International Crimes—ICTY Critical of Serbia; Milosevic Remains Joined

War Crimes—Mladic File Still Incomplete; Del Ponte Report to UN Will Be Critical

Last Friday, we discussed Serbia’s hand-over of a so-called secret file containing information about fugitive Gen. Ratko Mladic’s orders and movements during the 1990s Balkan conflicts. This week, President of the National Council for Co-operation with the Hague Tribunal Rasim Ljajic stated that ICTY prosecutors still are not satisfied with the contents of the dossier.^[1] Ljajic stated that, even though the eight previously missing pages had been restored to the file, ICTY prosecutors “didn't get the information which they sought from Belgrade."^[2]

As noted this Monday, Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte issued a deadline for Serbia’s full cooperation with the Tribunal’s efforts to bring the remaining indicted fugitives to The Hague to stand trial. That deadline expired today. Del Ponte’s chief advisor Anton Nikiforov stated that the Prosecutor’s report and address to the Security Council tomorrow would in fact be critical of cooperation efforts by Serbia and Montenegro.^[3] Even though Serbia has handed over 13 suspects to the Tribunal in the past year, a negative report from the ICTY is a threat to the efforts of the two countries to join the European Union and NATO.^[4]

In response, Serbian Justice Minister Zoran Stojkovic is quoted as saying that the ICTY Prosecutor’s Office would soon be granted access to government archives according to an agreement to be forged between representatives of the Serb Army, local police and the Foreign Affairs Ministry.^[5] Furthermore, despite massive rallies throughout the region in support of recently arrested Croat General Ante Gotovina and against government cooperation with the ICTY, Belgrade's highest circulation daily Vecernje Novosti quoted government sources on Tuesday as saying that top war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic would be in custody at the U.N. Tribunal in The Hague by the end of the year.^[6]

Genocide—Milosevic Trial to Continue Intact

On Tuesday, the Trial Chamber at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) decided against issuing a judgment on the “Kosovo” indictment in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic before hearing all of the evidence to be presented by the defense against the “Bosnia” and “Croatia” indictments.^[7] In its decision, the Chamber opined that Milosevic had “deliberately used the time available to him so that at the end of that time he would have little or virtually no evidence on the Croatia and Bosnia parts of the case, thus seeking to provide a foundation for a request for additional time.”^[8]

The Trial Chamber projected that under the current schedule—including adequate medical rest periods for the defendant—the case on all three indictments would continue into the middle of 2006 and that, “Judgement drafting will occupy a further substantial period.”^[9]

The Milosevic trial marks its 4th anniversary on February 12, 2006.^[10] Slobodan Milosevic was indicted in 2001 for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. In 2002, the Appeals Chamber issued an order joining the three indictments for a single trial.^[11] The Trial Chamber’s motion sua sponte to sever the indictments was discussed here on November 29, 2005.

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[1] Pravda, U.N. War Crimes Prosecutors Dissatisfied by Top Suspect’s Secret File, Dec. 13, 2005, available here.
[2] Id.
[3] Beta News Agency, Del Ponte Will Criticize Belgrade at UN Security Council, Dec. 14, 2005, available here.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Reuters News Agency, Noose Tightens for Serb Fugitive Mladic: Paper, Dec. 13, 2005, available here.
[7] ICTY Press Release, Judges in Milosevic Case Decide Future Shape of Trial, Dec. 13, 2005, available here.
[8] Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milosevic, Decision In Relation To Severance, Extension of Time and Rest, IT‑02‑54-T, Dec. 12, 2005, available here.
[9] Id., at para. 25.
[10] Id.
[11] Prosecutor v. Slobodan Milosevic, Decision on Prosecution Interlocutory Appeal from Refusal to Order Joinder, IT-99-37-AR73, IT-01-50-AR73, IT-01-51-AR73, Feb. 1, 2002, available here.