The Appeals Chamber Order to Republika Srpska
Tribunal Update 63: Last Week in The Hague (February 9-13, 1998)
The Appeals Chamber Order to Republika Srpska
Tribunal Update 63: Last Week in The Hague (February 9-13, 1998)
Republika Srpska is ordered by March 2 to inform Tadic's counsel of the precise whereabouts" of the potential witnesses and to "use all means in its power to enable the counsel without interference to interview and take statements" of potential witnesses (listed in Schedule I attached to the Order).
The issuing of the Binding Order with which the Tribunal is practically protecting the accused from non co-operation of the state whose citizen he is, was requested by Tadic's defenders Milan Vujin and R.L. Livingston, in an attempt to find new witnesses who would confirm his alibi.
In a hearing which took place before the Appeals Chamber on 22 January, Vujin and Livingston asserted that the authorities in Prijedor did not want to co-operate with earlier Dutch-British defence team, but that they now have the promise of the President of Republika Srpska BiljanaPlavsic that access to witnesses and documents will be secured for them..
It turned out however that Plavsic's promises are not worth much in Prijedor, where Karadzic's nationalist faction is still in power - so that Vujin and Livingston were forced to turn to the Tribunal and to request its protection from the obstruction of justice, which the Prijedor authorities are persistently carrying out to the detriment of their citizen Dusko Tadic.
Meeting this request by the defence, the Appeals Chamber has once again confirmed to what extent are the Judges of The Hague Tribunal dedicated to the rigorous protection of the rights of the accused.
