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

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing
Date: 27.03.2002
Time: 2:00 p.m.

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

Good afternoon,

As you should know by now, the Milosevic trial will resume on April 8.

In the Stakic case, on 22 March we received the 'Prosecution's Submission of Statement of Expert Witness', which is a report on Prijedor and the Bosnian Krajina by Dr. Robert Donia.

Also in the Stakic case and filed on the same date, we have the Trial Chamber's 'Decision on Prosecution's Motion for Reconsideration of Trial Date and Final Scheduling Order'. The Prosecution's Motion is denied and a Pre-Trial conference has been provisionally set for 10 April 2002. The trial will commence on 16 April 2002.

In the Krstic case, we received a scheduling order on 22 March, ordering that there be a Status Conference on 5 April 2002 at 2.30 pm.

On 20 March, we received the 'Prosecution Response to Request for Provisional Release for Accused [Dragan] Jokic' and then on 21 'Dragan Jokic's Reply' to the Prosecution's Response.

On 22 March in the Kunarac and others case, we received a scheduling order setting a Status Conference for 5 April at 4 pm.

A reminder that this afternoon there will be a hearing in the Simic and others case to discuss issues pertaining to Rule 15 bis in Courtroom III at 2.30 pm.

Finally, a reminder that there will be no court proceedings on Friday or Monday due to Easter.

Florence Hartmann, Spokesman for Prosecution, made the following statement:

I am pleased to inform you that I have a new assistant. Her name is Liljana Vodenski Pitesa. She will start in April and will have her own telephone line. Liljana speaks the two official languages of the Tribunal as well as BCS. I hope she will be able to help you when I am not reachable and that it will be easier for your work.

I would like to add that there is some confusion that has arisen today in regards to an alleged statement that I made to the newspaper Dan. I strongly deny having said that Karadzic was in Montenegro or that any Montenegro officials of former officials will testify in the Milosevic trial. I was asked about these questions and I answered, as I always do, that according to our information Karadzic is in Republika Srpska (RS) and that I do not comment on any witnesses that may testify in any trial at the Tribunal.

Questions:

• Asked whether the ICTY could expect any of the accused from the former Yugoslavia to come to the Tribunal this month, Landale replied that there were a number of people who had been indicted by the Tribunal who were still fugitives. There were binding obligations to apprehend and transfer to the Tribunal those people so that they might stand trial. The Tribunal expected all states and authorities that were in the position, to do so as soon as possible, he concluded.
• Hartmann added that the Tribunal had 32 fugitives and that half of the fugitives were believed to be in Yugoslavia.
• Asked to comment on the statement by Branko Kostic, the former President of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, that the Prosecution had tried to contact him, Hartmann replied that she would not comment on this kind of allegation made in newspapers. There were too many and we did not update journalists on people we were meeting, she added.

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