Peter Robinson is legal advisor to the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who is representing himself in court against charges including genocide at Srebrenica. Geraldine Coughlan spoke to Peter Robinson:

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Dr. Karadzic told me he was really sorry that Ratko Mladic had lost his freedom and that he looks forward to working with him to bring out the truth about what really happened in Bosnia.

Q: How could they work together?
Well I think that like all people who are charged with the same offences can share information. Dr.Karadzic has been here for two and a half years now so he has already a lot of experience and information that he can share with General Mladic. Like any other people who are co-accused or working on a related case, they can cooperate and work together.

Q: Are they allowed to talk like that in prison?
Yes, they may not be able to speak all the time, but there will be opportunities for that.

Q: You are helping Doctor Karadzic with his self-representation. Do you think Ratko Mladic would want to represent himself and if so, would you consider helping him with that?
Actually, I have no idea if he would want to represent himself but I wouldn’t be able to help him because it would be a conflict of interest. Usually in the same case you can only represent one party. So I wouldn’t be the one to help him, but if he does decide to represent himself then he can choose people to do that.

Q: Do you expect the Mladic case to be joined to the Karadzic case?
I don’t know if they will be joined or not. Ultimately that is up to the judges and it will also be somewhat driven by the prosecution what they request. We haven’t heard anything about that yet.

Q: What about the time-line? It’s going to be a very long and drawn out process isn’t it?
Yes it is. Like the Karadzic case there’s going to be 2 million pages of disclosure given to General Mladic and his lawyers. So to be able to digest that, to organize it and to prepare to begin the trial, will take a long time and as we have seen in the Karadzic case, it is very broad in scope and can therefore take a long time to hear all the witnesses.

Q: You say the Karadzic case is very broad in scope and the Mladic case will be as well. What would be the cross-over issues? What would be the common points between the two cases?
Actually they’re identical in the sense that they are both charged with the shelling and sniping in Sarajevo, the taking of UN hostages, events in Srebrenica and the ethnic cleansing in the municipality. So it’s basically identical charges against both of them.

Q: How difficult is it to prove genocide in a courtroom?
Well, for Srebrenica events it’s pretty easy because the Appeals Chamber has already said that what happened in Srebrenica was genocide. With respect to the ethnic cleansing and the municipalities it’s going to be difficult for the prosecution because other Trial Chambers have already ruled that it did not amount to genocide.

Q: Other Trial Chambers such as... ?
Such as in the Krajisnik and Brdjanin cases. They were charged with responsibility in the Krajina area. And also the International Court of Justice in the case of Bosnia vs. Serbia said that it did not amount to genocide.