REPORTER: Irene Ulman
For more than a decade, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has been hearing tales of horror from the Balkans war.
WOMANS VOICE: I would like to appeal to you to ask Mr Krstic if you can whether there is any hope for at least that little child that they snatched away from me. Because I keep dreaming about him. I dream him bringing flowers and saying, "Mother, I've come."
MANS VOICE: Yes, Madam. I think all of us have heard your plea.
It is the first international court since World War II to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
MANS VOICE: You are therefore guilty of genocide General, this trial chamber convicts you and sentences you to 46 years in prison.
As the tribunal's deputy prosecutor, Graham Blewitt has played a crucial role in bringing war criminals to justice. Now, after more than a decade in the job, he's stepped down and returned to Sydney.
GRAHAM BLEWITT, FORMER DEPUTY PROSECUTOR, ICTY: So looking back at those ten and a half years when there was really nothing at the international level, now to see that it is accepted and being successful, I think its a remarkable achievement and its been a great privilege to participate in all of that.
But right now the former deputy prosecutor is worried. He says the tribunal's good work is in jeopardy.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: I do believe that they are - the tribunal is at a set of cross roads and I can see a dangerous path being undertaken if decisions are made purely for political and financial reasons.
The resumption of Slobodan Milosevic's trial yesterday reflects many of the pressures facing the tribunal. Milosevic was the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes, a coup for the tribunal, but his trial is being dragged on. From the very first day he's refused to recognise the court.
JUDGE: Now do you want to have the indictment read out or not?
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC: That's your problem.
And he uses his time in the dock to score political points. Two and a half years after it began the trial is only half finished.
REPORTER: You do agree that it's painfully slow?
GRAHAM BLEWITT: With an explanation, I think the Milosevic trial has been dogged with his ill-health. If you counted up the number of hours that that trial has taken, it's not a long trial. It's just that these hours are spread over working days that consist of only 2-3 hours a day, three days a week. It's inevitable that it's going to drag on when the court is confined for Milosevic's health reasons to such short periods. He deserves a fair trial and I believe he's getting one in The Hague.
From the moment of the tribunal's inception, there was debate about the scope of its powers and duration. According to Blewitt, some of the tribunal's critics have always wanted its work over and done with quickly.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: They would, I think, have preferred to have seen a nice little package where one or two people were indicted and prosecuted and over and done with, and goodbye. We were given the task of investigating the conflict that was going on in the former Yugoslavia and bringing to justice those who were most responsible. Now, you didn't have to be a rocket scientist to work out that prosecuting one or two people at the head of each of the conflicting parties was going to achieve that result. They would have been show trials. And I had no sense at the beginning when we were given the task of setting the tribunal up that the world was expecting show trials. In fact, I got the opposite impression. People wanted to see justice done. People wanted to see international criminal law being put onto the international agenda. They wanted to see an end to impunity for those sorts of crimes.
The tribunal in the Hague has paved the way for the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court. While the advocates of international justice celebrated, some donor countries questioned why they needed to keep funding the Hague tribunal. Last year they slashed its budget by US$20 million, making it extremely difficult to continue its investigations.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: And there were a number of countries leading the initiative to cut and it included Australia, I'm afraid to say. But others were Canada, Japan, US, Britain. They were suggesting that perhaps it would be, without interfering with the prosecution's independence, they would say, one would need to reconsider the investigative program, and of course we would argue back why one should not do that. But I think in more recent times, Mrs Del Ponte has been more receptive to listening to those suggestions and to act on them.
The tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, built her reputation bringing Swiss bankers and the Russian mafia to justice. She's been in The Hague for the last five years. It's known that Blewitt had great difficulty in working with his boss, Del Ponte. Now that he's half a world away in Sydney, and no longer on the tribunal, he's prepared to criticise her. In an unprecedented attack, Blewitt says Del Ponte has succumbed to political pressure, threatening the tribunal's work.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: I believed that it was right to do things properly, to achieve a result that would be exceptable by the international community, but as the years were going by I saw that she was more motivated by political considerations, that what the world expected to see was the result that should be obtained. And in reaching that point I think she compromised some important principals and thats why in more recent times decisions were being made that I was not happy with.
The tribunal has processed millions of documents and at any one time has numerous cases under way. Blewitt fears that much of this work is now under threat.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: As we got closer and closer to the end of 2004, which was the cut-off date for all new indictments, and as the numbers were not being reduced at the expected rate, then some arbitrary decisions were being made. Unless people were at the very, very highest level of responsibility, then no indictment would be brought by Mrs Del Ponte. And as a consequence, once she made that decision, she wasn't prepared to expend any more investigative resources on ensuring that those cases were fully investigated so that someone could take them over. So there was a lot of unfinished business, and in some cases there's been investigations going on for a number of years and, in a sense, it was work wasted. People had been working hard to achieve a professional result, only to be cut off prematurely. And I think that was very unprofessional.
to speed up its work, there's pressure on the tribunal to hand over unfinished cases to the former Yugoslav states. But Blewitt says none of these countries have a system to protect witnesses who could easily be intimidated by indicted war criminals, allowing them to escape justice. And that, says Blewitt, would be a disaster.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: To the extent that the victims who expect to see justice done see that it's just been a debacle and that justice hasn't been done, then you haven't removed what was one of the underlying reasons of the conflict in the first place, namely cycles of violence. And cycles of violence have been very evident in the Balkans so I believe that unless justice is done now, in respect to the crimes that occurred in the most recent conflicts, then the underlying seeds for violence haven't been removed.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is one of those seeds of violence. Blewitt says that he's genuinely at a loss to explain why Karadzic is still at large. His hopes are fading that he'll face trial, despite constant assurances from the Americans and NATO that his days are numbered.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: Given the extent of such political will, it's a mystery to me why Karadzic remains a fugitive. There was political will to capture Saddam Hussein and the resources were put into achieving that result and Saddam Hussein is now in custody. Why is Karadzic not in custody?
As Graham Blewitt unwinds in Sydney, he's pondering the future of The Hague tribunal. He knows the critics are sharpening their attack, but says the Tribunal still has plenty to do.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: I would like to see that work continue until its logical end. And there is an end in sight. It's not as if it's going to go on forever. There is a finite end to the work of the tribunal. So I'd like to see it finish and finish properly. And we know that the victims clearly believe that and expect that. So I think in their name alone it has to happen.
For more than a decade, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has been hearing tales of horror from the Balkans war.
WOMANS VOICE: I would like to appeal to you to ask Mr Krstic if you can whether there is any hope for at least that little child that they snatched away from me. Because I keep dreaming about him. I dream him bringing flowers and saying, "Mother, I've come."
MANS VOICE: Yes, Madam. I think all of us have heard your plea.
It is the first international court since World War II to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
MANS VOICE: You are therefore guilty of genocide General, this trial chamber convicts you and sentences you to 46 years in prison.
As the tribunal's deputy prosecutor, Graham Blewitt has played a crucial role in bringing war criminals to justice. Now, after more than a decade in the job, he's stepped down and returned to Sydney.
GRAHAM BLEWITT, FORMER DEPUTY PROSECUTOR, ICTY: So looking back at those ten and a half years when there was really nothing at the international level, now to see that it is accepted and being successful, I think its a remarkable achievement and its been a great privilege to participate in all of that.
But right now the former deputy prosecutor is worried. He says the tribunal's good work is in jeopardy.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: I do believe that they are - the tribunal is at a set of cross roads and I can see a dangerous path being undertaken if decisions are made purely for political and financial reasons.
The resumption of Slobodan Milosevic's trial yesterday reflects many of the pressures facing the tribunal. Milosevic was the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes, a coup for the tribunal, but his trial is being dragged on. From the very first day he's refused to recognise the court.
JUDGE: Now do you want to have the indictment read out or not?
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC: That's your problem.
And he uses his time in the dock to score political points. Two and a half years after it began the trial is only half finished.
REPORTER: You do agree that it's painfully slow?
GRAHAM BLEWITT: With an explanation, I think the Milosevic trial has been dogged with his ill-health. If you counted up the number of hours that that trial has taken, it's not a long trial. It's just that these hours are spread over working days that consist of only 2-3 hours a day, three days a week. It's inevitable that it's going to drag on when the court is confined for Milosevic's health reasons to such short periods. He deserves a fair trial and I believe he's getting one in The Hague.
From the moment of the tribunal's inception, there was debate about the scope of its powers and duration. According to Blewitt, some of the tribunal's critics have always wanted its work over and done with quickly.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: They would, I think, have preferred to have seen a nice little package where one or two people were indicted and prosecuted and over and done with, and goodbye. We were given the task of investigating the conflict that was going on in the former Yugoslavia and bringing to justice those who were most responsible. Now, you didn't have to be a rocket scientist to work out that prosecuting one or two people at the head of each of the conflicting parties was going to achieve that result. They would have been show trials. And I had no sense at the beginning when we were given the task of setting the tribunal up that the world was expecting show trials. In fact, I got the opposite impression. People wanted to see justice done. People wanted to see international criminal law being put onto the international agenda. They wanted to see an end to impunity for those sorts of crimes.
The tribunal in the Hague has paved the way for the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court. While the advocates of international justice celebrated, some donor countries questioned why they needed to keep funding the Hague tribunal. Last year they slashed its budget by US$20 million, making it extremely difficult to continue its investigations.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: And there were a number of countries leading the initiative to cut and it included Australia, I'm afraid to say. But others were Canada, Japan, US, Britain. They were suggesting that perhaps it would be, without interfering with the prosecution's independence, they would say, one would need to reconsider the investigative program, and of course we would argue back why one should not do that. But I think in more recent times, Mrs Del Ponte has been more receptive to listening to those suggestions and to act on them.
The tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, built her reputation bringing Swiss bankers and the Russian mafia to justice. She's been in The Hague for the last five years. It's known that Blewitt had great difficulty in working with his boss, Del Ponte. Now that he's half a world away in Sydney, and no longer on the tribunal, he's prepared to criticise her. In an unprecedented attack, Blewitt says Del Ponte has succumbed to political pressure, threatening the tribunal's work.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: I believed that it was right to do things properly, to achieve a result that would be exceptable by the international community, but as the years were going by I saw that she was more motivated by political considerations, that what the world expected to see was the result that should be obtained. And in reaching that point I think she compromised some important principals and thats why in more recent times decisions were being made that I was not happy with.
The tribunal has processed millions of documents and at any one time has numerous cases under way. Blewitt fears that much of this work is now under threat.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: As we got closer and closer to the end of 2004, which was the cut-off date for all new indictments, and as the numbers were not being reduced at the expected rate, then some arbitrary decisions were being made. Unless people were at the very, very highest level of responsibility, then no indictment would be brought by Mrs Del Ponte. And as a consequence, once she made that decision, she wasn't prepared to expend any more investigative resources on ensuring that those cases were fully investigated so that someone could take them over. So there was a lot of unfinished business, and in some cases there's been investigations going on for a number of years and, in a sense, it was work wasted. People had been working hard to achieve a professional result, only to be cut off prematurely. And I think that was very unprofessional.
to speed up its work, there's pressure on the tribunal to hand over unfinished cases to the former Yugoslav states. But Blewitt says none of these countries have a system to protect witnesses who could easily be intimidated by indicted war criminals, allowing them to escape justice. And that, says Blewitt, would be a disaster.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: To the extent that the victims who expect to see justice done see that it's just been a debacle and that justice hasn't been done, then you haven't removed what was one of the underlying reasons of the conflict in the first place, namely cycles of violence. And cycles of violence have been very evident in the Balkans so I believe that unless justice is done now, in respect to the crimes that occurred in the most recent conflicts, then the underlying seeds for violence haven't been removed.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is one of those seeds of violence. Blewitt says that he's genuinely at a loss to explain why Karadzic is still at large. His hopes are fading that he'll face trial, despite constant assurances from the Americans and NATO that his days are numbered.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: Given the extent of such political will, it's a mystery to me why Karadzic remains a fugitive. There was political will to capture Saddam Hussein and the resources were put into achieving that result and Saddam Hussein is now in custody. Why is Karadzic not in custody?
As Graham Blewitt unwinds in Sydney, he's pondering the future of The Hague tribunal. He knows the critics are sharpening their attack, but says the Tribunal still has plenty to do.
GRAHAM BLEWITT: I would like to see that work continue until its logical end. And there is an end in sight. It's not as if it's going to go on forever. There is a finite end to the work of the tribunal. So I'd like to see it finish and finish properly. And we know that the victims clearly believe that and expect that. So I think in their name alone it has to happen.