ICTY Weekly Press Briefing

Please note that this is not a verbatim transcript of the Press Briefing. It is merely a summary.

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing
Date: 09.06.2004
Time: 12.00 p.m.

Registry and Chambers:
Jim Landale, Spokesman for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement:

Good afternoon,

I just have a few short items for you today.

First, I would like to announce that the President of the Tribunal, Judge Meron, has accepted an invitation from the Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Miomir Zuzul, to pay an official visit to Croatia in September. We will give you more details of the visit in due course.

I would also just like to note some comments that have been reported in the Belgrade media criticizing the timing of the latest reports to the Security Council by President Meron and the Prosecutor. As I am sure all of you are aware, the United Nations Security Council, in resolution 1534 of 26 March this year, requested the ICTY to "provide to the Council, by 31 May 2004 and every six months thereafter, assessments by its President and Prosecutor, setting out in detail the progress made towards implementation of the Completion Strategy of the Tribunal".

In terms of the court schedule:
In the case concerning allegations against Milka Maglov, Trial Chamber II has revoked the previous scheduling order which ordered that the proceedings resume on 14 June. A further scheduling order setting out the revised dates for further proceedings will be issued in due course.

There will be a status conference in The Prosecutor v. Mrksic, Radic and Sljivancanin this Friday 11 June at 2.15 p.m.

There will be a status conference in The Prosecutor v. Vojislav Seselj on Friday 14 June at 10 a.m. in Courtroom I and not on 11 June as previously announced.

There will be a status conference in The Prosecutor v. Blagoje Simic on 21 June at 2.30 p.m. in Courtroom I.

Finally, I understand that the ADC will give a briefing after this.

Office of the Prosecution:
Florence Hartman for the Office of the Prosecutor made no statement.

Questions:
A journalist asked if copies were available of the President’s and Prosecutor’s reports to the Security Council. Landale replied that the reports had been submitted to the Security Council, as requested, within the specified deadline, and that now it was up to the United Nations in New York as to whether or not the reports were made public.

Hartmann added that the part of the report related to Serbia and Montenegro summarized the elements contained in the complaint to the UN Security Council about non-cooperation of Serbia and Montenegro with the Tribunal, pursuant Article 7 of the ICTY Statute. She stated that the complaint was quite similar to the report to the Security Council, and that the complaint was a public document.

Landale said that, without going into details, he could say that the President in his report had not spent a great deal of time detailing again his opinion that there was very little cooperation from Belgrade with the Tribunal. Landale reiterated that the President’s view was that cooperation was almost non-existent and that little or no action had been taken to improve the situation.

A journalist pointed out that today was the deadline for the Dutch government to report on the efforts it had undertaken to ensure that Colonel Karremans came to the Tribunal to testify and asked if this report had been received by the Tribunal. Landale replied that his understanding was that the seven day deadline was for tomorrow. The Dutch government had been given an additional seven days from last Thursday, he said.

Landale added that the Trial Chamber had requested Mr. Karremans to appear at the Tribunal between 16 and 22 June, 2004, which was in the Decision giving the Dutch authorities another 7 days to respond. Landale stated that as far as he knew, there was nothing back from the Dutch authorities yet.

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