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Please
note that this is not a verbatim transcript of the Press Briefing.
It is merely a summary.
ICTY Weekly Press Briefing
Date: 09.06.2004
Time: 12.00 p.m.
Registry and Chambers:
Jim Landale, Spokesman for Registry
and Chambers, made the following statement:
Good afternoon,
I just have a few short items for you today.
First, I would like to announce
that the President of the Tribunal, Judge Meron, has accepted an
invitation from the Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Miomir
Zuzul, to pay an official visit to Croatia in September. We will
give you more details of the visit in due course.
I would also just like to note some comments that
have been reported in the Belgrade media criticizing the timing
of the latest reports to the Security Council by President Meron
and the Prosecutor. As I am sure all of you are aware, the United
Nations Security Council, in resolution 1534 of 26 March this year,
requested the ICTY to "provide to the Council, by 31 May
2004 and every six months thereafter, assessments by its President
and Prosecutor, setting out in detail the progress made towards
implementation of the Completion Strategy of the Tribunal".
In terms of the court
schedule:
In the case concerning allegations
against Milka Maglov, Trial Chamber II has revoked the previous
scheduling order which ordered that the proceedings resume on 14
June. A further scheduling order setting out the revised dates for
further proceedings will be issued in due course.
There will be a status conference
in The Prosecutor v. Mrksic, Radic and Sljivancanin this
Friday 11 June at 2.15 p.m.
There will be a status conference
in The Prosecutor v. Vojislav Seselj on Friday 14 June at
10 a.m. in Courtroom I and not on 11 June as previously announced.
There will be a status conference
in The Prosecutor v. Blagoje Simic on 21 June at 2.30 p.m.
in Courtroom I.
Finally, I understand that the
ADC will give a briefing after this.
See
also the latest ADC-ICTY press briefing.
Office of the Prosecution:
Florence Hartman for the Office
of the Prosecutor made no statement.
Questions:
A journalist asked if copies were available of the President’s and
Prosecutor’s reports to the Security Council. Landale replied that
the reports had been submitted to the Security Council, as requested,
within the specified deadline, and that now it was up to the United
Nations in New York as to whether or not the reports were made public.
Hartmann added that the part of the report
related to Serbia and Montenegro summarized the elements contained
in the complaint to the UN Security Council about non-cooperation
of Serbia and Montenegro with the Tribunal, pursuant Article 7 of
the ICTY Statute. She stated that the complaint was quite similar
to the report to the Security Council, and that the complaint was
a public document.
Landale said that, without going into details,
he could say that the President in his report had not spent a great
deal of time detailing again his opinion that there was very little
cooperation from Belgrade with the Tribunal. Landale reiterated
that the President’s view was that cooperation was almost non-existent
and that little or no action had been taken to improve the situation.
A journalist pointed out that today was
the deadline for the Dutch government to report on the efforts it
had undertaken to ensure that Colonel Karremans came to the Tribunal
to testify and asked if this report had been received by the Tribunal.
Landale replied that his understanding was that the seven day deadline
was for tomorrow. The Dutch government had been given an additional
seven days from last Thursday, he said.
Landale added that the Trial Chamber had requested
Mr. Karremans to appear at the Tribunal between 16 and 22 June,
2004, which was in the Decision giving the Dutch authorities another
7 days to respond. Landale stated that as far as he knew, there
was nothing back from the Dutch authorities yet.
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