International Justice/ICTY: Jan ‘09

A Tribunal Update report revealed that court staff could leave their posts before the end of their contracts if demands for redundancy packages are not met – leaving the court shortstaffed at a busy time.

As the tribunal nears its end, staff have become concerned about their future and are seeking more benefits in order to stay in their jobs until the court closes.

In Union Fears Job Insecurity May Harm Tribunal’s Work, reporter Simon Jennings spoke to Rick Cottam, a representative of the staff union at the Hague tribunal.

Cottam said that while the court had recently extended staff contracts, this alone was not enough to prevent them from looking for more stable jobs elsewhere.

Because no redundancy packages have been promised to its employees yet, the tribunal faces the possibility of not having the crucial staff it needs to get through its busy schedule – which includes the trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic – by the time it is due to close, said Cottam.

While keeping its focus on court proceedings, the international justice/ICTY project also covered some interesting developments in the region.

For example, a piece produced by IWPR reporter in Belgrade Zoran Glavonjic looked at the attempts of the Serb authorities to capture former Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladic.

On January 11, police put up new posters throughout Serbia promising one million euro for information leading to the capture of Mladic. A reward of 250,000 euro was also offered for information on the whereabouts of Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic, who is also on the run from the Hague tribunal.

In Mladic Wanted Posters Draw Huge Response, Glavonjic wrote about the considerable interest sparked by these posters and the numerous phone calls received by Serbia’s intelligence services in the days following the announcement of these lucrative rewards.

However, none of these calls have led to the arrests of Mladic and Hadzic.

In a recent poll carried out in Serbia, only 16 per cent of people questioned said they would inform the police if they had information on Mladic, which suggests that he is still a very popular figure in Serbia.

In mid January, another Serbian radio station, Radio Sto Plus, started broadcasting the programme Facing Justice, which IWPR produces in cooperation with Radio Free Europe, RFE.

This radio station broadcasts to the Sanzak region, which lies along the border between Serbia and Montenegro, where it has between 70,000 to 100,000 listeners. It also reaches sizable parts of Bosnia and Kosovo.

The station was established in 2003 by the Serbian news agency BETA in order to promote minority and human rights, tolerance and good relations between different ethnic communities.

This development will allow the international justice/ICTY project to reach a wider audience in Serbia and increase its profile there.