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

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing
Date: 6 September 2000
Time: 13:00 p.m.

 

REGISTRY AND CHAMBERS
Christian Chartier, Head of the Public Information Services made the following statement:

I would firstly like to draw your attention to the fact that, as of next week, the proceedings will again be in full swing. The Kordic and Cerkez trial and the Kvocka and others trial will continue and the trial of Kunarac, Kovac and Vukovic (the Foca case) will resume.

Secondly, following questions by some of you this morning, I would like to confirm that the Trial Chamber sitting on the Kordic and Cerkez trial has indeed issued a subpoena to General Petkovic to appear as a witness. The subpoena is a confidential order, so I cannot elaborate any further. It is not the first time that a Chamber has issued such a subpoena. In 1999 the Trial Chamber sitting on the Blaskic case summoned six witnesses; at that time the Chamber’s Order was based upon Rule 98 of the RPP, providing that "a Trial Chamber may order either party to produce additional evidence. It may proprio motu summon witnesses and order their attendance". I am not saying this is the case in Kordic and Cerkez, I am using this as a background example.

Finally, two announcements concerning the Outreach Programme.

Courtesy of the Outreach Programme, two important documents released before the summer have now been translated in BCS. Namely the Judges Report on the operation of the ICTY and the Report to the Prosecutor by the Committee established to review the NATO bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Those two translations are available on hard copies from the Outreach Programme but they are also being filed on the BCS page of the Tribunal’s website.

Last weekend the Outreach Programme held in association with the Croatian Helsinki Committee a two-day symposium entitled "ICTY and Victims of War". This symposium was held in Zagreb and brought together Tribunal’s representatives with Croatian legal professionals, NGO’s and victim-support groups to discuss the role of witnesses and victims in the work of the ICTY. The symposium was sponsored by the Peace and Stability Fund of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was a most timely and interesting meeting on which the Outreach Programme will be happy to provide those interested with further information.

 

OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTOR
Paul Risley, Spokesman for the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) made the following announcement:

The Prosecutor is in the second day of her trip through Romania and Bulgaria.

 

QUESTIONS:

  • Asked whether the arrests of Ante Sliskovic and Tomo Vlajic reported on Croatian State television were made at the request of the Tribunal, Paul Risley replied that he had no comment on the two arrests. He added, however, that if the OTP intended to make a statement he would issue it in due course.
  • Asked whether the subpoena issued to General Petkovic to appear as a witness in the Kordic and Cerkez trial was to be made public, Christian Chartier replied that the Chamber had issued the document on a confidential basis for good legal reasons and any announcement of the documents being made public was not expected.
  • Asked for more information on the visits by the Prosecutor to Bulgaria and Romania, Paul Risley replied that the visits to both the countries was in line with earlier visits to countries surrounding the former Yugoslavia. He added that the Prosecutor was expected to meet with the Defence and Justice Ministers and Prime Ministers in both countries. He concluded by adding that he expected the chief topic of the discussions would be cooperation by those States with the Prosecutor and with the Tribunal in general.
  • Asked whether any of the documents requested in a court order issued by the trial chamber in the Kordic and Cerkez case from the Netherlands and 11 other European Union states had been received by the Registry, Christian Chartier replied that this order was issued one month ago with a deadline of 30 September. Until that date had passed he was not in a position to say whether documents had begun to arrive. It was too early in the process to say, he concluded.
  • Asked whether the Prosecutor had requested that NATO set up a special unit with the purpose of arresting indicted war criminals, Paul Risley replied that the Prosecutor had made calls for the formation of such a unit in the past. He added that the Prosecutor had publicly made mention of such an idea when she addressed the North Atlantic Council in Brussels in February. The idea was to create a more or less permanent unit contributed to by the NATO military forces that would act to bring about the apprehension of persons wanted by the Tribunal. He concluded that it could presumably coordinate the work of national governments outside the former Yugoslavia.

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