Briefly Noted
By Chris Stephen in The Hague (TU 334, 21 November 2003)
Briefly Noted
By Chris Stephen in The Hague (TU 334, 21 November 2003)
Jovanovic, editor of the Podgorica daily Dan, was charged after his paper revealed in August the identity of a protected witness who testified at the Milosevic trial.
The editor will appear before the court and enter a plea on December 4. The penalties for contempt include prison.
MORE CROATIA INDICTMENTS? Rumours in the Hague say that two more senior Croatians are due to be indicted for war crimes in the coming months. Hague prosecutors say they cannot comment. But such indictments would be likely to raise the temperature between The Hague and Zagreb - already high over Croatia's failure to hand over indictee Ante Gotovina.
FORMER NATO commander General Wesley Clark, a leading contender for the Democrat presidential nomination, will give evidence in the Milosevic trial next month behind closed doors.
In the first operation of its kind, the Hague war crimes court will hear the evidence in private. Two US government officials will then have at least 48 hours to decide on any cuts in the video tape of the hearing, which will then be released to the public.
Hague judges will have the last word on which cuts are approved. The court is happy that America has allowed its former general to testify. Other states may now copy the US line - with Montenegro likely to expect similar favours if its prime minister, Milo Djukanovic, agrees to testify.
JUDGE THEODOR MERON has been re-elected president of the tribunal. Meron, a holocaust survivor and a popular figure around the court, will continue to oversee a tribunal which is working on a record number of cases.
NORWEGIAN police are hunting a Serb who was convicted in absentia of war crimes in Croatia, then given an entry permit to live in Norway.
Prosecutors want to know why immigration officials gave residence to the 57-year-old Milan Gojkovic.
THE EXTENT of animosity between the former Bosnian Serb president, Radovan Karadzic, and his army commander General Ratko Mladic, was graphically illustrated at the opening day of the appeal hearing against the genocide conviction of Drina corps commander Radoslav Krstic in The Hague on November 20.
Miroslav Deronic, giving evidence to the five-strong panel of judges, said he went to see Mladic in the Hotel Fontana, in Bratunac, shortly after the town fell and before the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims took place, to find the general furious at Karadzic's absence.
"He said 'where is president Karadzic? Why didn't he enter Srebrenica with me? Here I am capturing Srebrenica and you civilians are not there'. He used very vulgar words to describe both the president's and my position."
Defence and prosecution are both appealing against the 46 year sentence given to Krstic. The case continues next week.
Chris Stephen is IWPR project manager in The Hague.
