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

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing
Date: 5 May 1999
Time: 11:30 a.m.

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

Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, the President of the International Tribunal, will testify in front of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in Washington on Tuesday 11 May. She will talk primarily about the Tribunal in relation to events in Kosovo.

The following day President McDonald will be in New York to meet with the Council for Foreign Relations. Again discussions will revolve around the Kosovo crisis.

We should be in a position to provide you with President McDonald’s speech to the Council for Foreign Relations once it has been delivered. In addition, there is a revised biography of the President also available after this.

In the Vujin contempt of court case, the Appeals Chamber issued on 4 May a scheduling order for further testimony by "witness D" to be heard on Monday 28 June 1999. All of the other witnesses, including those to be called by Mr Vujin, will be heard in the two-week period commencing Monday 30 August and ending Friday 10 September 1999.

Concerning the Kordic and Cerkez case: On 3 May, Trial Chamber III issued an order scheduling a hearing on motions that had been filed pursuant to Rule 95 of the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence. Rule 95 stipulates that, "No evidence shall be admissible if obtained by methods which cast substantial doubt on its reliability or if its admission is antithetical to, and would seriously damage, the integrity of the proceedings." The original motion filed on 22 January by Kordic’s defence had sought to "suppress and exclude from admission as evidence all material obtained in a search conducted on 23 September 1998". The hearing has been set for 31 May.

In the Kvocka and Others case: On 29 April, following the "Prosecutor’s Notice of failure to obtain documents", and pursuant to Article 29 of the Statute, Trial Chamber III requested the Republika Srpska to "provide such assistance as it is able to the Prosecution to obtain the documents…". In addition, the Trial Chamber ordered the Prosecution to report whether or not the documents had been produced at a status conference scheduled for 3 June 1999.

Landale indicated that copies of the relevant documents would be available after the briefing.

OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTOR
Mr Graham Blewitt, Deputy Prosecutor, said he had a few brief matters to raise:

He first announced that the Prosecutor’s new Spokesman, Paul Risley, had travelled to the Balkans today. Blewitt explained that he would be visiting Tirana and Skopje in order to assist the press in the area.

He then went on to say that Justice Arbour had travelled to Paris today in order to meet with government ministers to raise a number of matters, including the initiative that all outstanding arrest warrants be executed. He said that the Prosecutor believed strongly that this would send a positive deterrent signal to Kosovo. Furthermore, the Prosecutor hoped that arrests on sealed indictments would take place as this would also send a particularly strong signal to Kosovo. Justice Arbour would also be talking in Paris about increased access to information held by the government that could be relevant to her investigators.

Lastly, Blewitt announced that on Friday, Justice Arbour and himself would be traveling to Sarajevo. Blewitt said he could not give any more information since it involved operational matters. He went on to say that on Sunday they would be leaving Sarajevo for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) where they would pursue the Kosovo investigations. Finally Blewitt said that he and the Prosecutor would be back in The Hague on Wednesday 12 May 1999.

QUESTIONS:

• Asked if he could comment on the rumours that Justice Arbour would be leaving the Tribunal, Blewitt replied that he assumed that these rumours were based on Ray Bonner’s article in the New York Times. He said that it was the Office of the Prosecutor’s (OTP) view that the article was without foundation and that the topic was not discussed during lunch with the American officials. He added that the Prosecutor had not even discussed this with her own government, let alone with other governments.

• Asked if Arbour would raise with the French government the Order issued for certain witnesses to appear to give testimony (in the Blaskic trial) and, given that there had been obtacles in the past, had these problems been solved, Blewitt replied that he was not certain if this would be on the Prosecutor’s agenda and that she would mostly push the two initiatives he had mentioned before, as well as other matters. He added that discussions were always ongoing and that he had no reason to believe that the witnesses would not give evidence as required.

• Asked what kind of evidence had been received since the announcement some weeks ago that the OTP was not receiving the information it was hoping for, Blewitt replied that since then the OTP had received a lot more, but that they would continue to urge for further information.

• Asked if it was hard to get this kind of information, Blewitt replied that it was traditional that this sort of information was not released by governments because they gathered it for their own tactical and strategic reasons. He added that it was not easy to hand over this type of information to a prosecutor of an international tribunal. He said that there was a conflict between the OTP’s desire for information and the countries’ own purposes, but that governments were trying to work with the OTP to come to a compromise. He said that the OTP would never have everything, but if the information was sufficient they would be satisfied.

• Asked for the Prosecutor’s programme in FYROM, Blewitt said that the final programme was not ready yet, but that the OTP had opened an office in FYROM and that it was the first time that there were investigations there. He added that it was standard practice to meet with the relevant government officials.

• Asked what the response had been to the request to execute all the outstanding arrest warrants, Blewitt replied that there had been general agreement with the proposition and the fact that it would have a deterrent effect.

• Blewitt was asked if the OTP distinguished between petitions presented to it since the people who had handed over the Serb petition last Monday were not allowed into the hallway as opposed to the Radical Party petition. He replied that there was no difference in approach. He explained that when the Radical Party handed over its petition the NATO airstrikes had not yet begun and they did not foresee any difficulties in receiving it. Since then it had become apparent that this could be turning into a regular event and the OTP did not want to be seen accepting petitions all the time. Blewitt said that it would be future policy not to accept any more petitions and that OTP realized that accepting the Radical Party petition may have been a mistake.

• Asked if he wanted to comment on the petition, Blewitt replied that it merely represented a wish list of individuals. He added that it did not serve as anything new to the OTP and that it served no evidentiary purpose.

• Asked if the OTP was investigating NATO’s actions, Blewitt replied that the OTP was satisfied that it had jurisdiction over the 19 NATO members, but that the OTP never commented on investigations. He said that the only exception had been made last year when they announced investigations into the Kosovo situation. Blewitt also said that he would not comment on the allegations that NATO was committing war crimes but would say that Justice Arbour had reminded NATO-member states of their obligations to comply with the Geneva Conventions and that she had received reassurances that they were, which she had accepted in the absence of evidence to the contrary.

• Asked if Blewitt was aware of rumours that high ranking NATO officials refused to arrest indictees while the NATO bombings were on going in order not to cause any unrest in the Republika Srpska, Blewitt replied that he had not received any information that this was NATO’s policy.

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