Vol. 8 Issue 7 - Public International Law & Policy Group
Vol. 8 Issue 7 - Public International Law & Policy Group Vol. 8 Issue 7 - Public International Law & Policy Group
The government committee for cooperating with The Hague tribunal said in a statement that the suspension will strengthen the perception among Serbs that the court is biased. Judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal voted Wednesday to suspend Seselj's trial after the prosecution said its case was being undermined by witness intimidation. The decision plunged the long-running case against one of the U.N. court's most senior suspects into legal limbo. The Serbian committee said that it has no knowledge of the witness intimidation and that the tribunal has not notified it about the allegations. It called on the tribunal to wrap up the trial "in a reasonable timeframe." Seselj surrendered to the tribunal in 2003 and has pleaded not guilty to charges of using hatelaced speech to incite atrocities by Serb forces in Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s. He is leader of the large, right-wing Serbian Radical Party. Seselj's trial started in 2006 but was almost immediately suspended because he was on a hunger strike. The case got under way a year later in November 2007. Seselj could get a maximum life sentence if convicted on charges of murder, persecution, inhumane treatment and wanton destruction of property, including religious buildings. After the suspension, Seselj demanded to be released and compensated for spending six years in jail. Serbian minister predicts Mladic's arrest this year Agence France Presse, 2/15/09 A Serbian minister said he was confident that fugitive war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic would be captured this year, in remarks published Sunday that marked a departure from past government statements. "It would be a big surprise if this job (Mladic's arrest) was not accomplished over the course of this year," Rasim Ljajic, the minister charged with cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia, told the Blic newspaper. "I can't reveal to what extent we are nearer or farther from Mladic, but we certainly have more arguments to be optimistic over these last months," he said, adding the "amount of information on Mladic is increasing." Ljajic's remarks differ from past declarations by Serb authorities, who generally claim Belgrade is doing its best to arrest Mladic whose whereabouts are unknown. The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has indicted Mladic for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The court has linked the former Bosnian Serb military chief to some of the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II. They include the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims and the siege of Sarajevo that claimed more than 10,000 lives. Cooperation with the ICTY -- including the capture of war crimes indictees -- is a precondition for Serbia's hopes of closer relations with, and eventual membership in, the European Union. Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic was captured in July in Belgrade. He now is awaiting trial in The Hague. In December, Serb police also carried out several raids in Belgrade and a spa town south of the capital in pursuit of evidence to lead them to Mladic. The same month, the ICTY's chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz praised Serbia's improved cooperation with his office. UN judges approve new Karadzic indictment Mike Corder, Associated Press, 2/16/09 Judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal confirmed Monday a new streamlined indictment against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic that includes two genocide counts instead of one. The new indictment covers the same allegations as the existing charge sheet but reduces the number of crime scenes from 41 to 27 in an attempt to speed up what is expected to be a lengthy trial. Karadzic was first indicted in 1995, together with his former military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic, for allegedly masterminding Serb atrocities against Muslims and Croats during Bosnia's 1992-95 war. According to Monday's decision, the first genocide count covers ethnic cleansing campaigns throughout Bosnia and the second refers only to the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre where Serb troops and paramilitaries rounded up and murdered some 8,000 Muslim men. The mass summary execution at the Srebrenica U.N.-protected "safe haven" in eastern Bosnia was the worst single massacre on European soil since World War II. Karadzic will be asked to enter pleas to the new indictment at a Feb. 20 hearing. He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted. He refused to enter pleas when he was brought before the tribunal's judges last year after his arrest on a Belgrade bus in July ended 13 years on the run from international justice. The court entered not guilty pleas on his behalf. No date has yet been set for his trial to begin.
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The court has linked the former Bosnian Serb military chief to some of the worst atrocities in<br />
Europe since World War II. They include the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000<br />
Bosnian Muslims and the siege of Sarajevo that claimed more than 10,000 lives.<br />
Cooperation with the ICTY -- including the capture of war crimes indictees -- is a<br />
precondition for Serbia's hopes of closer relations with, and eventual membership in, the<br />
European Union.<br />
Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic was captured in July in Belgrade.<br />
He now is awaiting trial in The Hague.<br />
In December, Serb police also carried out several raids in Belgrade and a spa town south of<br />
the capital in pursuit of evidence to lead them to Mladic.<br />
The same month, the ICTY's chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz praised Serbia's improved<br />
cooperation with his office.<br />
UN judges approve new Karadzic indictment<br />
Mike Corder, Associated Press, 2/16/09<br />
Judges at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal confirmed Monday a new streamlined indictment<br />
against former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic that includes two genocide counts<br />
instead of one.<br />
The new indictment covers the same allegations as the existing charge sheet but reduces the<br />
number of crime scenes from 41 to 27 in an attempt to speed up what is expected to be a<br />
lengthy trial.<br />
Karadzic was first indicted in 1995, together with his former military chief Gen. Ratko<br />
Mladic, for allegedly masterminding Serb atrocities against Muslims and Croats during<br />
Bosnia's 1992-95 war.<br />
According to Monday's decision, the first genocide count covers ethnic cleansing campaigns<br />
throughout Bosnia and the second refers only to the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre where<br />
Serb troops and paramilitaries rounded up and murdered some 8,000 Muslim men.<br />
The mass summary execution at the Srebrenica U.N.-protected "safe haven" in eastern<br />
Bosnia was the worst single massacre on European soil since World War II.<br />
Karadzic will be asked to enter pleas to the new indictment at a Feb. 20 hearing. He faces a<br />
maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted.<br />
He refused to enter pleas when he was brought before the tribunal's judges last year after his<br />
arrest on a Belgrade bus in July ended 13 years on the run from international justice. The<br />
court entered not guilty pleas on his behalf. No date has yet been set for his trial to begin.
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