WELCOME TO IWPRS TRIBUNAL UPDATE No. 524, November 2, 2007 TRANSCRIPTS SUGGEST CROATIA CONSPIRED TO BREAK UP BOSNIA Tribunal prosecutors want controversial presidential transcripts to be admitted into evidence in the case against six Bosnian Croat officials. Bu Oliver Bullough in London
POCAR: COURTS WORK MUST CONTINUE Hague tribunals president renews calls for the court to remain open beyond 2010. By Marije van der Werff in The Hague COURTSIDE: PROSECUTION TO APPEAL TWO VUKOVAR SENTENCES But their decision not to challenge the acquittal of Miroslav Radic has caused anger in Croatia. By Goran Jungvirth in Zagreb ALBANIAN MILITANTS PORTRAYED AS CRIMINALS AT BOSKOSKI TRIAL Defence team for Macedonias former interior minister challenge Albanian militants claim to be resistance fighters. By Brendan McKenna in The Hague APPEALS CHAMBER UPHOLDS ZELENOVIC JUDGMENT Tribunal judges dismiss appeal of Bosnian Serb convicted of wartime rapes in Foca. By Brendan McKenna in The Hague BRIEFLY NOTED: SERB OFFICER CHARGED WITH CONTEMPT Dragan Jokic claims hes not mentally fit to testify in Srebrenica trial. By Merdijana Sadovic **** IWPR RESOURCES ****************************************************************** CROSS CAUCASUS JOURNALISM NETWORK. IWPR has launched the website of a unique Caucasus-wide programme, funded by the EU and the Finnish government, forming a network of more than 50 journalists from across the North and South Caucasus. They are meeting and collaborating in all parts of the region over the next three years. www.crosscaucasus.net WINNERS OF 2007 KURT SCHORK AWARDS ANNOUNCED Please go to http://www.iwpr.net/kurtschork.html to find out more. SAHAR JOURNALISTS ASSISTANCE FUND: IWPR is establishing a fund, in honour of Sahar al-Haideri, to support journalist participants in its training and reporting programmes around the world. The Sahar Journalists Assistance Fund will be used to support local journalists in cases of exile or disability, or to assist their families in case of death in service. To find out more or donate please go to: http://www.iwpr.net/sahar.html COALITION FOR INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE (CIJ) TRIAL REPORTS ARCHIVE: When CIJ closed in 2006, it donated its searchable Trial Reports Archive to IWPR in recognition of our own reporting work and to ensure these courtroom reports would remain available to the public. Milosevic and other ICTY Trial Reports as well as Sierra Leone Reports are now available at <http://iwpr.net/?apc_state=hen&s=c> NOW AVAILABLE IN FRENCH: Reporting Justice: A Handbook on Covering War Crimes Courts. Part I: http://iwpr.net/pdf/reporting_justice_p1_w_fr.pdf; Part II: http://iwpr.net/pdf/reporting_justice_p2_w_fr.pdf 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 ******************************************************************** TRANSCRIPTS SUGGEST CROATIA CONSPIRED TO BREAK UP BOSNIA Tribunal prosecutors want controversial presidential transcripts to be admitted into evidence in the case against six Bosnian Croat officials. Bu Oliver Bullough in London The highest levels of the Croatian government secretly worked to seize part of Bosnia while pretending friendship with the Sarajevo government, according to documents prosecutors have asked to be admitted as evidence in the case against six high-ranking Bosnian Croat officials currently standing trial in The Hague. The documents, transcripts of the then Croatian president Franjo Tudjmans conversations, show Croatian officials believed the West supported it in its undercover bid to prevent a Muslim state being created in Europe. Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic were senior political and military leaders of the self-proclaimed Croat entity known as Herceg Bosna. They face 26 charges of war crimes for the expulsion and murder of Muslims in Bosnia during the Croatian-Muslim conflict in 1993. They are also accused of being part of a joint criminal enterprise to politically and militarily subjugate and ethnically cleanse Bosnian Muslims and other non-Croats from parts of Bosnia that they claimed as Herceg Bosna and to join this territory to a Greater Croatia. Also allegedly involved in this enterprise were Tudjman, former Croatian defence minister Gojko Susak and Mate Boban, president of Herceg Bosna. All three are now deceased. On October 29, the prosecutors asked the judges to admit into evidence 87 transcripts of president Tudjmans meetings with various people that took place at the time relevant to the indictment. Most of these transcripts have already been admitted in part or in full as evidence in other trials held at the Hague tribunal. Several of the transcripts record how Tudjman ordered regular Croatian troops to be secretly sent to Bosnia to set up checkpoints and to support the Croats living there. Gentlemen, weve succeeded, weve succeeded in getting not just Herceg Bosna, which is what we had. Weve [now] got - we can say this among ourselves - half of Bosnia, if were good at governing it, if we govern cleverly, said Tudjman at a meeting with representatives Herceg Bosna on November 24, 1995. Tudjman also regularly referred to Croatia as being on the front line against the expansion of world Islam, and even expressed sympathy for the Serbs because they are fellow Christians. Europe and the world are a bit afraid of the creation of an Islamic [state] in Europe. So that they would even be inclined for a division [of Bosnia] to be carried out between Croatia and Serbia in order to avoid having that separate Muslim state, you know, said Tudjman on January 8, 1992. The judges are expected to rule soon on whether all these transcripts will be admitted into evidence against the six accused Bosnian Croat officials. Oliver Bullough is an IWPR editor. POCAR: COURTS WORK MUST CONTINUE Hague tribunals president renews calls for the court to remain open beyond 2010. By Marije van der Werff in The Hague The president of the Hague tribunal Judge Fausto Pocar this week told legal advisers to the UN member states that the work of the court must continue beyond the end of its mandate in 2010. It is clear that, in order for the tribunal's impact to be lasting and for its contribution to the societies of the former Yugoslavia to be maximised and preserved, the legal foundation of the ICTY, its statute and rules of procedure and evidence, and some of its functions will have to continue beyond the conclusion of trials and appeals, he said. At the meeting in New York on October 29, Pocar said various tasks would still need to be done after the court was wound up - including trials of current fugitives, the referrals of cases to national jurisdictions as well as public information, capacity building and outreach. The Hague tribunal has indicted 161 people since it was established by the UN Security Council in 1993. Since the courts UN-mandated completion strategy was announced - under which all trials must finish by 2009 and all appeals by 2010 - observers have called for its mandate to be extended because key Bosnian Serb war crimes suspects Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic are still on the run. Some argue that outstanding trials should be handed over to judiciaries in the counties of the former Yugoslavia. While others maintain that national courts in the Balkans are not ready to prosecute those accused of such grave crimes, such as Karadzic or Mladic, who stand charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Bosnia - including the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995. Pocar, an Italian professor elected president of the court in 2005, said this week that the position of the tribunal was to posit radically downsized tribunals as the ideal residual mechanism to continue the work of the ICTY, as well as its sister court, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. During his speech, Pocar noted that one of the courts most significant achievements was its demonstration of the fact that international criminal law is an enforceable body of law. Moreover, the experience of the ICTY shows that the enforcement of this body of law, far from being an end in itself, does in fact advance the rule of law within the countries most affected by its action and contribute to lasting stability in the affected region. The president also addressed concerns about the possibility of conflicts over jurisdictions arising as a result of the proliferation of international courts in recent years. He said that such concerns should not be a deterrent for establishing international tribunals in the future. Possible conflicts will certainly be dealt with on an ad-hoc basis and will certainly not lead to impunity, he said. Marije van der Werff is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. COURTSIDE: PROSECUTION TO APPEAL TWO VUKOVAR SENTENCES But their decision not to challenge the acquittal of Miroslav Radic has caused anger in Croatia. By Goran Jungvirth in Zagreb While prosecutors at the Hague tribunal will appeal what they call the manifestly inadequate sentences given to two former Yugoslav Peoples Army, JNA, officers in the Vukovar trial, they will not dispute the acquittal of their co-accused. Miroslav Radic, Veselin Sljivancanin and Mile Mrksic were accused of involvement in the torture and murder of some 200 Croats at Ovcara farm outside the town of Vukovar in November 1991, in what was one of the most notorious atrocities of the Balkans wars. On September 27, Mrksic was sentenced to 20 years in prison for aiding and abetting murder, torture and cruel treatment, while Sljivancanin was given a sentence of five years for aiding and abetting torture. The trial chamber dismissed all charges of crimes against humanity, because they said that the 194 victims who had been identified were not civilians. Radic was acquitted of all charges, after judges found there was no evidence he was aware of the killings taking place at Ovcara. Croatia was outraged by the ruling, and its prosecutors issued a fresh arrest warrant for Radic at the beginning of October on the grounds that he led squads accused of random murders in Vukovar. Public anger was heightened further this week when news leaked out that the prosecutors did not intend to appeal his acquittal. It was concluded that an appeal against Radic would have no chance of success, the prosecutions spokeswoman, Olga Kavran, told IWPR. Upon learning the news, Croatian premier Ivo Sanader told the reporters he was absolutely astonished by the prosecutions decision not to appeal Radics verdict. If the Hague tribunal gave up on Radic, then Croatia will try him for war crimes, Sanader told the Croatian media, adding that this decision only put more pressure on Croatian judiciary to issue a new indictment against the Serb officer. Croatian lawyers are equally surprised by the Hague prosecutors move. Morals as well as a basic feeling of justice should have made the prosecution spare no effort in dealing with the crimes in Vukovar. It's irrelevant how slim their chances are," Croatian expert for international criminal law Ivo Josipovic told Croatian news agency Hina. Two other lawyers, both with extensive experience at the tribunal, also told IWPR they thought the prosecutors had been unprofessional in deciding not to appeal Radics acquittal. A real prosecutor would not do such a thing, said Anto Nobilo, formerly Croatias chief prosecutor and a defence lawyer for some indictees at the tribunal. He said the prosecution should either have dropped the charges against Radic before the trial even started, or stuck to them until the end and appealed the verdict. Nobilos stand was supported by his college Goran Mikulicic, a lawyer who is currently defending Croatian general Mladen Markac at the tribunal. This is a failure for our whole profession, Mikulicic told IWPR. Vukovars hospital, among the last buildings in the town to be taken by Serb forces, was full of patients, hospital staff and civilians sheltering in its corridors. Serb forces took some 200 men they suspected of being combatants, and hauled them to the pig farm at Ovcara where, according to the judgment, soldiers ''beat them with wooden sticks, rifle butts, poles, chains and even crutches''. This week, the prosecution announced it would ask for more severe sentences for Sljivancanin and Mrksic on the grounds that these were manifestly inadequate given the gravity of their crimes committed at Vukovar. Their notice of appeal also states that the judges made a mistake when they determined that the identified victims could not be considered civilian. They are calling for Sljivancanin to be convicted of aiding and abetting murder, and for harsher sentences for both men. Meanwhile, Mrksic and Sljivancanin have also appealed, claiming that the evidence was not strong enough to warrant their conviction. Lawyers say that Mrksic's role in the area where the killing took place was not determined correctly. Sljivancanins defence team said that, contrary to the verdict, his client was not in the area on the day of the crime and therefore could not be found guilty. Goran Jungvirth is an IWPR journalist in Zagreb. ALBANIAN MILITANTS PORTRAYED AS CRIMINALS AT BOSKOSKI TRIAL Defence team for Macedonias former interior minister challenge Albanian militants claim to be resistance fighters. By Brendan McKenna in The Hague Lawyers for a Macedonian official on trial for alleged war crimes this week sought to portray Albanian fighters his forces battled in 2001 as criminals funded by the mafia. The defence tactic appears to be aimed at challenging the Albanian National Liberation Armys view of itself as an organised resistance movement. Macedonias former interior minister Ljube Boskovski is being tried for murder, wanton destruction and cruel treatment of ethnic Albanian civilians in the village of Ljuboten in 2001. Proving that at the time of the attack on Ljuboten, Macedonia was in a state of armed conflict is the backbone of the prosecution case. Since the beginning of the trial, the prosecutors have said that the organisation and structure of both sides in the conflict supported their argument. But this week, Boskoskis lawyers challenged that assertion. According to the indictment against Boskoski, he knew or should have known about an attack by his forces on Ljuboten, which led to the killing of seven men, the intentional burning of at least 14 houses and the unlawful detention and harassment of more than 100 people. The raid, which seems to have been in response to a landmine explosion that killed eight Macedonian soldiers the day before, was part of a conflict that lasted throughout 2001 between militants seeking more rights for Macedonias Albanian minority and troops trying to regain control over villagers run by the rebels. Boskoskis co-accused is his former bodyguard Johan Tarculoski, whos charged with personally leading the attack on Ljuboten. They were the last two men to be indicted by the tribunal over war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia and this is the only case from the Macedonian conflict before the court. Boskoski was arrested by Croatian authorities on unrelated charges in August of 2004 and was transferred to the ICTY in March 2005, roughly two weeks after his indictment was made public. Tarculovski was arrested and transferred to the tribunal in March 2005. The conflict, which lasted approximately six months, came to an end with a negotiated peace agreement mediated by the international community that gave ethnic Albanians greater local autonomy. This week, the prosecution called military expert Viktor Bezruchenko to demonstrate Boskovskis knowledge of the Ljuboten attacks. But defence lawyer Guenael Mettraux accused the prosecutions witness of minimising the role of the then-president of Macedonia, and exaggerating the scale of the violence. What you sought to depict as an armed conflict was no more than a series of violent incidents, said Mettraux. In 2001 it was not a war. It was a series of violent incidents. Individual isolated events. Bezruchenko conceded that the conflict in Macedonia was not a full-fledged civil war in 2001, but said it had the potential to develop into one. What I said in my report was that the NLA [the National Liberation Army] had hierarchical elements in a command structure which functioned, said the witness. It was not a situation where they were fighting the government all of the time but there was always the potential for a higher intensity conflict such as a civil war. Mettraux also suggested that Bezruchenko tried to diminish the criminal and terrorist aspects of the NLA, which, according to the lawyer, had ties to and was funded by the Albanian mafia in other countries. Any link to professional criminal activities is somewhat misguided, said Bezruchenko. There were various rumours and allegations about the Albanian mafia and criminal activity, but this report does not really deal with that. Mettraux accused Bezruchenko of undermining the role of then president Boris Trajkovski, and suggested Trajkovski directly ordered the 2001 attack on Ljuboten in retaliation for attacks by the NLA that killed a number of Macedonian soldiers and policemen. Bezruchenko responded by saying that while he had seen documents suggesting Trajkovski had ordered the attack on Ljuboten, he had not found any orders signed by him or other documents directly tying him to the attack. Trajkovski died in 2004. Brendan McKenna is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. APPEALS CHAMBER UPHOLDS ZELENOVIC JUDGMENT Tribunal judges dismiss appeal of Bosnian Serb convicted of wartime rapes in Foca. By Brendan McKenna in The Hague The Hague tribunals appeals chamber this week upheld Dragan Zelenovics 15-year prison sentence for rape and torture committed in the eastern Bosnian town of Foca during the countrys 1992-95 war. Zelenovic, a former Bosnian Serb soldier and prison guard at a temporary detention facility set up in the town, was sentenced on April 4, after pleading guilty to multiple counts of rape and torture. The tribunal was considering referring his case to Bosnia for trial when the suspect decided to enter a guilty plea in January. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of ten to 15 years, while his defence team called for seven to ten, arguing that his guilty plea was an important mitigating factor. They argued that their client wanted to spare his victims the trauma of testifying about their ordeal and that his plea would help the reconciliation process in Bosnia. While judges acknowledged that the defendants guilty plea was very important, they emphasised that it did not, in any way, "diminish the gravity of the crime. In his appeal, which was launched soon after the verdict, Zelenovic argued that he should receive a lesser sentence because the trial chamber had not given sufficient weight to the fact that he was the first to plead guilty to charges relating to rapes and torture that occurred in Foca - and that he had gone beyond the requirements of his plea agreement to help prosecutors. In his appeal, Zelenovic also argued that the trial chamber should have taken into account the appeal judgment in the case of his former co-accused Radovan Stankovic before the Bosnian War Crimes Chamber. Stankovic, who has been on the run since escaping from a prison in Foca on May 25, was initially indicted by the Hague tribunal along with Zelenovic for rapes, torture and enslavement of Bosnian Muslim women in Foca in 1992, before his case was transferred to the Bosnian court. Unlike Zelenovic, Stankovic pleaded not guilty to all charges. His sentence was increased from 16 to 20 years on appeal. The appeals chamber in Zelenovic case, led by Judge Liu Daqun, was unanimous in finding that the defendant had failed to make the case that the trial chamber erred in its sentencing. The appeals chamber considers that the trial chamber reasonably assessed the importance of the guilty plea, especially when finding that it constituted one of the main mitigating circumstances, said Liu, reading from a summary of the judgment. Judges rejected Zelenovics claim that he had gone out of his way to help the prosecution, saying that the requirement of cooperation in his plea bargain was not as limited as he tried to show. Thus, the appellant did not show that his cooperation went beyond the scope of his obligations, said Liu. They also pointed out that the Stankovic appeal judgment was only made public on April 17, after Zelenovic was sentenced on April 4. Zelenovic therefore failed to substantiate his allegation that the trial chamber could have learned about the Stankovic appeal judgment prior to rendering the sentencing judgement [in his case]. Brendan McKenna is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. BRIEFLY NOTED: SERB OFFICER CHARGED WITH CONTEMPT Dragan Jokic claims hes not mentally fit to testify in Srebrenica trial. By Merdijana Sadovic A Bosnian Serb officer convicted of war crimes committed in Srebrenica in 1995 was this week indicted by the Hague tribunal for contempt of court, because he refused to testify at the ongoing trial of his fellow officers charged with the same crime. In 2005, Dragan Jokic, former chief of the engineering in the Bosnian Serb army, VRS, Zvornik Brigade, was sentenced to nine years in prison. His sentence was confirmed in May this year. He was found guilty of aiding and abetting executions of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica and their burial in mass graves, after the town was overrun by Serb forces in July 1995. Jokic is currently in a UN detention center in the Hague, awaiting transfer to a country where he will serve his sentence. On October 31 and November 1, Jokic was called by the tribunals prosecutors to testify under protective measures at the trial of seven VRS police and military officers, charged with genocide and other war crimes at Srebrenica. However, he refused to do so, claiming he was mentally unable to give evidence in this case. On November 1, the tribunal judges ruled that Jokic was in contempt of court. Being called to testify before the tribunal, [Jokic] knowingly and willfully interfered with the administration of justice by contumaciously refusing to testify, contrary to the tribunals rules, said the judges, adding they would prosecute the matter themselves. Merdijana Sadovic is IWPRs Hague programme 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; Translation: Predrag Brebanovic, and others; Project Director: Duncan Furey. IWPR Project Development and Support: Executive Director: Anthony Borden; Strategy & Assessment Director: Alan Davis; Chief Programme Officer: Mike Day. **** 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 © 2007 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
