ICTY WRAPS UP ITS SIXTH YEAR WITH TOTAL OF 17 VERDICTS

THE HAGUE, Dec 12 (Hina) - With summations at the trial of Bosnian Croats Dario Kordic and Mario Cerkez the Hague war crimes tribunal on Friday wraps up its sixth year, which was marked by the start of the trial of the Drina Corps commander and indictee for the Srebrenica massacre, general Radislav Krstic and the passing of a 45-year prison sentence for Croat general Tihomir Blaskic, but also by the fact that the most wanted indictees, such as the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and the Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic are still out of the tribunal's reach. In 2000 the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) passed seven sentences of the court of first instance (raising the total number of sentences to 17), conducted five trials and increase the number of prisoners by six, including the former president of the Bosnian Serb assembly, Momcilo Krajisnik, who was arrested and transferred to The Hague in April. Bosnian Croats marked the beginning of this year in The Hague. Already in January, the tribunal pronounced the sentence in the case 'Kupreskic and others' for the crime in the Bosnian Muslim village Ahmici, sentencing Zoran, Mirjan and Vlatko Kupreskic to ten, eight and six years in prison respectively and Drago Josipovic and Vlado Santic to 15 and 25 years in prison. Under the same judgement, Dragan Papic was pronounced not guilty for the 1993 killing of some 100 Muslims in Ahmici and was released. A month later, the appeals chamber prolonged the prison sentence for Zlatko Aleksovski, a former head of the Kaonik prison camp, from two and a half to seven years. Following the completion of the appeals procedure in September, Aleksovski was transferred to Finland, where he is to serve his sentence. Anto Furundzija, sentenced to ten years for rape, was transferred to Finland as well. March saw the pronouncing of a 45-year prison sentence for a former head of the central Bosnia Operative Zone, Tihomir Blaskic, for crimes committed against Muslim population in the Lasva River Valley during the Bosnian war. The appeals procedures in this case and in the 'Kupreskic' case are underway. March also saw the transfer of Mladen Naletilic 'Tuta', accused of crimes in the Mostar area, to The Hague. This year also saw the first prisoner who completed serving his sentence. A Bosnian Serb army member, Drazen Erdemovic, sentenced to five years for the killing of several dozen people in Srebrenica, was released from a prison in Norway. The Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, in which several thousand Muslims were killed in the U.N. protected zone, is in the focus of the trial of the commander of the Drina Corps, general Radislav Krstic, which started in March. Several other trials of Bosnian Serbs started this year. A trial for mass crimes and rape in the Foca area started in February and the prosecution in November sought prison sentences of 35, 30 and 15 years for Serb military and paramilitary commanders Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovac and Zoran Vukovic respectively. The trial of five Bosnian Serbs (Miroslav Kvocka, Milojica Kos, Mladjo Radic, Zoran Zigic and Dragoljub Prcac), indicted for crimes against prisoners of war in the Prijedor camps Keraterm and Omarska, started in February. The five men commanded the camps or worked there as guards. The trial of the commander of the Foca correctional institution, Milorad Krnojelac, for crimes against Muslim prisoners, started late this year. Along with investigations into crimes committed in Kosovo, the Hague prosecution also investigated crimes committed in Dubrovnik, the eastern Slavonija region and Gospic, as well as crimes committed during Flash and Storm Operations of 1995. In May, the Hague tribunal could only helplessly watch Serbian defence minister Dragoljub Ojdanic, indicted together with Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic for crimes in Kosovo and for whom an international arrest warrant has been issued, walk in the streets of Moscow, the capital of a member of the UN Security Council which established the tribunal. Several months later, the new Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica told reporters the Hague tribunal was "the fifth wheel' for him, announcing interesting moments in relations between Belgrade and The Hague. Following the end of a 'honeymoon' which started after the January change of authority in Croatia, relations between Zagreb and The Hague have taken a new course. After ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte slammed the obstructive behaviour of the new authorities before the Security Council late this year, the Croatian government published guidelines for further cooperation with the tribunal and announced the possibility of amending the Constitutional law on cooperation with the tribunal. The head of the Government Council for Cooperation with the ICTY, Goran Granic, said the conduct of the prosecution had taken on a form of dictate and turned into political manipulation. This year the Hague tribunal also discussed the need to speed up court proceedings, significantly increased the number of judges and opened the issue of compensation for war victims from the indictees' property. The judges even discussed issues such as the right of the indictee to a judge who is awake. Defence attorneys in the appeals procedure in the 'Celebici' case tried to challenge the ruling by objecting that the president of the trial chamber had slept through the largest part of the trial. The objection was refused. The tribunal also considered and refused a request by Mladen Naletilic Tuta that a lie detector be used as a legitimate piece of equipment in his trial. (hina) rml