Pocar Urges Greater Regional Cooperation

The president of the Hague tribunal has called for Balkan states to cooperate more in the hunt for fugitives if the war crimes court is to wind down its operation by 2008 having tried all the main suspects.



Speaking at an October 8 session of the UN General Assembly, where he was presenting his annual report, Judge Fausto Pocar stressed the need to apprehend six remaining fugitives - including former Bosnian Serb political and military leaders Radovan Karadzic and Rakto Mladic - and insisted that “the tribunal must not close its doors before these accused are brought to justice”.



He said that in its thirteenth year of operation, the tribunal has gone through a period of “significant change and unprecedented challenges”, having tried an unprecedented number of war crimes suspects - 25 in six simultaneous trials, three of which involved 21 accused.



Ninety-seven indictees have been tried, and the trials of 64 have yet to be completed. Out of the latter, six are still at large, four are pending motions of referral, 15 are in pre-trial stage, 24 are currently on trial, 15 are facing appeals.



The war crimes suspects have been detained at the tribunal’s detention facilities in Scheveningen, which came under scrutiny after the deaths of Serb rebel leader from Croatia Milan Babic and former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in March this year. An independent audit conducted after the deaths found the quality of care to be “positive”, but also made recommendations, which Judge Pocar said were being implemented.



He was keen to stress that the tribunal’s drive towards “expeditious” justice is not only stem from a desire to successfully meet the target date for wrapping up proceedings at the tribunal, but to respect the rights of accused to “not to be held in pre-trial detention for unduly lengthy periods of time”.



To that end, a new policy has been adopted whereby judges working on a case in the pre-trial phase will likely be assigned that case for the trial phase, meaning their expertise is transferred, cutting the time another judge would have needed to understand the minutiae of the proceedings.



The pre-trial judges have also started to play a more active role in preparing cases and ensuring they are trial-ready, by insisting on deadlines for disclosure of material, amongst other things. They are also encouraging the prosecution to focus its case by limiting evidence to be brought before the courtroom, and fixing the number of crimes sites and charges in each indictment.



Judge Pocar pointed out that if the tribunal is to meet its completion targets, “it will be necessary for the prosecution’s cases to be limited”.



However, because of the prosecutor’s reluctance to limit the scope of indictments, Judge Pocar explained that the tribunal is working on getting judges, and the prosecution, to work together to “focus cases”.



For example, the prosecution has been set a limited timeframe in which to present its cases against six Bosnian Croat officials charged with crimes in Bosnia, Prlic et al, and six Serbian officials charged with crimes in Kosovo, Milutinovic et al, which Judge Pocar says has resulted in the “reduction of the anticipated length of trial by at least one third and one half respectively”.



The General Assembly also heard Judge Pocar praise the efforts of Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte in securing cooperation with states and international institutions to arrest and transfer Milan Lukic, Dragan Zelenovic and Ante Gotovina.



However, he underlined the immediate need for the Balkan states to assist in bringing the tribunal’s six fugitives to justice, otherwise “the message that the international community will not tolerate violations of international humanitarian law will be thwarted”. He explicitly pointed to the failure of Serbia and Republika Srpska to arrest Mladic and Karadzic respectively.



Judge Pocar ended by talking about the tribunal’s requirement to build up the rule of law in the countries that make up the former Yugoslavia, and to provide training to national courts to “enhance the judicial and prosecutorial capacity of national jurisdictions”.



For regional stability and reconciliation, Judge Pocar told the audience that national courts must uphold the “highest standards” to ensure justice is both done, and seen to be done.



He also said that this year, the tribunal has increased its involvement in the region, and called this the “key component of the mission and legacy of the tribunal”, explaining that national courts will continue the work of trying perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.



Katy Glassborow is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.