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

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing
Date: 17.04.2002
Time: 2:00 p.m.

REGISTRY AND CHAMBERS

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

- The start of the trial of Milomir Stakic yesterday is an important moment in this institution's history. Apart from the very serious nature of the charges levelled against the accused, the beginning of this trial means that the court is now conducting six trials daily in its three courtrooms, and so operating at maximum trial capacity with the help of the introduction of the ad litem Judges. The Tribunal is now making the fullest possible use of its resources to complete its mandate as efficiently as possible.

However, there are still important issues that lie outside of the direct control of the Tribunal which affect its ability to complete the mandate given to it by the Security Council and most importantly, this means the full and timely cooperation of all states. Until all those individuals indicted by the Tribunal are brought before the court and tried, this Tribunal's work cannot be considered complete. The Tribunal again calls for all states and authorities to live up to their clear obligations under international law to apprehend and transfer all those who have been charged by this court and who are still at large.

In terms of court documents:

- On 12 April in the Krnojelac case, the Defence filed their Notice of Appeal. This was followed by the Prosecution's Notice of Appeal, filed on 15 April.

- On 15 April, in the Ljubicic case, we received a Defence motion for provisional release.

- In the Milosevic case, on 16 April, pursuant to Rule 73 (D) of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, the Prosecution filed for leave to file an interlocutory appeal in respect of the Trial Chamber's 10 April 2002 oral ruling, "whereby the Chamber ordered that the Prosecution case be completed within a period of 12 months from the date of the ruling".

- On 16 April, the President of the Tribunal, Judge Claude Jorda, issued an Order appointing Judges Liu, Guney, Gunawardana, Pocar and Meron to sit on a bench of the Appeals Chamber to hear the request for review filed by Drago Josipovic on 21 February 2002.

- In the Brdanin and Talic case, on 15 April, the Trial Chamber has issued an Order "Requesting Investigation of Conduct of Co-Counsel For Defendant Brdanin".

- On 10 April we received the Appeal Brief for Mladjo Radic and then on 12 April we received copies of the Dragoljub Prcac Appeal Brief.

- Finally, on 10 April an Order in the Krstic case was filed, ordering the parties to respectively file, after suitable redactions, a public version of the Defence Appeal Brief and the Prosecution's Response within 28 days of the Order.

Copies of all the documents will be available after the briefing.

In terms of court scheduling, there will be a plenary next week on Tuesday 23 April, so there will be no court proceedings that day.

Jean-Jacques Joris, Special Adviser to the Prosecutor, made the following statement:

The Prosecutor is currently travelling, she was in Sarajevo today, she will be in Belgrade tomorrow and in Pristina the day after tomorrow. She will also be travelling next week, after the plenary session of 23 April. On 24 April she will be in Strasbourg at the Council of Europe and then she will travel to Madrid.

Questions:

• Asked whether reports mentioned by the Prosecutor (Mr. Nice) that no more Albanian translation would be available in the Milosevic case could be confirmed, Landale replied that he could not confirm these reports, however, he repeated Judge May's response that the Trial Chamber would also be concerned if that were to be the case. No decision had been taken at this point in time to cease the Albanian translation, he added.
  
  
• Asked if and why the issue had been discussed, Landale replied that it was the subject of some internal discussion.
  
  Asked about a report in the media in Belgrade that the Prosecutor had decided not to indict certain individuals in order to maintain a good relationship with the Belgrade authorities, Joris replied that this was not true.
  
  
• Asked who the Prosecutor would be meeting while she was travelling, Joris replied that the Prosecutor would meet with Federal and Serbian authorities when she was in Belgrade. From the Federal side with Ministers Markovic and Svilanovic, and on the Serbian side with the Minister of Interior, Mr. Mihajlovic, the Minister of Justice, Mr. Batic, and with Mr. Covic. In Kosovo she would meet with Mr. Steiner, General Valentin, President Rugova and Prime Minister Rexhepi In Strasbourg, she would meet with the President of the Parliamentary Assembly and with the Secretary-General. The Prosecutor was also invited to address the delegates and would also meet with the Judges of the Court. The Prosecutor would be returning a visit made last year by the former President of the Assembly, Lord Russel Johnston. In Madrid, the Prosecutor would receive a prize given to her by the University Complutense and the next morning she would meet with the Foreign Minister of Spain. The Prosecutor would also participate in an international meeting on human rights, he concluded.
  
  
• Asked if, following the adoption of a Law on Cooperation with the Tribunal, indictees who surrendered voluntarily could receive guarantees from the Belgrade authorities that they could wait in the FRY until the beginning of their trials, Joris replied that any decision taken in Belgrade about assisting those people who might surrender to the Tribunal did in no way bind the Tribunal. Decisions on the provisional release of accused were not in the hands of the authorities of Belgrade, nor in the hands of the Prosecution. It was a decision for the Chambers, he said.
  
  
• Joris added that Article 39 of the Law which limited the application of the Law, as far as arrests and transfers to The Hague were concerned, to those who were indicted before the entering into force of the Law, was incompatible with the Statute of the Tribunal and could not be invoked against it.
  
  
• Asked if the Tribunal had been in contact with the authorities in Belgrade allowing them to reveal names of secretly indicted persons, Joris replied that the list of the names of indicted people was public and this public list had been given to the authorities in Belgrade.
  
  
• Asked if the Prosecution thought there were 20 indicted people in the FRY, Joris replied that of the 25 people, most were known to be in the FRY, while some might travel back and forth between the FRY and the RS.

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