Trouble Brewing in the ICTY’s Office of the Prosecutor!

The Guardian (UK) has a fascinating article today about opposition within the ICTY to the UN’s purported intention to replace the chief ICTY prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, with Serge Brammertz, a deputy prosecutor at the ICC and the head of the UN commission investigating the murder of Lebanase Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri. According to the article, the ICTY’s entire senior prosecution staff intends to resign if Brammertz is appointed, because they believe that the job should be given to someone with ICTY experience, such as David Tolbert, Del Ponte’s current deputy:

Accounts by tribunal and UN sources of how a former Belgian attorney-general petitioned for the job and has reportedly been guaranteed it affords a rare insight into the veiled sanctums of the UN.

Sources at the ICTY, at UN headquarters in New York and across the world of international law and human rights advocacy, say Del Ponte’s succession has been pledged in secret to Serge Brammertz, a Belgian criminologist who became deputy prosecutor at the new International Criminal Court and heads the UN commission into the murder of Lebanese premier Rafiq al-Hariri in 2005, which he wants to leave.

The entire senior prosecution staff at the tribunal have taken the unprecedented step of sending a joint letter to Ki-Moon, contesting a Brammertz appointment by proposing Del Ponte’s current deputy David Tolbert, who has worked for nine years at the tribunal, for the job.

“The matter is not one of personalities nor Brammertz’s standing,” says one lawyer. “It’s the difference between someone who knows the history, understands every case and can deliver a completion strategy, or someone brought in by the Secretary General just to shut the tribunal down, with no experience of the cases, background or region.”

Ki-Moon’s office will not comment, citing confidentiality of the appointments procedure. But the lawyers’ view is backed unanimously by organisations with an interest in the tribunal’s work, including the George Soros Foundation, Human Rights Watch and campaigners within former Yugoslavia itself, all of whom have also petitioned Ki-Moon.

‘Just because people haven’t heard of the names remaining to stand trial doesn’t mean that they are not the most important cases,’ says Kelly Askin, senior legal officer at the Soros Foundation. ‘It’s crucial that there be continuity – and the fact is we have someone available who knows the institution and the people, and has followed every case and every detail for nine years. Several senior staff have told me they will leave the tribunal if David Tolbert is not appointed.’

[snip]

[C]rucial trials are outstanding or still in process – the leadership of the Bosnian Croat war machine, which laid murderous siege to East Mostar and set up a gulag for Muslims, is currently standing trial; notorious paramilitary warlord Milan Lukic awaits trial, accused of locking scores of families in houses and burning them alive in Visegrad. Above all, Momcilo Peresic – Milosevic’s most senior general – is also due for trial. It is a critical case, because a conviction would establish Serbia’s direct involvement in the genocide, in stark counterpoint to a ruling by the International Court of Justice, which rejected a case by the Bosnian government against Serbia for its involvement in genocide.

The team that convicted Krstic, Krajsnik and those preparing the cases against Lukic and Peresic all are signatories to the letter to Ki-Moon.

An ICTY statement last week said del Ponte’s mandate had been extended until 31 December. “The successor to the current prosecutor has not yet been appointed yet,” it said.

I don’t have any insider information to pass along, but it’s difficult to believe that the ICTY prosecutors and the NGOs would take such an unprecedented step if they were not in possession of reliable information about the UN’s intention to appoint Brammertz.

Stay tuned!