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

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing
Date: 4 August 1999
Time: 2:00 p.m.

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

To begin, two points from the Foca indictment. First, a reminder that the initial appearance of Radomir Kovac will take place at 5pm in Courtroom I. (Trial chamber II.)

Second, on 30 July, Judge Lal Chand Vohrah issued an order granting the Prosecutor leave to withdraw the indictment against Dragan Gagovic, who, as you all know, died earlier this year.

Also on 30 July, the Appeals Chamber issued its scheduling order for the Aleksovski Appeal. The orders are as follows:

  1. The Appellants’ briefs and authorities shall be filed by 24 September 1999;
  2. The Respondents’ briefs and authorities shall be filed within 30 days of the filing of the Appellants’ briefs, at the latest by 25 October 1999;
  3. The Appellants may file briefs in reply within 15 days after the filing of the Respondents’ briefs, at the latest by 10 November 1999.

Also on 30 July in the ‘Kupreskic and others’ case, Trial Chamber II denied a motion from four of the accused for provisional release. The Trial Chamber was satisfied that exceptional circumstances existed for at least two of the accused. However, in coming to their decision, the Trial Chamber noted the refusal of the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina to sign a document to accept the security requirements necessary to allow such a provisional release. They also noted a letter from the Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which he informed the Tribunal that, "on the basis of prior consultation with the Federal Ministry of the Interior, it will not be possible for the federal organs to guarantee the re-arrest and return of the indictees, should they attempt to go into hiding while in the territory of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina". This is the first time that a motion for provisional release has been denied for this reason.

Also, copies are being made of the Defendant’s Appellate Brief in the Furundzija Appeal. However, it is a very lengthy document and copying will take some time. In the meantime we have copies of the table of contents for those who are interested.

Also, for your interest we’ve come up with some figures for the Blaskic trial. If the entire trial hearings are condensed into court days, then we can see that the trial lasted 174 full court days, which is eight and half months. During this time 158 witnesses were heard, which is almost one witness a day.

Finally, just to remind you that the courts are in recess from tomorrow until 30 August and that in fact today’s hearings will be the last public hearings

 

OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTOR
Graham Blewitt, Deputy Prosecutor had no announcements to make.

 

QUESTIONS:

  • Asked for his opinion on an article in a Croatian paper which stated that the Croatian Government would now not expect the accused Martinovic ("Stela") to serve eight years prior to his surrender to The Hague, Blewitt replied that, according to the letter the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) had received from the Justice Minister on Friday, "Stela" would not be kept in Croatia to serve his eight year sentence prior to being surrendered. Blewitt said that he saw this as the Croatian Government withdrawing from its most recent position. However, he added that the Prosecutor had made it clear that because "Stela" was on the same indictment as Tuta, both accused should stand trial together. Therefore delay of the trial of "Stela", due to Tuta’s absence before the Tribunal, would be the fault of the Croatian authorities.

  • Asked to confirm that the documents received on Monday from the Croatian Justice Minister contained nothing relating to ‘Operation Storm’, Blewitt replied that the OTP was in the process of reviewing the documents. Currently, however, the indices appeared to show no ‘Operation Storm’ documentation. The OTP would view it as non-compliance on the part of the Croatian Government until ‘Operation Flash and Storm’ documentation was handed over to the Tribunal. He added that the Croatian Government was maintaining that the Tribunal had no jurisdiction over ‘Operation Flash and Storm’. Blewitt added that it was not for Croatia to determine whether the OTP had the jurisdiction to investigate.

  • Asked about the statement made by the Minister of Justice on Saturday stating that Croatia would not deliver documents to the Tribunal concerning ‘Storm’ regardless of any Tribunal ruling in that regard, Blewitt noted that the position of the Prosecutor was that she would not participate in any proceeding before a Chamber on this subject unless the Croatian Government agreed to abide by any decision of a Judge or a Trial Chamber.

  • Asked whether or not the President had contacted the Security Council on the subject of Croatian non-compliance, Blewitt and Landale replied that as far as they knew she had not yet done so, as the President was absent from the Tribunal.

  • Asked whether the reason Croatia would not hand over documents to the Tribunal was for reasons of national security, Blewitt responded that national security had been raised as a potential reason, however it was a secondary issue and was an issue that had not been reached as yet. He added that at this point the only opposition raised was that the Croatian authorities continued to contest that ‘Storm and Flash’ fell within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.

  • Asked about the rumours that Carla Del Ponte had been proposed as a candidate for the position of Prosecutor, Blewitt confirmed that he had heard the rumours. He added that from the rumours, her candidacy appeared strong, however that this was a matter for the Security Council to decide on.

  • Asked what jurisdiction the Tribunal had in the matter of the 14 Serbs killed in Gracko, Blewitt replied that the position of the OTP was that the armed conflict had not finished. He added that there was indeed a cessation in the hostilities, however they could erupt again. The view of the OTP was that they were ‘dormant’, therefore the OTP had jurisdiction on this matter. He added the OTP were alert to the possibility that the KLA had begun a bout of ethnic cleansing in the guise of revenge. If this were true it would fall within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, he added.

  • Asked whether the figures quoted by UN Special Representative for the Secretary-General for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo Bernard Kouchner of 11,000 bodies in Kosovo corresponded to the Tribunal’s figures, Blewitt replied that these figures were not from an official Tribunal source. He added that it was too premature to give figures as investigations were still ongoing. It was a matter of seeing how many people were killed and distinguishing between those who had died in combat and those who had died due to criminal activity.

  • The OTP would not be releasing figures at this stage, however some may be given in an amended, extended indictment or in a future indictment.

  • Asked about the arrests in Foca and the indictees who remained at large in Foca, Blewitt responded that the OTP would like to see the remaining indictees on the indictment tried together. He added that the stresses in terms of resources and time in the three cases of Aleksovski, Blaskic and Kordic who had all been indicted together, should be avoided. He concluded that he was pleased to see SFOR take such robust action, both on public and sealed indictments and again urged the remaining indictees to surrender voluntarily to avoid the possibility of injuries.

  • Asked whether an attorney on behalf of President Milosevic had approached the OTP, Blewitt responded that no such approach had been made.

*****