Beginning of the end as Karadzic faces the tribunal

Jul 31, 2008, 13:44 GMT

International press has gathered at the Yugoslavia Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, 30 July 008, after former Bosnian Serb leader Radoslav Karadzic has been brought to the Netherlands. EPA/BOB VAN KEULEN

The Hague - Former Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's first appearance before the UN war crimes tribunal in The Netherlands Thursday marking only the beginning of the end of the long search for justice for the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The session itself, scheduled to start at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague at 1400 GMT, was expected to be only formal - and probably brief - one.

It could take anywhere between 10 and 90 minutes, depending on whether Karadzic uses the opportunity to speak. The session was to see the prosecution read out to the defendant in person each of the 11 counts on the indictment.

Under court regulations, Karadzic had the opportunity to respond immediately to charges brought against him, and enter his plea to each of the 11 counts.

But he could also wait and enter his plea at any other moment within 30 days after the initial appearance. Karadzic's Serbian lawyer Svetozar Vujacic said late Wednesday his client would request the full 30 days.

The actual trial will not begin until after several months, with both prosecution and the defence needing time to prepare themselves.

Chief ICTY Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said his team had already begun reviewing the existing indictment against Karadzic, last updated in 2000.

He indicated that reviewing the indictment would also have a positive influence on the length of the trial.

Both supporters and critics of the ICTY often note the length of trials as problematic.

The trial of late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, who died of heart failure in March 2006 before the end of the trial, is often mentioned as an example. His death had come five years after being indictment.

Brammertz told a news conference Wednesday would include new case law and evidence presented to the court over the past eight years.

He also said the prosecution would file a number of motions to the court, requesting that existing evidence and witness statements be accepted, so that certain facts do not need to be proven again during the trial.

If the court admits such evidence - from audio or video material, documents or witness statements made during previous trials, this could help speed up the trial.

The presiding judge in the trial will be Alphons Orie, the same judge before whom Karadzic is also due to appear today.

Orie is known for introducing into the court room what he himself refers to as his 'background of Dutch legal pragmatism.'

Speaking during an interview on Dutch radio programme EO De Ochtenden on earlier this month, Orie said he sometimes interrupts either party if he feels they are 'beating about the bush.'

'Then I force them to focus on the essence. It is important for me to speed up procedures whenever possible.'

Orie is also known for initiating his own interrogation of a witness, a custom common in Dutch courts but previously not in the ICTY.

The other two judges to sit on the bench when the trial opens in several months time will be Judge Christine Van den Wyngaert (Belgium) and Judge Bakone Moloto (South Africa).

Speaking on Dutch television Wednesday night, Ton Zwaan, a researcher at the Universtity of Amsterdam's Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and an expert-witness in the Milosevic trial, predicted the Karadzic trial would be 'easier and shorter than the Milosevic trial, because many facts have already been established by the court.'

Milosevic had also attempted to delegate blame to Karadzic.

Zwaan added that many years of court experience would help efficiency. Asked how long he thought the actual trial would take, he said it might be anywhere between 'several months up to two years.'

At the initial appearance on Thursday, Karadzic was also due to announce whether he will be represented or whether he will represent himself.

Brammertz said that if Karadzic decides to defend himself, the prosecution will file a motion protesting that, as it has also in previous instances in which defendants asked to represent themselves.

Dutch top attorney Geert-Jan Knoops, who has defended several standing trial at the ICTY, told Dutch television Wednesday he would 'absolutely recommend the Bosnian-Serb to hire an attorney.

Doing his own defence would also be too exhausting, 'both mentally and physically,' he said.

'Even for me, with a team of five or six attorneys, these trials are very tough.'

Proving genocide has in the past proven a difficult challenge, he pointed out. Meanwhile the general, Ratko Mladic, who commanded the soldiers who carried out the Sreberenica massacre, in which some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed, remains at large.