Briefly Noted

When UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced last week that he intended to split the duties of the chief prosecutor for the Yugoslav and Rwanda war crimes tribunals and appoint a separate prosecutor for Rwanda, Carla Del Ponte was reportedly furious and announced that she would resign if her mandate was limited to Yugoslavia.

So when she flew to New York over the weekend for a meeting with the Secretary General, many at the tribunal waited with baited breath, wondering if they would still have a lead prosecutor when she returned.

Del Ponte’s spokeswoman, Florence Hartmann, said it was extremely important that the prosecutor continue to oversee the prosecution at both tribunals to ensure some consistency in the body of international jurisprudence.

However, others in The Hague expressed different opinions. “Frankly, I never understood why the two tribunals were combined in the first place,” said a tribunal official. “One of them is bound to get the short end of the stick, and that has been Rwanda.”

Annan said his intention of splitting Del Ponte’s job into two was simply a matter of the job being too big for one person to perform. “There is a sense that, as we approach the end, and both tribunals are being asked to come up with a completion strategy to be able to finish their work and close down the courts, it may be necessary to have two prosecutors to tackle that essential part of their work,” Annan said on July 29.

However, Del Ponte and her supporters argue the effort to relieve the chief prosecutor of her Rwanda responsibilities is being led by the Tutsi-led Rwandan government.

Although the overwhelming majority of war crimes were perpetrated by Rwanda’s Hutu in the 1994 genocide, Del Ponte has made it clear that the tribunal is also pursuing war crimes indictments against some Tutsi, and government officials reportedly fear that they might be among them.

During their talks, Annan told Del Ponte that he planned to go ahead with his recommendation to the Security Council that a new prosecutor for Rwanda be appointed. However, he said he would wait until she was given the opportunity to make her case to council members as to why she should have responsibility for both tribunals.

When asked by the press to comment on her plans for future before leaving New York, Del Ponte replied, “No comment. Ask the secretary general.”

Exactly what that means regarding her possible resignation remains to be seen. The prosecutor returned to The Hague on July 30 and still had no comment.

MILOSEVIC ILL AGAIN

The Hague tribunal cancelled Slobodan Milosevic's trial this week once more because the former Yugoslav president had fallen ill again.

The trial will resume on August 25 after the summer recess, which was previously scheduled.

Milosevic first complained of pain on July 25 when the trial was postponed for a few hours giving doctors the time to examine him.

Close to 60 trial days have been cancelled so far due to Milosevic's ill health. Although the former Serbian president takes medication for his high blood pressure, occasional bouts of influenza have halted the case on several occasions so far.

The latest in a series of breaks in trial will also affect the deadline for the prosecutors to finish their case, extending it by at least one week. When the trial resumes, the court will have to focus on Milosevic's preparation for defense. The first defense pre-trial hearing is scheduled to be held on September 2 this year.

ANOTHER MASS GRAVE IN BOSNIA

A mass grave, believed to be the largest so far, was discovered in the vicinity of Zvornik, on July 28, 2003.

Presumed to contain the remains of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre in the summer of 1995, the mass grave is located at Crni Vrh, an area through which men and boys escaping the enclave passed on the way to Tuzla.

Press reports suggest the grave - larger than any others found in eastern Bosnia - may hold up to 700 sets of remains. Crni Vrh is also believed to be a "secondary grave", which means that bodies were previously buried elsewhere, before being dug up and re-buried there.

If the allegations that the Hague tribunal provided the information as to the whereabouts of the mass grave are correct, it probably means cooperation by Momir Nikolic and Dragan Obrenovic, following their admission of guilt, has started to bear fruit.

Since the end of the Bosnian war, remains of over 16,500 bodies were exhumed in the country, 6,000 of them from Srebrenica region alone. The largest grave found so for contained about 500 remains. Time will tell if Crni Vrh is the largest.

Emir Suljagic is an IWPR reporter in The Hague. Stacy Sullivan is IWPR’s Hague project manager.