WELCOME TO IWPRS TRIBUNAL UPDATE No. 484, January, 12, 2007 US LACKS CONFIDENCE IN BALKAN COURTS American officials are adamant that local judiciaries should not try Karadzic and Mladic. By Katy Glassborow and Aleksandar Roknic in The Hague
BOSNIA: A HOUSE DIVIDED One of the Hague tribunals aims is to promote reconciliation, but ethnic divisions in Bosnia show little sign of easing. By Katherine Boyle in The Hague COURTSIDE: PROSECUTION DEMANDS LIFE FOR MARTIC Defence dismisses case against former leader of rebel Serb authorities in Croatia as fiction. By Caroline Tosh in The Hague NEW SARAJEVO SIEGE TRIAL Dragomir Milosevic who commanded the Bosnian Serb Sarajevo Romanija Corps has gone on trial on charges relating to the siege of Sarajevo. By Aleksandar Roknic in The Hague BRIEFLY NOTED: RWANDAN SUSPECTS FACE EXTRADITION CALLS Despite human rights concerns, Rwanda wants to try genocide suspects arrested in the UK. By Caroline Tosh in The Hague SESELJ MAKING SPEEDY RECOVERY Serbian ultranationalist leader claims he is recovering from the after effects of his hunger strike. By Merdijana Sadovic in Sarajevo SUSPECTS ON HUNGER STRIKE Proceedings at the Bosnian war crimes court came to a halt this week due to a mass hunger strike. By Merdijana Sadovic **** NEW AT IWPR ****************************************************************** 2006 KURT SCHORK AWARDS IN INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM For details about the winners as well as the awards ceremony held in London please go to: http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=henh&s=o&o=top_ksa_2006.html IWPR LAUNCHES CENTRAL ASIAN NEWS AGENCY: News Briefing Central Asia is a new concept in regional reporting, comprising analysis and news behind the news in Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Available at: www.NBCentralAsia.net INTRODUCTION TO THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT Available at http://iwpr.net/?apc_state=henotri&s=o&o=tribunal_icc_00.html **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** TRIBUNAL UPDATE RSS: http://www.iwpr.net/en/tri/rss.xml RECEIVE FROM IWPR: Readers are urged to subscribe to IWPR's full range of free electronic publications at: http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=henh&s=s&m=p GIVE TO IWPR: IWPR is wholly dependent upon grants and donations. For more information about how you can support IWPR go to: http://www.iwpr.net/donate.html **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** US LACKS CONFIDENCE IN BALKAN COURTS American officials are adamant that local judiciaries should not try Karadzic and Mladic By Katy Glassborow and Aleksandar Roknic in The Hague The US ambassador for war crimes says fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic should face an international court if they are captured after the Hague tribunal is closed. Clint Williamson recently told the Sarajevo newspaper Dnevni Avaz that if the tribunal winds down in 2010 as planned, a new body in the international system must be found to try them. He added it would be absolutely unacceptable to try Karadzic and Mladic in Belgrade. This adds a fresh dimension to the time pressure the tribunal is already under to finish all trials by 2008 and appeals by 2010. Williamson said that if Karadzic and Mladic are arrested and come to the tribunal in 2009, we must be flexible and allow the tribunal to try them. If this optimistic hypothesis does not play out and the tribunal closes without Karadzic and Mladic, we must find a body in the international jurisdictional justice system to try them, said Williamson. The spokesperson for the prosecutor at the tribunal, Olga Kavran, told IWPR that Karadic and Mladic must be tried at the ICTY, and that we should not close our doors until this happens. Kavran said there are still some years remaining to catch all six ICTY fugitives and insisted that they cannot be tried before local courts. Just in case, the US ambassador said his country is engaged in talks with governments and the international community over different bodies which might succeed the tribunal. The worlds first permanent war crimes court - the International Criminal Court, ICC, also based in The Hague - may seem like an obvious choice to replace the ad hoc war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia that preceded it. However, prosecutors in this court only have jurisdiction over crimes committed after 2002 when it was founded. Another problem is that the ICC is not supported by the US. The special assistant to the US war crimes ambassador, Matthew Lavine, told IWPR that in consultation with other governments and the ad hoc tribunals themselves, the US is envisaging a residual reserve capacity for the ICTY, with a small, permanent registry to persist after 2010. Lavine explained that the ICTY could forge an agreement with the ICC to use their facilities, in the same way that the Special Court for Sierra Leone has negotiated the trial of Charles Taylor to be hosted in The Hague, rather than in Freetown where the Special Court is based. It is important to establish an international mechanism that can always be there to try fugitives and send a message that they cannot escape justice or outlive the tribunal, said Lavine. Others agree that this is the only viable route for the ICTY past 2010. William A. Schabas, the director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, said that the tribunal will have to maintain some presence to deal with issues such as the detention of accused in custody past 2010. He said it cannot be ruled out that new witnesses could one day come forward proving categorically that one of the convicted was not in Yugoslavia during the Nineties atrocities, adding the ICTY statute provides for reviewing cases that have been completed, with no time limit. Therefore, a skeleton ICTY must be on standby after the doors of the tribunal are closed for new cases, with a handful of judges who could reconvene at short notice in a courtroom borrowed from the ICC to deal with new evidence or parole issues. A different option is that of universal jurisdiction. A three-judge ICTY referral bench could send cases to the courts of the territory where the crime took place such as Bosnia; the courts of the country where the accused was arrested; or even to a country other than those of the former Yugoslavia such as Norway or Canada. The judges would consider the gravity of the crimes charged and the level of responsibility of the accused, which Schabas says would be used as an argument against the court sending important offenders to national courts. Lavine worries that because Balkans courts do not practise extradition, there is no way of getting a suspect tried in Bosnia if he is apprehended in Serbia, for example. However, Schabas says the rules can be changed by judges, explaining that this is not a choice between a new international tribunal and the Bosnian courts as Karadzic and Mladic could be prosecuted by national courts in countries like Belgium or the Netherlands. This seems to be a slap in the face for courts in the former Yugoslavia, especially the Belgrade District Court War Crimes Chamber and Bosnias War Crimes Chamber in Sarajevo, which have been working hard to try lower ranking accused. But several international lawyers are urging them not to be discouraged. Stuart Alsford from the International Bar Association told IWPR that very few national courts exist anywhere in the world that could deal with cases of this complexity. Ironically, it is those countries emerging from years of conflict which are asked to deal with cases of grave war crimes and crimes against humanity, which is why international assistance is always necessary. Even Iraqs attempts to try Saddam Hussein locally necessitated huge assistance from the US and a plethora of other international organisations, and still the fairness of his trial was criticised. Alsford added that if it were possible for the international community to put together a package of support to assist national judiciaries - such as in Iraq and Cambodia - then this should be the first consideration once the ICTY is gone. Accordingly in 2003, the US gave the Serbian judiciary four million US dollars to restore the old military court which now houses the War Crimes Chamber and 870,000 dollars for electronic equipment. They also provided support for the establishment of a victim support unit, and in December 2006 donated 50,000 dollars to the Belgrade court to buy audio equipment for the new fifth courtroom. Alsford said trials of war crimes suspect in domestic courts is the future and at the heart of complementarity, a principle underpinning international law which puts the first responsibility on the national justice system. However, Alsford acknowledged that there needs to be a system to deal with cases when the national system cannot, but said the issue is at which point to intervene and provide assistance to the country, or take the case away to stage it elsewhere. Dejan Anastasijevic, a journalist from the Belgrade-based news magazine Vreme (Time), told IWPR that the Americans are insisting on trials in The Hague because Karadzic and Mladic are big fish, too big for local judiciaries. However, he said the US government supports trials of lower ranking accused in local courtrooms and also investigations being carried out in national judiciaries. The spokesman for the prosecutors office in Sarajevo, Boris Grubesic, told IWPR that Bosnias court is capable of trying Karadzic and Mladic, having proved this already by prosecuting 50 individuals in 27 cases for war crimes. But he added that the general attitude in Sarajevo is that they should be tried in the Hague tribunal, because they were such high ranking political and army officials in Republika Srpska during the Bosnian war. Lavine told IWPR that if local judiciaries are capable and willing to try cases, as a matter of principal it is always preferable for suspects to be tried in those countries, as this is the best route towards reconciliation. He said that the US has confidence in national courts, and that in November 2006 the Bosnian court successfully completed the case against Radovan Stankovic - which was passed down from the ICTY - to a very high standard. Stankovic was sentenced to 16 years in jail. Lavine also pointed to the Ovcara case, which centred on crimes Croatias Serbs committed against Croats in Vukovar in November 1991. Fourteen former soldiers from the Vukovar Territorial defence, TO, were accused of participating in the killings of more than 200 Croat patients and civilians taken out from the Vukovar hospital after the town was overrun by the Yugoslav army. Lavine says the case is a great testament that Serbs could try their own war crimes suspects in Serbia. In December 2005, all 14 TO members were found guilty by the War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade District Court, but one year later, the Serbian Supreme Court overturned this verdict and ordered a retrial. The US, which was convinced that the trial in Belgrade was run by the book, were disappointed with this new development. There is a reason to suspect this was a political decision, said Lavine. The Americans worry that the same may happen in a case against Karadzic or Mladic if tried locally and are concerned that supporters of the suspects may exert political pressure, which would be very damaging for a case that is so politically sensitive. Alsford told IWPR that Karadzic and Mladic carry with them huge loyalties, which is how they have evaded capture but also feelings of revulsion for what happened, and stand accused of deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Therefore, national trials could spark all kinds of difficulties, he said. It seems that this argument was central to the tribunals prosecutors June 2005 decision to withdraw their earlier suggestion that the Vukovar Three trial should be referred from The Hague to local judiciary in Croatia or Serbia. Former Yugoslav army officers Veselin Sljivancanin, Mile Mrksic and Miroslav Radic are currently on trial for allegedly commanding and supervising troops - including those on trial in Belgrade - who killed 200 Croats at the Ovcara farm near Vukovar. In a report to the judges explaining her decision, the tribunals chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte said there were several potential problems during the talks with Croatian and Serbian authorities. In July 2005, the trial chamber decided the Vukovar case was not eligible to be sent to national judiciaries, because the accused were high-ranking officers indicted for very serious crimes, with emotions surrounding the case very strong in the region. Therefore, the trial of the Vukovar Three started in The Hague in October 2005. Lavine reiterated that the US has confidence in local judiciaries, but because of the political stature of Karadzic and Mladic, local courts are not the solution - partly because the accused may have more confidence, and a chance to distort the record in a court in Belgrade. Because ad hoc criminal tribunals will not be repeated, due to their expense and the existence of the new permanent ICC, justice for those outstanding Yugoslav suspects will be a combination of a skeleton ICTY at the ICC, with domestically tried cases. Alsford said that the Security Council may even be able to identify former ICTY judges to go and hear cases locally, producing a hybrid system like in the Special Court for Sierra Leone. It is also worth remembering that the tribunal has indicted 161 individuals, but there were a vast number of crimes committed between 1992 and 1999 in the conflict that devastated the former Yugoslavia. Kavran told IWPR that local courts still need to exercise their jurisdiction, which is in complement to the tribunals. She said the ICTY will try those with the highest level of responsibility, but there are hundreds if not thousands of individuals that need to be tried for crimes committed, so the local courts have plenty of opportunity to prove their ability to try these crimes. Katy Glassborow and Aleksandar Roknic are IWPR reporters in The Hague. BOSNIA: A HOUSE DIVIDED One of the Hague tribunals aims is to promote reconciliation, but ethnic divisions in Bosnia show little sign of easing. By Katherine Boyle in The Hague Overnight people became beasts. Seida Karabasic can think of no other explanation for the beginning of the Balkan wars, which in 1992 turned neighbour against neighbour in her municipality of Prijedor. Because it happened so quickly, a lot of people dont trust those of other ethnicities anymore, said Karabasic, who is ethnically Muslim, or Bosniak. They feel [the fighting] could happen again at anytime. Across Bosnia, this distrust is evident not only in peoples attitudes but also in the ethnic makeup of communities. Many areas that were ethnically diverse before the war are now home to homogeneous communities. The shift has been facilitated in part by the large number of Bosnians who were killed during the war or fled the country. But another significant contributing factor has been the relocation of many Muslims, Serbs and Croats to different areas of Bosnia. Since the wars of the Nineties, Bosnia has been divided in two territories, the primarily Bosniak and Croat Federation and the mainly Serb Republika Srpska, RS, in which Prijedor is located. Strong Muslim communities are located in Travnik, Bocinja/Zavidovici, Tesanj, Maglaj, Bugojno and Zenica, while prominent Serb areas include Banja Luka, Trebinje and Bijeljina. Ethnic and religious differences between the territories are quickly apparent. As travelers drive into the RS, they are greeted by a sign proclaiming Welcome to Republika Srpska in Cyrillic letters the alphabet generally used by Serbs. Bosniaks tend to use the Latin alphabet. Underneath the words is the RS coat of arms two warlike eagles wearing an elaborate crown topped by a cross, likely symbolic of the Serbian Orthodox Church. In Prijedor, the population after the war was almost entirely Serb. Now, it is the most ethnically mixed municipality in the RS, with the highest number of Bosniak returnees. Yet despite this progress, only half of the pre-war Bosniak population of 49,500 has returned, according to the US State Departments 2006 International Religious Freedom Report. However, even in areas that are only partially mixed, ethnic conflict occurs. In Prijedor during 2005, a Muslim graveyard was desecrated and mosques were vandalised three times during the month of Ramadan. And most Bosniaks in the municipality maintain that Prijedor will never be the same as it was before the war. They claim the area was once a model of tolerance where many ethnic groups peacefully co-existed, but say it is now fiercely divided along ethnic lines. It is difficult for some Bosniaks to forgive and forget Serb persecution that occurred in the municipality, particularly when they think of those who will never be able to return to Prijedor. Karabasic is the president of the Izvor Association of Prijedor Women, an organisation dedicated to finding out what happened to Prijedors 3,228 missing and killed persons. Her own father was murdered by a sniper during the war, and her brother, a member of the Bosnian Army, was paralysed. As she leafs through a thick, heavy book, hundreds of black-and-white snapshots stare out from its pages, including 123 children and 228 women. Above some names there are question marks. They were unable to find photos of these individuals, said Karabasic, explaining that any pictures were likely burned along with the persons home during the war. Many of these people are thought to have died in the concentration camps that surrounded Prijedor in 1992: Omarska, Trnopolje and Keraterm. The camps were closed in August 1992 when journalists released photos of Omarskas gaunt inhabitants, but an unknown number of detainees had already been executed. The International Commission for Missing Persons, ICMP, has been active in advocating the exhumation and identification of their bodies from mass graves around the area. With their help, a number of victims have been identified through DNA testing. But a decade later, the atrocities committed still haunt the friends and relatives of the missing and confirmed dead as well as the survivors of the camps. And many Bosniak residents of Prijedor claim that the Serbs refuse to acknowledge what happened. The crimes need to be discussed openly, said Karabasic. Serb local people dont want to hear about it. But for others, such as Lejla Arifagic, it is something that cannot be forgotten. Her fathers body was exhumed from a mass grave near Omarksa camp last year. The last time I saw my father was May 25, 1992, said Arifagic, who is now a 23-year-old journalism student in Sarajevo. Later, after they were separated, she heard he was in Omarska. No word came until a decade later, when her mother received a phone call requesting that they both give DNA because a mass grave with 200 men in it had been unearthed near Omarska. After his body was identified, a funeral was held in July, which she said has provided her with some sense of closure. Im always dreaming of him, said Arifagic. Thats a normal thing for me, but now, after the funeral, the dreams are nice. I have a feeling he is fine now. And knowing where he is may also provide a sense of healing, she said. I have a place I can go and pray, a place I can go and talk and a place I can go and cry if I want to, she added. But despite the notoriety of the camps and the large number of Muslims killed, visitors to Prijedor will find no memorials for their dead. In the town, there are only memorials for Serb civilians and Serb soldiers. Karabasic points out that a civilian memorial would have been much more inclusive had the government erected it for all civilians rather than just Serbs. Now, she said, it only causes resentment. Azra Pasalic, the Bosniak president of Prijedors municipal council, agreed, but noted the municipality is working to erect a new sign or statue that would honor members of all ethnic groups who lost their lives in the war. Many Muslim returnees to Prijedor are also deeply upset that they have been unable to go back to their former jobs, added Karabasic, despite laws stating that they must be reinstated to the positions they held in 1991. The local government says they cant and wont [reinstate them], said Karabisic, noting that the government is now primarily made up of Serbs. They say they wont fire someone in order to hire someone else. If the difficult economic situation improved, she added, it would likely improve relations between ethnic groups. For now, however, she said she believes Serbs hire only Serbs, unless they are forced to maintain a percentage of Muslim employees in order to receive money from an NGO. Judge Nusreta Sivac has been unable to regain the judiciary post in Prijedor she held before Serbs overran the town and took over all its legal positions in 1992. Afterwards, she was put in Omarska camp, along with many other detainees who had leading roles in the community. When Sivac returned to Prijedor she found a former co-worker squatting in her apartment. Although the man refused to leave, with the help of the authorities she was eventually able to force him out in 2002. When neighbours realised she was back to stay, she said she returned home one night to find the word Omarska spray-painted across her door, dredging up chilling memories. Because Sivac is unable to regain her job in Prijedor, she is forced to work in Sanski Most, about 30 kilometers away. These kinds of problems mean many Muslims and Serbs have left Bosnia to seek work elsewhere. For other Muslims originally from Prijedor, their home base has shifted to Kozarac and Sanski Most, nearby communities that are almost entirely Muslim. Sanski Most is located inside the Federation. Karabasic, who used to live there, said Bosniak families feel safer surrounded by other Muslims, and since moving to Prijedor she feels unwanted. The Arifagices moved to Sanski Most for the same reason after spending the war in Croatia. In Kozarac, visitors are confronted with the eerie sight of bombed buildings next to large, new houses, many of which are empty. In the cold light of winter, the town looks nearly deserted, although it boasts a number of discotheques, restaurants and even an internet café. During the summer, however, things are brighter and Kozarac is filled with the sounds of children playing, adults chatting over coffee and, of course, young people flirting. But here, summer romances are more than just flings. Some of the teens are spending their summer holidays in Bosnia, but live in other communities abroad. Many come back to Kozarac in the summer months with the idea of finding a husband or wife, said 32-year-old Sudbin Music. The situation seems to benefit everyone: the young person who is able to leave and find new opportunities, the family at home who will benefit from the paycheck earned abroad and the member of the Diaspora who has found a mate with a link to their country. Music, a slight, blonde man who looks older than his years, is, like many other Bosnians, supported by a relative abroad. His brother in Chicago regularly sends him money because it is so difficult for him to find work in Prijedor. His community, Carakovo, within the municipality of Prijedor, used to be a largely Muslim area, but now is nearly all Serb as the Muslim residents were killed or forced to flee. The political influence of Bosniaks here is zero, he said. Although Prijedor has become more diverse again, Karabasic fears it will never be the same as it was before the war. Now everyone knows which coffee shop is for which nationality, she said. Before the war, everyone went wherever they wanted, lived right next door to each other and were close. Now they are deeply separated. Another key cause of division is the controversy over the prosecution of war criminals. The trials and their sentences seem to satisfy no one. Many Bosniaks feel the sentences handed down are inadequate. Serbs seem to have more conflicted feelings. Some say the trials are important for justice and reconciliation while others believe many of those on trial are innocent or even war heroes. Karabasic cannot see these divisions being overcome any time soon. Never again in Prijedor will Muslims have the position and status we once had, she said. We will always remain a minority. Bosnias capital, Sarajevo, which sits nestled in between the dark mountains, has also become more homogeneous since the war, although here it is the Bosniak population that has increased. Before the war, the city hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics and was known for its multiculturalism. In 1991, the population was approximately half Muslim, a third Serb and just under a tenth Croat, according to an official census. But after the fighting began, the city known as the Valley of Dreams instead became a place of nightmares. Rizah Smailbegovic was 12 when the fighting started in Bosnia. Born in Sarajevo, he grew up in an atmosphere where marriages between Muslims, Serbs and Croats were common. All of that changed when the war broke out in 1992. Every time you wanted to go and get bread you would run across the street, said Smailbegovic. Someone was shooting at you - it was like in the movies. Smailbegovic said his parents never wanted he or his brother, who was six when the war started, to leave their apartment. In some areas, sniper fire and shelling caused schools to be closed and teachers came to an alternative, safer location where their students could gather. Essentials such as electricity, food and water became scarce commodities as the siege lengthened. And evidence of the eras violence, in the form of scarred buildings, pockmarked by bullet fire and ravaged by shells, continues to serve as a constant reminder of ethnic divisions. Now, said Smailbegovic, his peers are suffering the consequences of a childhood spent under siege. A whole generation is messed up, he said. In a sense, theyve lost direction. They were raised on a whole new set of values. The people who came to power [in Bosnia] have not been the nicest. Smailbegovic described a shady political system based on money - both during the war and afterwards. It created a lost generation, he said. Around 1999 or 2000, the money from NGOs began to dry up, he added, noting that some of the ethnic conflict in Bosnia would disappear if the employment rate and income levels rose. According to a 2002 estimate by Sarajevo officials, the city was nearly 80 per cent Bosniak, many of the Serbs having fled to more ethnically homogeneous Serb areas of the country. However, people from every ethnic group have left not only the city but the country as well, hoping to find jobs elsewhere in Europe, Canada or the United States. Many seem to have left for purely economic reasons rather than to escape current ethnic strife, although the war is largely responsible for the devastation of Bosnias economy. If Bosnia joined the EU, some would come back, predicted Smailbegovic. He is one of the lucky ones, having obtained a job with Civitas, an NGO that works to promote healing and tolerance in war-torn Bosnian communities. Dejan Drobac, a 23-year-old Sarajevo native, is studying forestry and hopes to find a job in that industry once he graduates. Unlike many of his friends, Drobac is a Serb but said he was able to overcome ethnic divisions in Sarajevo because his family was one of the few Serb families that stayed throughout the siege. Drobac described how nationalist parties dredge up ethnic hatred across Bosnia. He said politicians and cultural leaders use scare tactics, such as claiming that their people are on the brink of destruction, to promote nationalism and clannishness among their own ethnic group. In a new era of largely mono-ethnic townships and regions, the ethnic violence in Sarajevo does seem to have subsided since the Nineties. But, as 23-year-old Adnan Nuhodzic, a Bosniak from Sarajevo, explains, there isnt much opportunity for inter-ethnic clashes now. Of course there shouldnt be dislike between groups, he said. But there arent many Serbs in Sarajevo, so theres not much material for [conflict]. Nuhodzic is a friend of Drobac and said he trusts Serbs who remained in Sarajevo throughout the siege. One of my first neighbors was Serb, but he stayed here for the whole time, he added. Between people who lived through the siege there arent problems. Yet, despite this trust, Nuhodzic still believes war could break out again, and said when his passport recently expired he took his mothers advice and renewed it.You never know whats going to happen or could happen, he said. Now if [war] does happen, I have someplace to go. To others, this state of uncertainty is indicative of a greater problem - the clear divisions between ethnic groups that are still present a decade after the wars end. I think, in a sense, the war still goes on, because the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina has never been solved, said Music. The Dayton Accords were like the foundation for something that either needed to heal or separate. I live in hope that it will reunite or heal. Katherine Boyle is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. COURTSIDE: PROSECUTION DEMANDS LIFE FOR MARTIC Defence dismisses case against former leader of rebel Serb authorities in Croatia as fiction. By Caroline Tosh in The Hague Hague tribunal prosecutors this week called for the former leader of the rebel Serb authorities in Croatia to be sentenced to life in prison, citing the gravity of the crimes he was charged with. They also claim Milan Martics responsibility for those horrific crimes has been proven beyond reasonable doubt. The defence said Martic is not guilty and asked for his acquittal. The trial chamber heard closing arguments from the prosecution and defence just over a year after the start of Martics trial. During the 1991-95 war in Croatia, he was the president of the self-proclaimed Serbian Autonomous District, SAO, Krajina, and was charged with leading the local police force and other armed forces in the expulsion and murder of non-Serbs in Croatia during the same period. The prosecution said it had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Martic was responsible for the killing and persecution of non-Serbs in Krajina and also for the shelling of the Croatian capital in May 1995 - an attack which left seven civilians dead and some 200 wounded. The crimes in this case were extraordinarily grave and horrific. The prosecution therefore recommends that the accused Milan Martic should be sentenced for a term of imprisonment for life, said prosecutor Alex Whiting. Martic, dressed in a navy suit and striped tie, took notes as Whiting listed several aggravating factors related to the alleged crimes, which he said warranted the maximum sentence if Martic is convicted. He said Martic showed willing and enthusiastic participation in the events which went on from 1991 to 1995, all over the Krajina, again and again. Whiting added that Martic, who has pleaded not guilty to all counts, had shown no remorse whatsoever. Instead, he suggested, the trial chamber had heard justification for the crimes allegedly committed in the region, which was proclaimed the autonomous Serb republic of Krajina in 1991, after Croat nationalists won the country's first multi-party elections in 1990. Martic faces 19 charges - including crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war - for crimes such as murder, imprisonment, torture and the destruction of villages, as well as for the Zagreb bombing. He is also charged with involvement in a joint criminal enterprise - along with former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic - to forcibly remove the majority of the non-Serb population from large parts of Croatia and Bosnia, the end goal being the creation of a new Serb-dominated state. This week, Whiting claimed that the prosecution had proven Martic played a leading role in this enterprise, which began before August 1991 and lasted until at least August 1995. Its clear that Mr Martic did not just participate in the joint criminal enterprise. He was an essential component to its success, he said. Whiting argued that from beginning to end Martic controlled the regions police and military forces that the prosecution allege were behind the expulsion and murder of non-Serbs in the region. He described how the Croatian Serb leadership promoted ethnic hatred of Croats by way of a constant stream of propaganda that fostered a climate of fear amongst Serbs in the region. They had been told again and again and again that Croats were Ustasas that they were going to destroy the Serbs, he said. This hatred then made it possible for people to murder, detain, loot, and destroy in a campaign targeted against non-Serbs in Krajina, he said. Many of the people who committed these crimes had been persuaded that there was no evil in doing evil to evil people, he said, alluding to a statement made by a defence witness during the case. The principal leader who brought the people to this point was the accused Milan Martic. This attempt to drive out non-Serbs by terror and force worked, continued Whiting. By 1994, nearly all the Croats were gone from the Republic of Serbian Krajina, RSK, which the SAO came to be known as after December 1991. The prosecution also proved that Martic ordered the shelling of Zagreb in a desperate and unsuccessful attempt to stop Operation Flash in western Slavonia, said Whiting, referring to a successful Croat offensive in early 1995 to regain part of Krajina. Whiting said that Martics own words also supported the case against him, and read out many public statements made by the man who was caught on film claiming to be the puppet of Slobodan Milosevic. To bolster its case, the prosecution repeatedly referred to the testimony of Milan Babic - the former senior Croatian Serb politician and colleague of Martic, who hanged himself in the Hague detention unit in March last year. Babic testified against Martic as part of his a plea bargain in which he admitted his own responsibility for war crimes committed at the time, claiming Martic provoked the war in Croatia in 1991. But the prosecution case suffered a setback when Babic died before Martics defence lawyers could finish cross-examining him. In his closing arguments, Martics lawyer Predrag Milovancevic dismissed the prosecution case as fiction. The main position of the defence is that the prosecution failed to prove the allegations from the indictment all of them, he began. According to Milovancevic, the prosecution has applied a selective approach to events in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. He denied that Martic was ever motivated by chauvinism or intolerance towards a certain group, as claimed in the indictment. To counter this claim, he said, was testimony from a number of witnesses who testified that they never observed any traces of hatred or intolerance in [Martic] against the Croatian community. Milovancevic said that while the prosecution claimed that this case was not about who is to blame for the break-up of former Yugoslavia, the defence considered it a pertinent factor. Throughout its case, the defence has tried to show that it was the Croatian authorities that provoked the war with the Krajina Serbs, and not the other way around. This week, Milovancevic reiterated that during the period in question, an armed rebellion by the newly independent state of Croatia against the former Yugoslavia was taking place. He said that Martic was only trying to protect his people, who were afraid mass executions and persecutions of Serbs would ensue once Croatia was no longer part of Yugoslavia. A judgement is expected this spring or by early summer. Caroline Tosh is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. COURTSIDE: NEW SARAJEVO SIEGE TRIAL Dragomir Milosevic who commanded the Bosnian Serb Sarajevo Romanija Corps has gone on trial on charges relating to the siege of Sarajevo. By Aleksandar Roknic in The Hague The trial of a general in charge of Bosnian Serb forces that besieged Sarajevo during the 1992-95 Bosnian war began this week in The Hague. Two months after Bosnian Serb General Stanislav Galic was given a life sentence on appeal for his role in the campaign in the Bosnian capital from September 1992 to August 1994, his deputy commander and successor, General Dragomir Milosevic, stands in the dock on similar charges. Milosevic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Sarajevo Romanija Corps, is charged with seven counts of crimes against humanity and violations of laws and customs of war for the artillery and sniper attacks which terrorised the inhabitants of Sarajevo from August 1994 until November 1995. He surrendered to the tribunal in December 2004 and pleaded not guilty to all charges. During the three-year siege, the Bosnian Serb Army killed and wounded thousands of civilians. The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights estimated that 11,700 people were killed, including 1,500 children. The Galic judgment found that civilians were targeted as they carried out daily activities like tending vegetable plots, shopping for food or walking with friends. Some victims were even injured and killed in the shelter of their own homes, as gunfire penetrated the windows. According to the indictment against Milosevic, the sustained attack on Sarajevo civilians was deliberate, indiscriminate and excessive with little military advantage anticipated. These attacks were designated to keep the inhabitants in a constant state of terror, it says. In his opening statement this week, prosecutor Alex Whiting said that for the 15 months that Milosevic commanded the Romanija Corps, civilians in Sarajevo were exposed to brutal shelling from superior military forces. The indiscriminate and deliberate shelling of civilians from Sarajevo Romanija Corps was intended to gain military advantage over the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH. They wanted to force them to capitulate, said Whiting. The prosecutor claimed that during his time as commander, Milosevic had almost 18,000 troops under his control and deployed them with a goal of spreading terror among people of Sarajevo. Every day for the people of Sarajevo was a matter of life and death. They were faced with a choice to die of the cold or to expose themselves to sniper fire in the search for bread, said Whiting. He told the judges that the prosecutor would present evidence that Milosevic gave an order on January 19, 1995 to provide the transport that brought snipers to Sarajevo. The second prosecutor in this case, Stefan Waespi, said that Milosevic took disciplinary action against deserters but never did anything to punish those responsible for sniper attacks against civilians. General Milosevic continued the terror campaign on Sarajevo begun by his predecessor General Galic. We believe that General Milosevic is guilty [of] all charges against him, said Waespi. The trial chamber has allowed the prosecution to call no more than 104 witnesses. It has given them 180 hours to present those witnesses, with the defence being given the same amount of time for cross-examination. This means the prosecution case will end by the beginning of April 2007. The defence has been given 45 days to present its case, and the trial chamber has decreed that the trial must be finished by mid July. Presiding judge Patrick Robinson said this is a straightforward case and could therefore be finished on time. It is unclear if the Galic sentence will be an important precedent, but its certain that the prosecutor will present similar evidence. The first witness will testify on January 15. Aleksandar Roknic is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. BRIEFLY NOTED: RWANDAN SUSPECTS FACE EXTRADITION CALLS Despite human rights concerns, Rwanda wants to try genocide suspects arrested in the UK. By Caroline Tosh in The Hague Rwanda has called for the extradition of four Rwandan men who have been remanded in custody by a British court, accused of taking part in the 1994 genocide. Vincent Bajinya, Charles Munyanez, Celestin Ugirashebuja and Emmanuel Nteziryayo appeared before the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on December 29. The men, who were arrested in a series of raids across the UK on December 28, deny charges of genocide related to the slaughter of an estimated 800,000 Tutsi and some moderate Hutus in Rwanda. Their extradition warrants accuse the men of killing and aiding and abetting the killing of Tutsis between January 1, 1994 and December 12, 1994 "with the intent to destroy in whole or in part, that group". They were arrested after a special agreement between Britain and Rwanda was signed - in which Rwanda has agreed to waive the death penalty if the suspects are convicted. British law does not allow extradition to countries that practice the death penalty. Bajinya, who changed his name to Vincent Brown on becoming a British citizen, was arrested in north London and is accused of coordinating Hutu militias in the Rwandan capital of Kigali in 1994. Munyaneza, arrested in Bedford, was a former local mayor and is alleged to have masterminded the slaughter of tens of thousands of Tutsis. Ugirashebuja, apprehended in Essex, is also a former mayor. He is accused of setting up roadblocks to prevent the escape of Tutsis. Nteziryayo, also an ex-mayor, was taken into custody in Manchester and is accused of attending meetings where the slaughter of Tutsis was planned. The Rwandan prosecutor general Martin Ngoga has praised the UK for arresting the men and called on other countries said to be harbouring Rwandan genocide suspects to follow its example. If extradited, it is too late for the four to face trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, ICTR, which is due to close in 2010. Human rights group Amnesty International has expressed concern that war crimes suspects will not get a fair trial in Rwanda. According to agency reports, the defendants will appear in court again on January 26. Caroline Tosh is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. *** SESELJ MAKING SPEEDY RECOVERY Serbian ultranationalist leader claims he is recovering from the after effects of his hunger strike. By Merdijana Sadovic in Sarajevo Vojislav Seselj has written to Hague judges telling them he is making a speedy recovery from his 28-day hunger strike but cant say when he will be fit enough to attend his trial. In the handwritten letter dated January 9, Seselj said he was still unable to give you a precise date when I will have recovered sufficiently to take part fully in the proceedings as a self-representing accused. He went on a hunger strike on November 10 after the tribunals judges decided to assign him a defence lawyer against his wishes. He ended it on December 8 when the court granted him the right to represent himself at his upcoming trial along with several other demands. He lost at least 25 kilogrammes during his protest, and doctors say he will need three to four months to recover. However, Seselj said the trial might need to be postponed even further. It should be borne in mind that I will require some time for intensive preparations with my legal advisors, he said. Merdijana Sadovic is the tribunal programmes project manager. *** SUSPECTS ON HUNGER STRIKE Proceedings at the Bosnian war crimes court came to a halt this week due to a mass hunger strike. By Merdijana Sadovic Around 40 war crimes indictees who are being tried or are awaiting trial at the Bosnian War Crimes Chamber launched a hunger strike this week, demanding to be tried under former Yugoslavia's more lenient criminal code. They are protesting against being tried under Bosnia's 2003 criminal code that is seen as harsher than the former Yugoslav version it replaced. Bosnia's 2003 code provides for a maximum prison term of 40 years instead of 15 under the old one, which was in force when the alleged offences took place. The hunger-strikers, who come from all three Bosnias ethnic groups, demand to be tried under the previous criminal code, claiming any crimes they committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war would have taken place under that legal framework. Those with ongoing court cases demand that they be released on bail, while those already convicted want their sentences annulled before being retried. Bosnias War Crimes Chamber was set up in 2005 in order to try lower- and mid-level cases and ease the burden on the Hague tribunal. It has so far sentenced eight people, while 22 are being tried or are awaiting trial. On January 12, the number of prisoners on a hunger strike rose to about 70, after dozens of those indicted for common crimes joined the protest launched by war crimes detainees, said national radio BH 1. Some 30 inmates of a prison in the central Bosnian town of Zenica, who had been sentenced for various criminal acts, are demanding that a law on pardoning prisoners be applied. The state court and prison authorities have so far refused to comment or to give any details on the report. Merdijana Sadovic is the tribunal programmes project manager. **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** TRIBUNAL UPDATE, the publication arm of IWPR's International Justice Project, produced since 1996, details the events and issues at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, at The Hague. These weekly reports, produced by IWPR's human rights and media training project, seek to contribute to regional and international understanding of the war crimes prosecution process. The opinions expressed in Tribunal Update are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR. Tribunal Update is supported by the European Commission, the Dutch Ministry for Development and Cooperation, the Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and other funders. IWPR also acknowledges general support from the Ford Foundation. TRIBUNAL UPDATE: Editor-in-Chief: Anthony Borden; Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan; Senior Editor: John MacLeod; International Justice Senior Editor: Merdijana Sadovic; International Justice Project Manager: Katy Glassborow; Reporter: Caroline Tosh; Translation: Predrag Brebanovic, and others. IWPR Project Development and Support: Executive Director: Anthony Borden; Strategy & Assessment Director: Alan Davis; Managing Director: Tim Williams. **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** IWPR builds democracy at the frontlines of conflict and change through the power of professional journalism. IWPR programs provide intensive hands-on training, extensive reporting and publishing, and ambitious initiatives to build the capacity of local media. Supporting peace-building, development and the rule of law, IWPR gives responsible local media a voice. Institute for War & Peace Reporting 48 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8LT, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7831 1030 Fax: +44 (0)20 7831 1050 For further details on this project and other information services and media programmes, go to: www.iwpr.net ISSN 1477-7940 Copyright © 2006 The Institute for War & Peace Reporting **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** If you wish to change your subscription details or unsubscribe please go to: http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=henh&s=s&m=p
