War Crimes Prosecution Watch is a bi-weekly e-newsletter that compiles official documents and articles from major news sources detailing and analyzing salient issues pertaining to the investigation and prosecution of war crimes throughout the world. To subscribe, please email warcrimeswatch@pilpg.org and type "subscribe" in the subject line.
East Timor Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CAVR)
Official Website of the East Timor Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CAVR)
Indonesia, E Timor discuss report
BBC, Jakarta
by Tim Johnstone
February 17, 2006
The leaders of Indonesia and East Timor have met to discuss a controversial UN-backed report on Indonesia's 24-year occupation of East Timor.
The report, which was presented to the UN last month, accused Indonesia of complicity in as many as 180,000 East Timorese deaths.
Neither leader wants the report to sour relations between the two countries.
Both sides have rejected the report's calls for an international tribunal to bring justice for the victims.
The two leaders were supposed to meet last month, but Jakarta cancelled the meeting.
Indonesia was apparently unhappy with the decision by the Timorese President, Xanana Gusmao, to give the highly critical report extra prominence by handing it to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in person.
Friday's meeting represented a return to normality for relations between the two governments.
Speaking after the meeting, Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said it had been productive and that the two countries would seek to sort out their past history among themselves.
Both nations want to play down tensions. They have set up their own commission on truth and friendship, which will look into the period of the occupation, but critics say it does not meet international human rights standards.
While many East Timorese want to see justice done for their suffering during Indonesia's occupation, President Gusmao and his government long ago decided that good relations with their giant neighbour must take precedence.
Indonesia is still extremely sensitive on the subject of East Timor.
Many Indonesians believe the territory they once called their 27th province was stolen from them by an international conspiracy and they are in no mood to concede either a domestic prosecution of their own people, or an international tribunal to sit in judgement.
East Timor, Indonesia agree to look forward despite bloody history
Associated Press
February 17, 2006
Indonesia's president embraced his East Timorese counterpart Friday, and said a report detailing atrocities committed by Indonesia during its occupation of the tiny nation would not affect ties.
East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao did not address the report, which was submitted to the United Nations last month, but said he was looking forward to "living in peace'' with his giant neighbor.
The report says at least 102,000 East Timorese were killed, abducted, starved or died of illnesses under Indonesia's occupation from 1975-1999. It also describes sexual violence, and the use of napalm and torture by Indonesian forces, among other abuses.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the report, which was prepared by local and international experts working for East Timor's truth and reconciliation committee, was "an internal matter between the United Nations and East Timor.''
"In the future, it will become a piece of history in the relationship between the two countries,'' he said after talks with Gusmao on the resort island of Bali.
The report's findings were in line with other published accounts of the decades-long occupation, but it put a fresh spotlight on Indonesia's history there, triggering anger in Jakarta, which accused East Timor of trying to "open old wounds.''
East Timor's leaders have repeatedly said that building good ties with Indonesia was more important than supporting efforts to prosecute military officers implicated in the violence.
But East Timorese and international rights groups are still calling for justice.
"Indonesia bears primary responsibility for the illegal invasion and occupation of East Timor,'' said John M. Miller, from the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network. "Instead of seeking to bury the past, Indonesia should ensure that those responsible for crimes against humanity are brought to justice.''
Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and ruled the former Portuguese colony until 1999, when a U.N.-organized plebiscite resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence.
A final orgy of violence by retreating Indonesian troops left more than 1,500 dead. No Indonesian official has been punished for crimes committed during the occupation.
In response to international pressure, Indonesia and East Timor established a joint Truth and Friendship Commission in August last year to probe the 1999 bloodshed. The body cannot recommend prosecution for officers implicated in the violence Yudhoyono said the commission's mandate would be extended by a year from its original deadline of August 2006.
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Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea
UN and Cambodia set up office for war crimes court to try former Khmer Rouge leaders
UN News Centre
February 10, 2006
United Nations and the Cambodian Government have set up an administrative office for the court that will try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge accused of horrific crimes, including killing hundreds of thousand of citizens during the 1970s, a spokesman for the world body announced today.
The creation of the office marks a shift from the planning phase to the actual establishment of what will be known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea, according to spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
The court will be made up of Cambodian and international judges who are in the process of being selected, he said, citing a joint statement which calls on donor countries to make up a $9.6 million shortfall in the court’s budget.
Under an agreement signed by the UN and Cambodia, a trial court and a Supreme Court within the Cambodian legal system are being set up to prosecute those most responsible for crimes and serious violations of Cambodian and international law between 17 April 1975 and 6 January 1979.
The three-year budget for the trials is about $56.3 million, of which $43 million is to be paid by the UN and $13.3 million by the Government of Cambodia.
Victims of Khmer Rouge fear trials will not deliver justice
The Irish Times
by Rory Byrne
February 13, 2006
Just outside the town of Pailin, in northwestern Cambodia, two lopsided hills rise sharply from the plain. Between the two hills are a complex of caves known locally as "the killing caves".
The caves were the site of atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. More than 10,000 people died here, crudely tortured before being thrown into the rocky caves from a hole above. Today, smashed skulls are piled high in a makeshift memorial inside the main cave.
Above your head, the clothes of the victims are hung like bunting, a pitiful reminder of the innocents who died here.
The killing caves are just one of thousands of sites all over Cambodia filled with the remains of the victims of the Khmer Rouge, as the Communist Party of Kampuchea came to be known.
On April 17th, 1975, the genocidal guerrilla movement swept into Phnom Penh, seizing power after five years of civil war. Founded 10 years earlier by a small group of Paris-educated Maoists led by Saloth Sar, later known as Pol Pot or "Brother Number One", their popularity had grown during the early 1970s as Cambodia reeled under a massive US bombing campaign aimed at North Vietnamese troops using neutral Cambodia to attack South Vietnam. Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians had died in the bombing, causing the stricken survivors to rally to the Khmer Rouge.
The US-backed Lon Nol regime was quickly dispatched and so began "Year Zero", a ruthless attempt to build a rural communist utopia through mass murder. Power was concentrated in the hands of the rural poor while teachers, doctors, lawyers, artists, students and other educated people were systematically killed through execution, torture or overwork. As many as three million of Cambodia's eight million people perished under the Khmer Rouge, who were
finally overthrown by invading Vietnamese troops in 1979, following years of armed border incursions.
Every family in Cambodia, from the royal family on down to the lowliest peasant family, lost at least one member in the genocide, the effects of which remain in stark evidence today. Prostitution, drug abuse and violence are endemic and Cambodia lags far behind its neighbours in terms of education, healthcare and economic development.
Today, most of those responsible for unleashing the ruthless experiment remain free, most living comfortably in retirement around Pailin itself, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold.
But, for a few of the top leadership at least, their days of freedom may be numbered. An important milestone was reached this week with the opening of the so-called Office of Administration that will oversee the trial of those deemed most responsible for the Cambodian genocide.
The Office of Administration is responsible for establishing the joint UN/Cambodian court, helping to select potential judges, prosecutors and defenders as well as overseeing the evidence-gathering process.
The formal judicial process is expected to begin in the next few months with the first trials expected to begin by early next year.
Between six and 10 of the now elderly surviving top Khmer Rouge leadership are expected to go on trial with possible sentences ranging from five years to life imprisonment. There will be no death penalty. The death penalty is unconstitutional in Cambodia.
But for many Cambodians, the upcoming trials cannot deliver them the justice they seek.
For many, the trials have been fatally compromised before they begin.
The terms of the agreement establishing the court, negotiated in a spirit of some animosity by the Cambodian government and the UN, guarantees that the Cambodian judiciary has a built-in majority of three on the five-man panel of judges that will decide the verdicts.
In addition, four of the five judges must vote for a conviction or the defendant will be released.
Cambodia 's judicial system is considered by many to be hopelessly corrupt and subjected to routine political interference. Given its track record, and its built-in majority, many Cambodians doubt the verdicts will be delivered independent of political interference.
Many fear that potential defendants who might embarrass the Hun Sen government, himself a former Khmer Rouge cadre, may be able to escape prosecution, or to cut a deal to secure a lighter sentence, in return for tempering their testimony.
In addition, the tiny number of potential defendants means that many of those who committed serious crimes, including mass murder, will not only go free but will also be guaranteed immunity from future prosecution.
But despite these shortcomings, most Cambodians are lending their support to the process because, they say, it's the only show in town.
They hope that by scrutinising the trial process they may be able to guarantee at least some measure of legitimacy, a legitimacy that is sorely needed if Cambodia is to turn the page on its darkest chapter.
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Darfur (ICC)
Official Website of the International Criminal Court
U.S. Must Play Role in U.N. Force for Sudan, Annan Tells Bush
New York Times
by David E. Sanger
February 14, 2006
The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, met President Bush and his top aides on Monday, and, without asking for specific American commitments, made clear that he believed the United States would have to play a significant role in deploying a new kind of peacekeeping force in the Darfur region of Sudan.
In public the two men said little, with Mr. Bush saying simply, "I appreciate the secretary's leadership on that issue." But during the session, according to two officials who gave accounts of the discussion, Mr. Bush and Mr. Annan talked about what it would take to deploy United Nations troops in Darfur under a Security Council resolution, passed unanimously on Feb. 3, to begin planning for the process of sending the troops.
"We did agree that we need a much more effective force on the ground" to replace African Union troops now in Darfur, Mr. Annan said after leaving the White House. He described the proposed force as "well-trained, well-equipped troops from Western countries, from third world countries" who have participated in other peacekeeping operations.
The reality, administration officials said, is that the troops would not be likely to arrive in the region for another year. But the import of the Monday meeting, said one senior official, is that "the president signed on to the concept and understood that we will need Western assets and the U.S. would have to be part of it."
When the resolution was passed, American officials made it clear that no American troops would be sent to Darfur. Mr. Annan said he has not yet asked for specific commitments from the United States or other nations.
But the African Union troops have been unable to prevent at least 30,000 people from being driven from their homes in Darfur, amid scenes of violence that Mr. Bush had previously condemned, but said little about on Monday.
The new United Nations force, officials said, would be better armed, and be given new rules of engagement that would enable it to enforce the peace. Under the arrangement, the forces would run a greater risk of being drawn into firefights with Sudanese troops and the rebels.
United Nations officials say that eventually they expect to ask for tactical air support and intelligence units, which would warn the United Nations forces of impending attacks. Only a small number of nations, chiefly the United States and other NATO countries, have the ability to provide that kind of help.
Urgent calls for more troops to Darfur
Christian Science Monitor
by Abraham McLaughlin
February 16, 2006
Amid new escalation in fighting in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan, with rebels shooting down a government helicopter Tuesday, there's fresh pressure on the international community to step in to help stop the three-year-old conflict.
It comes as consensus is hardening in Western capitals and at the United Nations that the 7,000 African troops now in Darfur, as part of a force supplied by the African Union, are inadequate. Because of limited training, equipment, and marching orders, the AU troops have been unable to contain the fighting, provide safety for civilians, or adequately protect humanitarian aid groups operating in the desert region, which is the size of Texas.
The AU mission "is costing a fortune and nothing's happening" except that the mission "is going broke and will have no more supplies within a month or so," says Richard Cornwell of the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa. That means the international community, which is under significant political pressure to help in Darfur "has to decide where it's going to put its money - and how," he says.
This week, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan met with President Bush to push for US support on Darfur. Mr. Bush, who is under pressure from Christian conservatives to act, remained noncommittal. "We did agree that we need a much more effective force on the ground" to replace AU troops, Mr. Annan said after the meeting, although he didn't mention specifics.
A Feb. 3 UN Security Council resolution authorized sending UN troops to replace the AU force - although experts say it could be six to nine months, at the earliest, before such blue-helmeted soldiers arrive.
Meanwhile, 30,000 people have been displaced from their homes in just the last month, the UN says. And some 2 million people - half of Darfur's population - are living in displaced-person camps where they are under threat of attack. Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group urged Bush to push for up to 20,000 NATO troops to be sent.
Some US Democrats, like Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, have also been calling for NATO to send troops. But NATO has so far proved reluctant to seriously entertain the idea.
"The focus is more about extending our support role in the transition from an AU to a blue-helmet force," a European diplomat, who requested anonymity, told Reuters Wednesday. NATO planes have transported about 4,000 AU troops into Darfur and have trained AU officers. The US is also very reluctant to commit troops.
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, visiting Darfur peace talks in Nigeria, had harsh words Tuesday for the government and rebel sides. "Progress in the talks has been far too slow," he said, scolding both sides for ignoring a long- tattered cease-fire. "The international community is not going to allow those individuals who are responsible for gross human rights violations or blocking the peace process to escape the consequences of their actions," Mr. Straw warned. The UN Security Council is considering sanctions against individual rebels and members of the Khartoum government.
The war broke out in 2003, with Darfur rebels crusading against what they see as economic and political marginalization by the central government in Khartoum. The government responded by arming and supporting so-called janjaweed militias, who've since been targeting civilians in Darfur.
In simple terms, the conflict, which is occurring amid the spreading Sahara Desert, is between Arab janjaweed, who have links to the area's traditional cattle-herders, and black African farmers - although the reality is more nuanced.
The International Criminal Court is investigating whether war crimes have been perpetrated. The US says genocide has occurred in the region.
Darfur: Stop the killing, or pay the price
International Herald Tribune
by Jack Straw
February 17, 2006
The three-year crisis in Darfur has already claimed between 70,000 and 400,000 lives. It will only be solved through a political settlement which tackles the underlying causes of the conflict. That is what the parties at the current peace talks in Abuja, whom I addressed on Tuesday, are supposed to be trying to achieve. We in the United Kingdom support that peace process, and I announced last week that we will provide it with a further £1 million in funding.
Progress in the talks has been far too slow. Although the original cease-fire was signed in April 2004, the parties failed to meet the Dec. 31, 2005 deadline set by the Security Council for an agreement. This is now the seventh round of talks.
And the parties have not honored their commitments. They signed a cease-fire; but there is no cease-fire in Darfur. The government of Sudan and the rebel movements break it every day. Attacks continue, including on humanitarian convoys and on the African Union mission - the very people who are there to help the civilians affected directly by the war.
Meanwhile the people of Darfur continue to suffer. Around two million are now in camps. Many more are homeless or displaced. Innocent people are still being killed. Women and girls are being raped. Children are dying.
The only people who have the power to stop this are those who gathered around the table in Abuja. They must end the haggling and posturing and start taking real action to put Darfur back together again.
A good start would be taking the following five specific actions:
First, declare their positions and deployments as they are committed to doing.
Second, respect and observe the ceasefire in Darfur. The Sudanese government bears primary responsibility for the events in Darfur and for the failure to ensure the security of its citizens. It needs to cease its own offensive operations and rein in the janjaweed militias. But of late it is the rebel movements who have been most guilty in launching new attacks: they have got to stop their fighters.
Third, stop attacks on the African Union force and humanitarian convoys.
Fourth, facilitate the work of the humanitarian agencies, not undermine it.
And fifth, bring to justice the perpetrators of atrocities.
At the same time the parties must reach an agreement that stops the conflict for good. There is well-founded cynicism in the international community that they are serious about this. For example, the Sudanese ministers are at the talks but the leaders of the rebel movements are not.
The parties in Abuja now have to make a clear choice. They can choose to reach an agreement. That means concluding one in Abuja and implementing it on the ground. If that is done, the international community will help with humanitarian and developmental assistance, with practical support and political encouragement.
Or they can choose not to reach an agreement. The result will be more death and misery and a lost opportunity to build a better future for the people they claim to represent.
There will be direct consequences for them, too. The international community is not going to allow individuals responsible for gross human rights violations or blocking the peace process to escape the consequences. We know who these people are.
There is already provision for sanctions against such individuals under UN Security Council Resolution 1591. The Security Council's sanctions committee is already considering several members of the Sudanese government and the rebel movements. Other names can, and will, be put forward. The United Kingdom will not hesitate to do so. Nor do we rule out additional UN sanctions if the parties fail to make progress.
And the International Criminal Court, with the full support of the Security Council, is pursuing allegations of war crimes and grave human rights abuses. They too will be watching closely who does and who doesn't do what in Darfur over the coming months.
The international community's patience is limited. If the parties do not reach an agreement soon we will need to start looking at the alternatives. Those alternatives will leave some of the parties in Abuja, and the absent leaders, with a smaller role to play than they would have achieved had they taken part and reached an agreement.
We are not there yet. The international community is serious about wanting these talks to succeed. The people of Darfur need them to succeed. The parties gathered in Abuja have a duty to deliver.
(Jack Straw is Britain's foreign secretary.)
Bush Calls for More Muscle in Darfur
The Washington Post
by
Jim VandeHei and Colum Lynch
February 18, 2006
President Bush on Friday called for doubling the number of international troops in the war-ravaged Darfur region of Sudan and a bigger role for NATO in the peacekeeping effort.
Bush has concluded that peace talks will not halt the violence that has left tens of thousands dead and more than 2 million homeless in Darfur and that a more muscular military response is required, administration officials said.
After private talks with world leaders, including U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Bush decided to call for an additional 7,000 or more troops to be placed under U.N. command, along with the 7,000 African Union troops already there, because such an expansion would be the quickest way to intervene in the bloody conflict, the officials said. But many details of the policy shift need to be worked out, including how many U.S. troops would be part of the beefed-up international peacekeeping effort. Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokesman, said it is ``premature to speculate'' on potential increases in U.S. troops.
``I'm in the process now of working with a variety of folks to encourage there to be more troops, probably under the United Nations ,'' Bush said in Tampa in a question-and-answer session after he made a speech on terrorism. The announcement caught senior White House aides by surprise because details of the new policy have not been finalized. Still, a top White House official said the Bush statement is part of a significant shift that will drive Darfur policy in the months ahead.
The change is essentially an acknowledgment that the previous policy did not stop the killings, which Bush had described as genocide. He had resisted calls for a bigger U.S. role and relied on the African Union to take the lead, with increased NATO assistance. U.S. officials had also pressed Sudan to rein in the militias.
But the violence continued, and almost no progress has been made in the peace talks between Sudan's government and Darfur rebels. The negotiations are taking place in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
There are also growing fears of a military clash between Sudan and neighboring Chad, where several hundred thousand refugees from Darfur are living in camps.
Four U.S. military planners were sent to the United Nations this week to assist the U.N. peacekeeping department in coming up with a range of options for the military forces, according to a State Department official. NATO would provide planning and logistical assistance.
The latest conflict began in early 2003, when two Darfur rebel groups took up arms against the Arab-led Islamic government in Khartoum, citing discrimination against the region's black tribes. The Sudanese government armed and organized a local Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed, to target local communities that were suspected of sympathizing with the rebels. U.N. officials say as many as 200,000 people may have been killed by violence and disease as a result of the attacks.
In a break from current policy, which has emphasized peace talks and long-term solutions, Bush concluded this month that the 7,000-member African Union peacekeeping force has been hamstrung by its size and limited rules of engagement, one official said. With memories of the failed 1993 U.S. military operation in Somalia fresh in their minds, many U.S. policymakers have been reluctant to commit U.S. forces unilaterally or through multilateral organizations such as NATO.
But Bush brushed aside the resistance of some senior policymakers and sided with White House adviser Michael Gerson and others who have been lobbying for more assistance to Darfur. Bush this week also proposed $500 million for Darfur as part of a larger special budget request to Congress.
There is some bipartisan support for intervening in the troubled region. Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Joe Biden, D-Del., plan to introduce a resolution in Congress calling for NATO troops to help the African Union ``stop the genocide '' in the Darfur region.
The State Department official said there appears to be broad consensus at the United Nations to provide the force much broader rules of engagement. But he said that there are still many difficult issues to address, making it unlikely to win U.N. Security Council authorization by the end of the month. The United States holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month.
The council's African members, Tanzania, Congo Republic and Ghana, backed by China and Qatar, do not want to discuss a U.N. peacekeeping mission until the African Union has formally indicated that it wants the United Nations to step in. That is expected to happen early next month.
NATO has been providing airlift transport for the African peacekeepers, and there are discussions about enhancing that support during the transition to a U.N. mission, according to a British diplomat. Even if the council decides over the next month to approve a U.N. takeover, it could be several months before the mission would be in place.
The Sudanese have not agreed to allow a U.N. peacekeeping mission into Darfur. A new, more effective force ``will require a high degree of mobility in particular - both in the air and on the ground,'' said Marie Okabe, a spokeswoman for Annan. ``The United Nations plans to look to those countries that have the capacity to help us put on the ground a mobile, robust and effective force in Darfur.''
The U.S. European Command (Eucom) announced this week in Stuttgart, Germany, that U.S. airmen from Ramstein Air Base have begun helping with the logistics of moving 1,200 troops belonging to two Rwandan battalions from Kigali, Rwanda, to the Darfur region. Contracted aircraft started bringing the troops to the region last Saturday as part of a rotation scheduled to last about three weeks. Capt. Beverly Mock, a Eucom spokeswoman, said she was unaware of any specifics related to increasing U.S. troops in the Darfur region. She said plans are to continue supporting African troops.
The U.S. military supported several missions in the region in 2004 and 2005, using its C-130s and contract aircraft to bring 2,500 Rwandan troops and more than 150,000 pounds of equipment and supplies to Darfur.
Previously, the United States had helped send Nigerian troops and Rwandan civilian police officers to Darfur, along with providing about $190 million to build and operate 34 camps to house, train and equip African troops, according to the Pentagon. A U.N. or NATO mission supported by the United States would probably include more airlift capabilities, planners and logistics specialists, as well as leadership contingents, according to military officials. It was unclear how many U.S. ground troops, if any, would be included in such an effort.
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Uganda (ICC)
Official Website of the International Criminal Court
Uganda: LRA's Joseph Kony now in DRC, says military
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (www.irinnews.org)
February 7, 2006
The leader of the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony, has crossed over to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from his hideout in southern Sudan, the Ugandan military has said.
"He crossed over from Sudan to the DRC, but he has moved further from Garamba National Park, where (LRA deputy commander-in-chief) Vincent Otti is. He is now moving towards the Central African Republic," said Lt Chris Magezi, army spokesman in northern Uganda.
Magezi said on Monday that the rebel leader had entered the DRC four days earlier and was on the move with a band of about 15 fighters.
Chief army spokesman Maj Felix Kuraije also confirmed that Kony was in the DRC.
"Since last week the pursuit has been on. In one of the encounters near [the southern Sudanese town of] Juba, we managed to rescue a number of children, including a commander aged about 18, who was abducted as a child by the rebels in 1998," Kuraije said from the northern Ugandan town of Gulu.
"There were also women in that group," he said. "Kony slipped away and headed further west to the DRC."
The insurgents have traditionally operated from bases in southern Sudan and northern Uganda. However, Otti moved into northeastern DRC's Garamba National Park in September 2005 with up to 400 fighters.
Recently, the rebels killed eight Guatemalan peacekeepers from the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) in Garamba.
The LRA has waged war in northern Uganda for close to two decades, kidnapping thousands of boys and girls and forcing them to serve as child soldiers and sex slaves. In 2005, the International Criminal Court at The Hague issued arrest warrants for Kony and four of his senior commanders - including Otti - for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Night terror sends children to town streets in northern Uganda
Agence France Presse via Yahoo News!
February 7, 2006
GULU, Uganda (AFP) - Clutching blankets, two young girls quicken their pace against the onset of darkness and the risk it brings of abduction by a rebel group that has sown terror in northern Uganda for nearly two decades.
Barely 10-years-old, Rosette and her neighbour Gloria are among thousands of children who trek daily to Gulu, the main town in northern Uganda, for a peaceful night in spartan shelters.
We fear the rebels," said Rosette, dressed in a scruffy yellow T-shirt. "My sister was abducted. She never came back. Here in the shelter I feel secure."
For years, the pair have made the same journey down dusty paths to their overnight shelter, a basic brick house run by Charity for Peace Foundation (CPF), an aid agency operating in the restive area.
The insurgency by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) continues to terrorize these tiny victims of what UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland once called world's worst forgotten emergency.
It has also severely undermined development throughout the region and caused sharp inequalities with the rest of the country.
According to Fran Miller, a psychologist with the international aid group Doctors Without Borders
(MSF - Medecins Sans Frontieres), between 6,000 and 7,000 children walk to Gulu every night to escape rebels notorious for abducting children whom they turn into child soldiers or sex slaves.
"In the bush, life is tough. You have to walk a lot, you have to carry heavy luggage, you are forced to kill," said Eric, a teenager.
"I have not been kidnapped yet. My cousin was abducted, he escaped and he told me about his life in the bush."
Up to two million people have been uprooted from their homes by the fighting between the government and the LRA, which ostensibly wants to replace President Yoweri Museveni's regime with one based on the Biblical 10 Commandments.
Despite having to spend cold nights on hard floors, the children find respite in the rundown shelters, where they are able to play before settling down for a rest from daily chores.
It is not just the rebels the children are afraid of. Many are mistreated by parents, mainly drunken fathers who vent their frustration and anger on their offspring.
"There is a lot of domestic violence, a lot of alcohol abuse," said Miller, who explained that about 90 percent of northern Uganda's population is displaced. "Inevitably, there is a breakdown."
"They go to shelters not only because of insecurity. Parents push kids to go to the shelters to have privacy," said Amaia Esperza, an official with MSF. "Some kids do not want to be beaten up by their alcoholic dads."
About 20 percent of the children who seek shelter at the MSF's centre in Gulu suffer psychological problems.
"They never know if their parents will be there when they go back," said Miller. "Some children do not remember having slept at home."
"At least for several hours they can relax. We want to provide a stress-free environment," she added.
But the tranquillity is only short-lived, as every day the children trek back home, and then back again to Gulu before night falls.
Uganda says it attacked LRA rebel chief in Sudan
Reuters
February 16, 2006
KAMPALA, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Ugandan troops attacked Joseph Kony, the internationally wanted leader of the cult-like Lord's Resistance Army, in southern Sudan and killed four of his bodyguards, the military said on Thursday.
Uganda says Kony left a hideout east of the Nile two weeks ago and is fleeing towards lawless eastern Congo.
A military spokesman said Ugandan forces attacked Kony's group on Tuesday as it headed for the remote border.
"Our soldiers pursued and caught up with rebels commanded by Kony southwest of Juba and killed four of his bodyguards on the spot," Lieutenant Chris Magezi said in a statement.
"Kony and his defeated remnants are on their way to Democratic Republic of Congo fleeing the offensive."
Magezi said one Ugandan soldier was injured in the clash. It was not possible immediately to verify his report.
Ugandan military chiefs say the LRA leader plans to rejoin his deputy Vincent Otti, who is blamed for last month's murder of eight U.N. peacekeepers in Congo's Garamba National Park.
Operating from Sudanese hideouts in recent years, Kony's guerrilla group has massacred civilians, mutilated survivors and kidnapped some 25,000 children as fighters and sex slaves.
Kony is sought by the International Criminal Court and since the ICC issued arrest warrants in October, Sudan has allowed Uganda troops deeper into its territory in pursuit of the LRA. The war has uprooted 1.6 million people in northern Uganda alone, and in October the International Criminal Court unsealed arrest warrants for the LRA leaders for war crimes.
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Iraqi High Tribunal
Official Website of the Iraqi High Tribunal
Grotian Moment: The Saddam Hussein Trial Blog
Iraq: Court Must Ensure Vigorous Defense
Human Rights Watch
February 11, 2006
When it resumes on Monday, the court trying Saddam Hussein and seven other defendants will face a key challenge in balancing the defendants’ right to a lawyer of their choosing with preserving order in the trial, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today.
The Iraqi High Tribunal is at a crossroads,” said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program. “The court is fully entitled to discipline lawyers for misconduct. But if the court takes the drastic step of dismissing defendants’ chosen attorneys and imposes new lawyers who the defendants reject, the judges are taking an enormous risk with the fairness of the trial.”
The chosen lawyers for at least four defendants walked out of the trial on January 29, after one of them was ejected from the courtroom by the chief judge for disorderly behavior. The lawyers – who represented former President Saddam Hussein, his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and two other senior members of the former government – have declared a boycott of the court. They were immediately replaced by court appointed lawyers from the Tribunal’s Defense Office, but the defendants have rejected these lawyers and refuse to instruct them.
In the seven-page briefing paper released today, Human Rights Watch sets out the fair trial principles relevant to these developments at the tribunal. The paper explains the defendants’ right to lawyers of their own choosing, the limits that can be placed on this right, and answers the question whether the court can impose lawyers against the will of the defendants. The briefing paper concludes that the court should dismiss a defendant’s chosen counsel only as a last resort, and must take steps to ensure that any court-imposed defense lawyers effectively defend their clients.
“The boycott of defense lawyers must be handled in a way that demonstrates both the tribunal’s full commitment to fair trial rights and its control of the proceedings,” said Dicker. “To minimize the risks involved, the court must make sure the lawyers it appoints mount a vigorous defense.”
Since October 19, 2005, Saddam Hussein and seven other former Iraqi officials have been on the trial for crimes that took place in the town of al-Dujail in 1982. Government security forces allegedly killed more than 140 individuals from al-Dujail in retaliation for an assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein as his motorcade passed through the town, 60 kilometers north of Baghdad.
The briefing paper is available at: http://hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/iraq0206/
Saddam aides defy Iraqi tribunal
BBC News
February 13, 2006
Two former aides to Saddam Hussein have refused to testify against the ousted Iraqi leader at his trial in Baghdad.
Former head of the presidential office Ahmed Khudayir and ex-intelligence chief Hassan al-Obeidi both said they had been brought against their will.
During another stormy session, Saddam Hussein said he too was forced to attend and shouted "Down with Bush".
The ex-leader and seven former aides are being tried in connection with the killing of 148 Shia villagers in 1982.
The defendants deny all the charges.
Mr Khudayir and Mr Obeidi are the first aides to Saddam Hussein to testify at the trial.
'Unfit to testify'
The BBC's Jon Brain in Baghdad says the prosecution had been hoping they would confirm that the former president had ordered the massacre of the village of Dujail.
Mr Khudayir headed Saddam Hussein's presidential office from 1995 to the fall of the regime. He attended a military planning session on 9 April 2003, two days before the Americans entered Baghdad.
But he told the court he knew nothing of the events at Dujail in 1982.
When shown a document, purported to contain his signature, which apparently showed Saddam Hussein had ratified "the execution of the Dujail detainees", Mr Khudayir said: "I don't remember anything at all."
He added: "I am not fit to be a witness in this case."
Mr Obeidi said he had been absent during the events at the centre of the trial. Saddam Hussein laughed as he spoke.
Both men said they had been brought before the court under duress.
Stormy exchange
At the start of Monday's three-hour session, Saddam Hussein continued a stormy exchange with the new chief judge, Raouf Abdul Rahman, who accuses of being biased.
The defendants had vowed not to appear in court until the return of their lawyers - who are calling for the removal of Judge Rahman and boycotting the proceedings.
The chief prosecutor had asked the chief judge to bring Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants to court by force if necessary.
On entering court, Saddam Hussein said: "They have forcibly brought me here."
He told the judge: "Exercise your right to try me in absentia. Are you trying to overcome your own smallness?"
"The law will be implemented," said the judge, who banged his gavel on several occasions.
The former leader wore a blue traditional Arab robe and a black jacket in contrast to the suit he had worn previously.
"Down with the traitor, down with Bush. Long live the ummah [Islamic nation]," Saddam Hussein shouted.
His half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti scuffled with guards as he was brought in.
Both then continued to harangue the judge throughout the early proceedings, refusing orders to sit down and be quiet.
"This is not a court, this is a game," Saddam Hussein shouted.
Barzan Ibrahim sat on the floor with his back to the judge. The case has now been adjourned until Tuesday.
The new chief judge took over last month after the resignation of his predecessor Rizgar Amin and has adopted a more hardline approach to the defendants.
Saddam Hussein and some of his co-defendants failed to show up at the past few sessions.
Our correspondent says the prosecution was aware that the spectacle of an empty dock risked further undermining a trial that has repeatedly descended into farce. Saddam's masterful courtroom act
BBC News
by Jon Brain
February 14, 2006
On Monday he looked dishevelled and angry. On Tuesday a smart dark suit had replaced the robe and the demeanour was calm - at times, even playful.
With all the confidence of a man who appears to believe he is still the president of his country, Saddam Hussein strolled into court as though he did not have a care in the world.
As he passed the glassed press box he peered quizzically at the journalists on the other side, as though he was visiting a zoo and we were some curious new exhibits.
The exhibits stared back, totally fascinated.
Like all successful actors, Saddam Hussein is a master of playing to the crowd.
Hollow ring
And, watched at close quarters, this trial does indeed sometimes seem like a surreal piece of theatre.
Yes there is anger, yes there are emotional outbursts. But somehow these outbursts do not quite ring true. There is no spontaneity to them.
Saddam rants and raves before he takes his seat in the dock but you get the sense its through a sense of obligation, the role expected of him each time the curtain goes up.
Much of the time he sits quietly - at least until his next cue.
Often he leaves centre stage to his co-star, his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti.
On Tuesday the former head of intelligence was again dressed in what he said were his pyjamas, claiming he had been forced into the court against his will for a second day running.
It is all good knockabout fun. Or is it?
Smokescreen?
The danger with the soap opera being played out here is that it can easily overshadow what this trial is actually about: the killings of more than 140 Iraqis villagers.
By turning the hearing into a daily farce, Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants can keep talk of atrocities firmly in the background.
Keep your audience amused and they might postpone thoughts of more unsavoury matters. So the one-liners come thick and fast.
"Why don't you hit your own head with the hammer," Saddam suggested to chief judge Raouf Abdul Rahman pointing to his honour's gavel, raising laughs throughout the court.
But Mr Abdel Rahman, who took over the case when the previous chief judge resigned, is proving himself more than capable of dealing with such tactics.
He allows the defendants their outbursts, watching them like a disapproving parent witnessing a toddler's tantrum.
Then when he has had enough he orders them to ''sit down and shut up". And, usually they do.
On Tuesday he was so successful that for a time Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti forgot his role as showman and gave a lengthy account of his version of events at Dujail.
Despite the costume changes, despite the plot twists and despite the one-liners this trial might still have a successful outcome.
Hussein Tells Tribunal He Is on a Hunger Strike
Washington Post
by Nelson Hernandez and Omar Fekeiki
February 15, 2006
Saddam Hussein on Tuesday told the court overseeing his case that he had started a hunger strike in protest of the tribunal's new chief judge, who has vowed to stop the outbursts that have frequently interrupted the former Iraqi dictator's trial.
In an otherwise subdued session, Hussein told Judge Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman that he had not eaten in three days, and three of his co-defendants said they also had refused to eat. Court authorities would not confirm whether Hussein was really on a hunger strike.
During testimony Tuesday, three former officials of Hussein's government pleaded ignorance when questioned about the killing of more than 140 Iraqis from the town of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt against Hussein there in 1982.
The trial will resume Feb. 28.
The court's chief investigative judge, Raeed Juhi, called the hunger strike claim "an administrative problem" at a news conference following the session. "The court is trying to find out and is working to solve it with the responsible authorities who keep the accused in custody," he said.
While the court investigated Hussein and his co-defendants, ordinary Iraqis reckoned with the chaos that has followed his overthrow by a U.S.-led coalition in 2003. Gunmen killed at least nine farmers from the same family and wounded two others in the city of Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, Iraqi police and hospital officials said Tuesday.
Police Lt. Basim Baldawi said armed men in two cars opened fire on the victims while they were working on their farm. News service reports of the same attack said 11 people had been killed, including a 5-year-old boy. Among the dead was Hussein Sarhan Hiyali, a tribal leader in the predominantly Shiite area, according to the reports.
At least five other Iraqis across the country were killed in mortar and gunfire attacks Tuesday, including an Iraqi army major and his son, according to statements by U.S. and Iraqi military authorities.
The latest session of Hussein's trial was among the calmest of the dozen held so far, possibly a result of Abdel-Rahman's stern warnings that disorder in the court would no longer be tolerated. Though Hussein entered the courtroom calling out, "Long live the holy warriors!" and told Abdel-Rahman to hit himself in the head with his gavel, he was silent for much of the proceedings.
Hussein's half brother, Barzan Ibrahim, who attended court for the second day wearing his pajamas, took up the spotlight. Looking like an overgrown child in the adult-size crib that houses the defendants, the former intelligence chief waved a water bottle and pointedly reminded Abdel-Rahman that "I am not your servant."
Ibrahim also spoke for the first time about what he had done after finding out about the assassination attempt in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad. He said he had released 80 people who had been wrongfully detained by police and apologized to each of them.
"There was only one thing in my mind," Ibrahim said. When an attempt was made on the life of Hafez Assad, then the president of Syria, he said, "they took helicopters, the army, and took revenge. I said to myself, 'I should not act the same. I should not be violent.' "
In previous sessions, witnesses have described brutal abuse at the hands of Ibrahim's agents following the Dujail incident. On Tuesday prosecutors tried, largely without success, to link Ibrahim and Hussein to documents related to the massacre. All three of the day's witnesses -- a former provincial governor, a secretary to Hussein and an anonymous intelligence officer -- testified that they knew nothing about what happened after the assassination attempt.
"You were so close to the defendant Saddam Hussein, and yet you do not know anything about it?" the prosecuting judge asked Hamed Youssef Hamadi, who served as a secretary to Hussein.
"Yes, I swore an oath to tell the truth, and that is the truth," Hamadi answered.
Elsewhere in Iraq, residents of Basra and Baqubah demonstrated against the British presence in the country two days after the release of a video depicting British soldiers beating a group of teenage Iraqis. The Basra city council said it was cutting off all cooperation with coalition forces because of the video, according to Maj. Peter Cripps, a British military spokesman.
It was the second time in recent weeks that tension has flared between the British and the government of Basra in southern Iraq. The council recently protested the British detention of several local police officers. The British said they detained the officers because of suspected connections to the Shiite militias that have infiltrated the police in Basra.
In London, the British defense minister announced Tuesday that three people had been arrested in connection with the video. The BBC said Cpl. Martin Webster of the 1st Battalion, Light Infantry, was among those arrested. Webster is apparently the man who shot the footage and is heard taunting the teenagers as they are beaten, the news service reported.
Correspondent Jonathan Finer in Basra and special correspondents Salih Saif Aldin in Balad and Hassan Shammari in Baqubah contributed to this report.
Saddam Trial Becoming Like a TV Sitcom
Washington Post
by Hamza Hendawi
February 16, 2006
It's supposed to be a serious affair, but after three months and 12 hearings, the Saddam Hussein trial has become like a TV sitcom steeped in Iraqi pop culture and local vernacular.
Interest in the trial has spiked since a new tough chief judge, Raouf Abdel-Rahman, took over last month and cracked down on the chaos that had marked the early hearings, which began Oct. 19.
Saddam and Barzan Ibrahim, his half brother and co-defendant, try their best to unsettle the stern new judge, using tactics from insulting his nonexistent mustache to showing up in long underwear.
Proceedings are broadcast on state television with a 20-minute delay. Many Iraqis who cannot follow the hearings during business hours watch in the evenings on satellite stations, some of which show the day's full hearing.
Perceptions of the trial among Iraqis depend in large part on their sectarian affiliations.
Many Shiites, long oppressed by Saddam's Sunni Arab-dominated regime, believe the ex-president's execution is already overdue. To many Sunni Arabs, Saddam and his seven co-defendants are persecuted men.
Yet, Iraqis are united over one thing _ the trial's entertainment value.
"The toughness of the new judge has turned the whole thing into a farce," said Ismail Ibrahim, a 45-year-old Sunni engineer who watches the hearings at work. "It's funny."
Hatem Abbas Khalaf, a health worker from the holy Shiite city of Karbala, said he finds the whole affair "entertaining."
"It makes me gloat over the predicament of Saddam and his associates," he said.
Saddam's daughter even chipped in with her own critique of what goes on in the courtroom.
"This judge Raouf is the strangest cartoon character I have ever seen in my life," Raghad Saddam Hussein has told Al Arabiya television Tuesday from Amman, Jordan.
Over two sessions Monday and Tuesday, Saddam and Ibrahim dominated the proceedings with some vintage courtroom theatrics. But in a series of instances, they appeared to break new ground.
"May your mustache be cursed," Saddam shouted at Abdel-Rahman.
It's a great insult among Iraq's Arab majority to curse a man's mustache, considered to be a symbol of honor among adult males. Abdel-Rahman is a Kurd and sports no mustache.
In another exchange, Abdel-Rahman tried to restore order Tuesday by banging his gavel.
"Hit your own head with that gavel," shouted Saddam, who insisted on addressing the court while seated, ignoring the judge's angry protests.
Ibrahim, Saddam's one-time intelligence chief, told Abdel-Rahman on Monday that he missed the judge's predecessor, Rizqar Mohammed Amin, another Kurd who stepped down in January amid charges that he did not do enough to rein in Saddam and Ibrahim.
"I will write a letter to judge Rizqar thanking him," Ibrahim told Abdel-Rahman.
"'Afiyah', Rizqar," said Saddam, using the Iraqi Arabic slang for "bravo," a word Saddam often used to praise his officers before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Saddam, Ibrahim and the other six defendants are on trial for the killing of nearly 150 Shiites after the former president survived an assassination attempt in 1982 in the mainly Shiite town of Dujail north of Baghdad. The eight face death by hanging of convicted.
Ibrahim, who once enjoyed a reputation as a womanizer, was by far the more provocative in this week's sessions.
This week, he showed up in his long underwear to protest Abdel-Rahman's handling of the hearings. He sat on the floor of the defendants' pen with his back to the judges for most of Monday's hearing.
On Tuesday, he scolded the judge for ordering him to be quiet.
"Don't tell me to shut up with this hand gesture," Ibrahim snapped. "I am a person like you, if not even better."
He insisted on calling a witness "comrade" _ the title used by members of Saddam's Baath party.
"Don't call him comrade. Call him witness number one," Abdel-Rahman said.
"You call him what you like and I call him what I like," Ibrahim replied.
Later, Ibrahim suggested to Abdel-Rahman that many of his tribunal's employees worked for the intelligence agency which Saddam's half brother once headed.
"I just want to explain to you a few things so you can calm down and help yourself," Ibrahim told the judge.
"This court is calm," Abdel-Rahman replied.
The most bizarre moment of Tuesday's hearing came when Ibrahim briefly abandoned his native Arabic and began to speak in English, explaining the location of his detention facility.
"I don't understand English, please speak to me in Arabic," said a perplexed Abdel-Rahman.
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International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
Official Website of the ICTY
Press Briefing of the ICTY
February 15, 2006
Alexandra Milenov, Liaison Officer for Registry and Chambers, made the following statement: (partially reproduced below):
… I would like to draw your attention to a couple of status conferences that we have scheduled in the next week. A status conference in the case against Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Milivoj Petkovic, Valentin Joric and Berislav Pusic, all the highest level leaders of the Bosnian Croat political entity, and Slobodan Praljak, a high level Croatian leader, will be held this Thursday, 16 February at 9:00 am in courtroom II. The status conference in the case against Blagoje Simic, former President of the Serbian Democratic Party ("SDS") in the Bosnian city of Bosanski Samac, will be held this Friday, 17 February at 8:00 am in courtroom II. Finally, there will be a status conference in the case against Mitar Rasevic, Commander of the guards of a detention camp in Foca, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Savo Todovic, the Deputy Commander, on Tuesday 21 February at 8:00 in courtroom II.
In terms of the court schedule, the construction in courtroom III began this week, and courtroom I was back in service on Monday. The trial against former Yugoslav and Serb President Slobodan Milosevic will continue next week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 9:00 in courtroom I. The trial against Yugoslav Army officers Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Slivancanin continues this afternoon at 14:15 and tomorrow and Friday morning at 9:00 in courtroom I. The trial will sit next week in the afternoon on Monday through Friday starting at 14:15. In courtroom I, the trial against Milan Martic, a high-level political leader of the war-time Croatian Serb entity, continues this week on Thursday and Friday at 14:15. The trial will sit on Monday and Tuesday of next week. The trial against against Republika Srpska leader Momcilo Krajisnik will recommence next week 20 February, Monday through Friday at 9:00 in courtroom II.
Bosnia: Donors Must Ensure Justice for Atrocities
Human Rights Watch
February 8, 2005
As the international tribunal in The Hague winds up its operations, the new War Crimes Chamber established in Sarajevo to handle remaining cases of serious war crimes will require sufficient international funding and support, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Bosnia’s donors are scheduled to meet in Brussels next month.
In March 2005, the War Crimes Chamber began operations within Bosnia’s State Court to try cases of serious war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina that could not be prosecuted within the mandate or timeframe of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The chamber will also handle serious war crimes cases initiated locally.
The internationalized chamber is the latest in a series of “hybrid” justice mechanisms operating under national law, like earlier initiatives in East Timor and Kosovo. Although there is an international component, the Sarajevo chamber is a domestic institution that will continue to handle war crimes cases after international involvement has been phased out.
The 44-page report, “Looking for Justice: The War Crimes Chamber in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” evaluates the initial phase of the chamber, identifies achievements, and makes recommendations on how to improve the chamber’s operations.
“The war crimes chamber was set up to ensure that those responsible for atrocities in Bosnia do not escape justice,” said Param-Preet Singh, counsel with Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program. “This chamber offers victims of these most serious crimes a chance for justice.”
The war in Bosnia, which lasted from 1992-1995, was characterized by mass killings, rapes, widespread destruction, and displacement of the population. It marked the first genocide in Europe since the end of the Second World War.
Although the War Crimes Chamber is a relatively new institution, its operations so far indicate that it can deliver fair trials for defendants. The ICTY has already referred two of its cases to the War Crimes Chamber for trial, and additional ICTY referrals are expected.
“Now that the chamber is operational, it must focus its energies on conducting fair and effective trials,” said Singh. “The international community cannot afford to let the War Crimes Chamber fail. More support from donors is essential.”
Human Rights Watch expressed concern that the War Crimes Chamber’s performance could be undercut because of inadequate funding. There are concerns that there are not enough prosecutors or investigators to effectively handle the current caseload. This could put the effectiveness of trials before the War Crimes Chamber at risk.
Other concerns highlighted in the report include uncertainties in the payment arrangement for court-appointed defense counsel and the absence of a provision for defense investigators. Both factors could undermine the quality of defense representation in war crimes trials before the chamber, jeopardizing an indigent defendant’s right to a fair trial.
Background on the War Crimes Chamber
The War Crimes Chamber in Sarajevo is the latest in a series of judicial undertakings that are supported by the international community and aimed at bringing to justice those responsible for the worst crimes. Other examples include the Regulation 64 panels in Kosovo and the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor.
Although the Bosnian chamber presently includes international staff to provide assistance in handling war crimes cases, the international staff will be phased out within a relatively short time frame.
In addition to a limited number of cases referred to it by the ICTY, the mandate of the chamber includes trying cases initiated locally. The War Crimes Chamber, together with the Organized Crime and General Crime Chambers, operates within the Criminal Division of the State Court of
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Looking for Justice: The War Crimes Chamber in Bosnia and Herzegovina” is available in English at http://hrw.org/reports/2006/ij0206/
Diminished Sentences Due to Plea Bargains between the Prosecutors and Defendants
Oslobodjenje - translated and reprinted on OSCE web page
February 10, 2006
Head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Douglas Davidson, stated on Thursday that the “plea bargain agreements”, made between the prosecutors and those accused for the criminal deeds, is “a useful legal mechanism, which should not be misused, especially in war crimes cases”.
Analysing the use of this institute before the BiH courts, OSCE has established that 10.7% of the cases in FBiH and 15, 5% of the cases in RS have been finalised with the plea bargains. In BiH, in total, 13% of the criminal cases have ended in plea bargaining, which is, according to Davidson, enabled the courts to do their job faster. Nevertheless, the OSCE has also noted some negative sides of this legal institute.
“Defendants were often unaware of their right to defence council ex officio, which raises the issue of the equality of all the sides in court proceedings”, stated Davidson.
OSCE data show that in 29% of the cases, where the plea bargaining took place, defendants did not have an appointed defence council. Deputy Director of the Human Rights Department, James Rodehaver, stated that this is a source of concern for the OSCE, and report also states some cases, illustrating that the judges were not insisting all the time to insure that the defendants understands their right to a free defence council.
Head of the OSCE Mission has also added that the courts are often pronouncing divergent sentences, after the achieved plea bargain. Legal Adviser at the OSCE, Lucio Valerio Sarandrea, could not say precisely who should, in BiH, level the height of pronounced verdicts, one of the reasons for this being the independency of the judiciary. However, the OSCE recommendation is that the prosecutor’s offices should issue internal instructions and take into account, during the negotiations on sentences, the principles of already existing criminal laws. Report also states that 48% of the sentences, pronounced by the judges after the plea bargain was achieve, were lower then the legal minimum, prescribed under the law.
OSCE officials did not want to say precisely whether they take it as a good thing that the plea bargains are used in war crime cases as well. Davidson stated that such cases illicit extra care and Rodehaver stressed that the rights of the defendant should be taken into account, but also those of the victims, achievable only through the fair procedure. In the case the defendant pleads guilty, the court does not have to conduct the entire proceeding, i.e. question the witnesses, experts, and check the evidences… Although this means that the courts, already swamped with cases, can do their work faster, the truth about the crimes, without trials, might never be disclosed.
War crime suspect in release bid
AAP
by Belinda Tasker and Adam Gartrell
February 15, 2006
ACCUSED Balkans war criminal Dragan Vasiljkovic is expected to learn next week if the full bench of the High Court will rule on whether he has been detained illegally in Australia.
Mr Vasiljkovic was arrested by Australian Federal Police in Sydney on January 20 after the Federal Government acted on a provisional extradition request from Croatia, where he is wanted on war crimes charges.
Since his arrest, the 51-year-old Perth man, also known as Captain Dragan, has been held in Sydney's Silverwater jail.
Mr Vasiljkovic's lawyers today took his case to the High Court, arguing his detention was illegal under the Australian constitution.
They also claim that as an Australian citizen who has not been convicted of any offence in the former Yugoslavia, he should not be extradited.
Mr Vasiljkovic holds both Australian and Serbian-Montenegrin passports.
Barrister Bradley Slowgrove told Justice William Gummow there were no grounds to extradite Mr Vasiljkovic because Australia lacked a formal treaty with Croatia.
He also claimed the arrest warrant issued for Mr Vasiljkovic in Australia was faulty because it did not contain any details of the allegations against him.
Mr Slowgrove said the High Court had the power to do "proper justice to this man".
"He could spend years and years in prison," Mr Slowgrove said.
"I can find no authority where this has ever happened to any Australian before."
Justice Gummow said while he believed Mr Vasiljkovic's case should be heard by the full bench of seven High Court judges in April, he needed more information about the case.
He ordered Mr Vasiljkovic's lawyers to make an amended application outlining the specific details of their case and to appear at another directions hearing on February 23.
Justice Gummow said next Thursday's directions hearing would allow him to "ascertain which, if any, grounds should be referred to the full court".
"Now, it's important, gentlemen, that the outline (in the amended application) indicates specifically what you outlined this morning," he said.
"At the moment it's too confused."
Mr Vasiljkovic is accused of being responsible for the torture and killing of Croatian civilians and prisoners of war during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
He left Australia to command Serb paramilitaries during the Balkans conflict.
Mr Vasiljkovic has repeatedly denied committing war crimes, and testified for the prosecution during the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.
Serbian Minister Vows To Resign If Mladic Not Caught
RadioFreeEurope / RadioLiberty
February 17, 2006
The defense minister of Serbia and Montenegro said today he will resign if fugitive war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic is not captured soon.
General Zoran Stankovic, in an interview with the Associated Press, did not give any specific time frame.
Stankovic said until recently, no one in the government of Serbia and Montenegro had seriously worked on capturing Mladic. He said this has now changed and that a real effort is under way.
Stankovic called on Mladic to give himself up voluntarily. He said that by remaining on the run, Mladic was dragging the nation into poverty and international isolation.
Mladic, who commanded Bosnian Serb forces in the 1990s, has been indicted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague for his troops' massacre of 8,000 Muslim boys and men in Srebrenica -- Europe's worst carnage since World War Two.
(AP)
Threats over Captain Dragan case
AAP
February 18, 2006
DEATH threats from Australia against Vasiljkovic have been forwarded to the Croatian prosecutors office.the Croatian politician who signed the extradition request for accused war criminal Dragan
Former justice minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt received the death threats from Australia after she ordered the extradition last week of Dragan Vasiljkovic – a former Serb paramilitary leader and Australian citizen known as Captain Dragan.
The 51-year-old Perth man is wanted in Croatia on war crime charges relating to his alleged involvement in murders and tortures committed during the Balkans conflict in the 1990s.
Ms Ozbolt said she received hate mail from Vasiljkovic, including some which called her a whore, after a court in Sibenik issued an international arrest warrant for his capture.
Some of the email messages threaten her life should she ever visit Australia.
"I'm not afraid, but it was not pleasant to receive the emails," Ms Ozbolt said after forwarding the mail to authorities. "I suspect they were reactions to my signing the extradition demand."
The extradition order was one of her final acts in office.
Ms Ozbolt revealed last weekend that she would join the opposition as leader of the Democratic Centre party after her dismissal by Prime Minister Ivo Sanader two days earlier for not being "loyal to government policy".
Her replacement has not been connected with Vasiljkovic's case.
Vasiljkovic is alleged to have been involved in the torture and killing of Croatian civilians and prisoners of war in the rebel Serb stronghold of Knin in 1991 and the southern village of Bruska in 1993.
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International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
Official Website of the ICTR
ICTR Prosecutor Requests Transfer of Bagaragaza Case to Norway for Trial
ICTR Press Release
February 15, 2006
Rwanda: Appeals Court Confirms Ex-Minister’s Acquittal
Reuters
February 9, 2006
The Appeals Chamber of UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) confirmed on Wednesday a lower court's decision to acquit a former Rwandan transport minister and a former provincial governor of genocide, a decision the Rwandan government received with reservations.
"We do not expect such a decision from the court. The people in Cyangugu [Province] who suffered the killings may not be able to understand the decision of the court," Alloys Mutabingwa, the special representative of the Rwandan government to the ICTR, told IRIN.
He said other accomplices of acquitted former Cyangugu Governor Emmanuel Bagambiki had been convicted and imprisoned in Rwanda under the country's traditional "Gacaca" judicial system. "Should these convicted persons be acquitted as well?" he said. On 25 February 2004, the lower ICTR court ordered the acquittal of former Transport Minister Andre Ntagerura and Bagambiki. However, the court convicted Samuel Imanishimwe, a former paramilitary commander in the province, to 27 years imprisonment. All three had been jointly tried. Confirming the lower court's decision, the Appeals Chamber, presided over by Judge Fausto Pocar of Italy, said its panel of three judges had unanimously agreed to the acquittal of Ntagerura and Bagambiki. "We are upholding the lower court's decision and confirming Ntagerura and Bagambiki's acquittals," Pocar said. The UN court's prosecutor, Hassan Jallow, said: "We have done our best. The Appeals Chamber has the final word on the cases."
Ntagerura and Bagambiki received the court's decision with excitement. Bagambiki said he now wished to quickly join his family in Belgium. On his part, Ntagerura was uncertain about where he would begin his new life. "I am not sure where I will live. I would have wished to go back to my country, but the environment is not conducive for the time being," he said. On Monday, during the hearing of the appeal, the prosecution claimed the lower court's decision to acquit was "erroneous" as the two participated in the 1994 genocide", and asked the court to order a retrial. The senior attorney for the prosecution, James Steward, told the court that when acquitting the two, the chamber did not take into consideration seven witnesses who had testified in the trial, "who were accomplices of the two accused".
The indictments against Ntagerura, Bagambiki and Imanishimwe had charged them with genocide, crimes against humanity and serious violations of Geneva Conventions in connection with the massacres and other crimes committed in Rwanda's Cyangugu Province in 1994. The lower court acquitted Ntagerura, noting that the prosecutor had not proved beyond reasonable doubt any of the allegations in the indictment. It also ruled that there was no credible evidence that Ntagerura expressed public support for the killings or that he acted as supervisor in Cyangugu Prefecture in 1994. It found that the prosecutor failed to prove the allegations supporting the crime of genocide against Bagambiki. Ntagerura was arrested in Cameroon in 1996 while Bagambiki was arrested in Togo in June 1998.
Since its establishment in 1994, the ICTR has completed trials for 26 accused, involving 23 convictions and three acquittals. Trials for 28 others are in progress while 15 are awaiting the beginning of theirs.
Rwandan Anger at Suspect Transfer
BBC News
February 16, 2006
Rwanda has criticized a UN court set up to try genocide suspects for allowing a case to be transferred from its base in Tanzania to Norway. Michel Bagaragaza was head of the Rwandan tea industry and is accused of organizing his staff into a militia during the 1994 genocide. Chief prosecutor at the backlogged tribunal said three other European states had also agreed to hear cases. Rwanda has repeatedly asked for cases to be transferred to its jurisdiction. This option has not been acceptable to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), as Rwanda will not repeal the death penalty. Norway will become the first country outside Africa to try a Rwandan genocide suspect at the request of the ICTR. An estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered during the genocide.
No death penalty: Alloys Mutabingwa, Rwanda's representative to the ICTR, told AFP news agency that the former Yugoslavia had had cases assigned to its courts from its international criminal tribunal. “ Rwanda does not support double standards," he said. Prosecutor Hassan Jallow told the BBC the European states were picked for their standards of justice and because they did not impose the death penalty, which the tribunal does not allow. The defense has agreed to Mr. Bagaragaza's case being heard in Norway, where he will be imprisoned if found guilty. He faces a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison if convicted. Mr. Bagaragaza is accused of working with tea factory workers to kill Tutsis who had sought refuge in the north-western Gisenyi region. He was seen as being close to Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, whose death in a plane crash on 6 April, 1994, sparked the 100-day massacres.
Time constraints: Correspondents say the Arusha tribunal has set very high standards of justice, but tried very few cases. Since the court started in 1997, the ICTR has convicted 23 suspects and acquitted three. But correspondents note that pressure has grown on the tribunal to find other countries to hear its cases, as the genocide involved huge numbers of people. The court is due to be disbanded in 2008.
In Rwanda, Suicides Haunt Search for Justice and Closure
Washington Post
by Craig Timberg
February 17, 2006
In the years after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Innocent Mulinda, 39, started a family, tended to his red-earth farm and won a local election for a government job. Rumors that he had participated in a murderous militia in this hillside town seemed behind him. But that changed with sudden vengeance last April, witnesses said, when a confessed militia member told a traditional, open-air court that Mulinda was not merely a fellow militiaman but a leader who carried an AK-47, manned roadblocks and exhorted others to kill.
Hours after the testimony, when darkness had fallen across his neighborhood of mud-walled homes, Mulinda drank a bottle of pesticide. He would leave behind a wife, two young sons and oddly conflicted feelings among Rwandans longing for tidy justice with a full confession and a punishment befitting his crimes. Mulinda's agonizing death, which his wife said took more than two days, was among a rash of suicides and attempted suicides that Rwandan officials have recorded in the past year among genocide suspects as traditional courts have begun to hear cases. Between March and the end of December, 69 suspects killed themselves and 44 others tried to. Many others attempted or committed suicide, officials say, in the months before record-keeping began. It is not clear what motivated the suicides -- belated guilt, shame, fear of prison or fear of exposing friends who also participated in the 100-day ethnic slaughter, in which most of the 800,000 victims were hacked to death with machetes or beaten to death with clubs. And though survivors express little sympathy for participants who killed themselves more than a decade later, some say their hopes for closure -- a full public accounting of crimes and accomplices, as well as details about the victims' final hours -- have been dashed by the suicides. "No person has the right to punish themselves," said Benoit Kaboyi, executive secretary of Rwanda 's largest association of genocide survivors. "They have to suffer for what they have done."
Rwanda 's 8 million people are jammed into a country smaller than Maryland, making it one of the world's most densely settled agrarian societies. In many places, nearly every patch of reddish earth is cultivated in a patchwork of fields that stretch up, and often over, Rwanda 's countless hills. Many of the killings happened as ethnic Hutu militias rampaged through steep hillside villages in search of Tutsis, a minority ethnic group, or those who sought to defend them. In Shyorongi, a roadside market town about 12 miles north of the capital, Kigali, militias killed an estimated 6,000 people -- more people than there are residents today.
Those accused of organizing and inciting the genocide are being tried at an international tribunal in neighboring Tanzania. Rwanda 's overburdened criminal justice system is handling allegations of murder and rape.
Mulinda's case was handled by one of the more than 12,000 traditional courts, called gacaca for "under the tree," where ordinary citizens are trying, convicting and setting punishments for those accused of such lesser crimes as looting and being indirectly involved in deaths. These courts cannot hand down the death penalty but can sentence perpetrators to lengthy prison sentences or community service, and order that restitution be paid to victims. They also can refer cases of rape and murder to the criminal justice system if clear evidence emerges. The gacaca courts are expected to hear at least 100,000 cases. But officials say that number could reach 500,000 as the first round of defendants -- many of them former prisoners freed in exchange for pleading guilty -- implicate others in their testimony. Gacaca officials, who began tracking the suicides in March after an initial round of cases in January and February last year, have documented the horrors: An elderly man drowned himself in Lake Kivu, on Rwanda 's western border, on the day he was accused of killing several of his grandchildren. A 28-year-old man, the last surviving member of his family, killed himself after being accused of raping his Tutsi mother, according to gacaca officials.
"Sometimes we discover a situation we cannot understand ourselves," said the court's executive secretary, Domitilla Mukantaganzwa. "We are praying for our nation."
In Gashora, about 30 miles east of Kigali, Sylvester Ngiriyambonye, 56, returned home in 2003 after spending years in Rwanda's notoriously grim, crowded prisons for his role in the death of a Tutsi woman and her teenage daughter. Two years later, a government official visited Gashora to begin organizing the gacaca court where, under the rules of Ngiriyambonye's guilty plea, he would have been forced to testify against other militia members. Instead, his widow said, he hanged himself from a tree.
In nearby Lirima, Charles Rubuga, 67, was accused last April of killing a man at a roadblock. He denied the charges over three days of gacaca hearings, family members said. "He came back a changed man," said his widow, Angelina Ntibanoga, 65, who had been married to Rubuga for 45 years. "All these years we've lived together, I have never assaulted anybody," she recalled him saying despondently. "I have never killed anybody. And now they have accused me of killing."
The next morning, she said, Rubuga walked several miles to the crocodile-infested Nyabarongo River, removed his clothes, laid down his machete and hurled himself in.
Whatever their alleged crimes during the genocide, those who have committed suicide have ripped an unexpected hole in the lives of the friends and family members left behind.
In Shyorongi, Jeanviere Nzamwitakuze, 31, married Mulinda the year after the genocide. She had heard rumors of his involvement but said she believed his account of being only a low-ranking militia member who never killed anybody. Now she must tend to the family's crop of beans, corn and peas by herself, as well as raise their sons. His decision to leave them behind has caused her great sadness and turmoil, she said, though she maintained it was the pain of a boil on his leg that caused him to kill himself, not anguish over the accusations. "There are so many people accused of the same thing, and they are still living," she said, averting her teary eyes.
The man who accused Mulinda of participating in the genocide, Canisous Munyeraraba, 36, a fellow militia member, implicated more than a dozen others. For confessing to illegal possession of a gun and looting, Munyeraraba was released from jail, at least temporarily, and will eventually receive a reduced sentence. Munyeraraba said the torment of confronting their own horrendous crimes is more than some men can bear. He said Mulinda had been a gentle, honorable man, both before and after his alleged crimes.
"Many people changed during the genocide," Munyeraraba said. Mulinda "was not a violent person. He just found himself in the atrocities, like many others." Others were less ready to excuse what Mulinda had apparently done. Beatrice Mukamusoni, 41, a tall, lean Tutsi, did not see Mulinda commit any crimes because she fled Shyorongi in the early days of the killing, she said. But Mukamusoni, whose husband, parents, sister and eldest child were killed in the genocide, said she had long heard rumors that he was a leader within his neighborhood militia. "All these people who had a role, they should resolve their cases by committing suicide," she said, without a trace of remorse.
But her emotions about Mulinda's death were more complex. She had respected his work as a government official in recent years, and she said they enjoyed an amicable relationship. Such things are not uncommon in post-genocide Rwanda , where killers and survivors have returned home to the same villages, often living side by side. On hearing the news of Mulinda's suicide, she said, she felt only sadness. "If he's not innocent, that means many other people around us are not innocent," she said. "So shall we live in this country alone?"
[back to contents]
Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL)
Offical Website of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
The Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme
SCSL Court Summary
Week ending in 17 February 2006
Decision on application by Court Appointed Counsel for the First Accused for leave to lead evidence on alternate days and for the right to communicate.
February 16, 2006
Prosecutor Welcomes Sierra Leone Parliamentary Resolution Supporting Taylor’s Trial at the Special Court
Office of the Prosecutor Press Release
February 9, 2006
Special Court Prosecutor Desmond de Silva QC has welcomed a resolution adopted unanimously by Sierra Leone’s Parliament on Wednesday urging the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
In proposing the Private Members Motion, Hon. Dr. Princess Baba Jigida (Freetown West-East), called for “the temporary asylum of Charles Taylor” to come to an end.
“In my frequent outreach meetings with ordinary people around the country, the question I am asked most frequently is when Charles Taylor will face justice before the Special Court,” Mr. de Silva said. “This resolution clearly reflects the will of the people of Sierra Leone.”
“With its unanimous adoption yesterday, it is clear that it reflects the will of their elected representatives as well.”
Hon. Dauda Kamara (Kambia District) also spoke to the motion, and called for support for the Court to complete “its vital work”.
“We all know that external factors and actors exacerbated the internal conflict in Sierra Leone,” Hon. Kamara said. “Therefore it is vital for us that Charles Taylor is brought to the Court for it to be documented the role that was played by others, as well as by himself.”
Said Mr. de Silva: “As Hon. Dr. Princess Baba Jigida stated yesterday in Parliament, the whole world is now speaking with one voice. The Sierra Leone Parliament has now added its own voice.”
“ Nigeria cannot ignore the growing consensus, both here and internationally, that Mr Taylor’s temporary asylum must be brought to an end,” Mr. de Silva said. “He must answer before the Special Court for what he has done to the people of this country and this region.”
Peter Penfold Starts Special Court Testimony
Concord Times (Freetown)
by Tanu Jalloh
February 9, 2006
Former British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, Peter Alfred Penfold Wednesday started Testifying at the Special Court.
Penfold is one of the witnesses called upon by Chief Sam Hinga Norman to testify.
Chief Norman is the first accused in the Civil Defense trial at the Special Court.
He is indicted on charges of war crimes along with some others.
Penfold, in his testimony, revealed he warned President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah ahead of the May 1997 coup.
Penfold said he realized there was widespread corruption and inefficiency in the Sierra Leone Army (SLA).
He said it was proved the army's top cadre was very corrupt.
The army claimed they had 15,000 men whom they claimed salaries and rations for.
This, he said, consumed about 60% of the government's budget.
Penfold said it was later proven that the actual strength of the SLA was 8,000.
The High Commissioner said in April 1997, he summoned the then Chief of Defence Staff, Brig. Hassan Conteh.
He said Brig. Conteh confirmed the army was 8,000 strong.
Penfold said he later reported the matter to the then Deputy Minister of Defense, Sam Hinga Norman.
Norman, Penfold revealed, expressed annoyance and surprise. He told the court Hinga Norman is a hero and should not be indicted.
This development caused rations and salaries to be reduced on the orders of President Kabbah.
This did not go down well with the army chief, Brig. Conteh.
Penfold said Brig Conteh then proposed to reduce rations and salaries of private soldiers while the senior officers were not affected.
This development, the High Commissioner said, constituted the unrest in the army at the time.
Penfold revealed with those looming signs, he had, together with his diplomatic colleagues, advised Kabbah of the unrest.
He said he warned of a possible coup.
It was only a week later, Sunday 25th May 1997, that the coup of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), took place.
The AFRC coup was led by then Major Johnny Paul Koroma who is also an indictee of the Special Court.
But Major Koroma is currently at large.
The May 25th 1997 coup saw President Kabbah flee to Guinea with his entire cabinet.
Peter Penfold's testimony is believed to have more revelations.
He is a key player in the Sierra Leone crisis.
The British High Commissioner is the second to testify as a defence witness in the Civil Defence Forces trial.
He served as High Commissioner to Sierra Leone from 10 March 1997 to March 2000.
First accused, Hinga Norman has already finished his testimony.
Meanwhile, the issue of President Kabbah been subpoenaed as a witness for the defence is been argued at the court.
The defence team is arguing that the President has no immunity before the court. However, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Fredrick Carew is arguing on the contrary.
The judges at the court are yet to make a ruling on the matter.
U.K. Judges Gain First-Hand Insight On International Humanitarian Law At Special Court
Concord Times (Freetown)
February 10, 2006
The Interim Registrar and the Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court briefed a delegation of fifty-one visiting British immigration judges Monday on the progress of the Special Court and the challenges ahead.
