ICTY Press Briefing - 8 March 2000

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

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing
Date: 8 March 2000
Time: 11:30 a.m.

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

As you should have seen from our press advisory, the initial appearance for Dragoljub Prcac, will take place on Friday at 3 p.m. in Courtroom III.

On 7 March 2000, Trial Chamber III (Judges Robinson (Presiding), Hunt and Bennouna) ordered that the Prosecution disclose certain specified documents in connection with SFOR, or other military and security forces operating on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to counsel for Todorovic by 4 April 2000 and that Todorovic shall by 18 April 2000, inform the Trial Chamber of the steps taken to obtain any such documents or information not provided by the Prosecutor. The Prosecution has been ordered to indicate to the Trial Chamber and Defence by 4 April if such information is not in their custody or control. The order is available for those who are interested.

On 3 March, Anto Nobilo filed his submission with regard to his appeal against the contempt of court judgement. We have copies of that if you are interested.

The Prosecution case is due to end in Kordic and Cerkez trial on Friday. There will then be an adjournment until 10 April, when the defence will begin their case-in-chief.

On 7 March, a scheduling order was issued in the Jelisic case ordering that the appellants’ briefs should be filed by 15 May. By the appellants, I mean the Prosecution, appealing against Jelisic’s acquittal on the charge of genocide and the defence appealing on the sentence of 40 years.

The Prosecution filed on 2 March, a second amended indictment in the Krnojelac case after the Trial Chamber on 11 February ruled that certain parts of the original indictment were too vague and sought further clarification.

I would finally like to clarify something I mentioned last week. That is that, as far as the ICTY is concerned, Judge Pocar has been appointed to the Appeals Chamber just to sit on the Furundzija appeal.

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

The Prosecutor and the Deputy Prosecutor are midway through a working trip this week to Turkey, Hungary and Germany. At each stop the Prosecutor is meeting with officials of each government, including the Foreign and Defence Ministers. The Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor will complete this trip by the weekend.

QUESTIONS:

Asked whether there were any legal impediments to arresting Mladic and Karadic, Landale replied that there were no legal impediments. He added that the authorities in the Republika Srpska had failed completely in a number of cases to live up to their obligations under international law to detain those people indicted by the Tribunal. Because of this they had been reported to the Security Council for non-compliance. This was something that the Tribunal continually reminded them of, he concluded.

Asked whether the court order in Todorovic was in connection with his alleged kidnapping in FRY, Landale replied that it was and that copies of the order would be distributed after the briefing.

Asked for a response concerning the announcement by Croatian authorities that they were in possession of documents that could shed light on Blaskic’s role, Risley replied that there were outstanding orders for the production of documents by the Government of Croatia before the Tribunal at the request of the Prosecutor. Any documents that had recently been discovered had to be reviewed with those orders in mind by the government.

Asked for information concerning the meeting between the Croatian Ambassador and President Jorda, Landale replied that a meeting was held yesterday during which the Croatian Ambassador raised his Governments’ reaction to the Blaskic decision. President Jorda noted this, however, in keeping with his policy not to comment on a judgment once it had been handed down, only noted that, although the judgement might have been taken badly by certain parties in Zagreb, cooperation with the Tribunal should continue. This cooperation was not dependent upon Decisions or Judgements handed down by an independent Trial Chamber. The Croatian authorities were obliged to continue cooperation with the Trial Chamber and the Tribunal, he concluded.

Asked why the Prosecutor was visiting Turkey, Risley replied that it was an ordinary working meeting similar to visits to the United Kingdom and France. Turkey was a member of NATO and had troops on the ground in Bosnia and was very much part of the international community’s response to the situation in the former Yugoslavia.

Asked whether the Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor would be travelling together, Risley replied that they were.

Asked whether it was known yet where Tadic would serve his sentence, Landale replied that no formal decision had been made. In addition, there were still outstanding matters to deal with such as the Vujin contempt case, he added.

Asked for information on the surrender of "Tuta" by the Croatian Authorities to the Tribunal, Landale replied that the Croatian Ambassador had visited the Tribunal yesterday and had discussions with the Registry. Essentially, discussions and arrangements were being put in place for "Tuta’s" possible transfer to the Tribunal and his upcoming initial appearance, he concluded.

Asked for more details of the arrangements being put in place, Landale replied that, once the medical report had been given to the Tribunal indicating that "Tuta" was well enough to travel under certain specific medical conditions and with the appropriate medical supervision that would not put unnecessary stress on his condition, discussions on how to organise those arrangements had started and were continuing.
Risley noted the Prosecutor’s appreciation for the US Government’s announcement this week that they had printed up of posters giving a reward for the apprehension of Milosevic, Karadzic and Mladic. The posters send a clear message that there would be no deals considered for these three individuals and that the safest thing for them to do was to surrender themselves to the safety and security of the Tribunal.

He added that the poster would have a very important effect specifically inside the former Yugoslavia but also within Europe for galvanizing world opinion that there would be no separate deals for any of the senior most persons responsible for crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.

Asked whether the Blaskic Judgement had been translated yet, Landale replied that it had not, but that work to translate it was underway.

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