UN / BRAMMERTZ

Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Serge Brammertz tells the Security Council that the most critical aspect of Serbia's cooperation is the need to apprehend the fugitives. UNTV

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:38
• Production Date: 3 December 2009
• Asset Language: Original
• Subject Topical: CRIMES; CRIMINAL JUSTICE
• Geographic Subject: BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
• MAMS Id: U091203a

Description

STORY: UN / BRAMMERTZ
TRT: 1.38
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 3 DECEMBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY

Shotlist

RECENT 2009, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations

3 DECEMBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Cutaway, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Serge Brammertz, Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY):
“Serbia’s cooperation with my Office has continued to progress. Prosecution requests to access documents and archives are being dealt with more expeditiously and effectively. It is important that the authorities continue to provide this level of assistance, which will remain crucial during current and future trial and appeals work. The most critical aspect of Serbia’s cooperation is the need to apprehend the fugitives. This remains one of my Office’s highest priorities.”
5. Cutaway, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Serge Brammertz, Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY):
“The central issue of concern remains the still unresolved request to locate and obtain key military documents related to Operation Storm of 1995. I welcome, however, the personal initiative of the Prime Minister of Croatia to establish in October 2009 an Inter-Agency Task Force aimed at locating these documents.”
7. Cutaway, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Serge Brammertz, Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY):
“I am, however, concerned about the possible departure of international personnel and support staff from the Special Department for War Crimes. Despite repeated requests from judicial institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the mandates of international staff ending in December have not been renewed due to lack of a political will. If this matter is not urgently addressed, ongoing trial proceedings and war crimes investigations could be jeopardized.”
9. Wide shot, Security Council

Storyline

The Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia called for Serbia’s “critical” cooperation in capturing the two remaining top fugitives accused of atrocities in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s.

Serge Brammertz told the Security Council today that the arrest of General Ratko Mladic and the other remaining fugitive Goran Hadžic remained one of his office’s foremost priorities, while noting progress in Serbia’s cooperation in providing more effective access to documents.

But, he added that, “the most critical aspect of Serbia’s cooperation is the need to apprehend the fugitives.”

With regard to Croatia, Brammertz said they were continuing to work on a regular basis with the ministry of justice to “locate and obtain” key military documents related to Operation Storm 1995.

Brammertz welcomed the personal initiative of the prime minister of Croatia last October to establish an Inter-Agency Task Force aimed at locating those documents.

Concerning Bosnia and Herzegovina, he said they were responding to all prosecution requests and that his office interacted regularly with the special department for war crimes of the state court, but he said that he was concerned about the possible departure of international personnel and support staff from that department and warned that if this was not urgently addressed, ongoing trial proceedings and war crimes investigations could be jeopardized.

Five trials are expected to be completed during 2010, three during 2011, and the remaining case, that of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžic, should be completed in late 2012, with all appeals ended in 2013, apart from Mr. Karadžic’s which is estimated for completion in 2014.

Mladic faces numerous charges, including genocide, extermination, murder, persecutions, deportation, taking of hostages and inflicting terror on civilians, particularly in connection with the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the supposedly “safe haven” of Srebrenica in July 1995.

Hadžic was charged with murder, persecutions, torture, cruel treatment and other war crimes and crimes against humanity related to his role as president of a self-proclaimed breakaway state of rebel Serbs in southern Croatia during the early 1990s.