Tribunal Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Page 7621

1 Thursday, 27 June 2002

2 [Open session]

3 --- Upon commencing at 2.15 p.m.

4 [The accused entered court]

5 JUDGE AGIUS: Madam Registrar, please call the case.

6 THE REGISTRAR: Yes, Your Honour. This is the case number,

7 IT-99-36-T, the Prosecutor versus Radoslav Brdjanin and Momir Talic.

8 JUDGE AGIUS: Mr. Brdjanin, good afternoon to you. Can you hear

9 me in a language that you can understand?

10 THE ACCUSED BRDJANIN: [Interpretation] [Microphone not activated]

11 Yes, Your Honour.

12 JUDGE AGIUS: I thank you.

13 General Talic, the same question. Good afternoon to you. Can you

14 hear me in a language that you can understand?

15 THE ACCUSED TALIC: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour.

16 Yes, I can hear you in a language I understand.

17 JUDGE AGIUS: I thank you. You may sit down.

18 Appearances for the Prosecution.

19 MR. NICHOLLS: Good afternoon, Your Honours. Julian Nicholls with

20 Ms. Gustin for the Prosecution.

21 JUDGE AGIUS: Good afternoon to you, Mr. Nicholls.

22 Appearances for Mr. Brdjanin.

23 MR. ACKERMAN: Good afternoon, Your Honours. I'm John Ackerman

24 along with co-counsel Milan Trbojevic and assistant Marela Jevtovic.

25 JUDGE AGIUS: Good afternoon.

Page 7622

1 Appearances for General Talic.

2 MR. ZECEVIC: Good afternoon, Your Honours. Slobodan Zecevic and

3 Natasha Ivanovic-Fauveau for General Talic.

4 JUDGE AGIUS: Good afternoon to you too.

5 Any preliminaries before we call in the witness?

6 Yes, Mr. Ackerman.

7 MR. ACKERMAN: Your Honour, I handed the registrar copies of our

8 proposed sitting schedule to be given to you, and I think you have them in

9 front of you.

10 JUDGE AGIUS: Yes.

11 MR. ACKERMAN: These are -- this is an agreed proposed schedule by

12 both the Talic and Brdjanin teams.

13 We received news from Ms. Korner this morning that she does not

14 agree. She wants us to sit for nine straight weeks once we start on

15 August 26th. And I will just tell you that we just can't do that. That

16 is just beyond our physical capabilities. To sit for that many weeks in a

17 case of this magnitude, it ignores our physical, emotional needs and

18 everything else.

19 The UN has rules regarding the number of hours that people are

20 permitted to work. I tell Your Honours that when we're in session here,

21 we work nights, we works mornings, we work afternoons, we work Saturdays,

22 we work Sundays, we work Saturday nights, we work Sunday nights. And we

23 don't have the kind of staff that the Prosecutor has. While Mr. Nicholls

24 is in here doing this witness, they've got people out doing other work on

25 the case. Everybody who works on our case is in here. And so it creates

Page 7623

1 a disadvantage for the Defence to make us work a schedule of as much as

2 nine weeks in a row.

3 I also have -- I'm the only one who comes from miles and miles

4 away. Everybody else in this case - and I don't mean to exclude

5 Judge Taya, because she comes from miles and miles away too - but everyone

6 else in this case from a lawyer standpoint could get on an airplane and go

7 home for a weekend. I can't. I can't go home for a weekend. I have to

8 have at least a four- or five-day break before I could justify flying all

9 the way to Texas. And that's something I need to do. And I need to do it

10 more often than once every eight or nine weeks. So I plead to Your

11 Honours that this is not an unreasonable schedule. I will continue to

12 cooperate in every way I can to make this case move forward. I've done it

13 a lot, as you know, since we've been going along. But I do have to have

14 these breaks.

15 I'm -- as you pointed out, Your Honour, I'm older than you are,

16 and you know that I have had some medical problems in this case already,

17 and stress is not good for me. And when we get into these very, very long

18 sessions, stress continues to be build as I get further and further

19 behind. So I really would appreciate your consideration of this request.

20 MR. ZECEVIC: Your Honours.

21 JUDGE AGIUS: Yes, Mr. Zecevic.

22 MR. ZECEVIC: We're joining the -- the motion of our learned

23 colleague John Ackerman.

24 [Trial Chamber confers]

25 JUDGE AGIUS: We'll discuss it next week, and we'll --

Page 7624

1 Do you have anything to say about what Mr. Ackerman said?

2 MR. NICHOLLS: No. I understand that everything that he said is

3 quite obvious. I'm not sure if Your Honours have a proposed schedule from

4 Ms. Korner.

5 JUDGE AGIUS: No, we don't have that.

6 MR. NICHOLLS: I can --

7 JUDGE AGIUS: If you can hand me that. Do you have a copy of

8 Ms. Korner's --

9 MR. NICHOLLS: Sorry, I only have one. I agree with Your

10 Honours. If I can discuss it with Ms. Korner, and perhaps she can talk to

11 the Defence and work something out.

12 JUDGE AGIUS: Anyway, we'll come back to you either Monday or

13 Tuesday of next week. Thank you.

14 Any other further preliminaries?

15 MR. NICHOLLS: Not really a preliminary, Your Honour. I've just

16 heard that Ms. Richterova is going to join me, which I'm glad of, and she

17 will be with us soon.

18 JUDGE AGIUS: And I suppose your witness will be before -- will

19 arrive before she does.

20 MR. NICHOLLS: Yes. We can get under way. It is a closed

21 session.

22 JUDGE AGIUS: Yes. So let's prepare the courtroom for closed

23 session. We will go into closed session now.

24 [Closed session]

25 [redacted]

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13 --- Whereupon the hearing adjourned

14 at 6.18 p.m., to be reconvened on Monday,

15 the 1st day of July, 2002, at 2.15 p.m.

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