Question:
We would like to start with the question concerning the discussion about the relative sensitive issue of the national security and weather the future Court should be able to override the States determination of what constitutes national security. Could you tell us something more about that since the Croatian government had a concrete proposal to this matter.
Answer:
Thank you very much for your question and I would like to elaborate more on that.
Since the sensitive national security information in an area of a Statute that Croatia attaches great importance. As a point of departure my delegation took Article 71 as it was preexisting in the draft Statute. So, the Croatian proposals as we see it fully correspond to the ICT Appeals Chamber decision regarding the Blaskic case and the standards that are set for by the Security Council and which are the standards for an efficient functioning of both Tribunals. As a general rule it is the essence of the Croatian proposal that State cannot claim national defense or security interest for withholding the documents or evidentiary material and the only competent body to establish the legitimacy of that concern should be the Pre-Trial Chamber. On other paragraphs of the Article 71 we surely overview that we concede to what was expressed in the Singapore proposal and to a lesser extent by the U.K. proposal.
Question:
The very much discussed issue is the issue of the role of the Prosecutor. Could you tell us more precisely about the standpoint of Croatia about this very important and let’s say one of the key issue?
Answer:
Certainly, this is a key issue, because as wee see it without a strong and independent Prosecutor there isn’t going to be a strong and independent Court. And as we see it, we are very much in favor of a Prosecutor who can initiate an ex-officio investigation and who will be able to gather evidence and collect other evidentiary materials.
Question:
We are now as being said in the most critical week of the Conference, we have only two weeks left to the end of the Conference. What are the expectations, which is the atmosphere, how close are we to the moment of signing of the most important document of the ICC.
Answer:
As you pointed out rightly, this is the most critical stage, just two weeks are left. We are in the final phase of the negotiations. Our expectations are quite high, we expect that at the end of the next week we will be able to produce the final document. So, when it comes to the content of the document or Statute, we are not quite sure how these things will look like and what will be embodied in it, but as I said at the beginning this is a very crucial stage and we are quite sure that this Court is needed in its role and this isn’t only the Court of the 21st century, this is a Court that was needed since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials and a country who has gained some kind of experience and is dealing with a similar Court, which is the Hague tribunal, we just can state that we very much regret that the Permanent Criminal Court was not installed some time ago, so we are quite sure that so many atrocities that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and throughout the world, they would be prevented.