WELCOME TO IWPR'S TRIBUNAL UPDATE No. 534, January 18, 2008 NEW CHIEF PROSECUTOR, FRESH APPROACH? Serge Brammertz may need to adopt new tactics to persuade Belgrade to hand over fugitives. By Caroline Tosh in London
NATIONALIST LEADS POLLS BEFORE SERBIAN ELECTION The front-runner in Serbia's presidential election says he won't co-operate with the Hague tribunal. By Simon Jennings in The Hague and Aleksandar Roknic in Belgrade WITNESS SAYS CROATIAN TROOPS MISTREATED SERBS Serb woman tells Zagreb trial chamber that civilians were abused at the hands of Croatian troops in 1993. By Goran Jungvirth in Zagreb TRBIC SAID SREBRENICA "UNDER CONTROL" Intercepted conversation suggests Bosnian Serb officer may have been aware of Srebrenica massacre was taking place. By Denis Dzidic in Sarajevo EX-VOLUNTEER TESTIFIES TO SESELJ'S INFLUENCE Former combatant describes the impact the Serb nationalist leader had on him during the Croatian war of the early Nineties. By Simon Jennings in The Hague BRIEFLY NOTED ARRESTING FUGITIVES REMAINS TOP PRIORITY FOR HAGUE The new chief prosecutor stresses his determination to secure the arrest of Ratko Mladic, Radovan Karadzic and two other top suspects. By Merdijana Sadovic in Sarajevo BRIEFLY NOTED PRLIC'S LAWYER TEMPORARILY BARRED FROM SPEAKING Court rules that Michael Karnavas used inappropriate language. By Simon Jennings in The Hague **** IWPR RESOURCES ****************************************************************** NEW PUBLICATION: SYRIA PRESS MONITOR. Weekly round-up of news and opinion from the Syrian national and diaspora press. To find out more or subscribe to RSS feed please go to: http://iwpr.net/syriapressmonitor.html <http://iwpr.net/syriapressmonitor.html> 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 <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 <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 <http://iwpr.net/pdf/reporting_justice_p1_w_fr.pdf> ; Part II: http://iwpr.net/pdf/reporting_justice_p2_w_fr.pdf <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 <http://iwpr.net/?apc_state=henotri&s=o&o=tribunal_icc_00.html> **** www.iwpr.net <http://www.iwpr.net> ******************************************************************** TRIBUNAL UPDATE RSS: http://www.iwpr.net/en/tri/rss.xml <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 <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 <http://www.iwpr.net/donate.html> **** www.iwpr.net <http://www.iwpr.net> ******************************************************************** NEW CHIEF PROSECUTOR, FRESH APPROACH? Serge Brammertz may need to adopt new tactics to persuade Belgrade to hand over fugitives. By Caroline Tosh in London In his first public statement as chief prosecutor at Yugoslav tribunal in The Hague, Serge Brammertz this week set out how he would fulfil his mandate before the court closes in three years' time. An "absolute priority", he said, was bringing the remaining four fugitives - particularly Bosnian Serb army commander General Ratko Mladic and wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic - to face trial in The Hague. Brammertz, who at the beginning of January was appointed chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, said that in the coming weeks he planned to discuss the issue of cooperation with the tribunal in talks with the authorities in the former Yugoslav republics and with representatives of other countries and international organisations, including the European Union. His predecessor, the fiery Swiss lawyer Carla Del Ponte, was instrumental in linking Serbia's hopes of accession to the EU with cooperation with the tribunal, and her use of media pressure against the Balkans is credited with bringing dozens of fugitives to the Hague tribunal. But observers say that while the promise of EU membership had leverage in the past, it is no longer the carrot and stick it once was in securing Serbian cooperation. The EU is showing signs of giving Serbia an easier path to EU membership. Its Slovenian presidency is eager to sign a Stabilisation and Accession Agreement, SAA, with Serbia - a precursor to future membership negotiations. This would not only keep Serbia closer to Europe, but would also boost the moderate president Boris Tadic's chances against radical challenger Tomislav Nikolic in the upcoming presidential elections. "Full cooperation [with the tribunal] is one of the conditions [for the signing of the SAA.] The problem is how we decide [what full cooperation is]," said Slovenian foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel in an agency report published on January 8. Meanwhile, ongoing debate over Kosovo's future and the imminent elections means that cooperation with the ICTY is low on Belgrade's list of priorities. In recent months, Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica has been growing closer to Moscow, and the European Commission has expressed concern at Russian energy giant Gazprom's controversial takeover bid for Serbia's oil monopoly. Kostunica has also warned that the SAA will be annulled if the EU carries out its plan to send a "civil mission" of administrators and police to support Kosovo once, as is expected, it becomes independent next month. Although Serbia seems to be turning away from Europe, James Lyon of the International Crisis Group believes the EU still has the power to force Belgrade to hand over Karadzic and Mladic. "The EU and international community have shown that conditioning progress on EU integration has worked with Serbia," he said. "We have a proven track record of this. "If enough pressure is put on Serbia, the [authorities] will arrest Mladic." While Kostunica has no desire to join the EU, he cannot ignore the fact that domestic opinion polls show consistently high public support for European integration. However, Lyon is concerned that the EU is currently trying to do a deal where Serbia would get membership in return for a "soft no" on Kosovo, meaning that Belgrade should effectively accept independence while continuing to object to it in principle. "The problem with this is Serbia isn't going to do it - they will not trade Kosovo for EU membership. Brussels just doesn't seem to get it," said Lyon. Political and economic analyst Braca Grubacic thinks that the only way the remaining fugitives will end up in The Hague is if Brussels keeps up its demands for full cooperation from Serbia. At the moment, however, EU members have other things on their minds. "Most European countries are now more focused on what will happen with Kosovo's status and the European Mission in Kosovo, and what will be the result of the Serbian presidential elections, and the ICTY is marginalised on the issue," said Grubacic. According to the analyst, while "everybody knows Mladic is in Serbia, the current government at this moment is absolutely not doing much on chasing after [him] and there is no serious pressure from European Union to do it". Dr Jonathan Eyal, director of international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute, said that at present, the EU had little leverage in pushing Serbia to deliver the men. "I do not believe that EU membership as such, at this particular moment, has much influence in general, over Serbian politics," he said. "I think that the reality is that in Serbia itself, the whole issue [of membership] is now related directly to Kosovo, and the rather offhand dismissal by Mr Kostunica of what he calls trade-off between EU membership and the loss of Kosovo has transformed the debate." So how should the new chief prosecutor proceed in persuading Serbia to hand over the suspects? Lyon argues that it is vital for Brammertz to maintain Del Ponte's policy of pressing the EU to insist that Serbia hands over the remaining fugitives before it can join. Experience shows that when the EU softens its stance, this only leads to reduced cooperation from Belgrade, he argues. "The minute [the EU] backs down and start to show flexibility towards Serbia, Serbia stops all cooperation, and we see this time and again," he said. Lyon dismissed any suggestion that discussions over the fugitives be shelved until the Kosovo's future is settled, pointing out with a 2010 deadline looming for the tribunal to finish its work, the pressure is on. He argues that as long as Karadzic and Mladic continue to evade justice, the possibility of further conflict in the Balkans remains. "The wars in the Balkans will not end until these people are brought to justice," he said. "If we put off these guys' arrests, we need to be aware that there will be renewed ethnic cleansing and violence, and no EU membership is going to be able to patch that up." But according to Eyal, it is unrealistic to expect Belgrade to hand over the men while its pride is freshly bruised over the loss of Kosovo. Brammertz may just have to accept that Serbian cooperation is unlikely for the time being. "The prosecutor will have to take the long view," said Eyal. "Nobody is in a position to accept de facto the loss of Kosovo and say, 'And, by the way, we are now also handing over war criminals to The Hague'." But waiting for the dust to settle over Kosovo carries its own risks. Grubacic suggested Brussels could eventually drop its demands for Serbia to turn over the suspects as a way of somehow compensating it for the loss of the province. "I think that if Kosovo becomes independent and is recognised by European countries and United States, in a way EU and the others will be ready to kind of turn a blind eye on cooperation with ICTY because they don't want to punish so much Serbs after all this time," he said. Grubacic believes it should be a priority for Brammertz over the coming months to retain the political backing of European governments, and keep the issue of cooperation with the tribunal on the agenda. "Although, for the moment, everyone [in Europe] seems to be behind this issue, it is possible to envisage a decision to turn a blind eye [to Serbia's failure to yield the fugitives] in return for a normalisation of relations between Europe and Serbia after the storm over Kosovo is over," said Eyal. In addition to engaging European heads of state, the new chief prosecutor might also find that negotiating with Serbia behind the scenes rather than publicly applying pressure could yield greater results. The choice of Belgian lawyer Brammertz as Del Ponte's successor has led many to suggest that UN officials saw a need for a change of tack in the tribunal's negotiations with Serbia. Brammertz, a former deputy prosecutor at the International Criminal Court who also led an international investigation into murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, is known for working quietly behind the scenes, rather than in the full glare of the media spotlight. During her eight-year tenure, observers questioned Del Ponte's grasp of the political situation in Serbia, and argued that her public attempts to pressure the Balkans countries into submission at times appeared counterproductive. In a comment piece on the website of Belgrade-based radio station B92 on January 6, a former United States ambassador to Croatia and Serbia, William Montgomery, argued that Del Ponte's "bull in the china shop attitude towards the fragile democratic governments in the region... actually made it harder, rather than easier to transfer indictees to The Hague". Eyal accepts that on certain occasions, the timing of Del Ponte's statements was off. "I'm not saying that we have to accept the Serbian position; I'm merely saying that you're not advancing your case a great deal by coming in the middle of an electoral campaign and threatening eternal isolation unless the Serbs comply immediately [with the tribunal]." There is a view that a lower-key, more diplomatic approach could be more effective. "There was somehow a feeling with Ms Del Ponte that any sort of confidential, secret negotiations were somehow dirty and compromising the tribunal," said Eyal. "At the end of the day, we have to admit that there is a large political element in any tribunal that relates to war crimes." The analyst acknowledged that while private negotiations could lead to certain concessions being agreed - such as safeguards, plea bargains or other terms - in exchange for the delivery of the fugitives, they were vital in making progress. "While there is a danger in negotiating behind the scenes, I see this is the only way for handing these people over." Caroline Tosh is an IWPR editor in London. NATIONALIST LEADS POLLS BEFORE SERBIAN ELECTION The front-runner in Serbia's presidential election says he won't co-operate with the Hague tribunal. By Simon Jennings in The Hague and Aleksandar Roknic in Belgrade As Serbians prepare to vote for a new president on January 20, their European neighbours face the nightmare prospect of a leading candidate who wants to block the arrest of individuals wanted on war crimes charges, and even to make one suspect his prime minister. In the last days of campaigning before the election, Serbian Radical Party candidate Tomislav Nikolic is leading in the opinion polls, ahead of the incumbent president, Boris Tadic of the Democratic Party. While Tadic has always insisted that Serbia will cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, Nikolic has made no secret of his willingness to ignore calls for the arrest of the outstanding fugitives. "My victory will mean that Serbia will join the defence of those who are facing the Hague tribunal," Nikolic told a meeting in Belgrade. "Those who now fear they might be caught will have no reason to do so." The ICTY is awaiting the handover of four fugitives by Belgrade, including the two former top Bosnian Serb figures, army commander Ratko Mladic and political leader Radovan Karadzic. Both men are charged with orchestrating the genocide in Srebrenica where 8,000 Bosniak civilians were killed by Serb forces in July 1995. Nikolic and the Serb Radical Party, which backed the late president Slobodan Milosevic during the Yugoslav wars of the Nineties, regard the former Bosnian Serb leaders as national heroes. Opinion is divided in Serbia over whether the ultra-nationalist could actually keep his promise to support the fugitives if he won the presidency. Milan Antonijevic, executive director of the non-government Yugoslav Committee for Human Rights, is one observer who dreads the prospect of a Nikolic victory. "I can't say that cooperation with the tribunal exists now but... if he becomes Serbia's president, cooperation with the tribunal will be stopped completely," he told IWPR. In his campaign programme, published in his party's newspaper Greater Serbia, Nikolic promises to help any Serbian citizen on trial in The Hague. He has even promised to appoint Vojislav Seselj - the Serb Radical leader who is on trial there for crimes against humanity - as his prime minister. It is not technically within the president's jurisdiction to appoint a prime minister. That aside, political commentators say that whoever wins the election will have to comply with Serbia's "international obligations" and will not have the power to negotiate on dealings with the tribunal. The Serbian constitution puts foreign policy beyond the remit of the president and squarely in the hands of the government, which is appointed by parliament. Nikolic's remarks are therefore seen by some observers as empty promises designed to pick up votes. "The Serbian president does not have too much authority in matters of cooperation with the tribunal. Everything is in the government's hands," Serbian political analyst Milan Nikolic told IWPR. Jovan Simic, adviser to the Serbian president on cooperation with the Hague tribunal, agreed. "If Tomislav Nikolic from the Radical Party wins - and I think he won't - Serbia's president doesn't have the kind of power to change state policy. But I am afraid that Nikolic is using that political story during campaigning to get more votes," he said. According to the Belgrade-based Centre for Free Elections and Democracy, support for Nikolic is standing at 21 per cent, with Tadic close behind at 19 per cent. The likely outcome is that the two candidates will meet in a second-round run-off on February 3. But whoever wins, what must worry the ICTY is that none of the nine presidential candidates has made cooperation with The Hague a priority in the election campaign. Even President Tadic, who originally brought the issue of the indicted military leaders into the public eye, has not reiterated his insistence on cooperation with the tribunal. And with Mladic and Karadzic still at large, there are few tangible signs of cooperation between Serbia and the ICTY. "This hesitant attitude... shows that no one has the courage to deal with this subject. This so-called cooperation with the tribunal makes Serbia look like it is not serious as a state," said Antonijevic. There is even a feeling that the stepping down of the tribunal's chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte last month and the debate over Kosovo's independence have pushed the arrest of the fugitives to the political margins. "It [the tribunal] doesn't seem to feature very highly unfortunately... Kosovo is on the top of their agenda. That is of much more importance for them," said Antonia Young, a research fellow on the Balkans at the University of Bradford's Department of Peace Studies. None of the candidates is prepared to recognise the independence of Kosovo, which has been under United Nations administration since June 1999. Albanian leaders of the breakaway region are expected to declare independence in the coming weeks. But whatever the outcome of the elections, for many the crucial thing is for the European Union to stick to its guns and not to allow Serbia to sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, SAA - a first step towards full membership - until it hands over the fugitives. "The ball is in the EU's court, not in Serbia's court. Even if Nikolic comes to power, the EU must insist on the rule of law, on the respect of the rules of the game that it has set itself, and not budge on them," Dr Denisa Kostovicova, a Balkans specialist at the London School of Economics, told IWPR. Although Tadic advocates EU membership as soon as possible and sees Kosovo as a separate issue, Nikolic and current prime minister Vojislav Kostunica do not share his view. They have both adopted a more nationalist tone and support a move towards Russia rather than Europe if the EU lends its support to Kosovo's independence. "What we have at the moment is a situation where both Kosovo and cooperation with The Hague are happening at the same time, which is putting the EU on the spot rather than Serbia on the spot," said Kostovicova. "Whatever the EU does will affect what's going to happen in relation to whether Serbia will be cooperative or not." Simon Jennings is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. Aleksandar Roknic is an IWPR contributor in Belgrade. WITNESS SAYS CROATIAN TROOPS MISTREATED SERBS Serb woman tells Zagreb trial chamber that civilians were abused at the hands of Croatian troops in 1993. By Goran Jungvirth in Zagreb A Serb woman, her identity hidden for her own protection, told a Zagreb court this week that Croatian soldiers burned one of her neighbours alive after storming into her village. Witness 22, as she is known, said that although she had been badly wounded by a grenade, she managed to hide in the hayloft. >From her position of safety, she saw Croatian soldiers using rifle butts to >smash the head of Boja Vujnovic before they set fire to the woman, who was >more than 70 years old. "They laid her on the sofa, spilled something on her and set her alight. She was screaming and they were watching and jumping," said the witness. She said her son - who had never been a soldier because he had been paralysed as a child and walked with a limp - was taken away by the Croatian military. She never saw him again. The prosecution witness was testifying in the case against generals Rahim Ademi and Mirko Norac, who are accused of war crimes allegedly committed by troops under their command during an operation to seize a Serb-held part of Croatia called the Medak Pocket in September 1993. The indictment originally brought by the Hague tribunal alleges that at least 29 Serb civilians were killed and dozens were seriously injured during the operation. Many of them were women and elderly people. On January 16, the trial heard from a number of witnesses who, in 1993, had been called on to identify the bodies of neighbours after the Croatian army left the area. They described the people who had been killed as well as the manner in which they died. Protected Witness 17 told the court that although his village of Citluk was guarded by local Serbs, they had offered no resistance to the Croatian forces because they had only a few rifles between them. When the defence team, which has been trying to show that the civilians who died had been armed, asked the witeness who provided the weapons, he said, "The weapons were driven into the village." Because the witness escaped from the village he did not see actions carried out by the Croatian soldiers, although he did go to the town of Medak to identify bodies. He recognised some older women from Citluk in spite of the fact that they were "completely burned, without anything left on their heads, all were burned.... skin and eyes and nose". Witness 22 said she had seen Croatian soldiers deliberately destroy the Serb village. "This is Serb. This all has to be burned. Don't leave anything," she quoted the Croatian soldiers as saying. "And that day when there was the attack they were shouting - this is Serb, slaughter everyone. Don't let anyone escape... kill and slaughter them all." She said their destruction was systematic. "First, they collected all the cattle and construction materials from new houses and took that to [the town of] Gospic. And then later, after two or three days, they started to burn everything," she said. After these event, the woman said she walked for ten days through the woods - in spite of suffering from shrapnel wounds caused by a grenade thrown into her house - and reached territory still under Serb control, where she was told her son had been killed and his body burned. This witness was questioned about a previous statement which she had given to investigators in Belgrade and in which she referred to the Croatian soldiers as "Ustashe" - an offensive term that was applied to Croatian Nazi collaborators in the Second World War. She denied having done so, and also denied another claim in the statement that some civilians participated in burning and stealing. "I promise that everything I've said today is correct and that I didn't say what is written here," she said, when the defence team confronted her with the contradiction between her present testimony and the previous statement. Questioned by Presiding Judge Marin Mrcela, the witness replied that she had never signed any statement given to her by the investigators and that they had not read the document back to her. The trial continued on December 18 with the presentation of documents related to the case. Goran Jungvirth is an IWPR contributor in Zagreb. TRBIC SAID SREBRENICA "UNDER CONTROL" Intercepted conversation suggests Bosnian Serb officer may have been aware of Srebrenica massacre was taking place. By Denis Dzidic in Sarajevo A Bosnian Serb officer said everything was "under control" during a radio conversation intercepted around the time of the massacre in Srebrenica, according to transcripts submitted as evidence at his war crimes trial in Sarajevo. A former soldier whose identity is being concealed for safety reasons and who is known only as A5 told the trial of Milorad Trbic that he had intercepted the conversation while serving in the Bosnian government army, and identified the handwriting of the transcript as his own. The Bosnian Serb army or VRS seized the enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995, separated out 8,000 males and killed them - Europe's worst act of mass murder since the Second World War. Trbic, a former captain in the security detachment of the VRS Zvornik Brigade, is accused of conspiring to kill men from Srebrenica who had either surrendered or been captured. He is also accused of trying to conceal the killings by reburying bodies exhumed from mass graves. The conversation under discussion in court was between VRS officers Radislav Krstic, Vinko Pandurevic and Trbic, and the transcripts were made by Bosnian army specialists on the opposing side in the conflict. At the time of the massacre, Krstic was commander of the Drina Corps and Pandurevic was commander of the Zvornik Brigade. Krstic was sentenced to 35 years in prison for crimes committed in Srebrenica, while Pandurevic is on trial in The Hague along with six other former high-ranking Bosnian Serb police and military officials. Krstic only took over his role in the town on July 13, 1995, so the monitored conversation is likely to have been around the time when most of the killings took place. According to part of the transcript read out in court this week, Krstic at one point asked Trbic whether there were any new developments, to which the latter replied, "Everything is under control". Three other protected witnesses also gave testimony this week at Trbic's trial, all of them testifying from a separate room and under special protective measures. In July 1995, witnesses A22, A10 and A6 were stationed at a Bosnian army radio interception post on Mount Majevica, north-west of Sarajevo, Witness A10 described the equipment used to intercept radio communications, as well as the procedures followed when reporting conversations. He described how intercepted conversations were recorded and the transcripts filed in log books, with the time, date and names of the participants clearly marked. "After this was completed, we would write a report and send it to army headquarters," he said. According to A10, strict filing procedures meant there could be no mistakes. During cross examination, prosecutor Kwai Hong Ip presented copies of log books, although their contents were not discussed. Defence lawyer Milan Trbojevic protested fiercely against introducing these documents because they were "almost illegible". He said there was no proof that the witnesses giving the testimony were in fact those who had made the transcripts of the alleged conversations between Trbic and his superior officers. However, the trial chamber ruled to accept the documents. The second witness, A22, said his unit had to "intercept, record and report" radio traffic from Serb forces in the area. He confirmed that the names of participants in these conversations were always noted down, because they would either introduce themselves or the listener would recognise the voices. Witnesses A22 and A5 spoke about the importance of reporting everything they heard as accurately as possible, because they knew that their reports would later be used for planning military operations so any mistake could potentially cause losses on their side. "All the records had to be made accurately. The written notes were typed into a computer and someone would then take the documents to headquarters," testified witness A5. The trial will resume on January 21, with more testimony from prosecution witnesses. At that hearing, the trial chamber is also expected to rule on whether to allow the prosecutor to admit as evidence copies of testimony given by witnesses at other trials concerning Srebrenica, instead of inviting them all to the Bosnian court. Denis Dzidic is an IWPR contributor in Sarajevo. EX-VOLUNTEER TESTIFIES TO SESELJ'S INFLUENCE Former combatant describes the impact the Serb nationalist leader had on him during the Croatian war of the early Nineties. By Simon Jennings in The Hague A Serb man who took part in the 1991 siege of Vukovar told the Hague tribunal this week how a speech by ultra-nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj helped convince him to sign up to fight the Croats. Seselj, leader of the Serbian Radical Party, is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, including acts of persecution, extermination, murder and torture in Croatia, Bosnia and northern Serbia between 1991 and 1993. According to the indictment, Seselj "made inflammatory speeches in the media, during public events, and during visits to the volunteer units and other Serb forces in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, instigating those forces to commit crimes". Seselj regularly made speeches in the early Nineties to rally political support. One such address, delivered in summer 1991 and concerning the threat of the "Ustashe"- a term describing Croatian Nazi collaborators in the Second World War that in the early Nineties was used to refer to Croatian nationalist paramilitaries - left a lasting impression on witness Goran Stoparic. "[Seselj] warned of the danger of the resurrected Ustashe who had risen like vampires from the grave. He spoke of a threat of a new genocide," Stoparic told the tribunal. "Listening to Mr Seselj, I concluded that this really was the situation and as a man - as a Serbian citizen - I had to play an active role." The trial resumed this week after a three-member panel appointed by tribunal President Fausto Pocar dismissed a prosecution motion for the disqualification of Judge Frederik Harhoff. The trial was suspended last week for the panel to consider the request, which was based on the grounds that Judge Harhoff had served on the Danish Helsinki Commission for Human Rights in 1993. While working for the human rights group, he had interviewed a prosecution witness due to testify in this trial. This week, Stoparic told the tribunal how he had served as a Serbian Radical Party volunteer in the "Leva Supoderica" unit during the 1991 assault on the Croatian city of Vukovar. Serb forces besieged the city of Vukovar for three months in 1991, and according to a number of witnesses, bombarded it with mortars on a daily basis. After the defence of the city collapsed, Serb forces killed about 200 Croats they took from a military hospital. The witness said the Serbs wanted to destroy Croat paramilitary forces and establish control over the Vukovar area. But he went on to describe how he saw his compatriots mistreat people. "There was simply evil and the situation could not always be controlled," he said. "For a while, they were able to behave inappropriately, mistreat people and even kill them, until the military police came along." He then described how an unannounced visit by Seselj to his unit on the front line at Vukovar provided "great encouragement" to the troops. "I was pleased Mr Seselj had come to visit us. He was not afraid to come to the front line. We all trusted him. He was a leader," said Stoparic. He told the court how Seselj raised the men's spirits and fired off shots in the direction of Croat forces "as a symbolic gesture". He went on to explain how Croats were taken prisoner and sent to enormous hangars at Velepromet, just outside the city, and said he had heard that many were killed there. "I heard about that. People who are prone to do that kind of thing are liable to brag about it," said Stoparic, singling out a fellow fighter nicknamed Topola from his unit, who told him he had shot someone. "I saw the dead body of this man [killed by Topola] the next day by the railway," said the witness. According to Stoparic, Topola also took two Croat prisoners away from Serb military police. He killed the first and the other he "mistreated in different ways". The witness also said he had heard that Topola had thrown a 20-year-old woman down a well on the grounds that she and her husband were Croat extremists. "Everybody said he raped her, killed her and threw her into the well," the witness told the court. According to the prosecution's pre-trial brief, Seselj reacted to Topola's crimes by saying, "There's nothing I can do now. Disarm the man and send him home, he's tired." Stoparic also told the tribunal that a fellow Serb-was abused and expelled as a spy because he was a member of the Serbian Renewal Movement, a monarchist party. "They processed him physically. He was tied up in the basement [of the commander's house] and it lasted a day," said Stoparic. The witness insisted, however, that this behaviour was not typical of all members of the Serbian Radical Party during the early Nineties. "An enormous number of people were honourable, brave, courageous soldiers. There are always people who are not good among them," said Stoparic. "These were individual cases that led to these atrocious crimes... Among the wheat, there are always some grains that are no good." Simon Jennings is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. BRIEFLY NOTED ARRESTING FUGITIVES REMAINS TOP PRIORITY FOR HAGUE The new chief prosecutor stresses his determination to secure the arrest of Ratko Mladic, Radovan Karadzic and two other top suspects. By Merdijana Sadovic in Sarajevo In a press statement issued two weeks after he took over as the Hague tribunal's chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz said that securing the arrest and transfer to the tribunal of the four remaining indicted persons will be on top of his agenda. He also stated that bringing the two most wanted suspects to justice - the former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and army chief Ratko Mladic - "remains an absolute priority". Brammertz is the fourth chief prosecutor at the tribunal, succeeding Richard Goldstone, Louise Arbour and most recently Carla Del Ponte. In his first statement since he arrived in the Hague, Brammertz said it was "a great honour and challenge" to have been appointed chief prosecutor. "I am impressed by the many achievements of this institution since its establishment in 1993.Continuity in the work of the Office of the Prosecutor is of utmost importance, and I intend to provide the leadership and direction necessary to successfully fulfill our mandate", said the statement. Brammertz acknowledged that "with 26 individuals on trial, nine on appeal and 11 awaiting trial, this is a busy period for the tribunal. A lot of work remains to be done." He added that his office would continue to rely on the "crucial support and assistance" of the states of the former Yugoslavia and the international community, so as to "finally bring Ratko Mladic, Radovan Karadzic, Goran Hadzic and Stojan Zupljanin to justice". Brammertz also announced that in the next few weeks he plans to discuss issues related to cooperation with relevant authorities in the former Yugoslavia, as well as representatives of other states and international organisations, including the European Union. "I am fully committed to building upon the tribunal's many achievements. We owe this to the victims of the crimes committed during the wars in the former Yugoslavia", he concluded. Merdijana Sadovic is IWPR's Hague tribunal programme manager. BRIEFLY NOTED PRLIC'S LAWYER TEMPORARILY BARRED FROM SPEAKING Court rules that Michael Karnavas used inappropriate language. By Simon Jennings in The Hague The lawyer defending Bosnian Croat politician Jadranko Prlic was banned from speaking for seven days at the Hague tribunal this week after he apparently insulted a witness and referred to one of the judges of the trial chamber as "a fifth prosecutor". American defence lawyer Michael Karnavas is defending Prlic against charges of war crimes dating from his time as a leader of the self-declared Croat statelet known as Herceg Bosna. According to the ruling of the trial chamber, during proceedings on January 9, Karnavas "used an extremely offensive and intimidating tone" in questioning a protected prosecution witness in closed session. Furthermore, it said, his cross-examination "required a number of interventions on the part of the bench to remind [him] that he was to remain calm and in control". The following day, some of the questions put to the witness by judge Stefan Trechsel led an incensed Karnavas to complain that there was "a fifth prosecutor in the courtroom". The trial chamber found such a comment "unacceptable". The ban will mean Karnavas is unable to address judges or witnesses during proceedings from January 15 to 24. During this time, his co-counsel Suzana Tomanovic will take the floor on his behalf. Karnavas will be allowed to attend proceedings and to communicate with Tomanovic. The lawyer responded to the chamber by saying, "I accept the court's decision. I acknowledge my own shortcomings and I appreciate the court's understanding." Prlic, along with fellow Bosnian Croats Bruno Stolic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic, is indicted for war crimes which include the expulsion and murder of Bosniaks during the conflict between Bosnian government troops and Croat forces in 1993. Simon Jennings is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. **** www.iwpr.net <http://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; Project Manager: Merdijana Sadovic; Translation: Predrag Brebanovic, and others. w: Executive Director: Anthony Borden; Strategy & Assessment Director: Alan Davis; Chief Programme Officer: Mike Day. **** www.iwpr.net <http://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 Gray's 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 <http://www.iwpr.net> ISSN 1477-7940 Copyright © 2008 The Institute for War & Peace Reporting **** www.iwpr.net <http://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 <http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=henh&s=s&m=p>
