War Crimes Prosecution Watch

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

The Official Website of the Khmer Rouge Trial Task Force

Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal prosecutors begin investigation
Jurist
by Jaime Jensen
July 10, 2006

[JURIST] Prosecutors working for Cambodia's Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal [official task force website; timeline] began formal investigation Monday of criminal acts allegedly committed by surviving leaders of the communist Khmer Rouge [JURIST news archive] regime, which ruled Cambodia from 1975-1978 and was responsible for the deaths of at least 1.5 million Cambodians by execution, forced hardships, or starvation in the so-called "Killing Fields." Led by Canadian prosecutor Robert Petit [Globalpolicy.org profile] and Cambodian prosecutor Chea Leang, the investigation will collect and review evidence that could be used at trial. Petit has warned, however, that it could take months for prosecutors to return indictments [JURIST report] due the complexity of the cases and the novel structure of the court.

Twenty-seven of the UN assisted court's thirty judges and prosecutors [official list] were sworn in [JURIST report] at a ceremony in Phnom Penh last week. AFP has more.

Former Khmer Rouge leader leaves home
AP / Mercury News
by Sopheng Cheang
July 11, 2006

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - The former Khmer Rouge head of state left his home in the middle of the night in a pickup truck piled high with his belongings Tuesday, a neighbor said, a day after prosecutors began collecting evidence for the long-awaited trials of the regime's ex-leaders.

Khieu Samphan, 75, is among the handful of Khmer Rouge members expected to be prosecuted for atrocities committed during their reign of terror in the 1970s. It was not immediately clear whether he had absconded in an effort to avoid prosecution.

A tribunal spokesman, Reach Sambath, said court officials were not aware that he had left his home and were unable to comment.

Khieu Samphan's daughter, Khieu Rattana, said that he and his wife left their home in Pailin, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold in northwestern Cambodia, to spend about two weeks visiting a friend in Battambang province, about 55 miles to the east.

She declined to say exactly where in Battambang he was going.

A neighbor, however, said the couple told him they expected to be gone for longer.

They packed numerous household items, including pots, a portable gas cooker, a small table and sofa, groceries and clothes, the neighbor said on condition of anonymity, fearing for his safety in an area still inhabited by former Khmer Rouge fighters.

The neighbor said he helped the couple pack for their trip and Khieu Samphan's wife said they were leaving for about "two or three months." As they packed the belongings into a pickup truck Monday evening, Khieu Samphan was listening to a radio broadcast about the progress being made in preparing the U.N.-backed trials to try the regime's ex-leaders.

The couple left their home in the middle of the night, he said.

Prosecutors on Monday began gathering evidence for the trial, which is expected to begin in 2007. It remains unclear how many of the former leaders will be brought to trial.

Khieu Rattana dismissed speculation that her father was trying to flee. She said he knows he cannot escape.

"If they want to catch him, they can still do that no matter where he tries to run," she said by phone from the capital Phnom Penh where she lives and works.

Khieu Samphan was the head of state of the Khmer Rouge regime, whose reign of terror between 1975-79 left some 1.7 million people dead from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.

He has lived in Pailin since 1999. Other ex-Khmer Rouge leaders who live nearby are Nuon Chea, chief Khmer Rouge ideologue, and Ieng Sary, the regime's former foreign minister. All are expected to be called as defendants at the upcoming genocide trial.

Ieng Sary and his wife live in Cambodia, moving between houses in Pailin, Phnom Penh and Malai, another former Khmer Rouge stronghold in the northwest, said their daughter, Ieng Vichida.

"They are not going anywhere," she said. "They are old, and their state of health is up and down everyday."

Many fear that aging Khmer Rouge leaders may die before they can stand trial.

A 2003 agreement between Cambodia and the United Nations said the tribunal was aimed at prosecuting "senior leaders" of the Khmer Rouge and those most responsible for the crimes committed during its reign.

Kids: Ex-Khmer Rouge leader didn‘t flee
Associated Press
by Sopheng Cheang
July 12, 2006

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - The children of a former Khmer Rouge leader who recently left his home said Wednesday he was not fleeing a U.N.-backed genocide tribunal and believes he has nothing to fear.

His departure came a day after prosecutors began collecting evidence for the long-awaited trial of the regime‘s ex-leaders for atrocities committed during their reign of terror in the 1970s. It was not immediately clear whether Khieu Samphan had fled to avoid prosecution.

Media speculation over his whereabouts prompted government spokesman Khieu Kanharith to accuse the media of "harassing" former Khmer Rouge leaders.

Family members gave conflicting accounts of where Khieu Samphan and his wife were headed.

"He‘s not running anywhere," Khieu Rattana said by telephone. "He has no remorse in his life, because he believes he has done everything for the nation."

"He is not escaping anywhere," Khieu Uddom said in a telephone interview. "He spent years carrying on a (revolutionary) struggle in the jungle and he had no fear about it, so why should he be afraid?"

The regime‘s 1975-79 rule left some 1.7 million people dead from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.

A 2003 agreement between Cambodia and the United Nations charges the tribunal with prosecuting senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge and those most responsible for the crimes committed during its rule.

Likely Khmer Rouge witnesses go into hiding in Cambodia
ABC Asia Pacific
by July 12, 2006

Several Cambodians expected to be key witnesses in the Khmer Rouge tribunal have gone into hiding amid fears of inadequate protection and confusion over the prosecution's scope.

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, says two former prison guards have left their homes, while three others are reluctant to discuss their role at Tuol Sleng, the Khmer Rouge's main torture centre.

With the tribunal now under way to prosecute senior Khmer Rouge leaders, Youk Chhang says the guards, as well as many other former regime personnel, have become alarmed that they might also be put on trial.

Concerns have also been raised for the safety of victims testifying against former members of the Khmer Rouge now living among them.

Human Rights groups have warned lingering terror caused by the regime could discourage many from speaking out in court.

Cambodia's former king questions necessity of Khmer Rouge tribunal
AP / Ohmy News
July 19, 2006

Cambodia's former king said a U.N.-backed tribunal for former Khmer Rouge leaders will cost too much money and questioned whether it was worth it since the aging officials could die before a verdict.

Former King Norodom Sihanouk said some consider the tribunal to be ''necessary, indispensable and beneficial'' because it will bring the surviving leaders to justice and help victims find peace.

But Sihanouk, 83, said he believes the cost of the ''super luxurious life of the judges'' of the tribunal could easily exceed the US$56 million (euro45 million) budgeted for the trials.

Also, by the time a verdict is reached, ''there will probably be only one or two ... living Khmer Rouge leaders,'' he said in a letter dated July 15 posted on his Web site.

The former monarch said last week that he opposed the tribunal because it will target too few of those responsible for the group's extremist policies, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people during its 1975-79 rule.

Earlier this month, judges and prosecutors from Cambodia and abroad were sworn in for the long-awaited U.N.-backed trials of the former Khmer Rouge leaders on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors have begun gathering evidence for the trials, expected to begin in 2007.

Sihanouk stepped down as king and was replaced by his son, Norodom Sihamoni, in 2004. He is widely respected, but his opinion is unlikely to affect trial preparations.

The Khmer Rouge were ousted in 1979 by invading Vietnamese forces. In 1982, Sihanouk became president of a Western-backed coalition government in exile that included the Khmer Rouge and fought the Vietnamese-installed government until a 1991 U.N.-sponsored peace agreement.

Sihanouk also said in his letter that he doesn't think the tribunal would ease the suffering of the regime's victims.

He said he objected to genocide memorials that display victims' skulls and bones, an apparent reference to a site often called the ''Killing Fields'' just outside the capital, Phnom Penh.

At least 14,000 Khmer Rouge victims were buried at the site, which is frequented by foreign tourists.

Sihanouk said that exhibiting the skulls and bones was done ''for the pleasure of tourists,'' and did nothing for the ''wandering souls'' of those killed, and that their bones should be cremated in accordance with Buddhist custom.

Khmer Rouge 'Butcher' dies
CNN
July 21, 2006

(CNN) -- Ta Mok, the former Khmer Rouge military chief known as "The Butcher" has died in a Cambodian military hospital, government officials said. He was 80.

Ta Mok, in government detention since he was captured in 1999, was one of only two former Khmer Rouge officials awaiting trial for the group's role in the death of some 1.7 million people during their brutal rule of Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.

He and Kang Kek Ieu -- a former commander of a notorious Khmer Rouge torture center -- were to stand trial beginning next year for crimes against humanity.

Former Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, known as "Brother Number One" during the group's four years in power, died in a jungle hideout in 1998.

Ta Mok died Friday morning in a military hospital in the Cambodian capital, The Associated Press quoted his lawyer as saying.

He was transferred to the hospital in Phnom Penh last month suffering from high blood pressure, tuberculosis and respiratory complications, AP reported. He had been in and out of a coma since last week.

"It's sad news -- it's outrageous," AP quoted Youk Chhang, director of the Cambodian Documentation Center, an independent group researching the Khmer Rouge's crimes, as saying.

"Some people may be happy with this, but not the victims who have been waiting for justice for a long time."

Earlier this month, judges and prosecutors were sworn in for the start of U.N.-backed trials of the former Khmer Rouge leaders. (Full story)

The trials are expected to begin in 2007, but AP said many people fear that aging Khmer Rouge leaders may die before they are brought to trial.

[back to contents]

Democratic Republic of the Congo (ICC)

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

DR Congo: UN agency reports mass displacement in militia-ridden northeast
UN News Service
July 14, 2006

14 July 2006 – Major population displacements in the Ituri district in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have resulted from renewed fighting between the national army and rebel militias, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reported today.

Ituri is one of most troubled regions of the DRC, where the first elections in over four decades are scheduled for 30 July in a bid to cement the country’s transition to peace from a disastrous six-year civil war that cost 4 million lives through fighting and attendant hunger and disease.

Ahead of the elections, the national army has been conducting operations against militia hold-outs in Ituri and North and South Kivu provinces that refuse to disarm, with assistance from the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC (MONUC).

Thousands of people have already fled from the countryside to the province’s main town, Bunia, since early July, WFP’s Christiane Berthiaume said at a press conference at UN headquarters in Geneva, adding that some 7,000 displaced persons were currently living in a camp three kilometres from the town.

She said WFP would distribute supplies to those persons, but warned that, given the intensification of the conflict, the provision of humanitarian aid was becoming increasingly difficult.

D.R. Congo: As Vote Nears, Abuses Go Unpunished in Katanga
Human Rights Watch
July 21, 2006

Congolese Army and Mai Mai Commanders Should Be Charged with War Crimes

( New York, July 21, 2006) – As the Democratic Republic of Congo prepares for elections, the government’s failure to take prompt and effective action against soldiers and others responsible for killing, raping and torturing civilians in Katanga could encourage further violence and insecurity in the southern province, Human Rights Watch said today.

With testimonies, analysis, photographs and video, the multimedia web special entitled “The Triangle of Death: A Place of Horrors in Katanga Province” documents widespread abuses committed by government soldiers and combatants of a local defense force known as the Mai Mai during three years of violence in central Katanga. Hundreds have been killed and more than 150,000 have fled their homes from the zone of military operations that local residents have dubbed “the triangle of death.”

Incumbent President Joseph Kabila, himself from Katanga, is the current front-runner in the presidential contest, but with more than 30 other contenders, he may well face a run-off election weeks or even months after the first poll, which is scheduled for July 30. In addition, parliamentary elections require a two-stage process, lengthening the period before a new government is finally installed.

“The electoral period will be lengthy and characterized by uncertainty before a new government takes power,” said Alison Des Forges, senior Africa adviser at Human Rights Watch. “During this time, justice cannot wait. Authorities must start holding abusers accountable if they want to discourage others from using similarly abusive tactics now and in the future.”

In November 2005, the Congolese army launched a military operation to quell an insurgency in Katanga led by the Mai Mai. Government soldiers rounded up hundreds of civilians suspected of being Mai Mai, and deliberately killed or tortured to death dozens of them. They gang-raped scores of women alleged to have supported the Mai Mai.

Mai Mai combatants under the command of Kyungu Mutanga, known as Gédéon, and another Mai Mai leader, Makabe Kalenga Ngwele, have also killed, raped and otherwise abused civilians since 2002. In some cases, the Mai Mai publicly tortured victims before killing and cannibalizing them in public ceremonies intended to terrorize the local population.

The Mai Mai of Katanga were launched in 1998 as a popular resistance force against the invading foreign armies of Uganda and Rwanda, but later turned against the central government and local communities.
In the web special posted today, Human Rights Watch documents the war crimes committed by both sides to this conflict and urges the government to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators.
To date, Congolese authorities have failed to act effectively against abusers. On May 12 Gédéon surrendered to United Nations peacekeepers in Mitwaba, central Katanga. Several days later, he was handed over to Congolese judicial officials who have kept him in detention but have not charged him with any crime.

The current government has appointed former warlords from other parts of Congo, such as Ituri and the Kivus, as generals in the national army, ignoring credible information implicating them in war crimes and crimes against humanity. The most recent appointment was made on July 17, when the government granted the post of colonel in the national army to Peter Karim, a commander from the Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI), a murderous armed group in Ituri.

United Nations officials have provided the Congolese government with information about human rights abuses by members of armed groups and soldiers of the national army, including a file about military abuses submitted to the government in January.

“If President Kabila and other government ministers currently standing for elections are serious about a commitment to justice, they should not appoint suspected war criminals to high military ranks and they must bring to justice their own soldiers accused of such crimes,” said Des Forges. “A national army staffed by war criminals is unlikely to provide any security to its citizens whether during elections or after.”

[back to contents]

Darfur, Sudan (ICC)

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

Sudan , EU set for clash over UN troops for Darfur
Reuters
by Mohammed Abbas
July 17, 2006

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sharp differences emerged on Monday between Sudan and the international community over the purpose of an upcoming conference world powers say is aimed at pushing for a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

A draft pre-conference EU declaration obtained by Reuters said the European Union, the United States and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will urge Sudan to allow a U.N. mission into Darfur to replace an African Union (AU) force that has been unable to stem the violence Washington called genocide.

A senior EU official said the Brussels meeting on Tuesday would also seek funding for the AU mission until it is replaced by U.N. troops.

But Sudanese officials said the sole aim of the meeting is to secure more money for the under-funded AU peacekeeping mission in its sprawling west, where tens of thousands have been killed in three years of fighting.

"The delegation which left today is going to discuss with the EU what support is needed for AU forces ... (a U.N. force) is not the issue of the meeting," Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jamal Ibrahim told Reuters.

Omar Adam Rahama, a member of Sudan's negotiation and implementation team for the Darfur peace deal reached in May with one rebel faction, was optimistic the country could get more AU funding without any concessions that would increase the likelihood of a future U.N. deployment.

"I'm very optimistic that they will support the AU mission ... because it's the right thing to be done," he said.

The under-equipped 7,000-strong AU force is struggling to keep the peace in Darfur, an area the size of France, and has complained of escalating attacks against its troops.

The AU had wanted to hand over to the United Nations at the end of September but its leaders decided earlier this month to extend its mission for three more months because of Sudan's opposition to any U.N. deployment.

Sudan has likened a U.N. military presence to a Western invasion. Analysts say Khartoum fears U.N. soldiers would arrest any official or militia leader likely to be indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

Ibrahim said Sudan's stance on U.N. troops was the same as that outlined at an AU summit in Gambia earlier in July.

At the summit, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir again ruled-out U.N. troops. U.N. forces cannot be deployed without his consent and diplomats say little leverage is available to persuade him.

Violence erupted in Darfur in 2003 when non-Arab rebels took up arms against the Arab dominated Khartoum government, accusing it of neglect and monopolizing power.

Khartoum responded by arming a mostly Arab militia locally known as the Janjaweed, who stand accused of a campaign of rape, murder and looting. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting and 2.5 million forced into squalid camps.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol will attend Tuesday's conference, but Sudan asked that rebel leaders, who have repeatedly demanded U.N. peacekeepers, not be invited.

A May peace deal signed by the government and one of three negotiating rebel factions has been widely ignored.

World powers press Sudan on Darfur U.N. force
Boston Globe
by Ingrid Melander
July 18, 2006

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Sudan resisted pressure from world powers on Tuesday to accept a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Darfur to replace an African Union force that has been unable to stem violence that Washington calls genocide.

However, at a conference in Brussels involving the United Nations, the United States and Sudan, the EU's foreign policy chief expressed hope that Khartoum might be closer to accepting a U.N. peace force.

Donors pledged around $200 million on Tuesday to help finance the AU for a few more months, but stressed they want an eventual transfer to the U.N, EU officials said.

"Can I say that the government of Sudan has changed its position as stated by President Bashir? No," Javier Solana told a news conference. Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir again ruled out U.N. troops at an AU summit early this month.

"But there is no doubt that today a lot of things have been clarified and we are closer probably to having a change in that position," Solana said.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno said he hoped there would be progress after world powers explained that a U.N. mission would help Sudan and build on existing African efforts.

"After all, we are going there to help the government, we are going to help them protect their own people," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters ahead of the talks.

Sudanese officials, who stressed before the meeting they continued to reject a U.N. role, were not available for comment.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and 2.5 million forced into exile in three years of fighting in lawless Sudan.

Violence erupted in Darfur in 2003 when non-Arab rebels took up arms against the Arab dominated government, accusing it of neglect. Khartoum responded by arming a mostly Arab militia which stands accused of rape, murder and looting.

Sudan has rejected U.N. troops in Darfur, likening it to a Western invasion that could attract jihad militants and cause an Iraq-style quagmire.

But analysts say Khartoum objected to U.N. troops because it feared the soldiers would arrest any officials or militia leaders likely to be indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

CASH-STRAPPED MISSION

The African Union urged donors to finance its cash-strapped, ill-equipped, 7,000-strong peacekeeping force for a few more months before a U.N. takeover.

Tuesday's pledges were enough for the AU to run its mission until the end of September, but it needs a total of $440 million to run until the end of the year, AU Commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare told reporters at the end of the conference.

The U.S. announced $116 million in aid and the EU 25 million euros ($31.3 million). Other pledges were the Netherlands for 25 million euros, Britain 20.0 million pounds ($36.6 million) and France 2 million euros, an EU diplomat said.

The AU had wanted to hand its operation to the United Nations at the end of September but its leaders decided earlier this month to extend the mission until the end of the year because of Sudan's opposition to any U.N. deployment.

The U.S. and the EU said a U.N. operation was the only viable option in Darfur in the long term.

"To protect innocent lives in Darfur we need an international peacekeeping operation with the capability to address the complexity of the challenges," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer Frazer told Reuters.

Frazer said the United States still hoped for a transition to the U.N. at the end of September and would otherwise not extend financial support after that date.

Critical for donors to give aid now to African Union’s mission in Darfur: Annan
UN News Service
July 18, 2006

18 July 2006, UN News Service – Decrying a “reversion to violence” in Sudan’s conflict-hit Darfur region, despite a recent peace deal, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today in Brussels called for an end to hostilities and urged donors to support the African Union mission there, saying it was critical to act now to safeguard the agreement and stop further bloodshed.

Mr. Annan, speaking at a pledging conference for the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), described the May peace deal as a “road map” for stability after three years of destruction, but acknowledged the challenges that lie ahead in bringing peace to the region, particularly as some rebel factions had not signed the agreement.

“What must not happen, but at present is happening much too much, is a reversion to violence. Some of it is perpetrated by parties that refused to sign the Agreement, but some also by parties that did sign it. This must stop, immediately,” he declared.

“AMIS has performed valiantly, in very difficult conditions. But it must now be better resourced and empowered to perform its critical work. Unless it is, the Peace Agreement will be jeopardised, and no one in Darfur will be secure.”

While there exists “a precious window of opportunity to end this cruel conflict,” he warned that “unless we leap through that window now it will very soon close.”

Calling on those present to “make sure that does not happen,” he said: “The step we can take here is critical.”

Mr. Annan said that much was also expected of the Government of Sudan and he had discussed this with President Omar al Bashir at the recent African Union Summit, where he also repeated that the strengthening of AMIS in the short term, and a transition to a UN operation in Darfur in the medium term, are “two fundamental tools available to the Sudanese people.”

President al Bashir has agreed on the need to strengthen AMIS and to consolidate the peace accord in Darfur, which has seen scores of thousands of people killed and over 2 million displaced, but he has so far rejected the idea of a UN force as being colonial or having a hidden objective, something Mr. Annan again rejected today.

“No hidden agenda drives us; only the urgent need of Darfur’s people. United Nations peacekeeping forces – which will come primarily from Africa and Asia, with some additional, and much needed, support from developed countries – will come to Darfur not as occupiers, but as helpers,” he said.

“A strengthened AMIS and a transition to a United Nations operation are means by which the Government of Sudan can work to ensure that its people in Darfur are protected, and can give them hope of living a better life, in peace, freedom and prosperity.”

The Secretary-General said the UN would continue “active discussions” with the Government of Sudan on this basis, emphasizing that the world body, the African Union and Khartoum share the same goal of lasting peace in Darfur.

“The Sudanese people have at last set out on the road to peace in Darfur. The African Union has been with them every step of the way. Let us now make the final destination inevitable, so that millions of displaced people can return to their homes, and this terrible conflict can finally be brought to an end,” he concluded.

In addition to causing large-scale death and displacement, the fighting in Darfur between Government forces, pro-government militias and rebels has been characterized by charges of civilian massacre, rape and other atrocities.

UN refugee agency ‘extremely concerned’ at rising attacks in Darfur, Sudan
UN News Service
July 21, 2006

21 July 200, UN News Service – A spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency today raised alarm about the worsening violence in Darfur, Sudan, where international organizations have had to suspend activities in camps for the internally displaced in one part of the West following attacks.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is “extremely concerned about the continuing deterioration of the security situation in Darfur,” agency spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva just one day after three water workers there were beaten to death by a mob in a displaced persons camp in the Zalinge area in West Darfur.

“All activities by international organizations are now on hold in the IDP camps in the Zalinge area,” he said. “We are still in the process of gathering more information on what exactly happened, but this tragic incident is just adding to an already long list of security incidents that have occurred over the past three weeks.”

In the past two days, two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have also been attacked by armed men in the Djebel Mara area, north of Zalinge, UNHCR reported, citing other incidents, including the killing by bandits last week of a driver working for an international NGO in El Geneina and the fatal shooting 10 days ago of an aid worker in North Darfur.

There are some 14,000 aid workers operating in Darfur, according to UNHCR, which has more than 80 staff in Darfur, mainly in West Darfur.

The conflict, which started in 2003, has forced more than 2 million people to flee fighting between Government forces, pro-government militias and rebels which has killed scores of thousands of others amid charges of civilian massacre, rape and other atrocities.

Aid work suspended in Darfur: UN
Washington Post / Reuters
July 21, 2006

GENEVA (Reuters) - International aid operations in refugee camps in the Zalinge area of Sudan's Darfur region have been suspended after three water workers were killed by a mob, the United Nations' refugee agency said on Friday.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the three were beaten to death on Thursday in the region near the border with Chad in circumstances that were still unclear. It is the latest in a long list of security incidents.

"UNHCR is extremely concerned about the deterioration of the security situation in Darfur," the agency said in a statement.

The incident follows an attack on two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the Djebel Mara area, north of Zalinge, two days ago and the fatal shooting of an NGO driver attacked by bandits in Darfur's El Geneina last week, the UNHCR said.

The United States, the European Union and the United Nations are pressing Sudan to allow a U.N. mission to replace an ill-equipped African Union (AU) force in Darfur, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and 2.5 million forced into camps during more than three years of fighting.

Khartoum has repeatedly rejected the mission transfer, likening a U.N. presence in Darfur to a Western invasion.

Camp residents, some of whom have been in overcrowded shelters since the Darfur violence exploded in early 2003, have become increasingly frustrated since a peace deal struck in May failed to produce tangible results on the ground.

They said it does not represent their interests because it was signed by only one of three Darfur rebel factions and it provided no guarantee of security that would allow them to return home.

Refugees have directed their fury on AU troops in Darfur to support the peace process and some of the 14,000 aid workers spread throughout Sudan's vast west.

[back to contents]

Uganda (ICC)

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

Uganda: 'Dead' LRA Commander Alive – ICC
AllAfrica.com: The Monitor (Kampala)
by Grace Matsiko & Frank Nyakairu
July 11, 2006

BRIG. Dominic Ongwen of the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group is not dead, a DNA test carried out on his suspected corpse indicates.

Instead, the rebel commander is now believed to be in the South-East Equatorial Province, Southern Sudan, attempting to cross the Nile to join the LRA headquarters in northern DR Congo as talks between the rebels and the Ugandan government get underway in Juba.

The 15 LRA negotiators have already travelled from Juba to the DR Congo to meet Kony in the company of Southern Sudan Vice President Reik Machar. Their mission is to discuss the finer details ahead of tomorrow's start to the talks.

The team, which has been in Juba for the last three weeks, reportedly travelled to the DR Congo to harmonise terms and conditions agreed upon with the government, sources in Juba said.

"Dr Machar is at the border with the LRA team to meet Kony to discuss details of Wednesday's talks. We expect him this afternoon," the spokesman of the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement, Dr Mayom Samson Mayom, told Daily Monitor in Juba yesterday.

Uganda extended the deadline for the end of talks by six weeks.

If they go well, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has offered to protect LRA leader Joseph Kony, who is wanted for war crimes by the ICC.

Museveni extended the peace talks deadline for an agreement to be reached from July 31 to September 12.

Previously believed to be dead, Ongwen's suspected corpse was paraded by the UPDF in Soroti last year.

"Yesterday, July 6, 2006, pre-Trial Chamber II of the ICC unsealed the results of DNA tests conducted on the corpse reported to be that of LRA commander Dominic Ongwen,"The Hague based ICC announced in a statement Daily Monitor has obtained.

"The DNA results are negative, meaning that the body is not that of Dominic Ongwen."

DNA is the genetic blueprint that determines a person's biological characteristics.

Media reports indicated that on September 30, 2005, Ongwen was killed in Soroti.

The army relied on former LRA fighters to claim Ongwen had been killed. But contradicting information emerged hinting that Ongwen was alive.

The government requested the assistance of the Office of the ICC Prosecutor to conduct DNA tests to confirm the identity of the body.

Ongwen, an LRA brigade commander, is charged by the ICC with seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

On June 1, Interpol issued a Red Notice for the arrest of Ongwen.

The commanders is indicted with their leader, Joseph Kony and three others.

"The Office of the Prosecutor considers Ongwen to be at large. Reports indicate that Ongwen is currently in the South-East Equatorial Province, Southern Sudan attempting to cross the Nile to join LRA Headquarters in northern Democratic Republic of Congo," Mr Matthew Brubacher, of the ICC said in the statement. Those indicted on October 13, 2005, include; Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti, commanders, Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odhiambo and Ongwen.

The commanders are accused of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes. The crimes include murder, rape, enslavement, sexual enslavement, inhumane acts of inflicting serious bodily injury and suffering, cruel treatment of civilians, intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population, forced enlisting of children, and pillaging.

The arrest warrant issued for Kony lists 33 counts, including 12 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes.

Otti is accused of committing 11 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes.

ICC urged to quash war-crimes
Mail & Guardian / AFP
by Vincent Mayanja
July 12, 2006

A senior Ugandan official on Wednesday urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to quash its war-crimes indictments against the leaders of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), in a bid to encourage the rebels into peace talks with the government in Kampala.

The peace talks had been due to start in southern Sudan on Wednesday but they have been delayed for at least 24 hours while the Sudanese mediator tries to convince the rebels to send more senior negotiators.

Security Minister Amama Mbabazi visited the tribunal in The Hague to explain his government's controversial offer of amnesty to elusive LRA supremo Joseph Kony, which it says provides the best hope for a peaceful settlement to northern Uganda's brutal two-decade conflict.

"He is in The Hague to explain our position and brief the court about the [peace] talks mediated by the southern Sudan government," said the head of the government's media centre, Robert Kabushenga.

"He will tell them about the progress of the talks and it will be upon this that the ICC will make a decision," he said.

Kony and four senior LRA commanders were indicted for war crimes and other atrocities by the ICC last year at Kampala's request. But earlier this month Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni offered them amnesty if the peace talks succeed.

The court, the world's first permanent war-crimes tribunal, has reacted coolly. It has reminded Uganda that, as a signatory to the treaty that created the ICC, it has an obligation to turn over the indictees for prosecution.

Mbabazi arrived in The Netherlands on Tuesday as the chief mediator in the peace talks announced the start of negotiations would be delayed while he sought clarification on the composition of the rebel delegation.

Mediator Riek Machar, the vice-president of southern Sudan's autonomous government, is currently on the border between Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the top LRA leadership is based, to convince the rebels to send top officers to the negotiations.

Uganda wants senior commanders, including possibly Kony himself and deputy Vincent Otti, to attend the talks in Juba, the provisional capital of southern Sudan.

"We want senior people, especially from the combat wing, not those people from the diaspora," said Paddy Ankunda, spokesperson for the eight-member Ugandan delegation. "When we get that we shall board the next flight [to Juba] because we are ready [for talks]."

But the LRA has been non-committal thus far, despite Kampala's offer of an amnesty. The ICC indictments and Interpol international arrest warrants against the LRA leadership are believed to be the main reason for their reluctance to appear.

On Monday, Uganda announced that it would ask the ICC to quash its indictments and suggested that if a peace deal could be signed, Kony and other rebel leaders could face justice through a traditional reconciliation process.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and about two million displaced in northern Uganda since the LRA took over leadership of a regional rebellion in 1988 in a bid to oust Museveni.

The LRA purports to be fighting to replace Museveni's government with one based on the Biblical Ten Commandments. But it has become better known for atrocities, particularly the kidnapping of an estimated 25 000 children, mostly girls who have been made sex slaves and boys enlisted as fighters. -- Sapa-AFP

Uganda rejects ceasefire with LRA rebels
Reuters via Yahoo! News
July 19, 2006

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - Ugandan negotiators have rejected a ceasefire call from Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels as a first step in talks to end one of Africa's longest conflicts, officials said on Wednesday.

"In the past when we have declared a ceasefire the LRA has used these moments to recruit, reorganize, treat their sick and loot food," the head of Uganda's delegation, Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, told a news conference.

"While we also want a cessation of hostilities, we think it should come after everything else has been concluded," he added, stressing that talks would continue.

A ceasefire was the first item on the agenda at tentative discussions between the two sides that began on Sunday in Juba, capital of neighboring southern Sudan.

The south's regional government says it wants to broker an end to the LRA's two-decade insurgency, which has killed tens of thousands, uprooted nearly two million people in northern Uganda and destabilized southern Sudan.

But both sides appear completely at odds: the government offering amnesty in return for LRA surrender, and the rebels demanding compensation and the disbandment of Uganda's army.

Kampala had wanted LRA leader Joseph Kony, or at least his deputy Vincent Otti, to attend the talks in person.

But both are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, and have so far remained hidden in the lawless jungles of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where they crossed last year from camps in southern Sudan.

Their fighters are notorious for massacring civilians, mutilating survivors and abducting more than 20,000 children.

Uganda has set a September 12 deadline for reaching a deal.

Uganda: Patongo Massacre Suspect At Juba Talks
AllAfrica.com - New Vision (Kampala)
by Henry Mukasa
July 19, 2006

THE Government yesterday rejected a demand by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) for an immediate ceasefire as it was also revealed that a member of the LRA peace team in Juba led a group of rebels that chopped and cooked people during the infamous Patongo massacre in October 2002.

Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, the leader of the government delegation, yesterday said a ceasefire agreement, which was item No.1 on the agenda, could only be signed when other items have been agreed upon.

He said past experience had taught the Government that ceasing fire before agreeing on other principles would be abused by the LRA.

Rugunda then revealed that the man who commanded the Patongo massacre was on the LRA team.

"The Patongo/Omoti incident where innocent people were chopped and cooked in the open was perpetrated and supervised by one of the people on the LRA delegation here at the Juba peace talks claiming to be fighting injustice," Rugunda told a press briefing yesterday.

Declining to name the person, Rugunda charged that it was untenable for the LRA to shamelessly blame the Barlonyo and Patongo massacres on the UPDF.

"This Barlonyo incident was investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which came out with the evidence implicating the LRA. Hence the indictment of Odhiambo," said Rugunda in reaction to attacks on government contained in the LRA's position paper presented during debate on July 16.

Sources later told The New Vision that the LRA commander implicated in the Patongo massacre was Sunday Ochaya alias Otto.

Ochaya retorted that he should not be accused since he was in Juba in search of peace.

Disagreement between the Government and LRA was first noticed after Tuesday's session when the teams left the talks venue, Juba Raha Hotel, at different intervals; the government side first and the LRA's minutes later.

The chief mediator, Southern Sudan vice-president Dr. Riek Machar, also skipped what had become a traditional briefing to the press after a day's session.

Rugunda told the press at the Civicon Oasis camp that the LRA had in the past used the ceasefire to "recruit and arm their fighters, re-organise their forces, treat their sick, unearth buried arms and ammos, loot and stock food, rejuvenate collaborators' networks and continue with the hostilities."

"A repeat of the above shall definitely not be allowed this time round," Rugunda said.

"Government's position on agenda item No.1 is that it is only upon signing of a conclusive peace agreement, that all forms of hostilities between the parties to the agreement shall totally, permanently and unequivocally cease," he added.

His deputy, international relations minister Henry Okello Oryem, nodded in agreement as Rugunda nicknamed 'Ndugu' spoke. Other members of the government delegation, PS Kagoda, CMI boss Leo Kyanda, ESO boss Makku Iga and northern intelligence chief Charles Otema Awany stood beside the ministers.

Separately, LRA spokesperson Obonyo Olweny said, "It is now clear to the world that it is the government which is trying to derail the peace talks by refusing to discuss an agenda which has been agreed upon by the delegations and signed by the leaders. They have no reason to backtrack. The LRA is willing to discuss any and all the agenda anytime because we want to reach a comprehensive peace agreement soon."

Rugunda sounded bitter about the LRA's stinging attack on the Government. "The LRA delegation as has been demonstrated by those in their peace team here is not negotiating in good faith, judging by the statements, utterances and belligerence shown by the LRA delegation."

However, he insisted that the peace process was on course and he was "prepared and committed to carry on expeditious talks with the LRA."

"Within a few days it is expected, if the LRA team is willing and ready, a peace agreement shall be concluded. Among other things the peace agreement shall comprehensively take care of the cessation of hostilities," he said.

Rugunda said an agenda is like a table of contents in a textbook. "You can start with chapter one or five."

"The difference is that the LRA wants immediate cessation of hostilities. The position of government is that we support cessation of hostilities but as part and parcel of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement," he explained.

"We have said that since there are divergent views, let's stand over. There is no contradiction. I see this as a minor difference on what date should the ceasefire begin."

Rugunda said the question of power-sharing must not arise because the government in Kampala was elected and was governing the country according to the constitution. He said the LRA was engaged in rebellion, which was treasonable but were offered amnesty out of magnanimity.

"We are talking to our brothers who have been in rebellion. Our primary objective is to bring them home, integrate them in society and let them participate in daily life. The intention of government must be seen as serious," he said.

He said LRA's attack on government was "unacceptable." "All this is aimed at cleansing the bad image of LRA to make it appear as if the LRA has a political agenda and is fighting for a noble cause," Rugunda said.

Uganda: Lawyers Slam Museveni's LRA Amnesty Offer
AllAfrica.com - The Monitor (Kampala)
by Peter Nyanzi
July 19, 2006

THE International Bar Association has criticised President Yoweri Museveni's offer of a blanket amnesty to rebel leader Joseph Kony, saying he is trying to use the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a tool of the Ugandan government.

"The ICC is not a political tool of the Ugandan Government," said Justice Richard Goldstone, Co-Chair of the IBA's Human Rights Institute in a statement issued from London on Thursday.

" Uganda is a State Party to the Rome Statute. It cannot unilaterally withdraw the ICC arrest warrants." Security Minister Amama Mbabazi flew to the Netherlands early this week to convince the Hague-based International Criminal Court to drop indictments against Kony and four of his top commanders to pave way for the peace talks being mediated by the Government of Southern Sudan.

The LRA chiefs were indicted last year following a December 2003 request by the Government of Uganda. The men are wanted to answer charges of crimes against humanity among others.

Goldstone, a former Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and a retired South African Constitutional Court Judge, said the "ICC is an independent judicial institution mandated to investigate and prosecute the most serious crimes of international concern."

[back to contents]

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Official Website of the ICTY

Popovic et al. 'Srebenica' Trial to Begin on 14 July 2006
Press Release of the ICTY
July 11, 2006

The trial of seven senior Bosnian Serb military and police officers facing charges ranging from genocide to murder and deportation for the crimes committed in Srebrenica, will begin on Friday, 14 July at 9.00 a.m. in Courtroom III.

Charges against Vujadin Popovic, Ljubisa Beara, Drago Nikolic, Ljubomir Borovcanin and Vinko Pandurevic, include genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, extermination, murder, persecutions, forcible transfer and deportation. Zdravko Tolimir, is also charged with these crimes but is currently still at large. Radivoje Miletic and Milan Gvero are indicted for murder, persecutions, forcible transfer and deportation. All these charges relate to the mass murder and ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica after the fall of the former UN safe haven to Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995.

The Prosecution’s indictment alleges that, following the Bosnian Serb take-over of Srebrenica, thousands of Bosnian Muslims, including women, children, and some men, fled, seeking protection, to the UN base in Potocari, just north of Srebrenica. At the same time, approximately 15,000 Bosnian Muslims fled the enclave through the woods in a separate column towards the government-held city of Tuzla. Approximately one third of this group consisted of armed Bosnian Muslim military personnel. The rest were civilians and unarmed military personnel.

The indictment states Ratko Mladic, Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, and members of his staff developed a plan to murder the hundreds of men within the crowd of Muslims in Potocari. The large scale systematic murder of Muslim men from Srebrenica began on the morning of 13 July at approximately 11.00 a.m. and continued through July 1995. At the same time, the Bosnian Serb military and police forces transported thousands of Bosnian women, children and elderly men out of the area. The Bosnian Serb forces continued killing the captured Bosnian Muslim men from the Srebrenica enclave through July and August.

From about 1 August 1995 through about 1 November 1995, Bosnian Serb Army and police personnel including Vujadin Popovic, Drago Nikolic, Milorad Trbic and Vinko Pandurevic participated in an organized and comprehensive effort to conceal the killings and executions by reburying bodies exhumed from initial mass graves to secondary graves.

A pre-trial conference will be held on Thursday, 13 July 2006 at 14.15 p.m. in Courtroom III, all seven accused will be present.

The full text of the indictment can be found at: http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/pop-scai060614.pdf

UN war crimes trial starts against 7 Serbs
CBC News
July 14, 2006

Eleven years after 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed at Srebrenica, a UN court has begun the trial of seven of the alleged perpetrators.

The senior Bosnian Serb military and police officers are facing charges relating to the mass murder and ethnic cleansing of Muslims in the former Yugoslavia in 1995. The case is before the UN International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.

The indictment says Serb army commander Ratko Mladic and members of his staff developed a plan to murder Muslims leaving Srebrenica after the Serbs captured the city.

"The large scale systematic murder of Muslim men from Srebrenica began on the morning of 13 July at approximately 11 a.m. and continued through July 1995. At the same time, the Bosnian Serb military and police forces transported thousands of Bosnian women, children and elderly men out of the area," the prosecution alleged.

After the killings, Serb army and police officers tried to cover up the killings by reburying bodies exhumed from mass graves, the prosecution said.

Five of the seven accused face charges including genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, extermination, murder, persecutions, forcible transfer and deportation.

Two others are accused of murder, persecutions, forcible transfer and deportation.

All have pleaded not guilty.

But two top Serbs implicated in the genocide, former leader Radovan Karadzic and army commander Mladic, are still at large.

Another man alleged to have had an important role in the slaughter, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, died in March, during his trial.

On Friday, prosecutor Carla del Ponte tried to talk about a ceremony in Srebrenica this week to mark the anniversary of the massacre. But defence lawyers objected, saying that kind of emotive statement should wait for formal opening statements, scheduled for Aug. 21.

"No emotion. Absolutely no emotion. Facts, my dear defence lawyers, facts," she replied. But the judges agreed with the defence.

The five who face charges including genocide are Vujadin Popovic, Ljubisa Beara, Drago Nikolic, Ljubomir Borovcanin and Vinko Pandurevic.

The two facing the other group of charges are Radivoje Miletic and Milan Gvero.

With files from the Associated Press.

Serbia: Nine alleged aides of war crimes suspect Mladic charged
Associated Press via San Diego Union-Tribune
by Jovana Gec
July 14, 2006

BELGRADE, Serbia – Criminal charges were filed Friday against nine people accused of helping U.N. war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic evade justice, a prosecutor said.

The nine were indicted for “hiding and helping hide Mladic although they knew that he was charged” with war crimes, said the prosecutor's statement, carried by the Beta news agency.

The statement also said that any court trying the nine should take into account the “social peril that resulted from the criminal act,” and the consequences to Serbia's international position.

Belgrade 's failure to capture Mladic – at large since 1995 despite a genocide indictment against him by a U.N. court – has led to suspension of its pre-entry talks with the European Union.

The suspension in May dealt a major blow to Serbia's efforts at pro-Western reform and international integration following years of pariah status under former President Slobodan Milosevic.

Belgrade has maintained it has been unable to locate Mladic, despite claims by the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, that the general is hiding here under protection from nationalist hardliners.

Mladic was charged with genocide for allegedly orchestrating the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, and for other war crimes of Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

The charges against his alleged helpers in Serbia are apparently part of stepped up efforts to find Mladic, but also to persuade EU officials that the government is doing its best to hunt him down.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica will travel next week to Brussels to present an “action plan” for Mladic's arrest that reportedly would include help from the EU and the United States.

Kostunica has criticized the EU decision to suspend pre-membership talks, saying it played into hands of the nationalists.

Former Karadzic minister charged with war crimes
Reuters
July 17, 2006

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnia's war crimes chamber on Monday charged former Bosnian Serb minister Momcilo Mandic with war crimes committed during the country's 1992-95 war.

Mandic served as deputy interior minister and justice minister in the government of then Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, now a war crimes fugitive. Mandic is already on trial for abuse of office, organised crime and aiding his former boss.

The indictment said he led an attack by Bosnian Serb police forces and military and paramilitary units on the interior ministry's training centre in Sarajevo in April 1992.

"The indictment further alleges that the accused, having the duties of justice minister ... was exclusively responsible for the functioning of the correctional facilities in the Serb Republic between May and December 1992," the court said in a statement.

The prisons, two near the Bosnian capital and one in the eastern town of Foca, were allegedly run as detention camps where many non-Serbs were illegally imprisoned, it added.

Earlier this year, Mandic and three other top Bosnian Serb officials were charged with corruption that led to the bankruptcy of the Privredna Banka bank in the Serb part of Sarajevo, after depositors' funds were transferred to political party accounts.

Some funds are believed to have gone to finance the support network of Karadzic, who is indicted by the United Nations war crimes court for genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo.

Mandic left Bosnia towards the end of the war and moved to Belgrade where he became a wealthy businessman. He was arrested last August in Montenegro and transferred to Bosnia.

EU Hails Serbia Mladic Plan, Membership Talks Stay Halted
Associated Press via Serbianna
July 22, 2006

BRUSSELS (AP)--The European Union on Monday hailed Serbia's new plan to track down and arrest fugitive war crimes suspect Gen. Ratko Mladic, but stopped short of committing itself to resume crucial pre-membership negotiations suspended in May.

"For us the action plan provides a very good basis for our further work and cooperation," said Finland's Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomoija, whose country now holds the E.U.'s rotating presidency.

Earlier in the evening, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica briefed E.U. leaders on the contents of the so-called Action Plan. Although no details of the three-page document were released, officials said it details measures to apprehend Mladic, who is wanted on charges of involvement in genocide during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

"Obviously the plan is still to be developed further, but effective implementation of the action plan can and must begin immediately," Tuomoija told journalists at a joint news conference.

"This is now opening the way for the full cooperation with (the U.N. court), that the negotiations on a Stabilization and Association Agreement that we started with Serbia can be resumed and thus facilitates Serbia's way toward the European Union," he said.

But Tuomoija refrained from setting a firm date or making a specific commitment to restart the talks before Mladic is actually delivered to the court in The Hague.

Belgrade has been hoping the grouping will accept its assurances and restart negotiations even if Mladic remains at large.

Both E.U. and Serbian government officials have warned that Serbia's continued isolation could radicalize the electorate and result in a victory for a far-right party opposed to cooperation with the E.U. in next year's general elections.

An agreement on association with the E.U. is seen as a way of kick-starting economic reforms and avoiding defeat in the upcoming ballot.

"We should be more than optimistic," Kostunica said. "The action plan will enable firm cooperation with the (U.N. court) and will enable us to continue pre-accession talks with the E.U."

He pointed out that Belgrade had extradited 16 indicted war criminals to the international court in the past year, and vowed to continue "transparent and full" cooperation with international prosecutors.

Kostunica's visit to Brussels is part of a major diplomatic offensive mounted to persuade the E.U. and the U.S. to lift the partial international isolation that has dealt a major blow to Kostunica's efforts at reform, following years of economic sanctions under ex-President Slobodan Milosevic.

On Tuesday, Serbian President Boris Tadic will follow Kostunica to Brussels, where he will meet top E.U. and NATO officials. Last week, Kostunica visited Washington and held talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

E.U. officials also have acknowledged that a victory for the far-right Radical Party - already the most popular in Serbia - in next year's elections could roll back much of the work done to stabilize the western Balkans following Yugoslavia's bloody breakup.

One of the issues the Radical Party has been capitalizing on are the talks on the future status of Kosovo, conducted in Vienna under former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari. They have threatened to declare Serbia's province of Kosovo - which has been under U.N. administration and patrolled by NATO peacekeepers since 1999 - an "occupied region."

On Monday, E.U. foreign ministers welcomed Ahtisaari's intention to move forward into direct political talks on the final status issue. Many see the political talks as the first move toward recognizing Kosovo, considered by Serbs as their nation's historical heartland, as an independent nation.

[back to contents]

Iraqi High Tribunal

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

Hussein trial adjourns to resolve defense boycott
CNN / AP
July 11, 2006

BAGHDAD , Iraq (AP) -- Two defendants in the trial of Saddam Hussein made their closing arguments Tuesday before the judge adjourned the proceedings for nearly two weeks in an attempt to resolve a boycott of the court by the former Iraqi leader and his lawyers.

Chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman said the court would resume on July 24 and warned that if the lawyers did not agree to return by then, court-appointed lawyers would make the final arguments for Saddam and three other top defendants in the case.

"The absence of the original lawyers to defend the defendant will harm the client's case," Abdel-Rahman said.

It was not clear if the long adjournment would delay verdicts in the nine-month-old trial, expected in mid-August. The court had hoped to hear the closing arguments for all eight defendants this week and next before the judges adjourn to deliberate.

But lawyers for Saddam, Barzan Ibrahim, Taha Yassin Ramadan and Awad al-Bandar announced Monday they were boycotting the final phase of the trial unless their demands were met, including greater security after the slaying of one of their colleagues last month.

Saddam also said he was boycotting, denouncing the court as unfair and a tool of the Americans.

On Monday, Abdel-Rahman dismissed the defense demands, saying some of them were against court rules and others were not in its purview.

Court spokesman Raid Juhi said Tuesday the court would not negotiate with the defense and that the recess aimed only to give the defense more time.

"There won't be any attempts on the part of the court," he told The Associated Press. "The lawyers' duty is to defend their clients. But at the same time, we are committed to going ahead with proceedings."

He said the two-week recess would give court-appointed lawyers time to prepare their closing arguments for Saddam and the others if necessary.

Saddam and seven former members of his regime are on trial for their roles in a crackdown against Shiites in the town of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt against the then-Iraqi leader. They are accused of arresting hundreds of people, torturing women and children and killing 148 people sentenced to death for the attack on the former Iraqi leader.

This week, the court heard the final arguments of four lower-level defendants in the case, including Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid and his son Mizhar on Tuesday. The two men are accused of informing on Dujail residents who were later killed.

Mizhar Ruwayyid insisted he was innocent.

"Dujail's people are my family and my tribe, we are connected in blood," he said. "My wife is Shiite and my son's wife is Shiite."

"I ask your honor for mercy for my family and myself," he said.

Abdullah Ruwayyid's lawyer said alleged informant letters by him that had been presented as evidence by the prosecution were forgeries.

A defense boycott in the trial's final phase throw doubt on the fairness of the proceedings -- a major concern as the tribunal prepares to begin a second trial of Saddam on August 21.

In that trial, Saddam and six other former members of his regime will face charges of genocide for the Anfal Campaign in the 1980s that killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds and saw thousands of Kurdish villages razed.

The defense began its boycott after the slaying of Khamis al-Obeidi, who was kidnapped from his Baghdad home on June 21 and shot to death. The defense team has blamed the slaying on Shiite militiamen.

In a letter to the court, the defense said it wanted "real and actual security for the defense lawyers and their families" by U.S. authorities.

It also demanded a 45-day recess to allow it to prepare its closing statements and a promise from the court that it would be allowed to take as long as it wishes in its final arguments.

Juhi, the court spokesman, said the defense had already rejected an offer of the same security precaution given to the judges and prosecution lawyers: residence inside the Green Zone, the fortified Baghdad neighborhood where the court is located.

Saddam, 3 Co-Defendants on Hunger Strike
Washington Post / AP
by Kim Gamel, The Associated Press
July 12, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Saddam Hussein and three of his co-defendants have been on a hunger strike for nearly a week to protest what the defense says is a lack of security for their attorneys, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

Lawyers for Saddam and co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim, Taha Hussein Ramadan and Awad al-Bandaron announced a boycott of the proceedings this week unless their demands were met for greater security after one of their colleagues was killed last month.

Saddam and the three others "have now refused meals since their evening meal on July 7," Lt. Col. Keir-Kevin Curry, spokesman for U.S. military detainee operations, told The Associated Press in an e-mail.

"All are protesting the Iraqi High Tribunal procedures and security for the defense attorneys," he said.

The four defendants were in "good health and receiving appropriate medical care," with access to physicians at all time, he said, adding that more medical attention will be focused on those detainees who continue to refuse meals.

"Saddam has participated in various hunger strikes during his detention, but his health has never been in danger," Curry said.

The judge called a two-week recess in Saddam's trial on Tuesday and warned the defense attorneys that if they did not attend the next session, court-appointed lawyers would make Saddam's closing arguments.

The defense walkout was sparked by the June 21 slaying of Khamis al-Obeidi, the third member of the team to be assassinated since the trial began last October. The defense team has blamed Shiite militiamen for al-Obeidi's death.

In a letter to the court, the defense said it wanted U.S. authorities to provide security for the lawyers and their families. It also demanded a 45-day recess to allow it to prepare its closing statements and a promise from the court that it would be allowed to take as long as it wishes in its final arguments.

Court spokesman Raid Juhi said the defense had rejected an offer of the same security precaution given to the judges and prosecution lawyers: residence inside the Green Zone, the fortified Baghdad neighborhood where the court is located.

It was not clear if the adjournment until July 24 will mean a delay in the issuing of verdicts in the 9-month-old trial. Court officials had predicted the verdicts would come in mid-August.

Saddam and seven former members of his regime are charged in the crackdown on Shiites in the town of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against the Iraqi leader.

Saddam gets counseling to end hunger strike: US
Reuters
July 19, 2006

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein is receiving psychiatric counseling to convince him to start eating again after 12 days on hunger strike in a U.S. military prison.

Saying that the 69-year-old ousted Iraqi president was still refusing food but taking liquid nourishment, a U.S. spokesman said such counseling was part of additional daily medical care for inmates who risked damaging their health by their actions.

"Medical and mental health professionals counsel the detainees on the dangers," Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry said. "They try to convince the detainees to end their fast."

Saddam and three co-defendants who last ate on July 7 are all healthy, Curry said.

A lawyer for Saddam, who is due back in court on Monday, has said his client's health has suffered but that he is determined to pursue the protest until U.S. officials improve protection for defense attorneys and meet other demands on the trial.

U.S. officials involved with the Iraqi court trying Saddam and seven others for crimes against humanity have said that a defense lawyer killed last month, the third since the trial began, had refused U.S. offers of protection.

The defense team responded to a letter in English from a foreign legal adviser to the court urging them to end a boycott of the proceedings by publishing the letter, describing it as a threat and complaining it should have been written in Arabic.

Saddam pins war on Bush, pro-Israel lobby
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
by Basem Mroue
July 21, 2006

Saddam Hussein said in a letter released Friday that President Bush and pro-Israel groups lied to Americans to justify the Iraq war, and he added that Iran "and its agents" helped facilitate the aggression.

Saddam also urged Americans to "save your country and leave Iraq" in a letter written in prison to the American people and released by his lawyers in Jordan.

"I see that officials of your administration are still lying to you and they still do not give you a true explanation for the reasons that motivated them to rush on the road of aggression against Iraq," Saddam wrote.

Saddam said seven years of U.N. inspections failed to find evidence that Iraq was still trying to build weapons of mass destruction.

"They also exploited the so-called war on terrorism which prevailed in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks" to claim a link between Iraq and al-Qaida, Saddam said.

The real reason for the war was to prevent Iraq from pursuing the "legitimate aspirations to develop its economy, culture and civilization," he said.

"They also wanted to achieve an important Zionist objective and to gain ground within their own constituency. Iran and its agents played a dirty role in decorating and facilitating the aggression."

He said the war had tarnished America's "reputation and esteem" around the world.

"Look at the American citizen, who was used to traveling anywhere he liked and being welcomed in any country he visited. Nowadays, an American cannot walk outside America unless he has a mine detector. The Department of the State issues one warning after another to inform you about the countries that have become dangerous for you."

He said the loss of prestige was due to the "reckless behavior of your government, pushed by Zionism and influential centers of power which led to the commission of these crimes and scandals in order to attain certain interests which do not include the interest of the American people."

Saddam said most Americans could not question U.S. strategy before the war began because "the Zionist people within the (pro-Israel) lobby that was pushing for war" was "deceiving you so you were confused and lost the ability to see the truth as it was."

Now, Saddam said the American people must decide whether to "allow the killing machine to continue grinding the flesh of both the Iraqis and the Americans" or to act "decisively to stop it."

The letter was released three days before Saddam's trial resumes Monday. Saddam and seven others have been on trial since Oct. 19 for the deaths of Shiite Muslims in a crackdown that followed a 1982 assassination attempt against the Iraqi leader in Dujail.

Saddam and three others have been refusing food since July 7 to demand better security for defense lawyers. Three of them have been slain since the trial began.

Saddam's defense team urged Arab and international organizations Friday to ensure that the ex-president receives a fair trial and warned that his health could worsen because he was not eating.

"If President Saddam Hussein and his comrades continue their hunger strike, their health situation will deteriorate and the American occupation forces in Iraq will be held responsible," the statement said.

The lawyers also called on the United Nations and other international organizations to support their demands for a thorough investigation into last month's assassination of defense lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi.

Hussein Is Hospitalized, Being Fed after Collapse
Los Angeles Times
byJulian E. Barnes and Zainab Hussein
July 24, 2006

BAGHDAD — With his trial on charges of mass murder about to resume, Saddam Hussein collapsed in his jail cell Sunday, more than two weeks into a hunger strike that had left him gaunt and physically deteriorated, authorities said.

After Hussein's collapse, the defense team pledged to boycott the remainder of the trial due to resume today in what some believed was a last-ditch effort to undermine the legitimacy of the war crimes tribunal. But prosecutors pledged that the trial would resume with or without Hussein and his lawyers.

Hussein was hospitalized and being treated by American medical personnel following his collapse. A U.S. military spokesman said Hussein was voluntarily being fed through a tube and that his condition was not life-threatening.

The defense team's closing arguments were due to start today. The lawyers said the restrictions placed on them by the court meant that they could not mount an adequate defense or closing argument. They said they would not return to the tribunal, and would fight for Hussein at the appellate level.

"We will go to the appeals court," said Najib Nueimi, one of Hussein's lawyers. "We have had enough; they don't follow procedures."

Despite Hussein's condition, "there will be a trial" today, said Jaafar Mousawi, the chief prosecutor, "and if the defense attorneys don't show up, the appointed defense attorneys will carry out their job."

Nueimi objected to the court-appointed defense lawyers, complaining that they were Shiite Muslims who had no desire to see Hussein get a fair trial.

Hussein, who is from Iraq's Sunni Muslim Arab minority, faces the death penalty if he is convicted on charges that he ordered the massacre of 148 Shiites from the village of Dujayl in 1982. The alleged mass killings were in retribution for an attempt on Hussein's life when he visited the village. The proceeding is likely to be the first of several trials dealing with the crimes of the regime toppled in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Hussein is set to go on trial again next month for war crimes committed against Iraq's Kurdish minority.

Nueimi said prosecutors wanted the defense team in the courtroom so they could claim that Hussein's trial was legal, but that they refused to let its members aggressively defend the former dictator.

"They want us to be there," Nueimi said, "so they can hang him and say there was a fair trial."

Michael P. Scharf, a Case Western Reserve University law professor who helped train judges for the tribunal, said Hussein had been given ample opportunity to address the court, and that the proceeding would not be harmed if it went on without the defendant.

"He cannot rob the court of legitimacy because he has voluntarily made himself ill," Scharf said.

Scharf criticized the defense team for making overtly political arguments in the trial, and said Hussein might be better off if his counsel boycotted today's session and the court-appointed lawyers made the closing arguments.

After Hussein's collapse, his defense team began drawing a parallel to former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, who died during his war crimes trial at The Hague.

"They want the same thing that happened to Milosevic to happen to Saddam," Nueimi said. "We think something unusual is going on."

Before his death, Milosevic had claimed he was being poisoned. But investigators ruled out poisoning and said Milosevic died of a heart attack that occurred after he took unprescribed medication.

Nueimi said the defense team told American military officials that Hussein's condition was worsening, only to be told his health was fine. Army Lt. Col. Keir-Kevin Curry, a spokesman for the U.S. detention command, said Hussein continued to refuse to eat but was voluntarily receiving nutrition through a feeding tube.

"We've got medical professionals on site who evaluate their medical condition on a daily basis for those who are refusing meals," Curry said.

Tariq Harab, an Iraqi legal expert, said the hunger strike was a delaying tactic.

"He wants to gain time because he knows the court's verdict is close to coming out," Harab said. "One reason for this strike is to draw the attention of the media. Lately no lights have been focused on him, and he wants to get them back."

Closing arguments can legally go on without Hussein, Harab said. But no verdict can be announced without the defendant present, and Harab said the chief judge might decide to postpone the session, for perhaps as long as two weeks.

Hussein and two co-defendants began the hunger strike July 7, Curry said.

The defense team has said Hussein began the strike in order to object to what he saw as poor security for his lawyers. Last month, a key member of Hussein's legal team, Khamis Ubaidi, was killed after gunmen abducted him from his home. Ubaidi was the third member of the legal team to be slain since the trial began in 2005.

Nueimi said Hussein had also been protesting the restrictions the court had placed on the defense team's ability to question witnesses.

Last month, the judge in the case cut off defense lawyers after they had called 62 witnesses, and ordered the final phase of the trial to begin.

"We have been frozen out," Nueimi said. "We have no way of defending him. We should be allowed to express ourselves."

During the hunger strike, Hussein has been drinking coffee, tea with honey and occasionally juice, but has eaten no solid food, defense lawyers said. Nueimi said his client was not trying to kill himself and did not intend to die.

"He doesn't believe in suicide," Nueimi said. "But he does not have an alternative."

Raid Juhi, the Iraqi High Tribunal's chief investigative judge and a court spokesman, said Hussein was not on a real hunger strike. "He was taking honey," Juhi said.

Mousawi, the chief prosecutor, said the collapse was real and that doctors had immediately examined Hussein. "It's not an act that he is pulling," he said.

*
Times staff writer Borzou Daragahi contributed to this report.

[back to contents]

Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) &
Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Offical Website of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
The Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme

Special Court Returns Bonthe Island Facility to the Sierra Leone Government
Press Release of the SCSL
July 20, 2006

The Special Court today returned its detention facility on Bonthe Island to the Sierra Leone Prison Service.

The building, which formerly housed a minor offences prison for the Sierra Leone Prison Service, had been provided to the Special Court by the Government of Sierra Leone to house detainees and for judicial proceedings while the New England complex was under construction.

Between March and August 2003, Special Court Judges presided over nine initial appearances of accused persons in Bonthe.

In a brief ceremony on Thursday, Special Court Registrar Lovemore Munlo, SC (pictured left) handed over the keys to Moses Showers, Deputy Director of Prisons for the Republic of Sierra Leone Prison Service.

Mr Munlo thanked the Prison Service for its cooperation with the Court. “You know, certain days were rather tough and challenging,” he said. “But you came forward. We did not find you wanting. You gave us whatever assistance we wanted.”

Mr Showers noted that the Special Court had renovated the facility, “for your own purposes initially, but I just say we are the greater beneficiary of that exercise”. He noted that the Prison Service has officers serving on secondment at the Special Court.

“We want to thank you, and we want to assure you of our continued cooperation at all times for the director and all the members of staff of the prison service,” Mr Showers said. “I want to assure you that that good will, and that cooperation will continue”.

Liberia: Taylor appears in court
Reuters / IRIN
July 21, 2006

DAKAR , 21 July (IRIN) - Liberian President Charles Taylor has appeared in court at The Hague for a hearing related to charges of war crimes against him.

Taylor has pleaded not guilty to the 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from the conflict in Sierra Leone where diamonds were used to purchase arms.

Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels allegedly backed by Taylor were notorious in Sierra Leone for hacking off limbs and otherwise mutilating their victims.

Taylor 's attorney told the court that he was unlikely to be ready for trial before July 2007.

Taylor was indicted by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown but was transferred to The Hague last month after Liberians and Sierra Leoneans expressed fears that the region could be destabilised if his trial were held in West Africa. The Special Court retains jurisdiction.

Taylor triggered 14 years of civil war in Liberia when he launched a rebellion from neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire in December 1989 to unseat President Samuel Doe, who was later killed.

Taylor went into exile in Nigeria in August 2003 and was transferred to the Special Court after Liberia's new president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, requested his extradition.

Sierra Leone: The justice experiment
IRIN via Worldpress.org
July 2006

In post-war public hearings, Sierra Leoneans shared with their compatriots stories of how rebel fighters cut children into pieces in front of their parents, and forced people to drink the blood of slaughtered family members.

Four years on, the Sierra Leonean people are still learning how to move on from such horrors and their causes. Punishing perpetrators is part of that recovery but, as Sierra Leoneans are quick to point out, only a part.

With ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor behind bars and awaiting trial for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone’s brutal 1991-2002 civil war, one of Africa’s biggest ‘big men’ has been halted. Taylor’s impending trial before a UN-backed Special Court is set to be the first time a former African president faces an international tribunal for crimes allegedly committed while in office. If convicted at his trial in The Hague, Taylor will serve out his sentence in a British jail.

Alhaji Ahmed Jusu Jarka, who had both hands hacked off by rebels whose guns were allegedly supplied by Taylor, says many Sierra Leoneans are happy Taylor will finally be judged. “This is what we have been looking for. Everybody is anxious for the Special Court to try him.”

But the book should not stop there, says Jusu Jarka. He and many other Sierra Leoneans stress that while Taylor’s trial is important, other means of seeking justice, such as Sierra Leone’s truth commission, should not be sidelined.

Unique to Sierra Leone’s post-war recovery is the simultaneous operation of the Special Court and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), both established under the 1999 Lome peace accord. While the Special Court deals with “those most responsible” for war crimes in Sierra Leone, the TRC provided a forum of the multitude of crimes committed at the grassroots and as well as war-related murder, torture and rape.

National civil society and rights groups say implementing the recommendations of the TRC, which wrapped up its work in 2004, is vital to tackling conditions that contributed to the outbreak of war and which persist today: corruption and lack of accountability in government, weak human rights protections, and crippling poverty and unemployment.

The ‘hybrid’ Special Court, created by an agreement between the UN and the Sierra Leonean government, comprises judges and staff from in and outside the country, and covers violations of both local and international law. Taylor is one of just 13 people indicted to date.

By contrast, the broader truth commission was created to probe the causes and nature of the violence, establish an impartial record of human rights abuses, and promote reconciliation and healing to prevent a repetition of such acts.

In 2004, the commission published sweeping recommendations for reparations for war victims, action against corruption and human rights protections.

“The TRC recommendations are more relevant to the Sierra Leonean people today than the Special Court,” said Oluniyi Robbin-Coker, a Sierra Leonean civil society and rights activist who has led a push for the Sierra Leone government to implement the TRC recommendations.

TRC Chairman, Bishop Joseph Christian Humper added that their report must not remain mere words on paper. “For us to leave it on the shelf would mean business as usual.”

Successful experiment?

Debate continues over whether running the court and the Truth Commission at the same time is the best approach. Some observers say citizens did not fully understand the roles and interaction of the two bodies. Despite the court’s limited mandate to try only a handful of the worst offenders, many combatants guilty of offences were afraid to speak to the TRC for fear of indictment.

For many, like human rights activist and former head of the national forum for human rights, Joseph Rahall, running the two at the same time is not the way to go.

“It undermined the ability of the TRC to actually get the information it could have gotten, if the Special Court had not been operating, because many of the combatants shied away from giving testimony at the TRC,” Rahall said. “Reconciliation was not achieved for a lot of these combatants because they did not come out and confess and ask for forgiveness. They are still finding it difficult to go back to their communities.”

A civil society coalition in Sierra Leone – the Working Group on Truth and Reconciliation (WG) – says efforts to clarify the relationship between the TRC and the court did not succeed. “Every Sierra Leonean we interviewed referred to the way in which ordinary people were confused by the relationship between the two institutions until very late in the TRC process, fearing indictment by the Special Court should they cooperate with the TRC,” the WG said in a report entitled “Searching for Truth and Reconciliation in Sierra Leone”.

Sierra Leonean student, Josephus Williams, agreed: “If it was the TRC before the Special Court then maybe a number of rebels would have come forward to tell us what happened in the bush.”

In an interview with the civil society group that questioned Sierra Leoneans in 2005 about the process, one woman said: “I was told by the elders that I would go to prison if I gave a statement to the TRC. There is no support in the village for the Special Court. I now regret not talking to the TRC. I would still like to tell my story.”

Sierra Leone’s simultaneous approach was seen as a potential model for other post-conflict settings, but the civil society group cautions that it should not automatically be seen as the best route. “We are worried that an ‘official view’ may take shape at the international level that the ‘experiment’ was a success and that concurrence will uncritically be endorsed as ‘best practice,’” the WG report said.

The civil society working group says it hopes its report will be just the first step “to what should be a much wider and deeper debate in Sierra Leone and internationally”.

Some in neighbouring Liberia, which launched its own Truth Commission in June, are calling for a tribunal to run at the same time. Sierra Leone TRC chairman, Humper, says Liberians must study lessons learned from Sierra Leone and other countries, and choose the best approach for Liberia based on its own circumstances. “They have to decide on the right route to sustainable peace and development and lifting up the masses.”

Whatever the observers’ view of running the two bodies concurrently, most see both mechanisms as critical to healing and progress.

“The TRC and the Special Court are on a journey,” Humper said. “They are moving in one direction: a place called ‘justice and peace’. But they are taking two different routes.” He said the two can be effective simultaneously if the people are properly educated about their roles. He added that the two bodies must be given equal attention: "Then and only then will we arrive at our destination.”

Rights activist Rahall agreed: “Both mechanisms are vital. Impunity had taken over the country, so for it to be gotten rid of was vital.”

Arrest, trial of ‘local hero’ sows dismay

The Special Court engendered scepticism among some Sierra Leoneans, with the 2003 arrest and subsequent trial of Samuel Hinga Norman, who led a civil force against rebels bent on toppling President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. The court is trying leaders from all three of the main warring factions: the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, the rebel Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, and the pro-government Civil Defence Forces (CDF).

Hinga Norman led the CDF militia, made up mostly of traditional hunters who battled alongside Kabbah’s soldiers. While the militia is charged with torturing and killing civilians during the war, Hinga Norman’s arrest sparked debate over the legitimacy of the court and its mandate. Many see Hinga Norman as a local hero who fought off the dreaded RUF rebels, and think he should be congratulated, not condemned, whatever the CDF’s methods.

“This is why I do not like the Special Court,” said Mabel Sesay, a trader in Sierra Leone. “You mean the man who sacrificed his life to save us is the one they have arrested?”

In 2004, the then deputy prosecutor Desmond de Silva, spoke of the Hinga Norman trial controversy, and told the BBC: “I’m afraid you can fight on the same side of the angels and nevertheless commit crimes against humanity.”

Student Williams – who claimed that he suffered at the hands of the Kamajors, the largest group within the CDF – said no matter one’s cause, the killing and maiming of innocents must be punished. “I cannot argue the issue of who bears the greatest responsibility, but nobody has the right, no matter on what side you are fighting, to take the life of innocent people – if you do that then you must pay.”

Miles to go to justice, peace

Meanwhile, countless wrongs must be righted in Sierra Leone. Unemployed youths continue to roam the streets, and amputees - shocked and angry that the very ex-combatants who hacked off their limbs have seen more benefits than they have – are still fighting for a satisfactory compensation package. According to Humper, frustrated former fighters, without a path to reintegrate into society, are "a threat to security".

Transparency and accountability in government remain fairly weak, said Marieke Wierda, the Sierra Leone expert with the New York-based International Center for Transitional Justice. And national rights activists say the government has yet to put in place a viable TRC follow-up process and human rights commission. The civil society working group says in its report: “If there is not a credible and effective follow-up phase, many Sierra Leoneans will legitimately ask whether the TRC was ever more than an expensive ‘talking shop’.”

[back to contents]

United States

Factual errors cited in cases against detainees
The Boston Globe
by Farah Stockman
July 14, 2006

Lawyers demand new trial system at Guantanamo

WASHINGTON -- The US military's accusations against detainees at Guantanamo Bay contain factual errors and some easily disproved assertions, according to declassified records, raising questions about whether the US military has thoroughly investigated its cases against the roughly 400 inmates.

For instance, one detainee is accused of belonging to an Al Qaeda cell ``circa 1998," according to the summary of evidence prepared for his hearing. But Pentagon records show the detainee was born in 1986, making him 11 or 12 in 1998.

In another case, a detainee stands accused of attending a terrorist training camp in July 2001. But copies of pay stubs show he was a chef in London at the time.

Defense lawyers say the cases underscore the need for new judicial procedures at Guantanamo, as the Bush administration grapples with a Supreme Court ruling that struck down the system of military trials at the base.

``We have been hearing about errors like this for years from numerous lawyers across the country," said Emi MacLean , a fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which helps defend Guantanamo detainees.

Administration lawyers argued this week in hearings before Congress that giving detainees the legal rights available in US courts would hinder the war on terror.

``It is simply not feasible in time of war to gather evidence in a manner that meets strict criminal procedural requirements," Daniel J. Dell'Orto , the Defense Department's principal deputy general counsel, said Tuesday.

But two Republican senators said yesterday that the White House was considering whether to create a system of trials for Guantanamo detainees based on the uniform code of military justice. The code was established to try US soldiers accused of crimes, and would give detainees far more legal rights than they have now.

The current system includes initial hearings, annual reviews, and then, for a small minority of detainees, military trials.

At each stage, the military is allowed to present anonymous witnesses, secret evidence, and hearsay evidence -- all of which are difficult for the defense to challenge.

The obvious errors in some of the accusations, lawyers say, raise deeper questions about the care with which the still-secret portions of the cases were prepared and make it that much more important that the system be revamped.

``You can see why they are afraid to present the evidence before an open and transparent system," MacLean said.

One of the most visible errors became public in 2004, when three British detainees who had been accused of appearing in an Al Qaeda video in Afghanistan were released after the British government proved that they were in London at the time.

Defense lawyers say such errors are more widespread.

In an ongoing case, the US military has accused Ahmed Errachidi , a Moroccan detainee, of ``receiving training at the Al Farooq training camp in July 2001, to include weapons training, war tactics, and bomb making," according to a summary of evidence for his initial hearing provided to the Globe by his lawyers at Reprieve, a British legal-services organization.

But Chris Chang , an investigator for Reprieve, uncovered pay stubs showing that Errachidi had been a chef in two London restaurants, the Westbury and the Archduke, in July 2001. Chang's office provided copies of the pay stubs to the Globe.

``Presumably, the US military, in combination with the intelligence services of the United States, has exponentially more resources than we do and could easily have obtained the evidence discussed below, were it of a mind to look for it," Chang wrote in an affidavit submitted to Guantanamo officials.

Errachidi, who had worked as a chef in London since 1985, has been held at Guantanamo Bay since his 2002 arrest in Pakistan.

In another case, military interrogators made significant translation mistakes when they first interrogated Mohamed el Gharani , one of Guantanamo's youngest detainees, according to his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith .

Gharani, whose name the US military spells ``Qarani," was only 14 when he was arrested in Pakistan in October 2001. He was later interrogated using a translator from Yemen who spoke a different dialect of Arabic than was spoken in his native Saudi Arabia, according to Gharani's lawyer.

``The word `zalata' in Yemen means money, but in his Saudi Arabian dialect, it means tomato," said Smith. ``They asked him, `When you went to Pakistan, where did you get your zalata?' and he tells them all these different shops where you could buy tomatoes in Karachi. They write them all down, thinking that this 14-year-old kid is a big financier who was able to get money from all these different places."

The mistake was soon caught, Smith said. Financing terrorism did not show up in the list of accusations against Gharani.

But another key accusation appeared: that ``the detainee was identified as belonging to a London, United Kingdom cell led by Abu Qatada al Masri, circa 1998." Yet, according to the Pentagon's own records, Gharani was born in 1986, making him just 11 or 12 at the time.

Chito Peppler , a Pentagon spokesman, said the date referred to when ``Abu Qatada became active." He maintained that it was possible that Gharani had been a part of the cell before his arrest at 14.

Smith said Gharani has never been to London.

Peppler said he could not provide specifics on other cases.

Sam Zia-Zarifi , a Human Rights Watch researcher, said transcripts of Guantanamo proceedings show widespread confusion over names, places, and events in Afghanistan that are relevant to the detainees' classification as ``enemy combatants."

``That happened in a handful of occasions," Zia-Zarifi said. ``I found enough of a pattern to be alarming."

It is not the first time the military has been under fire for its Guantanamo investigations. Last month, the Globe reported that the government routinely failed to locate key defense witnesses.

According to the transcripts, 34 detainees had witnesses approved to testify at the tribunal, but in all 34 cases, the detainees were told that the witnesses could not be found. Yet a Globe reporter tracked down three witnesses in three days of work.

``It's no surprise that it is often very difficult to find the necessary evidence, yet the administration doesn't even try," Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said on the Senate floor shortly after the article ran.

``The shocking ease with which The Boston Globe located these witnesses suggests that the government didn't make an effort to find them, and raises serious questions about the administration's good faith in dealing with the detainees at Guantanamo."

Courts-Martial a Proven System for War Crimes Trials
Human Rights First
July 19, 2006

Human Rights First Washington Director Elisa Massimino today urged the Senate Armed Services Committee to use the existing military justice system to try war crimes suspects.

In her testimony, Massimino critiqued the failed military commission system and recommended its use be discontinued. Human Rights First has sent monitors to Guantanamo to report on the military commissions since they began in 2004.

Massimino testified that the time-tested rules and procedures of courts-martial are clear to judges, prosecutors and defense counsel and fully meet the fundamental rights requirements outlined in Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. She also pointed out that the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Hamdan case made clear that the burden is now on those who propose to deviate from the Uniform Code of Military Justice to demonstrate why it is impractical to adhere to it.

“We should not shrink from applying the law to those who violate it. By prosecuting those who have committed war crimes within a legal system that provides fundamental protections, we bolster the laws governing armed conflict and human rights,” Massimino testified. “Over 200 years of history proves the courts-martial system is up to the task.”

First authorized by Congress in 1776, and more recently c