Hague Preparations for Gotovina, Cermak and Markac

Three generals are charged with ethnic cleansing of liberated parts of Croatia from Serbian population during the Oluja operation.

A week after both of general Ivan Cermak`s attorneys were excluded from his defence due to conflict of interest, a regular pre-discussion hearing will be held in Hague on Friday in the “Gotovina, Cermak and Markac” case, which should determine at what stage the preparations for the trial of the three Croatian generals are.

While general Ante Gotovina will be at The Hague courtroom, other two generals Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac will participate at the status conference via video-link from Zagreb. These conferences are being held every 120 days until the beginning of trial.

The beginning of trial, which was initially set for May 7, was postponed in April “until further notice” due to a line of unsolved issues and since then the number of problems in this proceeding has multiplied, including the fact that two out of three defendants were left without their entire defence or a part of it.

General Cermak without defence

The Hague Tribunal Appeal Council, dismissing the defence`s appeal last Friday, has confirmed the decision of excluding attorneys Cedo Prodanovic and Jadranka Slokovic from the defence of Ivan Cermak due to conflict of interest with a majority of votes, which left the Croatian general without his defence before The Hague Tribunal.

The Hague Tribunal has excluded attorney Miroslav Separovic from the defence of general Mladen Markac because of conflict on interest earlier. Zagreb attorney Goran Mikulicic remained a part of his defence, who started negotiations with Tomislav Kuzmanovic, US attorney of Croatian origin on representing general Markac before The Hague Tribunal.

Cermak will continue to be represented by the attorney duo Prodanovic-Slokovic until he finds new barristers.

In April this year, defences of generals Cermak and Markac jointly reported Greg Kehoe, US barrister of general Ante Gotovina for conflict of interest, considering that he was working on the Oluja (Storm) matter, during his mandate in prosecution from 1995 until 2005, and therefore he cannot be a barrister in the same case.

Decision on accepting Kehoe`s credentials as a barrister

Last Thursday, the Tribunal Council, referring to the right of discussing credentials of Gregory Kehoe for the barrister because his “alleged conflict of interest can influence the integrity of the procedure and broader interests of justice!, has ordered the secretary of The Hague Tribunal Hans Holthuis to submit information based on which he has reached the decision on accepting Kehoe`s credentials for barrister in two weeks` time, including all the accompanying documentation and possible correspondence with the prosecution on Kehoe in relation to his work as the Hague prosecutor.

The three generals were charged with ethnic cleansing of liberated parts of Croatia from Serbian population during the Oluja operation in 1995.

According to latest estimates, the Hague trial in the Gotovina, Cermak and Markac case was supposed to have started in a year because the trial of the three generals was planned after the end of trial in the Delic case, next year.

But in the meantime, chief Hague prosecutor Carla Del Ponte suddenly requested that the trial to Bosnia-Herzegovinean Army general Rasim Delic, with the commencement set for next Monday, to be shifted over to the local BH prosecution. She explained this request with the court`s provision from July 2, which significantly deceased time and the number of witnesses for stating the indictment for the prosecution.

The Hague Tribunal decided to start an investigation on the circumstances under which Croatian Television has announced parts of a confidential court document, with other media doing the same afterwards. In Croatian Television`s main news show “Dnevnik” on May 28, parts of a confidential “Explanation of the indictment” were publicised in “Gotovina, Cermak and Markac” court proceedings, including the names of seven Croatian officials who are mentioned within the framework of the so called criminal undertaking.