ICTY Press Briefing - 13 September 2000

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

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

The Judges of the Tribunal will be holding a plenary session this afternoon here in The Hague to examine in detail the issue of compensation for victims. This matter had been previously discussed at the 13 July Plenary and following that by the Rules Committee, however it was felt that more time was needed to explore the issue. We will issue a press release on the results of the plenary tomorrow.

On 12 September, Trial Chamber I issued a scheduling order for the Krstic trial, which sets out in detail a time frame for the remainder of the trial. The schedule stipulated is as follows:

-16 to 20 October 2000, 25 to 27 October 2000, and 30 October to 3 November 2000: first defence case session;

-20 to 24 November 2000, 27 and 28 November 2000 and 4 to 8 December 2000: second and final defence case session;

On 11 September, Trial Chamber III issued its decision on Miroslav Tadic’s application to provisionally leave his residence for a medical examination in Banja Luka granting him leave to do so under certain specific conditions.

The Trial Chamber had previously denied Tadic's applications to travel to Belgrade for medical examinations on 29 June 2000 and 27 July 2000.

(1) Tadic may leave the municipality of Bosanski Samac to travel to the Clinical Hospital Centre in Banja Luka and receive the specified medical examination for a period of seven consecutive days in September.

(2) During this time, Tadic must continue to report to the local police in Bosanski Samac every day. However, if hospitalisation is required, Tadic shall report each day for the duration of that period from the Clinical Hospital Centre by telephone to the police in Bosanski Samac.

We have also received a copy of a supplement brief from a military expert witness for the defence in the Foca trial, General Radinovic, who testified on 11 July 2000, as well as some Prosecution expert witness statements in the Kvocka and others trial. These documents will be available to you on request.

Also, courtesy of the Outreach Programme, the 18th Edition of the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence are now available in BCS.

Finally, copies of the newly revised Status of Cases fact sheet are now available. This gives a brief summary of all cases before the Tribunal and is updated on a weekly basis. It is produced by the Legal Unit of the Public Information Services.

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

Regarding the reports of the arrests in Croatia, I can confirm that Ivan Andabak was under summons from the Tribunal for questioning by the staff of the Prosecutor. The assistance of Croatia in facilitating such an interview was requested by the Prosecutor. Following his arrest, an interview of Ivan Andabak by the Prosecutor’s staff was carried out yesterday.

There are no indictments by the Tribunal of the persons reported as having been arrested by Croatia. These arrests are a Croatian matter and questions should be directed to them.

Asked whether Ante Sliskovic was summoned to answer questions by the OTP, Risley replied that generally speaking in regards to all of these arrests, the OTP could have an interest in questioning persons other than Andabak.

Asked to confirm reports that Ignac Kostroman was also arrested at the request of the Tribunal, Risley replied that the OTP might have an interest in interviewing other persons under arrest including Kostroman. He confirmed that Andabak was interviewed yesterday based on a request from the OTP. He added that as far as he was aware, this was the only summons the OTP had sent to the Croatian authorities.

Asked whether the OTP had attempted to speak to General Andabak before they issued the summons and whether General Andabak was aware of the summons on him, Risley replied General Andabak was aware that he was under summons. Risley concluded that this was the reason a request was made to the Government of Croatia to facilitate such an interview.

Asked whether a case completed by the Tribunal could be reopened if any of these arrests or the documents found in Tudjman's archives brought forward new evidence, Risley replied that it was too early to ask such a question. He added that the meetings held in the Tribunal on Friday and on Saturday morning with Deputy Prime Minister Granic and Minister of Justice Ivanisevic were directly related to the issue of OTP access to witnesses, documents and evidence. On both of those very important matters agreement was reached and yesterday and today’s activities in Zagreb could be seen as a direct outcome of the successful talks.

Asked whether General Andabak was one of the individuals that the OTP had sought access to, Risley replied that he was.

Asked to confirm that General Kostroman was not arrested at the request of the Tribunal, but that the Tribunal was interested in him, Risley replied that this was correct. All he could say was that General Kostroman was not under a summons for interview, but General Andabak was.

Asked whether the Croatian media reports were correct that there were two arrests, Risley replied that he was aware of an apparent contradiction in the reports. He added that for General Andabak there was a specific summons for an interview outstanding. There was not such a summons for interview on any of the other persons who were reported under arrest.

Asked whether that meant that General Andabak was going to be released once the interviews were concluded or whether the Croatian authorities were also interested in him, Risley replied that this was a question for the Croatian authorities.

Asked whether the Tribunal had further interest in speaking to General Andabak, Risley replied that the OTP had an open investigation, however, the question of whether he would be released was a question for the Croatian authorities.

Asked to confirm that the OTP only asked the Croatian authorities to summon Andabak and not to arrest them, Risley confirmed that this was the case. The OTP had asked for the Croatian Government’s assistance in bringing about this interview.

Asked whether it was therefore the Croatian authorities’ choice of means by which to act on this summons, Risley replied that it was.

Asked to confirm reports in Croatia and Serbia in which he was quoted as saying that the OTP had secretly indicted KLA members including Thaci and Ceku and that there were five separate incidents involving the KLA, Risley replied that during the Prosecutor’s last trip to Kosovo at her press conference in Pristina she announced that her office was investigating alleged crimes committed by the KLA in 1998 in Kosovo.