War Crimes Prosecution Watch

Cambodian Extraordinary Chambers (ECCC)

The Official Website of the Khmer Rouge Trial Task Force

Prosecutor Sees Khmer Probe this Year
Reuters via Washington Post
October 4, 2006

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - A prosecutor investigating the Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970s said on Friday he expected to hand cases against those responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people to an investigating judge by the end of the year.

"We're reasonably confident that by the end of the year we will be forwarding investigation propositions to the judge," Canadian prosecutor Robert Petit told a meeting of international prosecutors in The Hague.

"I think you can safely assume that next year we will have trials," he said, adding that the Cambodian court would have to work faster than other international tribunals as it only had a budget for three years.

"We're all shooting for three years," said Petit, one of 17 Cambodian and 10 foreign judges and prosecutors on the long-awaited tribunal to which judges were appointed in July.

Almost every Cambodian family lost relatives under the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime and none of its top leaders, some of whom are alive and living quietly in Cambodia, has faced trial.

It is not clear how many of Pol Pot's cadres will stand trial more than three decades after the Khmer Rouge emptied Phnom Penh and other cities on taking power after a civil war.

Whole sections of society, including Buddhist monks, ethnic minorities and the middle class, were branded hostile to Pol Pot's dream of a peasant utopia and put to death in the "Killing Fields" or died of starvation, forced labor or disease.

Pol Pot died in 1998.

Why?
Asia Sentinel
by Erik Wasson and Prak Chan Thul
October 6, 2006

Cambodian Villagers Still Search for Answers to Khmer Rouge Brutality

Again and again, in hurried and sometimes passionate voices, villagers rose to ask two prosecutors from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal the same questions: Why did Khmers kill Khmers? Why were they supported by the outside world? Why did the Khmer Rouge follow these policies of killing? Why did Khmers educated in France kill Khmers? Did they learn that in France? Why didn't the UN care about us during the Khmer Rouge regime? Why are you holding this trial?

Here in the rural town of Kratie, about 200 kilometers northeast of Phnom Penh, tribunal co-prosecutors Robert Petit of Canada and Cambodian Chea Leang tried to answer the questions from villagers last week.

They explained that they had only a limited legal mandate to find evidence against top Khmer Rouge leaders who have allegedly committed crimes against humanity. The tribunal, they explained, has only just begun gathering evidence in advance of trials scheduled for next year.

Why did Khmers slaughter Khmers?

The questions from the perplexed villagers, however, revealed how deep rural Cambodia's ignorance is about the history of the genocidal Khmer Rouge era nearly 28 years after it fell. With the UN-funded tribunal having started to gather evidence against the few surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, for the first time a court is preparing to answer at least a few of the riddles. The trial is expected to start next year.

Theary Seng, the Executive Director of the Center for Social Development, says the questions are as important, in some ways, as the answers. Her center is organizing a series of such workshops in rural areas across the country in advance of the tribunal as part of the healing process for this still deeply wounded country.

A lawyer and the author of "Daughter of the Killing Fields," a memoir of her experiences as a child surrounded by Khmer Rouge terror, Seng says that most people in Cambodia still lead isolated lives in which they have little information beyond the village.

"Personally, I am skeptical about what the tribunal can accomplish," said Seng, 35, who grew up in the United States after both her parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge. "No court can really handle reconciliation but the process is still necessary because people here lack information across the board about the Khmer Rouge."

As many as 2 million of a population then of just over 7 million perished during the four years of Khmer Rouge rule, victims of one of the cruelest regimes the world has known. The “Angkar” or “organization” of radical communists emptied the cities, starved peasants and engaged in paranoid purges aimed at intellectuals, teachers and presumed enemies. They turned Cambodia into a byword for political tragedy of almost unprecedented scope.

But for millions of Cambodia's 13 million people, the Khmer Rouge was a purely local phenomenon. They had – and still have – little knowledge of its national and international significance. By the time Petit and Chea Leang ended the dialogue with a short documentary about the Khmer Rouge terror and the tribunal, villagers remained confused. "I don't know anything about the Khmer Rouge," said Pen Met, 68. "This is the first time I saw a film like that. I didn't know that they killed people. I did know that they worked hard to grow potatoes."

"I could only catch a little," said Phnong Sao Moeun, 30, said. "I thought there would be a tribunal today."

Sin Sun, 68, fought on the side of the Khmer Rouge against the American-backed Lon Nol regime that was overthrown in 1975, but he is still struggling to comprehend what he was fighting for. "I fought for King Sihanouk,” he said. “It was only after April 17(The day in 1975 that the Khmer Rouge took power), when I first heard the name Saloth Sar," he said, referring to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot's original name.

Dressed in the garb of a Buddhist elder, Sin Sun asked the co-prosecutors if they could explain to him the training and political indoctrination he received in 1975. He asked about revolutionary songs and documents. "What were these songs and documents? Why did they train me to sing that? Please explain. What were their policies?" he asked. "Six members of my family were killed. Why did they die?"

Later, Sin Sun said that that he hopes the tribunal will bring him justice for his losses and help him to understand the motives of Pol Pot, who was also known as Bother Number One. All he knew from that time was that the Khmer Rouge taught him to hate city dwellers. "Avoid such social class conflict (in the future) or all will die," he warned.

Because the 1997 show-trial of Pol Pot by the Khmer Rouge themselves was featured in the poorly translated documentary, many villagers were even more confused. They said they thought some Khmer Rouge leaders had already been tried, even though no independent court has ever heard testimony against the Khmer Rouge, which maintained an active insurgency here until 1998.

The prosecutors tried to answer the historical questions without exhibiting any bias against possible suspects. They emphasized that senior leaders, not low-level officials or countries such as China, which backed the Khmer Rouge at one time, or the US, which helped the Khmer Rouge to keep a seat in the United Nations even after the regime was overthrown by Vietnam in 1979, are subject to the tribunal law. The US did not even formally call for an international investigation into the atrocities until 1994.

The tribunal began work, finally, in July after years of political infighting in Cambodia and fears have been raised that it will do an incomplete job because its mandate is very narrow and there are figures in the current government who also have links to the old regime. The full truth may be inconvenient and, after so many years, impossible to ferret out. Protests have also been raised against some of the panel’s Cambodian judges who have been linked to highly political cases that were decided in favor of the current government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The tribunal is casting its net for very few remaining suspects, since most senior Khmer Rouge leaders are dead. A spokesperson for the tribunal says that probably no more than 10 people will be named to stand in the dock when the proceedings begin next year.

"No one will be prosecuted for being a member of a political party," Petit assured villagers.

At the forum, Petit had his hands full with the villagers just trying to address the basic question repeated over and over: Why were the Khmer Rouge so brutal?

"Why do people kill like this? Because they think they can get away with it. The person who steals your cow and the person who kills a whole village does it for the same reason," he explained. "That is why we are having this tribunal. Every government spends money on a justice system. None work perfectly because we are all human.

"The second reason people commit these mass crimes is power. For whatever ideological reasons they believe in, they kill huge numbers of people to get and remain in power," he said. "In Cambodia ... the system they set up and the policies they followed made it impossible for most people to know why they were being killed."

The long-delayed tribunal, Petit said, is sincere in looking for answers. "Those responsible, or more likely those who worked for them, will be asked to explain why," he told villagers. "I am sorry to say, I cannot tell you why."

Petit explained to the villagers that his role is to compile evidence, not speculate on motivations. He said he understands the frustration of not knowing why loved ones died. "There are a lot of explanations and many are probably legitimate. But the law is about evidence and certainty. History is not black and white," he said.

As to why the UN and the international community sat by during the crimes, Petit said, "That question is best answered by those in power at the time."

Officials from the well-known Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has been amassing evidence against the Khmer Rouge for 15 years, were also on hand and invited villagers to visit their offices for information on the Khmer Rouge.

Foreign minister Ieng Sary, regime president Khieu Samphan and “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea are all still alive and not under arrest. Khieu Samphan has been living freely in Cambodia for years and denies everything. He told Newsweek magazine in September: “I knew nothing of what was happening in the countryside” during the Pol Pot years. He only learned of the slaughter, he claims, after Pol Pot’s death in 1998. Ieng Sary surrendered to the government in 1996 and was granted amnesty. It is unclear whether he will be charged by the tribunal.

It remains to be seen if the narrow mandate of the tribunal will heal wounds that still run deep here. Some villagers said that they want a tribunal that would target locals who gleefully killed their neighbors. Some want the death penalty restored and want a still broader investigation into alleged political killings that have occurred recently.

"This forum is OK but will not be done severely enough for me," said retired teacher Tim Ninn, 60, who was skeptical about statements from Khieu Samphan that he didn't know about the killing. "He was one of the leaders," Tim Ninn said, adding that because of his fame and influence Khieu Samphan might sway the judges.

Observing the frustration, attorney Ang Udom said that more needs to be done to simplify the concepts for villagers. "They do not understand a lot of the complex issues and terminology," he said. "A lot more education needs to be done."

But that will be difficult. The forum was a project of the NGO community not the tribunal, noted Theary Seng. Despite its $56.3 million budget, the tribunal itself has few funds for outreach to the rural population. Instead they are piggybacking on efforts like this one.

Recently, the Ministry of Education even admitted that the history of the Khmer Rouge is not even taught in schools due to squabbling over the wording in a modern history textbook that was pulled years ago from the classroom. History lessons in Cambodia stop a few years after independence from France in the 1950s.

Psychiatrist Dr Sotheara Chhim of the Transcultural Psycho-social Organization also attended the forum. He said villagers' seeming lack of understanding went along with the nation's deep trauma.

"There is a conspiracy of avoidance both at the national and individual level in Cambodia," he said. "I think now is the time for the next generation to learn. If not, they may not understand what happened to their parents. Parents never talk about it, so there is little healing and a lot of ignorance about the past."

Cambodia: Khmer Rouge in court
Le Monde Diplomatique
by Raoul-Marc Jennar
October 2006

Almost three decades after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, a UN-sponsored tribunal has been set up in Cambodia to prosecute the leaders responsible for genocide. Yet non-Cambodians who share responsibility for the deaths will not be indicted.

Vietnam invaded Cambodia (which the Khmer Rouge had renamed Democratic Kampuchea) in December 1978, after three years of Khmer Rouge attacks on its territory. The world then discovered the mass crimes of the Pol Pot regime (1). The United Nations, the United States, China and their allies responded by jointly condemning a change of regime brought about by foreign intervention: the Cambodians had committed the crime of being liberated from a barbaric regime by an ally of the Soviet Union.

The new People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) was not recognised, and the Khmer Rouge’s ambassador, Thiounn Prasith, continued to occupy Cambodia’s seat at the UN for another 10 years while, inside the country, the Khmer Rouge massacred the population in areas still under their control.

The US classified the Khmer Rouge leaders as “non-communist personalities” (2) to be supported in their struggle against Vietnamese occupation; China and the West rebuilt Pol Pot’s army in Thailand.

In 1979 the UN Commission on Human Rights refused to consider a report containing 995 pages of testimony on mass violations of basic rights in Kampuchea. For 10 more years the UN rejected all efforts by the PRK, by survivors such as Dith Pran (3) and by human rights activists such as David Hawk, to bring the Khmer Rouge leaders to justice.

Peace negotiations began in 1989. Because of the desire to involve the Khmer Rouge (which led to the failure of the UN’s attempt to pacify Cambodia), the crimes of the Pol Pot regime were passed over. The terms “crimes against humanity” and “genocide” were banned from all official documents. The Paris Accords of 1991 employed the phrase “policies and practices of the past” to denote what was in fact the extermination of nearly a third of the Cambodian population.

A trial is a necessity for the survivors now demanding justice: the crimes in question have never been tried by a neutral and impartial court. The resulting impunity is intolerable. How can there be justice in ordinary affairs when the greatest criminals go free? The field is wide open for revisionists of all shades. What the absence of justice can lead to became clear in 2004 when the head of one of the three parties represented in Cambodia’s National Assembly congratulated the Khmer Rouge movement on “its action over the last 30 years”.

Kampuchea was in fact tried by a “revolutionary people’s court” in 1979, in the person of two of its leaders, Pol Pot and Ieng Sary, the deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs. Both were sentenced to death in absentia. But that trial, which gave many survivors an opportunity to testify, is tainted in the collective memory of the Cambodian people by the fact that it was held under Vietnamese influence. Until the movement’s demise in 1998, the Khmer Rouge continued to claim that the massacres perpetrated by the Pol Pot regime had been carried out by the Vietnamese. That claim still provides a satisfactory explanation for the young in a country where 51% of the population is under 18.

A step forward

It is a positive development that the trial, finally decided on by the Cambodian government and the UN in 2003 and scheduled to begin in 2007, will be held in Cambodia and in the Khmer language.

In a letter of June 1977 to the UN secretary general, the Cambodian authorities requested “the assistance of the UN and the international community in bringing to justice those responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity during the period of Democratic Kampuchea”, with the aim of “establishing the truth” and “trying those responsible”. The UN General Assembly acceded to that request at the end of the year. But it took seven years of negotiations to overcome the difficulties.

The UN proposed an international tribunal but Cambodia wanted a Cambodian court assisted by foreign judges and advisers. In response, the UN demanded compliance with international judicial standards, guarantees of the arrest of suspects identified by the court and the involvement of international judges at all stages of the proceedings. The problem was that all Cambodian judges are both judge and party to the case, since they are all survivors of the Pol Pot regime and relatives of its victims. The Cambodian judiciary, rebuilt after 1979, has obviously not yet achieved a satisfactory level of competence and independence.

A law passed in 2001 was amended in 2004 to make the proceedings of the “extraordinary chambers in the courts of Cambodia for the prosecution of crimes committed during the period of Democratic Kampuchea” acceptable to the UN. All indictments will be the joint responsibility of a Cambodian prosecutor and a foreign prosecutor proposed by the UN, each assisted by an investigating magistrate of the same nationality. The trial court will have three Cambodian and two foreign judges, and its decisions will require the affirmative vote of four judges. The Supreme Court will have four Cambodian and three foreign judges, and its decisions will require five affirmative votes. So the agreement of a foreign judge will be required in all cases.

It took two more years for the UN and the Cambodian government to raise the $56m budget, and for the judges (17 Cambodian and eight foreign) to take up their duties. Suspects will be prosecuted for breaches of Cambodian criminal law in force in 1975, international law on human rights, and international conventions ratified by Cambodia. The court will also be competent to try crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and violations of the Geneva Conventions on which international human rights law is based. It can also try breaches of the Hague Convention on the protection of cultural property.

Genocide contested

Some people dispute that genocide happened. Yet the use of that term seems unquestionably justified in the case of the extermination of nearly 40% of the Muslim population, the Cham, for no other reason than that they were Cham. It also seems justified in the case of the thousands executed for not having “a Khmer soul in a Khmer body”, meaning people of Thai-Khmer or Sino-Khmer parentage, and especially Vietnamese-Khmer people who were suspected of sympathising with Vietnam.

Members of Pol Pot’s government, of the leadership of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (Angkar, “the organisation”), of the security forces (Santebal, the political police) and of the S-21 torture and execution centre are still alive. These include Khieu Samphan, head of state; Nuon Chea, known as Brother Number Two, who was Pol Pot’s closest associate, the head of Angkar and the regime’s second-in-command; Ieng Sary, who was the deputy prime minister; Khieu Thirith, who was Ieng Sary’s wife, Pol Pot’s sister-in-law, a minister and member of the central committee; Thiounn Mumm, a minister; Keat Chhon, another minister (4); and Thiounn Prasith, who was ambassador to the UN and the man who knows most about the US role in supporting the Khmer Rouge from 1979 to 1990. Kang Kek Ieu, alias “Duch”, the head of Centre S-21, is also still alive; as are Sou Met and Meah Mut, the commanders of the air force and the navy. Except for Thiounn Prasith, who appears to be under US protection, all are currently living in Cambodia.

But will they all be investigated with a view to indictment? Doubts arise because of the nature of the pacification process from the departure of the UN in 1993 to the surrender of the last Khmer Rouge stronghold in 1998. Ieng Sary went over to the government side in 1996 and was granted a royal amnesty for his 1979 conviction. Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea gave themselves up at the end of 1998. Sou Met and Meah Mut have joined the Cambodian armed forces. Only Duch is in prison. The number and status of those who are prosecuted will be a major indication of the trial’s credibility.

Another question is whether the investigating prosecutors will ask for Angkar, the regime’s supreme administrative organisation, in whose name the massacres were carried out, and Santebal, the political police, to be declared criminal organisations. Or for the standing committee of the Communist Party of Democratic Kampuchea, which decided on and planned the massacres, to be declared such an organisation. If so, it will be possible to indict any person on the grounds that he was a member of one of those organisations 27 years before the trial investigation began this July.

Pol Pot, Son Sen, the minister of defence and the man in charge of Santebal; Yun Yat, a minister; Thiounn Thieunn, a minister; Ta Mok, a military commander; and Ke Pauk, who was Ta Mok’s second-in-command, have all died, having enjoyed the protection of the international community from 1979 to 1993. Son Sen was a member of the supreme national council established by the Paris Accords of 1991 and the designated embodiment of national sovereignty during the transition period.

The US accepted the principle of a trial on condition that the court’s jurisdiction be confined to crimes committed in Cambodia during the period 17 April 1975 to 6 January 1979. Foreigners who share responsibility for the tragedy before and after the period of Democratic Kampuchea will not be indicted. No Thai civil or military leader will stand trial, although Thailand constantly interfered in Cambodian affairs from 1953 onwards, spared no effort to destabilise the neutral Cambodian regime before 1970 and served as a rear base for Pol Pot’s army from 1979 to 1998.

Singapore was the hub for supplies to Pol Pot’s army after 1979, but its leaders will not be brought to book. Nor will the European governments, led by Britain, that supplied arms and munitions to the Khmer Rouge from 1979 to 1991. Nor Henry Kissinger, for his responsibility in illegal bombings from March 1969 to May 1970, the coup of 18 March 1970 that overthrew Sihanouk, and the invasion of Cambodia in April 1970. Nor US President Jimmy Carter and his national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, who in 1979 chose to condemn the liberation of Cambodia by Vietnam, impose a total embargo on Cambodia and support the rebuilding and supply of Pol Pot’s army (5). That preference remained the choice of the Reagan and Bush (Sr) administrations until 1990.

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Central African Republic (ICC)

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

Civilians Flee Clashes in the North
AllAfrica.com - IRIN
October 9, 2006

Thousands of people have fled their homes around the town of Wandago in northern Central African Republic over the past three weeks after an outbreak of fighting between government troops and rebels, witnesses said.

Humanitarian officials in Bangui said they had reports of people fleeing the conflict, but aid workers were not immediately able to confirm the number of people involved.

Jacques Gonemandji, a motorist who arrived in Bangui from Kaga-Bandoro, a town near Wandago, said on Saturday thousands of people had run into the bush or sought refuge in neighbouring towns.

There are thousands of them who left their villages to avoid being caught by fighting between armed bandits and the regular army in the region," he said.

Some villagers who could not move southwards had fled to neighbouring Chad, he added.

Fighting erupted afresh after the army sought to flush out rebels who have been operating in the area since the end of July.

Army spokesman Lt. Benjamin Banga-Bekoue said late on Sunday the army was battling "armed bandits" and that a junior army officer had been killed in a rebel ambush on Friday. An army sergeant was killed in another ambush earlier last week, he added.

The latest attacks on the army appear to confirm widespread speculation that the rebel group Armée Populaire pour la Restauration de la République et de la démocratie (APRD) is active in the northwest.

On 2 October, L'Hirondelle, an independent daily, published a communiqué from the APRD that claimed 22 government troops had been killed in three different encounters with APRD fighters in the north since 23 September. The APRD is headed by Bedaya N'Djadder, a former gendarme who defected from the service.

Missionaries in the northwestern town of Bozoum, capital of Ouham-Penda Province, said armed men in military uniform were operating in the area.

On 27 September, armed raiders attacked a theological college in Bata, 7 km east of Bozoum. Following the attack, the head of the college, François Ngoumape, estimated the number of assailants at about 30. Independent sources then said that 10 villages were set on fire, allegedly by members of the presidential guard, around the town of Paoua in Ouham-Penda Province. Some of the burnt villages were Beboura, Korozian, Botona, Begake, Bedamara, Bendengui and Kebe. The presidential guard denied involvement in the arson attacks.

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Democratic Republic of the Congo (ICC)

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

Thousands of children in Congo armed groups, report says
The Guardian
by Mark Tran
October 11, 2006

At least 11,000 children in the Democratic Republic of Congo are still with armed groups or remain unaccounted for despite a demobilisation campaign, Amnesty International said today.

An Amnesty report warned that the DRC's attempt to reintegrate child soldiers into civilian life was failing.

The charity said the attempt was being hampered by a lack of political will, serious management problems and insecurity in the east of the country.

"The government has not only failed to release thousands of children who remain with armed forces or groups - new child soldiers continue to be recruited, including some who were only recently demobilised and reunited with their families," Tawanda Hondora, the deputy director of Amnesty's Africa programme, said.

Under international law, the recruitment and use of children under the age of 18 is prohibited, while the recruitment and use of children under 15 is a war crime.

Amnesty voiced particular concern at the plight of girls taken by armed groups.

In some areas, girls make up less than 2% of children released and passing through the demobilisation programme, despite making up around 40% of the children used by armed forces and groups.

"Once with the soldiers, you were forced to 'marry' one of the soldiers, whether he was as old as your father or young, bad or nice, you had to accept," Jasmine, a 16-year-old, told the charity. "If you refused, they would kill you."

Jasmine, taken when she was 12, now has a four-month-old baby. Amnesty says commanders and adult fighters often do not feel obliged to release girls, whom they consider to be their sexual possessions.

The discrimination is perpetuated by some government officials, who uncritically regard such girls as "dependants" rather than being entitled to entry into the child demobilisation programme.

"Girls associated with armed forces and groups are often traumatised by years of abuse and sometimes have children of their own," the report said. "However, little is being done to ensure that they have the necessary support and assistance to which they are entitled."

More than 3.9 million people died in the five-year war in the DRC, formerly Zaire. The conflict pitted government forces, supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda.

Around 1,200 people continue to die every day from violence, disease or starvation, despite a peace process that began in June 2003.

As part of that process, the government - backed by $200m (£107m) from the international community - launched a country-wide programme for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration into civilian life of an estimated 150,000 fighters, including an estimated 30,000 children.

By June 2006, the government commission in charge of DDR claimed the programme had demobilised just over 19,000 children.

However, Amnesty says most of the children released and reunited with their families or communities have received little or no support to return to civilian life. Some were as young as six when they were first recruited.

Many children told Amnesty that, despite the horrors they had endured, they would be forced to rejoin armed groups simply to survive.

Few Girl Soldiers in Democratic Republic of Congo Demobilized or Reintegrated Despite Government Plan, Says Amnesty International
Amnesty International
October 12, 2006

(Washington, DC) -- More than two years after the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) launched a countrywide program to release and reintegrate child soldiers into civilian life, at least 11,000 children are still with armed groups or unaccounted for -- including a majority of girl soldiers, who are either abandoned or misidentified as "dependents" of adult fighters, according to a new report published today by Amnesty International. The human rights organization warned that the country's disarmament, demobilization and reintegration program (DDR) is failing to protect and support children.

In some areas girls make up less than two percent of children released from armed groups and passing through the DDR program -- despite the fact that they make up approximately 40 percent of the children used by armed forces or groups. To date the government has taken no steps to trace and recover these missing children.

"Child soldiers are not some historical relic -- they're a present-day reality, and the newly elected government in the DRC needs to prioritize their demobilization," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). "Civil war may be behind us but its consequences are not, and children are paying the price."

The 69-page report, Children at War: Creating hope for their future, finds that the implementation of the demobilization program has been hampered by a lack of political and military will, serious management and technical problems and ongoing insecurity in eastern DRC. The low demobilization figures for girls are particularly striking.

A number of sources told Amnesty International researchers in the DRC that commanders and adult fighters often do not feel obliged to release girls, whom they consider to be sexual possessions. This discrimination is perpetuated by some government DDR officials, who regard such girls as "dependents" of adult fighters, rather than as girls entitled to entry into the child DDR program.

Some girls feel that they have no option but to stay with an armed group, fearing torture or death if they try to escape. According to Jasmine, a 16-year-old mother who was recruited in South Kivu when she was 12:

"When the Mayi-Mayi attacked my village, we all ran away. In our flight, the soldiers captured all the girls, even the very young. Once with the soldiers, you were forced to 'marry' one of the soldiers. Whether he was as old as your father or young, bad or nice, you had to accept. If you refused, they would kill you. This happened to one of my friends. They would slaughter people like chickens. They would not even bury the bodies they slaughtered... I even saw a girl who refused to be 'married' being tortured..."

In some cases, armed groups have taken steps to hide girls.

Many of the children released and reunited with their families or communities -- whether boys or girls -- have been targeted with harassment and intimidation by the authorities, soldiers from the government's unified army or other armed fighters. Some attacks appear aimed to frighten children back into the armed groups or extort money or goods from the child or his/her family, and some are apparently motivated by perception of the child as a deserter. A majority of the released children haven't received adequate educational or vocational opportunities.

"Once they are demobilized, these children need to be protected and provided with meaningful education -- otherwise they'll just be at risk of "re-recruitment," said Tom Turner, AIUSA country specialist on the DRC. "As it stands, NGOs in the DRC are essentially being used to compensate for an education system that has been decimated by years of conflict and government neglect."

Many children interviewed by Amnesty International researchers admitted that they feared being forced to rejoin armed groups simply to survive. The report confirms that new child soldiers are still being recruited, including some who were only recently demobilized and reunited with their families. Charles, 15, told Amnesty International: "I am sure they will come and will pick me up again." Some armed groups remain primed for renewed conflict, and consider the release of their child soldiers a threat to their military might.

Currently, only 29 percent of children in the DRC complete their primary education and an estimated 4.7 million primary-age children, including 2.5 million girls, are not attending school. At least 6 million adolescents receive no formal education in the DRC.

As part of a political transition that began in June 2003, the DRC government, backed by $200 million in international support, launched the countrywide DDR program aimed at reintegrating an estimated 150,000 fighters -- including an estimated 30,000 children. By June 2006, the government commission in charge of DDR claimed it had demobilized just over 19,000 children.

Under international law, the recruitment and use of children under 18 as soldiers is prohibited. The recruitment and use of children under 15 is a war crime. It is estimated that children still constitute up to 40 percent of some armed forces and groups engaged in conflict in the DRC.

Rebel leaders wanted for war crimes joining army
Reuters via CNN
October 12, 2006

KILOLIWE, Congo (Reuters) -- In his base high in Congo's eastern hills, dissident general Laurent Nkunda dances, sings war songs with his heavily armed men and talks politics.

"How will he not listen while we are here? How will he manage the territories that we control if he doesn't listen to us?" the rebel general asks of whoever wins the Democratic Republic of Congo's presidential run-off on October 29.

"We are waiting to be integrated into the army. He will be forced to listen to us if he wants the reunification of the country," he told Reuters on Wednesday in a field in North Kivu province filled with his own cows.

Nkunda mounted a rebellion against Congo's attempted transition to democracy following a 1998-2003 war and is accused of war crimes. These days he is keen to stress he will not threaten the elections process in the areas he controls.

But many see him and his men as testimony of the failures of Congo's post-war transition.

"Frankly, justice has been a complete failure during the transition," Anneke Van Woudenberg, Congo expert for New York-based Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.

"We haven't see people who should be held accountable arrested and brought to trial."

Army appointing militants as officers

This week Congo's army confirmed Peter Karim and Matthieu Ngudjolo, leaders of two Ituri militia groups which are also accused of war crimes, were among its newly appointed colonels.

In the southern province of Katanga, where a silent war has displaced tens of thousands in the last two years, another militia leader known simply as Gedeon has also been made an army officer. Gedeon's men are accused of rape and pillaging countless villages.

"I think what we are seeing is that these groups sense that now is the time to get as much as you can," Van Woudenberg said.

"All of them want to get positions. And in Congo with guns and military strength you can bargain your way into positions."

Aid workers say Congo's simmering conflicts kill more than 1,000 people every day, mostly from war-related hunger and disease. Some 4 million have died since the war began in 1998.

Accusations of war crimes, child soldiers

An international arrest warrant was issued for Nkunda after his men were accused of committing war crimes during the seizure of the town of Bukavu in 2004.

His men are also accused of continuing to recruit children as fighters, but Nkunda denies this.

"The day I have the time to answer these charges, I will, because I'm not scared of doing so ... We work with ability and efficiency. A child soldier can be neither able nor efficient," he said.

During the interview his men were training in the bush, watching music videos on their mobile phones or standing guard in the lush green grass.

Army in chaos

Nkunda remains at large because Congo's army is in chaos and poorly paid, its soldiers fleeing from clashes.

The army is also divided. As a defender of Rwandan language-speaking Congolese, who are a minority and say they are targeted, Nkunda enjoys the support of local politicians and military units.

With this support, his forces number several thousand.

A U.N. peacekeeping mission trying to help the government restore central authority has been able to do little.

When asked why, U.N. spokesmen in Kinshasa often tell frustrated Congolese their mission doesn't know where Nkunda is.

Peacekeepers in the east, who patrol nearby and can correctly pinpoint his position at a dairy farm, blame politics.

"We can take on the militia in Ituri but Nkunda is just too sensitive an arrest for us to make," said one U.N. official.

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Darfur, Sudan (ICC)

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

Four aid workers attacked, beaten in Darfur
Reuters
by Opheera McDoom
October 10, 2006

KHARTOUM, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Four aid workers were attacked in Sudan's Darfur region, beaten and given death threats, an official from the Medecins Sans Frontieres medical organisation said on Tuesday.

The MSF France team was attacked by around a dozen masked, armed men on a road between Zalingei and Nertiti near the violent central Jabel Marra region in Darfur on Sept. 11.

Three Sudanese staff were beaten and one international female staff was sexually harassed, MSF deputy head of mission Marc Galinier said.

"They (the attackers) said we don't want any foreigners here," Galinier told Reuters. He said MSF France had limited its movement in the area since the attack.

"These attacks have become more and more frequent in recent months and have the effect of limiting humanitarian access," he said. "The humanitarian community take enormous risks."

Tens of thousands have been killed and 2.5 million forced to flee their homes during 3-1/2 years of fighting in Darfur. Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect.

Ensuing rape, pillage and murder created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises and the world's largest aid operation involving some 14,000 aid workers.

Washington calls the violence genocide, a charge Khartoum refutes. The International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in Darfur.

MSF, a medical emergency agency, work in some of the most hostile conflict areas of the world. In Darfur their various branches give vital medical treatment to hundreds of thousands of war victims.

"We just want to care for the people ... and we ask that all the belligerents understand that we need to access the people and we are neutral," he added.

A dozen aid workers have been killed in Darfur as violence escalated following a May peace deal, signed by only one of three negotiating rebel factions.

Renewed hostilities between a new rebel alliance and the government and inter-rebel fighting has made aid access difficult.

Galinier said MSF had informed the Sudanese authorities of the attack.

The area north of Zalingei has seen heavy fighting between Arab tribes in the past year. Jabel Marra is inhabited by different rebel factions and Arab militias.

Nigeria Leader Warns Africa About Strife in Darfur
Reuters via New York Times
October 11, 2006

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Oct. 10 (Reuters) — President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria warned Tuesday of a possible genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan , as escalating attacks on aid workers further hindered access to an estimated 2.5 million refugees in need.

African Union peacekeepers have been unable to stem the violence and are caught in a diplomatic tug-of-war between the international community, which wants a United Nations takeover of the peacekeeping mission, and the government in Khartoum, which rejects the idea.

“It is not in the interest of Sudan, nor in the interest of Africa, nor, indeed, in the interest of the world for us all to stand by and see genocide being developed in Darfur,” Mr. Obasanjo, who was the African force’s top diplomat until January, said in a speech at the African Union’s headquarters here.

Mr. Obasanjo’s comments are likely to anger Khartoum, which rejects the term genocide, used mainly by Washington to describe the rape, murder and pillage in Darfur that experts estimate have killed 200,000 people in the past three and a half years.

Doctors Without Borders, an aid agency, said Tuesday that four of its workers had been beaten and that one woman on its staff had been sexually harassed in Darfur, the latest attack against aid workers in a climate of increasing violence since an unpopular peace deal in May. A dozen aid workers have been killed in Darfur since May, the agency said.

“These attacks have become more and more frequent in recent months and have the effect of limiting humanitarian access,” said Marc Galinier, the deputy head of mission for Doctors Without Borders.

The May accord, signed by only one of three rebel negotiating factions, has been rejected by tens of thousands of Darfuris, and some of the rebels who did not sign the pact formed a new alliance and renewed hostilities with the government.

Senegal’s foreign minister, Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, said three African heads of state, including Mr. Obasanjo, were preparing a mission to Sudan to try to persuade it to accept United Nations peacekeepers. He gave no date for the mission, which will include the presidents of Senegal and Gabon.

Nigeria is the largest contributor to the African force. “If the need arises and if the A.U. has to secure more troops and if the resources are found, Nigeria will surely consider giving more troops to the A.U.,” Mr. Obasanjo said. Other contributors include Rwanda, Senegal, Egypt and South Africa.

The African Union mission, dependent on donations from the West, has had difficulty even paying salaries and has on occasion been accused of watching as civilians are attacked.

Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing the central government of neglect. Khartoum then armed mostly Arab militias to quell the rebellion. Those militia now stand accused of a campaign of atrocities against civilians.

The International Criminal Court is investigating possible war crimes in the remote west of Sudan. Critics say Khartoum fears that United Nations troops will be used to arrest officials likely to be indicted by the court.

The first task of any United Nations mission would be to ensure the safety of about 14,000 aid workers taking part in the relief operation in Darfur.

Mr. Galinier of Doctors Without Borders said the attackers, who wore masks and were armed, “said, ‘We don’t want any foreigners here.’ ” He said his organization had limited its movements in the area since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The World Food Program said more coordination between relief agencies and United Nations organizations in Darfur had led to access to more than 158,000 war victims in West Darfur. The area had previously been off limits because of banditry, insurgents from neighboring Chad and other militia attacks.

But the Rome-based United Nations food agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization, said that 224,000 people were still out of reach and that of those, 139,000 had received no food aid for four consecutive months.

Darfur violence hits Chad again
BBC News
by Stephanie Hancock
October 12, 2006

A fresh wave of attacks by Janjaweed militia is underway in eastern Chad, some 65 km from the border with Sudan.

At least 10 villages in the area are thought to have been attacked in the last week alone. Several have reportedly been burned to the ground.

Some of the Janjaweed attacks have taken place as little as 15 km from a camp housing Sudanese refugees.

Violence in Darfur has been spilling across the border into eastern Chad for more than six months.

The rainy season offered a brief respite but now that the rains are almost over fighting has erupted yet again.

Villagers say they tried to fight back with spears and bows and arrows but were no match for the Janjaweed's firepower.

Precise casualty figures are hard to come by but survivors speak of many dead and wounded.

Occupied villages

There are also reports that at least seven of the villages attacked have been burnt to the ground.

It is impossible to travel to the villages in question as the Janjaweed are reportedly still occupying many of them.

But more than 3,000 Chadians have fled their homes in the past seven days.

Villagers say they are being attack by both Chadian and Sudanese Arabs and many now talk about a Chadian Janjaweed.

More than 200,000 Sudanese refugees live in camps near the border region.

So there are now two fears: not only for the Chadian civilians but also for the Sudanese refugees who thought they had left the Janjaweed far behind.

Bush signs law setting sanctions on Darfur crimes
Reuters via The Washington Post
October 13, 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Friday signed a law imposing sanctions against people responsible for genocide and war crimes in Sudan.

The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, which passed the U.S. Congress last month with strong bipartisan support, freezes the assets of those deemed complicit in the atrocities and denies them entry into the United States.

It also encourages the Bush administration to deny Sudan's government access to oil revenues.

Some 200,000 people have been killed and up to 2.5 million displaced by the 3-year-old conflict in Darfur, which Bush has labeled genocide.

Sudan has resisted international pressure to allow some 20,000 U.N. troops to replace a poorly funded, ill-equipped African Union force of 7,000.

U.S. firms have been barred from doing business in Sudan since 1997.

In addition to signing the legislation, Bush also signed an executive order that leaves in place the existing sanctions but eases some on parts of southern Sudan. It also includes exemptions to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid to Darfur.

But the order toughens some sanctions, including a provision that bars any American from engaging in oil-related transactions in Sudan.

The order comes as the Bush administration's new special envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, began a trip to Sudan, where he plans to meet with government officials and visit war-torn Darfur.

Sudan’s Government Signs Peace Accord With Rebel Group in East
New York Times
by Jeffrey Gettleman
October 15, 2006

The Sudanese government signed a peace deal on Saturday with a small rebel movement in the eastern part of the country, an agreement intended to end fighting that has lasted 10 years though with nowhere near the intensity of the conflict in Darfur.

According to state-run news media, Mustafa Osman Ismail, a government negotiator, and Mussa Mohammed Ahmed, chief of the Eastern Front, signed the deal at the presidential palace in Asmara, Eritrea.

According to Agence France-Presse, Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, called it an example of “Africans solving an African problem without foreign help,” a clear reference to his government’s continuing refusal to allow United Nations peacekeepers into Darfur.

The rebels in eastern Sudan never posed the threat to the military dictatorship that Darfur’s insurgents have, though they conducted hit-and-run guerrilla attacks on government forces for some of the same reasons. Eastern Sudan, like Darfur, is a poor, neglected area where many people feel disenfranchised.

Under the accord, the Eastern Front will get more representation in the national and regional administrations, including high-ranking posts in Khartoum, the capital.

The Darfur crisis, meanwhile, continues, with more fighting in El Fasher, one of Darfur’s bigger towns, and reported clashes along Sudan’s lawless border with Chad.

President Bush’s special envoy for Sudan, Andrew S. Natsios, arrived in Khartoum on Friday night to begin meetings with top Sudanese officials. Few here expect President Bashir to back down from his refusal to allow United Nations peacekeepers to patrol Darfur.

Darfur is patrolled by African Union peacekeepers who are underfinanced and have failed so far to stop the bloodshed. The African Union has agreed to keep its peacekeepers through the end of the year in the hope that a bigger and better-equipped United Nations force will replace them.

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Uganda (ICC)

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

No peace unless ICC charges dropped-Uganda's LRA
Reuters
by Francis Kwera
October 9, 2006

Uganda 's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels reiterated a threat on Monday to keep fighting one of Africa's longest insurgencies unless international arrest warrants for their top commanders are scrapped.

The government and rebels signed a long-awaited truce in August, supposed to give both sides breathing space while peace talks aimed at ending their 20-year rebellion continued in the south Sudanese capital Juba.

But LRA leader Joseph Kony and deputy Vincent Otti have refused to leave their jungle hideouts on the Sudan/Congo border to talk directly, fearing arrests over war crimes indictments against them by the Hague-based International Criminal Court.

"They should not expect us to sign an agreement and later cage our leaders in The Hague. Our leaders are not fools," LRA spokesman Godfrey Ayoo told journalists in Juba.

The charges against five top LRA commanders are seen as a test case for the fledgling human rights court, but many Ugandans see it as an obstacle to a long-awaited peace deal.

"As long as the ICC indictments still stand, no single soldier is going to come out of the bush. This is the position we have taken and it will not change," Ayoo said.

Despite a ceasefire, tempers have frayed between the LRA and the Ugandan army in the past two weeks.

The government accuses the LRA of failing to gather in two meeting points in southern Sudan agreed under the truce and has threatened to attack any LRA still in northern Uganda.

The LRA accuses the army of surrounding their fighters in the meeting points, planning an attack.

The rebels gained notoriety during their insurrection for brutally killing civilians, hacking body parts off people they accused of being government collaborators and kidnapping thousands of children to use as fighters and sex slaves.

Fear of rebel attacks have driven nearly 2 million from their homes and into squalid refugee camps.

Many Ugandans in the war-torn north say they would happily sacrifice international justice for the sake of peace.

"We are going to keep on talking here in Juba but those involved should know that the ICC indictments are a major stumbling block," Ayoo said.

President Yoweri Museveni, who despite having written to the ICC last year to request the indictments, has said he would be willing to offer the LRA leaders amnesty from prosecution but only after a peace deal is signed.

Uganda ’s peace process now in critical phase, warns senior UN aid official
UN News Service
October 11, 2006

The emerging peace process in northern Uganda, where hopes are high that a brutal, 20-year conflict may be finally over, has reached a highly delicate stage, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official warned today.

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland told a press briefing in Geneva that while “dramatic progress” has been made in the peace process, it was a struggle to keep the momentum going.

“The next weeks will be absolutely crucial for whether or not we can bring to an end one of our generation’s worst wars… [it is] an extremely fragile process,” he said, referring to ongoing peace talks in Juba, southern Sudan, between the Ugandan Government and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

“I’m hopeful that we can now see an end to it all but then we have to be creative, we have to be courageous [and] we have to be flexible in assisting this African-led peace process.”

On 26 August Uganda and the LRA signed a cessation of hostilities to end the conflict, confined largely to the country’s north and east, but a comprehensive peace deal has not yet been struck. Five senior members of the LRA, including its leader Joseph Kony, also face International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments for alleged war crimes.

Mr. Egeland said he was concerned that some members of the LRA have left camps in southern Sudan, where they were supposed to settle under the cessation of hostilities agreement, because of recent nearby movements by Ugandan military forces.

He added there was also concern that the assembly points lacked adequate services, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) last week launched the Juba Initiative Fund to support the peace talks and help the local civilian population.

During its war with Uganda, which began in 1986, the LRA became notorious for abducting children and then using them as soldiers or porters, while subjecting some to torture and allocating many girls to senior officers in a form of institutional rape. As many as 80 per cent of the local Acholi people have also been displaced as a result of the fighting.

Last month Uganda’s Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa told the General Assembly’s high-level debate that his Government had made “a painful decision to offer amnesty” to LRA leaders because it believes that is the best way to end the conflict peacefully.

Uganda says no authority to remove ICC indictments
Reuters
by Tim Cocks
October 12, 2006

KAMPALA, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Ugandan rebels are making an impossible demand by insisting International Criminal Court indictments against their commanders are lifted before they sign a peace deal, the government said on Thursday.

A truce signed in August between the government and Lord's Resistance Army, one of Africa's most feared rebel groups, raised hopes of an end to a vicious 20-year insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 1.7 million.

But the LRA has repeatedly said it will not sign a final peace deal at talks in the south Sudanese capital, Juba, unless the ICC indictments against its leaders are dropped.

"We have no authority to offer a lifting of the indictments," a spokesman for the government peace team, Paddy Ankunda, told Reuters by telephone from Juba.

"We can only engage the ICC after the LRA agree to signing a comprehensive peace agreement. That's the best we can offer."

LRA leader Joseph Kony and four other commanders are wanted by the Hague-based human rights tribunal for war crimes including mass murder, rape and child abduction.

LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti has said he would leave his jungle hideout on the Sudan/Congo border and join talks in Juba, where the LRA are represented by sympathisers, but only after the ICC revokes its indictments.

In Juba, a new LRA document said some of their other demands included compensation for stolen livestock and that 40 percent of government jobs be given to northern Ugandans to correct what they called a historical imbalance in favour of southerners.

"Livestock was raided in many parts of northern Uganda between 1986 and 1990. The government shall ... make appropriate compensation," a copy obtained by Reuters said.

LRA representatives could not be reached for comment.

President Yoweri Museveni has said an amnesty for the LRA leaders is possible if they first surrender.

"We have to have them come out and accept their atrocities, ask forgiveness and reconcile. Only then can we ask the ICC for a removal of the indictments," Ankunda said.

The truce remains fragile with tempers fraying and both sides accusing each other of violations.

Some Acholis, the northern tribe which have borne the brunt of the conflict, want the LRA leaders to face traditional "Mato Oput" ritual justice as an alternative to jail in The Hague.

U.N. officials and diplomats have said such a system could work, provided it does not grant immunity for war crimes.

The Mato Oput ritual relies heavily on the perpetrators admitting their crimes and the LRA denies the brutal killings of civilians, mutilating survivors and kidnapping of thousands of children which made them notorious.

(Additional reporting by Francis Kwera in Juba)

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International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Official Website of the ICTY

Mitar Rasevic and Savo Todovic Transferred to Bosnia and Herzegovina
Press Release of the ICTY
October 3, 2006

Mitar Rašević and Savo Todović were transferred today from the custody of the Tribunal to Sarajevo to be tried before the war crimes section of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Rašević and Todović are charged with persecutions, murder, torture, imprisonment, and enslavement committed against Bosnian Muslims and other non-Serbs imprisoned in the "KP Dom" detention facility in the south eastern Bosnian town of Foča between April 1992 and October 1994. According to the indictment, Rašević was the commander of the "KP Dom" guards and Todović was part of facility's senior management, being Deputy Commander there from April 1992 to August 1993.

The Tribunal's Referral Bench ruled on 8 July 2005 that the case be referred to Bosnia and Herzegovina under the terms of Rule 11bis of the Tribunal's Rules of Procedure and Evidence. The Defence for Todović appealed the decision. The Appeals Chamber remitted the case to the Referral Bench on 23 February 2006. On 31 May 2006, the Referral Bench Decision re-ordered referral to BiH, and Todović's Defence appealed again. On 4 September 2006 the Appeals Chamber dismissed all of Todović's grounds of appeal and granted today's transfer.

A partnership with the judiciaries in the former Yugoslavia is a key component of the Tribunal's activities and completion strategy. While the most senior leaders are tried before the ICTY, intermediate and lower rank accused may be referred to competent national jurisdictions. The ICTY has to date referred five cases involving nine accused to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one case involving two accused to Croatia.

Miodrag Jokic Transferred to Denmark to Serve His Prison Sentence
Press Release of the ICTY
October 5, 2006

Miodrag Jokić, a former Yugoslav naval commander who pleaded guilty to crimes committed during the 1991 attack on Dubrovnik, was today transferred to Denmark to serve his seven year prison term.

Jokić was convicted for crimes committed by soldiers under his command during the attack on 6 December 1991. On that day, they shelled the Old Town of southern Croatian city, listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. As a result, two civilians were killed and three were wounded, six buildings were destroyed in their entirety and many more buildings suffered damage. Institutions dedicated to religion, charity, education, and the arts and sciences, and historic monuments and works of art and science were damaged or destroyed.

Jokić, the Commander of the 9th Military Naval Sector (VPS) of the Yugoslav Navy, was sentenced for the unlawful attack on civilians within the Old Town of Dubrovnik, for the murder of two persons in the course of the attack, and for the cruel treatment, by wounding, of three others in the course of the same attack. He was convicted also for devastation not justified by military necessity and for unlawful attack on civilian objects. Finally, he was convicted for destruction or willful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, charity, and education, the arts and sciences, historic monuments and works of art and science.

In a statement he read in court, Jokić stated he had a moral and personal obligation to accept responsibility and to ask forgiveness for the acts of his subordinates:

"The fact that these lives were lost in the area for which I was responsible will remain etched in my consciousness for the rest of my life. I am ready to bow before all the victims of this conflict, regardless of the side they were on, with the dignity of a soldier".

He went on to say:

"Furthermore, although I had already done that in the course of the shelling itself over the radio, and afterwards I did it again in person, I feel the obligation to express my deepest sympathy to the families of those who were killed and wounded and the citizens of Dubrovnik for the pain and all the damage that was caused to them by the unit under my command".

The Trial Chamber sentenced Jokić to seven years' imprisonment and the sentence was confirmed by the Appeals Chamber.

160 bodies exhumed from Bosnia mass grave
United Press International
October 12, 2006

SARAJEVO, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Experts working at a mass grave have exhumed the remains of 160 people killed at the Bosnian Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in 1995.

Forensic teams uncovered 96 complete skeletons and 64 incomplete ones in the grave at Snagovo, close to the border with Serbia, Belgrade's Beta news agency reported Thursday.

Prosecutors for war crimes in the northern Bosnian town of Tuzla said the skeletons were the remains of Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica, tortured and killed at the eastern Bosnian town of Zvornik on the Drina River.

Along with the skeletons, experts found blindfolds, many bullet shells, clothes and a number of personal documents.

The U.N. tribunal in The Hague has been seeking Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic, charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, including the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995.

More than 7,000 bodies of people, killed during the ethnic war in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992-95, have been exhumed from mass graves.

Hague rejects "friend of the court" status for Croatia
Southeast European Times via B92
October 13, 2006

ZAGREB -- The Hague Tribunal rejected a request by Croatia to be appointed amicus curiae (friend of the court).

The request was filed for the trial of Jadranko Prlić and five other Bosnian Croats.

They are accused of murder, torture, and persecution of Muslims in southeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) during the 1992-1995 conflict.

"Most of the matters contemplated by Croatia fell outside the scope of the indictment against the accused," the three judges ruled. Furthermore, they added, "it is not in the interest of justice to authorize a country, whose former political and military leaders are mentioned in the indictment as members of a joint criminal enterprise, to intervene in the procedure."

The legal phrase amicus curiae refers to someone who is not a party to the litigation, but who believes that the court's final decision might affect its interests. The amicus curiae can present its views and legal and historical arguments, clarifying its role and position during the events in question.

The Hague's rejection was met with disappointment in Zagreb. Croatia sought involvement because the indictment in both cases refers to the late Franjo Tudjman -- the first president of independent Croatia and founder of the ruling HDZ party -- as planning a Greater Croatia that would absorb a self-proclaimed Croat entity in neighboring BiH. Croatian leaders, as well as many ordinary citizens, object to the allegations. Zagreb had hoped to engage national legal experts and historians who would dispute them.

The Croatian government also has asked for amicus curiae status in the upcoming trial of former generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak, who are accused of murdering and expelling Serb civilians during a 1995 military operation. No ruling has been made on that request.

War Crimes Suspects May Escape Justice
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
October 13, 2006

The chief prosecutor at the Hague tribunal warned last week that war crimes suspects from the former Yugoslavia could escape justice if international support for the court is not forthcoming.

Addressing a seminar of international war crimes prosecutors in The Hague held on October 5 and 6, Carla Del Ponte said a plan is necessary to ensure that trials take place.

The Hague court, which has been in operation since 1993, is under pressure from the UN Security Council to conclude all trials by 2008, and all appeals two years later.

But there are currently more than two dozen accused on trial at the tribunal in cases which could take years to complete.

This completion strategy is further threatened by the fact that six suspects remain at large - most notably Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic, who were both indicted for war crimes in 1995 and have evaded capture since then.

Addressing participants at last week’s meeting, Del Ponte said that there is both political and financial pressure to meet these deadlines and wrap up all trials.

The tribunal currently costs the UN more than 300 million US dollars a year, and this budget could be cut.

At the seminar, the prosecutor also suggested various strategies to ensure there would be funding for all trials at the tribunal.

These included approaching UN member states to contribute additional funds on top of the budget already allocated; transferring trials to other countries, including those of the former Yugoslavia.

But Del Ponte said that trying Karadzic and Mladic in the national courts of Serbia or Bosnia, where they are still considered heroes by many, would be “unimaginable”.

The prosecutor also spoke of the lack of reconciliation in the Balkans, in spite of the efforts of the tribunal over the last 13 years, in bringing those responsible for war crimes to justice.

''I see no signs of reconciliation,'' she said. ''Not in Bosnia, not in Croatia. It's true that they are living now a little bit in peace together but they are ready to start fighting again.''

This seminar was hosted by Del Ponte and the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, ICC, Luis Moreno Ocampo.

Also in attendance were the chief prosecutors of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the War Crimes Chamber of the court in Cambodia.

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International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

Official Website of the ICTR

UN optimistic about Rwandan genocide fugitive's arrest
Reuters
October 4, 2006

A U.N. court said on Wednesday it was optimistic a top mastermind of Rwanda's 1994 genocide would soon be arrested thanks to increased efforts by Kenyan authorities and recent diplomatic pressure.

Felicien Kabuga, a wealthy Hutu businessman accused of financing the militia behind the slaughter of 800,000 people in Rwanda's genocide, has been at large for more than a decade.

"Mr. Kabuga's time as a free man is coming to an end," Everard O'Donnell, the deputy registrar of the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) told reporters in Kigali. "I think the government of Kenya is taking the matter seriously now and diligently and we will soon have Kabuga brought to justice," he added, without elaborating.

The ICTR says Kabuga frequently visited Kenya, but the east African nation denies allegations it had been remiss in failing to apprehend him.

The ICTR's Chief Prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow visited Nairobi last month and pleaded with senior Kenyan government officials to increase efforts to arrest the fugitive.

He also sought help from diplomats accredited to Nairobi.

Kabuga, the most wanted genocide suspect still at large, has a $5 million United States government bounty on his head.

The ICTR has indicted more than 80 people for genocide-related crimes since starting work 12 years ago.

It has convicted 26 people and acquitted five.

UN judges call for more State cooperation over Rwanda genocide and other atrocities
UN News Service
October 10, 2006

Top United Nations judges investigating atrocities committed during the 1994 Rwanda genocide and the Balkans war have called on Member States to cooperate more closely with their international courts to bring the perpetrators of these horrendous crimes to justice.

Both International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) President Erik Mose and International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ( ICTY) President Fausto Pocar told the General Assembly on Monday that their main stumbling block was getting national authorities to arrest suspects.

The Hague-based ICTY is still hunting six fugitives, and the ICTR, located in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania, is seeking a further 18. In particular, Judge Pocar expressed regret that Serbian authorities had made no progress in locating or arresting Ratko Mladic, while Republika Srpska had also failed to deliver Radovan Karadzic.

“The Tribunal must not close its doors before these accused are brought to justice…otherwise [its] message and legacy that the international community will not tolerate serious violations of international humanitarian law will be thwarted,” he said.

And while Judge Mose said that the Rwanda Tribunal was working at “full speed” and was expected to complete cases involving between 65 and 70 accused by the end of 2008, it was essential for Member States to cooperate in the arrest and transfer of all fugitives, particularly one well-known indictee, Felicien Kabuga.

Speaking in response, Pavle Jevremovic from Serbia said his Government had expressed full determination and political commitment to ensuring that all individuals indicted for the most serious violations of international law during the conflicts in the territory of the Former Yugoslavia be brought to justice, either by the ICTY or by domestic judiciaries.

In his remarks, Joseph Nsengimana from Rwanda reiterated serious concerns that the Tribunal’s staff included individuals who were themselves accused of having committed serious crimes during the 1994 Genocide. At the end of September, his Government informed the Security Council that 14 individuals who were well known to be “genocide suspects” were employed by the Tribunal.

Also speaking to the Assembly was Judge Philippe Kirsch, President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) –– the world's only permanent court to try individuals for war crimes, genocide and other abuses.

He reported solid progress in investigations into atrocities committed in northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region but highlighted that security in the field overall had continued to be a serious concern and said that the extent of the challenges facing the Court was unlike anything experienced by other courts as tribunals.

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur, along with the names of 51 suspected perpetrators of crimes, to the ICC in March 2005, after a UN inquiry into whether genocide had occurred found the Government responsible for crimes under international law and strongly recommended the dossier to the Court.

ICTR’s annual report presented to the General Assembly
African News Dimension
by Athanas Makundi
October 10, 2006

The President of International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR) Judge Erik Møse, yesterday in Arusha presented at the eleventh annual report to the General Assembly, says ICTR press release.

According to the press release, Judge Erik Møse, informed the General Assembly that the five multi-accused trials are the main challenge to the Tribunal in respect to their volume, complexity and time frame allocated to complete the trials.

The report says, Judge Møse requested the extension of the term of office for ad litem judges that would provide the Tribunal with stability and effective planning of trials. He was pleased to inform the General Assembly that the ICTR was on schedule to complete cases by the end of 2008.

Since the last report, the Trial Chambers have delivered six new judgments and another case is nearing judgment. So far, judgments have been rendered or trials are on going. The five multi-accused trials are Military I, Military II, Butare, Government and Karemera cases,

President Møse asked member States to contribute to the ICTR by accepting transfer of trials to their jurisdiction and by arresting indictees at large. In order to respect the time frames laid down by the Security Council. “The Tribunal must continue to receive the necessary resources,” he added.

We're On Track, ICTR Chief Tells UN
AllAfrica.com - The New Times (Kigali)
by Felly Kimenyi
October 11, 2006

The President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Judge Eric Mose, on Monday told the UN General Assembly that the Tribunal was on schedule to complete cases by the end of 2008 as envisaged by the Completion Strategy.

Mose was submitting the Tribunal's eleventh Annual Report to the UN General Assembly. The court is under pressure to complete preliminary trials by 2008 and appeals in 2010.

According to a press release from the Tanzania-based UN court, Mose also asked member states to contribute to the ICTR by accepting transfer of trials to their jurisdiction and by arresting indictees at large.

"In order to respect the time-frames laid down by the Security Council, the Tribunal must continue to receive the necessary resources," the communiqué quotes him as saying.

"The President informed the General Assembly that the five multi-accused trials, which are the Military I, Military II, Butare, Government and Karemera et al. cases, are the main challenge to the Tribunal in regard to their volume, complexity and time frame allocated to complete the trials," added the release.

Set up in 2005, the Tribunal, which is the first court to be set up by the UN to prosecute genocide crimes has handed down 31 verdicts, and among these, five acquittals and 26 convictions.

Rwanda moves to ban death penalty
BBC News
October 13, 2006

The leaders of Rwanda's ruling party have endorsed a proposal to abolish the death penalty, which may encourage the transfer of genocide suspects in exile.

The political bureau of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) backed the decision at a meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame. Many countries refuse to extradite criminal suspects to states which use torture and execution. Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in Rwanda's genocide. "We have conducted extensive debates within the party and come to a common position that capital punishment is of no use to Rwanda," RPF spokesman Servilien Sebasoni told AFP news agency. However, survivors of the 1994 genocide are strongly opposed to the decision.

Mr Sebasoni told reporters that a bill was currently being drafted and would be tabled very soon. The RPF controls both chambers of parliament. "If that draft law is tabled before parliament, our members will have to support it," Mr Sebasoni explained to Rwanda's New Times newspaper. The new legislation could also encourage the transfer of war crimes suspects detained at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), based in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, correspondents say. Most of the high-profile genocide cases have been tried by the Arusha tribunal, which since 1997 has convicted 25 ringleaders of the genocide and acquitted three people. Frustrated at its slow process, Rwanda wants suspects transferred to face trial at home. The court is due to be disbanded in 2008.

Security Council extends terms of temporary judges on Rwandan war crimes
UN News Service
October 13, 2006

The Security Council today extended the tenure of 18 short-term judges serving on the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the Rwandan genocide to help the court meet its target of trying all defendants by the end of 2008.

The Council’s unanimous vote follows its resolution in June to extend the terms of the 11 permanent judges serving at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which is based in the Tanzanian town of Arusha. All 29 judges can now serve until 31 December 2008.

The temporary judges whose terms – originally due to expire in June next year – have been extended include Aydin Sefa Akay (Turkey), Florence Rita Arrey (Cameroon), Solomy Balungi Bossa (Uganda), Robert Fremr (Czech Republic), Taghrid Hikmet (Jordan), Karin Hökborg (Sweden), Vagn Joensen (Denmark), Gberdao Gustave Kam (Burkina Faso) and Tan Sri Dato’ Hj. Mohd. Azmi Dato’ Hj. Kamaruddin ( Malaysia).

Italy’s Flavia Lattanzi, Kenneth Machin of the United Kingdom, Tanzania’s Joseph Edward Chiondo Masanche, Lee Gacuiga Muthoga of Kenya, the Republic of Korea’s Seon Ki Park, Mparany Mamy Richard Rajohnson of Madagascar, Ghana’s Emile Francis Short, Albertus Henricus Johannes Swart of the Netherlands and Panama’s Aura E. Guerra de Villalaz round out the list of short-term judges.

The Council created the ICTR in November 1994 to prosecute people responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Rwanda that year. Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered, mostly by machete, in just 100 days.

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Iraqi High Tribunal

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

Saddam Hussein Thrown Out of Genocide Trial
Associated Press via WTOL-11
October 10, 2006

BAGHDAD , IRAQ (AP) -- Saddam Hussein and a co-defendant were thrown out of court Tuesday after the former leader began to shout during his trial on charges of genocide against Iraq's Kurdish population.

Saddam interrupted the proceedings by shouting a verse from the Quran. "Fight them and God will punish them!" he yelled. The chief judge, Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, cut off the microphone and instructed bailiffs to escort the ex-president out of the courtroom.

Co-defendant Hussein Rashid Mohammed then stood up and shouted insults at the prosecutors. When a bailiff forced the defendant back into his chair, the former army commander threw a punch. The judge had Mohammed thrown out and closed the session to the media.

Before the closure, the judge told Saddam's six co-defendants that he had been patient with them, but they were obstructing the trial. "I allowed you to say what you want, but you've been making problems," he said solemnly.

Court-appointed lawyers represented Saddam and his co-defendants. The lawyers chosen by Saddam and his co-defendants are boycotting the trial to protest the dismissal of the first chief judge, and the court's refusal to allow the defense time to examine thousands of documents. The court on Monday heard testimony about burying prisoners alive and sexually abusing female detainees.

Saddam and his six co-defendants have been on trial since Aug. 21 for their roles in a bloody 1987-88 crackdown against Kurdish rebels. Saddam and his cousin "Chemical" Ali al-Majid are charged with genocide, and the others are accused of various war crimes offenses. All could face death by hanging if convicted. The defendants are represented by court-appointed lawyers because their own attorneys have boycotted proceedings since Sept. 24. They are protesting the dismissal of the first chief judge, who was seen as soft on Saddam, and the court's refusal to allow the defense time to examine thousands of documents.

In Tuesday's hearing, the court heard a Kurdish woman, who testified from behind a curtain to conceal her identity, recount that women were raped and children died in detention during the 1988 campaign. Upon her request, the chief judge cut off the microphones after she was asked if she knew of any cases of pregnancy and abortion in her detention camp. Reporters in court said they heard a brief part of her testimony in which she said she saw wardens in the detention camp take women away at night, apparently to rape them. No other details were immediately available.

The woman, who spent 6½ months in detention, also claimed that Saddam's forces used chemicals against the detainees. "One evening, men walked into our detention hall, wearing (chemical) suits and masks and sprayed us with a material that caused the spread of lice and other diseases, like bronchial coughing," she said in Kurdish through an Arabic interpreter. "Many children died as a result," said the woman.

The witness also testified that pregnant women were treated inhumanely. She said one woman had given birth in a toilet. Fellow detainees helped her "cut the umbilical cord with broken glass and the baby was wrapped in a grain sack." She said all her family members disappeared in 1988 and are presumed dead.

Do not cut off my mike, Saddam pleads with judge
Reuters
by Mussab Al-Khairalla, writing by Ibon Villelabeitia, editing by Janet Lawrence
October 11, 2006

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein on Wednesday asked a judge trying him for genocide against Iraq's ethnic Kurds in the 1980s not to cut off his microphone when he takes the stand.

Saddam made his plea a day after Chief Judge Mohammed al-Ureybi switched off the toppled leader's microphone and ejected him from the courtroom after he began a speech.

"When the accuser and prosecutor talk, the world listens. When the man called 'the accused' speaks, you switch off the microphone. Is this fair?," an unusually subdued Saddam politely asked the judge.

Ureybi, who has taken a hardline with Saddam and six other co-defendants, said he would not allow political speeches in his court.

"The microphone issue is to bring order in the court. If you say anything within the law then you can complain," he said.

Dressed in a white shirt and dark suit, Saddam -- who has said he does not fear death -- said he was only trying to clear his name before history.

"Saddam Hussein doesn't care for Saddam Hussein as a person. He only cares for his reputation. When I make things clear I do it for the Iraqi people and those outside."

After listening to three Kurdish witnesses, Ureybi adjourned the trial until October 17.

Saddam, 69, his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as "Chemical Ali", and five former commanders face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their role in the 1988 "Anfal" (Spoils of war) military campaign, which prosecutors say left 182,000 ethnic Kurds dead or missing.

Saddam and Majeed, who face death by hanging if convicted, are also charged with genocide.

The court trying Saddam for a separate case -- the killing of some 148 Shi'ite men from the town of Dujail in the 1980s -- is due to reconvene on October 16 to review witness testimonies.

A senior source in the court has told Reuters a verdict in that case is expected within 10 days of the session opening.

Saddam ran human traffic chain, says trial witness
Evening News
October 12, 2006

A WITNESS in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial has claimed the former leader's agents ran a human trafficking ring that sold his sister and other Kurdish women in the 1980s.

Abdul-Khaliq Qadir presented the court with newspaper reports that the intelligence department in the city of Kirkuk sold 18 women to Egypt's intelligence service.

The list included his sister's name as well as girls as young as 14, he said.

Defence lawyers and one of Saddam's co-defendants immediately challenged the claim, saying it was hearsay based on a forged document.

Saddam and six other defendants are on trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in a 1987-88 crackdown on Kurdish guerrillas.

The prosecution says about 180,000 people, mostly civilians, died in the offensive.

Saddam and one other defendant are also charged with genocide in the crackdown, which was codenamed Operation Anfal.

If convicted, all seven men could be sentenced to death by hanging. Earlier, Saddam accused the chief judge of preventing him from defending himself.

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

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

TRC Chairman Challenges Statement Takers
AllAfrica.com - The Inquirer (Monrovia)
October 2, 2006

The Chairman of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Cllr. Jerome Verdier has challenged individuals serving as statement takers for the commission to be true and symbolic characters of nationalism and patriotism in the discharge of their duties.

Speaking last Friday at the commission's headquarters in Sinkor during a commission ceremony of statement takers, the TRC boss admonished his co-workers to see their service as a call to national duty and as such their work should be characterized by a high degree of nationalism and patriotism.

Cllr. Verdier urged the statement takers to do all within their power to do the right thing and not yield to any influence; be it political, economic, tribal, ethnic or blood relationship.

"You have no side in the job that you are going to do out there. You got to maintain your independence, and respect the victims, perpetrators or the witnesses that you will come across. Establish friendly relationship with those who will come forward with their statements or testimonies as regard the conflict. The process will be rough and difficult but you have to be over-zealous and committed to the job," Cllr. Verdier told the statement takers.

The TRC boss further told the statement takers to always uphold with confidentially statements from people testifying what ensued during the war; adding "you don't have to disclose your work to anyone but the TRC. You also don't have to manufacture or create statements against anyone. We told you to collect four statements per day but that doesn't mean that you should create statements by yourself. Try to get factual statements from people; because for every statement we get from you will be verified."

Speaking further, the TRC boss disclosed that the entire statement taking would last for five months but the statement takers were going into the 15 counties for a period of two weeks following which time their performances will be evaluated by the commission. "Those who will not put out good performances during the course of two weeks will be dropped."

The statement takers are expected to leave Monrovia for their respective assigned areas beginning today.

Impunity fight tough despite progress-prosecutors
Reuters
by Emma Thomasson
October 6, 2006

THE HAGUE, Oct 6 (Reuters) - International law has made great strides in the past decade but challenges remain to end impunity worldwide including winning universal support for the International Criminal Court (ICC), prosecutors said on Friday.

"From the strong foundations laid by the Nuremberg tribunal ... we have come a long way... however this is just the beginning," ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told a meeting of prosecutors from all the main international courts.

Christopher Staker, acting chief prosecutor of the U.N.-backed court for Sierra Leone, said international justice had stalled after the landmark Nuremberg and Tokyo trials after World War Two, but had been revived in the last decade.

"The fundamental development since the 1990s has been the demonstration by the international community that it will not countenance the commission of these crimes any more," he said.

After the creation of ad-hoc war crimes tribunals including for Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia and Sierra Leone, the ICC was set up in 2002 as the world's first permanent court to try individuals for war crimes, genocide and other abuses.

The Hague-based court still faces hostility from the United States, although 100 countries have signed up.

Hassan Jallow, chief prosecutor at the Rwanda tribunal, said the persistence of war crimes did not mean justice was failing:

"Significant success has been made in ensuring that people who have been in leadership positions and who used those positions to commit offences have been brought to account."

UNIVERSAL JUSTICE?

Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said the next step was to adopt a universal system, noting that some violations were not investigated independently, such as during the Israel-Lebanon conflict.

"As long as the world community accepts that some victims deserve justice more than others, there will be ground for future conflicts and atrocities," she said.

"The ICC is the only place for the universal and consistent administration of criminal justice."

The prosecutors said their main Achilles' heel was getting national authorities to arrest suspects. The Yugoslavia tribunal is still hunting six fugitives and the Rwanda court is seeking a further 18. Both courts are due to close by 2010.

Only one suspect has been delivered to the ICC so far and a peace process in Uganda is hampering the exercise of arrest warrants for leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army.

Del Ponte reiterated that the Yugoslavia tribunal would not meet the 2010 deadline set by the U.N. Security Council and would seek approval and funding to extend for a year or two.

After that, she said the ICC should take on responsibility for dealing with any remaining fugitives or reopening of cases.

Despite problems over arrest, the prosecutors said countries were taking more responsibility for trying their own war crimes.

"More and more often we are beginning to see national systems lifting the veil of immunity," prosecutor Jallow said.

But while international justice might be making progress, prosecutors warned that reconciliation would take much longer.

Del Ponte said of the Balkans: "I don't see signs of reconciliation ... they are ready to start again fighting."

"If after you obtain a conviction there is a positive effect in the country, that's great but it's not my task."

Witnesses tell Liberia truth commission of civil war abuses
Jurist
by Brett Murphy
October 10, 2006

[JURIST] Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) [UN Mission in Liberia news release, PDF] began hearing public testimony Tuesday, with several people testifying about the crimes and abuse that occurred during the country's 14-year civil war [Globalsecurity.org backgrounder]. One man testified that he was taken by rebel forces as a child soldier [Amnesty backgrounder] to help with terror raids around the country, while another explained how his father was murdered as part of a political vendetta. Four of the nine TRC commissioners heard testimony in Monrovia, while the remaining traveled throughout the country to gather testimonies outside the capital.

Commissioners also heard testimony from Mohammed Sheriff, a former Liberian fighter who told the TRC that his men executed some 250 Sierra Leoneans [Reuters report] on the orders of former Liberian President Charles Taylor [JURIST news archive]. Sheriff said that his men beat and killed a Sierra Leonean warlord and executed the warlord's mercenaries, who had been fighting in the Ivory Coast's civil war. Taylor is currently awaiting trial [JURIST report] before the Special Court for Sierra Leone on crimes against humanity charges.

The TRC began its work [JURIST report] in June after its inauguration [JURIST report] in February. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf [BBC profile] has said that the commission is intended to heal the war-torn country and uncover the truth about the civil war, but the TRC has been criticized by human rights groups [JURIST report] who instead advocate a Liberian human rights court because the TRC cannot prosecute war crimes violations. AP has more.

As TRC Statement Taking Begins, Perpetrator Explains How ‘Gen. Mosquito’ Was Killed
AllAfrica.com - The Inquirer (Monrovia)
October 11, 2006

As the statement taking process begins at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which commenced this week, two persons appeared before the institution to give testimonies.

Victim Michael Biddle and Mohammed I. Sheriff, a perpetrator, yesterday made startling revelations in their testimonies on events that occurred during the Liberian civil crisis.

In his testimony before the commission, victim Biddle, son of the late Cllr. James Patrick Biddle, told the commission in 1990, some former fighters of the defunct National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), killed his father at the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital junction in Sinkor where he Patrick was arrested.

Biddle said as a young man at the time when the civil war intensified in 1990, he was living with his father. He said when the war intensified in the Sinkor and Congo Town areas, he advised his father for them to leave their ELWA residence to find a save haven.

He told the commission that while he and his father were in search of a safer location, circumstances forced them to move to separate locations.

According to him, he got information that his father sought refuge at the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital. Biddle said when he got the information he and his father were in frequent communication.

Biddle, who was the first to take the stand to give his testimony, said it was later confirmed that some fighters of the NPFL had killed his father because of his association with the government of late President Samuel K. Doe.

He further narrated that days after the incident, a relative who he identified as Emmanuel, successfully made his way to the NPFL controlled area in Bong County; stressing that while they were on their way, a fighter who knew his father very well, instructed his colleagues to have him detained on grounds that his father worked within the Doe government and deceived the people of Nimba County, where his late father hailed from.

According to him he remained in the custody of the fighters until one of them rescued him and took him away to the former's house.

He said the fighter kept him for four months until news reached his family that he was well and safe in Nimba.

According to Biddle, when his family heard that he was in Nimba, they went to find him and attempted to change his location.

He said to achieve this his mother who went for him, changed his name so that he could not be identified since his father was indeed working in the Doe government.

He added that while enroute from Nimba, they reached as far as Saniquellie when his former classmate identified him as being the son of J. Patrick Biddle.

He told the TRC that his classmate, who was a former fighter of the former NPFL, identified him and he was later detained for the second time and tortured.

Biddle, whose father was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia told the Commission that based on the distress his stepmother went through, she died later.

However, Mr. Biddle told the Commission that he harbors no ill feelings against anyone and that he is prepared to put the past behind him.

Also appearing, a perpetrator of the crisis, Mohammed I Sheriff, who is also a former general of ULIMO- K but later defected to the NPFL of Mr. Taylor,

recounted on his role as it relates to how he brutally killed innocent people during the war in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d' Ivoire.

"1990 I left Liberia and went to Sierra Leone to seek refuge. We were on the refugees' camp in Sierra Leone when we were encouraged to join the then Liberian United Force which later became ULIMO, he said.

According to him, he later joined the Small Boys Unit or SBU of the former NPFL when he was just 13 years old. His mission of course was to fight.

He recounted how he and others were sent on an assassination mission by Mr. Alhaji G.V. Kromah to kill one General Karpeh. He said following the completion of the mission, Mr. Kromah became the leader of ULIMO.

Mr. Sheriff said he fought for the organization until 1994 when he came to Monrovia and was recommended to former President Charles Taylor, who sent him to work with former battlefront commander, Benjamin Yeaten.

"In 1999 we were sent to Voinjama and the Defense Minister Daniel Chea brought a truck full of arms and ammunitions. We were later sent on a mission in Guinea to kill and destroy," he disclosed.

According to him, those that were arrested from the mission were brought to the Liberian side of the border and were all killed. He said the victims included women.

"Another mission came for us to go to Ivory Coast with General Sackor, General Fofana and General Conneh, the youngest brother of Sekou Conneh. This arrangement was made through former President Charles Taylor," he told the Commission.

Mr. Sheriff noted that they were given four hundred and seventy five thousand United States Dollars to carry on the mission.

He said their mission was to invade from one country to another.

He said the meeting with former President Taylor before the mission, was attended by Sam Bockarie; alias "General Mosquito", Moses Blah, Benjamin Yeaten and other key generals of the former President.

"We crossed to Ivory Coast. Sam Bockarie had his base in Ivory Coast. Mr. Taylor sent Yeaten to tell the troops to return along with Sam Bockarie and when we came back, Yeaten told us at the border that someone had betrayed the cause," he pointed out.

He ordered Zizar Massa to go and execute Sam Bockarie's wife at the home of Sam Bockarie in Monrovia. Sam Bockarie asked when he said 'but chief why are you doing this to me?' He added further that Yeaten later e