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/ Colormap • Page 5864 • {1/26} (1)Friday, 28 July 2000 [Open session] --- Upon commencing at 9.35 a.m. JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Good morning, ladies and (5)gentlemen; good morning, technical booth; good morning to the interpreters; good morning, court recorders and legal assistants; good morning to the Prosecution, Mr. Harmon, Mr. McCloskey, Mr. Cayley; good morning, Defence counsel, Mr. Petrusic and Mr. Visnjic. We are here to resume our proceedings in the Krstic case. I think (10)I'm going to give the floor to the Defence. Mr. Visnjic. MR. VISNJIC: [Int.] Mr. President, the Defence should like to notify the Chamber that General Krstic has given written agreement that today's hearing be held in his absence or, rather, he waives his (15)right to be present today, and this statement was handed to the registrar prior to the beginning of the proceedings. JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Are there any reasons of health for this? MR. VISNJIC: [Int.] Mr. President, I think there are (20)certain reasons of health. In view of the most recent events in the past few days, I feel the General feels a bit exhausted. JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Mr. Harmon.
MR. HARMON: Good morning, Mr. President, Your Honours. Good
morning to my colleagues.
(25)Mr. President, we're prepared to proceed today. An accused has a
JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] We do have a written statement (5)from General Krstic in which he waives his right to be present, and we agree, therefore, to continue in his absence. Madam Registrar, please take the document and give it a number, please, a Defence exhibit number. THE REGISTRAR: The waiver is Defence Exhibit D25. (10) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] So, Mr. Harmon, let us proceed.
MR. HARMON: Mr. President, I would request that we proceed in
closed session.
JUDGE RODRIGUES:
[Int.] So, we are now in public
session. I wish to repeat that the contents of this hearing, this closed
session hearing, will be made public on the 4th of August this year in
Courtroom III. I am saying this so that there should be no
(25)misunderstanding.
THE REGISTRAR: Yes, it has been noted, actually, that the hearing will be held next Friday, August 4th, Courtroom III, at 9.30. (5) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Very well. And all the documents and the proceedings from this hearing remain under seal until that day, so we understand one another very well now. So I think we have two more problems to address, Mr. Harmon. That is the question of the admission of certain documents into evidence, and (10)after that another question, and that is the Status Conference, and I should like to hear the views of the Defence specifically. So Mr. Harmon, first regarding the first point. MR. HARMON: Mr. President, and Your Honours, good afternoon. We are concluding our case today, and in reviewing all of the exhibits and (15)the status of all of the exhibits, many of them have to be regulated in terms of their present status, whether they're under seal or not under seal. This task, I might add, is a Herculean task that my colleague Kirsten Keith has put in a great deal of time and effort in trying to resolve all of these problems, and for that I and the trial team are (20)firmly indebted. Let me say that, if I could suggest a procedure, and to resolve this expeditiously today, there are literally hundreds of exhibits that I must comment on, and rather than do that and remain here until Saturday or possibly Sunday, I have created additional exhibits which -- (25)
JUDGE RODRIGUES:
[Int.] Don't do that to us, Mr. Harmon.
JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Mr. Harmon, in relation to this (10)Exhibit 394, I think we still need to render a decision regarding this exhibit. I'm talking -- if my memory serves me. MR. HARMON: Before I then offer this particular exhibit, I'll wait for the decision of the Chamber. Let me withdraw that at this point. (15) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Yes. Very well.
MR. HARMON: In addition to these summaries of exhibits and what
their status is, we have some new exhibits to tender. One is an exhibit
which is a report of Mark Mills, who was an expert on watches. It was a
reference earlier during the testimony of some of the Prosecutor's experts
(20)who testified about their findings in exhumations. We will be tendering
this expert report, which will be Exhibit 210, and a table 210/A, as
exhibits. The expert report of Mr. Mills was filed pursuant to
Rule 94 bis on January the 6th, 2000, and the Defence agreed to accept the
conclusions of that report orally -- it wasn't -- their response wasn't in
(25)writing -- on the 7th of February, 2000. So we would tender Mark Mills'
JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] I think that we don't have that (10)exhibit on our table. MR. HARMON: We have -- Mr. President, we have those exhibits here, and rather than pass each one of those up, if I could -- JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Please proceed.
MR. HARMON: The Prosecutor's Office also submitted a film. It's
(15)Prosecutor's Exhibit 148. It's a film of a Dutch APC in a ditch and
various Bosnian Serb soldiers and officers standing around in that film.
We now have translation or transcript from that film. We are tendering,
therefore, Prosecutor's Exhibit 148A, an English transcript; 148B, a B/C/S
transcript; and 148C, a French transcript.
(20)Our next exhibit, Mr. President, are certain -- are Prosecutor's
Exhibits 112 through 115. These are summaries of news accounts from
various news sources. The summaries are from the Fibus reporting
service. They're Exhibits 112 to 115. I have shown copies of these
exhibits to the Defence. They have no objection to their presentation.
(25)The next exhibit that we will be offering to the Court is a graph,
JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Thank you very much, Mr. Harmon. Two observations. I think you should share your salary with (5)the Defence because they have helped you a lot; and we registered the good mathematical talents of Mr. Cayley; and a third point, we're going to give the floor to the Defence, and I'm going to ask Defence counsel whether they wish to go exhibit by exhibit or are you in a position to make your point regarding the whole set? (10) MR. VISNJIC: [Int.] Mr. President, we shall try to be very expeditious. Regarding Exhibit 271, which is Mr. Brunborg's report, our deadline was the 30th of June to see whether we would have any objections regarding that exhibit, and I must say that until that date our investigations did not reveal any circumstances that would prompt us to (15)make any objections here in Court. Therefore, we have no objections regarding that exhibit; but we would like to reserve the right if, in the course of our further investigations, we should discover any circumstances related to this exhibit, that we present those facts that we uncover as a result of our investigations to the Trial Chamber. (20) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Mr. Harmon, in relation to the reservation expressed by the Defence? MR. HARMON: We certainly have no objection to their presenting any evidence that would conflict with our exhibits.
JUDGE RODRIGUES:
[Int.] I think we can already give you
(25)an answer, that the Chamber will admit into evidence this Exhibit 270 and
MR. VISNJIC: [Int.] Mr. President, regarding the other exhibits, we have a very brief comment to make, and that is that we have no objection. (5) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Are you going to ask an addition to your salary, Mr. Visnjic? So, Madam Registrar, have you taken note of all these documents? You have fully understood what we need to do with those documents, that is, which are the corrections, which are the documents that need to be (10)admitted under seal, which are the documents that should be removed from being kept under seal, the report of Mr. Brian Mills, the expert, the summaries of the Fibus reporting service, and the report by Jose Baraybar under the guidance of Mr. Cayley. Have you understood all that? THE REGISTRAR: Yes, I have, and I will be asking the Prosecution (15)for part of their salary also.
JUDGE RODRIGUES:
[Int.] Thank you very much. So I think
we're really coming to an end in a good mood, and that is a good thing
when we come to the end of something. We are tired, but in a positive
mood.
(20)I now take another point that I would like to address.
Mr. Petrusic and Mr. Visnjic, I should like to propose to you for your
consideration the 5th, the week of the 5th to the 9th of September and/or,
we will see, the week from the 2nd to the 6th of October to have a Status
Conference in preparation of the Defence case pursuant to Rule 65 ter,
(25)paragraph "D", "J" -- I'm sorry, "G" as in "gateau," cake. Okay.
MR. VISNJIC: [Int.] Mr. President, as far as I understand it, you have offered us two dates, 2 to the 5th of September and 2 to the 6th of October. Does it mean we can choose between the two? (10) JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Yes. We're giving you two weeks to choose a day for a Status Conference and a Pre-trial Conference, if there's not too much to do, or one day for a Status Conference and another day for the conference. What we need to consider is the provisions of Rule 65 ter and 73 (15)ter. You can examine the rules and tell us which is the date that suits you, but bearing in mind the fact that we intend to resume proceedings with the Defence case on the 16th of October. Therefore, before the beginning of the Defence case, we need to fulfil all the conditions envisaged in Articles 65 ter and 73 ter, Rules, these Rules that I have (20)already mentioned. MR. VISNJIC: [Int.] Mr. President, may we be given a few days before we give you an answer? Do we need to make a choice today, or may we notify the registrar or the Prosecution subsequently?
JUDGE RODRIGUES:
[Int.] That is quite possible. I am
(25)suggesting these dates, and we are ready to consider another date. The
MR. VISNJIC: [Int.] Thank you very much, Mr. President. We will certainly fit into one of the dates that you have suggested. JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Fine. I think there is one more matter to deal with. My dear colleague Judge Wald has drawn my attention (10)to it, and that is the Exhibit 394. I think that I have mentioned that it was not quite clear to the Chamber what was the position regarding the motion to admit certain documents under seal which were part of the exhibit. Perhaps I could ask the Defence. (15)I see that Mr. Harmon was about to stand to say something. MR. HARMON: Your Honour, the list of exhibits under 394 was under seal because there were certain areas that were sensitive, and therefore that, as I understood, was the -- one of the objections, and I'll let, obviously, the Defence state any other objections, but one of the reasons (20)it was under seal was because of what was contained in the summary. JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] I think we can reorganise this exhibit. In any event, Mr. Visnjic, do you have any objections in relation to this exhibit? We know that you have an objection of substance. (25)
MR. VISNJIC:
[Int.] Mr. President, no new elements
JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] In that case, the Chamber will render its decision regarding this Exhibit 394 bis now. The Prosecutor has requested the admission into evidence of the (5)exhibits listed in Exhibit 394 bis. The Defence objected to the admission of certain exhibits, giving the same grounds as those presented when objecting to the admission of radio intercepts which were the object of the ruling of this Chamber on the 27th of June, 2000. Having heard the parties and reviewed the exhibits, and there were (10)motives for the objections, the Chamber rules, bearing in mind Articles 97(C) and 94, Rule 94 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, to grant the request of the Prosecutor and orders the admission into evidence of all the exhibits as requested. That is the decision of the Chamber. Mr. Harmon. (15)
MR. HARMON: Mr. President, in view of the Court's decision, then
I renew my -- I would retender then Prosecutor's Exhibit 394 bis, which is
a list of the exhibits contained in 394, but it is a list without the
summary, and we would ask that this be substituted or the previous list
with the summary was under seal. We would ask that that remain under
(20)seal, and this, without the sources does not have to be under seal. So we
are tendering then this Exhibit 394 bis, for your consideration as well.
And with that final exhibit, then we would rest our case, Mr. President.
Thank you.
Thank you Your Honours, and we wish Your Honours a good vacation,
(25)and the same to our colleagues and to the staff and everybody who has
JUDGE RODRIGUES: [Int.] Mr. Visnjic, have you any objection to the admission into evidence of this exhibit? MR. VISNJIC: [Int.] Mr. President, the Chamber has (5)already admitted those exhibits into evidence, so we have no objections. I should like to take advantage of this opportunity to make a request, as the Chamber is in full -- present in full, and if this might happen a few days later, perhaps the Chamber will not be able to rule. The Defence will, in the ensuing period consider whether to submit (10)a proposal in line with the provisions of 98 bis (A), according to which a seven-day time period is envisaged from the end of the Prosecution case but, in any event, prior to the beginning of the Defence case. In view of the fact that in the last few months we have received a large number of documents from the Prosecution, we will take -- we will (15)need some time to make a decision about this. So I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, in accordance with Rule 127, to make a request to the Trial Chamber for a prolongation of the time period from 98 bis, and I would suggest that it be until this week of the 5th to the 9th of September that I see that the Chamber has offered as a possibility (20)and when the Chamber will be present in its full composition. Thank you.
JUDGE RODRIGUES:
[Int.] Thank you very much,
Mr. Visnjic. The exhibit mentioned by the Prosecutor is admitted into
evidence.
Mr. Harmon, in relation to this request by Mr. Visnjic, what is
(25)your comment?
JUDGE RODRIGUES:
[Int.] In relation to the request just
made by the Defence counsel orally, in view of the fact that there is no
(5)objection on the part of the Prosecution and bearing in mind the interests
of justice and pursuant to the provisions of Article -- Rule 98 bis and
Rule 127 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, the Chamber decides to
grant an extension of the time limit mentioned in Rule 98 bis until the
9th of September, 2000. That is the decision of the Chamber.
(10)It should also be said now that the Prosecutor has completed its
case today, the 28th of July.
That also brings to an end this session, 20 minutes over the time
that we had wished, but I think that we can all agree that though we have
worked a lot and we are indeed tired, I think we're all looking forward to
(15)a holiday, nevertheless, we have had some humour and this is necessary to
invigorate us and motivate us.
So for the moment, I think I can speak on behalf of my
colleagues. We would like to wish you a good holiday and a good rest,
because after the holiday -- of course there will be people working during
(20)the holiday, but after the holiday, there is other work waiting for us.
So we must be well prepared for that work.
We have reached one objective that we set ourselves, and that is
the termination of the presentation of evidence by the Prosecutor. I
think I need to express appreciation to everyone for the work they have
(25)done, for the cooperation demonstrated between the parties, and the
--- Whereupon the hearing adjourned sine die (10)at 3.24 p.m. |
