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

Date: 24.05.2006
Time: 12:00

Registry and Chambers:

Christian Chartier, Senior Information Officer, made the following statement:

This week’s focus is on COURT PROCEEDINGS.

Yesterday, in the Krajisnik case, the Bench announced that the testimony of the accused would finish in three weeks time, with the following schedule: the examination-in-chief will end tomorrow, the Prosecution will start with its examination on Monday 29 May and from that day on, the cross-examination and the questions by the Judges will take together no more than 15 days.

The trial of Momcilo Krajisnik continues for the rest of this week in the afternoons in courtroom II. Next week the proceedings will continue in the same courtroom but in the mornings, starting at 9:00.

As far as today is concerned, let me remind you of the status conference to be held in the Cermak and Markac case, at 17:00 in courtroom 1. Both accused are on provisional release, and will not be present in court.

The Vukovar trial of former Yugoslav Army high-ranking officers Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin, will continue this and next week in courtroom I. Tomorrow it will sit from 9:30 to 16:30, on Friday from 9:00 to 13:45. Next Monday it will sit from 12:30 to 17:00 and on Tuesday and Wednesday all day again from 9:30 to 16:30.

The trial of Milan Martic will continue for the rest of the week at 9:00 in courtroom II. Next week the trial will sit in the afternoons at 14:15 also in courtroom II.

The proceedings against the six accused in the Prlic et al. case Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic, former high-ranking political and military officials of the then Herceg-Bosna wil continue tomorrow at 9:00 sitting in courtroom III. On Monday the proceedings will begin at 14:15 and on Tuesday and Wednesday will sit from 9:00 to 17:15.

Office of the Prosecutor:

Anton Nikiforov, Advisor to the Prosecutor and acting Spokesperson of the Office of the Prosecutor, made the following statement:

There are three issues about which I would like to comment on today. First, there were quite serious misinterpretations in the Croatian media of the statements made by the Deputy Prosecutor David Tolbert in Budapest, where he attended a meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 18 May 2006. Mr. Tolbert made a presentation and answered a number of questions during this meeting. However, in regard to a specific question from Mr. Slaven Letica Deputy Prosecutor clearly stated that he could not and would not comment on any specific case or investigation of this Tribunal. This is our general policy, we don’t speak about specific investigations or cases and we don’t give reasons why a particular incident or a person was or was not investigated. Mr. Tolbert also gave a number of general comments about the way investigations and prosecutions are conducted and about the basis for indictments to be issued. However, he made it absolutely clear that his comments were not related to any specific case or individual. His remarks were unfortunately inaccurately presented in what appears to be the press release of the Croatian Embassy in Hungary and then they were further misinterpreted by some media reports. I would like to clarify that allegations which appeared in the Croatian media afterwards in regard to the lack of cooperation of the Croatian government or the Office of the State Attorney are completely inaccurate. The cooperation of Zagreb in regard to the perpetrators from Serbia has always been forthcoming.

Second, there were a number of speculations in the Macedonian media concerning the Boskoski/Tarculovski case and alleged intention of the Prosecutor to transfer this case to the national authorities in the country. I wish to say that this has never been an intention of the Prosecutor and this possibility is not contemplated by the OTP now.

Third – more a statement than a comment: In regards to the recent developments in Serbia and Montenegro, the Office of the Prosecutor expects that the cooperation of both states, once the referendum results are officially and finally confirmed and accepted, continue in the best possible manner with regard to all aspects of cooperation including all remaining fugitives, access to documents and witnesses. We also expect that the relevant authorities take all the necessary steps right now, to ensure that the process of answering our requests for assistance, such as clearing the documents and witnesses, will continue smoothly and efficiently in the future. It is very important that there is no interruption in our cooperation with Belgrade and Podgorica at present. The international obligations towards the Tribunal remain valid until the end of our mandate.

Questions:

Asked what comment could be made about the cooperation of the authorities in Podgorica, Nikiforov said that cooperation would be assessed separately for each state, once the results of the referendum were confirmed officially. Nikiforov added that at present the prosecution was satisfied with cooperation with Podgorica and the government of Montenegro. The last several years there had been direct and separate cooperation with Montenegrin authorities apart from everything that was going on with or through Belgrade. Nikiforov said that the prosecution was satisfied with all their efforts for the time being in terms of operative information and operative efforts to find the location, possible movements of remaining fugitives.

A journalist referred to comments made by General Leaky and the OTP last year stating that Karadzic was going back and forth from Bosnia to Montenegro. Asked if this was true, Nikiforov said that there were indications in the past that Karadzic might have been crossing the border and staying in Montenegro. Recently there had not been any information and the Prosecutor has said publicly many times that she has no concrete information from anyone where Karadzic might be. Nikiforov reiterated that the prosecution has a very good relationship at present with relevant services in Montenegro and that there were no complaints about level of cooperation. Nikiforov said - if we are asked to do so, the Prosecutor would give her assessment.

Asked if the raw materials from the Dutch investigation into the death of Slobodan Milosevic had been given to the Tribunal for Judge Parker’s investigation, Chartier answered that he was not familiar with the substance of the work of Judge Parker’s investigation and that he could not confirm nor deny that materials were received. Chartier stated that he did know that the investigation was nearing the completion stage.

Asked if there was a comment on the request made by a lawyer of the Gotovina family for the French government to get involved Gotovina’s provisional release, Nikiforov said that this lawyer was not Gotovina’s lawyer in front of the Tribunal so there would be no comment.

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