ICTY Moves Forward With Much Activity

Three important developments in October in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) were the surrender of a former Yugoslav general, a decision by the appellate chamber overturning convictions, and the exertion of pressure by the chief prosecutor against the Serbian Government for alleged lack of cooperation with the Tribunal. In particular, it discusses the surrender on October 21, 2001 of Gen. Payle Strugar to the ICTY where he is charged in 1991 shelling of Dubrovnik. On October 23, 2001, an appellate panel for the ICTY reversed the convictions of three Bosnian Croats who the trial panel had convicted and sentenced for one of the worst massacres of the Bosnian war on the basis of a “critically flawed” trial. On October 22, 2001, on a visit to Belgrade, Serbia, Carla Del Ponte, the CITY chief prosecutor, issued a statement strongly critical of Serbia’s lack of cooperation with the ICTY, specifically in transferring accused persons and providing access to information, documents and witnesses.