War Crimes Prosecution Watch

Cambodian Extraordinary Chambers (ECCC)

Official Website of the Extraordinary Chambers
Official Website of the Khmer Rouge Trial Task Force
Official Website of the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT)

Judge says Cambodian genocide tribunal urgent
Associated Press via International Herald Tribune
December 13, 2006

The Khmer Rouge genocide trials in Cambodia should start quickly, a judge serving on the tribunal said Wednesday, noting that many defendants, victims and witnesses are old.

"We can't dwell on this for years," Motoo Noguchi, a Japanese prosecutor who will serve as a judge for the tribunal, said at a talk at Quinnipiac University School of Law. "Now it's time to really start cases. We have to identify the disagreements and we have to make our best efforts to solve them and quickly move to the next stage."

A 2003 agreement between Cambodia and the United Nations created the tribunal after years of difficult negotiations seeking justice for crimes committed when the Khmer Rouge held power from 1975-79.

The radical policies of the now-defunct communist group led to the deaths of some 1.7 million people from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition.

Prosecutors are expected to indict about 10 defendants, including the few surviving top Khmer Rouge leaders.

Organizers of the trials said last month they have been unable to agree on the judicial rules that will govern proceedings, but they still expect to convene the long-awaited tribunal in mid-2007.

The Cambodian and international judicial officials said last month that they had encountered "substantive disagreement" in their goal to adopt 110 draft rules for running the proceedings. The rules cover every phase of the proceedings — preliminary investigations, judicial investigations, the trial and appeals. They also delineate the roles of all parties, including prosecutors, defense attorneys and defendants. The tribunal cannot begin until they are in place.

Human Rights Watch last week accused the Cambodian government of intervening to delay adoption of the rules, a charge the government denied.

Helen Jarvis, a spokeswoman for the tribunal, has said there was no indication of political interference from the government and that the delay was due partly to the complexity of legal issues that Cambodian and foreign judicial officers are grappling with.

Noguchi offered a similar assessment, saying participants were dealing with complex international law as well as language and cultural differences.

Unlike other international tribunals, the Cambodian judges are a majority on the panel and international participants a minority, Noguchi said. Participants not from Cambodia must ensure the tribunal meets international standards, he said.

"We are not allowed to make any serious compromise on that," Noguchi said.

No new date has been set for adopting the rules.

Cambodians Search for Justice after Pol Pot's Brutal Regime
Public Broadcasting System (PBS) Newshour (transcript)
December 18, 2006 (original air date)

The people of Cambodia are still searching for justice three decades after former dictator Pol Pot's regime accused of forced labor, starvation and mass executions. The Bureau for International Reporting gives an update.

KIRA KAY, NewsHour Correspondent: Cambodian painter Vann Nath creates vibrant scenes of his country's rich history and peaceful moments in its lush countryside.

But the work he is better known for is darker. It portrays the time he spent under torture and interrogation as a prisoner of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

VANN NATH, Cambodian Painter: I was arrested December 30, 1977.

KIRA KAY: Vann Nath was targeted for being an artist, a member of the elite, educated class, and therefore, according to the Khmer Rouge, an enemy of the people.

VANN NATH: I arrived at the prison at 3:00 a.m. They measured how tall I am and took pictures of me. I was interrogated. And all around me, I could hear other people being beaten, screaming and yelling because of their pain. I did not know then, but these people were taken away.

KIRA KAY: Taken away to the infamous killing fields by the hundreds of thousands. From 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge presided over one of the most brutal periods in history. Marked by mass executions, death by starvation, and forced labor, all in an attempt to create a demented vision of a communist utopia, dreamed up and carried out by Pol Pot and his cadres.

YOUK CHHANG, Documentation Center of Cambodia: Everywhere you go, you see mass graves. You see skull. Just like a broken glass, when you drop a glass on the floor and broken, it's what we are.

KIRA KAY: Youk Chhang runs the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which is dedicated to collecting proof of the atrocities that engulfed his nation, an archive of thousands of photographs, documents and interviews that provide the body of evidence that might one day convict those responsible for the deaths of an estimated 2 million people, around a quarter of the entire population.

Now, three decades later, that day may finally be here. In the dusty outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh, a shiny new courthouse has been built. It is called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, a lofty name with lofty ambitions: to finally bring justice to a country that has yet to see any accounting for crimes they have suffered.

By the hundreds, Cambodians from across the country are being bused in to tour the complex, to see where trials will be held, to understand that the tribunal is really here, it is finally happening.

A weak judicial system

LY PRANG, Survivor (through translator): It is important for me and the Cambodian people, because I can see justice inside. As victims and survivors of the regime, we can find some justice through this tribunal.

KIRA KAY: The tour was sponsored by Youk Chhang's organization.

YOUK CHHANG: It's the idea to warm them up, to prepare them for the trial, so that in such a way they feel less intimidated, to lose their fear. Having them see it and hear it, they create their own messages and they can tell their neighbor, "I was there. There's a trial."

KIRA KAY: It is understandable there might be a good deal of disbelief that a tribunal 30 years in the making has finally arrived. It wasn't until 1997 that the Cambodian government was finally willing to commit to holding a trial, in response to a good deal of international pressure.

Many top officials in the government and ruling party, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, were themselves once members of the Khmer Rouge.

Six years of bitter negotiation with the United Nations over the structure of the court has resulted in a complicated, jointly run process. Although the U.N. is represented by a team of international judges, the majority will be Cambodian and could be subject to the influence and pressure of a government that has little tolerance for political opposition.

HEATHER RYAN, Open Society Justice Initiative: I think there is a great deal of skepticism among many Cambodians who learn about the court and who know about the court and watch the court. I think that comes from a basic distrust on the part of many Cambodians of the independence of the judicial system.

KIRA KAY: The weakness of the Cambodian judiciary is a charge the court itself doesn't deny.

HELEN JARVIS, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Not a little weak. Very weak. And I think it was in actual acknowledgement of that fact that the government asked for international assistance.

KIRA KAY: Helen Jarvis is the chief spokesperson for the court. She says an elaborate system has been developed to ensure this hybrid tribunal keeps up to international standards.

HELEN JARVIS: There's a complex formula of voting, which means that any decision has to involve both international and national. It's called a super-majority.

KIRA KAY: The court cannot afford further delays. It is barely funded for a short three-year mandate, in which it is already likely there will be time for no more than a small, some would say symbolic, handful of prosecutions.

HELEN JARVIS: It's expected that it will be few in number. Neither the U.N. side nor the Cambodian side envisaged a trawling through the country, finding everybody who had committed crimes during that period. The concern is more to establish a judicial accounting of those at the top.

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Darfur, Sudan (ICC)

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

ICC Prosecutor Ready with Evidence Against Darfur War Criminals
ICC Press Release
December 14, 2006

Today, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo informed the United Nations Security Council that he has nearly completed an investigation into some of the worst crimes committed in Darfur. He is preparing to submit evidence to the ICC judges no later than February 2007 and is putting measures in place to protect victims and witnesses.

The evidence in this emerging first case points to specific individuals who appear to bear the greatest responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity including persecution, torture, murder, and rape. The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the Prosecutor in March 2005.

This progress occurs within the context of continued violence in Darfur and an apparent spill over of crime and violence into Chad and the Central African Republic. “This Council has recognized that justice for victims will contribute to enhancing security and will send an important warning – beyond the borders of Darfur – to those individuals who might otherwise resort to violence and the commission of crimes to achieve their aims,” Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said.

The Prosecutor’s first case focuses on a series of incidents in 2003 and 2004, when the most serious crimes occurred in large numbers. Perhaps most significant, the evidence reveals the underlying operational system that enabled the commission of these massive crimes.

The evidence comes from a wide range of sources and reflects a thorough, independent, and impartial review of incriminating and exonerating circumstances. Sources include statements from victims as well as Sudanese officials, documents provided by the Government of the Sudan and the National Commission of Inquiry, thousands of documents collected by the International Commission of Inquiry, and materials generated by the Security Council, states, and international organisations.

The Prosecutor described four previous visits by his staff to the Sudan, mentioning, in particular, interviews in August 2006 with two senior Government officials who by virtue of their positions could provide information about the activities of the security forces in Darfur and other parties to the conflict. However, the Prosecutor noted “a number of outstanding requests for documents and interviews which remain an important feature of the fact-finding process.”

Reaching the victims and assessing their interests has been a priority for the Prosecutor. Since the start of the investigation, his Office has conducted more than 70 missions to 17 different countries, screening hundreds of potential witnesses and taking more than 100 formal witness statements, many of which were from victims.

The Prosecutor described his efforts to assess the admissibility of the case by requesting information about genuine national judicial proceedings from the Government of the Sudan and other sources. The ICC is designed to be a court of last resort and under the Rome Statute can intervene only if national governments are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute.

In November, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo requested an update from the Government of the Sudan about national judicial proceedings. In a formal reply, the Government reported that 14 individuals have been arrested for violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses. This reported activity does not, however, appear to render the Prosecutor’s case inadmissible. The Prosecutor reported that he would request the cooperation of the Government of the Sudan to facilitate a visit by his Office to the Sudan in January 2007 to interview the individuals in custody.

As the Prosecutor prepares to present the evidence to the judges, he is closely following allegations of current crimes reported to exacerbate the suffering of the vulnerable population in Darfur, including more than two million already displaced by the violence. Despite the Darfur Peace Agreement, there continue to be reports, almost daily, of grave criminal acts, including sexual assaults of women and children and attacks on villages, in addition to reports of attacks against humanitarian aid workers and African Union peacekeepers. “The perpetrators are standing in the way of peace and security,” Mr. Moreno-Ocampo told the Council.

Fourth Report of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, to the Security Council pursuant to UNSC 1593 (2005)
Version: Arabic | English | French
Statement of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Mr. Luis Moreno Ocampo to the UN Security Council pursuant to
UNSCR 1593 (2005)
Version: Arabic | English | French

Masterminds behind Darfur killings 'will face charges'
The Daily Telegraph
by Mike Pflanz in Nairobi
December 14, 2006

KEY figures accused of masterminding atrocities against civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan will face international criminal charges within two months, according to a senior prosecutor.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will call for arrest warrants against the worst offenders by February, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said in a report ahead of his address to the UN Security Council today.

The list is likely to include senior Sudanese officials, military commanders and rebel leaders.

Two years ago, the Security Council requested that the ICC investigate reports of atrocities committed with the approval of Sudan's ruling regime in attempts to quell two rebellions in Darfur .

The ICC can only prosecute suspects when national courts have failed to do so.

Khartoum has consistently denied that there are any cases to answer, and it will be all but impossible to arrest those indicted unless Sudan agrees.

Two leading rights groups yesterday warned that stronger legal, economic and military action must be taken against Khartoum unless President Omar al-Bashir acts immediately to stop the violence in Darfur , where an estimated 300,000 people have died.

"Bashir has just been laughing at the 'do this or else' resolutions passed by the UN Security Council so far,'' said Gareth Evans, the president of the International Crisis Group. "It's time for the screws to be tightened on Khartoum.''

In the same statement, released ahead of an EU summit on Darfur starting today, Human Rights Watch said the global response to the crisis was "all bark and no bite''.

Among the strong-arm measures proposed are economic sanctions against the regime's leaders, especially targeting oil revenues, and international enforcement of a no-fly zone over Darfur , a plan said to have received the backing of Tony Blair.

President George W Bush plans to go one step further, it was reported yesterday, with a naval blockade of Sudan's Red Sea coastline and air-strikes against its military facilities.

Prosecutor hunts Darfur war criminals
The Toronto Star
by Olivia Ward
December 16, 2006

The world has looked on with horror as atrocities mount in Sudan's Darfur region. But this week, the international prosecutor responsible for investigating them told the United Nations Security Council the perpetrators will pay for their crimes.

"The evidence provides reasonable grounds to believe that the individuals identified have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, including ... persecution, torture, murder and rape," said Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

He also said the perpetrators "are standing in the way of progress towards peace and security in Darfur , as well as the neighbouring states."

Moreno-Ocampo did not name suspects, in order to prevent Sudan from also bringing cases against them that would block the international court.

Meanwhile, the widely criticized UN Human Rights Council agreed in Geneva to send a team of human rights experts to investigate reports of violence against Darfur 's civilians.

Moreno-Ocampo, who prosecuted the leader of an Argentine junta that murdered thousands of suspected opponents from 1976 to 1983, said he would send his evidence to the international court's pre-trial chamber in February, and is taking steps to protect victims and witnesses.

Darfur has produced a "universe of crimes," he said, noting his office would focus on the most serious, which occurred during intense bloodletting in 2003 and 2004.

Since the Security Council referred the case to the court in March 2005, its investigators have held more than 70 fact-finding missions in 17 countries, collecting evidence, including statements from witnesses, victims and Sudanese officials and thousands of documents drawn from national and international investigations.

Canada has given $500,000 to support the court probe. The case is complicated by Sudan's insistence that it can prosecute its own suspected war criminals. The international court, based in the Hague, can only take action if a government is unwilling or unable to bring its citizens to justice.

Moreno-Ocampo said Sudan told him 14 people have been arrested for suspected atrocities but "these indications do not appear to render the current case inadmissible."

Sudan set up a Darfur Special Criminal Court; it has heard only six cases. Since 2003, more than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur , and some 2 million have been forced from their homes reportedly by government-backed militias known as janjaweed.

The government in Khartoum has offered some co-operation, Moreno-Ocampo said, noting it supplied information on military and security structures and allowed meetings with some officials who had data on the activities of security forces in Darfur .

Many human rights advocates accuse Sudan of abetting the perpetrators of ongoing atrocities against the people of Darfur, a region the size of France, and of shielding those it knows are guilty.

Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said there is "credible evidence" Sudan's military was responsible for air and ground attacks against civilians.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said the Human Rights Council's decision to send a high-level expert mission to Sudan is "welcome." Diplomats and human rights groups have urged tough sanctions against Sudan. Last week, outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the international failure to end suffering in Darfur, saying, "our performance has not improved much since the disasters of Bosnia and Rwanda. Sixty years after the liberation of the Nazi death camps, and 30 years after the Cambodian killing fields, the promise of 'never again' is ringing hollow."

Sanctions would force a change of policy in Sudan: A proposal from 15 former foreign ministers
Financial Times
by Madeleine Albright, Lloyd Axworthy, Ismail Cem, Erik Derycke, Lamberto Dini, Gareth Evans, Joschka Fischer, Bronislaw Geremek, Rosario Green, Niels Helveg Petersen, Ana Palacia, Surin Pitsuwan, Lydie Polfer, Jozias van Aartsen and Hubert Vedrine
December 18, 2006

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has demonstrated he will act only in what he perceives to be his own best interests. If the international community is to protect the people of Darfur , it must therefore convince Mr Bashir that his best interests are served by allowing deployment of an effective international peacekeeping force. For several years, skilled diplomats have attempted, in vain, to persuade him that this is the case. Obviously more effort is needed; it is time to increase the pressure on Khartoum.

The surest way to save lives in Darfur would be through a fully observed ceasefire leading to a sustained political settlement that allows refugees and the displaced to return to their homes. In the interim, the under-manned and under-equipped African Union peacekeeping force must be enlarged and strengthened. In meetings in Addis Ababa and Abuja last month, a broad diplomatic coalition recommended a hybrid force that would combine AU personnel with financial, logistics and other support from the United Nations. In the past, President Bashir has claimed that outside efforts to save lives in Darfur were a ploy to mask western interference in Sudan's internal affairs. The Addis-Abuja proposal clearly negates that claim, coming as it does with support from the AU, Arab League and UN Security Council (including China). This is an African and Arab-supported plan to save Sudanese lives. Mr Bashir has no more excuses.

As former diplomats, we support one last effort to persuade Khartoum to accept the proposal for a hybrid force. If by the year's end Mr Bashir still refuses or, more likely, continues pretending to agree one day and saying no the next, he should pay a stiff price. That price should include, first, targeted multilateral sanctions (such as travel bans and asset freezes) directed at military and civilian leaders who are responsible for the violence; second, measures to target revenue from Sudan's oil sales, coupled with an embargo on the sale of equipment to that country's petroleum industry; and third, steps to close offshore accounts affiliated with the government-majority party, including militias. The price should also include intensified investigations by the International Criminal Court into those who order or commit crimes against humanity in Darfur . Will such sanctions suffice to change Mr Bashir's mind and Sudan's policy? We believe the answer is yes, provided the sanctions are sufficiently comprehensive and multilateral.

If tough new measures are to be applied against Khartoum, they must be as broad-based as possible, at least extending beyond the US and UK to the whole European Union, and with maximum support from the Security Council. It would help if a broad coalition, such as the actors at Addis Ababa last month, led the diplomacy. A standing contact group might foster co-ordinated efforts of the international community.

Determined international action in Darfur is essential for humanitarian reasons and is fully consistent with the "responsibility to protect" principle unanimously endorsed by world leaders last year. Under this principle, the rights of sovereignty - though otherwise unimpaired - do not include a license to kill (or allow to be killed) masses of unarmed human beings. Urgent action is required also because Darfur demonstrates the reality that conflict is contagious. The widening strife requires an international diplomatic effort to put in place a protective UN peacekeeping mission in Chad and the Central African Republic, Sudan's troubled neighbours. Diplomacy is also required to find a permanent political solution to the Darfur conflict. To this end, there should be a renewed effort to unite the splintered rebel groups there into an effective negotiating body; dialogue among local leaders should be encouraged; and representatives of all sides in Darfur should be included in future talks.

The Darfur conflict is more complex than often characterised. It does not simply reflect but rather cuts across tribal, Arab v African, and farmer v herder stereotypes. It is coloured by local grievances and aggravated by greed, which takes the form of banditry and competition for scarce resources. The primary cause of the ongoing crisis, however, remains the callousness of the governing elite, intent on preserving its own privileges and indifferent to its population.

President Bashir must be convinced that his best interests will be served by allowing a hybrid international force to deploy in Darfur - not for the purpose of occupation but for humanitarian goals. He must be convinced it is in his interest to participate constructively in a diplomatic process that will guarantee security for the region and enable a lasting settlement. It appears unlikely at this point that he will come to these realisations based on efforts to convince him through persuasion alone. Well-chosen words must be reinforced by carefully-designed and rigorously-enforced sanctions. Sudan has a responsibility to protect its people. The world has a responsibility to see that it does.

Madeleine Albright (US); Lloyd Axworthy (Canada); Ismail Cem (Turkey); Erik Derycke (Belgium); Lamberto Dini (Italy); Gareth Evans (Australia); Joschka Fischer (Germany); Bronislaw Geremek (Poland); Rosario Green (Mexico); Niels Helveg Petersen (Denmark); Surin Pitsuwan (Thailand); Hubert Vedrine (France); Ana Palacio (Spain); Lydie Polfer (Luxembourg); Jozias van Aartsen (The Netherlands)

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Uganda (ICC)

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

Withdraw ICC Bill, former minister pleads
New Vision
by Henry Mukasa
December 15, 2006

Former minister Owiny Dollo has appealed to Government to withdraw the bill on the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was tabled in Parliament last week.

He said the bill could jeopardise the peace process.

The bill is meant to inscribe the Rome Statute into Ugandan law. Uganda is a signatory to the statute, which forms the basis for the creation of the ICC.

“The bill excludes possibilities of alternative justice, which we are clamouring for. It applies ordinary Ugandan laws, which is not helpful to the peace process,” Dollo told The New Vision from DR Congo, where he was meeting the LRA leadership.

“Traditional justice does not mean you are abandoning justice,” he said. “It is a trade-off. The ICC justice is harsh. You don’t abandon justice but neither do you go for the harsh option.”

He suggested that the bill be postponed until after the conclusion of a peace agreement, taking into account the outcome of the talks.

Dollo was called to Garamba to explain the ICC indictments to the LRA leadership. “Your defence before the ICC lies in what we call double jeopardy,” he advised Kony and Otti. “You can say: I was already tried, don’t try me again.”

In July last year, the ICC indicted five LRA leaders of whom one has in the meantime died, and issued warrants of arrest against them.

The LRA leaders demand the warrants of arrest against them to be withdrawn as a condition for any peace settlement.

Before the indictments came into being, the LRA leaders enjoyed the possibility of amnesty for five years under the 1999 Amnesty Act but failed to come out.

Uganda rebels said ready to face justice, not ICC
Reuters
by Tim Cocks
December 20, 2006

Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony is willing to face justice at home as an alternative to the International Criminal Court, officials said on Wednesday, in a move that may boost efforts to end a two-decade conflict.

Government officials back from visiting Kony in his hideout also said they had succeeded in opening up a direct phone line between Kony and President Yoweri Museveni -- a development they hoped would speed up peace talks under way in south Sudan.

Peace talks between the two sides resumed last week, nearly a month after the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) walked out, accusing the army of violating an August truce by attacking their fighters in southern Sudan.

But the LRA's top commanders leaders -- who remain at large in jungle hideouts on the Sudan/Congo border -- have said repeatedly they will never sign a final peace deal until the Hague-based ICC drops its indictments against them.

Government district commissioner for Gulu, which was at the epicentre of Uganda's 20-year war, Walter Ochora, told reporters in Kampala that Kony had said he would be willing to face justice for war crimes in Uganda.

"We are ready for accountability in Uganda where we can put our case and the government put their case," Ochora quoted Kony as saying. "We shall talk freely and disclose all."

LRA officials were not immediately available for comment. Local politicians in the war-torn north have advocated traditional "Mato Oput" justice for the LRA leaders, who are accused of killing civilians, rape, torture, mutilation and abducting children to swell their ranks.

"According to Kony, the ICC has been prejudiced and has not given him a hearing because he is not in power," Ochora said. "It is the weak facing justice while the powerful are left unmolested."

But a government-appointed lawyer who joined the delegation to consult Kony on the implications of the ICC indictments said he noticed a shift in tone, with the LRA leaders relaxing earlier demands that the indictments be scrapped.

"This time round I could see they had come to terms with the fact that they could not wish the ICC away," lawyer Owiny-Dollo said. "The debate has shifted from 'you must withdraw the charges'. ... We have moved the issue sideways."

Museveni sends ministers to Kony
The New Vision
by Steven Candia
December 20, 2006

President Yoweri Museveni has agreed to send a team of ministers to the LRA base at Ri-Kwangba, as part of a series of confidence-building measures.

This follows a request by LRA leader Joseph Kony, which was delivered to the President through Gulu RDC Col. Walter Ochora.

A delegation led by Ochora and former state minister Owiny Dollo visited the LRA leadership last week, in the company of Kony’s mother and other relatives.

Addressing the press at the Media Centre yesterday, Ochora said Kony’s offer to host the ministers was to show his commitment to peace and to reciprocate the good gesture by the government to enable his mother to visit him.

“We delivered the request and the President has accepted that a team of ministers visit Kony in Ri-Kwangba early next year,” Ochora, flanked by Owiny Dollo, told the press.

He disclosed that Kony is ready to send some senior commanders to take part in the peace talks in Juba. “He (Kony) has accepted to send a team of senior LRA officers to the Juba talks but he did not name them.”

On the ICC indictments, Kony told the delegation he preferred to stand trial in Uganda rather than face the court in The Hague, arguing that the ICC is prejudiced and has not given him a fair hearing.

“We are ready for accountability in Uganda, where we can put our case and the Government also puts their case and the people of Uganda are the witnesses. We shall talk freely and disclose all,” Kony was quoted as saying.

In his meeting with the delegation, Kony emphasised that it was not him who started the war.

“I was not a soldier. I never thought I would ever handle a gun. All this has been God’s plan. I carried a burden I was never prepared for,” the LRA leader was quoted.

In his message to President Museveni, Kony further accused the government of breaching the cessation of hostilities agreement by attacking their fighters. He, however, reiterated his commitment to peace. “We are ready for peace.

There are people trying to confuse and mislead me. They want to gain from the war but I am determined to achieve peace. We want one Uganda under one leadership. The peace process is irreversible,” Kony reportedly said.

Ochora also revealed that the President has offered to send 10 bulls to the LRA for Christmas, five to Ri-Kwangba and five to Owiny-Kibul, the two locations for the LRA fighters to assemble.

Uganda: ICC Turns to UN On Kony Arrest
The Monitor
by Frank Nyakairu
December 23, 2006

FRUSTRATED by Uganda's failure to arrest Joseph Kony, the reclusive leader of the rebel LRA, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has now turned to the United Nation's Peace Corps.

Through the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), the ICC chief prosecutor hopes to secure an arrangement to use its peacekeeping forces in Sudan and the DR Congo to arrest Kony and his four commanders indicted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In a document responding to 14 questions raised by Mr Mauro Politi, a single pre-trial judge appointed to oversee all issues arising out of Kony and his commanders' case, Chief Prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo said he is seeking help from the DPKO.

"The OTP (Office of the Prosecutor) is in contact with relevant UN actors such as the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (hereinafter "DPKO"), and the latest in a series of regular meetings between the Prosecutor and the head of DPKO took place in October 2006. The OTP has raised in these meetings with DPKO the need to galvanize national, regional and international efforts in support of arrest and surrender," the 13-page response posted on the ICC official website said.

This comes two months after the ICC expressed disappointment that Uganda had failed to meet its side of the bargain to have the rebel leader arrested. Explaining Uganda's position on the arrest warrants, the prosecutor said: "The Government of Uganda, clarified in its October, 4, 2006 letter to the Registry that, 'In the interests of peace and security for the civilian population, who are at risk of being victimized by the LRA, the Government of Uganda is currently participating in peace talks, facilitated by the Government of South Sudan."

If the ICC-DPKO discussions pull through, it is the UN peacekeeping forces in he DR Congo MONUC, Sudan, and UNAMIS to execute the warrants. But when the MONUC attempted to attack LRA positions in Garamba National Park in January, it lost eight Guatemalan Special Forces in an incursion.

The ICC warrants are expected to be at the centre of item agenda number three on the ongoing Juba peace talks, Accountability and Reconciliation. The LRA wants the International Criminal Court to revoke arrest warrants against Kony and other leaders for crimes against humanity after human rights groups accused the rebels of enslaving children and mutilating their victims.

Kony, 46, and four of his top commanders, face 33 counts, including 12 counts of crimes against humanity for rape and sexual enslavement. The other 21 counts cover war crimes, including attacks against civilians and the murder and forced enlistment in the army of children. His junior commanders, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen face fewer counts.

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International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Official Website of the ICTY

Vukovar Three Defense Case Ends
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
by Caroline Tosh
December 15, 2006

The defense case in the trial of three former Yugoslav People’s Army, JNA, officers accused of responsibility for the November 1991 massacre in Vukovar finished on December 8.

Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic, and Veselin Sljivancanin are on trial for allegedly commanding and supervising the soldiers who killed more than 200 Croat civilians in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar, after it was overrun by Yugoslav forces in 1991.

The indictment states that on November 19 that year, JNA troops arrived at Vukovar hospital where hundreds of Croats and non-Serbs were seeking refuge. The following day some 300 civilians and patients from the hospital were loaded onto buses, and driven to Ovcara farm. There the prisoners were beaten, and at least 200 were summarily executed.

During the defense case - which began on August 29 and ended last week - the lawyers of the Vukovar Three called a total of 36 witnesses.

The 14-week defense case saw a number of conflicting testimonies.

The lawyer representing Mrksic, the first accused, claims his client went to Belgrade late in the evening on November 20, and was not told about the mistreatment of prisoners at Ovcara.

This contradicted prosecution witnesses who testified that they had told Mrksic that prisoners transported to the Ovčara had been beaten.

Defense witnesses for Sljivancanin testified that he was not in charge of the evacuation of detainees from Vukovar hospital, as alleged by the prosecution. This contradicted statements they had previously given to the tribunal’s prosecutors in which they implicated the former major.

The defense for Radic, a former captain, also produced an alibi – witnesses called in his defense corroborated testimony he gave in which he claimed he couldn’t have participated in the executions, because he was at a dinner party in Vukovar when they took place.

Marks Moore, prosecutor in the case, said he would be applying for permission to call further witnesses to challenge some of the evidence presented by the defense.

If the chamber agrees to this, the witnesses will testify at the start of next year. Closing arguments will then take place at the end of February and the beginning of March.

Montenegro Seeks Bosnia Genocide Case Exemption
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
by Caroline Tosh
December 15, 2006

Podgorica argues that Serbia alone should be prosecuted.

Montenegro has asked to be excluded from a case in which it stands accused as part of its former union with Serbia for alleged genocide in Bosnia during the 1992-95war.

“ Montenegro can no longer be the prosecuted party in this trial, because the legal successor of the former union is only Serbia," said Vesna Medenica, the state prosecutor for Montenegro on December 9.

Montenegro broke from Serbia in June this year, with just over 55 per cent of its 620,000 inhabitants voting for independence.

Bosnia first filed the genocide suit against the then-Yugoslavia in March 1993, at the height of the inter-ethnic Bosnian conflict, which raged until1995.

The landmark trial at the International Court of Justice - which is the first to involve a charge of genocide against a sovereign state - began in February this year, after nearly 13 years of legal wrangling.

Sarajevo claims Belgrade is responsible for genocide committed on its soil, and wants it to pay reparations for the killings, torture and devastation wreaked in Bosnia during the war.

But Belgrade’s defense argues that while there may have been displacement of Muslims during the war, there is no evidence of the genocidal intent needed to prove the charge.

Montenegro disputes Bosnia's claim that it shares responsibility for alleged genocide.

In May this year, the ICJ heard the closing arguments for both the prosecution and defence, but it could take months for the 16 judges to agree on a verdict.

A conviction could see Serbia and Montenegro having to pay out billions of Euro in reparations.

If Montenegro’s demands to be excluded from the trial are met, Serbia would be left to foot this bill alone.

The ICJ was established after World War II to settle disputes between UN member countries and does not deal with cases against individuals.

AZ men to be indicted for Serbian war crimes
Newsday
by Matthew McAllester
December 20, 2006

London -- Two former Bosnian Serb soldiers who made comfortable lives for themselves in Phoenix before being deported this year are expected to be indicted in Bosnia Thursday for war crimes, including murder, during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

Mladen Blagojevic, 35, and Zdravko Bozic, 42, are the first former Yugoslavs deported from the United States to then be charged with war crimes in their home country. If convicted, they each face between 10 and 45 years in prison.

"It sends a message to those still out there that if they've committed war crimes and hidden in foreign countries that they will be brought to justice irrespective of where they are," said Toby Cadman, counsel to the chief prosecutor at the War Crimes Chamber of the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona Paul Charlton prosecuted Bozic and Blagojevic for lying on immigration application forms at the time they sought entry to the U.S. "These men may have thought that fleeing across the world could deprive their victims of justice," he said in an e-mailed statement to Newsday. "They were wrong."

The Bosnian prosecutor's office is likely to allege Blagojevic and Bozic, with two other former soldiers from the same platoon arrested this year in Bosnia, committed numerous war crimes in July 1995 during what remains the worst war crime Europe has experienced since World War II.

The charges they face will likely focus on a well-chronicled episode in the massacre, when Bosnian Serb soldiers held prisoner between 2,000 and 3,000 Bosnian Muslim men in and around the Vuk Karadzic elementary school in the town of Bratunac. Most were then taken to other sites to be executed.

Sources say prosecutors will allege:

On the night of July 13-14, 1995, Blagojevic and Bozic shot dead at least five unarmed Bosnian Muslim men outside the school, with the help of other soldiers.

Blagojevic joined another accused, Zeljko Zaric, in shooting at a Bosnian Muslim man who appeared at a window of the school. The man died.

Blagojevic fired a heavy machine gun at the men held inside.

All four men took part in guarding, escorting, beating, intimidating and illegally transferring the Muslim men.

The specific charges against the men are likely to include crimes against humanity, including murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment and inhumane acts.

Cadman said the cases were marked by unprecedented cooperation between U.S. and Bosnian authorities.

"This is great because it's kind of like the ultimate realization of our strategy to not only domestically prosecute these people and have them removed from the U.S., but to have them turned over to foreign authorities and to support their prosecutions," said Claude Arnold, chief of the Human Rights Violators and Public Safety Unit in Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This is only the second Srebrenica case to be filed by the Bosnian war crimes prosecutor.

Blagojevic's father, Radisav, was at his home in Repovac near Bratunac, Wednesday. He told Newsday that his son had been set up.

"Somebody is shifting blame from himself and putting him on the line," he said. "Who that is we have no idea."

Other ethnic Serbs in Bratunac Wednesday denied knowledge of what occurred at the school. One man said he knew Blagojevic and had served with him in the war.

"He did no one harm," Mihajlovic Jefto said. "I've known him since he was a child. How did they pick on him out of everyone?"

The charges against Bozic and Blagojevic will mark a major step in their extraordinary journeys from war-scarred Bosnia to the peaceful, anonymous streets of suburban Arizona and back again -- in chains -- and to jail.

Like thousands from the former Yugoslavia, both men had successfully applied for refugee status in the United States, blending into a community of about 10,000 ethnic Serbs in Phoenix. Blagojevic entered the country in 1998; Bozic in 2003.

They may have felt safe in the United States. The UN's tribunal for war crimes in The Hague was only pursuing senior officers and big-name politicians. The United States remains ill-equipped in war crimes law, making it extremely hard for federal prosecutors to charge foreigners with war crimes.

But unbeknownst to the former Bosnian Serb soldiers from units that participated in the Srebrenica massacre, prosecutors at The Hague passed on a database of names from the military and police units who took part in the killings, enabling U.S. investigators to cross-check with immigration databases.

That's how they found Bozic and Blagojevic. Court papers and military documents show both were likely to have committed war crimes in July 1995.

Both were members of the Military Police of the Bratunac Brigade that had a history of brutality and involvement in the massacre, especially the episode at the Vuk Karadzic school.

Two Muslim witnesses told Newsday they witnessed Blagojevic ethnically cleanse his Muslim neighbors in the village of Repovac in 1992. A year later, in 1993, Bozic had moved to Bratunac and joined Blagojevic in the Military Police platoon.

Ten years later, the two had blended into American suburbia. In Phoenix, Bozic lived in a slightly run-down ranch house with his family. When Newsday visited the house in late 2005, Bozic was already in prison.

Blagojevic, however, was at home. He chatted at his doorway, with a barely restrained desire to tell his side of the story.

He did not want to have to leave his new country, he said. He did not want his son to go through the things he had gone through in the war. But he did not regret serving as a soldier.

"If your neighbors shoot at you, perhaps you turn once," he said, apparently referring to the Bosnian Muslims who often attacked Bratunac before the massacre from an enclave in nearby Srebrenica. "But if they do it again, what are you going to do? Let them burn your house down, kill your family?"

Earlier this year he was sentenced to 12 months' prison for the immigration charges but he agreed instead to be deported.

Bozic was deported in June. Blagojevic joined him in Sarajevo last month. Both have been in detention pending charges since their arrival home.

Staff correspondent McAllester reported from London; Boris Mrkela contributed from Bratunac.

Croatia will kill me, says Dragan
The Australian via B92
December 22, 2006

SYDNEY -- Accused Serbian war criminal Dragan Vasiljković believes he will be murdered in Croatia before he gets to trial.

Vasiljković told Sydney's Central Local Court yesterday his guilt was "predetermined" in Croatia, where he was being persecuted because of his political beliefs and nationality.

The man known as "Captain Dragan" told the extradition hearing his prosecution by Croatia for war crimes was retaliation for the prosecution of Croatian military commander Ante Gotovina by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

"I am a sworn political enemy of the HDZ (Croatian ruling party) and I believe I will not survive to obtain a fair trial in Croatia should I be surrendered into their custody," Vasiljković said in a statement.

"I believe I will be killed or alleged to have committed suicide. I do not believe I will get a lawyer in Croatia to properly present my case. I am frightened if I raise these matters I will be tortured and killed."

He had entered the witness box for the first time since his arrest in Sydney in January on war crimes charges. Croatian authorities allege that as a member of Serbian paramilitary forces in the early 1990s in Krajina, he brutalised a captive soldier, ordered a murder and told troops to fire on a town.

Vasiljković, who told the court he changed his name to Daniel Snedden 30 years ago when he first moved to Australia, said a plaque on the wall of the fortress at Knin, where he trained Serbian soldiers, proved he could not receive a fair trial.

He told the court the plaque said: "In this place in 1991 there were imprisoned, tortured and killed Croatian defenders by the forces of Captain Dragan."

The plaque, dated August this year, was dedicated to "Croatian concentration camp victims of Serb forces in Knin", he said.

Vasiljković said he had been a commander in the civil war and helped keep Krajina free of "HDZ military domination" from June 1991 to 1995.

He said that when he gave evidence for the prosecution at the ICTY trial of Slobodan Milosevic, he had not been questioned about any alleged involvement in war crimes.

Vasiljković also attacked The Australian for first reporting the war crimes allegations. "There were no specific allegations of war crimes against me until a defamatory article appeared in The Australian in September 2005, which implied that I was involved in war crimes distinct from those alleged in these proceedings," he said. The hearing continues.

Tribunal Under Pressure Over Completion Strategy
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
by Caroline Tosh and Aleksandar Roknic in The Hague and Merdijana Sadovic in Sarajevo
December 22, 2006

The ICTY looks set to close in 2010 whether Mladic and Karadzic are in custody or not.

When the Hague tribunal was created in 1993, the first international court set up since Nuremberg 50 years earlier had lofty ambitions.

In prosecuting those suspected of bearing greatest responsible for atrocities committed during the Balkans wars of the early Nineties, it would bring justice to victims, deter further crimes and help restore peace in the war-torn region.

Little did its founders know that 13 years later, the three men considered most responsible for the wars would still have evaded justice, seriously undermining the court’s ability to deter would-be war criminals and causing bitter disappointment for thousands of victims.

Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Yugoslavia and widely considered the principal architect of the conflict, died four years into a complex and seemingly interminable trial. Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, and Ratko Mladic, the wartime Bosnian Serb army chief, were indicted in 1995 but remain on the run.

Karadzic and Mladic - the two most wanted of the Hague courts six remaining fugitives - stand accused of orchestrating the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, as well as other wartime abuses during the bloody conflict of 1992 to 1995.

Now the tribunal’s completion strategy - an arbitrary deadline by which all trials must be finished by 2008 and all appeals by 2010 - means these two may never be prosecuted in The Hague.

Human rights groups, victims and court representatives have called for an extension to the mandate of the court, which costs the UN more than 300 million US dollars a year, but this needs the backing of all council members.

At a UN Security Council meeting on December 15 held to discuss the future of the tribunal, the US, the UK and France supported extending its mandate until all suspects are tried, while Russia, China and Japan opposed this.

The fact that Mladic and others had not been brought to the tribunal could not justify its work going on indefinitely, said Denis Paletskiy, the representative of Russia, which has been a long-standing political opponent of the tribunal.

But even if this opposition is overcome and its lifespan extended, there are no signs that Mladic and Karadzic will be brought to The Hague any time soon.

Witness testimony from the trial of 11 of Mladic’s former aides - prosecuted for their alleged role in sheltering the former general - suggest that he has spent the last few years ensconced in various Belgrade apartments, aided by a network of sympathisers in the Serbian military and intelligence services.

While Karadzic - who has reportedly been spotted disguised as a monk and sipping coffee in Sarajevo - is believed to be hiding in the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska, RS.

RS and Serbia have so far resisted international pressure to surrender the men, and Serbia’s failure to capture Mladic resulted in the suspension of its EU accession talks in May. This led Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica to launch an “action plan” for cooperation with the tribunal, but this has achieved little.

Belgrade investigators following Mladic’s trail claim it has gone cold, while sporadic raids carried out by the European Union Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, EUFOR, and NATO have failed to uncover Karadzic’s hiding place.

At last week’s UNSC meeting, Fausto Pocar, the president of the tribunal, and Del Ponte both expressed deep concern that the looming deadline for trials threatens to arrive at the Hague court before the final six fugitives are captured.

Both blamed the countries thought to be harbouring the men.

In his address, Pocar urged the UNSC to keep the tribunal open until the remaining fugitives arrived in The Hague - a demand backed by human rights group Amnesty International.

To close the tribunal without their arrest and trial, he said, could dangerously undermine “the message and the legacy of the tribunal that the international community will not tolerate impunity for serious violations of international humanitarian law”.

Del Ponte - whose relentless pursuit of Milosevic earned her the nickname “the new Gestapo” in the Serbian press - condemned RS and Serbia for lacking the political will necessary to arrest the remaining fugitives.

Serbia could easily arrest Ratko Mladic should the authorities want it, she claimed in her UNSC address while officials in RS have not shown "a robust willingness" to arrest Karadzic, who is thought to be there with fellow fugitive, Stojan Zupljanin, a wartime Bosnian Serb police commander.

She called on the UNSC to “send a strong message” that the trials of the six fugitives - especially those of Karadzic and Mladic - can be tried in The Hague even if caught after 2010.

Victims, she said, would “find it profoundly unjust to envisage closing the tribunal before it has successfully completed its task”.

Del Ponte also attacked NATO’s decision on December 12 to allow Serbia into the Partnership for Peace program - seen as a precursor to future membership of the alliance - which she said was “a powerful signal that the international support for the tribunal is decreasing”.

“The political will to arrest remaining fugitives must be strengthened,” she insisted.

But if political will is swayed by public opinion, there seems little incentive for politicians to cooperate with the Hague court.

An opinion poll carried out in October by the Serbian National Committee for Cooperation with the tribunal suggests that Serbian nationalist support for Mladic endures - with only 34 per cent supporting his capture and transfer to The Hague.

Similar research shows a mere four per cent of those polled in RS support the work of the tribunal.

In spite of this, Bosnian Serb and Serbian authorities maintain they are doing all they can to capture the men.

On December 9, Milorad Dodik, the prime minister of RS, said he was willing to arrest war crimes suspects - if only he knew where they were - and called on them to surrender.

“It is in this country's interest to remove this obligation from the agenda,” he said in a report by Serbian news agency B92 on December 17.

Rasim Ljajic, the Serbian president of the National Council for Cooperation with the ICTY, agrees.

“Every delay in fulfilling of our international obligations [in surrendering the fugitives] could be catastrophic for Serbia,” Ljajic told IWPR.

And Belgrade is not only claiming willingness to find the men, but is now showing a desire to prosecute them too.

Bruno Vekaric, spokesman for Serbia's war crimes prosecutor's office, says, “The Serbian judiciary are ready to try Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, under the monitoring of the international community.”

He told IWPR that “for reconciliation, it’s better to try them in Serbia. This is the only way for people in Serbia to understand what really happened”.

Slobodan Kovac, Bosnia’s justice minister, said Bosnia is also ready to prosecute the pair. In a November 13 letter to Bosnia’s Council of Ministers, he claimed that Del Ponte’s appeal to extend the tribunal’s mandate beyond 2010 was therefore “not justified”.

But Kovac’s remarks sparked a storm in the media and amongst survivors’ groups, who want the men brought to The Hague.

Amir Ahmic, Bosnia’s liaison officer with the ICTY, told Sarajevo-based daily Avaz that Kovac’s suggestions were “scandalous and an insult for the victims of war crimes in Bosnia”.

With Bosnian support for the future of the tribunal seemingly in doubt, Del Ponte flew to Sarajevo on December 1 to hold talks with the tripartite Bosnian presidency, which announced December 13 it would support a continuation of tribunal work after 2010.

But if the UNSC votes against such an extension, what does this mean for any future prosecutions?

André de Hoogh, a senior lecturer in International Law at the University of Groningen, says even if the court is closed, public pressure to try Karadzic and Mladic before the tribunal could lead it to reopen - if or when the men are arrested.

De Hoogh says that holding a trial in Bosnia - where the national courts would be under no obligation to prosecute Karadzic and Mladic because they were indicted in The Hague, not in Bosnia - could be problematic.

"It depends on the national prosecutor and department of justice and whether they want to prosecute. In Bosnia, the political situation is still sensitive. They might not be happy holding a trial there."

Instead, he suggests, Bosnia might look to solutions implemented in other cases, where political sensitivity has led prosecutors to hold trials under their national jurisdiction but in a neutral country.

One example is the war crimes trial of Charles Taylor - the former president of Liberia -which will be conducted by the Special Court for Sierra Leona, SCSL, but is being held at the facilities of the International Criminal Court, ICC.

Such a solution might be preferable to a trial in the Balkans, where human rights organisations say there is an insufficient protection for witnesses, and where Karadzic and Mladic are still lauded as heroes by many Serbs.

The UNSC is expected to decide next year on whether to fund any more trials into 2009.

Whatever its decision, the last 13 years have shown that state cooperation - or lack of it - has been a key factor in the success of the Hague tribunal. This should not be overlooked when the ICC prepares to open its first case - that of Congolese war crimes suspect Thomas Lubanga - in the New Year.

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International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

Official Website of the ICTR

Rwandan priest is jailed for massacre of 2,000 in church
The Daily Telegraph
by Mike Pflanz
December 14, 2006

A CATHOLIC priest who stood by while his church was bulldozed with 2,000 people, mostly women and children, inside during Rwanda's genocide was convicted yesterday and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda found Athanase Seromba, 43, guilty of two charges of genocide and extermination and not guilty on two lesser counts. He stood impassively as the verdict and sentence were read out. He had denied all four charges.

The priest is the first of three charged with genocide to be convicted by the court, which sits in the Tanzanian town of Arusha.

Seromba, a Hutu, was a parish priest at Nyange Church in Kibuye, western Rwanda, when the mass killings started in April 1994.

Some 2,000 Tutsis, many of them regular churchgoers in Seromba's congregation, fled to the church seeking refuge as machete-wielding gangs scoured the countryside hacking their victims to death.

According to the prosecution, the priest directed the Hutu militia which "poured fuel through the roof of the church, while gendarmes and communal police launched grenades and killed the refugees''. He then watched for three hours as the doors were locked and one after another the walls were knocked down by the bulldozer until the roof caved in.

Survivors who managed to squeeze free were shot dead as they tried to escape.

All that remains of the church are several mounds of earth covered in flowers and chunks of concrete.

The conviction is likely to refocus attention on the role of the Roman Catholic Church during the genocide, when 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days.

Last month, the tribunal sentenced a Catholic nun to 30 years in prison for helping militias kill hundreds of people hiding in a hospital. Two nuns were convicted in a Belgian court in 2001 for taking part in the genocide.

Seromba fled to Italy after the genocide ended in July 1994. As Don Anastasio Sumba Bura, he conducted services at the church of San Mauro a Signa in Florence.

He only gave himself up to the tribunal in February 2002 under pressure from Silvio Berlusconi, the then Italian prime minister.

Rwanda businessman pleads guilty to murder at UN war crimes tribunal
UN News Service
December 14, 2006

A former businessman and youth organizer implicated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide will be sentenced next month after he pleaded guilty today before a United Nations war crimes tribunal to the charge of murder as a crime against humanity.

The three judges hearing his case at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), sitting in Arusha in neighbouring Tanzania, accepted the plea of Joseph Nzabirinda, which followed prosecutors’ withdrawal of four other charges against him because of a lack of evidence.

Addressing Judges Arlette Ramaroson of Madagascar (presiding), William Sekule of Tanzania and Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Mr. Nzabirinda expressed deep remorse for his crimes and asked for pardon from the people of Rwanda for what he had done. The judges set 17 January next year as the date of the sentencing hearing.

Prosecutors said Mr. Nzabirinda, a businessman in the Butare prefecture in southern Rwanda, participated in meetings in 1994 with the notorious Interahamwe militia in which the planned execution of Tutsis in his area was discussed. He also encouraged attacks on Tutsis who had gathered on a hillside and at roadblocks.

During the hearing prosecutors stated Mr. Nzabirinda was an approving spectator during attacks, while his defence counsel agreed that while he had not personally carried out the killings, he had been an accomplice by omission.

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

Mr. Nzabirinda also worked as an investigator for the defence team of Sylvain Nsabimana – a former prefect of Butare currently on trial at the ICTR in a separate case with five other accused – until 2001 when his contract was terminated after the Tribunal registry established he had presented false identity documents to obtain employment.

Rwanda Worried Over the Outsourcing of the ICTR's Trials
AllAfrica.com - Hirondelle News Agency
December 20, 2006

During the meeting the United Nations Security Council held last Friday in New York to hear the international tribunals' reports, the Rwandan delegate has voiced his concern about the outsourcing of the trials of those of the defendants the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will not be able to judge in time.

According to the Council's media services, Mr. Joseph Nsengimana has stressed that these trials should take place as close as possible to where the crimes have been committed. Mr. Nsengimana, quoted by the media services, has declared that such proximity « would foster national reconciliation and help putting an end to the culture of impunity ».

Although the ICTR never confirmed it, Belgium, France and the Netherlands would have signed an agreement aiming at transferring to these jurisdictions defendants the ICTR could lack time to judge.

Once President Mose and Prosecutor Jallow finished talking about his case, several diplomats among whom the Rwandan delegate, denounced the situation of Felicien Kabuga, suspected of bankrolling the genocide that rages on in Eastern and Central Africa. The Rwandan delegate has also brought up the case of Augustin Ngirabatware, Kabuga's son-in-law, against whom the tribunal has issued an arrest warrant.

Mr. Joseph Nsengimana, who has also announced the suppression of death penalty in his country, asked that the completion strategy of the ICTR would include the transmission of all its documents and archives to Rwanda. He added that the Rwandan government is considering setting up a genocide prevention and educational center where these documents could be kept.

Several diplomats have suggested transferring defendants of intermediary rank to national jurisdictions as a way of respecting the ICTR's deadline of 2008. The French delegate has declared that these tribunals' mission would run until all the prosecuted criminals have been tried.

Words that can kill
Boston Globe
by Jeff Jacoby
December 20, 2006

SIMON BIKINDI was once the most famous musician in Rwanda. Twelve years ago he was also the most lethal.

In 1994, as Hutu militants slaughtered more than 800,000 of Rwanda's minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, it was Bikindi's inflammatory songs that dominated the country's airwaves. Radio Milles Collines, which egged on the death squads and coordinated their attacks, "played Bikindi's music constantly during the 100 days of killing," the New York Times recalled in 2002. " According to eyewitness reports, many of the killers sang Bikindi's songs as they hacked or beat to death hundreds of thousands of Tutsis with government-issued machetes and homemade nail-studded clubs."

Today Bikindi is being tried by the international tribunal created to bring Rwanda's accused war criminals to justice. The central charge against him is that he incited genocide with his songs. He is not the only Rwandan to be put on trial for incitement. Among those already convicted are a founding director of Radio Milles Collines and the one time editor of Kangura, a virulently anti-Tutsi newspaper.

Words can be deadly, opening the door to murder on a vast scale. That is why the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide unambiguously makes it as much of a crime to incite acts of genocide as to physically commit them. And if that is true of words uttered by a singer or an editor, surely it is even truer of exhortations to mass murder by a head of state .

So if Simon Bikindi has been charged with incitement to commit genocide, why hasn't Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

In New York last week, a number of prominent lawyers and diplomats -- including John Bolton, the outgoing American ambassador to the United Nations -- called for making the indictment of Ahmadinejad an international priority. The gathering was organized by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, which issued a brief setting out in detail the legal case for prosecuting the Iranian president and the regime he represents.

There is nothing cryptic about Iran's genocidal intentions. Ahmadinejad has called openly for Israel to be "wiped off the map." In 2005 he hosted a conference anticipating "The World Without Zionism"; last week he convened another to deny that the Nazi Holocaust ever took place. He vows that "the elimination of the Zionist regime will be smooth and simple." He demonizes Jews as "bloodthirsty barbarians" and "very filthy people" who have "inflicted the most damage on the human race." In August he warned: "They should know that they are nearing the last days of their lives."

Ahmadinejad is not some obstreperous politician whom Iran's clerics would be wise to muzzle. His words echo genocidal threats made at the highest levels of the Tehran regime.

"There is only one solution to the Middle East problem," declares Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, "namely, the annihilation and destruction of the Jewish state." Former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, routinely described in the West as a "moderate," explains the asymmetrical advantage of a nuclear attack on Israel: "The use of a nuclear bomb against Israel will leave nothing on the ground, whereas [any Israeli retaliation] would only damage the world of Islam." Iran is aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons; it already has the long-range missiles needed to launch them. When those missiles are paraded behind signs reading " Israel must be uprooted and erased from history," it requires willful blindness not to perceive what Ahmadinejad and the mullahs have in mind.

For many months preceding the Rwandan genocide, there was similar incitement to mass-murder. Yet international authorities did nothing to silence the inciters -- with catastrophic results.

The situation in Iran today is frighteningly similar, the JCPA brief argues. With one critical difference: "While the Hutus in Rwanda were equipped with . . . machetes, Iran, should the international community do nothing to prevent it, will soon acquire nuclear weapons." At that point Tehran would be poised to commit the first "instant genocide" in history.

At the New York symposium, Ambassador Bolton remarked that historians looking back at horrific acts of evil often wonder how responsible officials at the time didn't see them coming. "How was it that they missed . . . clear signals from the people who were about to commit acts of great barbarity and atrocity -- who never made any effort to conceal what their intentions were?"

Iran 's intentions are nakedly, malignantly clear. What is not clear at all is what the civilized world will do about it. An indictment of Ahmadinejad under the Genocide Convention would not, by itself, eliminate the threat of a second Holocaust. It would, however, make a good first step.

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Iraqi High Tribunal

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

Judge in Saddam trial quits
Gulf News
December 16, 2006

Iraq : The chief judge on the panel that sentenced deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain to death said on Saturday that he has quit that role.

Raid Juhi, however, said that he will remain as judge and spokesman for the Iraqi High Tribunal.

Juhi said that another judge will take over as chief investigator for the tribunal, which handles the proceedings against Saddam and his aides.

He said he was replaced during annual tribunal elections because he did not run for re-election as main investigator.

"Somebody else was chosen," he said, declining to identify his replacement because of security concerns.

Juhi has been a high-profile figure in the trials against Saddam, who was sentenced to death for the killing of 148 Shiites in Dujail in 1982.

Saddam says responsible for any Iran gas attacks
Reuters via The Washington Post
by Ahmed Rasheed
December 18, 2006

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein said on Monday he would take responsibility "with honor" for any attacks on Iran using conventional or chemical weapons during the 1980-1988 war but he took issue with charges he ordered attacks on Iraqis.

The former president and six others are on trial for the Anfal -- Spoils of War -- military campaign against ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s in which prosecutors say up to 180,000 people were killed in gas attacks and mass executions.

"In relation to Iran, if any military or civil official claims that Saddam gave orders to use either conventional or special ammunition, which as explained is chemical, I will take responsibility with honor," Saddam told the court.

But he added: "I will discuss any act committed against our people and any Iraqi citizen, whether Arab or Kurdish. I don't accept any insult to my principles or to me personally."

Lawyers for Saddam, who faces the charge of genocide, have argued that Anfal was a legitimate military operation against Kurdish militias who sided with Iran in the war.

Prosecutors produced documentary evidence on Monday in a new phase of the trial crucial to pinning down Saddam's personal responsibility. They showed documents from Iraq's military intelligence, the president's office and military commanders detailing the chain of command and orders given for the use of chemical weapons, dubbed "special ammunition."

START OF KEY PHASE OF TRIAL

The Anfal trial opened on August 21 and has heard more than 70 witnesses who described chemical air attacks, villages being burned and Kurds being rounded up and tortured.

Saddam has already been sentenced to death in a separate trial for crimes against humanity in the killing of Shi'ites, but legal analysts have said the prosecution failed to provide hard evidence to prove his criminal responsibility.

The witness phase is over, and when the trial resumed on Monday prosecutors turned to the documentary evidence.

The first document was a 1987 memo from Iraq's military intelligence seeking permission from the president's office to use mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin against Kurds.

A second document said in reply that Saddam had ordered military intelligence to study the possibility of a "sudden strike" using such weapons against Iranian and Kurdish forces.

An internal memo written by military intelligence confirmed it had received approval from the president's office for a strike using "special ammunition" and emphasized that no strike would be launched without first informing the president.

Among several more documents was one from the Army Chief of Staff reporting that an airstrike with special ammunition killed 31 Kurdish fighters and "communist agents" near Dohuk.

Saddam's co-defendant Sabir al-Douri, who was director of military intelligence, questioned the authenticity of some of the documents, arguing that any "special weapons bombing" was targeted only at Iranians who he said were operating with the help of Kurdish rebels.

He said a document prosecutors said was sent from military intelligence about the use of chemically treated bullets for AK47 rifles against Kurds was "definitely forged" since it suggested Iraq had manufactured such bullets as early as 1974.

"How do you expect that Iraq would manage to make chemical bullets in 1974? We are not the United States or France to be able to do that," Douri said.

Saddam trial prosecution shows gas video
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
by Bushra Juhi & Jamal Halaby
December 19, 2006

Prosecutors in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial showed chilling videos of gassed children lying in a field and villagers fleeing clouds of white smoke, arguing Tuesday that the former president and his regime used chemical weapons against the Kurds of northern Iraq in the late 1980s.

"These children are the saboteurs that the defendants talk about," prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said sarcastically as the footage showed scores of dead children on the ground, partially covered by blankets.

Defense attorneys had argued that Saddam and his co-defendants were fighting Kurdish insurgents during the 1987-88 military offensive that was code named Operation Anfal.

The prosecution estimates that 180,000 Kurds were killed when Saddam's army waged a scorched-earth campaign against separatist guerrillas, allegedly destroying hundreds of villages, killing or forcing their residents to flee.

Saddam and six former members of his regime have pleaded innocent to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in the operation. Saddam and one defendant have pleaded innocent to an additional charge of genocide.

"This is the result of the chemical attacks," the prosecutor shouted in the courtroom, referring to the dead children.

Al-Faroon did not reveal the source of the grainy videos with distorted sound. A timecode under the images showed the clips were made at various times in 1987 and 1988.

One video showed a thick white smoke cloud that emerged after a loud explosion as warplanes bombed a green mountainous region. The camera then showed villagers fleeing with their donkeys as houses in the background went up in flames.

"These images are meant to show the court all the aspects of Saddam's military offensive," al-Faroon said. "They include video clips of the chemical attacks, families escaping, warplanes bombing their villages and the camps where they were held."

The court adjourned the trial until Wednesday.

If Saddam and the other defendants are convicted, all seven could be condemned to death.

Saddam has already been convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of nearly 150 people in the town of Dujail after a 1982 attempt to assassinate him. His lawyers have appealed that trial's verdict and sentence, and the appeals court is expected to rule next month.

Iraqi officials have suggested that Saddam's prosecution on genocide charges would be halted if the appeals court upholds the death sentence from the first trial.

___

Bushra Juhi reported from Baghdad and Jamal Halaby from Amman, Jordan.

Saddam co-defendants deny gassing Kurds
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
December 21, 2006

Two former Iraqi commanders denied gassing Kurdish civilians in northern Iraq 20 years ago, telling Saddam Hussein's genocide trial Thursday that they used only conventional weapons against Kurdish rebels and Iranian troops.

Sultan al-Tai, minister of defense under Saddam, and Gen. Hussein Mohammed, a deputy director of army operations, testified to rebut evidence presented by prosecutors in videos and documents this week.

The documents, prosecutors said, showed Saddam's government sanctioned the use of "special weapons" — mustard or nerve agent — against Kurdish civilians as well as rebel fighters in 1987-88.

In sometimes emotional testimony, al-Tai alleged some of the documents implicating him in waging chemical warfare were forged. "I didn't use any special weapon against the Kurds," al-Tai shouted at the judges.

The two men, Saddam and four other former members of his regime have pleaded innocent to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in the military campaign, code-named Operation Anfal. The campaign took place during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war.

An estimated 180,000 Kurds died during the operation. Saddam and one other defendant have pleaded innocent to the additional charge of genocide.

Al-Tai and Mohammed argued Thursday — shouting at times — that Iranian forces had infiltrated northern Iraq and were using Kurdish rebel bases to attack government troops.

Both men insisted they used only conventional weapons and both said they were carrying out their superiors' orders.

"My job allowed me only limited responsibility," Mohammed told the court. "In an army, a deputy commander is not the responsible person."

He challenged evidence presented by prosecutors. "Did I sign these documents?" he demanded. "Is my name on them? If it's there, I'll sign my execution myself."

The chief judge, Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, interrupted to say: "Prosecution documents show that special weapons were used, but you say they weren't from army warehouses?"

"No," Mohammed responded.

"So they didn't belong to you," the judge asked.

"Of course not," Mohammed said.

"So, where did they come from?" al-Khalifa asked.

"I don't know. Had I known, I would've told you. You have to ask other people — the military industrialization department," Mohammed replied, provoking a smirk from Saddam, sitting in the dock alongside him.

Al-Tai said the government relocated Kurdish civilians for their safety during the campaign.

"We removed all civilians from the fighting zones. The civilians were transferred in trucks ... and they were put in safe houses," al-Tai said.

Chief prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon scoffed at this claim.

"I wonder where the people in the mass graves come from?" al-Faroon asked the judges rhetorically. "How were they transferred to the mass graves? Maybe in the same trucks that went to the safe houses he's talking about!"

"We saw documents. We watched videos incriminating them. What more do we need — believe the documents and the videos or believe him?" the prosecutor said.

The trial was adjourned to Jan. 8.

At an earlier trial, Saddam was condemned to death for the killing of nearly 150 people in the town of Dujail after a 1982 attempt to assassinate him. His lawyers have appealed both the verdict and sentence, and the appeals court is expected to rule next month.

Iraqi officials suggest that Saddam's prosecution on genocide charges would be halted if the appeal court upholds the death sentence of the first trial.

___

Al-Bashir reported from Baghdad and Halaby from Amman, Jordan. Some material in the story came from a pool report of the Baghdad trial.

Iraq court says Saddam should hang within 30 days
Reuters
by Mariam Karouny and Ibon Villelabeitia
December 26, 2006

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi appeals court on Tuesday upheld Saddam Hussein's death sentence for crimes against humanity and said he should hang within 30 days.

Human rights groups condemned his trial as seriously flawed and called on the government not to carry out the sentence, which comes amid raging violence between Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs and majority Shi'ites.

The White House called the court's decision a "milestone" in replacing tyranny with rule of law.

Sunni Arab leaders reacted angrily to the ruling, saying it was politically motivated by Saddam's former enemies now in power in a U.S.-backed Shi'ite-led national unity government.

"The appeal court has approved the death sentence. They (the government) have the right to choose the date starting from tomorrow up to 30 days. After 30 days it will be an obligation to implement the sentence," the head of the Iraqi High Tribunal, Aref Abdul-Razzaq al-Shahin, told a news conference.

Saddam, 69, and two others were sentenced to death on November 5 for crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi'ites from the town of Dujail after he escaped assassination in 1982.

"Every criminal should get what he deserves, whether he is Saddam or anybody else, but with a fair trial. They turned the Saddam trial into a show," said Salim al-Jibouri, an official of the Islamic Party, the largest Sunni Arab party in parliament.

Human rights group Amnesty International said the appeal court ruling came after a trial that lacked independence from political interference.

"Amnesty International is very disappointed about this decision," a spokeswoman said. "We are against the death penalty as a matter of principle but particularly in this case because it comes after a flawed trial."

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group, also objected.

"Imposing the death penalty, indefensible in any case, is especially wrong after such unfair proceedings," said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice program at Human Rights Watch.

The nine-judge appeal court also upheld death sentences against Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander for their roles in the incident.

The court recommended toughening the sentence on former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, who had been sentenced to life in prison over Dujail, saying he should also be executed.

Saddam's chief defense counsel, Khalil al-Dulaimi, said the ruling would inflame Iraq's sectarian divide: "If they dare implement the sentence it will be a catastrophe for the region and will only deepen the sectarian infighting," he told Reuters from Amman.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Saddam had "received due process and legal rights that he denied the Iraqi people for so long".

"Today marks an important milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law," he told reporters.

GENOCIDE TRIAL

Saddam is still on trial with six others for genocide against ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq in the 1980s. Shahin said the trial would continue without Saddam if he is executed. Saddam is scheduled to appear in court again on January8.

Many human rights and legal experts have argued that Saddam could not get a fair trial in a country torn by sectarian conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.

In the latest violence, bombs killed nearly 40 people in Baghdad, including 20 in western Adhamiya district, a Sunni area. Earlier, a triple car bombing in a Shi'ite area killed 16.

The U.S. military reported the deaths of six more American soldiers, bringing the U.S. toll to at least 2,978 -- five more than the number killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

At least 89 U.S. soldiers have died this month, making it the deadliest this year after October's toll of 106, and increasing pressure on President George W. Bush to find a strategy to extricate 135,000 U.S. troops from the war.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died since the invasion in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein, which Bush said was an integral part of the "war on terror" following September 11.

Stung by Republicans' defeats in congressional elections in which voter discontent over Iraq was a major issue, Bush has said he will announce a new strategy in January after listening to his military commanders and State Department officials.

[back to contents]

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

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

Liberia: Full participation and support is necessary for the success of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Amnesty International
December 20, 2006

Today at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) headquarters in Monrovia members of civil society, the diplomatic community, the UN and government officials are invited to attend the launch of Liberia: A Brief Guide to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The guide describes the mandate and functions of the TRC and outlines Amnesty International’s main recommendations to the TRC and to the Liberian government. It aims to promote awareness of the TRC work and of Amnesty International’s recommendations among Liberian non-governmental organizations, the media and the general public. Amnesty International hopes the user-friendly guide will encourage all Liberians to monitor and participate in the TRC process.

"For the TRC to be successful in its work, it must be fully understood and enjoy full participation from all Liberians", said Thompson Adebayo of Liberia Watch for Human Rights.

Since the inauguration of its operational activities on 22 June 2006, the TRC has achieved important results. The hiring of statement-takers and other staff has been completed and the statement-taking process has begun on 10 October 2006. However, the TRC has also experienced work delays, due to internal problems within the commission, and financial constraints.

In October, 2006 just as statement-taking activities had begun, the naming of alleged perpetrators during the first highly publicized statement-taking session became a key issue in public debates. One alleged perpetrator who had been named publicly, responded to the allegations by holding a press conference claiming that the TRC was trying to settle old political disputes. At the same time, Charles Taylor's lawyers filed a complaint with the Supreme Court to prohibit any testimony about the former president being heard by the TRC, stating that it could prejudice his trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The Supreme Court rejected the petition.

Alleged internal problems within the TRC caused some unclarity among some donors about how funds will be used once dispensed and delays in funding. Projected that it will need $14 million to carry out its work, the TRC has so far only received $2.2 million. Amnesty International recommends greater transparency in and accountability for work done and future work, as well as better communication with the donors, to ensure the smooth functioning of the TRC.

"The success of the Liberian TRC depends on both the integrity within the commission to carry out the work as planned as well as the commitment of the international community to provide the funds as planned", said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of the Africa Programme of Amnesty International.

Background information
The TRC was established by the August 2003 Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Accra. It began its official operations on 22 June 2006. It comprises nine Liberian members supported by three international experts. The TRC will investigate violations of human rights committed between January 1979 and October 2003. Most of its work is fact-finding. Those alleged responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious human rights violations may be recommended for prosecutions. A reparation program may also be established. The TRC has two years to complete its investigative work (with possibilities of extensions for up to one year), and then three months to write the report and recommendations.

Amnesty International has been fully supportive of the TRC process and monitors its work on a regular basis through working with a steering group of local organizations on the ground.

Liberia:A Brief Guide to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (AI Index: AFR 34/007/2006) is a shorter version of Liberia: Truth, Justice and Reparation- Memorandum on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, (AI Index: AFR 34/005/2006),published in June 2006

Security Council votes to keep ban on Liberian diamond exports and arms embargo on Liberia
Associated Press via International Herald Tribune
December 20, 2006

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Wednesday to keep a ban on Liberian diamond exports, an arms embargo on the country, a travel ban on named individuals and an asset freeze against former President Charles Taylor and his top officials.

A resolution adopted by the council welcomed "the sustained progress" by the government since President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf took office in January in the West African nation's first step toward stable, democratic government after years of war. But it concluded that "insufficient progress has been made" to lift sanctions.

The Security Council had promised in June that it would consider lifting the embargo if the Liberian government set up an international program to certify the origin of the country's gems. But a U.N. Panel of Experts found that more needs to be done.

The counciI welcomed the government's continuing cooperation with the Kimberley Process, a voluntary 71-nation group created out of the furor over diamond-funded wars in Sierra Leone and Angola. The group, whose members agree to trade only certified diamonds, has helped conflict diamonds drop to less than 1 percent of those sold worldwide, from about 4 percent previously.

The council emphasized the importance of improving security throughout Liberia, especially in dimond and timber-producing areas and border regions.

It expressed determination to support the Liberian government's efforts to meet the conditions so sanctions can be lifted.

The resolution extends the arms embargo and travel ban for a year and the diamond ban for six months with a review by the Security Council after four months. That will "allow the government of Liberia sufficient time to establish an effective certificate of origin regime for trade in Liberian rough diamonds that is transparent and internationally verifiable, with a view to joining the Kimberley Process," it said.

The Security Council imposed arms and diamond embargoes on Liberia in May 2001 to stop government revenues from those industries from being used to fuel civil war.

The council said the asset freeze against Taylor, his immediate family members, in particular his wife Jewell Howard Taylor and son Charles Taylor Jr., senior officials of his regime and other close allies would remain in force and be reviewed at least once a year.

Any sanctions can be reviewed once the government reports that conditions to end the measures have been met and provides the necessary documentation, the resolution said.

Sirleaf argued in a May 24 letter to the council that sanctions limiting the trade of diamonds, arms and timber — and restricting the travel of designated individuals — were stunting the country's economy and were no longer needed.

She said the government would not be able to fight poverty effectively without the economically significant diamond and timber industries.

The council lifted timber sanctions in June.

Taylor fled into exile in Nigeria in August 2003, paving the way for elections which Sirleaf won. He was arrested in late March and is now in custody of a U.N.-backed war crimes court facing charges of crimes against humanity.

Last week, a federal judge in Miami denied bail for Charles Taylor Jr., who was indicted last week on U.S. torture charges stemming from his time as head of a security force in his father's government.

Doss Sees Country On Threshold of Hope
AllAfrica.com - The Analyst (Monrovia)
December 20, 2006

Quoting a statement of his boss, Kofi Annan, the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Alan Doss says Liberia which was once a conflict centre in West Africa is now serving as example of hope.

Referring to this present development as epigram of collective achievement, the UNMIL boss in his end of year address to the nation, urged Liberians to renew their pledge and development. "I know that there are many challenges ahead.

The country will not be rebuilt in a few weeks or months. It will take time, hard work, integrity and a continuing commitment by you to invest in your common future," he said in his statement to Liberians.

He has meanwhile pledged the commitment of UNMIL to working with government achieve its objectives.

"For our part the United Nations will continue working with the government, legislature and judiciary to promote reconciliation, to strengthen the rule of law, to protect fundamental rights, to advance social and economic opportunity and to encourage entrepreneurship," Ambassador Doss indicated.

According to him, they in the UN system sees Liberia as a country gradually recovering after the long years of conflict, adding that the inauguration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in January this year heralded a new day for Liberia and much has been achieved since then.

"The three branches of government are functioning; the reform of the security services is progressing; the resettlement of internally displaced persons has been completed and an increasing number of Liberian refugees have returned home.

The country's natural resources are being recovered by the government and the efforts to improve economic governance are reaping results. The lights have come on in Monrovia. These are all very encouraging developments," he recalled in his statement.

At the same time, the UNMIL head has reassured all Liberians that UNMIL will ensure security throughout the country to allow the country the time it needs to push ahead with its programme of national recovery and renewal.

"As we enter the festive season, UNMIL and the LNP have stepped up security operations so that Liberians can enjoy the festivities in a secure environment. Please make sure you do your part and act responsibly so that accidents and incidents are avoided," Mr. doss said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Doss has classified this time as important period in the story of the United Nations. At the end of the year we shall have a transition in the leadership of the world body.

"I take this moment to celebrate the achievements of an illustrious son of Africa, Secretary Kofi Annan, who will shortly step down from office after serving the UN for ten years with great distinction and constant commitment. We welcome our new Secretary Ban Ki-moon who will take office on the 1 January," he said.

Mongolian Generals show support to Special Court for Sierra Leone
Awareness Times
December 21, 2006

A delegation of senior Mongolian Military Officials comprising Brigadier General Chimeddorj Sosorbaram, Lieutenant General Tsevegsuren Togoo and Lieutenant General (ret.), Saran Borjigon Dashzeveg Tserenbaljid were in Freetown on Monday, 18th December 2006 on a mission to assess and evaluate the contribution of the Mongolian Guard Force to the security of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

They were received and initially briefed by the Officer-in-Charge at the United Nations Integrated Office in Sierra Leone (UNIOSIL) and the Chief Administrative Officer, Ms. Mary C. Roth, who expressed gratitude to the Generals for "their very good cooperation, and the performance of the Mongolian Guard Force in supporting the work of the Special Court for Sierra Leone".

The Mongolian Guard Force (MGF), a contingent of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has been securing and protecting the Special Court for Sierra Leone since 8th January 2006.

During the meeting at the UNIOSIL Headquarters in Freetown, Lieutenant General Togoo said they are in the country to examine their mission in Sierra Leone with the view of "improving on the circumstances of their forces", so as to "deepen their cooperation with the Special Court for Sierra Leone". He added that their visit is also to help them decide on making further contributions to other UN peacekeeping and peace building missions around the world.

Commenting on the role of the Special Court in the peace building process of Sierra Leone, Lieutenant General Togoo noted that it was good that people who bore the greatest responsibility for the crimes against the people of Sierra Leone are brought to justice.

General Togoo presented Ms. Roth with a commemorative plaque.

The Generals also inspected the 250 soldiers forming the MFG in Sierra Leone, and met with the Registrar for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Mr. Lovemore G. Munlo.

A Failed TRC Poses Danger
AllAfrica.com - The Analyst (Monrovia)
December 21, 2006

The Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation, Cllr. Jerome Verdier, has urged all Liberians and international partners to ensure that the truth and reconciliation process is successful, noting that there is a need for Liberians to identify with the process by owning it.

"What we want is for Liberians to identify and own the process; by owning the process, monitor what we do; by owning the process, join us in lobbying for support for the TRC," he pleaded.

"We cannot afford to have a failed reconciliation process in Liberia because the consequences will be very daring and is as much my guess as yours."

Speaking yesterday at TRC Head Office in Sinkor during the launch of the "Brief Guide to the TRC by Amnesty International, he said the TRC was facing enormous setback, which according to him, can be overcome by the involvement and support of all Liberians and not leaving it on the shoulders of the commissioners and staff alone.

"So there are enormous challenges and the quest for peace, the desire to make this process a success should not rest on the shoulders of the nine commissioners alone; it is for all Liberians to ensure that this process succeeds," Chairman Verdier said, making specific reference to the lack of financial support mainly from the international community as a major factor.

According to him, it will be a scourge on the morality and conscience of the international community to abandon the process having brought Liberia this far to not support this process and drive us down the lane of destruction, chaos and violence.

Suggesting that his assertion may not be the concern of the international community, but emphasized that there maybe concerns about transparency and confidence which he said "can be addressed and transformed by proper engagement with the commission and partnership building."

Albeit he might have considered that international involvement in the process was paramount, he as well took note of the importance of involvement of civil society groups in the country.

"Many times over, we have called on civil societies to get involved in the TRC process. Let us not be left alone to steer this process because it is delicate and the future stability of our country hinges on its success," Cllr. Verdier said and added.

Apparently against the backdrop of the salient nature of such collaboration, the TRC head indicated: "We want our partners to get involved, we want regular interaction with the TRC, be it at the functional, problematic or evaluation level. We appreciate all levels of interaction to ensure that this process is transparent and the credibility that it deserves is accorded it".

Despite the rather non-cooperative attitude of Liberians and others who by and large advocated for the establishment of the commission as a means of transforming Liberia from war to peace, he said they are the TRC are endeavoring to achieve the set objectives and goals.

"We're pleased to say that our experience over the last six months, by the way we've been in operation, has taught us that the process we've begun is tedious and is challenging. And as such, we're putting all our efforts (commissioners & staff) into ensuring that the process goes through smoothly and successfully, and especially on time and according to schedule."

The efforts they are putting to their work successful in the midst of challenges is the commissioners are fueling their own cars, paying their own security assigned with them and that international technical advisors are with out vehicles.

According to Chairman Verdier, they intend to begin statement taking on January 16, 2007, adding that they on the commission are determined to ensure that the process remains on track and "We are utilizing to the best of our ability, the limited resources we have on hands."

As speculated that the TRC has received about US$2.2M out of over US$14M, he said what they have received is "far less than the amount." Without giving any specific amount received since it began works some months ago, he