War Crimes Prosecution Watch

Democratic Republic of the Congo (ICC)

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

DRC: Rape victims hope new leaders will halt violence
IRIN
August 2, 2006

Large numbers of women took part in Sunday’s elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu Province in the hope that the new leaders would clamp down on the violence perpetrated by militants, say civil society organisations.

One of these voters was Naomie Kisenyi, 38. In 2003, three hooded armed men in civilian clothes raped and beat her in a forest near Bukavu, the provincial capital. "It is difficult to talk about my experience as it is so humiliating," she said on Sunday at a Bukavu polling station.

She was admitted to Bukavu's Panzi Hospital and has recovered after lengthy treatment. However, every six months she is tested for HIV. "So far, thank God, the tests have proved negative," she said.

She still does not know the identity of her attackers. She decided to vote because she believed new leaders would regain control of the entire country from armed elements, punish rapists and re-establish security.

The international community shares the sentiment that the elections could set the stage for lasting peace in the DRC.
"This election is not an end in itself," Sylvie van den Wildenberg, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC), said. "It is the first day in a new chapter in Congo's history. Elections are important as a strategy to consolidate peace and security."

Clearly, she said, the continued presence of armed foreign groups and local militia in South Kivu and in the northeastern district of Ituri in Orientale Province presented major challenges to an elected government.

"Once the Congolese have chosen their leaders, they will need to begin regional negotiations to try to find a final solution to the endemic problem of insecurity," she said.

"This violence is not only the work of the foreign groups in Congo but also of Congolese civilians who try to discredit the country's security forces," Van den Wildenberg added.

However, representatives of civil society organisations in South Kivu said widespread rape became noticeable in the province in 1999 when foreign forces invaded the east of the country.

" South Kivu Province was the main gateway for those who brought war, which created insecurity and instability in the east," said Denis Buhendwa, a trainer with Groupe Jermie, an association for civic education and the protection of human rights.

MONUC says pockets of insecurity have always existed in South Kivu; particularly in the territories of Shabunda, Mwenga, north of Walungu and in the south of Kabaré.

In these areas, Mai-Mai militia and other rebel groups, which rejected integration into the armed forces or demobilisation, have continued to terrorise the community. Violence against women is widespread in these areas because a constantly shifting population has made people easy prey, according to human rights organisations.
In these territories, according to humanitarian bodies in South Kivu, there are 120,000 to 130,000 internally displaced people, of whom 4,000 women had been raped in South Kivu in the past four months.

"The violation of women's rights is an unhealthy reality that we live with in South Kivu," said Agnès Kamuanya-Ntumba, the Vice-President of the South Kivu Civil Society Organisation. "During and immediately after the war, even today, violence is a reality in South Kivu; and 99 percent of rape cases are the work of foreign forces."

This election, she said, was a way to solve this problem. "We should make it count," she added.

Consequences of violence against women

The number of rape victims is such that Panzi Hospital, which offers specialist care for such cases, can no longer cope. Many patients come from the provinces of Katanga and North Kivu, in addition to those from South Kivu.

"Each day we get on average 10 patients, of whom some have been raped repeatedly over the past six months," Dr Denis Mukwenge-Mukengere, the director of Panzi Hospital, said.

Although this number had stabilised since January, he said, the 320-bed hospital had admitted 520 patients, of whom 350 were victims of sexual violence. An international NGO is building wards for another 100 patients.

According to Mukwenge-Mukengere, 160 of the 180 outpatients are also rape victims, all of whom receive free care with support from the European Commission Humanitarian Aid agency, ECHO. This help has enabled raped women to be screened for HIV; 5 percent of the 360,000 women raped have been positive.

"We provide pregnant raped women with treatment to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV," he said.

Given this stark reality, South Kivu residents see the elections as one way to solve the problems of insecurity in the province and its accompanying consequence: rape.

DRC: Militia leader gets 20-year jail sentence
IRIN
August 3, 2006

BUNIA, 3 Aug 2006 (IRIN) - A military tribunal in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri District has sentenced a militia leader to 20 years’ imprisonment for crimes against humanity.

Yves Panga Mandro Kahwa had been charged with creating the Parti pour l'Unité et la sauvegarde de l'Intégrité du Congo (PUSIC) insurrection movement in 2002 in Tchomia, 60 km southeast of Bunia, the main town in Ituri. The tribunal ruled on Tuesday that PUSIC was responsible for the destabilisation of the district.

"This sentencing shows a fight for the rule of law and an end to impunity," Mbitso Ngedza, the deputy police chief for administration in Ituri, said on Wednesday in Bunia.

The tribunal ruled that Kahwa's crimes against humanity date to 15 and 16 October 2002, when 10 people died after he set fire to a health-centre, schools and churches in the Zumbe and Bedu Ezekere localities, 10 km southeast of Bunia.

Ituri has remained volatile due to militia activity, despite various Congolese political parties and rebel groups signing an agreement in 2002 that ended the civil war in most parts of the country.

The tribunal also directed that Kahwa pay 14 victims of his crimes between US $2,500 and $75,000 in compensation.
Kahwa had also been charged for the abduction, over two weeks in 2002, of Prof Ntuba Luaba, then minister for human rights. Another militia leader, Thomas Lubanga of the Union des patriotes congolais (UPC), has also been charged with complicity in the abduction, which took place in the nation's capital, Kinshasa. Lubanga is in the custody of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, awaiting trial for crimes against humanity, allegedly committed in Ituri.

Kahwa is the common-law chief of the Bahema Banywagi community in Djugu, where he also served as a "major" in the UPC, one of the militia groups that had been active in Ituri since 2003.
The military tribunal has been hearing the case against Kahwa since 19 June, with proceedings in session, despite his refusal to appear before both the civil and military courts in Ituri, which he claimed were under the influence of the United Nations Mission in the DRC, MONUC.

In a letter to the military judge in Bunia, Maj John Penza, Kahwa forbade his lawyer, Modeste Magene, from representing him before any of the courts. Subsequently, the military tribunal assigned Joseph Lobi from Kisangani, capital of Orientale Province, to represent Kahwa. Karine Bapinga of the Belgian NGO, Lawyers Without Borders, represented the victims' families.

After the ruling, Kahwa said he would appeal against the sentence before the military court in Kisangani.

"Even though he has been charged, we will await the ruling in Kisangani before he can be replaced as head of the community," Mbitso said.

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Darfur, Sudan (ICC)

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

Annan sees up to 24,000 UN peacekeepers for Darfur
The Washington Post
by Irwin Arieff
July 31, 2006

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed on Monday a large and highly mobile peacekeeping force for Sudan's Darfur region, numbering up to 24,000 troops and international police officers.

The requirements for the force, which would surpass the 17,500-strong U.N. force in the Democratic Republic of Congo as the largest U.N. peacekeeping mission, were outlined in a report to the U.N. Security Council, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

Sudan's government has yet to approve deployment of a U.N. force to succeed a smaller and under-equipped African Union force of about 7,700 soldiers and civilian police.

The 15-member Security Council can approve the force without Sudan's approval but it is doubtful any country would contribute troops without Khartoum's consent.

"Securing the consent of the government of Sudan will require continued intensive discussions with Khartoum by council members, by key member states and regional organizations, as well as by the United Nations," Annan said, calling for a shift to a U.N. force "as soon as possible."

DARFUR VIOLENCE 'SHOCKED THE WORLD'

After more than three years of fighting among Sudanese factions in Darfur, "marked by abhorrent violence against innocent civilians that has shocked the world," the cost of rejecting an eventual transition to a U.N. peacekeeping mission "could be serious and lasting," Annan warned.

Tens of thousand of people have died in the violence that escalated in early 2003 when rebels rose up against the Khartoum government complaining of a lack of resources. Sudan then armed militia, known as Janjaweed, who began a campaign of rape, plunder and murder against non-Arab tribes.

More than 2.3 million villagers have been been uprooted and more recently, rebels are fighting each other, adding to the misery.

Annan said the U.N. mission would require an initial deployment of up to 3,300 police officers plus 16 trained units of riot police, typically of 125 officers each, for a total of as many as 5,300 officers.

With the officers to be deployed at over 100 sites, covering about 80 percent of Darfur's population, "this would be a minimum option," he said.

As for U.N. troops, the force would seek to protect refugee camps, humanitarian supply routes and nomadic migration routes via a "framework of mobile infantry battalions," Annan said, outlining three options ranging from 15,300 to 18,600 soldiers, depending on the number of aircraft to accompany them.

The best option, he said, would be to deploy 17,300 peacekeeping soldiers along with three fixed-wing reconnaissance aircraft and 26 helicopters.

"This force represents an optimal balance of key operational capabilities and likely offers the fastest route to a secure environment and eventual return to normality."

Should just 13 helicopters be made available, the force would require about 18,600 troops and would be less capable of responding to multiple security incidents by air, "possibly delaying the return to normality and peace."

Should the force be equipped with 35 helicopters, it could get along with about 15,300 troops by relying more heavily on rapid-reaction forces while "sacrificing some security presence," Annan said.

The smaller force would be more vulnerable to bad weather and would carry "a higher degree of risk on protection of civilians," he said.

Darfur rebels kill, rape to enforce deal: Amnesty
Reuters
August 1, 2006

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfur rebels who signed a peace deal with the government killed and raped civilians to try to force them to support the unpopular accord, human rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

The African Union-brokered deal was signed in May by only one of three rebel factions -- the Minni Arcua Minnawi group. Tens of thousands of Darfuris have protested against the deal, saying it does not meet their demands.

"Some 72 people were killed, 103 injured and 39 women raped in targeted attacks against civilians in the Korma region," said Amnesty in a statement.

The attacks were at the beginning of July in Korma, about 70 km (45 miles) north west of el-Fasher, Darfur's main town. Around 8,000 people fled their homes, emptying Korma.

"The attackers were members of the Minni Minnawi faction of the armed political group the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), reportedly supported by the Sudan armed forces and the Janjaweed," London-based Amnesty said.

Since signing the deal, Minnawi's troops have repeatedly been accused of imprisoning and torturing Darfuris who oppose it. Minnawi denies the reports.

But a U.N. helicopter in June airlifted elderly SLA official Suleiman Adam Jamous out of Minnawi's stronghold in Darfur where he had been imprisoned for weeks. Jamous had opposed Minnawi's leadership and the deal.

Amnesty further said a 7,000-strong AU force had not protected civilians and had not investigated the violence.

Some other rebel groups accuse the AU of losing its neutrality by housing Minnawi in their headquarters in el- Fasher, flying him in AU helicopters on demand around Darfur and allowing his troops to drive AU vehicles in el-Fasher town.

Amnesty said civilians had reported the attacks to the AU force on July 5, but the SLA had opposed the AU going to Korma. Only an AU outpost in nearby Tawila had gone to Korma but it had not issued its findings.

SLA officials were not immediately reachable and an AU spokesman was unable to immediately comment on the report.

Tens of thousands have been killed and 2.5 million forced from their homes during more than three years of conflict in Darfur.

U.N. Chief Calls for Strengthened Darfur
Forbes
by Edith M. Lederer
August 1, 2006

Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Security Council to strengthen African Union forces in the Sudan's violence-wracked Darfur region and more than double it if a U.N. takeover of peacekeeping duties is approved.

In a 30-page report to the council circulated Tuesday, Annan laid out proposals for a much more muscular U.N. operation to protect civilians and support a peace agreement signed by the government and one rebel group in May.

The plans envision a U.N. force of between 15,300 and 17,300 troops, depending on the number of aircraft and rapid reaction troops. Annan also proposed more than tripling the 1,560-strong African Union police contingent to about 5,300 U.N. officers.

If approved by the council, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Darfur would become the U.N.'s largest, surpassing the 17,500-strong U.N. force in Congo.

But Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, has vowed to never allow U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur and Annan said the U.N. can't take over without the government's consent and cooperation.

"Securing the consent of the government of Sudan will require continued intensive discussions with Khartoum," Annan said.

The conflict in Darfur began when members of ethnic African tribes rose in revolt against the Arab-led Khartoum government in early 2003. Over 200,000 civilians have died, more than two million have fled their homes, and millions more have had their livelihoods destroyed, Annan said.

More than 2.5 million people affected by the war are receiving food, health care, shelter and other essentials from over 13,000 humanitarian workers from over 80 organizations, the Red Cross and 13 U.N. agencies, he said.

Annan warned that "the window of opportunity" provided by the Darfur peace agreement to stabilize the region "could close if there is no extra effort to implement it effectively." If the ongoing violence isn't addressed, he said, the overall situation could deteriorate.

"Alternatively, there may be an attempt to implement the agreement through force, including the forced return of internally displaced persons," Annan warned. "If this should be allowed to happen, Darfur could descend into an even bloodier round of conflict that would be catastrophic for the people of the region."

With the Sudanese government blocking a U.N. force, the secretary-general called for the urgent strengthening of the African Union force.

In the short-term, he said, the United Nations could provide significant support and with other international help it could also add armored personnel carriers, heavy-duty vehicles, and additional aircraft to significantly enhance the AU's rapid response capability.

But the African Union has said it doesn't have the resources for a long-term peacekeeping mission and wants the United Nations to take over to help bring peace to Darfur.

The immediate strengthening of the AU force "and subsequent transition to a United Nations operation could reverse dangerous threats inherent to peace in Darfur and the region," Annan said.

Annan outlines Darfur peace plans
BBC News
August 2, 2006

UN chief Kofi Annan has urged the Security Council to reinforce Darfur's African Union (AU) peacekeepers, while pressuring Sudan to accept a UN force.

Mr Annan gave three options for the UN, with Sudan's approval, to bring peace.

One scheme would involve 18,600 African and Asian troops, making it the world's largest UN peace force.

But Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir has vowed to never allow a UN force into Darfur. The UN cannot assume a role without the government's consent.

"Securing the consent of the government of Sudan will require continued intensive discussions with Khartoum by council members, by key member states and regional organisations, as well as by the United Nations," Mr Annan said.

"No effort should be spared to send the simple, powerful message: International involvement will increase the chances of peace taking root in Darfur, will strengthen the credibility of the peace process and the protection of the suffering populations of Darfur," he said.

He warned that the window of opportunity created by the Darfur peace agreement signed in May would be lost if there was no extra effort to implement it on the ground.

The current AU peacekeeping force in Sudan's war-torn west is 7,000-strong.

Some 2m people have fled their homes in Darfur since conflict began in 2003, and tens of thousands of people are reported to have been killed in ongoing violence.

Darfur: Inadequate International Aid Threatened by Renewed Violence
Doctors Without Borders
August 3, 2006

The situation is worsening in Darfur, the western Sudan region where a conflict began in 2003. Renewed violence has led to reduced assistance to people in the area. Dr. Denis Lemasson, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) program director, has just returned from Sudan with a disturbing report.

What form has this new outbreak of violence taken in Sudan?

Several incidents over the last few months point to a worsening of the situation throughout Darfur. The number of armed groups has increased, related in part to internal divisions among government and back-up troops, dissident groups, rebel groups, and others who have clashed repeatedly. In recent weeks, we have also observed acts of organized crime and other criminal activity that has specifically affected international aid organizations.

At least five international aid workers have been killed over the last three weeks. MSF has experienced four major incidents. While I was visiting Mornay, a team arrived. They had been attacked and beaten on the road and their car struck by gunfire. The team was lucky to make it back.

How has this affected the population?

After that incident, we were forced to suspend traveling on the road to El Geneina. If a patient were to arrive in Mornay today and needed an operation, we would not be able to transfer that person. We have also had to suspend the work of our mobile clinics that serve the nomadic population. In other locations, we have had to evacuate entire teams. We can't expose them to the risk of being killed.

Displaced and isolated civilians are directly affected by any reduction of international aid. More than three years after the killings of 2003 and massive population displacements, what is striking is that the populations are still experiencing the state of emergency created by that conflict. The displaced people have the same needs and are completely dependent on international aid for access to food, water, health care, and shelter. When they go outside the camp, they run the daily risk of beatings, rape, and death. We noted several such incidents along the periphery of the camps, particularly in Zalingei and Niertiti. Driven to the camps by force, the displaced persons today have no chance–and no prospect–of returning to their home villages. Survival is difficult for the nomadic populations and the residents of isolated villages as the conflict has halted livestock migration and trade among the communities.

Has international aid been reduced?

International aid was already inadequate relative to the needs and is declining, particularly in the displaced persons' camps. Over the last year, we have observed reduced funding, a shrinking number of aid actors, and a refocusing of programs from emergency needs to development. In May alone, the World Food Program (WFP) cut its food distributions by half, which threatens to worsen an already dangerous food situation. Current water distribution is inadequate. Health care needs are also great, both in terms of consultations and hospital care for emergency cases. On top of that, if security problems result in the closure of programs and the departure of other actors, basic survival needs will not be met. That is why we are asking today that all armed actors in the field not interfere with the work of humanitarian aid organizations.

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Uganda (ICC)

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

Ituri: The Congo's Own Rwanda
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
by Francis Mwepu
July 27, 2006

A savage regional conflict in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed more than 60,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

By Francis Mwepu in Lubumbashi (AR No. 71, 27-Jul-06)

As conflict continues throughout much of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in advance of the first elections in 46 years, the Ituri region in the northeast remains this vast country's bloodiest corner.

The scale of the inter-ethnic slaughter in the remote, mineral-rich region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, has been compared in intensity, if not in scale with that in nearby Rwanda in 1994.

Lendu agriculturalists in Ituri tend to regard themselves as kin to the Rwanda’s Hutus, while the cattle-herding Hema identify with the Tutsis. Just as the Hutus and the Tutsis fell into murderous conflict, so the Lendu and Hema have followed their example.

This regional civil conflict of massive savagery went almost totally ignored by the world – and by Africa-based foreign correspondents – until March this year, when an Ituri warlord was brought to The Hague to face charges brought by the fledgling International Criminal Court, ICC.

Suddenly Ituri was on the international map.

Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, leader of a Hema militia named the Union of Congolese Patriots, UPC, was arrested and placed in custody by the DRC authorities following the killing and mutilation in February 2005 of nine Bangladesh soldiers who were serving in United Nations peacekeeping force in Ituri.

ICC, which had been asked by the government to investigate the situation in eastern Congo, issued an arrest warrant for Lubanga in February 2006, and he was transferred to ICC custody and sent to The Hague the following month.

Lubanga is now incarcerated in the prison complex set up to house war crimes suspects tried by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

ICC prosecutors are preparing charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes against the 45-year-old DRC rebel commander. These will include the accusation that his forces conscripted children under the age of 15 to fight in combat. The ICC's Argentinean chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, alleges that Lubanga has trained children as young as seven to become guerrilla soldiers.

Lubanga’s arrest and indictment by the ICC will need to be followed by others if justice is to be fully served, because many massacres have occurred in Ituri, some in areas so remote that they may never be reported. There have been mass rapes, assassinations, plunder, arson, mutilations, decapitations and cannibalism. Summary executions, even of hospital patients in their beds, and torture have been commonplace, according to the leading watchdog Human Rights Watch.

The Ituri region contains a bewilderingly complex web of conflict that developed from 1998 onwards between the Hema and Lendu. The fighting was exacerbated by the Ugandan army, which virtually annexed the area in 1999 and is alleged to have plundered its rich gold seams.

As well as gold, the province is rich in deposits of diamonds, timber, newly-discovered oil and coltan (short for columbite-tantalite), a rare ore that is an essential component in cell phones, laptop computers and other hi-tech devices.

A Canadian company, Heritage Oil, is drilling for oil in the Semliki Valley which straddles the Uganda-Ituri border. Canada’s Barrick Gold claims exploration rights to the world's biggest gold field, Kilo Moto.

Human Rights Watch estimates that Ugandan soldiers stole more than nine million US dollars worth of Ituri gold between 1999 and 2003.

" Uganda is the number one gold-exporting country in this area without having a single gold mine. Tell me how that happens?" said one military intelligence official from the United Nations, who added that Ituri's militias continue to feed the illegal trade.

Human Rights Watch said, "During its four years occupying the north-eastern DRC, the Ugandan army claimed to be a peacemaker in a region torn by ethnic strife. In reality, the Ugandan army provoked political confusion and created insecurity in areas under its control. From its initial involvement in a land dispute between the Hema and Lendu, the Ugandan army more often aggravated than calmed ethnic and political hostilities."

Human Rights Watch accuses Uganda of playing the role of “both arsonist and fireman”, and of meddling in political feuding among local Ituri leaders.

As the Ugandans looted the region, the Rwandan and DRC armies also got in on the act, each backing various militias. Lubanga's UPC was initially trained by the Ugandans, but, in a typical shift of loyalties, realigned itself from 2002 onwards with the Rwandan army, through a proxy Rwanda-backed militia in the nearby province of North Kivu.

The Ugandan army withdrew in 2003, to be replaced by Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian and Nepalese contingents from the 17,600-strong United Nations military peacekeeping force in the Congo called MONUC (UN Observer Mission in DRC).

"The [Ituri] players change all the time,” said one international aid official. "It's incredibly complicated and dangerous."

Although the Hema are pastoralists and the Lendu agriculturalists, historically they co-existed and intermarriage was common. However, Belgian colonial rule accentuated ethnic divisions between the two, by favouring the Hema over the Lendu, just as the Belgians favoured the Tutsis over the Hutus in Rwanda.

There were occasional conflicts, but at no point in the documented history of Ituri did violence attain the levels seen since 1999, when the occupying Ugandan army sided with the Hema. As warfare grew, other Ituri ethnic groups were forced to take sides.

Johan Pottier, professor of African Anthroplogy at London University and an expert on Rwanda and the eastern Congo, said that as conflict between the Hema and Lendu spread and became more bitter, so each group turned to propaganda and myths to justify its cause, fabricating stories to support their grievances.

The Hema compared the Lendu to the Hutu in Rwanda, whose leadership was responsible for the 1994 mass killings of Tutsis. Mutual Hema-Lendu massacres with bullets, spears and machetes multiplied - 37 hacked to death here, 140 there, 150 somewhere else, 966 somewhere else yet again, sometimes 1,200, sometimes 1,500. Women and children were not spared. The bodies were tossed into rivers or mass graves.

Against the background of this growing extremism, Lubanga's Hema UPC began pressing for autonomy for Ituri from the rest of the Congo.

Meanwhile, the violence continued.

In one UPC attack on Mongwabu, an important gold-mining town at the heart of a concession held by South Africa's AngloGold Ashanti, a witness told Human Watch Right, "They took Kasore, a Lendu man in his thirties, from his family and attacked him with knives and hammers. They killed him and his son with knives. They cut his son's throat and tore open his chest. They cut the tendons on his heels, smashed his head and took out his intestines. The father was slaughtered and burnt."

There have also been many reports of Lendu warriors cutting open the chests of victims to pluck out their hearts. Such brutality has become the signature of the Lendu fighters, who are also known for wearing women's wigs and dresses during battle in the belief that such apparel will protect them from harm.

A man in the small town of Nyakunde, where an estimated 200 Hemas were killed over a period of ten days, told Human Rights Watch what he had seen in the local missionary hospital, "They would cut their throats and take the hearts or bits from the throat. Sometimes they would cut the meat off the people's thighbones and put this into their bags.

“They asked people what group they were from, as they were looking for Hema, Bira and Gegere. That first day, I saw them kill 16 people."

In the complex ethnic mix of at least 18 tribes in Ituri, the Gegere and Bira have sided with the Hema. The Ngiti identify closely with the Lendu. Other groups have tried to stand clear of the warfare but have been sucked in in various ways and have all suffered attacks.

A witness to the killing of a Hema woman in one of thousands of such incidents told HRW: "They arrested a woman who was accused of being a witch. But she was Hema and that was the real reason. There were about 10 Lendu combatants with machetes and knives. They took her from her house, stripped her and then cut her all over. They cut off her arms and then cut her genitals. Then they killed her near the central market place and burned her body. About 15 of us witnessed this."

Human Rights Watch has recorded many acts of cannibalism in full grisly detail in reports such as "Ituri: Covered in Blood - Ethnically Targeted Violence in Northeastern DR Congo”. Yet the group laments that just about the only time the international press showed an interest in the continuous mayhem of Ituri was when reports of such acts filtered out.

All Ituri combatants have used rape and other forms of sexual violence as a weapon of warfare. These are among the crimes against humanity being researched in great detail by ICC investigators in the case against Lubanga. Mass rape of girls as young as 12 by all militias have been reported. Girls are frequently murdered afterwards or kidnapped as sex slaves.

Children as young as seven, including girls, have been forcibly recruited as child soldiers - and this again is one of the charges that Lubanga will have to answer. The 1949 Geneva conventions and the international Convention on the Rights of the Child prohibit all combatants in an internal armed conflict from recruiting children under the age of 15 or allowing them to take part in hostilities.

In an Ituri population of just over four million, the United Nations estimates that more than 60,000 people have been killed in the militia warfare since 1999, while more than half a million have been forced to flee their homes, encountering further violence in their flight.

As the July 30 presidential and parliamentary elections approach in DRC, fighting continues in Ituri between the militias, government forces and MONUC. Internal refugees continue to flee into the forest or congregate in Bunia, the regional capital where the MONUC force in Ituri has its headquarters.

Under such circumstances, there is little or no chance the conduct of this landmark election will be free and fair in Ituri.

Child soldiers wake up from a nightmare
The Washington Times
by Willis Witter
July 31, 2006

GULU, Uganda -- When he was 6, Sam was kidnapped.

He spent the next six years as a captive of a rebel army, where he was forced to kill other children, sometimes by biting the skin off a screaming victim who would slowly bleed to death.

For nearly two decades, northern Uganda has faced the terror of an army of child predators. The children live in a wilderness of towering elephant grass and attack at night. They have been known to attack villages -- killing all but the children between 6 and 15, whom they take away.

The abducted children either face a horrible death or end up like Sam, now 12, who was rescued in April by the Ugandan army.

Girls have the added burden of being assigned as "wives" to senior commanders of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Its leader Joseph Kony, is said to have about 50 wives.

Northern Uganda is like the Darfur crisis in slow motion -- a tragedy that is too tiny to attract the attention of movie stars and others with the ability to focus international outrage.

Sam's rescue has given him a fleeting chance to recover a tiny piece of a stolen childhood. But as he enters his teen years, and his dimpled soft features begin to harden, he faces a new hurdle: His parents fear him and were reluctant to take him back.

Like nearly 20,000 other children who have been rescued or managed to escape their captors, Sam has gone through a brief period of rehabilitation with trained counselors.

Yet the program is too short to deal with what often becomes a lifetime struggle with nightmares, flashbacks, fear and unexpected mood swings, known in the West as the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Kony, 46, a self-proclaimed prophet with a lurid interpretation of the Ten Commandments and a goal of "purifying" the Acholi ethnic group of northern Uganda, leads this army of children along with four top lieutenants.

All five recently were charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, an indictment backed by the Bush administration. It also backs "peace talks" between the LRA and the Ugandan government, which began in the southern Sudanese city of Juba earlier this month with the apparent aim of persuading Kony to retire, go into exile, or both.

"If Kony stays in the bush, he will finish off a whole generation of Acholis," said Paul Oryem Rwot, 68, a traditional Acholi chief in the northern village of Atiak.

A slow death

Founded in 1987, the LRA has forced nearly the entire Acholi population of about 1.5 million to seek protection in squalid refugee camps, far from villages and land that provided food for past generations of farmers.

An estimated 1,000 children die each month at the more than 200 refugee camps in northern Uganda, mainly from malaria, malnutrition and diseases spread through poor sanitation.

"One day recently, six children died. It's now 11 a.m. and already two children have died, so by the time the sun sets, you can imagine how many more will be gone," said Chief Rwot, whose village includes four camps with about 33,000 displaced people.

How could something like this go on for so long?

"The [Western] audience doesn't attach an economic value to the issue, probably because we don't have any diamonds or oil," said Nahaman Ojwe, the top federal official in Kitgum, a town 50 miles from Gulu.

"Look at all the attention paid to Sudan," he added.

The United States, Europe and the United Nations are heavily involved in attempting to end a civil war in Sudan's western province of Darfur, where an Islamist Arab government in Khartoum is fighting nomadic tribes. Before that, the West engaged in a major effort to broker a peace treaty in another civil war between Khartoum and the partly Christian south.

Though the two conflicts are usually depicted in terms of ethnicity and religion, oil drove the North-South war and Darfur is thought to contain large undeveloped oil reserves. It is hard to convince the West [that northern Uganda is important] because this is the way the audience has been brought up," Mr. Ojwe said. "Still, the international community is not so green about the issue. They've broken the ice."

Not on the agenda

"I was quite distressed because of the crimes [against children] when I met with the abductees -- and young kids. It is outrageous. It is inhuman. It is unacceptable," Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi E. Frazer told reporters after a recent visit to Gulu.

Mrs. Frazer toured a rehabilitation camp for escaped children, which is run by the international Christian charity World Vision. There, she listened to accounts of two escaped LRA fighters.

Nicholas, 12, and Ninety, 15, each described being forced to kill other children, with one being forced to join a group of five that was ordered to bite off the skin of a child until the victim bled to death.

Mrs. Frazer asked the children whether the United States could do anything to help. An uncomfortable silence followed as neither child had an answer. Since that visit in late June, President Bush has met separately at the White House with the presidents of both Sudan and the autonomous region of southern Sudan, which was created with a January 2005 peace agreement.

In a July 20 meeting at the White House between Mr. Bush and southern Sudanese President Salva Kiir, the LRA conflict came up briefly because Mr. Kiir is mediating peace talks between Kony and the Ugandan government.

However, Darfur dominated the discussions, as well as the questions and comments by both leaders at a subsequent press conference. The LRA-Uganda negotiations received only passing acknowledgment in Mr. Kiir's public appearances that followed.

Fixing things

World Vision has operated a rehabilitation center in Gulu since 1995. A separate facility, run by Save the Children Uganda and known by the acronym Gusco, opened a year earlier. The United States is the biggest source of funding for both facilities.

Together, both organizations have returned nearly 20,000 escaped LRA soldiers to their families.

The first stop for an escaped child is the Ugandan army's Child Protection Unit in Gulu. Each child receives a bar of soap, toothbrush, toothpaste and a set of clothes and then is sent to either Gusco or World Vision.

There, he or she receives a minimum of six weeks of individual and group counseling. Parents and family are contacted, and arrangements are made for the child's return. Child mothers spend three months or more at the centers, where they are trained to use sewing machines and make handicrafts or taught other means to support themselves.

In both centers, the atmosphere is relaxed, and the children are given plenty of time to relax with other escapees. They eat three times a day and sleep in beds, usually for the first time in their lives.

At the World Vision center, each day begins with a Christian worship service. "The Bible speaks a great deal about reconciliation and forgiveness," said David Orone, administrator of the World Vision center. "In dealing with a war, you are trying to cause a healing of a hurting heart and also to get someone to acknowledge what they have done.

"The hardest thing is for someone to forgive themselves. It's a gradual process. It is not one 'boom,' and everything falls into place. It is a healing process that can take a lifetime."

Children arrive at both centers expecting to be killed, which is what they have been told repeatedly by LRA overlords. They are instead greeted with a traditional Acholi song and dance that depicts centuries-old rituals used to reconcile feuding clans.

The fear quickly begins to dissipate as they meet other children, some of whom they've known from life in the bush.

Kony's shadow

Yet Kony casts a long shadow over the escapees, as if he is somehow watching every move. Whatever may have happened in the bush, few escapees are willing to speak ill of Kony.

"People say Kony is a devil or a wizard, but when you meet him it's different. He knows what will happen in the future," said Catherine, 20.

Catherine spent 10 years in the wilderness with the LRA. Now she is preparing to move, with her daughter, Harriet, 6, into a hut where her mother now lives.

"What happened is nobody's fault. He was abducted, too," Catherine said of Harriet's father, a senior LRA commander who was also abducted as a child.

"He was forced to do everything. Someday he'll go back to his home, I'll go to mine. I don't want to see him again. The only thing I want is for my daughter to go to school, to study, to become someone."

A reunion took place the next day, with three generations of women embracing.

After a short prayer service, joined by some neighbors, Catherine's mother, Mary, said, "God has a plan for [Catherine]. That plan is still there, and I'm just waiting for what will happen."

After years of silence, Kony surfaced in April on a video with leaders of the autonomous southern Sudan government, offering peace talks with the Ugandan government. The talks have begun and taken on a surreal quality, with Kony, a former altar boy, claiming that he never hurt anyone and that every atrocity ever blamed on the LRA was committed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

"Let me tell you clearly what happened in Uganda. Museveni went into the villages and cut off the ears of the people, telling the people that it was the work of the LRA. I cannot cut the ear of my brother; I cannot kill the eye of my brother," Kony told the British Broadcasting Corp. in a rare interview last month.

Not welcome

The feeling of comfort and safety in the World Vision and Gusco rehabilitation centers -- after horrors of life in the bush -- seems too perfect to last. For many, it ends all too quickly.

Sam, the 12-year-old rescued in April, was one of eight children being driven to new homes in a Toyota van. Each wore a set of new clothes. Bags of corn meal, high-protein flour, long-bladed hoes, packets of seeds and other supplies for each child were lashed tightly to a roof rack. Supplies include a few dollars in cash, so the children will not be looked on initially as a burden.

During the drive, someone commented that Jennifer, 15, had been lucky because she escaped after two days.

"Those two days will be 10 years in my life," Jennifer replied. "I was forced to beat someone to death, to bite off their skin. I'll never forget spitting out the flesh and blood."

She said she will never be able to eat meat again.

"I also participated in killing somebody," said Tony, 16. "That is the first thing they make you do [after being kidnapped], to remove the fear."

"I had to bite someone to death, too, and it was more than once," Sam added.

A few minutes later, Sam was dropped off.

There was no sign of his parents, or any relatives, even though Sam's father had told World Vision to drop his son off at the site with an older sister.

When reporters came back the next day to check on Sam, neither parent had arrived.

"I expected them to be here," Sam said, bursting into tears. Sam was later driven by reporters to his parent's new home and was taken in -- at least for now.

LRA leaders declare ceasefire
BBC News
August 4, 2006

The Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has announced a unilateral ceasefire, with immediate effect.

The rebel movement's deputy leader Vincent Otti told the BBC he had ordered all field commanders to cease all hostilities against Uganda's army.

Ugandan Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said his government would wait to see what happened on the ground, in response to the announcement.

The peace talks are due to resume in the Sudanese town of Juba next week.

In a phone call to the BBC's Focus on Africa programme, Mr Otti announced: "I, Lt Gen Vincent Otti, second in command of the LRA, by the order of Gen Joseph Kony, chairman of the LRA High Command, do hereby declare a unilateral cessation of hostilities.

"I order all our field commanders to, with immediate effect, cease all form of hostilities against the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UDPF) positions and others.

I do hope that the government of Uganda shall reciprocate this gesture of goodwill so that the warring parties may finally find a bilateral agreement to provide a peaceful atmosphere for our people," Mr Otti said.

Refusing talks

The LRA rebel movement has refused to send its most senior leaders to peace talks with the government.

Southern Sudanese vice-president and head mediator, Riek Machar had asked for the group's top leaders to take part after earlier peace talks failed.

On Thursday Mr Otti told the BBC that Juba was not safe because an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for the LRA leaders' arrest was still in force and Ugandan government forces were present in the town.

On Tuesday, Mr Kony held his first formal meeting with Mr Machar and a Ugandan official in a forest clearing on the border between Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This was hailed as a significant move, since the failure of earlier talks had been attributed in part to the negotiators not being sufficiently high-ranking to strike a deal.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has offered the rebels a full and guaranteed amnesty and protection as long as they renounce violence.

Thousands of civilians have died in the 20-year conflict and more than one million have been forced to flee their homes.

Uganda: ICC Willing to Lift Kony Indictment, Says Uganda
AllAfrica.com: The New Times (Kigali)
by Charles Kazooba & Jumah Senyonga
August 4, 2006

The International Criminal Court is not willing to indict Africa's most wanted rebel leader and four of his commanders, a senior Ugandan official has said.

The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Internal Affairs, Stephen Kagoda, on Wednesday Aug. 2 said the ICC would not prosecute the LRA's Joseph Kony and his top commanders Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ogwen and Raska Lukwiya.

"The ICC is willing to lift the indictments. They (ICC) are willing to go with (watch) us through the peace talks provided the final agreement does not condone impunity," Kagoda said while appearing before the parliamentary committee on Defence and Internal Affairs.

The ICC, established in 2002 by the Treaty of Rome to try war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, has firmly insisted it would prosecute the Lord's Resistance Army rebel chiefs.

"Finally, the judges will have to decide what to do with the case. The court is the only arbiter of its mandate, the judges will decide. We believe the best way to stop crimes and restore security to the region is to arrest the top leaders of the LRA. We trust the arrest warrant will be executed," chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo told the press early July.

But Kagoda said: "We approached an international peace keeping force to arrest Kony and his commanders but they said it was not their concern and did not have the mandate. We had no partner to effect the arrests and yet Uganda was not authorized to go to DR Congo. That is why we decided to opt for peace talks with the LRA."

On March 17, 1997, Uganda signed the Rome Statute and ratified it on June 14, 2002

Article 59 of the Statute, which governs the ICC, reads; "A State Party which has received a request for provisional arrest or for arrest and surrender shall immediately take steps to arrest the person in question in accordance with its laws and the provisions of Part 9."

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International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Official Website of the ICTY

ICTY: Tribunal Sets Valuable Precedent
Human Rights Watch
July 27, 2006

New Book Organizes Yugoslav Tribunal’s Decisions by Subject

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has made precedent-setting decisions on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said today as it released a comprehensive book that organizes the decisions of that tribunal by topic.

“The case law organized in this volume is a legacy that will provide guidance for future generations,” said Jennifer Trahan, of counsel to Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program. “The tribunal’s work has been immensely important in holding perpetrators of heinous crimes accountable and sending the message that serious crimes will not go unpunished.”

The Yugoslav tribunal has played a critical role in determining responsibility for the horrific crimes that occurred in the Balkan conflicts during the 1990s, Human Rights Watch said. The tribunal suffered a setback with the death of Slobodan Milosevic and the abrupt end of his four-year trial. Just recently, however, the Yugoslav tribunal has begun important trials involving senior officials accused of crimes including genocide committed at Srebrenica, and war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.

The 861-page book from Human Rights Watch organizes the tribunal’s decisions by topic, including war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, command responsibility, sentences, fair trial rights and guilty pleas.

“This book makes the important decisions of the tribunal uniquely accessible because it organizes the law by subject in one volume,” said Trahan.

The book applies the law to the facts of selected cases covering atrocities such as the Srebrenica massacre (where approximately 7,000 unarmed men and boys were executed by Bosnian-Serb forces), the siege of Sarajevo, and brutalities perpetrated in camps such as the infamous “Omarska camp” in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The volume, which is available online and in print (see links below), is oriented to practitioners and staff at institutions established to try such crimes – such as the International Criminal Court and the Sierra Leone Special Court. The book will also serve as a tool for academics, nongovernmental organizations working in the field, and students interested in international criminal justice, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch’s original version of the book, which covered both Yugoslav and Rwandan tribunal law, was well-received by officials of international and “hybrid” criminal tribunals.

Prijedor Four Enter Pleas
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Justice Report
July 28, 2006

Indictees Zeljko Mejakic, Momcilo Gruban, Dusan Fustar and Dusko Knezevic - charged in connection with crimes against humanity committed against civilians in Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje - have pleaded not guilty.

In the indictment it is stated that from April 30 to the end of 1992 "as part of an extensive and systematic attack", more than 7,000 civilians from the municipality Prijedor were systematically detained in Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje camps "where they were kept in inhumane conditions and subjected to heavy physical, psychological and sexual abuse, and where many were killed".

The prosecution alleges that all four indictees took part in the tortures, murders and expulsions. According to the indictment, Mejakic was the warden of Omarska camp; Gruban and Fustar guard commanders, while Knezevic, without any official position, often came to the camps and treated the inmates inhumanely.

On May 9 this year, the defendants were transferred from The Hague, via Banja Luka, to the Bosnian court's detention unit in Sarajevo, in accordance with the final strategy of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The court confirmed the adapted indictment against the four on July 17.

Visegrad Indictee Kept in Detention
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Justice Report
July 28, 2006

The Bosnian court has prolonged Zeljko Lelek's detention for three months, by which time the prosecution should have completed its investigation and composed an indictment.

As was stated in the courtroom, the prosecution suspects that Zeljko Lelek committed crimes against humanity, and believes that his release could endanger its investigation.

The prosecution explained that indictee Lelek lived and worked as a policeman in Visegrad - where most of the potential witnesses live - and they believe that there is the possibility of Lelek influencing these witnesses so that they could potentially change their testimonies.

However, the defence argued that there was no need to prolong the detention, and that the indictee had no intention of pressuring the witnesses.

Lelek was arrested on May 4 in Visegrad, at the request of the War Crimes Chamber.

It is suspected that he was a member of the notorious unit Beli orlovi ('White eagles'), commanded by the Hague indictee Milan Lukic. Members of Beli orlovi participated in mass expulsions and crimes committed in Visegrad and throughout Eastern Bosnia in 1992.

According to Bosnian law, a suspect under investigation for war crimes can be detained for a maximum of six months.

Serbia finally has will to arrest Mladic-del Ponte
Reuters
July 29, 2006

BELGRADE, July 29 (Reuters) - Serbia is finally showing the political will to arrest Bosnian Serb fugitive Ratko Mladic after years of delays and false starts, the chief prosecutor of the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague said on Saturday.

Carla del Ponte has been calling for Mladic's handover since her court indicted him in 1995 on two counts of genocide for his role in the 1992-95 Bosnia war. She told the Serbian daily Vecernje Novosti that Belgrade had been dithering for years.

"I personally think that Serbian authorities were not searching for Mladic to arrest him but to have him surrender," del Ponte told Novosti in an interview. "They were trying to disable his helpers and send him the message he should surrender."

The Serbian government shies away from talk of arresting Mladic, using instead the term "cooperation with The Hague". It is an open secret in Belgrade that officials long hoped to persuade him to surrender to avoid public ire at the humiliation of a man many Serbs see as a hero.

But there are signs that attitude is giving way to more pragmatic political calculations.

In May, the European Union took del Ponte's advice and froze talks on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, a first step towards EU membership, citing Serbia's failure to hand over the former general.

Facing pariah status, Serbia presented EU officials with an "action plan" for Mladic's arrest earlier this month, hoping that a serious show of effort would placate del Ponte and persuade the EU to restart talks.

"Since the action plan was adopted, I think the political will to arrest Mladic exists for the first time," del Ponte said. "I would like to see the operational plan and be involved."

She said she was still "grateful" to Brussels for putting pressure on Serbia by freezing the talks. "I hope the EU will keep that condition -- no resuming talks without full cooperation with us, which means Mladic in The Hague."

The plan has not been made public but it is said to include a media campaign to convince Serbs that it is necessary to arrest Mladic, who is accused of orchestrating the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims.

A government survey published on Thursday showed 51 percent of those polled opposed Mladic's extradition, 34 percent supported it and 15 percent were undecided.

Del Ponte appeals Hague sentence for Bosnian Muslim
Reuters
July 30, 2006

AMSTERDAM, July 30 (Reuters) - U.N. chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte has appealed against the two-year sentence the U.N. war crimes tribunal gave a Bosnian Muslim wartime commander of Srebrenica, saying it was too short, her spokesman said on Sunday.

Last month, the tribunal in The Hague found Naser Oric guilty of failing to prevent the murder of Serbs near the Bosnian Muslim enclave of Srebrenica early in the 1992-95 conflict. He was released for time already served.

Ponte's spokesman Anton Nikiforov said her office was disappointed with the verdict as they had demanded 18 years in prison for Oric.

"She signed a notice of appeal with the court's appeal chamber on Friday ... We don't agree with the sentence," Nikiforov said.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and the Serbian media have denounced the sentence as a mockery of justice and proof that the Hague tribunal is biased against Serbia.

Bosnian Serb forces overran the eastern town of Srebrenica in July 1995 and killed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Europe's worst atrocity since World War Two.

But Serbs say 3,263 of their own people had earlier been killed by forces under Oric's command.

Serbia is under Western pressure to arrest and hand over wartime Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, accused of genocide in Srebrenica. In May, the European Union froze membership talks with Belgrade because of its failure to deliver him.

Oric, considered a hero by many Bosnian Muslims for leading Srebrenica's defence, returned to Bosnia earlier this month. The U.N. court cleared him of four of the six charges at his war crimes trial.

Dragan Death Case Reopened
News.com.au
by Natasha Robinson
July 31, 2006

The arrest of accused war criminal Dragan Vasiljkovic has prompted Munich prosecutors to reopen the case of a German journalist they believe was murdered by the former golf instructor's paramilitary troops.

Egon Scotland, 42, bled to death after being shot by a sniper's bullet while travelling in a car with other reporters near the town of Glina, Croatia, during an ambush by Mr Vasiljkovic's army in July 1991.

The alleged atrocity is documented in an arrest warrant drawn up by Croatian prosecutors and sent to the Australian Government immediately before Mr Vasiljkovic's arrest in Sydney in January.

The warrant, Mr Vasiljkovic's pending extradition from Australia and the looming indictment of the former commando by a Croatian court have given Munich police hope that they will finally lay charges over Scotland's murder, according to a report in the Munich daily Suddeutsche Zeitung.

Mr Scotland's widow, Christiane Schlotzer, told The Australian of her enormous relief that the dual Serb-Australian citizen was in a Sydney jail awaiting extradition to Croatia for trial.

"It is not a feeling of revenge. It is a feeling of justice," said Ms Schlotzer. "In this area (Glina), they had so many crimes, and if these crimes are not prosecuted, if these guys are not found, there is no justice."

Scotland was an experienced journalist and a prominent personality in Germany, working as a political reporter and later as a dedicated and respected foreign correspondent.

In Croatia's arrest warrant, Mr Vasiljkovic is alleged to have given an order to his troops to fire indiscriminately at civilians' homes in order to intimidate the population and force them to flee.

Although German prosecutors arranged for Mr Vasiljkovic - better known in Croatia as Captain Dragan - to be interviewed in Belgrade over the murder in the late 1990s, he denied giving a command to his troops to fire and loot at will.

But in the wake of his arrest, federal prosecutors in Munich, together with homicide investigators in the Munich police department, have reopened the murder investigation.

In Croatia, Sibenik prosecutors have reportedly secured the testimony of more than 40 people who have agreed to act as witnesses against Mr Vasiljkovic. The prosecutors are preparing to go to court next month to issue an indictment against him.

he former paramilitary leader was discovered by The Australian working as a golf instructor in Perth and using the name Daniel Sneddon. He has been refused bail as he fights extradition. He has been accused of personally torturing prisoners of war and ordering his troops to kill civilians, Croatian soldiers and policemen. He denies the allegations.

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International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

Official Website of the ICTR

ICTR upbeat over transfer of genocide suspects
Angola Press
July 27, 2006

A top official of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania has expressed optimism over the transfer of the cases of suspected genocide perpetrators to Rwandan courts and the arrest of some 18 fugitives.

Prosecutor Hassan Boubacar Jallow declared here Monday that he had had "fruitful discussions" with Rwandan authorities, who agreed that Rwandan courts would meet all conditions by December 2006 prior to the transfer of the cases of alleged genocide perpetrators.

Jallow, who has been in Rwanda for about a week as part of a working visit, said: "We have concluded that the transfer of the first part, made up of twenty of so cases, will start in January 2007".

He added that several factors, including the abolition of the death penalty in Rwanda and the capacity of Rwandan courts to guarantee a fair and equitable trial in line with international standards, were addressed during the meeting.

Jallow noted that Norway and Rwanda were the only countries to have expressed willingness before the UN court to receive and try cases of suspected genocide perpetrators in Rwanda with the completion of the mandate of the tribunal in December 2008.

"We will never be able to refuse the transfer of cases to Rwanda, the country where the crime (of genocide) was perpetrated," said Jallow, who urged Rwandan authorities to honour their commitments to upholding the international justice system.

Slow Progress at Rwandan Tribunal
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
by Stephanie Nieuwoudt
July 27, 2006

At a cost of over a billion dollars, some say the tribunal to try ringleaders of the Rwandan genocide is too expensive and has dragged on for too long.

This town in northern Tanzania has always been a bustling place thanks to its proximity to the Kenyan border and tourist attractions such as the 15,000-foot Mount Meru and the Ngorongoro Crater, often called the eighth wonder of the world for its spectacular landscapes and wildlife.

But Arusha has become even busier in the last decade courtesy of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, ICTR. This one-time small town now has a population of just over a quarter of a million and has grown so fast that it was recently awarded city status.

The United Nations Security Council set up the tribunal after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered. With its goal of trying and sentencing those most for these crimes against humanity, the ICTR is widely seen as one of the most important international justice bodies since Nuremberg.

Yet the court has also drawn a lot of criticism, in particular from Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who said the ICTR was established "to do as little as possible".

During a visit to Canada earlier this year, he accused the West of allowing western actors allegedly complicit in the genocide to get off scot-free. Kagame specifically mentioned "French leaders" who he said "directly took part in the genocide by aiding the Hutu militias". French soldiers intervened briefly on the side of fleeing Hutus, as the army of the Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front, RPF, streamed across the border from Uganda and gradually established control of the country.

Rwandan leaders have also said that time and money could have been saved had the perpetrators been tried at home.

In an interview earlier this year, Alloys Mutabingwa, special representative of the Rwandan government at the ICTR, claimed his country would have used the money more productively – not only by prosecuting perpetrators and helping victims, but also by pouring funds into social development projects.

The ICTR focuses solely on the high-level figures alleged to have instigated the genocide.

Meanwhile, thousands of cases have already been tried in Rwanda, either in regular national courts or in a special traditional system of justice known as "gacaca" designed to relieve the burden on prisons and courts.

Gacaca hearings are held outdoors - the word loosely translates as "justice on the grass" - with household heads serving as judges in the resolution of community disputes. The system is based on voluntary confessions, apologies and pleas for forgiveness by wrongdoers.

At an estimated cost of 1.03 billion dollars by the end of 2007, there have also been complaints that the ICTR is too expensive.

Responding to such claims, ICTR spokesperson Tim Gallimore said: "The cost of the tribunal is within the range of what it costs for comparable international criminal legal proceedings."

Many also feel that far too few suspected perpetrators of crimes have been dealt with and that the process has dragged on for far too long. Only 72 suspects have so far been arrested. Of those, 28 have been tried, 24 convicted, and three acquitted.

"It is not physically possible, given the number of judges and courtrooms that we have, to hear any more cases," said Gallimore. "The process is carefully supervised by elected judges from a wide variety of legal systems and countries. They do their best to ensure that the accused get fair trial rights and that the interests of justice are served for the grave crimes against humanity that were committed in Rwanda in 1994. To do all that, it takes a certain amount of time.”

The ICTR has four courtrooms and 18 judges, robed in scarlet with black cravats. They hold hearings from 8 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday for 11 months each year.

Gallimore said casual observers of the tribunal may not fully appreciate the complexity of each case and trial and the enormous amount of work that has been involved in completing 27 trials since the tribunal began work in 1997.

The Rwandan government has also been blamed for dragging out the process.

The trial of the former commerce minister Justin Mugenzi - facing at least ten specific genocide charges as well as a charge of murder - could not proceed in May this year because the government failed to honour its undertaking to transfer Agnes Ntamabyariro, another former minister who is to be a defence witness for Mugenzi, to Arusha. Ntamabyariro is in custody in Rwanda for genocide crimes.

"The Rwandan government is bullying us [the ICTR] and we are being too timid. It looks like we are making excuses for the Rwandan government," Jonathan Kirk, co-counsel for Mugenzi, told the Hirondelle News Agency, a media organisation which reports on Rwandan affairs.

A lawyer who has been with the ICTR for three years told IWPR that Rwanda's lack of cooperation in the Mugenzi case is indicative of the country's distrust and resentment of the tribunal.

"The critics are right in condemning the process as too drawn out and costing too much," she said. "But this tribunal is unquestionably laying the groundwork for future criminal cases – not only with regard to war criminals but also other criminal cases."

Meanwhile, a senior official at the ICTR, who also asked not to be named, said that international justice does not come cheap, "especially if you want to avoid the trap of victor's justice".

But some accuse the ICTR of doing just that - mirroring the Nuremberg tribunal. So far only defeated Hutus have been tried. There are those who want to see closer scrutiny and the indictment of some members of President Kagame's RPF, which now rules the country with an iron fist.

When the then rebel RPF movement invaded Rwanda from its exiled bases in Uganda and ousted the Hutu government from power, some of its members are alleged to have committed atrocious crimes in the process of putting an end to the genocide. There have been calls for these alleged perpetrators, some of whom are in government, to be brought to justice.

Gallimore denied the claim the ICTR is favouring one side over the other.
"The tribunal does not indict and try individuals based on their ethnicity or any other personal criteria," he said. "Our mandate is to bring to justice those most responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Where there is credible evidence that individuals committed crimes within the jurisdiction of the tribunal, the prosecutor makes a determination about indictment and trial of such individuals, regardless of their ethnicity."

Independent observers as well as those working within the ICTR are concerned that cases currently on trial will not be finished before the tribunal is due to be wound up at the end of 2008. In an effort to lighten the load, the ICTR has asked several countries - including Norway, South Africa, Botswana and Senegal - if they would accept some cases.

However, there are real problems with transferring cases.

Norway indicated that it was willing to try Michael Bagaragaza, the former director general of the state-run tea industry regulator who is alleged to have ordered tea agency workers to kill hundreds of Tutsis
who were seeking refuge in a church and a factory. But the tribunal ruled that Norway does not have genocide laws, and therefore could not try a person accused of genocide.

Another stumbling block is that most African countries seem to be reluctant to take cases, because it might jeopardise their diplomatic relations with Rwanda.

Despite the already crowded docket and formidable time constraints, there are many more individuals who could face either the tribunal or national courts.

The Rwandan government in May published a list of 171 people being sought in connection with the killings, many of whom have left the country. Two wanted former Rwandan mayors, Celestin Ugirashebuga and Charles Munyaneza, are said to be living quite openly in suburban Britain. In newspaper interviews, Munyaneza has denied the allegations against him.

On both the Rwandan and ICTR wanted lists is wealthy Hutu businessman Félicien Kabuga, who is rumoured to be in Kenya. Kabuga's privately Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines called for the mass murder of Tutsis and others ahead of the genocide. Mille Collines achieved notoriety for its calls to Hutus to "stamp out the [Tutsi] cockroaches".

Kabuga is charged with supplying machetes, hoes and other tools for use as weapons by Hutu mobs. He is alleged to have been the main financial backer of the extremist militias which carried out the massacres along with the Hutu-dominated government and military.

"We depend on the co-operation of UN member states to aid us in arresting suspects," Gallimore said. The Kenyan government has denied that it is in any way aiding Kabuga.

There has also been criticism that people are being tried in groups by the ICTR.

Fatou Bensouda, a deputy prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, who worked at the ICTR first as legal adviser and trial attorney and eventually as head of the legal advisory unit, condemned the practice of trying groups of people instead of prosecuting individuals.

The most drawn-out case has been the so called Butare case in which two former governors in Rwanda's Butare district, Sylvain Nsabimana and Alphonse Nteziryayo, and two former mayors, Joseph Kanyabashi and Elie Ndayambaje, are on trial. The only woman on trial, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, former Minister of Family and Women's Affairs, is also grouped with these men - accused of instigating rape and murder.

The trial of Nyiramasuhuko’s son Shalom Arsene Ntahobali, an alleged militia leader in Butare, opened in June 2001 and has no end in sight. The prosecution took three-and-a-half years to argue its case, and there are indications that the defence attorneys will need the same amount of time.

The Butare case has been marked by internal splits among the accused: Kanyabashi and Nsabimana claim that Nyiramasuhuko and Ntahobali masterminded the violence in Butare. Mother and son in turn blame other senior government officials.

The ICTR is racing against time, but it is undeniably promoting future international jurisprudence. Its very existence makes a strong statement about putting an end to impunity. Long before Charles Taylor, the former ruler of Liberia, was arrested and put on trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the ICTR laid a solid foundation for bringing to justice the perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

Stephanie Nieuwoudt is a South African journalist based in Nairobi who reports from Arusha on the ICTR trials.

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Iraqi High Tribunal

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

Saddam trial adjourns 'til October verdict
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
by Bushra Juhi
July 27, 2006

BAGHDAD , Iraq - After nine months of testimony, the troubled trial of Saddam Hussein adjourned Thursday until mid-October, when the five judges are expected to render a verdict that could send the ousted president to the gallows. The final hearing ended without Saddam in court but with two of his seven co-defendants proclaiming their innocence and slamming the tribunal for alleged bias. Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman adjourned the trial until Oct. 16, when the verdicts are expected.

Saddam and the seven others have been on trial since Oct. 19 for their alleged roles in the killings of more than 148 Shiite Muslims in the town of Dujail as punishment for an assassination attempt against Saddam there in 1982.

The prosecution has asked for the death penalty for Saddam and two other defendants. Executions in Iraq are carried out by hanging, but Saddam has asked to die like a soldier before a firing squad and not by the gallows "like a common criminal."

Saddam is due to stand trial Aug. 21 in the bloody suppression of Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s.

On Thursday, court-appointed attorneys read final summations on behalf of former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Awad al-Bandar, the revolutionary court judge who sentenced the Dujail Shiites to death.

The attorneys argued the evidence failed to establish the defendants ordered the deaths and torture suffered by the people of Dujail in the crackdown — the same argument put forward by Saddam's court-appointed lawyer in his summation Wednesday.

Nevertheless, both Ramadan and al-Bandar lashed out at their substitute counsels, claiming they had been chosen by foreign advisers.

"I refuse these procedures and I will not present my own defense," Ramadan, once a top figure in Saddam's regime, told the chief judge. "The defense lawyer, with all due respect, may be 100 times better than my own lawyer. But I don't know his name."

Al-Bandar argued with the chief judge, who accused him of preventing his original lawyer from submitting his closing statement. Al-Bandar then announced he was leaving the courtroom, but Abdel-Rahman ordered two guards to restrain him.

"You were a judge yourself," Abdel-Rahman, a Kurd, said. "How can you behave like that? It's not a game, it's a court."

When al-Bandar objected to his court-appointed lawyer, Abdel-Rahman asked, "What kind of a judge were you?"

Al-Bandar snapped back: "I was the best."

The court-appointed counsel then presented a brief statement urging the court to take into consideration al-Bandar's age — he is in his 70s — saying "he served the country, achieving justice."

The original members of the defense team had boycotted the trial following last month's kidnap-slaying of a colleague, the third defense attorney killed.

The trial was also tarnished by the resignation of the original chief judge, who allowed Saddam and the others to deliver political speeches before television cameras in the court.

Shiite politicians complained of delays and argued Saddam and others should have been executed soon after the collapse of the regime in 2003. But many Sunnis believed Saddam was being punished by vengeful Americans and their Shiite and Kurdish allies.

All that raised concern among some human rights groups whether a fair trial was possible in the politically charged atmosphere of a country racked by an armed insurgency and terrorism.

Saddam and three other defendants began a hunger strike July 7 to protest the conduct of the trial and the lack of security for their lawyers. They ceased their protest after Saddam was hospitalized Sunday and fed through a tube.

Following his court-appointed lawyer's summation, Ramadan said he could produce "1,000 people from Dujail" to testify that "they never saw me there." He also complained the government had done little to find the killers of the defense lawyers, adding that "if I left prison now, I could find the killers in five minutes."

The judge accused the boycotting attorneys of taking money from their clients and not defending them.

"They're sitting abroad now, generating fame by issuing political statements on television stations as if this case is a political one. This behavior will harm you, the defendants. This is a criminal case, not a political one," Abdel-Rahman said.

Along with Saddam, the prosecution has asked for the death penalty for Ramadan and Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and the former intelligence chief.

Ramadan was the commander of the Popular Army, the militia of Saddam's Baath Party. His court-appointed lawyer said that even if the Popular Army were involved in the Dujail events, no evidence was presented to show Ramadan issued any orders.

Ramadan criticized the attorney for mentioning the Popular Army, insisting his role was primarily training and he had no direct control over the units

UN reparations panel pays out nearly $396.5 million for Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait
UN News Service
July 27, 2006

27 July 2006 – The United Nations Compensation Commission, which settles the damage claims of those who suffered losses due to Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, today announced the disbursement of about $396.5 million, bringing the total paid out to date to nearly $21 billion.

With this payment, the Commission said, all claims of individuals have been paid in full for death or personal injury, for departures from Kuwait or Iraq and for property damages. Forty-nine other claims, including environmental claims, remain to be paid.

The vast majority of funds for compensation payments has come from the sale of Iraqi petroleum under the "Oil-for-Food" programme, which came to an end in 2003, and later within the scope of arrangements made under Security Council resolutions.

War crimes trial for Hussein, 7 others adjourns until Oct: 2 co-defendants declare innocence, lash out at court
Baltimore Sun / AP
July 28, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq // After nine months of testimony, the troubled trial of Saddam Hussein adjourned yesterday until mid-October, when the five judges are expected to render a verdict that could send the ousted president to the gallows.

The final hearing ended without Hussein in court but with two of his seven co-defendants proclaiming their innocence and slamming the tribunal, alleging bias. Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman adjourned the trial until Oct. 16, when the verdicts are expected.

Hussein and seven others have been on trial since Oct. 19 for their alleged roles in the killings of more than 148 Shiite Muslims in the town of Dujail as punishment for an assassination attempt against Hussein there in 1982.

The prosecution seeks the death penalty for Hussein and two other defendants. Executions in Iraq are carried out by hanging, but Hussein has asked to die like a soldier before a firing squad and not by the gallows "like a common criminal."

Hussein is to stand trial Aug. 21 in the bloody suppression of Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s.

Yesterday, court-appointed attorneys read final summations on behalf of former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Awad al-Bandar, the revolutionary court judge who sentenced the Dujail Shiites to death.

The attorneys argued that the evidence failed to establish that the defendants ordered the deaths and torture suffered by the people of Dujail - the same argument put forward by Hussein's court-appointed lawyer in his summation Wednesday.

Nevertheless, Ramadan and al-Bandar lashed out at their substitute counsels, saying that they had been chosen by foreign advisers.

"I refuse these procedures, and I will not present my own defense," Ramadan told the chief judge. "The defense lawyer, with all due respect, may be 100 times better than my own lawyer, but I don't know his name."

Al-Bandar argued with the chief judge, who accused him of preventing his original lawyer from submitting his closing statement. Al-Bandar then announced that he was leaving the courtroom, but the judge ordered guards to restrain him.

"You were a judge yourself," said Abdel-Rahman. "How can you behave like that? It's not a game, it's a court."

When al-Bandar objected to his court-appointed lawyer, Abdel-Rahman asked, "What kind of a judge were you?"

"I was the best," al-Bandar retorted.

From the Saddam trial, vital lessons
International Herald Tribune
by Mark S. Ellis
August 4, 2006

As the world awaits a verdict in the Saddam Hussein trial, the Iraqi High Court is itself under scrutiny for lessons learned in the conduct of a high-profile war-crimes trial.

Given the limited jurisdiction of the new International Criminal Court, domestic war-crimes courts will continue to play a key role in administering justice under international law. These courts must possess a basic capacity to undertake trials consistent with international standards of independence, fairness and impartiality. To meet this standard, the following lessons should apply:

First, there should be a presumption against undertaking domestic war-crimes trials in countries languishing in a conflict environment. In the best of circumstances, managing international criminal trials is arduous. In a country plagued by sectarian violence and devoid of reliable security mechanisms, the undertaking of such a trial is reckless and potentially futile. In Iraq, it resulted in the killing of three Iraqi defense attorneys and one investigative judge. A more responsible and viable option would be to utilize a neutral jurisdiction, as when the trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor was moved to The Hague.

Second, post-conflict countries that do undertake domestic war-crimes trials need unbiased international assistance. It is a misnomer to refer to the Iraqi High Court as a domestic court. Behind the scenes, the United States played a crucial role in drafting the court's statute, collecting evidence to be used by the prosecution, and providing both security and financing. Although the United States, as an occupying force, should not have been the one to play this role, international assistance for these courts is indispensable.

Third, the international community should provide substantial training in international criminal law to jurists, including defense attorneys, serving on domestic trials. An international perspective on substantive and procedural law concerning crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity is essential. The experience of the Iraqi court shows, however, that even the best and brightest jurists may lack sufficient knowledge in these areas. The result is a natural struggle to comprehend the complex issues involved with these challenging court proceedings.

Fourth, domestic war-crimes courts should be careful in deciding the charges brought against a defendant, particularly a head of state. The Iraqi court was correct in selecting, as its first case against Saddam, a relatively straightforward incident of criminality. The Dujail case was manageable and the documentary evidence was remarkably strong. This enabled the court to focus its case more directly.

Fifth, domestic war-crimes courts should create a media outreach office to provide regular briefings on trial developments. Not only would this enhance public knowledge about court proceedings, it would also impede the constant speculation, misinformation and rumors that so often overwhelm high-profile trials. The Iraqi court failed to create an effective media office. Consequently, Iraqi citizens and the international community were essentially left to use their imaginations when judging the court's proceedings.

Sixth, the Saddam trial was a lesson in how not to deal with trial motions. Consistent with Iraqi and international law, Saddam's defense counsel filed a series of motions addressing issues such as the impartiality of the judges and access to witnesses and documents. One of the most glaring shortcomings of the court was its failure to articulate a response to these motions. The court's silence significantly weakened its transparency and undermined the credibility of the judicial process.

Finally, an independent and impartial court is a fundamental prerequisite for meeting international standards of fairness in a trial. Any appearance of government influence is a damning indictment of a court's independence. During the Saddam trial, there were several instances in which the government made inappropriate comments and attempted to interfere with the proceedings. If history judges the trial to be unfair, the government's indiscretion will be central to that determination.

The trial of Saddam Hussein offers a unique glimpse into the challenges and imperfections of administering international justice on a domestic stage. Whatever the final verdict, history's judgment of the trial itself will echo for years to come.

Mark S. Ellis is the executive director of the International Bar Association

“Lessons from the Saddam Trial”
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Frederick K. Cox International Law Center War Crimes Research Symposium
Friday, October 6, 2006

For more information, including how to register or watch the symposium live online, click here to download the symposium brochure.

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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

Prosecution Concludes Case in RUF Trial
Press Release of the SCSL
August 2, 2006

The Prosecution today concluded its case in the trial of three former members of the Revolutionary United Front, Issa Hassan Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao. The three accused each face an 18-count indictment for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.

Since the beginning of the trial on 5 July 2004, the Court has heard from 86 Prosecution witnesses over 183 trial days.

Following a discussion on the admissibility of certain documents, Senior Trial Attorney Peter Harrison told the Court that “the Prosecution has no further witnesses to call and the Prosecution closes its case”.

Issa Sesay and Morris Kallon were indicted in March 2003 and Augustine Gbao was indicted the following month. Indictments against two other accused former RUF leaders, Foday Sankoh and Sam Bockarie, were withdrawn by the Prosecutor in December 2003 due to the deaths of the two men.

Oral arguments on Motions for Judgment of Acquittal are scheduled to take place on 16 October.

This is the third of the ongoing trials in which the Prosecution has closed its case. The other two trials are currently hearing witnesses for the Defence. The case of the Prosecutor vs. Charles Taylor is currently in the pre-trial phase.

Liberia: key challenge is ensuring sustainability of IDP return
Reuters / Norwegian Refugee Council
August 3, 2006

In April 2006 the IDP return process in Liberia was officially declared over. More than 314,000 IDPs had been returned to their areas of origin in 18 months and a total of 35 camps were closed, formally marking the end of a 17-year era during which much of Liberia's 3 million population had at some time been internally displaced. At the same time considerable political progress was made by the government of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, which impressed international donors with its efforts to stamp out corruption and achieve financial accountability. The transfer of former president Charles Taylor to The Hague in July to face charges of war crimes committed during the conflict in neighbouring Sierra Leone, as well as the start of Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in June, further contributed to restoring Liberia's credibility internationally.

Yet Liberia remains fragile, and much must still be done to consolidate the gains made so far. Years of conflict, compounded by acute mismanagement and poor governance, have devastated Liberia's infrastructure and economy, leaving it one of the poorest countries in the world. IDPs have returned to areas without basic social services or livelihood opportunities, in some cases causing them to drift back to urban areas. Some 28,000 people continue to occupy the former camps - about half of that number officially recognised as IDPs - and unknown numbers of unregistered IDPs are living in public buildings in the capital Monrovia in often grim conditions. Protection concerns persist in areas of return, particularly sexual and gender-based violence as well as violence resulting from disputes over land and property ownership. Crucially, the reintegration and rehabilitation of ex-combatants is incomplete, largely due to funding constraints, which poses a risk to sustained peace and stability. The volatile political situation in the region, particularly in neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire, could also threaten the progress made so far. Long-term international engagement is crucial to support the Liberian government in its daunting task of achieving sustainable reintegration and reconstruction, and to build solidly on the considerable progress made so far.tuation in the region, particularly in neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire, could also threaten the progress made so far. Long-term international engagement is crucial to support the Liberian government in its daunting task of achieving sustainable reintegration and reconstruction, and to build solidly on the considerable progress made so far.

Special Court Prosecution Ends RUF Trial
AllAfrica.com - Concord Times (Freetown)
by Michael Bockarie
August 4, 2006

Special Court's prosecution counsels Wednesday ended their case in the trial of the former members of the former Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels.

The three Special Court indictees are Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao. The trio were indicted by the court for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. The accused are facing an 18-count indictment each.

A total of 86 prosecution witnesses have so far testified before the court since the court started its trial.

Issa Seasay and Moriris Kallon were indicted in March 2003 while Augustine Gbao was indicted the following month.

The prosecution in December 2003 after the death of Foday Sankoh and Sam Bockarie withdrew indictments against the two former RUF leaders.

This is the third of the ongoing trials in which the prosecution has closed its case.

Liberia: Post-War Justice Stirs Division
AllAfrica.com - IRIN
August 4, 2006

The impending trial of former rebel leader and ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor for war crimes committed in neighbouring Sierra Leone has divided his countrymen on how best to pursue justice after 14 years of brutal civil war.

The March arrest of the charismatic strongman, who still has many supporters in Liberia, was internationally hailed as a major step towards ending the culture of impunity in Africa.

" Taylor's trial should send a strong message around the continent and around the world that warlords in other parts of Africa cannot assume they will get away with their crimes and that impunity will not be allowed to stand," said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on a recent visit to Sierra Leone.

But in Liberia, many feel that the search for justice has only just begun with the launch of a new Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in June. The commission, opened by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, is to investigate 24 years of instability and seek out the root causes of the civil conflict.

The nine-member commission has begun seeking information on gross human rights abuses ranging from murder to sexual violence on the basis of voluntary statements.

Like the TRC in neighbouring Sierra Leone, which wrapped up hearings from that country's decade-long civil war in 2004, Liberia's TRC cannot submit actions for prosecution.

However unlike its Sierra Leonean counter part, the Liberian commission can summon people to testify.

Fighting in Liberia left hundreds of thousands dead and forced 300,000 more men, women and children to run for their lives, sheltering in refugee camps across West Africa. Many have yet to return home nearly three years after Taylor stepped down as president under international pressure led by the US.

Liberia now has its first elected government since the war ended. Sirleaf, Liberia and Africa's first elected woman president, recently told IRIN that Liberia's TRC is not just about justice but reconciling the war-battered country.

Breaking the silence

To encourage Liberians to come forward and tell their stories, a sign at the creaking metal entrance gate to the commission's temporary offices explains: 'The TRC is not a court, and cannot send you to jail'.

Inside, Chairman Jerome Verdier said the commission would seek access to Taylor if considered necessary to the fulfilment of its duties, but he warned it was "myopic" to reduce all of Liberia's problems to one man.

"We Liberians understand that the conflict didn't start with Charles Taylor," Verdier told IRIN. "It has deep historical roots and in finding a durable solution we have to review the past and we have to have all the Liberians on board."

"What is essential now is a process that gives Liberians the opportunity to search their hearts, revisit the past and correct those historical wrongs that have impacted the current situation as a way for laying the building blocks for the future," he said.

The commission was created under a peace deal signed in August 2003 by Liberian warring parties and civilians. Delegates initially rejected establishment of a Sierra Leone-style war crimes tribunal, under whose jurisdiction Taylor now must stand trial.

Opening old wounds?

At the end of two years, the TRC is expected to make recommendations for reparations to victims and proposals on how to proceed with the justice process. A further tribunal based on the TRC findings has not been ruled out.

But some believe the 24-month mandate of the TRC is too short to achieve its goals, even if the government exercises its right to extend the TRC mandate by three months. They warn that airing Liberia's past atrocities without redress will only open old wounds.

"Will the true victims come forward, and will what they reveal lead to justice or to more bitterness, feelings of betrayal and unfulfilment?" an editorialist of the daily Analyst newspaper wondered at the official launching of the TRC last month.

Others say there is no use in documenting human rights violations in the past as long as the abusers remain at large. They say that perpetrators could easily seek revenge on those who tell their stories to the TRC.

"Why should I go tell who killed my brother 10 years ago?" a Liberian citizen who declined to be named told IRIN. "Why should I risk having my door kicked in at night by his cronies?"

Many Liberians are now backing a campaign led by a group named Forum for the Establishment of a War Crimes Court in Liberia, which has filed a petition that will be discussed at the Liberian Upper House this month. The Forum says Liberia should have its own war crimes tribunal working alongside the truth commission, much like in Sierra Leone.

"Paradoxically, there were fewer people killed in Sierra Leone than in Liberia, but Sierra Leone has a war crimes court and we do not. So we think the international community has a responsibility to establish a war crimes court here," said Forum representative Mulbah K. Morlu as he sat in a noisy, overcrowded backyard where the group regularly meets to plan its campaign.

Others need to be tried

The trial against Charles Taylor will not resolve Liberia's problems until other war criminals who have retained influential positions in the country are also brought to justice, Morlu said.

Several notorious militia leaders, including Adolphus Dolo, also known as General Peanut Butter, and Prince Johnson, who has been accused of rape and murder, were elected to seats in parliament in elections last year.

" Taylor was not just taken to court because of what he did in the past, but because of his potential to wage war in the future," Morlu said. "We need to cleanse this society of extremists: people who we believe still possess the military potential to foment war in this country."

"You can't put the past behind you if individuals who committed mayhem are riding around in luxurious cars and are trying to evade justice by finding security behind the corridors of power. Until these people are brought to court, there is no assurance that we won't go back to war."

The Forum is not alone in calling for a broader justice for Liberia. Ironically, many of Taylor's ex-combatants say it is unfair their leader is awaiting trial while those who took up guns to topple him remain free.

" Taylor is arrested, but why are the rebel leaders who destroyed the country not arrested?" said a Taylor supporter known as Gola Ray, who said he was concerned about his safety. "They should go to court too."

Some international human rights activists agree. The former prosecutor of the Special Court in Sierra Leone, David Crane, recently called for the establishment of a regional 'hybrid war crimes tribunal', saying the international community should consider extending the mandate of the Sierra Leone court to cover Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire, divided since rebels seized the north nearly four years ago.

Referring to the victims of the Liberian civil war, Crane said: "We cannot walk away from 600,000 human beings. The ultimate atrocity in my mind is that we don't do something and that these people go quietly into the night and that there is no record of their horrible deaths."

Sirleaf cautious

But others insist that Liberia's peace is still too fragile to begin hauling prominent criminals to court. They say a war crimes tribunal would fuel political tension and put the new government under undue pressure.

President Sirleaf says there is time yet. Justice is "a two-step thing", she told IRIN and a tribunal could be discussed after the TRC completed its two-year mandate.

"Our first step is to find the means to rehabilitate those who were conscripted into war," Johnson-Sirleaf said, referring to the thousands of child soldiers who were forced to fight. "Then we can talk about who should face a court."

It's not a question of undermining justice. We are trying to find a balance between justice on the one hand, and reconciliation on the other."

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United States

Probe backs allegations against Marines
AP via The Boston Globe
by Robert Burns
August 2, 2006

WASHINGTON --An initial U.S. military probe supports allegations that American Marines deliberately shot 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

The Marine Corps and Navy prosecutors are now reviewing the evidence to determine whether to recommend criminal charges. That decision may be weeks away, and the lawyers may ask investigators to probe further, two officials said.

They discussed the matter on condition they not be identified because the case -- among the most sensational of several involving Iraqi civilian deaths -- has not yet produced charges.

"It's fair to say that the majority of the work has been done," said a third official, Ed Buice, spokesman for the Naval Criminal Investigation Service that is leading the probe. "But it's impossible to predict how much longer the investigation will take. It is very much open and ongoing."

The case is open because prosecutors and officers in the chain of command of the Marines being investigated may consult with the naval investigation service even after any charges are brought.

A decision on whether to press charges ultimately will be made by the commander of the Marines' parent unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif. That currently is Lt. Gen. John Sattler, but he is to move to a Pentagon assignment soon. His successor will be Lt. Gen. James Mattis.

Investigators conducted a wide range of interviews with Marines in Iraq and with Iraqis in Haditha, but they failed to obtain permission to exhume the bodies of the 24 who were killed, two officials said. Nonetheless the probe did collect evidence from the Marines and from the scene of the killings.

The case is one of several involving allegations of unjustified killings of Iraqi civilians that have emerged this year, damaging the U.S. image abroad and triggering calls by some Iraqi leaders to end the arrangement under which U.S. troops are immune from prosecution by Iraqi authorities.

The Marines initially reported after the Nov. 19, 2005, killings at Haditha that 15 Iraqi civilians had been killed by a makeshift roadside bomb and in crossfire between Marines and insurgent attackers. Based on accounts from survivors and human rights groups, Time magazine reported in March that the killings were deliberate acts by the Marines.

A criminal investigation was then ordered by the top Marine commander in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer.

A parallel investigation is examining whether officers in the Marines' chain of command tried to cover up the events. That probe, which has not been made public, faults some officers for failing to pursue discrepancies in the initial reports about what happened in Haditha and for not launching an early investigation.

When asked about the matter at a news conference Wednesday, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the cover-up probe's report was 3,000-4,000 pages long and being reviewed by Army Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq.

Regarding the criminal investigation, Pace described it as "ongoing" and said it would remain so until military authorities have reviewed its results as well as the findings and recommendations of the cover-up probe, "to make sure that every single possible cross-thread has been looked at."

Public attention on the Haditha case grew after Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a former Marine, asserted on May 17 that he had learned from Marine Corps officials that innocent Iraqis had been killed "in cold blood."

Lawyers for Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, one of the Marines under investigation, argued in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court that Murtha falsely accused Wuterich of murder and war crimes. The lawsuit maintains that Pentagon officials "who have briefed or leaked information to Mr. Murtha deliberately provided him with inaccurate and false information" and that the congressman subsequently "has made repeated statements ... that are defamatory."

Murtha said Wednesday he does not blame Wuterich for "lashing out."

"When I spoke up about Haditha, my intention was to draw attention to the horrendous pressure put on our troops in Iraq and to the cover-up of the incident," Murtha said.

Among the other recent cases of alleged deliberate killings of Iraqi civilians, seven Marines and one Navy corpsman have been charged with premeditated murder and other criminal acts in connection with the killing of an Iraqi man in Hamdania on April 26. Also, five soldiers and a former soldier have been charged in the alleged March 12 rape-slaying of an Iraqi teenager and the killings of her relatives in Mahmoudiya.

Generals: Haditha Probe Boosts Integrity
AP via The Washington Post
by Estes Thompsom
August 3, 2006

CAMP LEJEUNE , N.C. -- As the leadership of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force changed hands, the departing and incoming commanders said they believe an investigation into accusations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot civilians in Haditha, Iraq, will ultimately strengthen the corps.

Lt. Gen. Keith Stalder took command of the Camp Lejeune-based group on Wednesday from Lt. Gen. James Amos, who is headed to the Pentagon to become deputy commandant in charge of combat development.

"We don't know the facts on Haditha, let alone what the facts mean at this point," said Stalder. "We do owe it to the American people to check our assumptions."

Pentagon officials, speaking Wednesday to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity in Washington, said evidence collected about the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha supported allegations that Marines deliberately fired on civilians, including women and children.

Navy and Marine Corps prosecutors are reviewing evidence, and the commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force will ultimately decide whether to bring charges.

All of the Marines accused in the Haditha shootings are members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which is based at Camp Pendleton, Calif. But Amos, who was in charge of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force when the accusations were made, said Marine Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee has since talked to thousands of Marines throughout the corps "to take them back to their roots."

"We're going to come out of this just fine," Amos said. "I don't know what the investigation is going to say. The truth will come out and the Marine Corps is going to do the right thing. The American people will know the truth."

In the Haditha case, the Marines first said the Nov. 19, 2005, killings of 15 civilians was caused by a roadside bomb and crossfire between Marines and insurgents. A separate investigation is looking at whether officers tried to conceal the events.

The Haditha incident became known when Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said in May that he was told by Corps officials that civilians had been killed.

Three battalions of Marines from Camp Lejeune are currently in Iraq, and about 17,000 troops from the base are scheduled to deploy early next year when the command of all Marines in Iraq rotates from officers based at Camp Pendleton to those from Camp Lejeune.

AP Military Writer Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

Gonzales maintains a hard line in rules for terror suspects
AP via The Cleveland Plain Dealer
by Anne Plummer Flaherty
August 3, 2006

Washington - The Bush administration wants a new system for trying terror suspects to let prosecutors withhold classified evidence from the accused, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Wednesday, holding to a hard line on detainee policy despite concerns by senators and military lawyers.

"We must not share with captured terrorists the highly sensitive intelligence that may be relevant to military commission proceedings," Gonzales told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Gonzales said detainee legislation also should permit hearsay and coerced testimony, if deemed "reliable" by a judge. These approaches are not permitted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or UCMJ, which is used for military courts-martial.

The administration's plans have sounded alarms in the military's legal corps and on Capitol Hill, who say the UCMJ is a tried-and-true body of law that is well-regarded around the world.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning, before Gonzales' remarks, the services' judge advocates general - their top uniformed legal officers - said they would not support passing a law that would bar defendants from accessing evidence, which is considered a fundamental right in civilian and military courts.

GOP senators who have been negotiating a final legislative proposal with the administration said they, too, were unconvinced the administration's position was sound.

"We haven't reached a final decision on how we're going to handle it," but it is important to have "this statute be able to survive any subsequent federal court review process," said Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said he opposes withholding evidence because of the dangerous precedent it sets.

"If the only way we can try this terrorist is to disclose classified information, and we can't share it with the accused, I would argue, don't do the trial. Just keep them. Because it could come back to haunt us," said Graham, Republican of South Carolina.

Gonzales played down the effect of denying classified evidence to terror suspects, telling lawmakers, "I think it would be an extraordinary case where classified information would be used and would not be provided to the accused."

Gonzales' testimony provided the latest details on how the administration would retool the tribunals that President Bush established in 2001 for trying terrorism detainees, a system that the Supreme Court rejected in June.

The Supreme Court ruled the tribunal system was not authorized by Congress and violated international treaty obligations on detainee treatment.

Bush officials have yet to unveil their legislative proposal, which is still being examined by military lawyers.

Trial procedures, sentencing and appellate review rules would "largely track" with courts-martial rules, Gonzales said.

"At the same time, the military commission procedures should be different from the procedures used to try our own service members," he said.

Top military lawyers oppose Bush plan
The Christian Science Monitor
by Tom Regan
August 4, 2006

White House proposal would dramatically expand military court powers

Top US military lawyers, in a moment of "rare, open disagreement" with the civilian administration, told a Senate hearing this week that they do not agree with key provisions of a draft Bush administration plan for special military courts. The Washington Post reports that the military lawyers said they do not see "eye to eye with the senior Bush adminstration political appointees who developed the plan and presented it to them last week." They worry that the new plan – designed to replace one struck down by the US Supreme Court – would place US servicemen and women in jeopardy around the world.

"The United States should be an example to the world, sir," Maj. Gen. Scott C. Black, judge advocate general of the Army, told Sen. Russell Feingold (D) of Wisconsin at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. "Reciprocity is something that weighs heavily in all of the discussions that we are undertaking as we develop the process and rules for the commissions, and that's the exact reason, sir. The treatment of soldiers who will be captured on future battlefields is of paramount concern."

The Post also reports that the draft plan would give military courts the right to try people who are not connected with the Taliban and Al Qaeda and who are not "directly involved with acts of international terrorism." The new plan would allow the Secretary of Defense "to add crimes at will to those under the military court's jurisdiction."

Under the proposed procedures, defendants would lack rights to confront accusers, exclude hearsay accusations, or bar evidence obtained through rough or coercive interrogations. They would not be guaranteed a public or speedy trial and would lack the right to choose their military counsel, who in turn would not be guaranteed equal access to evidence held by prosecutors.

Detainees would also not be guaranteed the right to be present at their own trials, if their absence is deemed necessary to protect national security or individuals.

The military lawyers also objected to the provision that would allow a judge to give classified evidence to a defendant's military lawyers, but not to the defendant himself, and to the provision that evidence obtained the admission of evidence obtained under coercive interrogations. "Sir, I don't believe that a statement that is obtained under coercive – under torture, certainly, and under coercive measures should be admissible," [Maj. Gen. Black] told Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

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Reports

UN Reports

UN’s top rights chief condemns killings of civilians in Qana, Lebanon
UN News Service
July 31, 2006

31 July 2006 – The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights today strongly condemned the weekend killing of dozens of civilians, including numerous children, resulting from the shelling by the Israeli forces of a residential building in Qana, south Lebanon, and reminded the parties of their obligations under international law.

“I call again on all parties to the conflict to respect their obligations under international law and to take all measures to effectively protect civilians and civilian objects,” Louise Arbour said in a statement released in Geneva.

Noting that Israel had warned the population of likely military action, the High Commissioner underlined that while effective advance warning of attacks which may affect the civilian population must be given, this legal obligation does not absolve the parties to the conflict of their other obligations under international law regarding the protection of civilians.

“All parties to the conflict must respect the principles of distinction and proportionality, particularly when civilians remain in the zone of military operations after a warning has been issued,” she said.

She also recalled that international humanitarian law requires all parties to avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas.

The High Commissioner noted the decision of the Israeli Forces to halt air strikes for 48 hours, calling for its full implementation of that commitment, but cautioned that “this brief halt does not in any way lessen the clear obligations of the Israeli Forces and Hezbollah under international law.”

“Many people are simply unable to leave southern Lebanon because they have no transport, because roads have been destroyed, because they are ill or elderly, because they must care for others who are physically unable to make the journey, or because they simply have no where else to go. Many thousands of civilians will still be in Southern Lebanon after the suspension of air strikes is ended,” she observed.

The High Commissioner welcomed reports that Israel would conduct an inquiry into the civilian deaths at Qana. She also reiterated the need for independent investigations to establish facts and conduct an impartial legal analysis of the persistent allegations of violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law during the conflict.

The High Commissioner again reminded all parties of the need for accountability for violations of international law, and reiterated the Secretary-General’s call for an immediate cessation of all hostilities.

On 19 July, Ms. Arbour issued a statement voicing grave concern at the killing and maiming of civilians in Lebanon, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory and stressing that international law demands accountability.

At the time, she also emphasized that parties to any conflict have the obligation to exercise precaution and respect the principle of proportionality in all military operations so as to prevent unnecessary suffering among the civilian population.

Head of UN mission to Nepal expresses optimism on peace negotiations
UN News Service
August 1, 2006

1 August 2006 – The leader of a high-level United Nations delegation visiting Nepal to explore possible UN assistance to that country’s peace process today said he was hopeful that the Nepalese Government and the nation’s Communist party could reach an agreement on arms management in the coming days.

Staffan de Mistura told reporters that he was “confident” and “optimistic” that a common understanding could be achieved before the mission returns to New York on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the delegation continued its intensive consultations and also travelled outside of the capital Kathmandu for the first time, enabling the team to gain a fuller understanding of the situation on the ground.

The mission includes staff with expertise in peace processes in other countries around the world, and across a range of disciplines. Last week delegates met with Communist Party leaders, as well as Nepalese Government ministers and senior figures from the country’s military.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said recent developments in the Himalayan kingdom provide an “unprecedented opportunity” to achieve a negotiated solution to the 10 years of conflict between the Government and the Communists.

UN Special Representative to Timor-Leste calls for calm as justice takes course
UN News Service
August 2, 2006

2 August 2006 – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative in Timor-Leste today called for calm and for the observance of the rule of law to allow justice to take its course in dealing with the outbreak of violence in April that forced tens of thousands of people in the small country to flee their homes.

In a statement released in the capital, Dili, Sukehiro Hasegawa pointed out that the international community is aware of, and will respond to, the aspirations and demands for justice, fair and equal treatment of everyone alleged to have committed a criminal act during the period preceding and leading to the violent incidents in April and May of this year. That was when some 600 striking soldiers – a third of the armed forces – were fired, sparking clashes that killed at least 37 people and drove 155,000 more, 15 per cent of the population, from their homes.

The United Nations will respond by supporting an independent inquiry into the facts and circumstances relevant to the incidents, said Mr. Hasegawa, noting that the “Independent Special Commission of Inquiry for Timor-Leste” has already commenced its investigations. Officials connected to that probe are expected to arrive in Timor-Leste next week.

The Special Representative pointed out that the Office of the Prosecutor-General may be conducting many criminal investigations into the recent incidents, a process which will take time, and that it is important that the justice system be allowed to run its course. “What counts is that, at the end, justice be done with fairness and integrity. That, after a fair trial, innocent people are acquitted and those individuals found guilty of criminal acts are convicted and sentenced in accordance with the law of the land,” he said.

He also urged the Timorese people to find the strength to start the reconciliation process with their neighbours and fellow citizens – “whether they happen to be from the eastern or the western districts” – and to work together to achieve democratic reforms.

Looking to polls scheduled for early next hear, he observed that peace and stability are necessary “so that the process can be completely free and democratic and be carried out without threats of violence or intimidation.”

Annan calls for relief access in strife-torn Sri Lanka, immediate end to fighting
UN News Service
August 3, 2006

3 August 2006 – Expressing deep concern about increasing violence in Sri Lanka, particularly the escalation caused by a water dispute in the northeast, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on all sides to cease hostilities immediately, allow humanitarian agencies unimpeded access to those affected and resume peace talks.

Referring to the water dispute, Mr. Annan said in a statement issued by his spokesman that he is “disturbed by reports that there have been many civilian victims, including children, as well as large displacements of people.”

Noting the continued efforts by Norway to resolve the conflict, he called on the parties “to cease hostilities immediately to create a conducive climate for negotiations over the water issue,” and reiterated his appeal to both the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to resume peace talks.

The conflict, which has already been going on for more than 20 years, has intensified in recent months despite a ceasefire agreement reached in February 2002 aimed at ending the fighting between the Government and separatist forces that has claimed some 60,000 lives.

Amid repeated calls by the Secretary-General and other officials from the world body for a resumption of peace talks, last week the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) visited the island and called for concrete measures to allow the more than 300,000 people displaced by the violence to return to their homes.

At present a joint Task Force made up of Australian, New Zealand, Portuguese and Malaysian forces invited in by the Government is helping to restore calm in Timor-Lestes.

NGO Reports

Lebanon/Israel: 48 hours not enough as war crimes continue
Amnesty International
July 31, 2006

The devastating attack on Qana makes clear that an immediate and full ceasefire is urgently needed. Measures taken by Israel to temporarily suspend airstrikes over southern Lebanon are insufficient. Both sides to this conflict have shown a blatant disregard for the laws of war and civilians on both sides are paying the price as war crimes abound, Amnesty International said today.

"In view of the defiant disregard for fundamental humanitarian principles by both parties, it would appear that only an immediate, full and effective cease-fire will protect civilians on both sides of this conflict," said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International.

"It is utterly shameful that governments who have influence over Israel and Hizbollah and who could help end this crisis, continue to prioritize political and military interests over innocent lives of civilians."

Amnesty International is calling on the international community to urgently negotiate an immediate and full ceasefire, and to convene a meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to ensure that attacks such as Qana are independently and impartially investigated and those suspected of war crimes brought to justice.

Amnesty International researchers in Lebanon who went to Qana shortly after the bombing found rescue workers pulling children's bodies from the rubble and digging furiously in search of survivors. At Tyre hospital, Mohamed Qasem Shalhoub, whose wife, elderly mother and five children aged from two to 11 were killed, said that he had been in a room in the basement and that 17 children were sleeping close by him, only one of whom survived. Another survivor, whose sister and brother were killed, told Amnesty International that she and her family had been sheltering in the house for the past 10 days, emerging during the day to wash, and that their presence must have been known to Israeli forces whose surveillance drones frequently flew over the village.

"Calls for the warring parties to obey the laws of war and protect civilians have fallen on deaf ears. Israelis carrying out disproportionate and targetedattacks on civilians and humanitarian workers, while Hizbullah continues to launch rockets at Israeli civilian population centres," said Irene Khan.

Israeli authorities have claimed that Hizbullah intentionally used civilians in Qana as "human shields". International humanitarian law expressly prohibits the use of tactics such as "human shields" to prevent an attack on military targets. However, international humanitarian law also makes it clear that even if one side is shielding itself behind civilians, such an abuse does not "...release the Parties to the conflict from their legal obligations with respect to the civilian population and civilians."

Reports that Israel has warned all civilians living south of the Litani River to leave the area demonstrates how the concept of effective warning is being distorted. If anything, such a warning to over 400,000 people seems only to spread panic among the civilian population, rather than enhance their safety. Many fear they are more likely to be attacked on the road. Some simply are not able to leave. In several cases where Israeli forces gave warning to residents of certain towns or villages in southern Lebanon, they then attacked those trying to flee. Israel's relentless bombing of roads and bridges has also made it extremely difficult for civilians in south Lebanon to flee north following warnings from Israel.

Under customary international law, intentionally launching a disproportionate or indiscriminate attack or intentionally directing attacks at civilians or civilian objects is a war crime.

“The concept of ‘free-fire’ zones is incompatible with international humanitarian law. The attack in Qana is sypmtomatic of the way in which this conflict has been fought to date and indicates either that Israel is failing to take necessary precautions to spare civilians or that it has intentionally launched a disproportionate attack on civilians,” said Irene Khan.

Israel: IDF inquiry into Qana a whitewash
Amnesty International
August 3, 2006

The investigation carried out by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) into the air-missile attack on Qana was clearly inadequate and reinforces the need for the urgent dispatch of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC).

"We cannot allow any investigation into the events in Qana to be a whitewash. What is needed here is an independent investigation which can look at all credible reports of serious violations of international humanitarian law taking place in this conflict. Any investigation needs the capacity to cross borders and talk to survivors of the attack as well as to the forces involved," said Kate Gilmore, Executive Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International.

"It is not enough that the Israeli army investigates themselves. Israel has a history of either not investigating civilian deaths, or conducting similarly flawed inquiries."

The results of the IDF investigation state that the IDF "operated according to information that the building was not inhabited by civilians". Yet survivors of the attack interviewed by Amnesty International researchers in Qana shortly after the bombing, stated that they had been in the building for some two weeks and that their presence must have been known to Israeli forces whose surveillance drones frequently flew over the village.

Amnesty International declared that issuing warnings to the civilian population to leave the area does not absolve Israel of their responsibilities under customary international humanitarian law. Intentionally launching a disproportionate or indiscriminate attack, or intentionally directing attacks at civilians or civilian objects is a war crime. Amnesty International stated that the concept of ‘free-fire’ zones is incompatible with international humanitarian law.

Note to editors
Amnesty International is calling on the parties to agree for the urgent dispatch of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC), established under Article 90 of Protocol I relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I ), to investigate incidents where serious violations of the Geneva Conventions and the Protocol are alleged to have taken place. Scrutiny by the IHFFC will be essential to establish the facts independently and authoritatively. It can also act as a deterrent against further abuses by the parties to the conflict.

Secretary Rumsfeld Continues to Argue Against Responsibility for Torture and Abuse
Human Rights First
July 24, 2006

In the latest development in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Human Rights First against Secretary Rumsfeld, on July 21, 2006, the Secretary reasserted his argument that he is immune from responsibility for acts of torture and abuse committed under his watch. The lawsuit, together with three other suits filed by the ACLU, sets forth the legal basis for holding Secretary Rumsfeld and other high ranking members of the armed services responsible for torture and abuse of nine civilians detained by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Retired military officers and military legal experts have filed an amicus brief in support of the ACLU’s and Human Rights First’s suit, arguing against Secretary Rumsfeld’s position on the basis that allowing the federal case to proceed would not be an intrusion into matters of national security and military decision-making. Two of the world’s foremost scholars on the international laws against torture and abusive treatment have also filed an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit.

Uganda: No Amnesty for Atrocities
Human Rights Watch
July 28, 2006

Turning a Blind Eye to Justice Undermines Durable Peace

(New York, July 28, 2006) – Genuine initiatives aimed at ending the devastating armed conflict in northern Uganda are welcome, but amnesties for war crimes and crimes against humanity must not be on offer, Human Rights Watch said today.

On July 14 peace talks began between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Juba, the capital of the regional government of Southern Sudan. As part of a peace package, the Ugandan government delegation is offering amnesty to all LRA combatants, including five top LRA leaders for whom the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Human Rights Watch has documented human rights violations committed by the LRA over the years, including torture, sexual abuse, mutilations, recruitment of child soldiers, and forcing children to kill even members of their own families.

“The LRA Five are accused of widespread sexual slavery, murder, and brutalization of children over two decades,” said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program. “Amnesty or similar measures can not be on the table when it comes to these kinds of crimes.”

International law rejects impunity for serious crimes, such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture. International treaties, including the U.N. Convention against Torture, the Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, require parties to ensure alleged perpetrators of serious crimes are prosecuted. Uganda has ratified each of these in addition to numerous other human rights treaties.

According to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, amnesties cannot be granted for serious crimes under international law, and peace agreements endorsed by the United Nations can never provide such amnesties.

The creation of the International Criminal Court and other international criminal tribunals to prosecute genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or other serious violations of humanitarian law illustrates the strong international commitment to justice for serious crimes.

“We have seen time and again that turning a blind eye to justice only undercuts durable peace,” said Dicker. “How long can a peace based on this kind of deal last?”

The United Nations and key governments, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom, should continue to speak out strongly against amnesty for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The devastating effect of amnesties for serious crimes can be seen in the example of Sierra Leone. In 1999 the Revolutionary United Front leader Foday Sankoh – allegedly responsible for brutal crimes including mutilations, murder and rape – received an amnesty and was rewarded with control of a government commission in exchange for signing the Lomé peace accord, which was supposed to end Sierra Leone’s brutal war. Sankoh soon went on to attack both government forces and U.N. peacekeepers, taking hundreds of them hostage. The revived conflict was not declared over until more than two years later. Meanwhile, prosecution was pursued under the Special Court for Sierra Leone and has helped to marginalize the abusive leaders of the warring parties.

Notably, the peace agreement that settled the 21-year war in southern Sudan in January 2005 did not include an amnesty. The government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), composed of former southern Sudanese rebels, came to power through this agreement, which was approved by the Security Council. The GoSS is now sponsoring the peace talks between the LRA and the Ugandan government.

To supplement investigation and prosecutions by the International Criminal Court, Uganda also should conduct meaningful prosecutions in its own courts, Human Rights Watch said. In addition, the Ugandan government should establish a truth commission or another truth-telling process that would allow people in northern Uganda a forum to speak about the human rights abuses that occurred during the war. This process could work alongside traditional reconciliation measures in which those affected wish to participate.

Background on Northern Uganda and the ICC’s Arrest Warrants for LRA Members

The conflict in northern Uganda to depose President Yoweri Museveni began immediately after he took power by force in 1986. The rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, based in northern Uganda, struck fear in the civilian population by carrying out mutilations, killings and forced recruitment of child soldiers mostly from the Acholi people of northern Uganda, although LRA leader Joseph Kony is Acholi himself. Human Rights Watch has also documented abuses by Ugandan government forces, including rape.

In December 2003 Museveni invited the International Criminal Court to investigate the LRA. In July 2005 the court issued warrants for the arrest of the top five LRA leaders – Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Raska Lukwiya and Dominic Ongwen, as well as Joseph Kony – for crimes including widespread or systematic murder, sexual enslavement, rape, and war crimes such as intentionally attacking civilians and abducting and enlisting children under the age of 15.

Israel/Lebanon: End Indiscriminate Strikes on Civilians
Human Rights Watch
August 3, 2006

Some Israeli Attacks Amount to War Crimes

( Beirut, August 3, 2006) – Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in report released today. The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes.

The 50-page report, “Fatal Strikes: Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon,” analyzes almost two dozen cases of Israeli air and artillery attacks on civilian homes and vehicles. Of the 153 dead civilians named in the report, 63 are children. More than 500 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire since fighting began on July 12, most of them civilians.

“The pattern of attacks shows the Israeli military’s disturbing disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Our research shows that Israel’s claim that Hezbollah fighters are hiding among civilians does not explain, let alone justify, Israel’s indiscriminate warfare.”

The report is based on extensive interviews with victims and witnesses of attacks, visits to some blast sites, and information obtained from hospitals, humanitarian groups, security forces and government agencies. Human Rights Watch also conducted research in Israel, assessing the weapons used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Human Rights Watch researchers found numerous cases in which the IDF launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military objectives but excessive civilian cost. In many cases, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some instances, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians.

In one case, an Israeli air strike on July 13 destroyed the home of a cleric known to have sympathy for Hezbollah but who was not known to have taken any active part in the hostilities. Even if the IDF considered him a legitimate target (and Human Rights Watch has no evidence that he was), the strike killed him, his wife, their 10 children and the family’s Sri Lankan maid.

On July 16, an Israeli aircraft fired on a civilian home in the village of Aitaroun, killing 11 members of the al-Akhrass family, among them seven Canadian-Lebanese dual nationals who were vacationing in the village when the war began. Human Rights Watch independently interviewed three villagers who vigorously denied that the family had any connection to Hezbollah. Among the victims were children aged one, three, five and seven.

The Israeli government has blamed Hezbollah for the high civilian casualty toll in Lebanon, insisting that Hezbollah fighters have hidden themselves and their weapons among the civilian population. However, in none of the cases of civilian deaths documented in the report is there evidence to suggest that Hezbollah was operating in or around the area during or prior to the attack.

“Hezbollah fighters must not hide behind civilians – that’s an absolute – but the image that Israel has promoted of such shielding as the cause of so high a civilian death toll is wrong,” Roth said. “In the many cases of civilian deaths examined by Human Rights Watch, the location of Hezbollah troops and arms had nothing to do with the deaths because there was no Hezbollah around.”

Statements from Israeli government officials and military leaders suggest that, at the very least, the IDF has blurred the distinction between civilians and combatants, arguing that only people associated with Hezbollah remain in southern Lebanon, so all are legitimate targets of attack. Under international law, however, only civilians directly participating in hostilities lose their immunity from attack. Many civilians have been unable to flee because they are sick, wounded, do not have the means to leave or are providing essential civil services.

Many civilians are afraid to leave the south because the roads are under Israeli attack. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have fled their homes, but Israeli forces have fired with warplanes and artillery on dozens of civilian vehicles, many flying white flags. Israel has justified its attacks on roads by citing the need to target Hezbollah fighters moving arms and block their transport routes.

However, none of the evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch or reported to date by independent media sources indicate that any of the attacks on vehicles documented in the report resulted in Hezbollah casualties or the destruction of weapons. Rather, the attacks have killed and wounded civilians who were fleeing their homes after the IDF issued instructions to evacuate.

“Israeli warnings of imminent attacks do not turn civilians into military targets,” said Roth. “Otherwise, Palestinian militant groups might ‘warn’ Israeli settlers to leave their settlements and then feel justified in attacking those who remained.”

Human Rights Watch urges Israel to immediately end indiscriminate attacks and distinguish at all times between civilians and combatants. Human Rights Watch also calls on the United States to immediately suspend transfers of arms, ammunition, and other materiel credibly alleged to have been used in violation of international humanitarian law in Lebanon, until these violations cease. Human Rights Watch further asks the Secretary-General of the United Nations to establish an International Commission of Inquiry to investigate reports of such violations, including possible war crimes, and to formulate recommendations with a view to holding accountable those who violated the law. That commission should examine both Israeli attacks in Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks in Israel.

In previous reporting, Human Rights Watch has addressed the conduct of Hezbollah forces, condemning its attacks on civilian areas as serious violations of international humanitarian law amounting to war crimes. Human Rights Watch has called on the governments of Syria and Iran to use their influence on Hezbollah to promote respect for the laws of war. In this report, it urges Hezbollah to take all feasible steps to avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas and to remove civilian persons and objects under its control from the vicinity of military objectives.

Israel/Lebanon: Hezbollah Must End Attacks on Civilians
Human Rights Watch
August 5, 2006

Rocket Attacks on Civilians in Israel Are War Crimes

(New York, August 5, 2006) – Hezbollah must immediately stop firing rockets into civilian areas in Israel, Human Rights Watch said today. Entering the fourth week of attacks, such rockets have claimed 30 civilian lives, including six children, and wounded hundreds more.

Lobbing rockets blindly into civilian areas is without doubt a war crime,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. ”Nothing can justify this assault on the most fundamental standards for sparing civilians the hazards of war.”

Hezbollah claims that some of its attacks are aimed at military bases inside Israel, which are legitimate targets. But most of the attacks appear to have been directed at civilian areas and have hit pedestrians, hospitals, schools, homes and businesses.

Since July 12, when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight, Human Rights Watch researchers have been documenting the war’s impact on civilians in Israel and Lebanon, interviewing the witnesses and survivors of attacks, as well as doctors, emergency workers, police, military and government officials.

As of August 4, Hezbollah had launched a reported 2,500 rockets into predominantly civilian areas in northern Israel. Some longer-range rockets landed as far south as the city of Hadera, some 85 km from the border. Hezbollah announced that it had attacked Hadera on August 4 in retaliation for an Israeli air raid in Lebanon earlier that day that reportedly killed more than 20 farm workers.

Yesterday, Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, offered to stop bombing Israel’s “northern settlements” if the Israeli military stopped bombing Lebanon’s “cities and civilians.” He also warned that an Israeli attack on Beirut would result in Hezbollah bombing Tel Aviv.

In a report issued on August 3, “Fatal Strikes: Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon,” Human Rights Watch documented a systematic failure by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to distinguish between combatants and civilians. In some cases, the timing and intensity of the attack, the absence of a military target, as well as subsequent strikes on rescuers, suggest that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians. Yesterday, Israeli bombing reportedly killed at least 40 civilians in Lebanon.

“Human Rights Watch has documented the Israeli military’s persistent use of indiscriminate force, which has killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians,” Roth said. “But war crimes by one side in a conflict never justify war crimes by another. Hezbollah must stop using the excuse of Israeli misconduct to justify its own.”

Northern Israel, an area populated by about one 1 million people, has come to a virtual standstill because of Hezbollah’s rockets, which are exacting an enormous human and economic toll. Authorities believe that up to half the population has left the area, while the rest are living in constant fear of the air raid sirens that warn of attacks.

Human Rights Watch said many of those who remain in northern Israel are unable to leave because they don’t have relatives elsewhere in the country or the resources to pay for alternative accommodation. Some stay behind to care for relatives who are disabled or infirm, or because they work as emergency and medical personnel.

“Who is left here in Kiryat Shmona; the weakest part of the population,” Shimon Kamari, the deputy mayor of Kiryat Shmona, only a few kilometers from the northern border, told Human Rights Watch. “The elderly and those who can’t afford hotels, because to stay for such a long time is very expensive.”

Hezbollah has fired three different types of weapons at Israel so far. The vast majority are 122mm Katyusha rockets, while 220mm Fajr rockets have landed in the cities of Haifa and Nazareth. Hezbollah has also fired several 302mm Khaiber-1 rockets; the first of these landed on July 28 in empty areas near Afula, 50 km south of the border, and another wave hit near Hadera on August 4. In addition, Hezbollah said it had fired Khaiber-1 rockets at Beit Shean on August 2.

Some of the rockets, such as those that killed eight rail workers in Haifa on July 16 and two young brothers in Nazareth on July 19, have warheads packed with thousands of metal ball bearings that spray out from the blast. Launched on civilian areas, the ball bearings are intended to inflict maximum harm.

Under international humanitarian law – also known as the laws of war – parties to an armed conflict must not make the civilian population the object of attack, or fire indiscriminately into civilian areas. Nor can they launch attacks that they know will cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects that exceeds the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated. Such attacks constitute war crimes.

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