It's been busy at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) since trials resumed after the summer break.
The landmark partial retrial of former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj almost fell apart as soon at it began, with a key witness refusing to testify and pleading guilty to contempt of court.
Former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic was given until 31 August to respond to a prosecution request to split his genocide trial into two and former Croation Serb leader Goran Hadzic, the tribunal's last remaining fugitive, pleaded not guilty to crimes against non-Serbs.

By Geraldine Coughlan in The Hague

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Haradinaj et al.

This week's retrial in Ramush Haradinaj at al. faced the same difficulties as in the first trial - obtaining evidence from witnesses. In its first trial judgement the court said the trial was surrounded by witness intimidation with witnesses afraid to come forward and tell their stories. The first witness in the new trial, Shaqat Kabashi shows again that this is a perpetual fear - something that hasn't been resolved in the meantime.

Elsana Nurkovic of the Belgrade Humanitarian Law Centre follows the trials at the ICTY.

"He expressed his frustration actually with the prosecution. He said he was the one who came out first with the stories of witnesses and crimes. But he said these persons are still free and not indicted. He asked how can he trust the prosecution to investigate these crimes and how can he be sure that nothing will happen because he said eye witnesses who were supposed to testify were either killed or disappeared," said Nurkovic.

"I don't know what the prosecution and the chamber can do now in order to make this process possible because the way it was in the first trial - nothing has changed in the meantime. And it seems that the anonyminty of witnesses is almost impossible to secure because of close family ties in Kosovo. So as witness anonyminty and the protection that the chamber can grant didn't work in the first trial I don't know if it can work now," Nurkovic added.

Mladic

In the first procedural hearing since his arrest in May, Ratko Mladic was given six days to respond to a prosecution request to hold two separate trials; first on charges relating to Srebrenica, then to Sarajevo in 1995.

"I think this is a good decision by the prosecution especially bearing in mind Milosevic's trial which ended without the judgement due to his death. So I think that having two shorter trials will make it faster, more efficient. Not only regarding the rights of the accused who has the right to an efficient trial - but also all the victims who waited for 16 years to see this trial happening here at the ICTY - some of them will live to hear the final verdict in his case," said Nurkovic.

"This status conference shows that now we are starting the trial. All the fears that existed at the beginning, that his health is maybe goiing to slow down the process, all these fears are gone now. Because we see that his condition is improving and he has legal representation by lawyers he chose to represent him," she added.

Mladic's arrest and his transfer to the court was one of the most signifcant things that has happened lately at the ICTY. Nurkovic said, "For me this was an amazing day when I felt that international justice works. His arrest happened soon after Bin Laden was killed and I found that it was such a mistake by the US to kill Bin Laden and not catch him alive and prosecute him. So unlike Bin Laden, Mladic is going to face justice, victims will have the possibilities to be heard and the public will have the chance to hear the facts about the gruesome crimes that happened in the region."

Hadzic

Goran Hadzic pleaded not guilty to charges of atrocities when he was leader of the Serb Republic of Krajina. But his trial is not gaining as much publicity as other cases because he's not among the highest-ranking military officials in other trials. The significance of his trial is that he is the last fugitive to appear before the ICTY so the court is now closer to fulfilling its mandate.

"That's the success of the Tribunal - having all indictees on trial before it closes. Because they developed a residual mechanism that was supposed to deal with matters left over once the ICTY closes its doors. This mechanism was intended to target those fugitives who were not arrested. But now we won't have this situation. We will see them all tried before the ICTY. Not even Nuremburg had all of the accused tried," said Nurkovic.

"International justice has come a long way. There have been alot of developments in legal terms. But also today the ICTY not only tries the accused and establishes individual criminal responsibility - it's also mandated to contribute to the restoration of peace and justice. So having all the facts established by the ICTY will help the former Yugoslav societies to reconcile and hopefully in the future, have strong relations that were destroyed during the horrific wars in the 90's, " Nurkovic added.