War Crimes Prosecution Watch

Central African Republic (ICC)

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

Central African Republic: Silent Crisis in Northwest Lingers
AllAfrica.com - IRIN
June 7, 2006

What started as a seemingly insignificant skirmish between the army and antigovernment forces in Ouham Prefecture of northwestern Central African Republic (CAR) has spurred a humanitarian crisis in which almost 100,000 people have been displaced.

In September 2005, these forces first attacked the town of Markounda, in Ouham Prefecture, and killed two soldiers. On 29 January 2006, the government reported that 27 people had been killed in fighting between "armed bands" and the army in the town of Paoua, in the neighbouring Ouham-Pende Prefecture, some 70km south of the Chad border. Independent observers put the number killed at 104.

Whatever the case, both attacks marked an erosion of security under the administration of President Francois Bozize and its inability to wrest control of the lawless northwest from these armed bands. The rebellion is in the president's home prefecture of Ouham, from where in October 2002 he led a successful revolt against President Ange-Felix Patasse.

While the government initially dismissed the attacks as the work of bandits, residents in Ouham thought otherwise. They said some of the attackers were Bozize opponents who wanted to undermine his authority because he had overthrown a legitimate government. The antigovernment forces also claimed that Bozize had mismanaged public funds and divided the nation during his three years in office.

Other antigovernment forces - all former Bozize supporters who had fought in the uprising against Patasse - had simply decided to be attacking travellers along highways. As their confidence grew they began attacking the army, as a means of asserting their financial claim: They accused their erstwhile leader of failing to honour his pledge to pay each fighter seven million francs CFA (US $14,279) after he seized power. Some had been paid 300,000 francs ($612), but most received only 150,000 francs ($306), according to an official in the CAR military.

Home Affairs Minister Michel Salley said Patasse's supporters and former government officials had recruited these disgruntled former fighters to overthrow Bozize, and promised to pay them the money that Bozize had failed to deliver.

The armed groups

Little is known about the antigovernment forces, but residents in the northwest say they are members of the l'Union des forces républicaines, headed by Abdoulaye Miskine; the mouvement patroitic pour la renaissance du peuple cenafricain; and the armee populaire pour la restauration de la democratie et la republique, none of which holds territory. While there is no official alliance between these groups, they share the agenda of destabilising the authority of Bozize's government.

The hit-and-run raids in Ouham and Ouham-Pende by these antigovernment forces have presented a significant challenge to the military, despite the army's claims that the aim of these poorly armed groups is simply to remind the government of their ability to cause havoc. Such assessments have led to government complacency and served to embolden the rebels. They have gone on to launched further attacks such as those on the towns of Bodjomo and Kabo in Ouham Prefecture, and on Bozoum in Ouham-Pende Prefecture.

The mouvement patroitic pour la renaissance du peuple cenafricain claimed responsibility for the 29 January attacks on Paoua and the killing of the mayor of Bossangoa, the capital of Ouham. Only in March did Prime Minister Elie Doté first acknowledge the existence of a rebellion in the northwest. Faced with an expanding crisis, the government responded by sending Bozize's elite presidential guards to the area. However, this has fuelled, rather than calmed, civilian fears and led to massive displacement.

The guardsmen have been accused of burning down many villages, such as Kadjama in Ouham Prefecture, based on allegations that rebels had been hiding there with relatives. A high-ranking army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, maintained that civilians withheld information about the rebels to protect family members who were part of the insurgency.

According to the CAR army, the rebellion in the northwest is a low-intensity war, launched by civilians with no formal military training. Still, the humanitarian consequences of the conflict have been severe.

Some 45,000 people have been displaced to southern Chad, and another 55,000 civilians have fled into the bush in Ouham and Ouham-Pende, said Leodegal Bazira, the representative of the United Nations World Health Organization in CAR. Most of them left their villages without their personal belongings or livestock to escape possible reprisals by the presidential guards. They have little, if any, food and no medical help, as personnel have abandoned hospitals and dispensaries. Those who sought refuge in the bush are surviving on wild fruit and roots, according to Charles Dei, resident representative of the UN World Food Programme.

Although some families have been displaced for months, they have had no humanitarian aid. While winding up a tour to the northwest in April, the head the CAR Red Cross Society, Alphonse Zarambaud, said many people in Markounda had not received a single kilogramme of food.

Bruno Geddo, the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in CAR, said that in March the agency began providing food and medicines for some 2,000 displaced people in Markounda, even though they were not refugees. He said this effort would be replicated elsewhere when there was more money. The agency is coordinating the relief operation, and the Italian NGO COOPI, as well as Médecins Sans Frontières-Spain, is supporting the UN effort by distributing aid to the needy.

Still, an increasing number of displaced civilians in northwestern CAR need further assistance. "People in the region felt abandoned," Luc Appolinaire Dondon, the MP for Paoua, said.

"In the short term, we have to provide assistance to 35,000 people in need of food and medical care in the region [Paoua and Markounda]," Joseph Foumbi, the UN humanitarian coordinator for CAR, said.

While there is some optimism about an improving situation in Markounda, people in Paoua are dying from malnutrition and malaria. According to UN agencies, the humanitarian community has been unable to assess the situation in Paoua this year due to the rising insecurity.

"Our actions on the ground are limited during armed conflict," Foumbi said.

The few reports coming out of Paoua are provided by the CAR Red Cross, which has maintained its presence on the ground in spite of the conflict. During the agency's last tour to Paoua, volunteers reported nearly 100 villages empty.

"All the villages around the town of Paoua are deserted," Zarambaud said. "People left their villages for the bush, where they built new homes."

Zarambaud said those displaced by the insecurity were at high risk of malnutrition-related diseases, as farmers had been forced to leave their land before the harvest, and their new crops had not yet matured. In addition, there are no hospitals and schools open around Paoua, where presidential guards allegedly committed atrocities in January.

Fearful of renewed government army operations in the Ouham-Pende Prefecture, particularly around Paoua, the displaced people remain in the bush. Many of them avoid contact with strangers, fearing they could be soldiers disguised as civilians.

Restoring peace

Despite the government's earlier reticence to acknowledge the severity of the problem in the northwest, it has now made the restoration of peace in the region a priority. As such, the CAR administration and the international community are devising plans to stabilise the region and end the humanitarian crisis.

"Very soon, a government mission will go to the troubled zones, mainly in Paoua and surrounding villages, to meet with villagers, discuss with them, and create a certain climate of confidence for a lasting peace," Salley said.

However, some diplomats doubted that calm would return to the northwest anytime soon. The ongoing instability in Chad and the Sudanese Darfur conflict have raised some public concern that the rebel groups could take advantage of the fact that the international spotlight has been cast elsewhere and carry out more attacks.

International and local political observers said restoring peace to the northwest is, at best, a very complicated matter that would require improving the social, economic and military situation.

There has been social and economic meltdown in the country over the past two decades, which has paved the way for the current upheaval. Since the holding of multiparty elections in 2005 that led to civilian rule, CAR has not received any substantial aid money or investments with which to revamp its economy. The country's meagre tax base can barely meet the government's expenditures. Rather, seemingly permanent social tension reigns, as salaries are not regularly paid.

"Civil servants are now claiming 42 month arrears," said Noel Ramadan, chairman of the Union Syndicale des Travailleurs de Centrafrique, the country's largest trade union.

Without a salary, civil servants are left to fend for their families by other means, which increases the likelihood of laxity and corruption in the public sector. Unemployment has also contributed to the escalation of unrest.

At the military level, so much needs to be done. Since 1981, when Gen Andre Kolingba seized power in a coup, the army has fractured along regional and ethnic lines. In addition, some soldiers are well beyond retirement age in this tiny army of 5,000, further handicapping its battle readiness.

Local military officers and diplomats agree that the army could not crush the current insurgency without external help. In 1996, a force of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa was deployed to CAR to keep peace in the capital, but later it was mandated to help the CAR army restore order in the northwest. However, so far, the force has not succeeded in its mission

For almost 10 years now, the government has been talking about rebuilding a rejuvenated army, but nothing has been done due to lack of money. The international community has pledged money for this purpose but requires the government to retire overage soldiers and to ensure that soldiers are from various ethnic groups.

"Money from the international community still remains the key need of the CAR to settle some of its domestic problems, and mainly the unrest in the northwest Paoua region," said a military official who did not want to be named.

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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

Congo-Kinshasa: ICC Defers Militia Leader's Hearing
AllAfrica.com - IRIN
June 1, 2006

The International Criminal Court will hold the confirmation hearing in the case against former Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga on 28 September, three month later than the initial date set, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has said.

"I have requested this postponement because of the resurgence of violence in Ituri which poses the problem of the protection of witnesses," Moreno-Ocampo said on Wednesday during a media briefing at the court's headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands.

"Witnesses and victims [of violence] are part of the trial; they have a role to play and that is why we have to protect them," Moreno-Ocampo added.

Lubanga is leader of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC), which is mostly a Hema ethnic movement, and has been in the court's custody in The Hague since March. He faces war crimes charges including enlisting and conscripting children and actively using them in hostilities.

The procedural phase of his case was initially set to end with a confirmation hearing on 27 June.

The renewed fighting is in the northeaster district of Ituri, the base of Lubanga's former militia group, the UPC, now a political party. The fighting is between the Congolese army, which is backed by the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and militiamen who have refused to disarm and join a demobilisation and reintegration programme.

During one operation on 28 May, an undetermined number of civilians were displaced in Libi, a commercial centre north of Bunia, the district's capital. Operation Ituri Element III was an attempt to disarm militia loyal to the Front des Nationalistes et Intégrationnistes, a rebel movement of the Lendu people, which is a rival to Lubanga's UPC.

Moreno-Ocampo said the court was investigating all the groups in Ituri but was not yet ready to issue a second arrest warrant.

Meanwhile, Moreno-Ocampo said he hoped that the governments of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan and Uganda would honour their commitment to help arrest Joseph Kony, the leader of Uganda's Lord Resistance Army (LRA) that has a base in northeastern DRC. An international arrest warrant for Kony and four of his aids was issued in October 2005.

News agencies reported recently that Kony had accepted to hold peace negotiations with the government of Uganda; and made the offer in early May during a meeting senior Sudanese official in southern Sudan.

Moreno-Ocampo said the Kony meeting could not be interpreted as a sign that Sudan would not cooperate in arresting the LRA leader. In 2005, Sudan signed an agreement with Moreno-Ocampo's office to implement the arrest warrants against Kony and his aides.

"I am happy that the arrest warrants are producing positive changes as violence in northern Uganda has drastically diminished," Moreno-Ocampo said.

However, he said Kony could still reorganise his fighters any time.

Regarding the situation in the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan, Moreno-Ocampo said a 32-man team was investigating war crimes from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and 14 other countries.

"At this moment no one can investigate in Darfur without exposing witnesses," Moreno-Ocampo said.

Reacting to criticism by Dutch International Cooperation Minister Agnes van Ardenne that the court's work in Darfur was disappointing as the investigation phase was taking too long, Moreno-Ocampo said, "I understand that disappointment but as a prosecutor, I have to be patient and go on with collecting evidence."

Regarding an application filed by the Central African Republic against its former President Ange-Felix Patasse and a DRC vice-president and presidential candidate, Jean Pierre Bemba, Ocampo-Moreno said he was still monitoring the situation.

6 Congolese soldiers convicted of mass rape get life sentences, UN reports
UN News Centre
June 9, 2006

In a case that the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been following closely, six soldiers from the national armed forces were given life sentences of hard labour for crimes against humanity after their convictions on charges of mass rape were re-examined and confirmed.

A seventh soldier was acquitted for lack of evidence in the new hearing, in which the head of the human rights division of the UN Organization Mission in DRC (MONUC), Komlan Tchangai, and other human rights defenders took part.

The convicted soldiers from the Armed Forces of DRC (FARDC) were based at Songo Mboyo. The Military Court of Equateur said the Tribunal of the Mbandaka Garrison, which initially convicted the soldiers, lacked jurisdiction over Songo Mboyo, which is in the district of Mongala and the territory of Bongadanga, MONUC said.

The Military Court heard the evidence again on the events of December 2003 and convicted the six soldiers anew, then sentenced them under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which the DRC ratified in July 1998.

The Military Court of Equateur province also ruled that the DRC Government, being responsible for the acts of its soldiers against civilians in the Songo Mboyo area in December 2003, must pay $10,000 to each family who lost a member because of the sexual assault, $5,000 to each surviving rape victim and $3,000 to each businessperson who was a victim of the soldiers’ looting.

The legal team for the defendants told the court the soldiers had rebelled against one Captain Ramazani of the Ninth Battalion because they had not been paid their wages.

Meanwhile, the magistrate of a lower court in the Military Garrison of Mbandaka has opened an investigation of Mr. Ramazani and others on suspicion of embezzling Ninth Battalion funds and inciting soldiers to commit acts contrary to military discipline.

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Darfur, Sudan (ICC)

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

AU seeks Nato help in Darfur
Aljazeera / Reuters
June 7, 2006

The 15-nation Security Council came to Addis Ababa, seat of the African Union, to consult AU officials before returning to Sudan where it is trying to persuade the government to accept UN peacekeepers by the end of the year.

The under-financed and ill-equipped African Union has 7,000 troops and monitors in Darfur, who are the only bulwark against atrocities in the region where ethnic cleansing has driven 2 million people from their homes.

"Before the UN actually takes over the African Mission in Sudan (AMIS) needs to be reinforced and we will be working together to make sure AMIS is reinforced," Emyr Jones Parry, Britain's UN ambassador, said after ambassadors met Alpha Oumar Konare, chief executive of the 53-nation AU.

According to a council member at the meeting, Konare expected more troops from Ghana, Rwanda and Nigeria to make a total of 10,000 soldiers and observers in Darfur.

He also wants back-up support, such as transport and communications, from Western nations and on Wednesday said he wrote a letter to Nato outlining AU needs, the envoys reported.

But Konare stressed he did not want Western soldiers on the ground, which Sudanese officials regard as invaders.

Peace deal

Sudan signed a peace agreement with the main Darfur rebel group on May 5, but two other rebel factions refused to sign, further adding to mayhem that has cost at least 200,000 lives from fighting, hunger and disease.

Konare and Jones Parry told reporters the African Union and the United Nations were on the same track over the future of a UN Darfur force, which is expected to happen by the end of the year, providing Sudan gives its consent.

"We mapped out between us what we would like to see happen," Jones Parry said. "At the request of the African Union, the United Nations is prepared to take over the peacekeeping operation.

Konare told reporters he was "confident" that this would happen, adding: "The troops are not coming to start a war with Sudan."

Sudan , which is an AU member, has agreed to a military planning team comprising UN and AU officials. Jean-Marie Guehenno, head of UN peacekeeping, began his mission at AU headquarters on Wednesday before heading to Sudan.

The fighting in Darfur escalated in early 2003 between African rebel farmers and Arab tribesmen, armed by the government and blamed for many of the atrocities, including widespread rape.

Watchdog criticizes Sudan's special Darfur court
The Washington Post
by Opheera McDoom
June 8, 2006

Sudan formed a special court in Darfur to undermine an International Criminal Court probe into alleged war crimes and had not demonstrated any genuine will to try those accused of atrocities, a rights group said on Friday.

"Statements made by senior Sudanese government officials made clear that one goal for establishing the (court) was to divest the ICC (International Criminal Court) of jurisdiction," New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a 32-page report.

Under the Rome Treaty, The Hague-based ICC cannot prosecute suspects who have already been tried in fair trials in their home countries.

Tens of thousands have been killed and 2.5 million forced from their homes in three years of conflict in Sudan's remote western Darfur region. The United States has called the violence genocide, blaming the government and its allied militia.

Khartoum denies the charge and signed a May 5 peace deal undertaking to disarm the militia by the end of October.

Human Rights Watch said the court had tried only 13 cases in the year since its formation in June 2005 and those were just ordinary crimes.

"Sudanese authorities have failed to press charges before the (court) for a single major atrocity in Darfur," the report said.

The ICC is due to give a report to the U.N. Security Council this month on the progress of its investigation.

Sudan says ICC investigators are not welcome to work in Darfur. The ICC has expressed concern conditions are not safe for its staff to travel in the region.

The report said rape victims were harassed instead of helped and laws covering army officers in Sudan rendered any trials ineffective.

"The information that Human Rights Watch has been able to gather on the court's first year of operations indicates there is no genuine willingness on the part of the Sudanese authorities to ensure that the perpetrators of the atrocities in Darfur are brought before (the court) for prosecution," it said.

Breakaway Factions Agree to Darfur Pact
The Washington Post
by Les Neuhaus
June 8, 2006

Breakaway factions from two rebel groups that rejected last month's peace accord for Sudan's violence-riven Darfur region signed declarations Thursday committing themselves to the pact.

The main faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement originally signed the May 5 accord with Sudan's government, but a splinter faction held out until Thursday, along with a faction of the Justice and Equality Movement.

"We shall be bound by the letter and spirit of the (Darfur Peace Accord) and shall assume and implement the relevant obligations... especially those related to the comprehensive cease-fire agreement," the groups said in their declaration.

The three-year conflict in the western region of Darfur has claimed at least 180,000 lives and forced more than 2 million people to flee. One key provision in the accord calls for protection of civilians in the region.

The United Nations and aid groups have said violence has worsened since the accord was signed, as armed groups try to secure more territory ahead of implementing a cease-fire.

Decades of low-level clashes in Darfur over land and water erupted in early 2003 when rebel groups of ethnic Africans rose up against the Arab-led government in Khartoum.

The government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab militias who have been accused of committing atrocities against the African population. The government Khartoum denies any involvement.

The former holdout factions "should do their utmost to urge their respective members and fellow Darfurians to join the peace process," the African Union's peace and security commissioner, Said Djinnit, said after Thursday's signing ceremony in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The U.N. Security Council and the African Union have agreed that a U.N. force should take over peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region and that the African troops now on the ground must be reinforced quickly.

Both organizations stressed on Wednesday that the Sudanese government must approve the transfer _ and were optimistic it would agree. The Khartoum government has been reluctant to accept a U.N. force.

If it agrees, it could be months before a U.N. peacekeeping force is in place.

'Jihad' threatened if U.N. force comes to Darfur
CNN International
June 9, 2006

Security Council envoys face opposition in war-torn Sudan region

The U.N. Security Council found strong opposition to sending a U.N. force to replace African Union peacekeepers in conflict-wracked Darfur on Friday, with one tribal chief threatening a "jihad" if non-African troops come to this vast Muslim region.

The council steered clear of the volatile camps surrounding the north Darfur town of El Fasher, where thousands of people who fled their homes have taken refuge. Security concerns were sparked by strong opposition to a Darfur peace agreement the government and the main rebel group signed May 5.

Council members met government and tribal leaders, relief workers and about 15 people from the camps representing the internally displaced.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir told the council in Khartoum on Tuesday that his government will move ahead with discussions on the possible transfer of peacekeeping duties to the United Nations -- but it refused to give an immediate green light to a U.N. force.

The government's reluctance to replace the African Union force was echoed by tribal and youth leaders invited to meet the council in Darfur.

Mowadh Jalaladin, a representative of the Barty tribe, which he said has about 250,000 members, said handing over to a U.N. force "would inaugurate foreign occupation and intervention" and remind Sudanese of the colonial past, echoing earlier government rhetoric that has fanned anti-U.N. sentiment.

Warning in al Qaeda video

The cry also has been taken up by international extremists. Al-Jazeera satellite channel on Friday broadcast a videotape by the deputy leader of al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri, in which he said the U.N. Security Council visit to Sudan was "to prepare to occupy and divide it." (Full story)

In a tape aired on Arab television in April, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden urged followers to fight any U.N. peacekeeping force in Sudan.

If a U.N. force comes to Darfur, Jalaladin said, "We are declaring jihad against it.

"It means death. It means defending Sudan and Islam," Jalaladin said.

"The root causes of the Darfur conflict are the doing of the Jewish organizations who financed this armed rebellion," he claimed. "We don't want the Security Council to be an instrument of the ugly undertakings of the United States of America."

Decades of low-level clashes in Darfur over land and water erupted in early 2003 when ethnic African rebel groups rose up against the Arab-led government in Khartoum. The government is accused of responding by unleashing ethnic Arab militias known as janjaweed who have been accused of some of the war's worst atrocities.

Khartoum denies backing the janjaweed but agreed under the May 5 deal to disarm and dismantle them.

Barwd Dusa, leader of the locality of Tina and a chief of the Zagawa tribe who also claims to represent about 250,000 people, took a much more moderate stance but still favored keeping African troops in this vast western region, which is about the size of France.

"We would like for the United Nations to help the African Union in supporting the troops of the African Union in order to enforce the peace agreement on the ground," he said.

Tribal leader: 'Train of peace ... going slowly'

Since May 5, when the government and the largest rebel group in Darfur signed a peace agreement, he said, "our lives changed, we changed, our mind-set changed and we are feeling more reassured and we celebrated at the level of the government, the individuals ...."

"The overwhelming majority of the population of Darfur in general wants peace," Dusa said.

He urged the two rebel groups that are refusing to sign the agreement to drop their opposition "because we cannot take any more war and any more instability."

"The train of peace has moved. It's going slowly, but it's gaining speed anyway. If anybody misses it, the peace will be a very difficult endeavor to achieve," Dusa said.

Ibrahim Abdurazig, leader of north Darfur's National Youth Association, also called for the rebel holdouts to sign the agreement and an "African solution."

The African Union force "respects the customs and moral values" of the Darfur people "and they don't want any foreigners to meddle," he said.

The 15 council ambassadors were greeted at the airport by more 100 government officials and tribal leaders dressed in traditional white robes and turbans and colorfully dressed women shouting "Alahu Akbar," or "God is Great."

Osman Yusouf Kibir, the wali or governor of North Darfur, told reporters after meeting the council that they had agreed on many issues.

"We are very glad that the mission of the Security Council comes to explore means to support our activities here, both on the humanitarian and the security also, and we are very glad to hear that they will do their level best to explore peace and support us," he said. "We think it's a very successful meeting."

Asked about Jalaladin's call for jihad if a U.N. force comes to Darfur, he said the transfer was being discussed with the president and "we fully respect what transpires out of the interaction between the government and the international community."

Britain's U.N. ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, who is leading the council delegation, said the council is trying to expedite the Darfur Peace Agreement.

"We've set out to the wali our concerns and what is vital is that there should be a rapid improvement in the security situation here, especially for the women, and that the humanitarian access must be better assured so that as a result of the agreement ... there should be a real and rapid improvement," he said.

Darfur's violence is spreading into Chad
Baltimore Sun
by Edmund Sanders
June 10, 2006

There was no time for grave markers. But around some of the dirt mounds, the victims' shoes were laid out neatly like slippers beside a bed.

Wild animals had unearthed body parts and human bones from the hastily dug mass graves. As local elder Abdullah Aziz Ibrahim walked through the pasture, he held his breath against the stench.

"They killed us one by one," he said. He stooped over the grave of one former neighbor to try to cover the man's exposed skull with branches and leaves.

The Darfur conflict in neighboring Sudan is bleeding across the border into Chad, and the massacre in Djawara, where 117 people are believed to have died in April, is the most gruesome evidence yet. Scenes like this are common in western Sudan, but around here no one can remember anything similar. Local tribesmen and aid workers say the tribes of eastern Chad have lived in relative harmony for years, with the occasional skirmishes over cattle and water.

But as world leaders push for peace in Darfur and the United Nations is hoping to deploy peacekeepers, the militias known as janjaweed have started using the same tactics here, stealing cattle and killing or displacing thousands of civilians, according to interviews with displaced Chadians, aid workers and local government officials.

The violence started spreading into Chad at the end of last year, but since March it has penetrated deeper and become more deadly. The number of militant groups on all sides of the conflict is growing.

An estimated 50,000 Chadians have abandoned their homes and are living in camps, often locating next to refugees from Darfur and putting further pressure on international aid efforts. Violence in some border towns has become so intense recently that for the first time several thousand Chadians fled into Darfur.

Most alarming to many here, the Sudanese janjaweed, which reportedly have been supported by the Khartoum government, are radicalizing related tribes in Chad and luring them to participate in attacks by promising a share of the stolen land and cattle, according to Chad officials, displaced civilians and aid workers. The conflict on both sides of the border pits tribes who view themselves chiefly as Arab against those who think of themselves as black or African.

"They are instigating the Arabs here," said Moussa Mustafa, a Chad-based military leader with the Sudanese Liberation Army, one of the Darfur rebel groups fighting the Sudanese government.

Victims of recent attacks in Chad say some of their attackers appeared to be Sudanese, but they insist that local tribes are also participating.

When janjaweed horsemen surrounded Djawara, located about 40 miles from the border, villagers had just finished prayers and were resting under the trees. Several hundred attackers surrounded the village on horseback and began rounding up cattle and ransacking their huts, witnesses said.

Most women and children escaped, but a large group of the men, armed only with thin spears, were chased to a nearby pasture, where they tried to hide in the trees. The bullet-ridden body of one man remained tangled in the treetops where he was shot until it finally dropped to the ground recently, witnesses said.

In many ways, the attacks in Chad mirror those in Darfur, where rebel groups rose up against Khartoum in 2003 after years of marginalization. The Sudanese government responded by unleashing a counterinsurgency, which eventually developed into the janjaweed. More than 180,000 people are believed to have died in the Darfur conflict, and 2 million, including 200,000 refugees now living in Chad, have been displaced. The U.S. calls the Darfur conflict genocide.

Aid workers and political analysts say that the violence and displacement in eastern Chad and western Sudan are so intertwined that any move to solve the Sudan conflict must include Chad.

A U.N. Security Council delegation will visit Goz Beida this weekend. Chadian President Idriss Deby wants the United Nations to deploy peacekeepers in Chad as well as in Sudan to ensure the violence doesn't shift into his backyard.

So far, the government of Chad, one of the world's poorest countries, has been unable to handle the growing emergency. Deby has been distracted by an internal rebel movement that includes former military officials who defected last year and some disgruntled relatives.

Eastern Chad has become home to a dizzying collection of militant groups, including Sudanese janjaweed, Chadian janjaweed, Chadian rebels and Sudanese rebel groups such as the Sudanese Liberation Army. All sides have been accused of launching attacks on civilians or refugees.

The local sultan in Goz Beida, Seid Brahim, who is also a leader of the Dadjo tribe, said his people deserve better. "The government is not doing anything to stop these attacks," he said. He noted that there have been no arrests in the Djawara massacre.

Humanitarian groups who flooded to eastern Chad in 2004 to assist Darfur refugees are being forced to grapple with displaced local people, as well.

"It's putting a lot of strain on our resources," said Nitesh Patel, head of World Food Program's office in Goz Beida.

In just three months, nearly 12,000 Chadians have settled on farmland about a mile outside town, not far from the Djabel refugee camp for more than 17,000 Sudanese refugees. There's not enough water to supply the two camps and the local population, stirring tension and resentment.

Soon the rainy season will begin, flooding the farmland and heightening the risk of malaria and other diseases.

Aid groups have resisted providing free food and emergency supplies to the Chad population, fearful that they'll encourage local people to become dependent on aid and create permanent camps. Instead, they are attempting to scatter families into small villages and offering them plots of farmland to support themselves.

But the situation is deteriorating, and this month the WFP began its first major distribution of seeds and food baskets.

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Uganda (ICC)

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

Interpol joins hunt for Uganda's LRA rebels
Washington Post - Reuters
June 2, 2006

World police body Interpol has issued arrest warrants for five leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), stepping up pressure on the notoriously brutal rebel movement despite its recent call for peace talks.

The Interpol "Red Notices" were intended to back up warrants for the capture of LRA leader Joseph Kony and his top commanders issued last year by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"These individuals are wanted for trial at the International Criminal Court for multiple counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder, abduction, sexual crimes, rape and child conscription," Interpol said in a statement this week.

The "Red Notices" named Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Raska Lukwiya and Dominic Ongwen.

"These are the first wanted persons notices to be issued by Interpol, on behalf of the International Criminal Court," Interpol said.

Led by former altar boy and self-proclaimed mystic Kony, who believes he is possessed by the Holy Spirit, the LRA has spread terror in north Uganda and southern Sudan, often targeting civilians and mutilating survivors by slicing off lips and ears.

The 20-year conflict, one of the world's most neglected, has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 2 million. Thousands of children have been kidnapped and forcibly recruited.

Complicating the ICC and Interpol efforts to catch Kony and his henchmen, the LRA leader last week said he was ready for peace talks, and the former rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) said it would be prepared to mediate.

Kony's long-time foe, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, has offered the LRA leaders safe passage if they give themselves up.

Kony is believed to be moving between southern Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Interpol said the arrest notice would be communicated to 184 different countries.

Sudan: Regional Government Pays Ugandan Rebels Not to Attack
Reuters / Human Rights Watch
June 3, 2006

The new regional government of Southern Sudan has ignored the International Criminal Court's warrants for the arrest of four top Ugandan rebel leaders, Human Rights Watch said today. The regional government, which acknowledges that the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has committed grave abuses, has an obligation to help bring its leaders to justice. On May 2, representatives of the Southern Sudan government met in southern Sudan with LRA leader Joseph Kony and his second-in-command, Vincent Otti, who are subjects of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court. In a digital recording of the meeting made by the Sudanese participants, Dr. Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon, vice-president of the regional government, can be seen handing over bundles of cash to Kony. On the recording, the vice-president is heard cautioning Kony not to use the money for ammunition.

"Southern Sudan's leaders should arrest people accused of horrific war crimes, not give them food and money," said Jemera Rone, East Africa coordinator at Human Rights Watch.

The LRA began its war to topple Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni in 1986. The rebels, based in northern Uganda, struck fear in the civilian population by carrying out mutilations, killings and forced recruitment of child soldiers mostly from the Acholi people of northern Uganda. In December 2003, Museveni invited the International Criminal Court to investigate the LRA. On October 14, 2005 the court issued warrants for the arrest of the top five LRA leaders: Kony and Otti, who attended the May 2 meeting; and Okot Odhiambo, Raska Lukwiya and Dominic Ongwen (deceased). They are accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

In 1994, the LRA started operating from bases in Southern Sudan. The Sudanese government provided the LRA sanctuary in territory along the border, as well military and food supplies, allegedly in retaliation for Ugandan government support of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).

In 2005, the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A signed a peace agreement. The former SPLM rebel group is now the ruling political party in Southern Sudan's government. The LRA, which began to attack and loot the property of southern Sudanese civilians once supplies from Khartoum started to dwindle, has continued attacking, abducting and looting Sudanese civilians despite the peace agreement between the LRA's Sudanese backers and the SPLM rebels.

The former Sudanese rebels now heading the southern regional government said that the meeting with Kony was meant to stop LRA attacks in southern Sudan. If the LRA agreed to this, the Southern Sudanese government stated that it would mediate peace talks between the LRA and the Ugandan government.

The regional Sudanese government defended its actions of May 2 in the media and to the Sudanese public by saying that it gave the LRA food, reportedly five tons, and some cash, reportedly US$20,000, to purchase more food supplies. The LRA has claimed that it attacked Sudanese civilians to feed its troops.

"These payments have stopped the LRA's attacks on civilians in Sudan, at the cost of rewarding the LRA," said Rone. "What happens when the government stops paying?"

Several Southern Sudanese parliamentarians interviewed by Human Rights Watch during an 18-day mission to Southern Sudan in May expressed surprise that their government gave food and money to the LRA when there are many displaced southern Sudanese still recovering from the long civil war who are in need of such assistance.

A key component of the agreement reached between the LRA and the government of Southern Sudan at the May 2 meeting was that the LRA would accept Southern Sudan's mediation and enter into peace negotiations with the Ugandan government. Kony listed several demands to be put to the Ugandan government, including amnesty from prosecution by Uganda and the ICC.

On May 13, Southern Sudan's President Salva Kiir and his delegation attended the Kampala inauguration of Museveni, recently elected to a third term as president of Uganda. According to media reports and interviews Human Rights Watch conducted with several Sudanese present at the event, the Sudanese delegation met with the Ugandan president and showed him the recording made of the May 2 meeting with Kony and the LRA. Museveni agreed to talks with Kony mediated by the Southern Sudanese.

Museveni publicly said that if the talks were successful, he would give the LRA leaders amnesty and protect them against ICC prosecution. The ICC then reminded the Ugandan government of its obligations as a party to the ICC to arrest Kony and the other men who are the subject of arrest warrants.

Riek Machar told Human Rights Watch that the ICC represented "European justice," ignoring the fact that Museveni had invited the ICC to Uganda. The vice-president, citing Southern Sudan's multiple challenges of establishing a new democracy in a long-neglected and war-torn area, said his fledgling government could not be the "police of the world."

At a celebration of SPLM/A Day on May 16 in Juba, Southern Sudan's capital, President Salva Kiir said that he met with European diplomats while in Kampala about this Uganda peace initiative. He claimed that the diplomats signaled that peace between the LRA and the Ugandan government was a higher priority than the arrest of the persons wanted by the ICC. Human Rights Watch has not verified this claim. Human Rights Watch called on all countries to respect demands of justice and accountability.

Representatives of the Southern Sudanese government told Human Rights Watch in May that it had given the LRA two months to meet with the Ugandan government for peace negotiations, indicating that they wanted an early resolution of the issue and would not continue indefinitely to provide food assistance to the LRA. If the Southern Sudanese peace initiative failed, the regional government would ask the LRA to withdraw from its territory, engaging the LRA in combat if it refused to leave. It would also ask Ugandan government troops to leave Sudan and for the Ugandans to take their war back to their own country, "where it belongs."

Background

Southern Sudan's current leaders were rebels who until January 2005 waged a 21-year war against the National Congress government of Sudan, which came to power in 1989 by a military coup led by the Islamist congress. In that month, the SPLM signed a peace agreement in which the government and rebels formed a new government of national unity.

The parties to the peace compact agreed that the National Congress would hold 52 percent and the SPLM 28 percent of executive and legislative positions in the new government. The SPLM formed an autonomous regional government in the southern region and took over 70 percent of executive and legislative positions. The SPLM succeeded in keeping its army, the SPLA, as a separate national army and in winning the right to a southern self-determination referendum in 2011.

The Southern Sudanese government has taken a markedly different approach to the LRA than the National Congress, which never attempted publicly to broker a peace deal between the Ugandan government and the LRA. Since 1994, the National Congress government supported the LRA with training, weapons, ammunition and food in bases in Southern Sudan bordering on northern Uganda. It used the LRA militia to fight the SPLM/A in southern Sudan as well as to cause upheaval in northern Uganda.

The National Congress government publicly denied its support for the LRA, but privately blamed it on Museveni's support for the SPLM/A. Museveni said he backed the SPLM politically but not militarily.

In 2001, the U.S. State Department designated the LRA a terrorist organization. The government of Sudan in 2002 gave consent for the Ugandan army to conduct military operations in southern Sudan against the LRA; that permission has been extended continuously to date. In the four years of operations in southern Sudan, the Ugandan forces have not succeeded in capturing Kony. Since the SPLM rebels took over the regional government, the Ugandan army has coordinated some attacks on the LRA with the regional army of Southern Sudan (formerly the rebel SPLA).

Peace initiatives between the Ugandan government and the LRA have had few results. A peace initiative by former Ugandan government minister Betty Bigombe in 2004 collapsed before direct talks were held with Joseph Kony. The Southern Sudanese meeting on May 2 with Kony was believed to be the first meeting Kony has held with outsiders for a decade.

Southern Sudan organises talks with Uganda's LRA rebels
Reuters South Africa
by Evelyn Leopold
June 8, 2006

The southern Sudan government is organising talks with the Lord's Resistance Army and Ugandan officials in the hope that the rebels will leave Sudan forever, South Sudan's president said on Thursday.

The Ugandan LRA, notorious for killing civilians, abducting children and mutilating victims in a campaign without clear political aim, has taken refuge in the lawless south of Sudan, which was embroiled in its own civil war for 21 years before a peace deal in January 2005.

An advance LRA delegation arrived in a hotel in South Sudan's capital Juba to set up the negotiations. South Sudan President Salva Kiir said a delegation from Uganda had been invited to join them but he gave no exact timing for this.

"You can talk about days, you can talk about hours. But it is something that is going to happen," he told a news conference after meeting a visiting United Nations Security Council delegation from New York.

The LRA has kidnapped at least 10,000 children, forced them to kill and used them as sex slaves.

Four remaining leaders of the LRA, including elusive leader Joseph Kony, have been indicted by the International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent global criminal tribunal, for crimes against humanity.

After a rare meeting between the vice president of South Sudan, Riek Machar, and Kony last month, the LRA agreed to negotiations with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

Museveni has given the LRA until the end of July to lay down their arms and begin talks.

"I WANT HIM TO LEAVE"

Asked if he would meet Kony himself, Kiir, who is also first vice-president of the central Sudan government, told a news conference, "If there is a possibility I can meet him, then why not. I want him to leave south Sudan. But it has not come to that stage. I don't know really where he is."

The LRA's deputy leader, Vincent Otti, also under indictment by the International Criminal Court, is expected to head the groups' delegation, a government source told Reuters.

Kiir said the LRA had been terrorising southern Sudan as well as northern Uganda.

"As for me, I don't want them to stay in south Sudan," he said. "This is why we have opted for peace and once this peace is concluded they would have no business in south Sudan.

"They have been raping women and girls. They have been killing. They have been looting. They have been abducting."

Kiir said he would help arrest LRA leaders if that was an option, but that this had not succeeded because "some new commanders would come up".

The United Nations has a large peacekeeping mission in southern Sudan to monitor the 2005 peace deal.

Kiir spoke to reporters after a lengthy session with 15 Security Council members, in Sudan mainly to get Khartoum's consent to a peacekeeping force in violent Darfur.

The group will go to Darfur and Chad before ending its trip in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Britain 's U.N. ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, said the Security Council had asked Kiir for a full account because the LRA was a threat to peace and security in the region.

He said the political process was to be encouraged for the bulk of the LRA but that the indictments "should be given effect."

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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 31, 2006

Dario Kordic and Zoran Zigic Transferred to Austria to Serve Their Prison Sentences
Press Release of the ICTY
June 9, 2006

Dario Kordic and Zoran Zigic were transferred on June 8, 2006 to Austria to serve their 25 year prison terms handed down by the Tribunal.

Dario Kordic

Dario Kordic (46), one of the leading political figures in the Bosnian Croat community during the war, was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment for instigating and ordering crimes against Bosnian Muslim civilians committed in the municipalities of Travnik, Vitez, Busovaca, and Kiseljak in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dario Kordic committed various crimes including persecutions, unlawful attacks on civilians and civilian objects, murder, inhumane acts, imprisonment, wanton destruction not justified by military necessity, plunder, as well as the destruction or willful damage to institutions dedicated to religion or education. Dario Kordic also played an instrumental part in ordering the attack on the village of Ahmici in April 1993. During this attack more than 100 Bosnian Muslim civilians were massacred.

Procedural Background
Initial indictment issued on: November 10, 1995
Amended indictment issued on: September 30, 1998
Transferred to the Tribunal: October 6, 1997
Trial: 12 April 1999 – December 15, 2000, 239 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgment: February 26, 2001, sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment
Appeals Chamber judgment: December 17, 2004, sentence affirmed

Zoran Zigic

Zoran Zigic (48), a former civilian taxi-driver mobilized to serve as a reserve police officer in the Prijedor municipality in north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina, was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment for crimes committed against non-Serbs in Prijedor. Specifically, Zoran Zigic was convicted of persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds and torture and cruel treatment against non-Serb detainees in the Keraterm, Omarska and Trnopolje camps. These camps were set up shortly after the Serb takeover of Prijedor on April 30, 1992, and their main purpose was to hold individuals who were suspected of sympathizing with the opposition to the takeover. Zoran Zigic entered the camps for the purpose of abusing, beating, torturing and killing prisoners.

Procedural Background
Indictment issued on: November 9, 1998
Transferred to the Tribunal: April 16, 1998
Trial: 28 February 2000 - July 19, 2001, 113 trial days
Trial Chamber Judgment: November 2, 2001, sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment
Appeals Chamber judgment: February 28, 2005, sentence affirmed

Other transfers
Nineteen other accused are serving their sentences: Dusko Sikirica and Mitar Vasiljevic in Austria; Dusko Tadic and Dragoljub Kunarac in Germany; Drago Josipovic, Vladimir Santic and Darko Mrda in Spain; Zoran Vukovic, Radomir Kovac and Dragan Obrenovic in Norway; Goran Jelisic and Milorad Krnojelac in Italy; Biljana Plavsic in Sweden; Hazim Delic and Esad Landzo in Finland; Ranko Česic in Denmark; Predrag Banovic and Mlado Radic in France; and Radislav Krstic in the United Kingdom.

US again suspends some aid to Serbia over Mladic
Reuters
June 1, 2006

The United States has suspended some aid to Serbia's government for the fourth year in succession over its failure to arrest and extradite Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic.

The cut-off of $7 million in government-to-government aid is not so much a financial penalty as a political gesture, since Washington will continue to provide much more in economic assistance to the Serbs.

It follows a decision by the European Union in early May to suspend talks on closer ties with Serbia after it missed the latest in a string of deadlines to hand over Mladic.

A statement from the U.S. embassy in Belgrade said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been unable to certify to Congress that Belgrade was cooperating with the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, which indicted the wartime Bosnian Serb military commander with genocide in 1995.

"This decision will result in the withholding of $7 million in assistance specifically to the central government of Serbia for the year 2006/2007, as required by U.S. law," Ambassador Michael Polt said in a statement.

Polt said Washington would go on sending more than $62 million in aid "to the people of this country in an effort to see your economy develop and provide jobs and hope for its citizens".

"I do not want the people of Serbia to suffer any longer for the sake of fugitive indictees," he said.

"It is time for the government of Serbia to make the right decision, to deliver Mladic to The Hague, and to free its citizens from this dark chapter of their past."

Mladic is charged alongside Bosnian Serb former leader Radovan Karadzic with genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys and the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo which killed about 10,000 civilians.

U.N. chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte says he is hiding in Serbia with the help of army and intelligence hardliners.

Serbia admits Mladic had such help in the past but Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica now says he has gone to ground.

A flurry of reports forecasting Mladic's imminent arrest dominated headlines in the run-up to the May 1 EU deadline, but the speculation has since died down.

Kosovo Serbs to cut ties with UN
BBC
June 6, 2006

Serbs in northern Kosovo say they will cut ties with the UN and provincial authorities because of a series of attacks against them.

Officials in four towns have declared a "state of emergency" in response to violence they blame on ethnic Albanian.

Attacks in recent days left one Serb man dead and two others injured. But following an investigation, the UN said they were not ethnically motivated.

Kosovo, part of Serbia, is calling for independence - a move Serbia rejects.

Leaders in the town of Zvecan, representing some 50,000 Kosovo Serbs, said their declaration was in response to recent shootings.

"All contacts with Kosovo institutions, in particular with UNMIK (UN Mission in Kosovo), are now being cut off, until those who have committed numerous crimes against the Serbs are caught," they said.

They have also urged Serbs working for Kosovo institutions such as education and health, not to take their salaries from those bodies, but directly from Belgrade.

Tensions

UN officials say the rate of ethnically motivated crime has dropped in the past six months, but Serb groups dispute this.

Tensions remain high between Kosovo's ethnic Albanians - who represent 90% of the population - and the Serb minority.

The UN-administered province is involved in UN-brokered talks to decide its future status.

Kosovo Albanians want independence, but this is strongly opposed by Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic Serbs .

Witness Describes Kravica Massacre
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) - Justice Report
June 7, 2006

A prosecution witness described on Wednesday details which preceded the massacre of 1000 Bosniaks at the Kravica farm, two days after the fall of Srebrenica.

Luka Markovic, a former employee of the Kravica farm, testified of Wednesday about the events that took place at the farm on the night of July 13, 1995.

Markovic, 88, is testifying in the trial of 11 Bosnian Serbs charged with genocide and participating in the execution of around 1000 Bosniaks at the farm.

He said that on July 13, 1995, on his way to work, he saw around 200 Serb soldiers some of whom warned him "not to walk around for the next couple of days" and to stay in Kravica farm where he was employed.

"Buses started coming to the courtyard of the Kravica storage shed. They were full of men. When the first bus and a jeep arrived, one of the soldiers told me that they would leave the men there until the morning, when they would be transferred to Tuzla 'because they had no place to put them," Markovic told the court.

During the day, 17 more buses full of prisoners arrived at the farm, the witness said. "By the end of the day, there were around 1.000 men in the storage shed."

"When they filled the closed part of the storage shed with men, they locked the door with a padlock. Then they started filling up the open part," he testified.

Markovic said about seven guards kept watch over the men inside the storage shed. There were another 30 Serb soldiers outside.

The witness recalled that one of the accused, Milovan Matic, came to the farm during the day, accompanied by a certain Ilija Nikolic and 'Obradovic' whose first name he could not remember.

"They went up to one of my workers. They were drinking and playing cards together. Soon Matic, Nikolic and Obradovic took the table and carried it into the storage shed where the prisoners were," Markovic said.

Then Matic spoke to him. "He showed me a few wristwatches and asked me whether I wanted to take one. I declined. I assume that they were taking the valuables from the prisoners," Markovic explained.

At the time of the massacre, the witness was in his office and too afraid to go outside. But, he said, he could hear what was going on in the storage sheds.

"I heard automatic fire and a group of people shout 'Allahu ekber'. The inmates attacked the guards, and they started to withdraw. Those in front of the gate started shooting. In half an hour all the inmates were killed in the open part of the storage shed," Markovic remembered.

Then the killing started in the closed part of the shed. "I heard a detonation, but I don't know what they threw into the closed part of the storage shed. Then I saw smoke and it stung my eyes," Markovic said.

He told the court that the killings stopped at 19.00 on July 13 but that he was still too afraid to leave the office.

The following morning, on July 14, 1995, Markovic said he was with Jovan Nikolic, the former director of Kravica farm who also testified in the trial. They saw the soldiers bring in about ten more men to the farm and then executed them.

"After they ordered them to leave the car and lie on the ground, one Serb soldier shot them in the back of the head," Markovic said.

"Some people came on Friday and Saturday with cisterns and cleaned the area. I did not go to work any more after that weekend," Luka Markovic concluded in his testimony.

The trial will continue on June 8.

Russia hands war crimes suspect to Bosnia: Ifax
Reuters
June 9, 2006

Russia has handed over Dragan Zelenovic, a Bosnian Serb wanted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal for rape and torture, to Bosnia, Interfax news agency reported on Friday, citing an unnamed source in Moscow.

The report followed a sharp attack on Russia on Wednesday by the prosecutor for the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte, who accused Moscow of dragging its feet over the Zelenovic case.

"Zelenovic was handed over to Bosnian authorities yesterday," the source said.

Zelenovic, a former policeman, is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague for atrocities in the Bosnian war.

He was held last August in Russia's Khanti-Mansiisk autonomous district of western Siberia where Russian media said he had been working on construction sites under an assumed name.

Del Ponte told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday: "The long and unexplained delays in the transfer of Zelenovic ... do not allow for optimism in the future of the ICTY's co-operation with the Russian Federation."

Bosnia to hand war crimes suspect to ICTY
Reuters
June 9, 2006

Bosnia ’s war crimes court said on Friday it would deliver Serb war crimes suspect Dragan Zelenovic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague after he was handed over to Sarajevo by Russia.

Russia transferred Zelenovic, wanted for rape and torture during the Balkan country’s war, to Bosnia on Thursday after tribunal chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte accused Moscow of dragging its feet on the case.

“Dragan Zelenovic will be delivered to The Hague immediately,” Judge Marie Tuma said during Zelenovic’s first appearance before the Bosnian war crimes court.

The court’s international prosecutor, Philp Alcock, said the tribunal had agreed the details of his handover with NATO troops in Bosnia. He said it could happen within 36 hours.

Zelenovic, a former policeman, is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for atrocities committed against non-Serbs in the eastern Foca region during the 1992-95 war.

He was arrested last August in the Khanti-Mansiisk autonomous district of western Siberia where Russian media said he had been working on construction sites under an assumed name.

Del Ponte told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday: “The long and unexplained delays in the transfer of Zelenovic … do not allow for optimism in the future of the ICTY’s co-operation with the Russian Federation.”

Interfax news agency reported Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying that Zelenovic’s extradition would allow Russia to avoid awkward questions about its commitment to international justice when it hosts heads of state from the Group of Eight rich democracies for a summit next month.

Bosnia ’s war crimes chamber was established in 2005 to alleviate some of the workload of the Hague tribunal. It will increasingly take over low- and mid-level cases as the Hague court winds down by 2010.

(Additional reporting by Maja Zuvela in Sarajevo and Christian Lowe in Moscow)

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International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

Official Website of the ICTR

Rwanda President Kagame: International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda 'Not Properly Handling' Job
Voice of America News
May 31, 2006

Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, told reporters at a press conference at the Voice of America (VOA) today that he believes the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is "actually not even properly handling the issues for which it was created."

"It was created to try cases of genocide," said President Kagame, "and you can imagine for the time it has been there it has spent maybe 1.5 billion U.S. dollars and it has tried under 40 cases." Kagame concluded, "I have a problem with that." The President also told reporters that his government has raised concerns with the ICTR that some of the people employed by the criminal tribunal to investigate genocide are people who should not be employed by the ICTR because they "have charges to answer about that (genocide) themselves.

Questioned about reports the Rwanda government is engaged in a campaign to discredit the depiction of Paul Rusesabagina as a hero in the movie "Hotel Rwanda" because he may seek public office in Rwanda, President Kagame responded, "I don't mind if he seeks ...the highest office in Rwanda - I don't give a damn about it because there is a process that takes people there. If he wants to come and contest this seat, he is most welcome to do that." But the President contended that claiming Rusesabagina is a hero who saved hundreds of lives "is false - someone is trying to rewrite the history of Rwanda and we cannot accept it."

The VOA Newsmaker Press Conference with President Kagame was broadcast via satellite to VOA TV audiences in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Excerpts will also be aired by other VOA language services, including French and English to Africa and the VOA Central Africa Service breakfast show in both the Kirundi and Kinyarwanda languages broadcast at 5:30 AM local time in Rwanda. Programming, including today's Newsmaker, can also be found on the VOA website at: www.VOANews.com/tvtoafrica.

War Crimes Suspect Sentenced to 6 Years Imprisonment By UN Court
AllAfrica.com - UN News Service
June 2, 2006

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has sentenced a man who supported broadcasts inciting genocide during the 1994 massacres to six years of imprisonment.

Joseph Serugendo, a former board member of the Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) and the National Committee of the Interahamwe za MRND, had pleaded guilty to charges of direct and public incitement to commit genocide and persecution, ICTR officials said today in a statement released from Arusha, where the court is based.

Mr. Serugendo admitted to having provided technical assistance and moral support to the broadcasting service in order to ensure its ability to continuously disseminate an anti-Tutsi message before and during the genocide, officials said, adding that he also acknowledged having used his influence within the MRND and Interahamwe to incite others to kill or cause serous harm to members of the Tutsi population.

"The Chamber took into account the gravity of those crimes, but also Serugendo's guilty plea and his substantial cooperation with the Prosecution," the statement said. "The Chamber noted that he expressed genuine remorse and a desire to help establish the truth regarding the events in Rwanda. This may encourage others to acknowledge their personal involvement in the 1994 genocide and contribute to national reconciliation."

Mr. Serugendo has recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness. The court has asked the officials concerned to ensure he gets adequate medical treatment, including hospitalization. He was arrested in Gabon in September, 2005.

The court decision was led by Judge Erik Mase. It brings the number of persons tried by the tribunal to 28.

UN court may not clear Rwanda genocide cases by 2008
Reuters
by George Obulutsa
June 8, 2006

A United Nations tribunal trying those accused of orchestrating Rwanda's 1994 genocide is unlikely to meet a 2008 deadline to end all trials, a U.N. court spokesman said on Thursday.

The Arusha-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was set up in 1994 to prosecute the masterminds of the genocide in which extremists from the Hutu majority killed 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Despite its multi-million-dollar budget, the court in northern Tanzania has been plagued by accusations of inefficiency and mismanagement by Rwanda which has lobbied to transfer the cases to its courts.

"It is unlikely that all the people responsible, even the big fish, will be brought to justice," ICTR spokesman Timothy Gallimore told a news conference.

"The job is bigger than what the tribunal can do," he said, adding that Rwanda would have to change some of its laws if it were to take on ICTR cases.

Since it was established, the tribunal has indicted more than 80 people for genocide-related crimes, convicted 25 and acquitted three.

Under pressure to clear a backlog of cases, U.N. prosecutors believe European nations might be able to help them ease the load, analysts and diplomats say.

However, the process is fraught with complications.

For a country to qualify, either it must not have the death penalty or assure the ICTR it would not impose capital punishment on any transferred suspects.

The U.N. court rejected the transfer of one case to Norway last month, saying the country lacked a specific law against genocide.

Gallimore said the ICTR was looking for countries willing to take some of the cases. "So far no case has been transferred to another jurisdiction," he added.

The ICTR had transferred case files of 30 individuals the court had not indicted to Rwanda, for further investigation and possible prosecution, Gallimore said.

"Rwanda is interested in having cases moved to its jurisdiction. But before that can happen, Rwanda has some things, including the death penalty issue," he said.

ICTR Has a 'High Level of Productivity' Says Its President
AllAfrica.com - Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
June 9, 2006

Judge Erik Mose - president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) - stated on Wednesday before the United Nations Security Council in New York that the tribunal has had a "high level of productivity" over the past six months, according to a statement released by the ICTR media services on Thursday.

During his regular six monthly update on the institution, Judge Mose described the eleven trials in progress involving 27 persons. The four chambers of the tribunal "are in full use" he said.

He also argued for extending the mandates of the eleven permanent judges so that they can carry on until 2008 when the activities of the tribunal are over. And as examples of the changes made to speed up proceedings, he mentioned how simultaneous interpretation from Kinyarwanda to both English and French was now possible, and how transcriptions had been improved.

The prosecutor Hassan Boubacar Jallow was supposed to be heard next by the members of the Security Council. He was to explain his completion strategy, talking notably about transferring accused to other jurisdictions and touching on the cases he is preparing.

According to the document transmitted by the media services, the president of the tribunal has confirmed to the Security Council that the ICTR will put an end to its activities at the end of 2008 and that, at that time, the number of judgements issued by the tribunal will range somewhere between 65 and 70. To date, 28 defendants have been sentenced among which 16 have completed the appeals process. 27 others are currently being heard and 14 trials are pending.

The Security Council , which created the court following the 1994 Rwandan genocide, has ordered that first instance at the ICTR trials should be terminated by 2008, and the appeals by 2010. The appeals chamber, located in The Hague, is used jointly by the ICTR and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The budget of the ICTR - provided by the contributions of the UN member states - is $ 250.5 million for the year 2006-2007. By the end of 2007, the ICTR will have cost $ 1,032.692 since its creation in 1995.

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Iraqi High Tribunal

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

Saddam trial set to resume with new defense witnesses
Agence France Presse via Yahoo! News
by Jay Deshmukh
June 5, 2006

The trial of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants for crimes against humanity is set to resume with further defense testimony after sustained attacks against the prosecutor.

Defense witnesses testified last week that Chief Prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi had offered money to potential witnesses against Saddam in the case over the arrest and execution of hundreds of Shiites in the village of Dujail following a failed assassination attempt against the Iraqi leader in 1982.

The direct attacks on the prosecution represented a marked departure for the defense strategy which previously had provided character witnesses to defend their clients or distance them from the events in Dujail.

Following the adjournment of the trial Wednesday, several witnesses were detained.

"He gave me 500 dollars and they threatened me if I ever told anyone about it," one witness said of Mussawi on Wednesday, in testimony that prompted defense calls for the trial to be adjourned.

"They wanted me to give false testimony against Saddam Hussein in an American military base in March or April 2004," added the anonymous witness who was 14 at the time of the assassination bid.

Witnesses charged Tuesday that the prosecutor had visited Dujail in 2004 to drum up testimony against Saddam -- and they also claimed many of the alleged victims of the crackdown were still alive.

The prosecution says hundreds of villagers were rounded up after the assassination bid, many were tortured and 148 executed.

Saddam and his seven co-defendants are being tried on charges of crimes against humanity including murder and torture over the crackdown and face execution by hanging if found guilty.

On Wednesday the defense produced a video showing the prosecutor at an event there in 2004.

Mussawi responded denying that the person in the video was him and produced a Dawa Party official who looked like him and had actually attended the event.

The prosecutor then struck back at his accusers, calling for the witness testimony of the past two days to be disallowed.

"We note that yesterday and today, there has been a fabricated attack against the prosecution, it is obvious that the witnesses are being coached and trained to do that," he said.

Mussawi said he would file a complaint against lead Saddam defense counsel Khalil al-Dulaimi and the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya channel that originally aired the footage from the Dujail rally.

US officials would not confirm the number of defense witnesses detained, but the Dubai-based satellite network Al-Arabiya said four witnesses were being held.

"They are being detained for an investigation so that they remain in Baghdad to ask them questions about their testimonies and the allegations that prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi was at this celebration in Dujail," said a US official close to the court.

The trial has been marred by the murder of two defense lawyers and the January resignation of the first chief judge, as well as frequent outbursts by Saddam and his co-defendants.

So far, 46 defense witnesses have testified and once this testimony is complete, defense lawyers will give their closing statements, followed by defendants' final statements, which will mark the end of the trial.

The proceedings could conclude by the end of June, a US official close to the court said last week, with a verdict coming as early as July.

Saddam's Defense Team Alleges Intimidation
Associated Press
by Sinan Salaheddin
June 5, 2006

The chief judge in Saddam Hussein's trial said Monday four defense witnesses have been jailed on suspicion of perjury, drawing accusations from defense lawyers that the court was trying to intimidate witnesses.

The defense lawyers said Iraqi soldiers beat several of the witnesses during their arrest May 31.

Three of the witnesses testified last week that some of the 148 Shiites that Saddam and his seven co-defendants are accused of killing were still alive, defense lawyer Najib al-Nueimi told The Associated Press. The fourth told the court that chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi tried to bribe him to make up testimony against Saddam.

"The court was surprised because it didn't expect the truth to be revealed this way," Saddam's top lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi said. The arrests, he said, "are a clear message to the defense witnesses and lawyers."

When lawyers complained at Monday's session about the arrests and beating, chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman retorted, "They committed perjury. Should I reward them?"

He said he had ordered them held for investigation.

The allegations revived defense claims that the trial of Saddam and seven former members of his regime is unfair. The arrests came as the defense was trying to press its most aggressive argument yet: that the prosecution invented large parts of its case using false documents and perjured witnesses.

The defendants are accused of crimes against humanity in a sweep against the town of Dujail, including torturing prisoners and killing 148 Shiites sentenced to death for a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam

The prosecution has said all 148 were either executed or tortured to death.

On Monday, defense lawyer Wadud Fawzi read a list of 15 names from the 148 who he said were still alive, died natural deaths later, or were killed in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

"There are basic mistakes in the prosecution's case," Fawzi said. "We contest the authenticity of documents presented in this court and demand the court be halted to investigate."

Abdel-Rahman ordered the defense to provide documents proving their claims and argued with Fawzi, saying, "All these demands are not helping your clients."

Al-Dulaimi told the AP the defense presented documents "proving that a large number of the 148 are still alive." He said, for example, that a Dujail resident whose name matches one on the prosecution's list of those killed works as a lawyer in another court.

Three of the arrested witnesses testified that up to 35 of the 148 were still alive. One witness said one of his living relatives was on the prosecution's list of 148 dead.

Al-Nueimi said the court ordered the witnesses arrested to scare others from testifying. "This is intimidation," he said "Who is going to trust the court that they won't be arrested?"

The defense lawyer said Iraqi soldiers also manhandled him when he tried to take pictures of the witnesses being arrested after the May 31 session. He boycotted Monday's session because of security worries and to protest the witnesses' detention.

Abdel-Rahman did not elaborate on the perjury suspicions. Court officials could not be reached for comment.

Last week, the defense also presented a video it said showed that prosecution witnesses Ali al-Haidari perjured himself when he claimed in December that there had been no assassination attempt against Saddam in Dujail in 1982. The video showed al-Haidari at a 2004 conference in Dujail boasting of the attempt to kill Saddam.

"Why haven't they arrested al-Haidari for investigation into perjury?" al-Dulaimi asked.

The court also heard two witnesses testifying on behalf of one of the defendants in the trial, Ali Dayih, before adjourning until June 12.

Saddam and his co-defendants face possible execution by hanging if convicted for crimes against humanity.

Al-Dulaimi also said the U.S. military had withdrawn soldiers protecting the defense team during its movements to and from the court, leaving them "vulnerable to any assault."

A U.S. official denied that U.S. protection had been withdrawn but said there may have been logistical issues in escorting the lawyers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment.

Two defense lawyers were killed earlier, and the team says it still gets threats. A witness was killed after he testified, and his brother was kidnapped, the defense said.

Hussein co-defendant wrestled from court
CNN International
June 12, 2006

Defense at 'serious disadvantage,' attorney claims

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Saddam Hussein's former intelligence chief was dragged out of court and manhandled by guards after arguing with the judge Monday.

Meanwhile, an American lawyer blasted the trial, saying unfair treatment was putting the defense at a "serious disadvantage."

Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman ordered Barzan Ibrahim removed after he accused the court of "terrorizing" the defense.

Iraqi guards grabbed Ibrahim by the arms and pulled him out, and when he tried to shrug them off, they held his left arm and pushed him into a wall as they tried to hustle him out the door, causing an uproar among the defense lawyers."This is dictatorial," Ibrahim shouted as he was pulled out. "You know dictatorship," Abdel-Rahman sneered.

"They are beating him in front of your eyes. Right at the door," defense lawyer Mohammed Munib shouted to the judge. "How can we ask you to protect the defendant when they beat him right in front of you?"

Abdel-Rahman banged his gavel and lectured the defense to be quiet.

After the uproar, Hussein stood and sarcastically suggested the defense and defendants leave "if this will bring you calm and quiet and give you the opportunity to reach your verdicts. ... If my presence bothers you, then I can withdraw and ask the defense team to withdraw as well."

"You are before the world, which sees through this place, whether they hear from the so-called defendants or defense or the attackers," he said, referring to the prosecution.

"People, Iraq's money is being stolen," he said. "Bloodshed is taking place every day, four times as much bloodshed in Dujail -- I mean those who were sentenced to death.

"Hussein and seven former members of his regime are on trial for charges of crimes against humanity in a crackdown against Shiites in the town of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt on Hussein. They are accused of torturing women and children and wrongfully killing 148 Shiites sentenced to death for the attack on the former Iraqi leader.

It was the second time in two weeks that Ibrahim has been thrown out for arguing with Abdel-Rahman.

The court has gotten more chaotic in recent sessions as the defense stepped up its arguments that the prosecution case is fundamentally flawed -- and possibly forged -- and its complaints that the defense team is being treated unfairly.

Two weeks ago, four defense witnesses were arrested after giving their testimony, and the defense team said they were beaten by Iraqi police as U.S. soldiers watched. Abdel-Rahman accused the four of committing perjury.

An American on the defense team, Curtis Doebbler, accused the court of discriminating against the defense Monday, saying it had ignored its requests, intimidated witnesses and rushed the defense while giving the prosecution all the time it needed to present its case.

"We are at a serious disadvantage to the prosecution because of the way we have been treated by the court," Doebbler told Abdel-Rahman. "We want to work for justice. But that must start by having a fair trial. But under the current circumstances, that doesn't seem possible. We ask that the trial be stopped to allow us adequate time to prepare our defense."

He pointed out that the prosecution took more than five months to present its case, while the court is rushing the defense, which began its arguments in April. Abdel-Rahman has repeatedly demanded the defense present full lists of witnesses.

"Our witnesses have been intimidated by the court and have been assaulted," Doebbler said. "Several lawyers were assaulted as well."

Doebbler is one of two American lawyers, along with former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, who have joined the defense team, though they have not attended every session. Doebbler is an international lawyer who is working as a visiting professor at Najah University in the West Bank town of Nablus.

"We have not received one reasoned opinion in response to our enormous written submissions," he said. "We've not been able to visit the place where the Dujail events took place. I have asked to visit the place for a year and I haven't received any answer."

Among the defense motions are ones questioning the tribunal's legitimacy, but others are more substantive, seeking documents the defense says are key. It has asked the court for the entire records of the 1984 trial by Hussein's Revolutionary Court that sentenced the 148 Shiites to death.

That trial is key to the case because the prosecution has claimed it was a cursory show trial in which the Shiites had no chance to present a defense. Hussein's lawyers have contended it was a fair legal proceeding and a justified response to the shooting attack on Hussein. The chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, Awad al-Bandar, is among the seven co-defendants in the Dujail case.

The defense has also sought an inquiry into claims by three of its witnesses that some of the 148 Shiites supposedly killed in the crackdown are still alive. Abdel-Rahman ordered an investigation, but there is no sign that one has begun and the three witnesses were among those he ordered arrested on perjury charges.

The defense argues that if some of the 148 are still alive, it casts the entire prosecution case in doubt and has demanded all the prosecution's documents be reviewed for authenticity.

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Lebanon

Security Council Report: Lebanon
UN News Centre: Lebanon Commission

Syria 'cautiously optimistic' on next Hariri report
Agence Press France via Yahoo! News
June 6, 2006

Syria said it was "cautiously optimistic" about the outcome of an upcoming UN report on the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, in which Damascus has been implicated.

"Let us be cautiously optimistic and say that if this investigation is conducted in a legal and professional manner based on fact, we have nothing to fear," Syria's ambassador to Washington, Imad Mustapha, told the Syrian Internet site AllforSyria.

UN investigator Serge Brammertz is due to present to the Security Council a quarterly report on June 15 on his investigation into Hariri's assassination in a February 2005 car bomb attack in Beirut.

Two previous reports by the UN commission of inquiry have implicated senior Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in Hariri's murder which led to protests that forced Syria to end 29-year of military presence in Lebanon.

Syria , which had been the main powerbroker in Lebanon, has denied any involvement in the killing and accused United Nations of bias.

"If Brammertz will fulfill his promise and conduct a professional, fair and thorough investigation, we would be satisfied," Mustapha said, adding: "Our only concern is if things happen in a politicized way."

Mustapha said " Syria has pledged full cooperation on the investigation and we are unwavering in this."

" Syria has nothing to do with this heinous crime and it serves our national interest in having this investigation succeed in revealing the truth," he said.

In Beirut, Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Sallukh held talks on Tuesday with Brammertz, who did not wish to comment at the end of the meeting.

In his last report to the UN Security Council in March, Brammertz cited progress in his investigation into Hariri's killing but stressed that Syrian cooperation would be critical if it was to make further headway.

Brammertz met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the first time on April 25.

UN official to deliver Hariri murder report on Saturday
Agence Press France via Yahoo! News
June 9, 2006

Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz will deliver his report on the UN probe into the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri to UN chief

Brammertz, who took over last January as head of the

United Nations inquiry panel investigating the February 2005 slaying, was expected to meet with Annan here around noon (1600 GMT) Saturday and submit his long-awaited report, spokesman Farhan Haq told AFP.

The report will shortly thereafter be passed on to the 15 members of the UN Security Council and later to reporters, he added.

Brammertz is to brief the Security Council on his report Wednesday, UN officials said. The six-month mandate of the Brammertz commission expires on June 15.

The UN probe could lead to the establishment of an international tribunal to try those found responsible for the Hariri murder.

In his first interim report released last March, Brammertz said progress was made in establishing precisely how the massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront in February 2005, that killed Hariri and 22 others, was carried out.

He also reported crucial headway in overcoming

Syria ’s initial reluctance to cooperate with the investigation.

Two previous reports under German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, Brammertz' predecessor, had suggested top-level Syrian involvement in the assassination plot, and blasted Damascus for failing to cooperate and actively seeking to mislead the investigation.

Syria , the longtime powerbroker in Lebanon, has denied any involvement in Hariri's murder and accused the UN panel of political bias.

Probe of Hariri Assassination to Continue
Associated Press
by Nick Wadhams
June 9, 2006

A new report from a U.N. team probing the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister will make no new revelations and will ask for another year to keep working, U.N. diplomats said Friday.

The report from Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz's investigators will note that Syria - which had been accused of obstructing the probe - has cooperated in some respects, the diplomats said.

Some senior-level Syrian officials have been implicated in the Feb. 14, 2005 bombing that killed Rafik Hariri and 22 others, they said.

The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because Brammertz' report has not been made public. It is expected to be delivered to Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Security Council on Saturday.

Earlier reports from the team investigating Hariri's death have implicated Brig. Gen. Assaf Shawkat, Syria's military intelligence chief and the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Four top Lebanese generals - key figures in Syria's domination of Lebanon - have been arrested and charged with playing a role the killing.

The diplomats said that Brammertz' latest report will view Syria more favorably than earlier ones, mostly because Syrian President Bashar Assad finally agreed to be interviewed by Brammertz in April after twice declining.

Brammertz was expected to brief the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, a day before his commission's mandate expires. The council will consider extending his mandate by six months, as it has done previously, or accede to the longer, one-year request.

France will back his request for a yearlong extension, a French diplomat said, also on condition of anonymity.

Other ambassadors have not made their position clear, though U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said in a speech in London Thursday that the United States wanted to give Brammertz all the time he needs.

Hariri's killing provoked an international outcry that ultimately forced Assad to withdraw the Syrian army from Lebanon in April 2005, ending nearly three decades of military dominance of the country. Syria has denied involvement in Hariri's death.

Hariri inquiry requests extension
BBC News
June 10, 2006

The United Nations inquiry into the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is seeking a one-year extension.

Chief investigator Serge Brammertz said the move would give the inquiry "a sense of stability and continuity".

In a report to the UN, Mr Brammertz said investigators had made considerable progress - although he did not go into details.

The current mandate is due to expire next Thursday.

The report says an extension would "offer assurances to staff".

It adds that Syria's co-operation with the inquiry "has further developed".

"Full and unconditional co-operation from Syria to the commission remains crucial," the document says.

Mr Hariri was killed in a massive car bomb in Beirut in February 2005 along with 22 other people.

Critics say Mr Hariri could not have been assassinated without help from Syria. His death triggered huge demonstrations in Lebanon against the Syrians.

Damascus denied involvement but eventually bowed to international pressure, pulling out its troops after nearly 30 years of military presence.

Mr Brammertz is expected to brief the UN Security Council on Wednesday on the latest findings.

Lebanese Leader's Killing Probably a Suicide Bombing, U.N. Finds
New York Times
by Warren Hoge
June 11, 2006

The head of the United Nations inquiry into the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, said Saturday that he was making "considerable progress" and had established the case was most likely a suicide bombing, but he revealed nothing new about who was behind the killing.

In a 30-page report delivered to Secretary General Kofi Annan and the 15 members of the Security Council on Saturday afternoon, the official, Serge Brammertz, said that Syria, which has been accused in past reports of involvement in the killing and of thwarting the United Nations investigation, was offering "generally satisfactory" cooperation.

He confirmed that he had interviewed Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, who had earlier refused such requests, and he said Damascus had provided timely access to individuals and documents.

Mr. Brammertz endorsed a Lebanese government request for a one-year extension of the year-old inquiry, and added that "full and unconditional cooperation from Syria to the commission remains crucial." He is scheduled to brief the Security Council on Wednesday, a day before the inquiry's current mandate expires.

Mr. Hariri, a Lebanese politician opposed to Syrian domination of his country, was killed along with 22 others when a bomb exploded as his convoy was moving along a downtown Beirut street on Feb. 14, 2005. The public outrage and mass street demonstrations that followed led Syria to comply with international demands and a Security Council resolution calling on it to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after a 29-year presence.

Mr. Brammertz, a Belgian on leave as deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, said that the investigation had painstakingly recreated the killing through three-dimensional models, animation, sound-blast recordings, forensic studies, seismological data, DNA analysis of body fragments, fingerprint research, debris trajectories, telephone analysis, the use of closed-camera footage and examination of 1,900 exhibits.

Mr. Brammertz's predecessor in the job, Detlev Mehlis of Germany, had complained that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials had deliberately tampered with the site, covering over a crater and removing crucial evidence.

Mr. Brammertz said his preliminary conclusion was that a bomb with a charge equivalent to at least 1,200 kilograms of TNT had been placed in a Mitsubishi truck, and detonated by a man either in the vehicle or near it, as Mr. Hariri's convoy passed by. He said he preferred not to describe the man as a suicide bomber because it was not known whether he had been a willing accomplice or coerced.

He said that the size of the charge was much larger than that associated with a targeted assassination, showing that the killers meant their attack to be "elevated to an almost 'guarantee' level."

He said there were still two hypotheses about the execution of the attack: either it was done in a compartmentalized way where conspirators did not know one another, or was done by a small and disciplined group aware of every stage of the operation.

He also said that 14 other bomb attacks in Lebanon that his commission was asked to study showed some similarities with the attack on Mr. Hariri.

The report was the second from Mr. Brammertz, and stuck to the judicious and technical tone of his first. Mr. Mehlis, by contrast, produced accounts that read like crime narratives and pointedly accused Syrian intelligence forces of directing the attack and obstructing his inquiry.

Mr. Brammertz did not include mention death threats against himself the way Mr. Mehlis did. But he said security was a high priority, explaining, "The focus of the investigation increases the probability of individuals or groups attempting to execute threats against the commission or its personnel, for the purpose of disrupting its mandate."

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