Briefly Noted

Ljubicic, who surrendered to the tribunal in November 2001, faces 15 counts of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war in connection with attacks against Muslim civilians in central Bosnia in 1992 and 1993.

Prosecutors say as a military police commander with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, he was responsible for planning and ordering attacks on Muslim villages and towns in which he personally sanctioned looting, burning of buildings and mass murders of residents.

He is also said to have been responsible for mistreatment of Muslim detainees who were forced to carry out dangerous tasks such as laying mines and digging trenches at front line positions, and on some occasions were beaten to death.

The referral of low-and mid-ranking cases to courts in the Balkans is part of the Hague tribunal’s completion strategy, according to which the court should aim to wrap up the bulk of its work within the next few years.

Court president Judge Theodor Meron will now decide whether to refer Ljubicic’s case to the tribunal’s specially-appointed referral chamber, whose members would then decide whether it is appropriate for referral to the Bosnian court system.

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Judges have ruled that wartime Bosnian Serb interior minister Mico Stanisic should be released from the UN detention unit in The Hague pending the start of war crimes proceedings against him.

Stanisic is charged with responsibility for a campaign, allegedly carried out by his subordinates in the Bosnian Serb police in 1992, to systematically disarm and then attack Muslim and Croat villages in order to force their inhabitants to flee.

Most of those who remained behind were apparently later rounded up and deported.

He faces ten counts of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war, for offences including persecution, murder, torture and deportations.

The trial chamber in the case, presided over by Judge Kevin Parker of Australia, said they were satisfied that Stanisic would return to The Hague for trial and would not pose a threat to victims and potential witnesses in the meantime.

During the period of his provisional release, the accused will not be allowed to travel outside the municipality of Belgrade, where he lives, and will be required to report to police on a daily basis.

It remains unknown when trial proceedings in the case will get underway, but judges noted in their written decision that this is unlikely to be before 2007.

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Judges have turned down requests from two Macedonian men charged with crimes allegedly committed during the country’s brief civil war in 2001 to be released from UN custody in the run-up to their trial.

Prosecutors say former Macedonian interior minister Ljube Boskoski and police officer Johan Tarculovski were responsible for a brutal police assault on the ethnic Albanian village of Ljuboten in August that year.

Seven residents were allegedly murdered during the attack, and many more detained and beaten.

In coming to their decision, judges noted that Boskoski had already fled Macedonia after being charged with seven other entirely separate murders allegedly committed in 2002.

They also took into account the fact that Tarculovski had actively avoided cooperating with tribunal prosecutors, including failing to turn up for meetings with investigators and selling the SIM card to his mobile phone when he knew he was wanted for questioning.

Judges said they were also unconvinced that granting provisional release to either accused would not endanger victims and potential witnesses in the case.

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Miroslav Bralo, Bosnian Croat indicted by the Hague tribunal for his role in the massacre of Bosnian Muslims in the village of Ahmici and crimes committed in other locations in Central Bosnia in 1993, pleaded guilty this week to many of the charges against him.

Bralo is the first member of non-Serb forces to plead guilty at the United Nations court to crimes committed in the Balkan wars of the Nineties. All of the guilty pleas so far have come from the officials fighting on the side of the ethnic Serbs.

Bralo entered his plea on the eight counts of the amended indictment, which charges him with the murders in Ahmici and surrounding hamlets, torture, rape, unlawful detention and inhumane treatment of prisoners.

The first indictment issued in 1995 with 22 counts of crimes has recently been amended to 8 counts with added charges of persecution.

During the plea hearing on July 19, Bralo kept on repeating "I'm guilty and I'm sincerely sorry", for every count of his amended indictment.

The amended indictment alleges that before the attack on Ahmici, Bralo was released from the Kaonik prison, and that he joined the infamous Bosnian Croat "Jokers" unit in order to take part in the attack on the village.

By pleading guilty, Bralo confirmed that the attack was aimed at ethnically cleansing the village, killing all the Muslim males of military age, burning their homes, and expelling the surviving residents.

Indictment says that on the morning of April 16, 1993, Bralo, accompanied by five other soldiers, killed a married Muslim couple and their daughter. Bralo is also accused, along with another soldier, of killing a group of 14 Bosnian Muslim civilians, including women and children, who had previously escaped from the area. While these killings took place, according to the indictment, Bralo stood guard over the victims, preventing any possibility of flight.

Bralo also admitted that he took part in the blowing up of the civilian buildings, like Ahmici mosque and houses of residents from the village. He pleaded guilty to torture and killings of three more Muslim detainees after the attack took place. He also admitted he forced detainees to dig trenches and used them as human shields, and repeatedly raped and tortured a Bosnian Muslim woman at the Jokers' headquarters.

His plea agreement with the prosecution contains no provisions on his possible cooperation or a recommendation for a sentence, informed prosecutor Mark Harmon.

Bralo confirmed to the judges that he had made the plea "of his own will" and that he was aware of all the consequences, including the possibility of receiving a life sentence.

Bralo's lawyer Jonathan Cooper said his client’s guilty plea "reflects the desire of the accused to express his remorse without any conditions".

Media in Croatia and Bosnia speculated that Bralo pleaded guilty in order to avoid his case being transferred to the recently opened special Bosnian War Crimes Chamber, as part of the tribunal's completion strategy.

This strategy foresees that all low- and mid-ranking cases are referred to local judiciaries in former Yugoslavia.

The judgment hearing in Bralo's case will be held probably in October, when the prosecution and the defence will present their recommendations for his sentence.