GABRIELLE KIRK McDONALD, President of the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, reviewed the stages of the Tribunal's development into an effective operating court, and then focused on the principal issues that the Tribunal was now facing.

The length of the Tribunal's proceedings and the resulting time that detainees were spending in detention was a primary concern. There were many reasons for lengthy trials, including the fact that the trials gave rise to complex legal issues, which took time to resolve, and created voluminous records. Due process required time and resources. Due process required time and resources. A number of steps had been initiated to speed up trials, including the establishment of a Working Group on Trial Practices, she said. However, there was a limited number of judges; more radical measures were needed. One of the fundamental issues the Tribunal faced was the difficulty of determining which of the many culpable individuals in the former Yugoslavia should be brought to justice in The Hague. The Tribunal had only limited resources and could not bring to trial every individual allegedly connected with the atrocities. Difficult choices had to be made.

In her view, as the Tribunal's principal responsibility was to bring to justice those individuals whose presence impeded the establishment of a civil society in the former Yugoslavia, it was the leaders who were charged with instigating the wars, and now prevented the restoration of peace, who must be brought to trial.

To reduce the length of detention, she favoured the proposal to have ad hoc or temporary judges who would be assigned cases on an as-needed basis and paid a per diem rate. Given the egregious offences charged, and the difficulty encountered in obtaining custody of those charged, care must be taken in granting provisional release. Nonetheless, it must be considered in the light of the length of time some individuals were spending in custody. The Expert Group established by the Assembly had recommended that the Trial Chamber informed the accused that if he were provisionally released and failed to return, he would waive his right to be present, and his trial would proceed without him. She would urge her colleagues to examine that proposal.

There were, however, other difficulties that could only be resolved with the assistance of the international community. She stressed the non-compliance of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with respect to its obligations relating to the Prosecutor's investigation into possible violations in Kosovo and the refusal of Croatia to cooperate with the Tribunal on two grounds. Those two States and the Republika Srpska previously had been the subject of non- compliance reports to the Security Council. She urged the international community to give those reports the attention they deserved.