US embassy cable - 04THEHAGUE985

C O N F I D E N T I A L THE HAGUE 000985 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR S/WCI - PROSPER/RICHARD, EUR/SCE - 
STEPHENS/GREGORIAN/MITCHELL, L/EUR - LAHNE, L/AF - GTAFT. 
INR/WCAD - SEIDENSTRICKER/MORIN; USUN FOR ROSTOW/WILLSON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 1.6 FIVE YEARS AFTER CLOSURE ICTY 
TAGS: BK, HR, KAWC, NL, PHUM, PREL, SR, ICTY 
SUBJECT: ICTY: SENIOR FORMER USG OFFICIALS ON MILOSEVIC 
WITNESS LIST 
 
 
Classified By: Legal Counselor Clifton M. Johnson per 1.5(d). 
 
1. (C) Summary: Slobodan Milosevic -- in one of his first 
filings before the International Criminal Tribunal for the 
Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) -- submitted to the trial chamber on 
April 13 a confidential document describing the witnesses he 
may call during his upcoming defense case.  While the list 
itself remains under seal, Embassy Legal officers have 
confirmed reports that it includes over 1600 individuals, 
although only 300 or so of them are named in the document. 
Of these, the list names the following current and former 
American officials:  former President Bill Clinton, former 
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of 
 
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Defense William Cohen, Ambassador Christopher Hill, General 
Wesley Clark, and former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.  OTP 
sources are confident that the trial chamber will permit only 
a fraction of the 1600 individuals to be called as witnesses. 
 End summary. 
 
2. (C) On April 13, Milosevic filed with the trial chamber a 
confidential document describing the witnesses he intends to 
 
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call to support various parts of his defense.  The document 
is not strictly speaking a witness list; rather, it is a 
memorandum divided into sections keyed to the indictments. 
After each section, the document lists the individuals whose 
testimony he believes would rebut that particular charge. 
Most of the 1634 individuals referenced are described with 
general placeholders, such as their position or role.  Only 
about 300 of them are specifically named. 
 
3. (C) In a meeting with Embassy legal officers on April 16, 
Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte confirmed that the document 
included USG officials.  Reading directly from a list drawn 
from the filing, she said that the filing included former 
President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Madeleine 
Albright, former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, 
Ambassador Christopher Hill, General Wesley Clark, and former 
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.  She said that it also included 
a long list of Russian officials, followed by French and 
British officials, and finally, in the words of a senior 
adviser, Anton Nikiforov, a number of Chomskyite 
anti-globalists whose proposed contributions are somewhat 
mysterious.  Nikiforov was perplexed by the Russians listed, 
noting that a number of them would be damaging rather than 
helpful to Milosevic.   Del Ponte said that the list 
indicated that Milosevic was planning a primarily political 
defense. 
 
4. (C) The filing is now with the trial chamber and the 
Prosecution will have an opportunity to respond to it at a 
May 17 pre-defense phase conference in chambers.  Given that 
the defense has been allocated 150 days for its portion of 
the case, it is inconceivable that the trial chamber will 
approve anything more than a fraction of the list.  (NB: By 
contrast, the OTP called nearly three hundred witnesses 
during its case, though its witness "wish lists" involved 
substantially more names and placeholders as well.)  Further, 
any decision with respect to specific witnesses is not likely 
to occur for some time given that Milosevic has to decide 
first to call the witness, request that the witness appear, 
and then justify and pursue a court order if the witness 
refuses.  The USG would have an opportunity to weigh in at 
the stage a court order is sought, if not sooner, and Del 
Ponte has agreed to keep us informed of developments with 
respect to Milosevic's witness requests. 
 
5. (C) Comment. Milosevic's filing does not come as much of a 
surprise as Milosevic has been saying for over two years that 
he would call former senior officials of the United States 
and other governments.  While Del Ponte may be right that the 
list reflects a political rather than a legal defense, the 
proof of that will be not in the three hundred witnesses 
identified but in the remaining 1300.  Some of these 
witnesses may be insiders from the Milosevic regime who would 
be in a position to challenge specific aspects of the 
Prosecution case.  Until those witnesses are identified, it 
will be difficult to characterize the defense phase with any 
definite degree of certainty.  End comment. 
SOBEL