Briefly Noted

Milosevic, 64, took over as a commander of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Sarajevo Romanija Corps on August 10, 1994. His predecessor in this post, General Stanislav Galic, was also charged with war crimes committed during the Sarajevo siege and sentenced last December by the tribunal to 20 years in prison.

According to the Milsoevic indictment, during the siege the corps he led for the final 15 months “implemented a military strategy which used shelling and sniping to kill, maim, wound and terrorise the civilian inhabitants” the Bosnian capital.

Several months after Milosevic took over, the Romanija corps began to deploy weapons, which had not been previously seen in the conflict – modified aircraft bombs launched from the ground, which possessed great powers of destruction and caused huge damage to the city.

No information was immediately available on the circumstances of Milosevic’s surrender, or where he had been for the last six years.

***

The head of Serbian state security under the Milosevic regime, Jovica Stanisic, and Franko Simatovic, the former commander of the country’s most notorious special forces unit Red Berets, were granted provisional release by the Hague tribunal’s Appeals Chamber on December 3.

Stanisic and Simatovic are accused of a series of crimes they allegedly committed during the Balkan wars as a part of a joint criminal enterprise to carve up a Serb-controlled territory in former Yugoslavia.

The two will be allowed to spend the time until the beginning of their trial in Serbia.

Stanisic and Simatovic requested provisional release almost a year ago – in January 2004. The prosecutor’s office, however, has repeatedly appealed this request, saying they feared that the two once powerful security officials still possessed the capacity to interfere with evidence and influence witnesses.

They cited a case of Simatovic phoning one of the witnesses in the Milosevic trial – the paramilitary leader “Captain Dragan” – and asking him to change his testimony.

The appeals have been consistently rejected – first by the trial chamber and now finally by the appeals chamber.

***

Another two Hague tribunal indictees will also be going home for Christmas, pending the start of their trial.

Croatian army generals Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak were granted provisional release by the court’s Appeals Chamber on December 2.

Both are accused of crimes allegedly committed against Croatian Serbs during the August 1995 Operation Storm, during which the Croatian government regained control over large swaths of its territory, until that time held by the Serbs.

The vast majority of the area’s Serb inhabitants – over 200,000 – fled to Serbia. Few have returned.

***

The appeals chamber considering the case of former Bosnian Croat commander Mario Cerkez has ordered his immediate release after more than seven years in detention in The Hague.

In an order issued December 2, judges said Cerkez’s sentence should be revised from the 15 years originally handed down on February 26 2001, when a trial chamber ruled he was responsible for war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims in 1993.

It is the first case so far that an accused has been released before the appeals chamber renders its verdict.

The original trial chamber ruled that Cerkez had known about impending attacks on the Bosnian towns of Vitez, Stari Vitez and Veceriska by troops under his command and had failed to prevent those attacks or to punish those responsible.

He was found therefore to be liable for the deaths, injuries, imprisonment, plundering and destruction that occurred during the attacks.

Details of exactly how Cerkez’s sentence is to be revised will not be announced until the judgement is officially delivered on December 17.

He has been in detention in the UN detention unit in The Hague since his voluntary surrender to the tribunal on October 6, 1997.

***

Tribunal judge Alphonse Orie has ordered Croatian weekly Hrvatsko Slovo to immediately cease publication of statements of a protected witness who appeared in the trial of Bosnian Croat general Tihomir Blaskic.

He also threatened seven years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euro for those found in contempt of the tribunal.

On November 26 this year, Hrvatsko Slovo published excerpts of what it claimed was the testimony of a protected witness in the Blaskic case. The witness testified in closed session and had been granted protective measures.

In his order dated December 2, Orie said that “those responsible for the publication of Hrvatsko Slovo were aware at the time of the publication that the transcripts were not to be disclosed” and that “no mention, direct or indirect, of such documents should be made public under any form”.

Orie also requested the Croatian authorities serve his order without delay and provide a written report confirming it has been carried out.