
There
will be no one from the Office of Prosecutor (OTP) today, because as you know,
the Prosecutor, Deputy Prosecutor, and Paul Risley are all away.
First,
just to give you a brief update on President Jorda’s trip to New York: President
Jorda’s presentation of the report on the operation of the ICTY to the United
Nations Security Council was very well received and the discussions that followed
it were extremely positive, lasting for around three hours.
Following
the President’s address, which you should have received yesterday, there were
a number of statements made from the different members of the Security Council
and then a question and answer session.
Despite
some criticisms of a political nature from Russia, there was a consensus from
all participants that the Tribunal’s future operations did need to be reviewed
and the Judges’ report was given overwhelming support.
The
French Ambassador to the Security Council, who currently holds the chair, suggested
the establishment of working group of the member states to look at the Judges
proposals.
President
Jorda welcomed this initiative and expressed his support for it, however he
stressed the need for speed in implementing changes and also pointed out the
budget implications that would accompany any changes.
We
have copies of the Judges report in English and French for those who have not
yet got a copy.
Moving
on, I have just received a defence motion in the Foca case for judgement of
acquittal of the three accused, Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovac and Zoran Vukovic,
pursuant to Rule 98 bis.
Rule
98 bis states that, "An accused may file a motion for the entry
of judgement of acquittal on one or more offences charged in the indictment
within seven days after the closed of the Prosecutor’s case, and, in any event
prior to the presentation of evidence by the defence."
Copies
of that document will be available after this briefing.
By
way of reminder, on Friday at 0930 hours in courtroom III, there will be the
hearing on the Defence Motion for Judicial Assistance filed by Stevan Todorovic.
Finally,
on Friday morning Ms. Elinor Caplan, the Canadian Minister of Immigration, will
be visiting the Tribunal and will meet with the President, the Registrar and
senior representatives from the OTP. She is due to arrive at around 1000 hours
and will depart at approximately 1230 hours. No media opportunity is planned.
QUESTIONS
:
Asked
whether there was any information he could give concerning the OTP visit
to the Balkans, Landale replied that he did not talk on behalf of the OTP,
but that all he could say was that he had heard that so far the visit was
going very well. He added that there was a certain amount of flexibility
built into the OTP schedule to take into account any events that could take
place on the ground.
Asked
whether President Jorda was still in New York and whether discussions were
still ongoing, Landale confirmed that the President was still in New York.
He added that he was discussing with various groups within the United Nations
today, focusing on the issues of the report. He concluded that the President
would return back to The Hague in the next day or so, before travelling
on to Arusha in a few days time.
Asked
for more specifics on the reasons for the flexibility in the OTP scheduling,
Landale repeated that he did not speak for the OTP, however he believed
that the OTP had deliberately not given a minute by minute account of where
they intended to visit or who they intended to meet for specific security
considerations.
Asked
to give more details on the observations made by the President in his report
concerning the speed and financing of changes he wished for the Tribunal,
Landale replied that the President felt that this was an issue that needed
to be addressed quickly. He added that the President felt that it was not
something that could be discussed for a long period of time without some
concrete action being taken and that he had raised the budget implications
because, when something was budgeted for it took time for the initial proposal
to be accepted and put into action. The President was trying to emphasise
the need for an early decision on this issue in order to move forward and
to implement the changes.
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