War Crimes Prosecution Watch

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea (ECCC)

The Official Website of the Khmer Rouge Trial Task Force

Rights Cambodia: Tainted Jurists on War Crimes Tribunal
Inter Press Service News Agency
by Marwaan Macan-Markar
May 13, 2006

Chandra Nihal Jayasinghe chooses his words carefully to match the difficult task before him. He has just been named as one of the international jurists to preside over the special tribunal in Cambodia to try the surviving members of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime.

''This is actually a new dimension in the judicial endeavours that I have been engaged in,'' Jayasinghe, 62, a Sri Lankan supreme court justice, said to IPS in a telephone interview from his home in a Colombo suburb.

The confirmation of his name by Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni, this week, along with the list of other international and Cambodian judges, marked another milestone in the long and tortuous journey to establish this war crimes tribunal.

Jayasinghe, in fact, is the only jurist from a developing country nominated by the United Nations in its list of 13 international judges and prosecutors to play a role in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), as this special tribunal is officially called. The others are from New Zealand, France, Austria, Japan, Poland, Australia, the Netherlands and the United States.

But the announcement of the judges' names has only added to the many controversies that already dog the ECCC, starting with the generally hostile attitude displayed towards it by the Cambodian government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Both local and international human rights groups have fired broadsides at Phnom Penh's choice of Cambodian judges, named this week, to participate in this unprecedented legal exercise. Particularly troubling to Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights watchdog, is Ney Thol's name among the 17 Cambodian jurists.

Ney Thol, who is an army general and president of Cambodia's military court, ''has a bad record on human rights,'' Sunai Phasuk, HRW's researcher in Thailand, told IPS. ''In one recent case, he denied the right of the defence to call his own witnesses and to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses.''

Hun Sen's reaction to such criticism has been predictable. On Thursday, in a speech delivered to a gathering of law students, he attacked those who questioned Cambodia's choice of the local judges for the ECCC. The prime minister ‘'likened his critics to perverted sex-crazed animals, among other things'', states the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, a regional rights lobby.

‘'This tribunal is very important for the Cambodian people who suffered so much during the Khmer Rouge period,'' Ny Chakrya, a ranking member of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, a Phnom Penh- based non-governmental group, told IPS. ‘'They want to see a fair and transparent tribunal.''

And Ny Chakrya is hoping that such will be the case when the next and the most important step of this tribunal, the work of the investigating judges begins.

The current developments come after a 10-year-long bitter debate between the U.N. and Hun Sen's regime about the setting up of this tribunal, which is a unique body unlike the special tribunals established to try the accused for the crimes against humanity committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

The Cambodian tribunal will have a mix of international and local judges, with the latter in the majority, unlike the tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, which had only international jurists to ensure high standards of justice.

This war crimes court, being set up in a complex that has over 100 offices on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, will have three chambers: the pre-trial chamber, the trial chamber and the supreme court chamber. In addition, there will be a team of investigating judges and prosecutors.

‘'We are expecting the judges to come to Cambodia for a meeting in late June,'' Helen Jarvis, chief of public affairs at the ECCC, said during a telephone interview from Phnom Penh. ‘'Then the co-prosecutors will begin their preliminary examinations to issue preliminary indictments.''

Thereafter, the investigating judges begin work to examine the evidence for the cases ahead, she added. ‘'We are hoping that the trials will begin in early 2007.''

And while the trial will help Cambodian victims of Khmer Rouge brutality to finally get justice, its is also expected to revive political history embarrassing to the U.N., the U.S. China and the regional grouping Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines were leading members at that time. Some of them helped the rise to power of Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, while others propped him up after his regime was driven out of power by the Vietnamese army.

During the reign of terror by the Maoist Khmer Rouge from 1975-79, close to 1.7 million people were executed or died of forced labour and famines in Cambodia. This South-east Asian country, one of the region's poorest, currently has a population of 11.5 million people.

Pol Pot died in 1998 but other leaders involved in acts of genocide have survived. They include Ta Mok, the one-legged military chief who is known as ‘'The Butcher', and Kaing Khek Lev, or ‘Duch', who headed the grisly Toul Sleng interrogation centre in Phnom Penh, where 14,000 people accused of being ‘'enemies of the state'' died and only 12 inmates survived. Both men are in jail after being accused by a military court, of war crimes and genocide.

Others like Nuon Chea, Pol Pot's deputy, known as ''Brother Number Two'', Khieu Samphan, former head of state during the Khmer Rouge years, and Leng Sary, the former foreign minister, are enjoying a free life following an amnesty from Hun Sen.

The Prime Minister, himself, carries the taint of that brutal regime. He was a member of the Khmer Rouge till he defected to join forces with Vietnamese troops that drove Pol Pot out of power in 1979.

No One is Free from Prosecution
The Guardian
by John Aglionby
May 16, 2006

After years of procrastination, argument and tough negotiations between Phnom Penh and the United Nations, officials are now confident the start of the tribunal to try members of the country's brutal former Khmer Rouge regime is just weeks away.

King Norodom Sihamoni announced the names last week of the judges and prosecutors - 17 locals and 13 foreigners - who will jointly preside over the extraordinary chambers in the courts of Cambodia, as the tribunal is formally called. Prosecutors are expected to start work towards the end of June and the first trials are predicted to begin early next year.

The prosecutors, one of whom is Cambodian and one foreign, will have complete freedom to determine how many of the fanatical communist movement that ruled Cambodia form 1975 to 1979 will be investigated. During the Khmer Rouge's four years in power an estimated 1.7 million people out of a national population of some 7.1 million were either killed or died of starvation.

"The planning figure is five to 10 [defendants] but we can't anticipate the prosecutors' strategy on this," tribunal spokesperson Helen Jarvis told Guardian Unlimited. "It will be completely in their hands."

Pol Pot, the regime's leader who was known as Brother Number One, died in 1998. Only two former leaders, Ta Mok and Kang Keng Ieu, dubbed Duch, are in detention on genocide charges. Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, the former head of state Khieu Samphan and the former foreign minister and Brother Number Three Ieng Sary are the most prominent Khmer Rouge members living freely in Cambodia but all pardons and promises of immunity now count for nothing.

"No one is free from prosecution," Ms Jarvis said. "That is what the word extraordinary in the title means."

Cambodia's current prime minister, Hun Sen, was a junior Khmer Rouge cadre but it is thought to be highly unlikely he will be prosecuted.

The tribunal will be based on the justice system of France, Cambodia's former colonial power. The prosecutors will prepare a "request for information" for the two investigating judges - one of whom is Cambodian and one foreign.

Their role, according to Ms Jarvis, is "more akin to a grand jury [in the United States] or a pre-trial evaluation". "It's their job to see if there's enough evidence to go to a full trial," she said.

Two of the major stumbling blocks have been jurisdiction and funding. Fearing Cambodia's notoriously corrupt justice system and its poorly trained workers would not deliver trials of international standards, the UN refused to allow the host nation to control proceedings. The final compromise involves panels where the majority of judges are Cambodian but no verdict can be reached without the agreement of at least one international judge.

Much of the delay in recent years has been over funding the £30.5m tribunal. It was eventually agreed that the UN would cover £23.25m and Cambodia the rest, but within weeks Hun Sen reneged on the deal and asked donors, who already provide almost half the Cambodian government's budget, to stump up £5.2m of his nation's £7.2m share of the costs.

Ms Jarvis said the tribunal is still up to £2.7m short. "But we've got sufficient [funds] for the first two years and [the shortfall] is not regarded as an impediment to proceeding."

The huge unknown is whether the tribunal will both deliver justice and provide closure for a nation where virtually no one survived unscathed by the brutality and barbarity of the ruling class.

"For years we thought nothing was going to happen, that the talk of the tribunal was just that, talk," said taxi driver Khieu Moha. "Now it seems that trials really are going to happen. Everyone wants justice even though the killing happened more than 25 years ago. Let's hope this court can give us something."

Trying time for Cambodia's judiciary
Asia Times Online
by Verghese Mathews
May 19, 2006

The tribunal - officially known as the "Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed During the Period of Democratic Kampuchea" - is popularly known by its shorter name, the Extraordinary Chambers or, even shorter, the ECCC.

The ECCC will have the power to try suspects charged with committing crimes under Cambodian and international laws, including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, in addition to murder, torture and religious persecution.

The ECCC will have two chambers, the first being the trial court made up of three Cambodian and two international judges. For a decision to be reached, the principle of a "super-majority" will apply, that is, four of the five judges must support the verdict. This means that every decision must have both Cambodian and international support.

The other chamber, the Supreme Court, which will function as an appeals chamber, will be composed of four Cambodian and three international judges, and will require five judges to uphold an appeal decision. If a super-majority decision cannot be achieved at either of the courts, the accused will be released as not guilty.

If an accused is found guilty, the maximum sentence will be life imprisonment, as Cambodia has abolished the death penalty. Likewise, in a country where government pardons and royal amnesties are very common, the government has agreed that neither will be granted to persons who are found guilty.

Moreover, the court will only try crimes committed between April 17, 1975, and January 6, 1979 - representing the three years, eight months and 20 days the Khmer Rouge were in power. Only those "most responsible for serious crimes" will be tried - a number provisionally envisaged to be fewer than 10. The actual trial is expected to begin early next year, though prosecuting judges are expected to start work from the middle of this year.

The Cambodian people have waited for nearly a generation for these trials. While there will be different expectations of the proceedings, there must surely be some unspoken pride that the trial is conducted in Cambodia, where the crimes took place, under Cambodian and international law, and with Cambodian judges side-by-side with esteemed international judges, including the likes of Dame Silvia Cartwright.

Cambodia judges' credibility questioned
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
by Ker Munthit
May 22, 2006

As preparations to try former Khmer Rouge leaders move forward, legal experts are concerned the dubious records of some Cambodian judges will cast doubt on the credibility of the country's war crimes tribunal.

Cambodia and the United Nations agreed in 2003, after years of negotiations, to establish the U.N.-backed tribunal to seek justice for the estimated 1.7 million people who died during the murderous 1975-79 rule of the communist Khmer Rouge.

This past week, King Norodom Sihamoni approved the appointment of 30 Cambodian and U.N.-chosen foreign judicial officials, and there are now hopes that trials can begin early next year for surviving Khmer Rouge leaders accused of genocide and crimes against humanity.

But some critics are worried because Cambodia's judiciary has had a reputation for incompetence, corruption and serving the government's political agenda.

The foreign jurists come from Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Japan, Poland, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands and the United States. Many have multiple law degrees and years of experience in international criminal justice, with two having served with the U.N. tribunal on war crimes and genocide in Kosovo.

The resumes of the Cambodian judges are threadbare by comparison, and their reputations shaky.

Their appointment "tarnishes right from the start the image of that tribunal, and because of that, it would lack public confidence and trust," said Lao Monghay, a Cambodian legal analyst working with the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission.

Little information is available about the Cambodian judges other than the fact that most received law degrees in the former Soviet communist bloc - places such as East Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan and Vietnam - where carrying out the state's wishes counted more than impartiality.

One tribunal judge, army general Ney Thol, is president of the military court and member of the central committee of Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party. He is best known for presiding at two major trials where Hun Sen's political opponents were convicted of national security-related crimes.

In 1998, Ney Thol sentenced Prince Norodom Ranariddh, leader of the royalist Funcinpec party, to 30 years in prison for weapons smuggling and conspiring with outlawed Khmer Rouge guerrillas. The trial was prompted mainly by Hun Sen's desire to neuter his main political rival, whom he had already ousted from his position as co-prime minister in a 1997 coup.

Last August, Ney Thol sentenced opposition lawmaker Cheam Channy to seven years in prison for trying to form an armed group to topple the government in another trial widely regarded as politically motivated. He was criticized for his conduct in the trial, during which he barred the defense from calling witnesses and from fully cross-examining prosecution witnesses.

Both opposition leaders were later freed by royal pardons.

Ney Thol said having been a judge since 1987 qualifies him for the Khmer Rouge tribunal. "I have gone through many short courses (of legal training) inside and outside the country," he said. "I am honored to be one of the appointees."

Another tribunal judge, Thou Mony, once overturned a lower court's guilty ruling against Hun Sen's nephew, who had been involved in a shooting spree in 2003 in which two people were killed and two others wounded.

"I am very proud to have been appointed," said the Cambodian appeals court judge, who was educated at the University of Leipzig in the former East Germany. "I had never dreamed of that."

David Scheffer, a former U.S. ambassador at large on war crimes issues, said the Cambodian judges will be watched carefully by the international community.

"If the performance of the judges begins to be called into question in a way that goes to the issue of their integrity, their independence ... then you can imagine at some point the United Nations would take a serious look at that in terms of their continued participation in the process," said Scheffer, now a visiting law professor at Northwestern University.

The government projects a shaky confidence in its judges.

Cambodian jurists "will try their best to meet international standards" in working with "their international counterparts of high caliber," Sean Visoth, the government-appointed tribunal's chief administrator, said recently.

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Central African Republic (ICC)

Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Situation in the Central African Republic

50,000 Suffer in 'Forgotten Crisis' - UN Food Agency
AllAfrica.com - UN News Service
May 26, 2006

With international attention focused on other African problems, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today called on the international community not to lose sight of the suffering of as many as 50,000 displaced people by fighting between the Government and rebels in the Central African Republic (CAR), and to provide additional funding.

"In CAR we always struggle to have our voice heard amid all the other competing humanitarian needs, but these people are living in desperate conditions and for this reason we are trying to shout louder than ever on their behalf - they need our assistance now," WFP country Director Jean-Charles Dei said.

In one of the world's least recognised conflicts, many thousands of people have been forced from their homes in recent months by the fighting in northwest CAR and are now scattered in the bush, in many cases surviving on wild leaves and roots in the absence of properly nutritious food.

WFP is revising its operation to include the needs of the recently displaced, for which it will require a further $2.7 million for the next three months.

Although the northwest has been a no-go zone for UN agencies for several months, WFP has been working with the non-government organizations (NGOs) and the CAR Red Cross to mount an emergency response in the Markounda and Paoua areas.

So far over 10,000 people have received food aid, but the needs are far greater. WFP is particularly concerned about the nutritional status of young children and women, given the extremely poor diets they are currently surviving on. With the rainy season imminent, the most vulnerable will have great difficulty fighting off the increased disease and infection which follows as a matter of course.

Even those that have been able to stay in their villages are facing extreme difficulties ekeing out food supplies until the next harvest in September/October, as the annual 'hunger season' begins to bite.

Some 7,000 refugees from CAR have already crossed into southern Chad since the security situation deteriorated at the beginning of the year. There they have joined an earlier group who fled violence in 2003, bringing the total in three camps in southern Chad to 47,000.

"The trouble in northwest CAR has a direct bearing on peace and security north of the border in Chad. It is imperative that the violence and uncertainty comes to a complete end and that humanitarian organizations are allowed full access to tend to the needs of those who are currently in great difficulty," Mr. Dei said.

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Democratic Republic of the Congo (ICC)

Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

D.R. Congo: Mai Mai Warlord Must Face Justice
Human Rights Watch
May 17, 2006

The Democratic Republic of Congo's transitional government must bring to justice the recently surrendered Mai Mai warlord known as Gédéon, who is accused of war crimes in the southeastern province of Katanga, Human Rights Watch said today.

Kyungu Mutanga, alias Gédéon, on Friday turned himself over to troops of the UN peacekeeping force, MONUC, but he has not yet been charged. Human Rights Watch called on the UN peacekeeping force to help ensure that Gédéon is brought to trial on charges of war crimes for killing and torturing scores of civilians.

"Gédéon's surrender is good news for the victims of Mai Mai atrocities in Katanga," said Alison Des Forges, senior Africa adviser at Human Rights Watch. "He must now be tried for the widespread war crimes he is alleged to have committed. That would be good news for justice throughout Congo."

In April, witnesses in Katanga told Human Rights Watch researchers how combatants under the command of Gédéon and other Mai Mai leaders had killed, raped and otherwise abused civilians since 2002. In some cases the Mai Mai publicly tortured victims before killing them in public ceremonies meant to terrorize the local population.

On May 12, Gédéon surrendered to UN peacekeeping troops in Mitwaba, central Katanga, accompanied by a group of over 150 combatants, most of whom were child soldiers. Reportedly, he refused to surrender directly to Congolese military authorities for fear they would kill or torture him. Human Rights Watch called on the UN peacekeeping mission to provide safe detention facilities for Gédéon while his case is tried by the courts.

"The UN should not hand Gédéon over to Congolese military authorities if there are legitimate fears he will be tortured or mistreated," said Des Forges. "Justice is not served by new abuses against the abuser. Congolese authorities must ensure that Gédéon and other Mai Mai combatants are given a fair trial."

The Mai Mai in Katanga is a local defense force that was supported by the Congolese government when it was engaged in an armed conflict with Rwanda., Uganda and other belligerents. After the war, the national government sought to integrate the Mai Mai into the national army but failed. Increasingly hostile to the government, Mai Mai leaders took control of huge swathes of central Katanga and started to fight their former allies, the Congolese army.

Initially popular as leaders of local resistance to outsiders, Gédéon and other Mai Mai are now seen by Katangan civilians as oppressors targeting those who challenge their control including traditional chiefs, government officials, women said to have supernatural powers and, more recently, those who have registered to vote in Congo's upcoming national elections.

In late November, for example, a group of Mai Mai identified with Gédéon entered the central Katanga village of Masombwe and rounded up those who had election cards, accusing them of being traitors. After publicly destroying their cards, the Mai Mai combatants selected a group of about 10 men, took them a short distance from the village, and executed them.

Last year, in the face of growing hostility from the population and fearful of army troops, Gédéon ordered thousands of people in central Katanga to leave their villages and move into the forest. Mai Mai combatants then burned their homes and forced hundreds of youths and adult men to join the movement. As well as using threats and force, the Mai Mai exploit local fears of sorcery by claiming to have special powers thereby enforcing compliance with their orders.

In November, the Congolese army launched operations against the Mai Mai, contributing to the further flight of civilians. The United Nations estimates that some 165,000 people have been displaced in central Katanga, many of them lacking access to food and medical assistance.

Congolese authorities have appointed former warlords from other parts of Congo, such as Ituri and the Kivus, as generals in the national army. In doing so, the Congolese government has disregarded credible information that these warlords have been implicated in war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 2004 Gédéon and other Mai Mai leaders demanded senior military posts in exchange for their surrender. Some Mai Mai leaders of lesser importance from Katanga who surrendered since then have been named colonels and majors in the national army.

"The practice of naming warlords to high military ranks rewards those responsible for war crimes," said Des Forges. "The arrest and fair trial of Gédéon will show instead that war crimes will be punished. This will be a valuable lesson for Congo and the region."

DRC: Ugandan rebels dislodged, but civilians not returning home
IRIN News
May 26, 2006

An operation launched in December 2005 by Democratic Republic of Congo troops against Ugandan rebels in the northeast of DRC's North Kivu Province displaced tens of thousands of people who now say that if they were to return home they would face greater persecution by their own army than by the rebels

"We lived side-by-side with the Ugandans with no problems," said Commissaire Kaniki, president of 1,431 families who were displaced from former Ugandan rebel-controlled villages in the northeast of North Kivu. They are now at May-Moya, a village 15km to 20km southwest of the villages they fled.

"Those of us who have tried to return to our villages have been forced to work for the [government] soldiers and give them food," Kaniki said. "Sometimes, they have gotten violent. If it were not for the abuses by the soldiers, we would have returned home by now."

Congolese army Gen Eugene Mbuy Musamu, who is in charge of the operation against the Ugandan rebels, denied any wrongdoing by his troops. "I have not heard any such reports," said on Thursday.

However, a recent human rights report by the United Nations peacekeeping operation in the DRC, known as MONUC, mentioned the abuse specifically.

"We are also getting reports that the soldiers there are going out of the conflict area at night along the main road north of Beni to attack the displaced population," a UN official, who requested anonymity, said.

The army operation was launched against two Ugandan rebel groups that have formed an alliance. They are the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU). The UN provided logistical support to the Congolese army, a MONUC official said. "But only for the first three days. The operation was over quickly and ADF/NALU fled," the official added.

So, too, did some 45,000 civilians, said Ibrahima Diarra, head of the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the nearby town of Benu. "Most of them are now living in makeshift shelters along the road north of Beni, where there are also 30,000 displaced people who fled fighting in nearby Ituri District," he said.

For more than 10 years, around 1,000 ADF/NALU rebels had been living in camps in the bush lands that run along the North Kivu side of the border with Uganda.

"They use to move freely in Beni and Butembo [50km farther south]. You used to see them shopping with brand new US $100 bills," a UN official in Beni said.

He said the rebels have been mining gold and coltan near the town of Erengeti, a few kilometres north of May-Moya, and selling it in Uganda. However, another UN official said he believed the rebels lived by logging and selling timber.

Around 70 percent of the members of the Ugandan rebel groups are Congolese nationals.

"The Ugandan government offered amnesty to ADF/NALU rebels, and on 18 November set up an office in Beni where they could turn themselves in," one of the UN officials said. "Only about 50 rebels disarmed, and most of those ended up being Congolese."

The army attack began one month later on 24 December 2005. Kaniki described what happened in his village, called Mamgodu: "The government soldiers appeared without warning and told us we had to leave immediately. There was no transport. We just all started walking, leaving most of our belongings behind," he said.

Among the displaced people now at May-Mayo are 15 indigenous forest families. "They used to live in the forest nearby our village," Kaniki said. "Normally we live separately from the pygmies - they have their own social structure. But now I am responsible for them, too."

Humanitarian officials in the area said the operation to oust the ADF/NALU might not have helped bring peace to the country. "Of course, all the territory of the DRC should be under the control the government," a UN official said, "but the result has not been positive from a humanitarian point of view. The ADF/NALU rebels have now just moved deeper into the bush around the Rwenzori Mountains [on the Ugandan border], and now we are hearing that they have also started attacking the civilian population."

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Darfur, Sudan (ICC)

Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Situation in Darfur, Sudan

UN: AU Darfur troops must be relieved
Al-Jazeera
May 23, 2006

The African Union has said the Sudanese government must let the body’s ill-equipped peacekeeping troops in Darfur be replaced by a UN force.

The chief of the AU commission, Alpha Konare, said that if such a move is not made in order to apply a peace agreement reached between the government and rebels in May then the security situation "could be very bad".

Konare, speaking after a meeting with the British prime minister, Tony Blair, said the switch in forces needed to be made before the rainy season starts in two months.

"The credibility of the agreement lies in making sure the undertakings are applied. We must lose no more time. If there is any doubt, everything comes into question."

Konare’s call came as senior UN diplomats began talks in Khartoum to try to persuade Sudan to agree to UN peacekeepers.

Change of heart

The government initially resisted such a proposal on the grounds the presence of UN troops would prompt attacks by Islamist militants but has relented since signing a peace deal with rebels on May 5.

It now says it wants to be consulted about the proposed UN force’s mandate in Darfur. The peace deal has not halted the violence in the region however, with dozens killed in clashes between rebels and government-armed Arab militias.

Meanwhile, two senior UN diplomats are in Khartoum to discuss the deployment of UN troops with senior members of the government.

Veteran negotiator Lakhdar Brahimi and the head of UN peacekeeping, Hedi Annabi, have met the deputy foreign minister Al-Samani al-Wasiyla and the AU mission head Baba Gana Kingibe and were expected to meet Omar Hassa al-Bashir on Thursday.

Union hostility

"We are hoping that we can work out an agreement with the government because ... this should not be done without the agreement of the government," said the UN deputy spokesman, Bahaa Elkoussy.

The 7,000-strong AU force has been trying to maintain a widely ignored truce in Darfur, but since the deal signed on May 5 Arab Janjaweed militias have grown bolder and attacked towns where the AU has bases. More than 250,000 people have fled their homes since the beginning of the year because of the conflict. Frustrated Darfuris have begun to attack the AU force, killing an interpreter earlier this month.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned the Sudanese government that its restrictions on supplies and relief workers in Darfur is a violation of international humanitarian law.

He said in a report delivered to the UN Security Council on Monday that atrocities, including rape and pillaging, had swelling the population in camps, about 2.5 million.

PM Gives Millions to Aid Darfur
Embassy
by Brian Adeba
May 24, 2006

Statement falls short of committing troops

Prime Minister Stephen Harper yesterday announced at a press conference on Parliament Hill that Canada will give $40 million in aid to Darfur. The move comes after the signing of a peace deal between Darfur rebels and the government of Sudan earlier this month in Nigeria.

Flanked by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and International Cooperation Minister Josée Verner, Mr. Harper's press conference was marred by a massive walkout of about 30 reporters who were protesting moves by the prime minister's staffers to restrict them from asking questions. Mr. Harper also refused to take questions from the two reporters who didn't walk out.

Mr. Harper says the money will be used for the provision of humanitarian aid and for supporting peace efforts in the troubled region.

"Combined these efforts will help to normalize and stabilize the region, the first step necessary if the peace process is to succeed," Mr. Harper said in a statement released by his office after the press conference.

The money will be disbursed through United Nations humanitarian agencies, Canadian NGOs and the Red Cross. Half will be used to address urgent humanitarian needs like food, water, sanitation and health care. The other $20 million will be used in bolstering the African Union's efforts in implementing the peace agreement and in facilitating a transition to a UN mission.

Mr. Harper also reiterated Canada's support for the recent peace pact between the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM)--the main rebel group in Darfur--and the government of Sudan. Mr. Harper also stressed that Canada will work with the UN, the African Union and the government of Sudan to foster peace in Darfur.

An estimated 200,000 people have died as a result of the war and another 3 million have been displaced since fighting broke out in 2003. Last month, the UN announced that it was cutting food rations in half for thousands of Darfurians in displaced peoples camps both inside Sudan and in neighbouring Chad. Darfurians will get 1,050 calories instead of 2,100 because of funding shortfalls, the UN said.

"I think it is a welcome deposit on the crisis in Darfur," says Keith Martin, the Liberal Critic for international cooperation. But Mr. Martin stresses that the Harper government must make sure that the money reaches the needy in Darfur immediately.

"The money must get to the people not a year from now, not six months, but now," says Mr. Martin, in an interview. He also says the prime minister must work with the international community and "not put too much stock in negotiating with the genocidal government in Khartoum," when dealing with any life saving process in Darfur.

"Mr. Harper must work with the international community to ensure a Chapter 7 mission is on the ground and that is the only way to save lives in Darfur."

Alexa McDonough, the NDP Critic for Foreign Affairs and International Development, welcomes the announcement and attributed it to pressure from her party in the House of Commons. However, she adds that it was "disappointing" that Mr. Harper did not commit to the contribution of troops to a UN mission in Darfur.

"There needs to be continuing pressure to a contribution that can only be made by Canada's military," says Ms. McDonough, adding that the NDP will keep pressuring the government to send troops to Darfur.

David Kilgour, former MP and a vocal advocate for Darfur, says he welcomes Mr. Harper's announcement and hopes more aid will be announced soon.

"It's a very good step in the right direction," says Mr. Kilgour, but adds that Canada must pressure Khartoum to abide by the peace deal.

"To put it politely, there is an onus on the government of Sudan [to say] this time things are going to be different," says Mr. Kilgour, adding that Khartoum still refuses to issue travel permits to aid workers and reporters travelling to Darfur.

Faiza Taha, the Sudanese ambassador to Canada, also lauds Mr. Harper's statement for the "well-balanced" approach, but urges Canada to move beyond humanitarian aid since peace has been achieved now.

"We are sure we can work together in a positive and constructive way and we encourage Canadian investors to invest in the area," says Ms. Taha. "The presence of foreign troops in Darfur shouldn't be a cause for negativity but constructive dialogue."

Sudan shows flexibility on Darfur
Times of India
May 24, 2006

UNITED NATIONS: Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir discussed with Secretary General Kofi Annan the issue of sending a UN assessment team to strife torn Darfur region as the world body, backed by tough Security Council resolutions, began building up pressure on Khartoum.

Two top United Nations envoys arrived in Sudan to impress upon government the need to grant early permission to the team which would assess the conditions for a possible UN peacekeeping mission, stressing that the Council deadline for sending it within a weak is already over.

These political developments came as the world body released a new report slamming the human rights record of the Sudanese government.

Khartoum, it said, is failing to uphold the several of the human rights commitments made last year, especially in the Darfur region.

It is either unable or unwilling to hold perpetrators of international crimes accountable, and the killing of civilians, raping of women and girls, and pillaging of entire villages continues.

The Council had unanimously adopted a resolution on May 16 under Chapter VII of the Charter, which allows for enforcement measures, calling for such an assessment team to be deployed within a week.

So far, Sudan has not given a green light for deployment and it is yet unclear if the Council would force the issue if Khartoum continues dilly dallying.

Annan, who had previously written to President al-Bashir seeking his support for a stronger UN force to replace the 7,000-member AU mission deployed in Darfur, made the call as Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and Assistant Secretary- General for Peacekeeping Operations HTdi Annabi held preliminary meetings yesterday in Khartoum with Sudanese officials.

The two UN envoys are expected to meet with other senior government officials over next two days.

President Bashir, who spoke to the Secretary-General on telephone yesterday, said that after his discussions with Brahimi, he would discuss with the Government this matter (of assessment team) and it would be decided upon by the Government shortly, a UN spokesman said.

During their conversation, Annan also reiterated the need for all parties to respect the peace agreement reached earlier this month between the Government and one of the rebel groups operating in Darfur.

The conflict between the government and pro government militias on one hand and the rebels on the other has killed hundreds of thousands people and force over two million to flee their homes.

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie GuThenno told reporters in New York that the deployment of an assessment mission is very important because it is essential that there is an understanding between the Government of National Unity and the United Nations on the future role of the world body in Darfur.

Sudan agrees on Darfur mission: UN
Reuters via The Washington Post
by Opheera McDoom
May 25, 2006

Sudan has agreed to allow an African Union-U.N. assessment mission into the country ahead of a possible deployment of U.N. troops to enforce a peace deal in war-torn Darfur, a U.N. diplomat said on Thursday.

Speaking after a meeting with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the U.N.'s Lakhdar Brahimi said: "We agreed that in the coming days the United Nations and the African Union will send a joint assessment mission to Sudan."

The Sudanese government and the main Darfur rebel faction signed their peace agreement on May 5. Two other factions refused to sign saying it did not meet their basic demands.

Prior to the deal, Sudan had rejected a U.N. takeover from ill-equipped African Union (AU) forces in Darfur, but has since said it would negotiate with the world body over the mandate and size of a possible force in the western region.

Brahimi said the mission, including military experts, would start work in Khartoum and then go to Darfur where he said it would assess the immediate needs of the AU force.

It "would also undertake an assessment of all the requirements for a possible transition from the AU to the U.N.," he told reporters in Khartoum.

Sudan 's agreement missed a deadline of Tuesday night set by the U.N. Security Council to allow the mission to begin work. But given Sudan's previous outright rejection of a U.N. force, Brahimi said this was a "positive first step."

In New York, U.N. chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said no date had yet been set for the assessment mission's departure.

The African Union earlier this month urged the government to cooperate with the United Nations and help the AU transfer its peacekeeping mission in Darfur to U.N. troops.

Sudan 's foreign minister earlier on Thursday said Khartoum had not agreed to allow U.N. troops into Darfur.

"TRAITORS AND SPIES"

Khartoum wanted more discussions involving the United Nations and the African Union before allowing any such move, Foreign Minister Lam Akol said.

"We agreed on a three-way committee to meet and discuss this subject (U.N. transition)," Akol told reporters.

He added the AU would meet with the U.N. and the Sudanese government in the future to discuss the troop transition.

One U.N. source said the conflicting message from Akol was because the concession to allow the assessment mission into Sudan was made in Brahimi's last meeting with Bashir.

The issue of sending U.N. forces into Darfur is contentious in Sudan with the government previously painting pictures of an Iraq-like quagmire attracting Islamic militants in the remote west.

Brahimi said his talks had somewhat allayed the government's fears that the United Nations was coming to invade Sudan, making Khartoum more likely to agree to the deployment.

"There will most probably be -- if the Sudan agrees and I think they will agree -- a succession mission led by the United Nations (in Darfur)," Brahimi said.

But not all were convinced. After meeting with members of Sudan's parliament, the assembly erupted in a heated and divisive debate over the U.N. deployment and insults flew as debate turned into an unruly quarrel.

The dispute broke out after Akol gave a statement saying Sudan should "be more flexible" about the prospect of a U.N. deployment to Darfur.

Deputies said one member of the ruling National Congress Party, which dominates government and the assembly, called those in favor of U.N. troops "traitors and spies."

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 2 million herded into miserable camps during three years of rape, murder and looting in Darfur. The United States calls the violence genocide, a charge Khartoum rejects.

(additional reporting by Evelyn Leopold at the United Nations)

Sudan: Joint UN-AU assessment team to visit Darfur within days, UN envoy says
UN News Centre
May 25, 2006

A joint United Nations-African Union team will go to Sudan’s conflict-torn Darfur region to assess the needs of the AU’s peacekeeping mission there after conducting wide-ranging consultations in the country’s capital, UN Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said in Khartoum today.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan dispatched Mr. Brahimi and Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Hédi Annabi to Khartoum for intensified talks on strengthening the AU and UN peacekeeping forces there after the Security Council called for an assessment team to be deployed to Darfur within a week. The Council’s call came in a resolution adopted unanimously on 16 May under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which allows for enforcement.

In talks with President Omar Bashir and several other senior Sudanese officials, “we agreed that in the coming days the United Nations and the African Union will send a joint assessment mission to Sudan,” Mr. Brahimi told a news conference.

“This mission will build on the telephone conversation which took place recently between President Bashir and the Secretary General, the consultations which took place during the 14 and 19 April visit to Sudan of Mr. Annabi and the current visit of myself and colleagues,” he said.

Fighting between the Government, pro-government militias and rebels has killed scores of thousands of people in Darfur and uprooted another 2 million in the last three years.

The mission would undertake an assessment of all the requirements for a possible transition to the UN from the 7,000-strong peacekeeping AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS). AMIS itself would have to be strengthened immediately, he said, since it would bear the initial responsibility of helping to implement the Darfur Peace Agreement signed earlier this month.

The proposed assessment team would return to Khartoum for one more round of consultations, he said, before reporting to Mr. Annan and AU Commission chairperson Alpha Oumar Konaré.

“These activities would be undertaken without prejudice to the future decisions that the Government of National Unity, the African Union and the United Nations may take on this issue,” Mr. Brahimi stressed.

In talks that were useful to the UN and may also have been useful to Sudan, he said: “I reassured my interlocutors that the intention of the United Nations was to help them and the people of Darfur successfully implement the agreement signed in Abuja ( Nigeria) on 5 May, by using all the resources at its disposal.”

This would mean adding, as an extension of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) in South Sudan, a multi-dimensional presence in Darfur, including humanitarian assistance, human rights observers and support for voluntary returns and longer-term recovery, as well as security, he said.

He pointed out that that was exactly what was happening in South Sudan where military, police and civilian personnel have been directly involved in implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in January of last year.

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland told the Security Council in New York last Friday, after his week-long visit to Sudan and to refugee camps in eastern Chad, that violent attacks on civilians and humanitarian workers were continuing despite the Darfur peace agreement.

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Uganda (ICC)

Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Situation in Uganda

US Wants to Rid Uganda of LRA rebels this year
Reuters
by David Clarke
May 16, 2006

The top U.S. diplomat in Africa said on Tuesday that Washington wanted to get rid of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels by the end of this year. Speaking at the Chatham House think-tank in London, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said the LRA rebels needed to be stopped, and this meant capturing their leaders soon.

"There's this nasty little group called the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda which is just creating havoc, killing kids, kidnapping people and we have to take care of that problem, and we need to work together to do so," she said.

"Certainly it's going to be a priority of President Bush's administration to get rid of the LRA before the end of this year, if we can," Frazer said.

The LRA has waged war against the Uganda government for two decades and began targeting foreigners last year -- apparently in reprisal for arrest warrants issued in October for their leaders by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Led by self-proclaimed prophet Joseph Kony, the LRA has long terrorised northern Uganda from bases in neighbouring southern Sudan and last year a group of LRA fighters crossed into the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Because of their own move out of northern Uganda and southern Sudan into the region, other countries have a stake in what happens to (Vincent) Otti and Kony," said Frazer.

"And I say, as ICC indicted war criminals, they need to be captured and turned over to the court."

The cult-like group has never given a clear account of its political aims, but is notorious for massacring civilians, mutilating survivors and kidnapping thousands of children who are forced to serve as fighters, porters and sex slaves.

Kony's deputy Otti was blamed for the murder of eight U.N. troops earlier this year in Congo's Garamba National park.

Frazer's comments in London came a day after Britain said Uganda's civil war had become a regional problem and needed action from its neighbours.

Frazer said getting rid of the LRA leaders was a crucial part of a three-pronged strategy to end the conflict in northern Uganda, as the rebel movement should then wane.

The two other elements were to urge the Ugandan government to reconcile with the Acholi community in the north of the country and to get support for the people displaced by the war.

"You decapitate the LRA, ie, get rid of the leadership -- Kone and Otti and others -- and I think the body of the LRA will return to its society ... you need a coming in."

Uganda gives LRA rebel chief ultimatum for talks
Reuters
by Daniel Wallis
May 17, 2006

Uganda will guarantee the safety of an internationally wanted rebel leader if he gives up his 20-year insurgency before the end of July, President Yoweri Museveni said in a statement released late on Tuesday.

Joseph Kony, the self-proclaimed prophet chief of northern Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) was the first target of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which last year issued arrest warrants for the former altar boy and his top deputies.

Experts said the ICC's move effectively blocked any further talks with the leadership of the cult-like group, notorious for slaughtering villagers and abducting thousands of children.

Diplomats said at the weekend the leader of neighbouring southern Sudan, Salva Kiir, passed Museveni a message from the elusive LRA boss.

They say it was Kony's first attempt to communicate with Museveni in more than a decade, and during a meeting on Tuesday with British International Development Secretary Hilary Benn, Museveni said he and Kiir had agreed to give Kony "a last chance".

The statement from Museveni's office mentioned the ICC's indictment of Kony and four of his commanders, but added: "If he got serious about a peaceful settlement, the government of Uganda would guarantee his safety."

The vice president of southern Sudan, Riek Machar, met secretly with Joseph Kony two weeks ago and reached a deal to stop the group terrorising villagers in the south, Machar's office said in a statement on Wednesday.

"They agreed that there should be no more attacks on the civilian population in the south by this group and...to release all captives from the south immediately," the statement read out over the telephone to Reuters, said.

It also said Kony agreed to talks with Museveni with mediation from the south Sudan government and that Kiir had given Museveni a videotape of the meeting held near Yambio town near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

'HANDLE HIM'

For years, the LRA have used bases in the lawless mountains of southern Sudan to raid northern Uganda, where the war has uprooted up to two million people and triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

The LRA has no clear political aims beyond opposition to Museveni. Last year, a group of its fighters moved from Sudan into the jungles of neighbouring DRC.

On Saturday -- after attending Museveni's inauguration the day before -- Kiir briefed the Ugandan leader.

"The president said if Kony did not take up the latest peace offer, Kiir and he agreed that (Kiir's former rebels) the Sudanese People's Liberation Army and Uganda's military would jointly handle him militarily," the statement said.

Previous attempts at dialogue stalled early last year after the main rebel negotiator surrendered. The unsealing of ICC arrest warrants in October effectively ended any practical support for more talks with Kony, diplomats said.

Int'l Court: Uganda Must Arrest Rebel Leader
United Press International - World Peace Herald
May 18, 2006

The International Criminal Court has told Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni he cannot offer a peace deal to a rebel leader but only arrest him on sight.

Museveni this week offered the leader of the notorious Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, immunity from prosecution until the end of June while peace talks take place to end 20 years of bloodshed.

But the court's spokeswoman, Sandra Khadouri, told the BBC Museveni was in no position to offer immunity.

It's the government of Uganda that referred the situation to the International Criminal Court in December 2003 ... they are now under obligations and made a commitment," Khadouri said.

Kony and four other LRA commanders face charges of "murders, abductions, mass burning of houses, looting of entire villages, massive destruction, enslavement and inducement of rape", she told the BBC.

The Times of London said Kony's LRA is a cannibalistic cult that has slaughtered whole villages and abducted children, forcing the boys to become killers and the girls to become "wives" of fighters.

Uganda: LRA Rebels Ready to Talk Peace - Joseph Kony
AllAfrica.com: IRIN
May 25, 2006

The insurgent Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is ready to engage the Ugandan government in talks to end two decades of fighting that has killed thousands and displaced close to two million people in the country's north, rebel leader Joseph Kony has said.

Rare video footage seen by IRIN shows Kony addressing a delegation of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) headed by south Sudan's vice president, Riek Machar.

"The LRA is ready to talk peace and end the war in a good way, not by force. We are fighting for peace and I am not a terrorist," Kony said during the 2 May meeting.

The LRA commander-in-chief said he was ready to talk peace with the Ugandan government and had "no problem" with President Yoweri Museveni. He also said he accepted an offer of mediation extended by Machar. South Sudan - where the LRA operates from - is now run by the SPLM/A, which signed a peace deal with the Khartoum-based Sudanese government in January 2005.

At the end of the meeting, Machar is seen handing over food aid and what he says is US $20,000 in cash to Kony as part of an agreement for the rebels to halt attacks in southern Sudan, but warns him not to spend it on arms.

Sources said the video, which contains the first images of Kony to have appeared in years, was given to Ugandan authorities by Sudanese officials after the meeting, which took place near the border between Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Kony, clad in a blue beret and a military uniform with general's pips, looked healthy. He said he had been unfairly blamed for atrocities the LRA had not committed.

"The whole [world], even the journalists, don't know me, because to get to me is very difficult ... so people believe the propaganda that Kony is a killer," he said.

Kony and four other top LRA commanders - including his deputy, Vincent Otti, who also appears in the video, - are on the run, having been indicted in October 2005 on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.

"I am not a terrorist," he insisted. "I am a rebel in military opposition ... I am in opposition. If Museveni says that, then it means that all opposition leaders in Africa should also be taken to The Hague."

Earlier this week, Museveni said he would "guarantee [Kony's] safety" if the LRA stopped fighting and agreed to peace talks by the end of July, although the nature of the promised protection was not immediately clear.

Kony claims to be fighting to replace Museveni's government with one based on the Bible's 10 Commandments, but LRA fighters are more notorious for their brutal attacks on civilians and their abduction of tens of thousands of children for use as porters, sex slaves and child soldiers.

The United Nations has described the war in northern Uganda as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, which has gone largely unnoticed by the international community.

Since the ICC indictments, which led to increased cooperation between Kampala and Khartoum, Uganda has accused the rebels of moving from their bases in southern Sudan to northeastern DRC.

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International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Official Website of the ICTY

Press Briefing of the ICTY
Christian Chartier, Senior Information Officer
May 17 and 24, 2006

Tribunal Welcomes Independent Audit of its Detention Unit
Press Release of the ICTY
May 15, 2006

The Tribunal welcomes the issuance of the Independent Audit of the ICTY's Detention Unit carried out by a team of experts under the auspices of the Government of Sweden. The audit, a full version of which is released today, was requested by the Tribunal in order to further enhance the transparency of the Detention Unit (DU) following the March 11, 2006 death of Slobodan Milosevic.

In keeping with all previous external inspections of the DU that have consistently assessed conditions there to be of the very highest standard, the Swedish audit covers many positive aspects relating to the facility, as well as providing a number of concrete recommendations for the Tribunal's consideration. During their inspections, the Swedish experts enjoyed unbridled access within the DU. The audit states that:

"It is worth emphasizing that the group met with great openness and willingness to assist it in its work, on the part of both the Tribunal and the detainees."

It is striking that in all their many unmonitored interviews with detainees that the team did not hear a single complaint about their treatment by staff within the DU.

"We had several opportunities to talk with the detainees without staff being present. No complaints about the staff were voiced during our conversations. On the contrary, the detainees spoke of good relations, characterized by respect and understanding and without tensions... all the detainees say that they are very satisfied with their treatment.”

The audit covers a broad range of matters concerning the operation of the DU including: the position and the relations of the DU with the rest of the Tribunal; the Unit’s relations with the host prison; management and staff issues; security and safety; living conditions for the detainees; medical issues; the presumption of innocence and enforcement of sentences. Numerous observations and proposals are made in the audit including, most notably: a review of arrangements regarding administrative court orders; enhanced contacts between the DU and the Dutch host prison; a review of management structures; practical issues concerning support elements to inmates and the separation of detainees enjoying the presumption of innocence from those who have been found guilty and are awaiting transfer to serve their sentence. The Tribunal takes this opportunity to expresses its appreciation to the authorities of Sweden for undertaking the audit and commits itself to a thorough review of the proposals with a view to undertaking action where appropriate.

A copy of the report as provided by the Swedish authorities can be found at the following address:
http://www.un.org/icty/pressreal/2006/DU-audit.htm

Croatia indicts Yugoslav top brass for 1991 crimes
Reuters
May 24, 2006

A Croatian court indicted two generals of the former Yugoslavia's army for shelling civilian targets at the outset of Zagreb's 1991-95 war of independence, state radio reported on Wednesday. In a rare case against high ranking Yugoslav army officers, the court in the eastern city of Osijek indicted Yugoslav Defence Minister Veljko Kadijevic, a Croatian Serb, and airforce commander Zvonimir Jurjevic, an ethnic Croat.

State radio said the court had issued an arrest warrant for the two career soldiers who are now retired and live outside Croatia.

They were charged with indiscriminate shelling of civilian targets in eastern Croatia when at least 30 people were killed, the radio said.

So far, Croatian courts have mostly dealt with low-ranking local members of the Serb militia, who rebelled against Zagreb's independence bid with help and support from Belgrade.

Kosovo Albanians attack U.N.-escorted Serb lawyers
Reuters
May 25, 2006

U.N. police in Kosovo fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of ethnic Albanians who stoned a United Nations convoy escorting Serb defense lawyers in the west of the province on Thursday.

Three U.N. police officers and one translator were wounded when villagers blocked a road and lobbed stones at vehicles escorting two Serb members of a defense team accredited to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, a U.N. statement said.

"Police then had to clear the crowd, unfortunately resulting in injuries to a number of citizens who received medical treatment from an ambulance at the scene," it said.

The stoning of Serb convoys in Kosovo is not uncommon.

The province, legally part of Serbia, has been run by the U.N. since 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces accused of ethnic cleansing in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas.

An estimated 10,000 ethnic Albanians died and another 800,000 fled into neighbouring Macedonia and Albania.

U.N. prosecutors in The Hague say Serb police killed 100 men in the village of Mala Krusa two days into the 78-day NATO bombing campaign.

The case is included in the indictment against former Serbian president Milan Milutinovic, whose trial begins in July.

The U.N. governor in Kosovo, Soren Jessen-Petersen, said he was "outraged and disappointed" by the incident.

"It is important for the people of Kosovo to understand that their quest for justice can only be achieved through the course of justice, not by extra-judicial means," he said.

Signs of reconciliation in Kosovo are rare. Around half the Serb population fled a wave of revenge attacks after the war and the 100,000 who stayed live on the margins of society, targeted by sporadic violence.

After seven years of U.N.-imposed limbo, the major powers are pushing for a solution to Kosovo's final status in direct Serb-Albanian talks that began in February in Vienna.

The 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority is pushing for independence, but is under pressure to improve the security and rights of Serbs.

The U.N. mission says ethnically motivated crime in 2006 is down compared with previous years.

Tribunal to appoint defender to Šešelj
Beta from B92
May 26, 2006

The Hague Tribunal has asked for a defence attorney to be appointed to Vojislav Šešelj.

The Tribunal states that this is a necessary action because the work of the court is being obstructed. The trial of the Serbian Radical Party leader is scheduled to begin in October.

Šešelj is charged for war crimes allegedly committed against non-Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Vojvodina. Prosecutor Hildegard Uertz-Retzlaff did not ask for Šešelj’s right to defend himself to be completely taken away, rather to have an appointed defence attorney help him prepared and implement his defence.

Since his voluntary surrender on February 24, 2003, Šešelj has been representing himself in front of the Tribunal and has insisted on leading his own defence case.

Uertz-Retzlaff said that Šešelj, regardless of the many warning issued to him since May 2003, has continued to use the Tribunal as a political forum. She added that he is “wasting time purposely and wasting resources with his obstructive behaviour," adding that he has threatened witnesses and offended judges and other employees and officials of the Tribunal repeatedly.

Krajisnik Denies Knowledge of Ethnic Cleansing
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
by Adin Sadic
May 26, 2006

Bosnian Serb politician accused of genocide says he knew little of events on the ground during the war.

Bosnian Serb politician Momcilo Krajisnik, currently appearing as a witness in his own genocide trial before the Hague tribunal, continued to suggest this week that he lived in an effective information vacuum in the ski resort of Pale during the war in Bosnia and was unaware of the crimes for which he now stands charged.

As his marathon testimony began to draw to a close, it became obvious just how much pressure the former parliamentary speaker was under.

Clearly dissatisfied with his examination by defence counsel Nicholas Stewart and frustrated by the lawyer’s requests that he stay focused on his questions and not go off at tangents, the accused complained, “It would be easy for me to answer if you understood the problem and put the right question.”

At one point, Krajisnik went so far as to ask whether he might be allowed to simultaneously play the twin roles of lawyer and witness for a while, putting questions to himself and then answering them. He even said he could switch between the dock and the witness stand, in order to make it clear which function he was fulfilling at any given time.

Presiding Judge Alphons Orie did not dignify the suggestion with a direct response, but agreed to set aside half an hour at the end of Krajisnik’s testimony in which he will have a chance to add any additional facts he thinks have been neglected.

To ensure there is no foul play, Krajisnik has been banned from communicating with his defence team for the duration of his testimony, except under “very exceptional circumstances” and with the prior approval of the judges.

Krajisnik has had a complex relationship with his defence lawyers ever since his original counsel, Deyan Brashich, was forced to quit the trial, having been found guilty of malpractice in the United States. Stewart has since complained that he was thrown in at the deep end when he arrived as Brashich’s replacement, and has been denied the time and resources necessary to get up to speed on the case.

Last year, Krajisnik unsuccessfully sought permission to drop his legal counsel and handle his defence himself.

Besides genocide charges, he also faces five counts of crimes against humanity and one count of violations of the laws and customs of war for an alleged campaign of murders, deportations and persecution intended to drive non-Serbs from large swathes of Bosnia.

Throughout this week, however, Krajisnik continued to argue that any such crimes that occurred during the Bosnian war were carried out spontaneously at a local level and were very far removed from his own work carried out in an office in Pale.

He explained that in the early days after the establishment of the Bosnian Serbs’ Army of Republika Srpska, VRS, the force struggled to deal with undisciplined low-level commanders and local political authorities, and that its top brass strived to take control of paramilitary units.

He denied knowing anything about the establishment of detention camps by the local government bodies known as “crisis staffs”, which prosecutors say were an important tool in exerting Serb control at grassroots level. Similarly, he said he had no knowledge that the crisis staffs were responsible for arrests of non-Serbs, cutting the water supply to the besieged city of Sarajevo, removing non-Serbs from positions of authority and evacuating Serbs from areas that were due to be attacked.

Krajisnik was asked about his reaction to testimony given in the trial by Miroslav Vjestica, a Serb parliamentary delegate from the town of Bosanska Krupa in Western Bosnia who said that Muslims in the area had “two options – to organise and leave the municipality or it will be done by military means”.

“Vjestica was just bragging,” the accused insisted.

He explained that he had always assumed Serbs were happy to leave Muslim areas and cross into Serb-controlled territory. “I had the impression that Muslims wanted to do the same thing,” he said. “I assumed that similar sentiments were on both sides, because nobody wanted to remain in a minority.”

On many occasions during his testimony, Krajisnik made reference to “expulsions” of Serbs from their homes while speaking in neutral terms about Muslims moving from one place to another. Asked by Judge Orie to explain why he made this distinction, Krajisnik said he had not done so intentionally.

Asked about allegations that the Serb authorities took steps to ensure that Muslims who left Serb-controlled areas would never return, Krajisnik insisted, “I was not aware of that insane idea.”

He also denied knowing anything about Muslims in certain municipalities being forced to sign their property over to the Serbs. “I thought it was a safeguard based on individual agreements among Serbs and Muslims - ‘Look after my property and I’ll take care of your property, and after the war is over everybody will return to their own property’,” he explained.

Krajisnik spent a considerable amount of time discussing testimony given during the prosecution stage of the trial by Herbert Okun, a diplomat who served as an advisor to the United Nations’ envoy involved in the abortive Vance-Owen peace negotiations in Bosnia between 1991 and 1994.

Okun backed the prosecution claim that one of the wartime aims of the Serb leadership was to make the territories under its control as ethnically pure as possible.

“This is absolutely untrue, totally incorrect,” Krajisnik shouted from the witness stand. “I don’t know how Okun came to this conclusion. Our policy was not to remove anyone by force.”

“Ethnically pure Serb territories were never a goal,” he explained elsewhere in his testimony. “The prime goal was the separation of territories with a majority of Serbs, Croats and Muslims – but of course with other ethnic groups living there.”

Krajisnik said information he gleaned from his colleagues such as the then Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic led him to understand that some Muslims were “voluntarily departing from certain territories”. “They were exercising their right to freedom of movement,” he said.

Krajisnik said one of Okun’s main tasks during the war had been to ensure that the Serbs were not granted their own republic within Bosnia.

Elsewhere in his testimony, Krajisnik even went so far as to say that he had in fact never heard of expulsions of Muslims from Serb-controlled territory in Bosnia until his arrival in The Hague.

When Judge Orie asked him to repeat the statement, however, he hesitated. “I’m afraid of falling into a trap... don’t catch me for one word,” he said.

He then acknowledged that he had heard talk of ethnic cleansing – during the Vance Own negotiations, for instance – but that he had been led to believe that such reports were untrue.

Karadzic, for instance, told him that “written reports from the VRS and municipal representatives always spoke about the voluntary departure of Muslims.”

Also this week, Krajisnik denied that the Bosnian Serb military had been involved in aggressive land grabs during the war.

The borders of Serb-held territory were originally established by local armed Serbs, he said, and were “just inherited” by the VRS after was founded in May 1992. Changes to these borders afterwards were limited to “small corrections”, he added, explaining that “we gained some territories, and lost some territories”.

When asked whether the VRS was in control of regions in which Muslims had previously been in the majority, Krajisnik’s responses were very unclear and imprecise. Stewart, the prosecution and Judge Orie all took it in turns to press him to clarify his position on the matter.

Finally, the judge slowly spelled out what it was they wanted to know.

At this, Krajisnik replied, “I don’t understand the question.”

After the misunderstanding had finally been cleared up, the accused explained that the VRS had “safeguarded” some territories which had previously been predominantly Muslim.

Krajisnik’s examination by his defence lawyers finished on May 25. Once cross-examination by the prosecution begins on May 29, his testimony is expected to finish within two weeks.

Judge Orie reminded Krajisnik that the half-hour slot set aside before cross-examination next week is only to be used for highlighting any important facts which he thinks have been neglected during his examination in chief. It is not an opportunity to make a speech, he said.

Adin Sadic is an IWPR intern in The Hague.

Croatia: Funding the Generals
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
by Goran Jungvirth
May 22, 2006

As donations pour into a private foundation set up to pay for the defence of Croatians accused of war crimes, questions are raised about how the government in Zagreb decides who gets state legal aid.

It wasn’t just football chants ringing from the terraces when 45,000 fans gathered earlier this month at the Maksimir stadium. And they had more on their minds than the footballing fate of Croatian champions Dynamo Zagreb.

Almost as important as the match itself was the chance for supporters to show their support for a man they consider a national hero.

Singing “Ante Gotovina is hiding in our hearts”, the capacity crowd gave freely to a newly-established fund to defend Croatia’s favourite general, who is facing trial for war crimes in The Hague.

With Gotovina’s 10-year-old son looking on, Dynamo Zagreb donated all the earnings from the game to the Foundation For Truth About the Homeland War.

The foundation was set up earlier this year and says its aim is to support the legal defence of Gotovina and other Croatian defendants at the Hague tribunal, as well as to publicise the view that Zagreb’s role in the Croatian conflict was no more than legitimate national defence.

The foundation is run by lawyer Ivan Curkovic, who has been joined on the board by folk singer Miroslav Skoro, lawyers Igor Zidic and Ante Zupic and two Croatian diaspora representatives.

With the 150,000 euro income from the football match, the total raised by the foundation so far comes to more than 300,000 euro.

The money is a testament to the continued popularity of Gotovina – who is widely viewed by Croatians as a hero for leading the 1995 operation known as Operation Storm to regain Serb-held territory.

That popularity has not diminished since Gotovina was captured last year while hiding in the Canary Islands, and even appears to be growing as his trial approaches in The Hague. Croatian media have reported that the Gotovina “brand” now rivals that of Che Guevara.

The general has pleaded not guilty to four counts of crimes against humanity and three of violations of the laws and customs of war, all relating to Operation Storm. Prosecutors want to join his case with that of two other Croatian generals, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak, who are accused of being members of a joint criminal enterprise led by the late Croatian president Franjo Tudjman, that was, the prosecution says, formed in order to forcibly expel 200,000 Serbs during Operation Storm.

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Analysis: Mladic issue swung vote in Montenegro
The Times
by Anthony Browne
May 22, 2006

Anthony Browne, Europe Correspondent for The Times, believes that a freshly independent Montenegro could look forward to fulfilling its ambition of joining Europe as soon as 2010.

Now Montenegro is a separate country, must the membership talks start again?

No. The talks between Serbia-Montenegro and the EU have been highly unusual in that although they were part of the same country, the two regions operated in completely different ways.

Serbia-Montenegro was essentially two countries welded together which had very little in common in terms of internal markets, law, anti-corruption measures or the general machinery of the state.

To accommodate these differences the two halves had been carrying out separate negotiations running alongside each other. But the twin-tracking was not totally independent, Montenegro would not have been able to join without Serbia - they had to pass all of the hurdles together.

How far along are the talks?

The Stability and Association Agreement is the first stage, a kind of ante-chamber for the talks which lead to EU membership. It's about setting the real basics for a liberal democratic state such as the ability to hold free and fair elections and getting the infrastructure in place to distribute farming subsidies.

Once the agreement has been achieved, there is a series of steps which a country must follow to gain entry to Europe. The first of these is to apply formally for membership. If successful, a country is granted candidate status. This is where Turkey and Croatia are.

From here there are then entry talks which lead, eventually, to membership. However, the association talks between Serbia-Montenegro were suspended earlier this month over Serbia's failure to hand over General Ratko Mladic.

What happened?

This really upset Montenegro, which felt that its reputation was tainted because it was yoked to a country considered one of the international bad guys. When there were sanctions against Serbia, Montenegro suffered. The suspension of talks with Serbia meant that its talks were frozen too - even though it had no control over the activities of General Mladic.

A crucial part of the pro-independence campaign was that it would be able to pursue its relationship with Europe untainted. It thinks, probably quite rightly, that it will be able to become a member much more quickly.

Is an independent Montenegro a good candidate for EU membership?

It is in many ways an ideal candidate, but a lot depends on the state of its economy and its infrastructure. The question is how quickly it can enshrine EU laws into its own domestic law, and how deeply it is engrained with corruption and organised crime.

In a small country it's far easier to implement the various measures because there are fewer groups with a vested interest to oppose them. It would also be relatively easy for the EU to absorb such a tiny country, as it would have very little say in the way it is run.

Compare this to Turkey which, if it joined, would be the largest country in the EU. If negotiations are successful, it is quite possible that Montenegro could join as early as 2010.

As Montenegro prepares the ground for a marriage to the EU, what will happen to Serbia?

There are two hurdles which Serbia has still to cross to revive talks: firstly, they will have to give up General Mladic which is a huge issue internally as he still retains widespread support among nationalists. This is why the United Nations believes Serbia may be colluding in his remaining a fugitive.

The other issue is over whether Kosovo will remain as a province of Serbia. Talks about its future are about to start which could lead to Kosovo also becoming an independent country. The future for Serbia remains very uncertain.

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International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

Official Website of the ICTR

Transfer of Bagaragaza case to the Kingdom of Norway Denied
Press Release of the ICTR
May 22, 2006

On 19 May 2006 the bench appointed by the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda composed of judges Dennis C. M. Byron, Jai Ram Reddy and Joseph Asoka Nihal de Silva denied the Prosecutor’s motion for referral to the Kingdom of Norway of the case of Michel Bagaragaza. The motion was filed on 15 February 2006 under Rule 11bis of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the Tribunal.

In its ruling the Trial Chamber found that the Kingdom of Norway does not have jurisdiction over the alleged crimes in the indictment against Michel Bagaragaza and in that case there was no need for the Chamber to consider the other requirements for referral as provided in Rule 11bis or in the Parties’ submissions.

Pursuant to Rule 11bis, three requirements have to be considered in deciding a motion for referral: 1) the jurisdiction, willingness and preparedness of the Referral State; 2) the ability of the Referral State to conduct a fair trial and; 3) the non-imposition of the death penalty in the Referral State. In their submissions, the Parties raised other conditions for the referral. The Parties made additional requests in case the Referral would be granted.

Bagaragaza who was Director General of the office controlling the Rwandan Tea industry and also member of the Prefectoral committee of the MRND political party in Gisenyi Prefecture, surrendered to the Tribunal on 16 August 2005. He pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide, or in alternative, complicity in genocide.

The ICTR Prosecutor requested the Tribunal to grant the transfer of the Accused to the United Nations Detention Unit (UNDU) of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) as a special protective measure. On 13 August 2005, the motion was granted and Bagaragaza was consequently transferred to The Hague. On 17 February 2006, the President extended the transfer to The Hague for an additional period of 6 months.

Before his surrender on 16 August 2005, the accused entered into an agreement with the Prosecution and provided an extensive statement on the 1994 events in Rwanda which incriminated both himself and other Rwandans. He agreed with the Prosecution to be tried before a national court, which would be determined at a later stage.

The ruling is subject to appeal by both parties, the Prosecution and the Defence within 15 days upon notification of the decision. Bagaragaza is represented by Defence Counsel Geert-Jan Alexander Knoops from The Netherlands.

Government Official Casts Doubt On ICTR Modus Operandi
AllAfrica.com: The New Times (Kigali)
by Felly Kimenyi
May 17, 2006

Rwanda's Special Representative at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has expressed reservations about the preparations to wind up the hearing of cases before the expiration of the Tribunal's mandate in December 2008. In an exclusive interview, Aloys Mutabingwa told The New Times that Rwanda's exclusion from the process might jettison the good intentions the UN Security Council had when establishing the ad hoc Tribunal.

"The fact that we, as Rwandans in whose interests the Tribunal was set up are not being considered is a serious issue. The only time we are seen at the Council is when we are lodging various complaints.

"Our being sidelined is a direct breach to the UN Charter that provides for the sovereignty of any UN member state," Mutabingwa told this reporter yesterday, at his offices in Arusha.

He also expressed concern at the re-classification of the inmates, saying the Tribunal has transcended its powers by grading them into high, middle and low ranking genocide suspects.

"According to various communications I have seen, the suspects who will be transferred to Kigali will fall under the middle-ranking category, yet this contravenes Resolution 955 of the UN Security Council, which set up the court," Mutabingwa elaborated.

He added: "Initially, the Court had a mandate to try all the architects of the genocide, whose the original number was 700; but later, without any official communication, it was reduced to 300 and now they are talking of less than 100."

Mutabingwa also lamented about the double standards exhibited by the West in regard to the ICTR and other ad hoc tribunals like that of former Yugoslavia and East Timor.

"Nothing has been done to build the capacity of the Rwandan judiciary. Also, some of the core members of the Security Council have deliberately refused to hand over the suspects whose indictments were issued, unlike what was done in the case of ICTY, " he said without mentioning the defiant countries.

Mutabingwa also said he had advised the tribunal's administration to work very closely with the recently-appointed Commission to oversee the transfer of cases to Rwanda.

The Committee is headed by the Acting Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga, while Mutabingwa is a member

In a related development however, a list of genocide fugitives under Category One was released by the National Prosecution, in which it is indicated that western countries like France, Belgium and some Scandinavian countries harbour the biggest number of fugitives.

Detainees Denounce ICTR
Hirondelle News Agency via Daily News
May 18, 2006

The majority of detainees at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) decry "the lack of independence and fairness" of this UN-run court.

40 of the 60 prisoners at the ICTR detention facility in Arusha , Tanzania have signed a letter to the president, obtained by Hirondelle on Tuesday, in which they declare: "We want to denounce once more the lack of independence and fairness that remains a feature of the ICTR."

"This is particularly true of the criminal attempt of April 6, 1994 against the plane of the President, commonly acknowledged as having triggered the Rwandan tragedy", continue the signatories.

"Since most charges held by the ICTR have to do with the immediate aftermath of the plane crash, it is incomprehensible that the judges systematically support the prosecutor's false theory, according to which this criminal attempt has no legal relevance to the ICTR's trials", the text continues.

The 40 convicts believe that the mission of the ICTR "will not be fully completed until members of the RPF [Rwandese Patriotic Front, former rebels, now in power in Kigali], who face important charges, keep enjoying impunity."

"The ICTR will have failed its mission if it keeps protecting the RPF regime and its chief Paul Kagame," the text continues.

"Today, more than before, highly believable witnesses among which members of the RPF accuse President Kagame and his army, the Rwandese Patriotic Army, of having perpetrated atrocious crimes against helpless civilians", the authors say.

The ICTR's new spokesman is another target of the detainees. They accuse Tim Gallimore, who comes from the USA of "behaving like an agent of the Rwandan government.”

At the end of April, Gallimore had stated in a press release that the ICTR did not support the statements made by American defence attorney Peter Erlinder, which Erlinder had called on the Canadian authorities to prevent President Paul Kagame from visiting Canada.

In an open letter to the Canadian Prime Minister, Erlinder called Kagame a "war criminal.”

According to the ICTR's spokesman, by giving his position on the matter, the lawyer had mixed defense and political propaganda.

ICTR Rejects Bagaragaza Transfer
AllAfrica.com - The New Times (Kigali)
by Felly Kimenyi
May 22, 2006

A jury at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Friday rejected a submission by the Prosecution to have former OCIR-THE boss Michel Bagaragaza transferred to Norway as part of a plea bargain between the two parties.

"It is apparent that the Kingdom of Norway has no jurisdiction (ratione materiae) over the crimes as charged in the confirmed indictment," the verdict of this proceeding that was held in camera, a copy which was seen by The New Times, read in part.

The judges averred that the crimes that Bagaragaza was going to be charged with by the Norwegian Prosecution (complicity to homicide) are significantly different in terms of element and gravity of the crimes in the indictment.

In the indictment, Bagaragaza is charged with conspiracy to commit genocide, genocide and complicity in genocide in the alternative, and he is said to have used the position he held to incite his subordinates all over the country to commit genocide.

The motion by the Prosecution, which was seconded by the defence, came under severe criticism especially from the Rwandan government, as an act that downplays the crime of genocide.

According to sources at the Tanzania-based Tribunal, Bagaragaza, upon transfer to the Scandinavian country, was going to be charged with complicity to homicide, a crime that on conviction is punishable by a maximum jail sentence of 20 years.

The sources also say that the subsequent interest the Prosecution has in Bagaragaza are occasioned by the fact that he is one of their key witnesses especially in the trials involving the high profile suspects as it is said that he was close to the Akazu clique that planned the slaughter of over one million Rwandans.

UN’s Rwanda war crimes tribunal denies transfer of genocide case to Norway
UN News Centre
May 22, 2006

The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has denied a bid to transfer a genocide case to Norway, arguing that the country lacks specific laws on cases of war crimes.

The case involves former Rwandan business official Michael Bogaragaza who is suspected of planning to fund, arm and train a militia to carry out attacks on Tutsi civilians in 1994.

Prosecutors wanted the ICTR to transfer Mr. Bogaragaza’s case to Norway on the grounds that it would provide for wider understanding of how genocide can happen.

The suspect, who surrendered to the Tribunal last year in August, denies the charges of his involvement in the genocide. He is currently being held in a UN detention unit in the Netherlands.

Before his surrender, Mr. Bogoragaza had entered into an agreement with the prosecution. He provided an extensive statement on the genocide which incriminated himself and other Rwandans. The accused supports the prosecution’s view that he should be tried in a national court.

The ruling is subject to appeal by both parties within next two weeks, the Tribunal officials said in a statement issued in Arusha, Tanzania, where the court is based. Mr. Bogaragaza is represented by defence lawyer Geert-Jan Alexander Knoops from The Netherlands.

The Tribunal was established by the UN Security Council to prosecute individuals responsible for committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Rwanda in 1994, when at least 800,000 people were massacred, mostly butchered with machetes, for being ethnic Tutsis or Hutu moderates.

Tribunal's Raw Deal for Rwanda
AllAfrica.com: The East African (Nairobi)
by Oscar Kimanuka
May 23, 2006

According to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) spokesperson, the estimated cost of the tribunal's operations between its inception in 1995 and one year before it winds up its mandate in 2008 will be a staggering $1 billion or so. And sources say the tribunal is preparing to wind up the hearing of cases before the expiry of its mandate in December 2008.

When it was established in 1995, we hoped that the victims of the 1994 genocide and their families would be granted an opportunity to confront those responsible for what happened to them and, in the process, get some healing. It would also punish those who participated in the gruesome genocide. The tribunal was, therefore, expected to act as a deterrent to potential perpetrators of similar crimes.

TODAY, THE Rwandan people appear to be spectators in the activities of the tribunal. By any measure, its achievements are negligible and at an astronomical cost to the international community.

While some of the perpetrators of the genocide have been indicted in Arusha, a large number remain at large, protected and defended by a wide network of friends with powerful connections within the international community.

The frustrations of Rwanda's Special Representative to the tribunal in Arusha can perhaps be understood when he recently showed concern about the reclassification of inmates, arguing that the "tribunal has transcended its powers by grading them into high, middle and low-ranking genocide suspects." He further asserts that this contravenes Resolution 955 of the United Nations Security Council which set up the court. He argues that, "initially, the court had a mandate to try all the architects of the genocide, whose original number was 700, but later, without any official communication, it was reduced to 300 and now they are talking of less than 100."

THE PEOPLE of Rwanda, who should have been the primary beneficiaries of justice, have continued to look on in disbelief as huge sums of money are spent on their behalf. A recent list of genocide fugitives released in Rwanda indicates that some Western nations harbour large numbers of the genocide perpetrators. Surely, the Western world could not have forgotten so quickly about the Second World War holocaust and other crimes.

Oscar Kimanuka is a commentator on social and economic issues based in Kigali.

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Iraqi High Tribunal

Official Website of the Iraqi High Tribunal
Grotian Moment: The Saddam Hussein Trial Blog

Defense witnesses take stand in Hussein trial
CNN
by Ryan Chicolte
May 16, 2006

Testimony delivered for 'excellency' Hussein

Relatives of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's co-accused have taken the stand as the defense began trying to refute crimes against

humanity charges that carry a potential death penalty.

But the latest stage of the trial was not without its complications as the judge on Tuesday rebuked those giving evidence for referring to the deposed leader as "excellency."

Hussein was not present in the courtroom, but three of his co-defendants -- local Baath Party officials Abdullah Ruwaid, his son Mizher Ruwaid, and Mohammed Ali --and their attorneys were there.

The defense witnesses delivered testimony behind a curtain to protect their identities, a practice that has been common in this crimes against humanity trial.

Hussein is accused of ordering the detention, torture and killing of dozens of Shiites in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad, after a failed assassination attempt against the ex-Iraqi leader in 1982.

Nearly 150 Shiites, some of them teenagers, were executed and hundreds more were jailed in the backlash.

After months of testimony from prosecution witnesses describing torture at the hands of intelligence agents, chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman on Monday read out charges against Hussein.

It his now up to the defense to clear his name, since under Iraqi law the charges represent accusations that a panel of five judges believe has so far been supported.

Hussein refused to enter a plea to the charges, saying he needed more time to properly address them.

The judge said he would take that response as a denial of the charges and a "not guilty" plea.

During Tuesday's proceedings, the session became bogged down in an argument over semantics when the judge reprimanded the first witness for his repeated use of the phrase "his excellency the president" when he spoke about Hussein.

"He is no longer the president, he is now a defendant," the judge said, prompting objections by several of the attorneys.

Among the witnesses present Tuesday were relatives of the co-defendants -- who are accused of writing to security officials informing on Dujail residents after the assassination attempt, leading to the deaths of some of those they named to security forces. and former members Hussein's regime.

Two sons of defendant Ruwaid told the court that their relatives had nothing to do with the Dujail crackdown. The wife of one of Mizhar's brothers and two of Mizhar's uncles also took the stand, The Associated Press said.

Judge mulls Hussein testimony bid
CNN / Associated Press
May 17, 2006

The chief judge in the Saddam Hussein trial has said he will consider a request for the former Iraqi president and his half-brother to offer testimony on behalf of a co-defendant.

Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman, expressing reluctance at such a move, said Wednesday he would make a decision by the time the court session reconvenes next week. He did not clarify whether that meant standing as witnesses or written statements to be submitted to the court.

The court session was adjourned and reconvenes on Monday.

This comes after two days of defense witness testimony on behalf of some of the minor Baath Party co-defendants -- Mohammed Ali and Abdullah and Mizher Ruwaid -- a father and son.

Nine witnesses testified on Wednesday, all sitting behind a curtain to conceal their identities.

But a request from Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraq's former vice president, set the stage for a possible appearance of Hussein and his half-brother Barzan Hassan, the former head of the country's secret police.

Ramadan is arguing that he was not in Dujail when the deadly government crackdown occurred in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt on Hussein, and his lawyers want to question Hussein and Hassan.

At first, his request was rebuffed with the judge saying that it was illegal for defendants in a trial to be witnesses.

But Ramadan and his attorneys said the only people who could confirm his whereabouts were Hussein and Hassan.

The judge asked the attorneys to make written requests. If the two would appear on the witness stand, it is unclear when that would be.

The killings and mistreatment of Shiite townspeople in that incident led to the crimes against humanity

charges against Hussein and seven co-defendants.

Earlier in the trial, Hussein and Hassan voiced objections on Wednesday to the reliability of a witness who was a young child at the time of the deadly government crackdown 24 years ago against Shiites in the small town of Dujail.

Defense witnesses have been taking the stand in the last two days to defend three of Hussein's seven co-defendants, Mohammed Ali and Abdullah and Mizher Ruwaid -- a father and son. The three were local Baathist officials.

Earlier, Hussein and Hassan interrupted proceedings to object to the age of a witness who was only 7 years old at the time when he was alleged to have ordered a massacre.

Hussein added that children could not be considered reliable witnesses.

Witnesses who testified on behalf of Abdullah Ruwaid maintained that he left Dujail to check in for possible duty with Popular Army headquarters near Mosul around the time that the roundup of nearly 400 Shiites occurred after a failed assassination attempt against Hussein.

This would have placed Ruwaid outside of the city during the crackdown.

Also, Ruwaid's house was searched, and his orchards were razed, according to testimony, an indication that the Ruwaids were victims of and not part of the onslaught.

Defendants testified on behalf of Ali. At one point, Ali objected to questions directed at a witness.

Abdel-Rahman had to order him to quiet down, sit down and not further interrupt proceedings. Saddam Hussein could be seen smiling at the incident.

Hassan asked the court to allow the co-defendants to stay at the Iraqi High Tribunal facilities over the weekend and not be transported back to their detention facilities. Rahman said he would consider the request.

Hassan cited the difficulties of traveling with flak jackets, helmets and eye coverings, saying it was physical

burden to be traveling back and forth, especially for the aging defendants.

Hussein then stood up and agreed.

Hussein laughs amid courtroom chaos
CNN
May 22, 2006

Saddam Hussein smiled and laughed as a half-brother testified in his defense Monday, comparing the U.S. military's 2004 assault on insurgents in Falluja to the bloody crackdown on Shiites allegedly ordered by the then-Iraqi leader in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt.

Hussein and seven co-defendants are charged in connection with the detention, torture and killing of dozens of Shiites in Dujail, a town north of Baghdad.

Nearly 150 Shiites, some of them teenagers, were executed and hundreds more jailed in the crackdown.

Sabawi Hassan Ibrahim told the court that Hussein was not an aggressive man and that he remained calm after the Dujail assassination attempt.

While not mentioning Falluja by name, the defense witness appeared to be referring to the western Iraqi city, which he said U.S. troops "wiped off the map" after four Americans were killed there.

Attorney ejected