Ivanovic: Awaiting U.S. Permission
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Prosecutor Dubravko Campara said that he is in daily contact with Butler, who has the desire to testify by video link and also has the permission of the United Nations (UN). However, he has not yet received the permission of the U.S.A., since he holds their citizenship.
Butler said that he is very willing to testify and that he will adapt in terms of the dates. As a former employee of the UN, he has received permission from that institution, but he still awaits the permission of his home country, the United States of America, to testify. We do not know when he will get the approval, maybe today or maybe after seven days. As soon as he gets the permission, we will notify you in order to schedule a hearing, said Campara.
Ivanovics Defence said that it appreciates the efforts the Prosecution.
Butler, an American military expert, who worked for the Prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), should be the last witness in the trial of Zeljko Ivanovic, known as Arkan, a former member of the Second Squad of Special Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republika Srpska (MUP RS) in Sekovici.
Ivanovic is charged with having participated in escorting a convoy of Srebrenica residents from Sandici village to the Agricultural Co-operative warehouse in Kravica, Bratunac municipality, in July 1995, knowing that they would be executed. After having detained those people, Ivanovic and other members of the Second Squad stood in a semi-circle formation and started shooting at the prisoners who were held in the warehouse.
Ivanovic has been in custody since March 2009, and his trial began in August 2009.
Darko Samardzic, the Presiding Judge, said that he hopes that Butler will soon be interrogated, as the Court must take into account the rights of the indictee, who, all this time while we are awaiting, has been held in custody”.
The trial is due to continue on February 9 this year.D.Dz.
