Florence Hartmann
Encyclopedia
Florence Hartmann
Florence Hartmann (born 17 February 1963, France
) is a French journalist and author. During the 1990s she was a correspondent in the Balkans
for the French newspaper Le Monde
. In 1999 she published her first book, Milosevic, la diagonale du fou, reissued by Gallimard in 2002. From October 2000 until October 2006 she was official spokesperson and Balkan adviser to Carla Del Ponte
, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
in The Hague
.
On 14 September 2009 she was convicted of contempt of court
by the 'International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia'. She was fined 7,000 euros (£6,100) for disclosing (in a book and article) the existence of two confidential appellate rulings of the UN Tribunal approving black-outs and exclusions from critical historical war documents showing Serbia
's involvement in the Bosnian war
of the 1990s.
, during the 1990s as its correspondent in the former Yugoslavia
. In 1999 she published her first book, Milosevic, la diagonale du fou, reissued by Gallimard in 2002.
From October 2000 until October 2006 she was official spokesperson and Balkan adviser to Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague. Her Paix et châtiment, Les guerres secrètes de la politique et de la justice internationales was published by Flammarion
. Paris, in September 2007.
Florence Hartmann was the first journalist to discover in October 1992 the existence and location of a mass grave at Ovčara (Croatia
) containing the remains of 263 people who were taken from Vukovar
’s hospital to a nearby farm and killed on 20 November 1991 by Serb forces. On 25 May 2006, she gave evidence before the ICTY in the 'Vukovar massacre
case' against three Yugoslav People's Army
(JNA) officers, Mile Mrksic
, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin
indicted in relation to this mass killing.
. The confidential documents in question were only released by Belgrade
for the trial of the former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic
. But Hartmann argued that they should have been made available during a separate trial at the International Court of Justice in which Bosnia unsuccessfully tried to sue Serbia for genocide,. because they could prove a link between Belgrade and war crimes committed in Bosnia - most notably the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys
around Srebrenica
in 1995. The Tribunal decision to provide confidentiality for the key portions of Belgrade war documents acknowledged that disclosure would harm Serbia's "vital national interests" by failing to protect Serbia from having to pay damages to Bosnia in Bosnia's suit then-pending at the ICJ.
The issue at the trial was whether she disclosed confidential information protected by a Court order. It was not whether she violated the solemn oath she took to maintain confidentiality of information she got in her official capacity which would have been dealt by an UN administrative tribunal. On 7 February 2009, the prosecution admitted that while she worked at the ICTY she never saw or had access to the two impugned confidential ICTY Appeals Chamber’s decisions to withhold key evidence related to Serbia’s direct involvement in the Srebrenica massacre
.
On 14 September 2009 Hartmann was convicted of contempt of court
by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
in The Hague
, for whom she had been employed as spokeswoman for six years. She was fined 7,000 euros (£6,100) for disclosing (in a book and article) the existence and the legal reasoning of confidential ICTY Court orders that deprive victims and public from access to documents on Serbia
's involvement in planning and executing the Srebrenica genocide in 1995. While the Chamber has found that "some protected information disclosed by the Accused in her publications was indeed in the public domain", its considered however that "it doesn't mean that this information was no longer protected by the Court order and that its renewed disclosure would not interfere with the Tribunal's administration of justice". On this grounds, Hartmann was found guilty of violation of two appellate orders dated 20 September 2005 and 6 April 2006 issued in the Slobodan Milosevic case before the ICTY.
On 24 September 2009 Hartmann launched an appeal against the conviction.
Florence Hartmann (born 17 February 1963, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) is a French journalist and author. During the 1990s she was a correspondent in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
for the French newspaper Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
. In 1999 she published her first book, Milosevic, la diagonale du fou, reissued by Gallimard in 2002. From October 2000 until October 2006 she was official spokesperson and Balkan adviser to Carla Del Ponte
Carla Del Ponte
Carla Del Ponte is a former Chief Prosecutor of two United Nations international criminal law tribunals. A former Swiss attorney general, she was appointed prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in August...
, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
.
On 14 September 2009 she was convicted of contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
by the 'International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia'. She was fined 7,000 euros (£6,100) for disclosing (in a book and article) the existence of two confidential appellate rulings of the UN Tribunal approving black-outs and exclusions from critical historical war documents showing Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
's involvement in the Bosnian war
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
of the 1990s.
Career
Hartmann worked as a journalist for eleven years for the French daily Le MondeLe Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
, during the 1990s as its correspondent in the former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
. In 1999 she published her first book, Milosevic, la diagonale du fou, reissued by Gallimard in 2002.
From October 2000 until October 2006 she was official spokesperson and Balkan adviser to Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague. Her Paix et châtiment, Les guerres secrètes de la politique et de la justice internationales was published by Flammarion
Groupe Flammarion
Groupe Flammarion is the fourth largest publishing group in France, comprising many units, including its namesake, founded in 1876 by Ernest Flammarion, as well as units in distribution, sales, printing and bookshops . Flammarion became part of the Italian media conglomerate RCS MediaGroup in 2000...
. Paris, in September 2007.
Florence Hartmann was the first journalist to discover in October 1992 the existence and location of a mass grave at Ovčara (Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
) containing the remains of 263 people who were taken from Vukovar
Vukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
’s hospital to a nearby farm and killed on 20 November 1991 by Serb forces. On 25 May 2006, she gave evidence before the ICTY in the 'Vukovar massacre
Vukovar massacre
The Vukovar massacre, also known as Vukovar hospital massacre or simply Ovčara, was a war crime that took place between November 20 and November 21, 1991 near the city of Vukovar, a mixed Croat/Serb community in northeastern Croatia...
case' against three Yugoslav People's Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
(JNA) officers, Mile Mrksic
Mile Mrkšic
Mile Mrkšić is a former Serb Colonel of the Yugoslav People's Army in charge of the unit involved in the Battle of Vukovar during the Croatian War of Independence in 1991...
, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin
Veselin Šljivancanin
Veselin Šljivančanin is a former Montenegrin officer in the Yugoslav People's Army who participated in the Battle of Vukovar and was subsequently convicted on a war crimes indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for his role in the Vukovar massacre...
indicted in relation to this mass killing.
Contempt of Court in the ICTY
On August 27, 2008, Hartmann was indicted by the Tribunal for disclosing confidential information relating to decisions of the Tribunal to withhold key evidence and to acquit Serbia from direct involvement in the Srebrenica massacreSrebrenica massacre
The Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, refers to the July 1995 killing, during the Bosnian War, of more than 8,000 Bosniaks , mainly men and boys, in and around the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the Army of Republika Srpska under the command of...
. The confidential documents in question were only released by Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
for the trial of the former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
. But Hartmann argued that they should have been made available during a separate trial at the International Court of Justice in which Bosnia unsuccessfully tried to sue Serbia for genocide,. because they could prove a link between Belgrade and war crimes committed in Bosnia - most notably the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys
Srebrenica massacre
The Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, refers to the July 1995 killing, during the Bosnian War, of more than 8,000 Bosniaks , mainly men and boys, in and around the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the Army of Republika Srpska under the command of...
around Srebrenica
Srebrenica
Srebrenica is a town and municipality in the east of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska. Srebrenica is a small mountain town, its main industry being salt mining and a nearby spa. During the Bosnian War, the town was the site of the July 1995 massacre,...
in 1995. The Tribunal decision to provide confidentiality for the key portions of Belgrade war documents acknowledged that disclosure would harm Serbia's "vital national interests" by failing to protect Serbia from having to pay damages to Bosnia in Bosnia's suit then-pending at the ICJ.
The issue at the trial was whether she disclosed confidential information protected by a Court order. It was not whether she violated the solemn oath she took to maintain confidentiality of information she got in her official capacity which would have been dealt by an UN administrative tribunal. On 7 February 2009, the prosecution admitted that while she worked at the ICTY she never saw or had access to the two impugned confidential ICTY Appeals Chamber’s decisions to withhold key evidence related to Serbia’s direct involvement in the Srebrenica massacre
Srebrenica massacre
The Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, refers to the July 1995 killing, during the Bosnian War, of more than 8,000 Bosniaks , mainly men and boys, in and around the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by units of the Army of Republika Srpska under the command of...
.
On 14 September 2009 Hartmann was convicted of contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, for whom she had been employed as spokeswoman for six years. She was fined 7,000 euros (£6,100) for disclosing (in a book and article) the existence and the legal reasoning of confidential ICTY Court orders that deprive victims and public from access to documents on Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
's involvement in planning and executing the Srebrenica genocide in 1995. While the Chamber has found that "some protected information disclosed by the Accused in her publications was indeed in the public domain", its considered however that "it doesn't mean that this information was no longer protected by the Court order and that its renewed disclosure would not interfere with the Tribunal's administration of justice". On this grounds, Hartmann was found guilty of violation of two appellate orders dated 20 September 2005 and 6 April 2006 issued in the Slobodan Milosevic case before the ICTY.
On 24 September 2009 Hartmann launched an appeal against the conviction.