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Alfonso D’Santiago of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Venezuela told the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, that his country was “fully committed to cooperating with the Hague Tribunal”.
D’Santiago said that Venezuelan authorities “are investing all efforts” in order to locate the documents requested by Radovan Karadzic, which refer to the activities undertaken by Diego Arrija, former ambassador of Venezuela to the UN.
“The indictee’s request pertains to a broad period of time which took place a long time ago. The search for those documents therefore takes some time and represents a difficult task. However, my Government is undertaking all of the possible steps in order to solve the issue. We are dedicated to collecting all of the documents. We hope we shall fulfill the request within the next three to five months,” D’Santiago said.
The Defence of indictee Karadzic, former President of Republika Srpska, expressed its gratitude to Venezuelan representatives, asking the Court to postpone the examination of former Ambassador Diego Arrija until the documents have been found. The Trial Chamber approved the request.
The Hague Prosecution charges Karadzic with having participated in genocide committed in ten municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995 and Srebrenica in 1995, as well as crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war. The trial of Karadzic began in October 2009.
Karadzic’s trial is on an eight-week break, which began in late March this year. The break was approved in order to enable the indictee to familiarize himself with the evidence submitted by the Hague Prosecution to the Defence in late January this year.
The Hague Tribunal’s Chamber rendered a written decision concerning Karadzic’s motion filed in late April this year, in which he requested that the current break be extended for an additional eight weeks due to “constant delays in submission of evidence by the Hague Prosecution”.
The Trial Chamber determined that the Hague Prosecution indeed “violated its obligation to reveal the evidence to the indictee”, but it decided to extend the break for one week only, i.e. until May 30 this year, when the Prosecution will continue presenting its evidence.
D.Dz.
