War Crimes Prosecution Watch

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

The Official Website of the Khmer Rouge Trial Task Force

Will Sihanouk testify in Khmer Rouge trial?
Asia Times
by Verghese Mathews
August 22, 2006

Ta Mok, a name so familiar to a generation of Cambodians, died in Phnom Penh in the early hours of Friday, July 21, 2006. In detention since his capture in 1999, the much feared, one-legged Khmer Rouge military commander died in a military hospital of complications resulting from a long history of high blood pressure, respiratory illness, cardio-vascular problems and tuberculosis.

While there were those who mourned his death, there were arguably legions who were both truly disappointed and deeply frustrated that Ta Mok had taken along with him, to the hereafter, many dark secrets of the 3 years, 8 months and 20 days of the dreaded Khmer Rouge (KR) regime.

His untimely but not unexpected death is without doubt a great loss to the forthcoming Khmer Rouge Tribunal (KRT). He could surely have shed at least some light as to why the KR did what they did to their own people and what unfortunate alignment of the planets motivated their frenzied attempt to reinvent Cambodia and why that dreaded exercise went so dreadfully wrong.

Ta Mok is not the only one to have cheated the KRT of its very limited number of primary sources. The man accused of being most responsible for the crimes, Pol Pot, Brother No 1, died unceremoniously in suspicious circumstances on 15 April 1998 - at a time when Ta Mok had wrested control of the KR from him.

The loss now of such a critical witness like Ta Mok should sound the clarion call to both the UN and the Cambodian Government that the KRT should not be delayed any longer and that every resource ought to be marshalled to accelerate the tribunal process.

Apart from possible deaths of the remaining ageing KR leaders, there is also residual fear in certain circles that some, if not most of them, who live and move freely in Cambodia, may quietly disappear from the country before the trial proper begins early next year. This is not an unlikely event.

Media reports last month, for example, that former head of state Khieu Samphan "had packed up his pickup truck in the middle of the night and left town", quickly gained currency and raised anxiety among those who continue to harbour doubts about the KRT.

A subsequent explanation that Khieu Samphan was merely transporting a bed to his son's house killed further international media interest of the incident but failed to assuage the doubts of the cynics.

Viewed in this context of diminishing primary witnesses, the July 15 offer of former King Norodom Sihanouk, now referred to as Father King, to testify at the KRT tribunal, makes fascinating reading and is truly intriguing.

He declared on his website that he did not lack the courage to appear before the KRT and again pointedly reminded everyone, "My family, my wife's family and many people who supported Norodom Sihanouk were tortured and killed by Khmer Rouge Pol Pot."

Will Sihanouk testify? It would be difficult for Sihanouk not to steal the limelight should he appear at the KRT. Even his worst detractors will grudgingly admit that Sihanouk is an extremely astute politician who has been intimately involved with developments in his country for the last half a century. He is both enigmatic and extraordinary. He also knows how to capture attention.

An important point to note here is the firm belief in some quarters that Sihanouk is very serious and that his was not a frivolous offer. Sihanouk is a man of history and as he looks back at his colourful and eventful life, he may perhaps pause to admit that one of the most universally misunderstood and most trying periods of his life was the period of the KR when he, Queen Mother Norodom Monineath and present King Norodom Sihamoni ended up as virtual prisoners in the palace.

It is entirely possible, or so the belief goes, that Sihanouk, in his sunset years, will view the KRT, despite his previous criticism of it, as possibly one of the very few remaining vehicles to put across his side of the story of the period for future generations of Cambodians and for the international community.

There is a view that as he is no more King and since constraints are fewer, he will be more forthright at the KRT. This is not being fair to Sihanouk. His track record here is clear. Even when he was King and there were numerous constraints, he never lacked in forthrightness.

On the contrary, what has always been uppermost in the minds of those who knew him, both friends and detractors alike, was that no one was ever too sure what Sihanouk would say. Even some of those who genuinely admire him admit that Sihanouk is indeed unpredictable and fearless - undoubtedly a potent combination.

Others have described him differently. The highly respected political commentator Milton Osborne titled his book on Sihanouk, Prince of Darkness, Prince of Light.

In a review of the book, the equally respected Martin Stuart-Fox disagreed with that reference. He gently chided, "The title is an extravagant one. Sihanouk is neither a Prince of Darkness nor a Prince of Light. Such cosmological/eschatological overtones as these titles convey should not cloud our judgment. What Milton Osborne actually presents us with in this thoughtful and revealing book is a leader whose flaws of character contributed in no small measure to his country's tragic history."

There will be those who will disagree with that observation about Sihanouk but will wholeheartedly accept that the real tragedy of Cambodia was the Khmer Rouge.

Given this, although Sihanouk is not required to appear before the KRT, and ultimately may not, there is no denying that should he do so, his contributions would be invaluable.

There is equally no denying that should he appear, there could well be understandable anxiety among some individuals and within some capitals.

The Khmer Rouge trial should be a shared experience
The Nation
by Kavi Chongkittavorn
August 22, 2006

Thirty years after the genocide, the Khmer Rouge tribunal is set to start prosecutions next year in Phnom Penh. It will take another three years for the final verdict to be released.

During the intervening period, much could happen. The death of Ta Mok, the Khmer Rouge's military chief, on July 21 of tuberculosis, immediately raised concerns about whether the trial can deliver justice.

Officially known as Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed During the Period of Democratic Kampuchea, this kind of hybrid court is being used for the second time in Asia, after East Timor. The court was created when the Cambodian National Assembly passed a law calling for its establishment in 2001.

After the Cambodian government asked the UN in 1997 to help the country to establish a tribunal to prosecute the Khmer Rouge's senior leaders, negotiations between the government and UN proceeded slowly and at one time collapsed. It was only in 2000 that the process was revived and subsequently agreed upon. The Cambodian government asked for help because it felt that the Cambodian judiciary lacked sufficient resources and expertise to undertake such a complex task on its own, and also because the crimes are of such magnitude as to be of worldwide concern. During the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1978 reign of terror, it forcibly relocated people out into the countryside, killing 1.7 million people, or 21 per cent of the population in the process. Some 1.3 million died of torture, execution and starvation. As the Khmer Rouge slaughtered the Cambodian people, neighbouring countries like Thailand and Vietnam were silent. This was their shame, and they have never shown any remorse.

Now, it is time for reflection and confessions. This historic tribunal could serve a broader purpose by making the trial a shared experience for the rest of the region. People of future generations must ensure that such crimes against humanity never happen again, in their own countries or elsewhere.

The tribunal's 17 judges and 13 jurists must bear in mind that the genocide was carried out in full view of Cambodia's neighbours. According to Yale University's Genocide Programme, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge ran 158 prisons and 309 mass-grave sites with an estimated total of 19,000 grave pits. There are 76 post-1979 memorials to victims of the Khmer Rouge. Some of these are near the Thai border.

Thailand, which turned a blind eye to the Khmer Rouge's atrocities, must reflect on this horrible past. It was an open secret that top Thai military leaders had links to Khmer Rouge leaders like Pol Pot, Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary. They justified these ties on the grounds of national security. This explains why the Khmer Rouge was able to operate along the Thai-Cambodian border and even crossed over into Thailand at will. This part of the story has not been questioned clearly enough. Suffice it to say, the Thai people paid no attention to the genocide next door.

For Thailand, the Khmer Rouge tribunal will serve as a useful tool to educate those in power, especially about high-handedness. For example, what lessons have the Thai people drawn from the atrocities in Tak Bai and Kru Se? Judging from comments by Thailand's leaders in the past few weeks, they still do not understand the situation in the South.

The report of the National Reconciliation Commission, which was submitted to the government in early July, was the product of a genuine desire to resolve the conflict in the South and to begin the long process of national reconciliation. Unfortunately, some old hacks, bureaucrats and uniformed men, who are used to relying on intimidation and trepidation, want to continue the status quo in the South. The report remains unimplemented.

The Southeast Asian media must pay special attention to the trials. Along with the Cambodian people, the Southeast Asian press could learn from the investigation process and evidence used. In more ways than one, the process will serve as a review of a turbulent chapter in the region's history - April 17, 1975, to January 6, 1979. People who are now in their 20s could use the lesson.

For three years, eight months and 20 days, the Cambodian people suffered from the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. They want to see the trial proceed and judgements handed down. They want a proper closure for their suffering. This will be good for all Southeast Asians. After all, within the region, Burma continues to oppress its people and abuse ethnic minorities. It carries out extra-judicial executions and recruits child soldiers. Hopefully the Khmer Rouge trial will set a precedent in Southeast Asia.

Perhaps the Khmer Rouge trial will allow Thais to look back with some detachment at what they did and should have done. Perhaps it will even help prevent the same mistakes from occurring again.

[back to contents]

Central African Republic (ICC)

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

Kony Applies for Asylum
AllAfrica.com - Monitor (Kampala)
by Emmanuel Gyezaho, & Frank Nyakairu
August 23, 2006

THE rebel Lord's Resistance Army leader, Joseph Kony has formally approached the Central African Republic [CAR] government pleading for asylum, Daily Monitor has reliably established.

Highly placed sources said yesterday that the LRA warlord made the request for sanctuary, under the auspices of CAR President, Gen Francois Bozizé, sometime last week.

President Bozizé on receiving the request, Daily Monitor has learnt, dispatched his Chief of Staff, over the weekend, to meet President Yoweri Museveni over the matter.

Dr E. Jebbari arrived in the country on Saturday and met Mr Museveni on Monday, before flying back to Bangui, the CAR capital, the same day.

State House officials yesterday claimed ignorance about Dr Jebbari's visit and maintained that the visit "certainly was not on the President's official programme."

The President's Press Secretary, Mr Onapito Ekomoloit, said, "There was no such meeting my office has covered."

However, a source to the meeting said Jebbari met Museveni at State House, Nakasero, and told the President that his government had received Kony's request but could not take any decisive action until it had formally contacted Kampala.

"He [Dr Jebbari] said that his country could not grant Kony asylum without consulting President Museveni," the source said.

Previously, intelligence sources within the UPDF claimed that Kony likes the CAR, and that he has a base at Bamboute, 1362 km east of Bangui. But authorities in CAR denied the reports.

Kony has in the past said he cannot settle in Uganda, even when the LRA and Kampala sign a comprehensive peace agreement. He said he would be comfortable settling in CAR, Southern Sudan and DR Congo among other countries.

LRA write to Tutu

It also emerged yesterday that the LRA has written to South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop, Desmond Tutu, asking for help to establish a truth and reconciliation commission on northern Uganda.

The letter written by the LRA head of delegation, Martin Ojul, is inviting the Bishop to advise both sides on how the commission can deal with crimes committed, since the commencement of the northern conflict.

MPs to meet Museveni

In Juba, a cross section of Uganda's team of observers who include legislators, religious leaders and cultural leaders from northern Uganda, returned yesterday to brief Parliament and Museveni on the status of the peace talks. Gulu Archdioceses Bishop, John Baptist Odama and his Anglican counterpart, Nelson Onono, also returned from Juba.

Ms Betty Amongi [MP Apac] and Johnson Malinga [Kapelebyong] led the group. Parliament heard yesterday that the UN and the US have promised to support the suspension of the indictment of top LRA leaders by the ICC.

Ms Among said, "The President [Kiir] has assured us that he has already consulted various governments that have pledged to support his government in stopping the prosecution, should the Juba peace talks succeed."

In Gulu, Mr Norbert Mao, the District Chairman demanded permission to join the talks in Juba, not as an observer but active participant.

Central African Republic: Court Sentences Ex-President Patassé to 20 Years' Jail
AllAfrica.com - IRIN
August 30, 2006

Former President Ange-Felix Patassé of the Central African Republic (CAR) has been sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment with hard labour and part of a fine of five billion francs CFA (US $10 million) for setting up fake companies.

The Criminal Court of the CAR sentenced Patassé and his friend, Louis Sanchez, on Tuesday in absentia without the presence of their lawyers. The law stipulates that a person tried in absentia cannot be represented by a lawyer.

Sanchez, a French citizen of Portuguese origin, was also sentenced to 20 years and ordered to share the fine.

Patassé served as president from August 1993 until his overthrow in March 2003 by François Bozize, the current elected president. Patassé is exiled in Togo, West Africa.

His trial began in 2005 but was postponed until Tuesday to allow for the completion of court investigations into charges of theft of public funds through his fictitious companies.

Patassé owned several companies, among them some supposedly dealing in diamonds. He is accused of also being a major shareholder in many more, including timber-logging firms.

The state prosecutor claimed that Patassé embezzled 70 billion francs ($136 million) during his presidency this way.

Public reaction in the capital, Bangui, to Tuesday's verdict has been mixed. The chairman of the Human Rights League of the CAR, Goune Ngai Wanfio, said on Wednesday the sentence was light and only provisional.

"If Patassé returns home to face trial he would get a fair one and with the help of his lawyers," he said.

Legally there can be a retrial if he returns home and surrenders to the authorities.

Bangui businessman Ali Moustapha added: "The verdict is lenient; I think Patassé should be punished severely because he betrayed the people of the CAR."

However, speaking on condition of anonymity, a university lecturer said: "Twenty years is tough for a former democratically elected president. It is better to ask Patassé to pay five billion CFA to the government as a fine. But the question is, from where is he going to get the money?"

The government has filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court in The Hague against Patassé for crimes against humanity. These refer to the atrocities committed by the Mouvement de Libération de Congo of Jean Pierre Bemba whose fighters raped and killed at will when they came to help Patassé put down Bozize's rebellion.

Patassé is the second former ruler in the country to be tried in absentia. The late self-styled emperor, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, was tried in absentia following his downfall in 1979. He returned home voluntarily in 1986 to face trial and received the death penalty. However, the sentence was commuted by former military ruler André Kolingba.

Bokassa was released in August 1993, but died three years later.

[back to contents]

Democratic Republic of the Congo (ICC)

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

Congolese militia leader becomes first man charged at International Criminal Court
UN News Service
August 28, 2006

A former militia leader in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who is accused of recruiting child soldiers has become the first individual to face charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The ICC Prosecutor's office issued a press statement today announcing that it has formally charged Thomas Lubanga Dyilo with enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 and using them to participate actively in hostilities.

The case against Mr. Lubanga Dyilo "represents almost two years of intense, on-the-ground investigation by the Office of the Prosecutor," according to the statement, which was issued at the ICC's headquarters in the Dutch city of The Hague.

If the charges against Mr. Lubanga Dyilo are confirmed at a pre-trial hearing on 28 September, the Congolese national will be the first person to be tried at the ICC since it came into being on 1 July 2002. He could face life in prison if found guilty by the court.

Mr. Lubanga Dyilo - who was arrested in March - is the President of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) and was the commander-in-chief of its former military wing, the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC) in 2002-03.

According to the press statement, FPLC commanders systematically abducted boys and girls and then forcibly incorporated them into their ranks to help them in their conflict in the Ituri district in the north-eastern DRC.

Mr. Lubanga Dyilo is accused of playing "an overall coordinating role" in the policy of the FPLC to recruit and enlist child soldiers and "he provided the organizational, infrastructural and logistical framework for its implementation."

Observing that foreign nationals supported Mr. Lubanga Dyilo's alleged activities, the statement said the evidence is not strong enough currently to present a case against them.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo described today's charges as "just the first step in the case -We believe our evidence is strong. However, until his guilt is established, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is presumed innocent."

Mr. Moreno-Ocampo added: "Regardless of the outcome of the proceedings, this case represents a huge step in the struggle against these serious crimes against children. Child conscription destroys the lives and futures of thousands of children around the world. This case will contribute to exposing the problem and in stopping these criminal practices."

Established by the Rome Statute of 1998, the ICC can try cases involving individuals charged with war crimes committed since July 2002. The United Nations Security Council, the ICC Prosecutor or a State Party to the court can initiate any proceedings, and the ICC only acts when countries themselves are unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute.

DRC war crimes suspect Lubanga formally charged by ICC
MONUC (UN mission to DRC)
by Eoin Young
August 29, 2006

Thomas Lubanga, a former Ituri militia leader, has been formally charged by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) with enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 as child soldiers.

An ICC confirmation hearing is set for September 28, and if the charges are confirmed, Mr. Lubanga will be the first ever individual to be brought to trial at the court.

Mr. Lubanga is the President of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC), and was the commander in chief of its military wing, the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo(FPLC), at the time the crimes were committed.

From 2002 to 2004, FPLC commanders enlisted and forcibly recruited children as child soldiers, systematically abducting both boys and girls into their ranks. Mr. Lubanga is accused of playing an overall organisational and coordinating role in the UPC/FPLC’s policy in this regard.

Information collected by the office of the Prosecutor at the ICC strongly suggests that his activities were supported by foreign nationals from Uganda and Rwanda, although the evidence is not sufficient to present a case.

But Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said that the case is at a very early stage.

“As prosecutors we have the responsibility to prove the case, and we believe our evidence is strong. However, until his guilt is established Mr. Lubanga is presumed innocent.

“This case represents a huge step in the struggle against these serious crimes against children, as child conscription destroys the lives and futures of thousands of children around the world. It will contribute to exposing the problem and stopping these criminal practices.”

In addition, MONUC Human Rights officer Federico Borello said that numerous NGO’s and human rights organisations have sent letters of protest to the ICC.

“They have reason to believe he is guilty of many other war crimes committed by UPC forces under his command. Therefore if the trial goes ahead, it is possible that Mr. Lubanga will be charged with further human rights abuses.”

According to a latest Secretary General report, more than 18,000 children were released from armed groups in the DRC, from January 2004 to May 2006. Many have escaped, yet these children remain vulnerable to new threats including re-recruitment, as they find it extremely difficult to re-adapt to civilian life.

[back to contents]

Darfur, Sudan (ICC)

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

Sudan: Government troop build-up in Darfur signals looming human rights crisis
Amnesty International
August 28, 2006

Amnesty International today warned that the build-up of Sudanese troops in Darfur could lead to a human rights catastrophe in the very near future, and urged the UN Security Council to take immediate action to protect the people of the region.

"Eyewitnesses in al-Fasher in North Darfur are telling us that Sudanese government military flights are flying in troops and arms on a daily basis," said Kate Gilmore, Amnesty International's Executive Deputy Secretary General. "Displaced people in Darfur are absolutely terrified that the same soldiers that expelled them from their homes and villages may now be sent supposedly to protect them."

The organization urged the UN Security Council to exert maximum pressure on Sudan to accept UN peacekeeping troops in Darfur -- including imposing further targeted sanctions against Sudanese authorities.

The Security Council is due to meet today to discuss a draft resolution on the crisis in Darfur.

The Sudanese government has proposed its own protection plan for the people of Darfur -- a plan that reportedly involves bringing up to 26,000 government troops into the region.

"The Sudanese government's 'protection plan' is a sham and must be firmly rejected," said Kate Gilmore. "How can Sudan -- which appears to be about to launch its own offensive in Darfur -- realistically propose being a peacekeeper in a conflict to which it is a major party and perpetrator of grave human rights violations?"

On 29 July, the Sudanese government bombed villages in North Darfur, violating a March 2005 UN Security Council resolution banning offensive flights in Darfur. Armed opposition groups have also perpetrated grave human rights abuses, including attacking humanitarian convoys.

International Efforts Failing to Protect Civilians in Darfur: Security Council Resolution Gives Khartoum Veto Power
Human Rights First
August 31, 2006

New York, NY – Human Rights First today expressed dismay that international efforts on Darfur, in particular the draft Security Council resolution sponsored by the United States and Britain, fall far short of what is needed.

“There is a real danger that a Security Council resolution authorizing a U.N. force to protect civilians in Darfur will be an empty promise,” said Maureen Byrnes, Executive Director of Human Rights First. “The resolution even risks being counterproductive because it gives the appearance of action when in fact the Khartoum government will have veto power over the U.N.'s role in providing security.”

In the face of spiraling violence in Darfur, U.N. member states have failed to pressure the Sudanese government to abide by its agreements, protect its citizens, and lift its objections to the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers. In addition, the United States and other Security Council members have missed opportunities to promote peace and enhance civilian protection in the region, especially through the initiation of the Darfur-Darfur Dialogue and Consultation, which is mandated in the Darfur Peace Agreement.

At the same time, the Sudanese government has become increasingly defiant -- confident that the international community lacks the political will to stop the ethnic cleansing and mass murder. As U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland recently warned “insecurity is at its highest levels since 2004” and “we may well be on the brink of a return to all out war.”

To lead the international community toward a genuine, peaceful solution in Darfur, Human Rights First is continuing to urge U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint a senior diplomatic envoy for Darfur who would lead the international efforts to end the killings of innocent people in Sudan.

Sudan should accept international help on Darfur, Annan says
UN News Service
September 4, 2006

4 September 2006 – Secretary-General Kofi Annan today reiterated his appeal to the Government of Sudan to accept United Nations forces in the country's troubled Darfur region, as mandated by the Security Council.

Last week, the Council agreed today to deploy a UN peacekeeping force of more than 17,000 troops in Darfur. The resolution creating the operation “invites the consent” of the Sudanese Government to the deployment, although Khartoum has said on several occasions that it is opposed to any kind of UN force taking over the role of the African Union's (AU) current operation – known by the acronym AMIS – in Darfur.

The Secretary-General was asked about Khartoum's rejection of the resolution at a press conference today in Qatar. “If the Government of Sudan had been able to protect these people, we would not even be talking about deploying international troops,” he noted.

Since Sudan's Government has not been able to address the situation, “it is incumbent on it to accept international help to pacify the region so that people can live their lives in peace and dignity,” he added, voicing hope that the country's leaders will “realize that by their inability to protect them, they will be held liable at some stage for what is going on on the ground.”

The Secretary-General recalled that UN members recently accepted the concept of 'responsibility to protect,' “which means each government has the responsibility to protect its people from genocide, ethnic-cleansing, gross and systematic violations of human rights.”

When a government fails, he said, the international community has the right to step in and assist. “We now have to redeem that solemn pledge that was made only last September,” he said. “I would urge the Sudanese authorities to reconsider and work with the international community and accept the forces. We are going in to help. We have no other ambition than that.”

Mr. Annan pointed out that the UN currently has 10,000 troops from all over the world deployed in South Sudan to support a peace agreement that ended a separate conflict there. “We work peacefully with their consent and cooperation and I hope we can do the same in Darfur,” he said.

These views echo those Mr. Annan expressed in a letter to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir last week. The Secretary-General wrote that only an impartial peacekeeping force like the proposed expansion of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), currently deployed to help implement an accord that ended fighting in the country's South, would have the resources and capacity to effectively support the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) signed by the Government and some of the region's rebel groups in May.

In the letter, Mr. Annan also expressed alarm over the recent deployment of large numbers of Sudanese troops in Darfur, which UN officials have called an apparent sign that the Government is determined to pursue a major military offensive there soon.

[back to contents]

Uganda (ICC)

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

Thousands cheer as Uganda rebel truce holds
Reuters
by Daniel Wallis
August 30, 2006

KAMPALA, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Thousands marched on a Ugandan military base carrying white peace flags on Wednesday in support of a truce with northern rebels that may mark the end of one of Africa's longest insurgencies.

Troops were reported to be returning to barracks, and in Gulu town -- the epicentre of the 20-year war -- residents sang and danced their way to the local army headquarters, where an 8-year-old boy handed a white flag to a top Ugandan general.

"We are now going to plant white flags on roads and paths across the north to say this is now a secure area ... We are basically claiming the peace," Gulu chairman Norbert Mao told Reuters by telephone. "There is no turning back."

Uganda 's army has still not named up to a dozen safe routes the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels are supposed to take to camps in south Sudan as part of Saturday's truce deal.

But there were no reports of fresh fighting, and the government said the delay should not deter guerrillas in the bush from setting off on foot for the remote border.

"Military commanders are still planning where the routes will go, but if LRA members are seen heading in the right direction, obviously no one is going to harm them," said Robert Kabushenga. "We are waiting to see what they do."

Nearly two million people have been uprooted in northern Uganda by 20 years of fighting between troops and LRA rebels notorious for killing civilians, mutilating survivors and forcing thousands of abducted children to serve in its ranks.

Under a truce agreed on Saturday at peace talks in southern Sudan, rebel fighters in northern Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo have three weeks to gather at two south Sudanese camps as negotiations continue.

South Sudanese forces will monitor LRA fighters at the remote camps, which most will take several days to reach.

WILL THEY COME?

The LRA's elusive leader, Joseph Kony, and his deputy Vincent Otti are expected to arrive last -- if they come at all -- because they fear being arrested and sent to The Hague for war crimes trials at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Guerrilla officials have insisted both men will move to the Sudan camps within the three-week deadline.

Experts say the rebels have few choices. They have been cut off fromyears of support by the Sudanese government, which had used them against its own rebels, and are ringed by states legally obliged to hand them over to the ICC.

The ICC has no police force, so is relying on the Ugandans, Sudanese and southern Sudanese former rebels to make arrests. On Monday, the court said it still hoped that would happen, despite a Ugandan amnesty offer under the terms of the truce.

Experts say if Kony and Otti leave Congo for the camps, it would be the biggest boost so far for the negotiations, meaning the LRA was ready to sign a comprehensive peace deal.

If the talks collapse, Saturday's truce lets the rebels leave the assembly areas peacefully, but diplomats say that is unlikely to happen -- especially if the wanted men are present.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday he welcomed the truce as a "step in the right direction" and that he hoped an end to the fighting could lead to better lives for communities driven from their homes.

"The U.N. stands ready to assist in the resolution of the conflict ... and will continue doing its utmost to mobilize resources so that people suffering from the violence can receive much-needed assistance," Annan's spokesman said.

Ugandan army 'broke truce' - Kony
BBC News
August 31, 2006

The Lord's Resistance Army leader said his forces were attacked, and he was unhappy at the army's designation of safe routes for them to leave Uganda.

His unexpected public comments came as peace talks to end the 20-year conflict are set to resume in southern Sudan.

Uganda denies breaking the truce, saying it is religiously observing it.

Uganda agreed to a truce on condition LRA soldiers assemble in south Sudan.

Thousands have died during the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda, and more than one million have fled their homes.

Kony complaint

Mr Kony complained to local radio station Mega FM that government soldiers were forcing his men to take particular routes on their way to the assembly points.

"He called to protest what he called the army's issuing of a directive to his fighters as they trek on their way to the assembly points," Moses Oguti, a presenter on Mega FM told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

"He said this was not part of the truce."

He said that his forces were also attacked as they were heading from Pader to Kitgum.

Mr Kony also said the designated period of three weeks was not enough for his men to reach the assembly points.

His comments were the first time the rebel leader had spoken publicly since the truce came into effect.

But the army's spokesman denied the accusations.

"We did not attack his people at all. We are following the truce religiously," Major Felix Kulayigye told Reuters news agency.

The mood in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu is nevertheless positive following the signing of the truce, Mr Oguti said.

"People are very optimistic that something tangible is going to come out of this," he said.

Political participation, economic development and help for more than one million people, including children, affected by the war will be discussed at the talks.

There is no news yet on the expected release of women and children held by the LRA and due to be released in compliance with the deal.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) wants the LRA's top officials - among them Mr Kony - to face charges including murder, rape and forcibly enlisting children. The LRA has abducted thousands of children and forced them to fight since the conflict began.

Against the wishes of the ICC, Uganda offered amnesty to LRA leaders in exchange for the peace talks.

Uganda Official Says Rebel Leader’s Complaints Have Not Derailed Peace Talks
Associated Press via International Herald Tribune
September 1, 2006

A cease-fire between Uganda's government and a rebel group that has terrorized this East African nation for nearly 20 years is on track despite complaints from rebel leader Joseph Kony, a government official said Friday.

The truce, which went into effect Tuesday, calls for fighters from the shadowy Lord's Resistance Army to gather at two assembly points in largely uninhabited areas across the border in southern Sudan, where they will be protected and monitored.

But Kony said earlier this week that the safe corridors provided under the agreement were too limited, and that one of the assembly points was unsuitable due to land mines.

Uganda 's Interior Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said Kony's complaints had not derailed peace talks, which are set to resume Saturday in southern Sudan. Both sides have agreed to lay down arms while negotiators work on a more detailed peace deal and permanent cease-fire to end one of Africa's longest-running wars.

"We have seen significant developments bilaterally," Rugunda said Friday.

The LRA is notorious for cutting off the tongues and lips of innocent civilians, enslaving thousands of children, and driving nearly 2 million people from their homes.

If the deal holds, it will be a major breakthrough in pacifying the African region that joins northern Uganda, eastern Congo and southern Sudan. Rebels from all three nations operated across borders with impunity for decades until a peace accord halted Congo's civil war in 2003 and southern Sudanese rebels joined Sudan's government in 2005.

The LRA was formed from the remnants of a northern Uganda rebellion that began in 1986 after President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, overthrew a brutal military junta.

Kony mixed politics with religious mysticism, declaring himself a Christian prophet fighting to rule this country of 26 million people according to the Ten Commandments.

U.N. officials estimate the LRA has kidnapped 20,000 children in the past 19 years, turning the boys into soldiers and the girls into sex slaves for rebel commanders.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued warrants of arrest for Kony and four other top rebel leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but Museveni has said he will not implement the warrants as long as Kony's group negotiates peace.

Under the terms of the truce, Kony and his fugitive commanders are to assemble along with their fighters.

[back to contents]

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Official Website of the ICTY

Srebrenica Suspects Revealed
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
August 26, 2006

The Bosnian daily newspaper Oslobodjenje has started publishing a list of over 800 Bosnian Serbs who allegedly participated in the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, and are still believed to be in positions of power.

These names are just a small part of a much bigger list of some 28,000 people who, according to the Republika Srpska, RS, authorities, were directly or indirectly involved in the massacre.

The newspaper’s move follows years of public and political pressure to release these names to the public.

During her visit to Srebrenica on July 11 this year, the Hague tribunal’s chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte said, “The tribunal has never imposed an embargo on publishing the list - therefore, I will see to it that the list be made public soon."

Back in October 2004, the RS Srebrenica Commission, under pressure from the international community, released a report in which they acknowledged that Serbs had been responsible for killing thousands of Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica in July 1995.

Out of 28,000 names that the full version of the report apparently contains, 892 are reported to be individuals still employed by governmental and municipal institutions.

Shortly after Del Ponte’s comments, a Muslim member of the Bosnian state presidency, Sulejman Tihic, issued a statement in which he demanded the Bosnian chief prosecutor at the War Crimes Chamber, Marinko Jurcevic, lift the embargo on making the list public.

Tihic pointed out in his statement that “hiding the names of perpetrators who committed genocide against the Bosnian Muslim population in Srebrenica…is a direct violation of the Dayton peace agreement".

But Jurcevic - whose office is looking into allegations made in the report - remained adamant that "publishing this information might jeopardize the ongoing investigations”.

“Some of those listed, who are currently under investigation, might flee," his office stated on July 20.

But on August 24, the Sarajevo-based Oslobodjenje daily published the first 69 names of more than 800 they plan to release over the next few days. They said they got the list “from a source at the Bosnian prosecutor’s office”.

Ever since this report was compiled, there had been pressure by Muslim politicians, media and non-governmental organizations to make all the names listed in the report public, especially those still employed by the state. Del Ponte even took the view that “this would be helpful” in other war crimes investigations.

Sadik Pazarac, from the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bijeljina, told IWPR, “This should have been done long ago. People should know who these persons are - and if they were involved in this crime, they should be held responsible, instead of pretending that nothing has ever happened.”

More EU and NATO Raids in Bosnia
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
August 26, 2006

NATO and European Union troops hunting war crimes fugitives carried out new raids on Bosnian Serb homes this week.

The raids took part in the small Bosnian town of Pale, a wartime headquarters of former Bosnian Serb president and top war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic. In one operation, NATO troops are reported to have searched the home of former police commander Jovan Skobo.

"Mr Skobo is believed to be linked to the support network of Radovan Karadzic that allows him to remain at large," said Derek Chappel, a NATO spokesman in Sarajevo.

In another operation, the State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, also searched the homes of former wartime commander Radomir Kojic, his brother-in-law Radoslav Ilic, as well as that of Vlatko Macar, Skobo’s next-door neighbour, reported SRNA, the Republika Srpska news agency.

SIPA, which is the first statewide police agency in Bosnia and Hercegovina, conducted this operation with the assistance of the EU force in Bosnia, EUFOR, and Italian Carabinieri officers.

According to local media reports, SIPA also detained Skobo after the NATO troops had left.

The reports quoted a EUFOR spokesperson as saying that SIPA is leading the operation in Pale and that the EU forces “are supporting local authorities”.

These raids follow a similar operation last week by EUFOR, in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, when four homes are reported to have been searched, including that of a former Bosnian Serb soldier suspected of sheltering Bosnian Serb wartime military commander and war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic.

This signaled the launch of a new EU and NATO campaign to remove support for war crimes suspects.

EUFOR and NATO both support the work of the Hague tribunal by conducting operations aimed at capturing war crimes suspects, as well as targeting those who support them.

But such a high concentration of raids in the last two weeks - after a rather long period of inactivity for the EUFOR and NATO troops in this regard - suggests they may be acting on new information, or have adopted a new, more aggressive strategy in order to help bring top war crimes fugitives to justice.

When asked about any tribunal involvement in the operation, spokesman for the prosecutor at the Hague court, Anton Nikiforov said he was not allowed to comment.

Mladic and Karadzic have remained at large since they were indicted for genocide in 1995 for the siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica.

The failure to hand over these war crimes suspects is the biggest obstacle to Bosnia joining the EU.

Kosovo Expulsions Evidence Heard
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
by Caroline Tosh
August 26, 2006

More witnesses in the war crimes trial of six senior Serbian military and civilian officials have testified this week about the events surrounding the expulsion of civilians in Kosovo seven years ago.

Prosecutors charge the defendants with crimes against humanity, but show that their alleged actions were systematic and widespread, and directed against the Kosovo Albanian civilian population.

From the beginning of the trial, the prosecution has argued that forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, FRY, and Republic of Serbia were behind the expulsions. Over the last two weeks, they brought to court a number of Kosovo Albanians who witnessed the evictions to support these claims.

Last week, the trial chamber heard testimonies from Kosovo Albanians living in the Mitrovica and Srbica municipalities. This week, witnesses from Pristina provided accounts of events which took place there in March 1999.

The indictment against former Serbian president Milan Milutinovic, former deputy prime minister of Yugoslavia Nikola Sainovic, former Yugoslav army, VJ, chief of staff Dragoljub Ojdanic, and police and VJ officials Sreten Lukic, Nebojsa Pavkovic and Vladimir Lazarevic includes a section on crimes allegedly committed in Pristina.

It states that on March 24, 1999 and continuing through to the end of May 1999, Serb police forced Kosovo Albanians out of the Kosovo capital, killed a number of people in the process, and sexually assaulted several women.

Emin Kabashi, an Albanian academic who claims he was forced to leave Pristina in 1999, testified that the alleged expulsions of the Albanian civilians were carried out by “special police”.

But when asked by the prosecutor to explain what he meant by special forces, he said the men were dressed differently from regular Serb police.

“They had painted faces, some wore masks,” he said.

However, he testified that in Dragodan - the area of Pristina where he says he and his family stayed for three days after being forced to flee their home - the Serb military were working “together” with these special forces.

“Usually the people were expelled by the police, but in Dragodan, the army was there too,” he said.

In his statement, he described how he was ordered to leave the city by Serb police, before being taken in a convoy to Pristina train station, where he remained for three days and three nights, waiting for his family to arrive.

There, he said, he witnessed people being killed in the chaos that ensued.

“People were cursing each other. Sometimes they got run over by the trains,” he said.

John Ackerman, the defense counsel for Nebojsa Pavkovic, who was commander of the VJ at the time, tried to discredit Kabashi’s testimony by drawing attention to his membership of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA.

Ackerman asked the witness about his May 2002 appearance at the trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, who died in The Hague’s detention centre in March this year.

During that testimony, Kabashi apparently said that the only way his people would win freedom was “by way of the gun”.

This week, the witness confirmed that this was true.

Nazalie Bala, a Kosovo Albanian who worked for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, mission in Pristina in 1999, also testified this week about the expulsions of civilian Albanians from the Kosovo capital.

“We were forced to leave by the army, the police, and other forces that were present at the time,” she said.

She described how she was forced out of Kosovo on March 29 1999, when a VJ officer and a local traffic police officer came to her home and told her to leave her apartment.

As she told it, she and other civilian Albanians were marched to Pristina train station, where a combination of soldiers and police officers stood guard.

“The train was surrounded by Serb forces, police, army and forces that I’d never seen in my life before,” she said.

In her testimony this week, Bala also said that the Albanian civilians were bundled onto a train and transported to the border of Macedonia. There she continued her work for the OSCE, by taking statements from Albanian refugees about their experiences during the alleged expulsions.

She also said that before she was expelled from her home, she had observed the events unfolding in certain areas of the city from her roof, with the aid of binoculars.

The witness further testified that she saw houses burning, army tanks shelling the city and Serb forces removing people from their homes.

Mihajlo Bakrac, the defense counsel for Vladimir Lazarevic, who was chief of staff of the Pristina Corps in 1999, suggested that it was not possible she could have seen events happening so far away, even with the help of binoculars.

But Bala stood by her statement.

This week, another witness - who was testifying under protective measures - seemed to support the defense argument that the alleged Pristina expulsions were carried out by Serb paramilitaries, and not the official forces.

But he went on to testify that the regular Serb police did nothing to defend the Albanian civilians.

“The normal police were not the ones who expelled us from our homes,” he said.

“I would say it was the paramilitaries who expelled us, but on the street outside there were regular policemen and they did nothing to protect us.”

Speaking with the use of voice distortion equipment, the witness told how he was a shop owner in Pristina at the time of the alleged expulsions.

He recounted that in April 1999, while he was at work, he was phoned by a neighbor who insisted he come home immediately. He arrived to find his wife in a state of distress and asked his neighbor what had happened.

“She told me, ‘Your wife was raped by three paramilitaries and then they left,’ ” he said.

Dragan Ivetic, the defense counsel for Sreten Lukic, who was head of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, MUP, at the time, attempted to show that the police the man claims were behind the expulsions were not officers.

The witness, who admitted that he had trouble distinguishing between certain colors, was asked to describe what these police wore. He said they had red hats and black masks, and not the regular police uniforms.

Earlier in the week, Abdullah Salihu, an Imam from the village of Chirez in the Srbica region of Kosovo, testified about events there in 1999.

He was asked about his statement given to prosecutors in October 2000 in which he claims he was beaten and forced to work as a laborer for Serb forces.

Ackerman, Pavkovic’s defense counsel, attempted to discredit the witness by suggesting Salihu was sympathetic to the KLA.

He quoted excerpts of his testimony given in the Milosevic trial in May 2002 in which he apparently said the KLA were not dangerous, and also that he regretted not becoming a KLA member.

When asked by the defense lawyer whether this was still his position, Salihu admitted it was.

But responding to the prosecutor’s request to explain his position, he later said,
“If I’d been a member of the KLA, I would not have been captured... They didn’t capture any members of the KLA alive, and I would be in a better position now if I had been a member.”

The trial continues next week.

UN Tribunal fines Croatian journalist for publishing confidential material
UN News Service
August 30, 2006

30 August 2006 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has found a Croatian journalist guilty of contempt for publishing closed session transcripts and part of a witness statement.

In a judgement issued today, the Tribunal fined Josip Jovic, a former editor-in-chief of the Croatian daily newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija, 20,000 Euros.

In a series of articles that appeared in November and December 2000, Mr. Jovic published the transcripts and part of a statement given to the Office of the Prosecutor by Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, who testified against a former Croatian Army general.

The ICTY Trial Chamber expressed particular concern over Mr. Jovic’s decision to ignore a cease and desist order from the Tribunal after the first four articles had appeared, noting that he went on in subsequent editions to boast that the transcripts he was publishing were “secret.”

“His actions not only were contemptuous, but also stymied the Tribunal’s ability to safeguard the evidence of a protected witness and risked undermining confidence in the Tribunal’s ability to grant effective protective measures,” said the Trial Chamber in its judgement summary.

The defence had argued that Mr. Jovic did not believe he was bound by the Tribunal’s orders and therefore could not be held in contempt, but this was found to be erroneous.

Government Will Ask Annan to Clarify Ahtisaari's Statement
BETA News Agency
August 31, 2006

BELGRADE, Aug. 31, 2006 (BETA) - The Serbian government will ask U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to clarify chief negotiator for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari's statement on the collective responsibility of the Serbian people but it will not call for his dismissal, said the government on Aug. 31.

The head of the Coordinating Center for Kosovo and Metohija, Sanda Raskovic-Ivic, told a news conference that Annan, "as a true fighter against racism and discrimination" will not support a statement claiming that the Serbian people are collectively responsible for what happened in Kosovo.

"To say that Serbs are responsible as a people or that any nation is responsible as a nation is one of the axioms of fascism and we cannot simply ignore it," said Raskovic-Ivic, adding that the entire negotiating team wants Ahtisaari to apologize.

Raskovic-Ivic added that no good reasons for Kosovo's independence had been given and that Ahtisaari's statement on the Serbs' responsibility is a prelude to Kosovo's independence.

The Coordinating Center for Kosovo chief said that she was against Ahtisaari's appointment because he was the honorary president of the International Crisis Group, an organization that advocates independence for Kosovo.

The Serbian government requested the Parliament to schedule an extraordinary session so that members of Belgrade's negotiating team can inform the MPs about the course of talks on Kosovo's future status. The session is to be held after the next round of talks in Vienna, on Sept. 7 and 8.

Šešelj granted right to appeal
FoNet via B92
August 31, 2006

THE HAGUE -- The Hague Tribunal's Trial Chamber has granted Vojislav Šešelj the right to appeal the court’s decision to appoint his defender.

The Tribunal has communicated that the Court President Fausto Pocar has rejected Šešelj’s appeal to the Tribunal’s decision not to allow a certain friend of his to visit him in prison, since the said friend is believed to have good contacts with the media.

The request to appeal the court’s decision to appoint Šešelj’s defender against his will has been filed by a Dutch lawyer appointed as a standby attorney. Šešelj had objected to this appointment as well, even though the role of this attorney was to monitor the process and involve himself only on the Trial Chamber’s permission, while the defense would still be conducted by the defendant.

In the meantime, the Pre-Trial chamber has decided that Šešelj cannot conduct his own defense, and will be represented by the British lawyer David Hooper. The time necessary for the second instance Trial Chamber to reach its decision regarding the appeal will condition the start of the trial. Should the Appeal Chamber confirm that the defendant cannot defend himself, the court-appointed defender will need time to acquaint himself with the indictment and the case.

The 14-count indictment accuses Šešelj personally of the crimes in Vukovar, Voćin, Bosanski Šamac, Zvornik and the village of Hrtkovci in Vojvodina. Šešelj surrendered voluntarily and arrived in the Hague on February 23, 2003, pleading not guilty on all counts of the indictment two days later. He is also indicted for the crimes committed by the SRS volunteers. He is charged with over 500 murders, while the list of towns where the crimes took place includes Sarajevo, Mostar, Nevesinje and Bijeljina. Šešelj would not enter a plea on that indictment; however, the record shows that he had pleaded not guilty.

[back to contents]

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

Official Website of the ICTR

ICTR Shows Films of Arusha Proceeding
AllAfrica.com - The New Times (Kigali)
by Emmy Namurinda
August 22, 2006

In a bid to enlighten Byumba town residents about the ongoings in Arusha, the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UNICTR) and its outreach programme in Gicumbi District, last week, showed recordings of the Arusha proceedings.

Speaking to The New Times, Innocent Kamanzi, the ICTR ( Rwanda) Director of Information said, "the objective of this programme is to show the people that Gacaca complements international justice and that ICTR deals with the planners of the genocide."

ICTR officials also explained why the court was located in Arusha and why it will relocate to Rwanda. " Rwanda courts were not yet mature by then, since the country had just experienced war and genocide. But now things are improving in the ordinary courts and have modern facilitates to handle case proceedings. There is also a modern prison facility in Gitarama and a well established judicial system," Kamanzi said.

He added that the films will help promote unity and reconciliation among Rwandans; for instance, the ones that show genocide perpetuators, confessing their crimes and asking for forgiveness from families of people they killed, the government and the general public.

He stressed that this leaves an impact on peoples' minds and touches their hearts and those who killed gain strength to confess and those whose family members were killed gain strength to forgive. He also pointed out that films showing the proceedings will also be shown in schools and prisons.

Those interviewed after watching the films were appreciative and called on those who participated in the genocide to confess and tell the truth in bid to promote reconciliation. Nzarora Patrick, 27, said "telling the truth without hiding anything is the only solution. What we need now is truth. It's time to face reality and those who are still hiding should come out."

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was established by UN Resolution 955 on November 8, 1994. The Security Council established the Tribunal following a number of commissioned reports on the situation in Rwanda, which indicated that genocide and other systematic, widespread and flagrant violations of international humanitarian law had been committed in Rwanda. It was determined that the situation constituted a threat to international peace and security. The Tribunal was essentially established for the prosecution of persons responsible for the genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Rwanda during 1994. It may also deal with the prosecution of Rwandan citizens responsible for genocide and other violations of international law committed in neighbouring countries during the same period.

ICTR to Meet Kenya Officials Regarding Genocide Fugitive
AllAfrica.com - The New Times (Kigali)
by Ignatius Ssuuna & Eleneus Akanga
August 23, 2006

Officials from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) are to meet the Kenyan government over the most wanted genocide fugitive, Félicien Kabuga, The New Times has learnt. Sources at ICTR in Arusha said the development comes in the wake of consistent reports that Kabuga, the former owner of the Radio Television Mille Collines (RTLM)... which broadcast anti-Tutsi hate propaganda during the genocide, enjoys protection from Kenyan security. "Yes, the ICTR Chief Prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow will be meeting Kenyan security leaders over these ugly claims to discuss the way forward," the source who spoke on condition of anonymity told The New Times August 22 on phone.

But contacted yesterday, ICTR Spokesman Tim Gallimore declined to comment on whether Jallow will be traveling to the Kenyan capital for talks about the fugitive.

"Issues of fugitives and evidence are matters that are handled by the Prosecution and investigation departments. It is the Prosecution to respond to that; I am not in position to," Gallimore who could not connect The New Times to Jallow, said on phone.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday the Kenyan Ambassador to Rwanda Alex Keter had stated that despite the fresh press reports, Kenya was willing to cooperate with Rwanda and the Tribunal to ensure that Kabuga is brought to book.

"The Kenyan government will leave no stone unturned in hunting down Kabuga if at all he is on Kenyan soil. Our position is clear and we shall do everything possible in helping both Rwanda and the tribunal in ensuring that he faces justice," Keter told The New Times at his offices August 22.

He added: "as for the reports in the Sunday Nation, I am in close contact with my government and we will be able to inform you accordingly after consultation. Give us some time."

The UN is reportedly accusing the Government of Kenya of protecting Kabuga and is said to be pushing the Security Council to put pressure on Nairobi to hand him over for trial. And, some reports in Nairobi indicate that the fugitive was sighted in the country on June 28, 2006 - at a residence in the Nairobi posh area of Lavington, in the company of a former permanent secretary in former President Arap Moi's regime.

In a related development, The New Times has learnt that Kenya vowed on Tuesday to hunt down and extradite Rwanda's most-wanted fugitive if he is on Kenyan soil as alleged by a United Nations genocide tribunal and Rwandan officials.

Kenyan foreign minister Raphael Tuju said Kenyan intelligence authorities were assessing claims that Felicien Kabuga had returned to Kenya after dodging numerous capture attempts in other parts of Africa.

"Our intelligence is alert and trying to investigate the matter," Tuju reportedly told reporters at a Nairobi hospital where he was visiting the Russian Ambassador to Kenya, who is recovering from stab wounds sustained in a weekend robbery.

Back home, the State Minister in charge of Regional Cooperation Rosemary Museminali said: "It feels good to hear that Kenyan government has started hunting down this wanted fugitive seriously. We hope things will work out this time."

A number of MPs have also queried the continued reluctance by the Kenyan government to hand over Kabuga or even set up a special operation to net him despite the many reports of his alleged stay in Kenya.

Henrietta Mukamurangwa told The New Times recently that Nairobi's seeming unwillingness to arrest Kabuga was likely to hamper the administration of justice and the rule of law in the Great Lakes Region.

It is believed that a small clique in the current establishment in Nairobi is protecting Kabuga, the main financier and chief supporter of the Interahamwe militia, a group that played a pivotal role in the 1994 genocide, which claimed over a million lives in Rwanda.

According to the ICTR agreement with regional member countries, there is an obligation for all states to co-operate with the Tribunal in bringing the genocide suspects to justice.

Though the United States has offered a US$5m bounty on his head, Kabuga has managed to elude capture by the ICTR and other security agencies. He has eluded arrest by the Rwandan war crimes tribunal for 12 years.

ICTR Convict Dies
AllAfrica.com - The New Times (Kigali)
August 24, 2006

Joseph Serugendo, a convicted prisoner at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Detention Facility in Arusha died at the Nairobi Hospital, Kenya on Tuesday August 22. According to a release by the Registrar of the ICTR Adama Dieng, Serugendo was sentenced to six years in prison after admitting to 'having provided technical assistance and moral support to the RTLM in order to ensure its ability to continuously disseminate an anti-Tutsi message both prior to and during the genocide'.

Serugendo was a former member of the governing board of the Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) and of the National Committee of the Interahamwe za MRND. Serugendo was arrested in Gabon on 16 September 2005 and transferred to Arusha on September 23, 2005.

ICTR saddened by death of key witness
Angola Press
August 26, 2006

The office of the prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Thursday said it was "deeply saddened" by the death Tuesday in Nairobi, Kenya, of former Rwandan militiaman Joseph Serugendo, who was sentenced to six years in jail for his part in the 1994 genocide. "The office of the prosecutor is deeply saddened. He was an important witness," lead prosecutor Stephen Rapp told PANA in Arusha, Tanzania, where the ICTR is sitting. Serugendo, who pleaded guilty at his trial before the ICTR, pledged to testify against other genocide defendants. He was a member of the National Committee of the Interahamwe militia, the major perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, and a former technical officer at Radio Mille Collines. He was due to testify against three former leaders of Rwanda`s ex-ruling party, the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND), which founded the Interahamwe militia. "His statements are very important. We will file a request before the Chamber so that they be integrated into the case in pursuance of provisions on procedure and evidence," Rapp said, adding that the office of the prosecutor will continue to provide security for Serugendo`s family against possible threats. "He family could be threatened because of the revelations he has made," the American lawyer added. Prior to his transfer to Nairobi on medical grounds, Serugendo lived separate from other ICTR detainees for security reasons. He had been arrested on 16 September 2005 in Gabon, then transferred to Arusha a week later before being tried and sentenced to six years in jail on 2 June 2006.

Security Council Extends Appointment of Rwanda War Crimes Tribunal Judge
UN News Service
August 29, 2006

The Security Council today unanimously voted to extend the appointment of a Ugandan judge serving on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) so that the case she is currently presiding over may proceed without interruption.

In 2003 the General Assembly elected Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa to serve as part of a pool of temporary, or ad litem, judges created to help expedite the court's work. Although Judge Bossa's term is for four years, the Tribunal's statute only allows her to serve in Trial Chambers for three years.

Today's Council resolution authorizes her to continuing serving as a judge in the Butare case until its completion. That case, which centres on the massacre of Tutsis in the southern Rwandan province of Butare, is expected to continue into next year.

Some 800,000 people were killed in just 100 days during the 1994 genocide when the Hutu Government then in power, members of the army and the Interahamwe Hutu militia led the massacre of hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsis, as well as Hutu political moderates.

DEATH PENALTY-RWANDA: Abolition Needed for 'Integrating into International Justice'
Inter Press Service News Agency
by Aimable Twahirwa
August 31, 2006

Rwanda's minister of justice announced that the government will propose a law ending capital punishment in Rwanda by December 2006 to encourage European countries to extradite suspected masterminds of the genocide that occurred in the country in 1994. The move puts the country in a bind. Foreign governments, the United Nations and non-governmental organisations applaud it. The Rwandan public -- still reeling from the rampage that left 800,000 dead and countless injured or infected with HIV/AIDS after being raped -- want genocide perpetrators to hang.

Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama admits the majority of the population made it emphatically known during the writing of the constitution that do not want to scrap the death penalty, given the magnitude of the suffering from the genocide, in which extremist Hutu militias massacred Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

He told IPS in an exclusive interview that abolition now was a necessity in order to achieve a sense of closure. Unless the country abolishes capital punishment, it will not be able to try in its own national courts the masterminds of the genocide, he said.

For more than a decade, the Rwandan government has demanded the return of the suspects they know are living abroad. Some nations, notably Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland, have refused to extradite the suspects because the countries feared the suspects may be executed.

These countries preferred instead to prosecute them in their own courts. Only the United States, which allows the death penalty, has extradited a genocide suspect to Rwanda. It deported Enos Kagaba from the northern state of Minnesota in 2005 after he was judged to have entered the United States illegally.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is reviewing the cases of 57 suspects in a specially built prison in Tanzania. Rwanda would like those suspects to be sent back or, if found guilty, to be imprisoned here. So far, the United Nations, too, has declined because officials fear the suspects will be put to death -- a violation of UN principles.

By abolishing the death penalty, Karugarama said, Rwanda could gain faster access to the accused.

"We're satisfied with the speed of the negotiations with ICTR officials. All the necessary requirements for transferring cases have been fulfilled except for abolition of the death penalty," he added.

Although the ICTR is mandated to complete all business by December 2008, officials in Tanzania predict their work will not be finished by then. Since it inception in 1996, 28 suspects have been tried. Of those, 25 have been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment. The international body now has begun to negotiate with courts in countries that have abolished the death penalty and have modern prisons that are up to international standards. " Rwanda is one of the only two countries which have up till now expressed their wish to receive the cases of accused genocide perpetrators from the ICTR. We've accepted this proposal, but we're obliged to set up a rigorous monitoring system to insure, number one, that this law is applied," the ICTR's public prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, told IPS.

Rwanda must guarantee that no convicted perpetrator of genocide will receive the death penalty, Jallow said. There are currently some 650 prisoners on death row in the country's overcrowded penitentiaries, according to the justice ministry. Since the genocide ended in 1994, 40 people were sentenced to death in 2002 for crimes committed during the genocide, and in 2003, 18 received the the sentence for perpetrating it. In 1998, however, 22 people found guilty of masterminding the genocide received the death penalty and were executed. But ideas on capital punishment seem to have evolved since then, especially in the official circles of this central African country in the Great Lakes region. "In spite of genocide's aftermath, Rwanda remains a country which needs to rebuild itself anew and integrate itself into the reality of standards of international justice," Minister Karugarama said.

Yet news that the law abolishing the death penalty soon will be adopted is painful to genocide survivors. "Those who carried out the genocide should be executed in order to forever eradicate the culture of impunity that has always marred Rwanda. The only solution: sentencing them to a grave punishment, which their past actions merit," said Francois Ngarambe, president of a genocide survivors group, Ibuka ("Remember" in Kinyarwanda, the national language).

Moreover, they say close relations of the perpetrators, if not the perpetrators themselves, continue to threaten them. "Abolishing the death penalty would be a new humiliation for the survivors, and would encourage the killers to finish off their extermination plan," according to Jean Glauber Burasa, the editor of Rushyashya, a bimonthly independent newspaper published in Kigali. "It's unfortunate that even though a large majority of them (the genocide perpetrators) have just spent a decade in prison, they continue in the extremist ideology that the former genocidal regime infected them with," he added. A Kigali attorney, who requested anonymity, disagrees. "The crime of genocide perpetrated in Rwanda had a disastrous effect on the social fabric here. Even though justice must be served, we'd have to agree on the advantages this reform will bring to Rwandan justice by conforming to international standards of justice," he said. In a May 2005 report on the progress of judicial reforms, the U.S.-based group Lawyers Without Borders (LWB) said that for justice to be served, the main difficulty lies not only in abolishing the death penalty, but providing compensation to the victims. "There have hardly been any reparations paid to the victims of the 1994 genocide. The Rwandan authorities need to assume their responsibilities and resolve this problem immediately," Hugo Jombwe Moudiki, the head of LWB's office in Rwanda, told IPS.

Rwandan attorney arrested over genocide
Agence France Presse
September 2, 2006

TANZANIAN authorities said today they had arrested a Rwandan attorney accused by Kigali of genocide during the tiny central Africa nation's 1994 massacre.

Police said they arrested Callixte Gakwaya, a defence lawyer at the Interantional Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) following the issue of an arrest warrant by Rwandan authorities in February.

"He was arrested yesterday. He is now in custody,'' regional police commander Basilio Matei said.

According to the arrest warrant, Gakwaya - who leads the defence team of a genocide suspect whose case comes up before the ICTR in January - supervised road blocks and massacred Tutsis as they tried to flee the Rwandan capital.

"Several Tutsis were killed,'' according to the warrant.

He is also accused of personally killing Tutsis who sought refuge in his home.

Rwanda 's representative at the tribunal, Aloys Mutabingwa, confirmed Gakwaya's arrest and said it showed "excellent co-operation with Tanzanian police".

" Tanzania can refer him to its courts or extradite him to Rwanda. All we want is justice to be done,'' Mr Mutabingwa said.

Gakwaya is not being sought by the ICTR, which is tasked with trying key suspects in the Rwandan mass slaughter in which some 800,000 people were killed in a space of 100 days.

[back to contents]

Iraqi High Tribunal

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

“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.

As Genocide Trial Begins, Hussein Is Again Defiant
The Washington Post
by Amit R. Paley
August 22, 2006

BAGHDAD, Aug. 21 -- Saddam Hussein on Monday refused to enter a plea on charges of genocide and other crimes, as a court began hearing allegations that the former Iraqi leader tried to systematically annihilate the country's Kurdish population.

The 69-year-old former president slumped in his seat as prosecutors accused him of orchestrating the 1987-88 Anfal campaign against the Kurds, an operation that included the use of mustard gas and nerve agents to slaughter entire villages; concentration camps where women and children died after being stuffed 100 to a room; and mass graves dug so shallow that wild animals consumed the corpses. Prosecutors said the campaign claimed 182,000 victims.

In addition to the charges of genocide, Hussein faces charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. The judge entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.

Hussein faces other charges in a separate case involving the killings of 148 men and boys from the Shiite village of Dujail. But it is the charge of genocide in the Anfal case that has attracted the most rapt attention from Iraqis and international observers. Besides former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, who died during his trial, Hussein is the only former head of state to be tried for genocide.

On Monday, prosecutors argued that Anfal, which in Arabic means "the spoils of war," meets the criteria for the charge because Hussein issued a memo ordering the execution, without trial, of all Kurds between the ages of 15 and 70 in their homeland in northern Iraq.

"The aim of all the memos and orders was to wipe out the Kurdish civilian population," said the chief prosecutor, Jaafar al-Mousawi. "All they were accused of was being part of the Kurdish nationality."

Hussein and his co-defendants in the trial -- six former top aides including Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as "Chemical Ali" -- are expected to argue that they launched the eight-part military campaign because of Kurdish support for Iran, which had been warring against Iraq for most of the decade. The six co-defendants pleaded not guilty.iudushsdfksdj

Legal experts say Hussein and Majeed, the two defendants charged with genocide, could be acquitted of that charge -- though not the other crimes -- by showing that their campaign also killed many Sunnis and Shiites, or by arguing that the campaign's only goal was to take control of the oil-rich swaths of land where the Kurds live.

"We were in a war with Iran, which was driving into the country with the cooperation of the Kurds," said defendant Husayn Rashid Mohammad al-Tikriti, 66, the deputy of operations for the Iraqi armed forces under Hussein. "I was a soldier, and I took the oath of my country and defended my country as best I could."

If found guilty in either the Dujail case or the Anfal case, Hussein would face the death penalty, which means that the first tribunal could order his execution before the Anfal trial is completed. In that event, the charge against him would be dropped but the case against his co-defendants would continue, according to a U.S. official close to the court.

Legal experts say it is notoriously difficult to prove genocide, which is defined as the systematic elimination of a group of people because of their religion, race, ethnicity or nationality. In addition to showing that crimes against humanity took place, prosecutors must also prove that a significant factor in those crimes was the group identity of the victims.

"Genocide being the crime of all crimes, if he is convicted of it, then it proves that he is one of the worst of the worst that mankind has ever seen," said Michael P. Scharf, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and an adviser to the Iraqi Special Tribunal. "But the risks are also high, because if he is acquitted, then people will say that he is just a minor thug."

The Anfal tribunal opened in the former headquarters of Hussein's Baath Party, in the Green Zone. The former president, in a black suit and white shirt with an open collar, was the first defendant to enter the room. Like all of the defendants, he sat in a wooden cage divided into three rows.

The last defendant to enter was Majeed, commander of northern Iraq during the time of the Anfal campaign, whose frail appearance belied his fearsome reputation. A stooped man with plum-sized bags under his eyes, he shuffled in slowly with the aid of a cane.

Hussein had far fewer outbursts Monday than in his first trial, when he hurled insults at the judges. At one point on Monday, he showed out-of-character deference after he attempted to interrupt the chief judge.

"Please don't interrupt," snapped the judge, Abdullah al-Amiri.

"Sorry, I thought you had finished," said Hussein, who then kept quiet.

But Hussein also exhibited his unruly side at times, especially at the beginning of the session. When asked to state his name, he refused.

"You know my name," Hussein retorted. "My name is well known to you."

"I must ask you your name," said Amiri, noting that the law required him to do so. He waved a book of regulations in the air. "Do you respect this law?"

Hussein sat stone-faced for a few moments before replying: "This is the law of the occupation." Eventually he stated his name and declared himself "president of the Republic of Iraq and commander in chief of the heroic Iraqi armed forces."

He became visibly angry only later in the session, when he vehemently denied that widespread rapes had taken place during Anfal. "How could it be that an Iraqi Kurdish woman was raped while Saddam Hussein was in power?" he said.

Legal experts and U.S. officials expect Amiri, a 54-year-old Shiite with 25 years of experience as a judge, to exert greater discipline on the courtroom than in the first trial, which was widely seen as chaotic. "It was a mess," said Scharf, the law professor.

The judge was also unyielding in his enforcement of a law that prevents non-Iraqi lawyers from speaking in the court, even though it was allowed in the Dujail case. Two defense attorneys walked out of the court room in protest.

The chief prosecutor, Mousawi, said in an interview after court that the judge "had two characteristics: total calmness and strength. He was in total control for the entire session, over the lawyers and the witnesses."

Elsewhere in Iraq, the U.S. military announced the deaths of two Marines and a sailor during fighting Sunday in Anbar province, a western redoubt of the Sunni insurgency. The U.S. military also announced the death of a service member Monday in Baghdad when his vehicle was struck by a bomb. No details were available.

Interior Ministry officials said 20 people were killed Monday in incidents in and around Baghdad. And the casualty toll from attacks by Sunni insurgents on Shiite pilgrims marching Sunday in Baghdad increased to 25 dead and nearly 400 wounded, according to a Health Ministry spokesman.

At a meeting with reporters in Baghdad, a top U.S. military official said U.S.-led forces would turn over command of an entire Iraqi army division for the first time on Sept. 3. U.S. troops, though, will continue to handle logistics for the division, the Kut-based 8th, said the official, Brig. Gen. Dan Pittard, commander of the Iraqi Assistance Group, which advises Iraqi security forces.

Correspondents Ellen Knickmeyer and Sudarsan Raghavan in Baghdad, special correspondents Saad al-Izzi and Naseer Nouri in Baghdad and Saad Sarhan in Najaf, and other Washington Post staff contributed to this report.

Hussein on trial for infamous gas attacks
The Christian Science Monitor
by Dan Murphy
August 24, 2006

Saddam Hussein, still awaiting the verdict from his first war-crimes trial, this week is again before Iraq's special criminal tribunal, where prosecutors are seeking to prove the most difficult charge in international criminal law: Genocide.

"It's extraordinarily difficult to prove genocide," says Michael Scharf, a Case Western University law professor who helped train judges and prosecutors participating in the Iraqi Special Tribunal. "I believe the Iraqi investigating judges reached the conclusion that if they didn't make the attempt to prosecute him for genocide, he would go down in history as a minor thug and not as a Hitler or a Pol Pot."

Mr. Hussein and six aides are charged in a new trial with crimes connected to his regime's most infamous atrocity. The Anfal Campaign, named after a chapter in the Koran usually translated as "The Spoils of War," led to the deaths of more than 100,000 people - mostly Kurds - according to Human Rights Watch.

The aim was to depopulate a swath of Kurdistan where separatists thrived.

Prosecutors appear confident that they will be able to prove the charge of genocide. In remarks on the opening trial day on Tuesday, lead prosecutor Munqith Farun alleged excesses so great that "it was as if genocide was not enough" to the perpetrators.

But Mr. Scharf says winning a genocide conviction "will be a close call" unless documentary evidence is produced that at least part of Hussein's intent was to destroy the Kurds - rather than to neutralize regime opponents. While Scharf thinks the other charges, like crimes against humanity, will be proven, the fight over the genocide charges is likely to be hard-fought from both sides. "There is no defense they can come up with that justifies the use of chemical weapons on civilians, and his lawyers know that," says Scharf. "But one of their main agendas here is to make sure that Saddam does not go down in history as the first head of state convicted for genocide."

Scharf points out that if Hussein is not convicted of genocide, he could still be convicted of lesser crimes sufficient for life imprisonment or execution.

From 1987 to 1989, and under the command of Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, Iraqi forces bombarded villages with conventional and sometimes chemical weapons then swept through on the ground, rounding up and killing surviving men, and, in some cases, forcing families out of the region, replacing Kurds with ethnic Arabs.

Up to 2,000 villages were razed, and at least 40 chemical attacks recorded. Though the campaign formally opened in 1988, operations with the same objectives began as early as late 1986.

So far, the prosecution is building slowly, with eyewitness accounts from survivors of early attacks.

While in the first trial, in which Hussein was accused of ordering 148 people murdered in Dujail village in reprisal for a 1982 assassination attempt, witness names were withheld and they testified from behind curtains. But witnesses in the Anfal trial, who live in much safer and autonomous Kurdistan in northern Iraq, have confronted Hussein directly.

"My complaint is against Saddam Hussein, Ali Hassan al-Majid ... and everyone in that box,'' said Adiba Ola Bayez, gesturing to the enclosure where the defendants sit during the trial. "May God blind them all."

Ms. Bayez is a survivor of an August 16, 1987, chemical attack on the village of Balisan. She provided a frightening account of fleeing to a bomb shelter in town, but realizing something was wrong when she noticed a strong "rotten apple" smell. Soon after, she and her five children began vomiting, then went temporarily blind.

Shortly after the attack, she and other survivors were taken to a prison camp, where four victims of chemical poisoning died in front of her.

She said 29 Belisan residents were herded into a bus by Iraqi forces, and were never seen again. While at the camp, her husband's uncle was also taken away. "Anfalized,'' she said, using the Kurdish term for the thousands who were secretly executed in those days. "Anfalized with the other men."

The documentary evidence that all this did occur is overwhelming. Testimony from thousands of survivors has been gathered over the years, as have video and photographic records of the aftermath of the attacks.

Iraqi government records, now with prosecutors, also detail the campaign.

The defendants - among them Mr. Majid, who came to be known by regime opponents as "Chemical Ali" for his use of sarin nerve gas and mustard gas on villagers - are expected to argue that the use of force in Kurdistan was appropriate in the context of Iraq's then-raging war with Iran, pointing out that Kurdish rebel units were aided by the Iranians.

Defense lawyers have indicated the men will contend that civilian casualties were regrettable accidents during offensives against rebels.

On Wednesday, the defense alleged that all civilians had been evacuated from the area at the time, and that all who remained were Kurdish rebels, often called peshmerga.

They are also likely to point to the international support Hussein's Iraq received at the time, including from the United States, which was aware of his use of chemical weapons against Iran in the 1980s but continued to support him, hoping to keep the Islamic Republic in check.

Scharf anticipates that the defense will seek to disprove the genocide charges by framing the offensive "not as an attempt to destroy [the Kurds] as a group, but rather to remove them from territory that was being used as a base of insurgency by people who were allied with his enemy Iran."

Scharf adds that the absence of strong Western condemnation at the time may be used by the defense to argue that his tactics were seen as broadly acceptable, and that the serious charges of today are a function of politics.

Morality in Iraq, Then and Now
The Washington Post
by Jim Hoagland
August 27, 2006

Change is news, and the important news from the second trial of Saddam Hussein is this: The U.S. government is helping expose the ex-dictator's genocidal assault on Kurdish tribesmen instead of helping hide it.

Welcome the change. But do not rush past the original malfeasance: U.S. officials were directly involved two decades ago in covering up and minimizing the horrifying details that were finally spread on the legal record in a Baghdad courtroom last week. In a long history of U.S. involvement in Iraq stained by official mistakes, betrayals and misunderstandings, the initial cover-up of Hussein's Anfal campaign is among its darkest moments.

I visited Baghdad in May 1987, a month after Iraqi troops began using poison gas and burning Kurdish villages in a systematic program of ethnic slaughter and cleansing. The U.S. Embassy quickly learned of the devastation through a trip to northern Iraq by an assistant military attache. But he denied to me what I had learned elsewhere: that he had reported to Washington the beginning of the operation code-named Anfal. His report was promptly stamped secret.

At the opening last week of Hussein's second war crimes trial, Kurdish witnesses testified in heartbreaking detail on how Anfal ("spoils of war") then continued for more than a year. "I had one son," a woman testified, according to news reports of her testimony about the gas attacks. "They Anfalized him."

The onslaught resulted in the destruction of 2,000 villages, the deaths of at least 50,000 Kurds and the forced resettlement of hundreds of thousands of others. The Reagan-Bush administration remained silent as it helped the Iraqis fight the Iranians; Washington even made sure Iraq was invited to a prestigious international conference on chemical weapons in 1988.

This history lives on and figures prominently in today's tragedy of Iraq , even as the current mayhem in the streets of Baghdad obscures its importance. The important national moral obligation to Iraqis that such American actions have created must not be shoved aside in the debates over strategy and politics that proliferate as U.S. midterm elections approach.

Since 1972 American officials have alternately encouraged Iraq's Kurds and Shiites to rise up in rebellion -- or, since the 2003 invasion, to claim their political rights through democratic majority rule and regional autonomy -- and then reversed course by conferring U.S. loyalty on the long-dominant Sunni minority at crucial moments. They have done so largely out of fear of the unknowns that U.S. policy was helping create.

Three decades of American wavering increase Kurdish determination to avoid central control from Baghdad and encourage the Shiites to reach for a southern regional government with full autonomy. It is probably beyond U.S. power to prevent a de facto partition of Iraq now by empowering a government of questionable national unity. And it may not be in U.S. interests to try.

Instead, in the Iraqi endgame, Washington has three overriding obligations: It must leave behind a central government that does not visit death and destruction on its own citizens as a matter of policy or whim. It must oppose Turkish intervention in Kurdistan . And American officials must not let their fears of Iran outweigh the legitimate political rights of Iraq 's Shiite majority. These steps would help settle moral accounts that stretch back beyond the invasion ordered by President Bush and forward beyond his time in office.

The trials of Saddam Hussein, although they are much criticized by international legal experts on technical grounds, help underline this history and this responsibility. To have held them outside Iraq before non-Iraqi judges, as some suggested, would have robbed Iraqis of a part of their identity and a chance for emotional relief. It would also have obscured the unspoken subtext of the neglect by the outside world of these atrocities.

It is no accident that the first trial of Hussein, now suspended for the issuance of a final judgment, involved mass executions in a Shiite village, or that the second one has become a platform for Kurdish grievances that the world was willing to ignore or minimize for far too long.

It is also important to recognize that without the U.S. invasion, these trials would never have occurred. But that in turn underscores a bitter reality that the Bush administration must now confront:

Military intervention can be justified when it changes things for the better. It does not have to be perfect. But conducting a military occupation that has lost the ability to change the situation for the better for those being occupied is unwise and ultimately untenable. It is also immoral. U.S. involvement in Iraq is again perilously close to being just that.

[back to contents]

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

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

TRC Prepares for Hearings
AllAfrica.com - Liberian Observer (Monrovia)
August 22, 2006

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has begun the process leading to the hearing of human rights abuses committed during the decade-long civil war.

Latest report says the public has begun filing complaints with the Commission regarding various atrocities and related human rights offences perpetrated during the war. Several former warlords, commanders and other key players in the fratricidal war are involved, according to the report.

As one of the first measures to begin the hearings of cases sometime in October, TRC will today begin a five-day training for persons recruited for various aspects of field works of the Commission, a statement from TRC revealed.

The training is meant for people who will take statements, investigators and county coordinators at the St. Teresa's Convent Pastoral Center on Randall Street, Monrovia.

Over 1,000 individuals recently sat statement takers' aptitude test nationwide and 200 persons were recruited for the process.

One hundred and twenty-six persons applied for the post of county coordinators for the 15 subdivisions of a given county and 83 were short-listed, while 15 were finally selected. Several individuals will also be receiving training as investigators.

Day Three sessions of the training will include the following topics: human rights law, humanitarian law, the TRC mandate and powers, background to the conflict in Liberia, role of statement-takers in the TRC process and basic principles of statement-taking.

Other topics will include models of unsuccessful and successful statement-taking, introduction to trauma, interviewing skills and techniques, Liberian technique for interviewing children and a code of conduct for TRC employees.

Topics for the fourth and fifth days include women and girls, victims of sexual and gender-based violence, ex-combatants, persons with disabilities, self-care for statement-takers and model of a statement taking involving a member of special group.

The training is being jointly conducted by the TRC, UNIFEM, UNMIL, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), UNICEF, the Association of the Blind and the Center for Victims of Tortures (CVT).

U.S. Firm Condemns Taylor’s Lawyers
AllAfrica.com - The Analyst (Monrovia)
August 30, 2006

Shortly after former President Charles Taylor landed in Freetown under thick security escort to answer 11-count indictment for war crimes and crimes against humanity, a horde of legal specialists rushed to his defense. In his line of legal counsels were local lawyers and lawyers from Ghana and Nigeria.

Even the US-Indian Evangelist A.K. Paul threatened to sue U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo for conniving to extradite Taylor to Freetown. But surprisingly, no sooner was Taylor's argument against the Special Court's lack of trial jurisdiction was defeated than it was clear that he was an indigent. As indigent, the Special Court took over the responsibility of providing qualified defense counsel for Taylor, but that has not explained up to date what happened to those that were lining up in defense of Taylor. Now there is change of venue from Freetown in Africa to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague in Europe and there are claims that Taylor's rights under the law are being tampered with. Some blame ICC and the Special War Crimes Tribunal for Sierra Leone for the lapse, but a group of US Criminal Defense Firms thinks Taylor's own lawyers are to blame. The Analyst Staff Writer has been finding out how that is so.

Two senior members of the global criminal defense firm, McNabb Associates, Douglas C. McNabb and C.J. Dresden, have condemned Taylor's lawyers for the reported violation of his rights.

According to them, besides not visiting Taylor's ICC prison cell to asses the conditions under which Mr. Taylor is being held, they seem completely unprepared to fight by responding to the barrage of media images against him.

The immobility of the lawyers and their unpreparedness to challenge and chide some of the issues that have been raised against Taylor, they contended, may do injustice to him.

It appears disturbing to the senior lawyers of the global criminal defense firm that while though they have obligation to respond to more than 30,000 pages of evidence adduced by the Special Court, the lawyers appeared contented with what was happening to their client.

The American lawyers noted that Taylor was flown to the Netherlands at the behest of and into the custody of the UN and with the transfer complete and preparations for the trial moving forward, the defense team has not been able to respond to some of the concerns that could jeopardize their case.

For instance, they said, the UN Special Court, including the judges, the prosecutors and the registry, has been unrestrained in presenting its version of the facts to the world but that Taylor's defense team has remained perfectly silent.

"David Crane, the former chief prosecutor at the Special Court, has become a media favorite during the coverage of this case. His statements, all conveying the presumption of Taylor's guilt, have gone unanswered," the lawyers said.

They accused the Special Court of giving its former chief prosecutor, Mr. David Crane, the opportunity to interpret the transfer and the attention it has garnered, including the Special Court's photos and home movies.

The photos and movies, they claimed, allowed the people of West Africa to see Charles Taylor - who was so feared - humbled before the law as indication that justice was being done.

"If this is what 'justice' means, why bother with a trial and a defense at all?" they wondered.

Crane, who is credited with writing the original indictment against Taylor, is also on record linking some people not yet indicted, to Taylor, speculating about the existence of transnational networks of conspirators, including the Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi, and glibly blending allegations contained in the indictment with accusations of conduct that are well beyond the jurisdictional reach of the Special Court, the lawyers were reported as saying.

"According to Crane, however, the quest is not for the truth of the matter, but for the truth of the victims. If this bias is so deeply embedded, defense attorneys must challenge it as a threat to the fairness of the Special Court," the lawyers claimed.

They said it was worth noting that conditions for moving Taylor's trial to The Hague were declared met when Britain agreed to provide post-conviction accommodation, completely leaving out the possibility that Taylor will not be found guilty.

"The media reports did the same, but there has been no public response by Taylor's defense, and no objections filed. Do Taylor's defense attorneys find such activity acceptable and just?" they wondered.

The McNabb Associates lawyers recalled that on the day Taylor was transferred to The Hague, the Special Court, which they said must attempt to render a fair, efficient, judicious process in this case, posted more than a dozen digital photos, plus some video footage, of a handcuffed, heavily guarded Taylor on its Web site.

In the view of the two lawyers, the posting of such photos and video footage by the court, though highly prejudicial, was not responded to by the filing of an objection by Taylor's defense lawyers.

Taylor's defense attorneys, they said, did not bother to even point out to the press that the court's "shameless" global publication of the photos indicated that the court has forfeited its statutory presumption of innocence in The Hague.

Acting under Chapter VII, the Council adopted a United Kingdom-drafted Resolution 1688 allowing a chamber of the Freetown-based Special Court for Sierra Leone to sit outside its jurisdiction, and requested UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to assist, as a matter of priority, in the conclusion of all necessary legal and practical arrangements for Taylor's transfer to the Special Court in the Netherlands, and the provision of the necessary courtroom facilities for the co