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Sinisa Djordjevic, Advisor to the RS Prime Minister held press conference today in Banja Luka where he explained the RS Gvt.'s views on cooperation with the ICTY. The issue that has been the most attractive to the RS media is the Draft Law on Cooperation between the RS and the ICTY. According to Sinisa Djordjevic the Draft Law has been drafted by the RS Gvt. Expert Team and the RS Justice Ministry, and forwarded to the ICTY. The ICTY returned the Draft Law to the RS Government yesterday asking them to incorporate few changes in it. There are several remarks regarding the Draft Law that the ICTY wants to be changed:
3. The third remark pertains to conduction of investigations on the RS territory by the ICTY investigators - "the point of the Law is to remove all possible obstacles in the RS legislation, so that the ICTY investigators can do their job unimpeded". 4. The fourth remark pertains to pretrial detention - "the article 13 of the Draft Law on Cooperation between the ICTY and the RS says that judge has the right to order detention in 2 cases: a) the ICTY has to ascertain the identity of an indictee; b) the ICTY has to provide information which prove that an indictee has the intention to escape". Asked to comment on whether the RS authorities intend to arrest 15 indictees whose names are known, Djordjevic quoted Article 13 of the Draft Law on Cooperation with the ICTY, failing to give a direct answer. He basically said that the RS can arrest war crimes indictees only in accordance with the Article 13 of the Draft Law on Cooperation with the ICTY. The other point Mr. Djordjevic was insistent upon the general assumption according to which the RS is a genocidal creation. With regards to this issue Mr. Djoredjevic says that the RS authorities have to do everything in their power to prove the opposite. He also pointed out that the ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte promised during her last visit to Banja Luka that some Bosniaks and Croats, who were war leaders during the War, would be indicted very soon. "It did not happen and I want to say that a some sort of balance should be made. It would be very good for the media perception. I would probably make people in the RS think that the Serbs are not the only ones who committed war crimes", says Djordjevic. Djordjevic also commented on the plans the RS Government made regarding the cooperation with the ICTY. The first step was appointment of the RS PM's Advisor for Cooperation with the ICTY (Mr. Djordjevic). The second step was establishment of the Department for cooperation with the ICTY who operates within the RS Justice Ministry. The main goal of the Department is to collect all indictments, legislation and the other relevant data. The next phase is establishment of expert teams and the finally, according to Mr. Djordjevic, the Department should, at the end, transform into a some sort of NGO. One of the phases in development of the Department is providing legal assistance to detainees and indictees.
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