Dealing with Witnesses in War Crime Trials: Lessons from the Yugoslav Tribunal

Abstract

Convictions, if they are to be legitimate, must be based on credible\nevidence presented in a public trial. The conflict between the right of an\naccused to a public trial and the exceptional pressures on victim witnesses\nof war crimes is omnipresent in ICTY trials. Recently, the ICTY has\nbegun to favor witness protection. These overly liberal grants of witness\nprotection measures, including heavy reliance on affidavits over live\ntestimony, closed sessions, face and voice distortion, and even\npseudonyms, threaten the goals of the Tribunal - to provide accurate\nhistorical records of terrible events and fair treatment of accused war\ncriminals.