US embassy cable - 04THEHAGUE1163

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 THE HAGUE 001163 
 
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: SAM MINISTER OF JUSTICE SEES PRESIDENT 
MERON, CANCELS ON DEL PONTE 
 
REF: A. (A) MAY 4 LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE 
 
        SECURITY 
        COUNCIL(WWW.UN.ORG/ICTY/LATEST/INDEX.HTM) 
     B. (B) STRASBOURG 92 
 
Classified By: Legal Counselor Clifton M. Johnson per 1.5(d). 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: Serbian Minister of Justice, Zoran 
Stojkovic, visited the President of the International 
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Judge 
Theodor Meron, following his appearance at the provisional 
release hearing for indictees Frenki Simatovic and Jovica 
Stanisic.  Earlier in the day, Stojkovic canceled a scheduled 
meeting with Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, deepening the 
rift between SAM and the Office of the Prosecutor.  End 
summary. 
 
2. (SBU) ICTY President Meron met on Monday, May 10, with 
Serbian Justice Minister Stojkovic, Health Minister Tomica 
Milosavljevic, Kostunica legal adviser Aleksandar Simic, and 
SaM Ambassador to the Netherlands Maja Mitrovic, at their 
request.  According to an ICTY press release, "Meron stressed 
the urgent need for Serbia and Montenegro's full cooperation 
in conformity with their international obligations."  Meron's 
chief of staff elaborated to embassy legal officer that the 
conversation focused on the frozen state of cooperation 
between Belgrade and the ICTY Office of the Prosecutor (OTP). 
 Meron emphasized the seriousness of his report to the 
Security Council that the SaM is in noncompliance with its 
ICTY obligations (ref A).  In that report, which forwarded a 
report of the Chief Prosecutor, Meron told the Security 
Council that he considers the Chief Prosecutor's report as 
"indicating extremely serious failures" and "the Prosecutor 
has satisfied me that Serbia and Montenegro is failing to 
comply with its obligations" under the ICTY Statute.  He 
added, "I also share the concern of the Prosecutor that such 
failures are detrimental to the expectations placed upon the 
Tribunal by its completion strategy and could seriously 
impinge the Tribunal's ability to meet those expectations." 
 
3. (C) Stojkovic, who oddly thanked Meron for the report, and 
Simic argued that Belgrade would cooperate in accordance with 
its law on cooperation once the head of the Council on 
Cooperation was chosen (according to Stojkovic, SaM Foreign 
Minister Draskovic does not want the job).  Meron pressed by 
asking whether the government would arrest Mladic if they 
found him at a cafe in Belgrade, or if the government would 
have to go through the Council for such authority.  The Serbs 
said that Mladic could be arrested because an arrest warrant 
was already outstanding.  By contrast, they said, last 
October's indictments of four senior Serbian military and 
police officials had not been submitted to the Council, so 
those four could not be arrested. 
 
4. (C) Meron urged Belgrade to cooperate with the ICTY on an 
urgent basis and not to wait for the Council on Cooperation. 
He particularly urged cooperation in terms of waivers of 
immunity for witnesses and access to archival sources. 
According to Meron, "the ball is in your court," and a first 
step should be meeting with OTP representatives to resolve 
these issues.  "Time is of the essence," he said, since the 
ICTY would be making written and oral reports to the Security 
Council by May 31 and June 15, respectively, and unless 
cooperation is reinstituted, both the President and Chief 
Prosecutor will give Belgrade failing marks. 
 
5. (C) At the end of last week, Stojkovic had arranged to 
meet Chief Prosecutor Del Ponte on May 10 as indicated in ref 
B.  However, according to Del Ponte senior advisers, the SaM 
Embassy called early on May 10 to cancel the meeting without 
an explanation.  Del Ponte was, according to one of the 
advisers, "outraged" at such treatment.  The same adviser 
also noted that the fact that Stojkovic was still seeing 
Meron fueled Del Ponte's sense that the SAM was deliberately 
trying to send her a negative signal and foster a division 
between the OTP and Chambers. 
 
6. (C) The team from Belgrade was in The Hague specifically 
to express to a trial chamber the SaM's guarantee that, 
should Frenki Simatovic and Jovica Stanisic be granted 
provisional release, they would be returned to The Hague as 
required by the trial chamber.  It is believed that the 
Health Minister attended specifically because of the 
ill-health of Stanisic, though what further information he 
could add to that provided by local physicians was unclear. 
The hearing began on Monday, May 10, and is likely to 
continue on through Thursday, though much of the hearing has 
been conducted in closed session.  Stanisic's defense lawyer 
told Embassy legal officers that the OTP is actively opposing 
the application for provisional release and introduced 
testimony from two investigators attesting to Stanisic's lack 
of cooperation. 
 
7. (C) Comment: The visit of senior Serb officials to the 
office of President Meron in conjunction with the 
cancellation of a meeting with the Chief Prosecutor is being 
perceived by the OTP, likely with reason, as a signal that 
Belgrade would prefer to deal with the ICTY President than 
Del Ponte.  While Meron is a much more measured and 
consistent interlocutor than Del Ponte and has been careful 
to maintain cordial relations with Belgrade and other 
governments in the region, SAM would be miscalculating if it 
believed either that it could avoid engaging the OTP at 
senior levels on cooperation issues or that Meron would 
provide a more sympathetic audience on matters on 
non-cooperation.  Coming from Meron, the tough message -- 
that the ICTY as a whole rejects Belgrade's noncompliance -- 
should be taken seriously by SAM.  Whether it results in any 
real movement, however, remains to be seen.  End comment. 
SOBEL