After waiting in vain for three years for Banja Luka to respond to the request for documents relevant for the Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic case, a Tribunal Judge granted an application filed by the prosecutor and issued a binding order to the Republika Srpska authorities

Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic are not in The Hague yet, but the prosecution is speeding up its preparations for the trial. At the application of the Office of the Prosecutor, Judge Alphons Orie issued a binding order to the Republika Srpska authorities, requesting that within a month’s time they hand over the records of all the meetings of the Supreme Command, held between 30 November 1992 and 30 November 1995.

The Office of the Prosecutor submitted to the Republika Srpska authorities requests for the handing over of those records, as part of "legal assistance", three years ago. Banja Luka was reminded of its obligation to hand over the documents three times. After waiting in vain for three years, the prosecution turned to the judges who, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, had first to satisfy themselves that the documents being sought were "identified as far as possible" and relevant for the case in question, that finding them would not be too difficult for the authorities and that they have been given enough time to respond to the request for "legal assistance."

Having found that all these conditions have been met, Judge Orie signed the binding order for the Banja Luka authorities. If the they fail to comply with the order within the stipulated time period, the ICTY President may submit a report to the UN Security Council and seek certain measures to be taken against the authorities that have violated their obligations under international law.

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