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

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing
Date: 1 November 2000
Time: 11:30 a.m.

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

On 30 October, Judge Richard May ordered that the names of the co-indictees on the Vasiljevic indictment of 26 October 1998, Milan Lukic and his cousin Sredoje Lukic, which were previously under seal, be made public, "so that all possibilities to secure their arrest may be employed". This follows a motion filed by the Prosecutor on 30 October 2000, in which it was submitted that, to date, all efforts to secure the arrest of the two individuals had been unsuccessful. We will have copies of the indictment in English and French later on today.

Mitar Vasiljevic, Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic, have been charged with crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war for their alleged participation in the mass murder, torture and other cruel treatment of the Bosnian Muslim population, including women, children and the elderly, in and around the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad, between May 1992 and October 1994.

According to the indictment, in at least two incidents in June 1992, Mitar Vasiljevic, Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic, committed, planned, instigated, ordered, or otherwise, aide and abetted the mass murder of approximately 135 Bosnian Muslim civilians by locking those persons inside two houses and setting the houses on fire. In one of the incidents, 46 members of one family were killed. We will have copies of that indictment for you shortly.

Moving on, you will have seen from our press release that Dusko Tadic was transferred to Germany yesterday to serve his sentence. There are additional copies of that press release available after this.

In addition, on 27 October 2000, a Bench of the Appeals Chamber, comprising Judges Jorda (presiding), Bennouna and Pocar, granted Mr. Milan Vujin’s request, filed confidentially on 7 February 2000, for leave to appeal the Appeals Chamber Judgement of 31 January 2000, finding him guilty of contempt of the Tribunal.

Most of you will be aware of the background, but I’ll just go over it again for those who are not. The allegations of contempt arose from Vujin’s conduct between September 1997 and April 1998, when he was acting as lead counsel on behalf of Dusko Tadic in connection with the appeals against the Judgement of 7 May 1997 and the Sentencing Judgement of 14 July 1997.

In its Judgement of 31 January 2000, the Appeals Chamber found unanimously that:

As a result, the Appeals Chamber:

• Ordered Vujin to pay a fine of 15,000 Dutch guilders to the Registry of the Tribunal within 21 days,
  
• Directed the Registrar "to consider striking" Mr. Vujin off the list of assigned counsel and "reporting" his conduct to the professional body to which he belongs,
  
• Ordered that various documents pertaining to the case be made public where possible.

We have copies of the decision in English and French and the relevant press release from January this year for your background after this.

In the Todorovic case, you should have seen the appeal filed by the Prosecutor on 25 October 2000 against the Trial Chamber’s decision on the motion for Judicial Assistance to be provided by SFOR and others, dated 18 October 2000.

Following that, we have now just received two documents from the Defence. The first is a motion to dismiss the Prosecutor’s appeal filed on 31 October. We will have copies of this ready for you after the briefing. Both parties have appealed to the chambers to hold an oral hearing on the matter, with the Defence suggesting, in a motion, that such a hearing could be held as early as next week.

It appears that the Krstic cross-examination will last until tomorrow, Thursday, and then re-direct will take place on Friday.

The Naletilic and Matinovic pre-trial conference that was originally scheduled for last Friday has been moved to 7 December 2000.

The scheduling order for Foca trial has changed once again. Medical experts have been scheduled to present their evidence on 10 November at 0930 hrs.

Closing arguments will be heard from 20 to 22 November -- Prosecution on 20 and Defence on 21 and 22.

We also have copies for you of the amended indictment in the Kvocka and others case, which was filed on 26 October 2000. This is a consolidation of the two indictments for this case.

OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTOR
Florence Hartmann, Spokesperson for the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) made no statement.

QUESTIONS:

• Asked for more information on any possible unsuccessful attempts to arrest Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic, Landale replied that he could not add anything to what was included in the order from Judge May, ordering the release of the names of these two individuals. This order was available, he said.

Hartmann added that the OTP had nothing to say on this issue.

• Asked why, when it could be argued that arrests had been facilitated by keeping indictments sealed, were their names being made public, Landale replied that on behalf of the Tribunal the accepted rational behind the sealed indictment was that it had aided in the detention of individuals who had not been apprehended by the authorities on the ground.

  It was obviously the primary responsibility of the authorities on the ground, once they were made aware of an indictment against an individual, to as soon as possible, detain that individual and transfer them to the custody of the Tribunal.

  In the early days of the Tribunal, this was failing to happen, so the then-Prosecutor Louise Arbour, decided to pursue a policy of asking for the non-disclosure of certain indictments.

  There had been a big surge in the number of detentions by NATO forces on the ground in Bosnia from the summer of 1997 following this new policy. The reason for that was that individuals did not have prior knowledge that they were indicted, could not try to hide or could not try to defend themselves against the possibility of arrest.

  In this case it must have been felt that these individuals had not been apprehended and that it would be a better policy to make their names public in the hope that this would possibly help towards their apprehension, he concluded.

• Asked that, if the Lukic’s were in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, what expectations the Tribunal had of the new authorities in Belgrade, Landale replied that if this was the case, the expectations were very clear. The FRY and all states had a binding legal obligation to detain any individual, not just these two individuals, indicted by the Tribunal, who happened to be on their territory.

• Asked for the OTP’s reaction to a statement by President Kostunica that the OTP field office could open in Belgrade as soon as the new Government was formed, Hartmann replied that the OTP was encouraged by this kind of declaration. The OTP was looking forward to this happening, but there was still no reply to the request for a meeting with President Kostunica made by the Prosecutor. She added that the opening of the offices was very important for many reasons, one of them being gaining access to the witnesses and victims from Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Investigations could not be completed because of the problem of access to the victims who were in Yugoslavia.

The opening of the office and the cooperation between Belgrade and the ICTY would be the same as with other countries for example Croatia and Bosnia. The office would not only open to investigate war crimes where Serbs were victims, but also to deal with the apprehension of fugitives, among other issues.

• Asked if there was any news when the expanded indictment of Milosevic would be issued, Hartmann replied that, as the Prosecutor had previously stated, there was no date set, it could perhaps be at the end of this year or the beginning of the next.

• Asked whether the Prosecutor was still in Arusha, Hartmann replied that she was.

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