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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)
Cambodian Prime Minister Silent on Khmer Rouge Trials
Bangkok Post
December 27, 2006
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday sidestepped the issue of the stalled trials of Khmer Rouge leaders, instead telling the nation that the country had successfully achieved national reconciliation and moved forward.
Speaking in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng on the nation's northern border with Thailand, Hun Sen said the war was over and it was a positive sign for the future that former Khmer Rouge areas, such as Anlong Veng, had been integrated into peacetime Cambodia.
He said "the story had ended" when senior former Khmer Rouge leaders, including former head of state Khieu Samphan and Pol Pot's former deputy Nuon Chea, had come to his home and eaten with him in December 1998, marking the formal surrender of the Khmer Rouge. The term "story" is also a Cambodian euphemism for its 30-year civil war.
But despite his reference to Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, who would be prime candidates to stand trial, Hun Sen avoided any direct reference to the 56.3-million-dollar UN-Cambodian-sponsored trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders, currently stalled yet again amid bitter wrangling over the court's internal rules.
The trials have not yet reached their indictment stage despite the prosecution phase getting under way in mid-2006, and it remained unclear which former leaders would stand trial.
Former Kymer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary defected and was granted amnesty from genocide charges by then-king Norodom Sihanouk in 1996 although some remain keen to indict him on charges of crimes against humanity. Former military commander Ta Mok died in a military hospital this year and was cremated in Anlong Veng. The movement's former leader Pol Pot died in Anlong Veng in 1998.
However, on Wednesday in former Khmer Rouge heartland, Hun Sen preferred to focus on Cambodia's new era of peace and sidestep the growing storm over the pace of justice - a matter he has left in the hands of Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.
"So many people died in the war," Hun Sen said in the speech, which was broadcast on national radio. "We achieved national reconciliation. Please don't let national reconciliation break down."
The lack of direct reference to the trials was unlikely to please critics, some of which have accused Hun Sen's government of deliberately delaying the long-awaited trials of a handful of surviving leaders of the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime.
Earlier this month, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused the government of meddling in the trial process, and this week, a coalition of human-rights organizations urged the court to resolve the conflict over procedural rules with haste.
The government - which contains a number of former Khmer Rouge cadre who fled the movement under the excesses of its leader Pol Pot and returned to Phnom Penh, backed by Vietnamese troops, to overthrow the regime - has maintained it is determined to try the former leaders to international standards.
Up to 2 million Cambodians died under the Khmer Rouge regime. However, most of its now mainly ageing and ailing former leaders continue to live freely and openly without ever having faced justice.
Cambodian Prime Minister Puts His Weight Behind Khmer Rouge Trial
Playfuls
January 5, 2007
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen appeared Friday to publicly put his full and unequivocal support behind a trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders, saying the crimes perpetrated under the regime could not go unpunished.
Speaking at a rally in the eastern district of Memut in Kampong Cham province, the first territory to be liberated from the Khmer Rouge's grasp by Vietnamese-backed forces in late 1978, Hun Sen said former Khmer Rouge leaders being brought to justice was a lesson that must be taught to ensure future governments understood the price of despotism.
"The crimes against humanity of the Khmer Rouge genocidal clique must not be tolerated," he said in a speech broadcast on national radio.
"We should bring them to trial to give justice to the victims, and this should serve as a warning to all people in power that they must not create this kind of brutality," Hun Sen said.
Friday's address lacked the apparent ambivalence of a speech the prime minister made late last month when he said that as far as he was concerned, "the story had ended" when former senior Khmer Rouge leaders, including former head of state Khieu Samphan and Pol Pot's former deputy Nuon Chea, had dined at his home in December 1998.
That date marked the formal surrender of the Khmer Rouge and began a period referred to by the government as national reconciliation. The term "story" is also a Cambodian euphemism for its 30-year civil war.
Critics have consistently questioned the government's political will to go through with the joint UN-Cambodian trials of a handful of the remaining ageing and mainly ailing former leaders and some have even gone as far as to accuse the government of meddling in the process.
They pointed out that many of the current members of the government were themselves former Khmer Rouge cadre of varying rank before they defected and fled to Vietnam to form the nucleus of the group that would return to overthrow it.
Although the prosecution stage of the proceedings, scheduled to take three years, began in mid-July, the process has again stalled amid bitter wrangling over the internal rules necessary to proceed.
The site where Hun Sen chose to make Friday's speech, combined with the imminent celebration of Sunday's anniversary of the 1979 ousting of the Khmer Rouge from power, is likely to reassure some, at least, that the government does have the political will to hold the trials although exactly who will be prosecuted remained unclear.
Up to 2 million Cambodians died of starvation, torture, disease, overwork and execution during the 1975-1979 rule of the ultra-Maoists in one of the worst genocides of the past century.
Advocates of a trial have warned that it must proceed with haste or risk never going ahead at all. Former leader Pol Pot died in 1998. Former military commander Ta Mok also died in hospital last year without ever facing court, and most other former leaders are in their 70s and 80s and complaining of failing health.
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Darfur, Sudan (ICC)
Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Situation in Darfur, Sudan
Darfur diplomacy: sidelined by Somalia?
Christian Science Monitor
by Howard LaFranchi
January 3, 2007
Just as a flurry of diplomatic activity raised hopes of imminent action on an expanded peacekeeping force for Darfur, a new crisis in the Horn of Africa threatens to divert international attention.
Ethiopia's recent incursion into Somalia may have returned a stable government to the conflict-torn country for the first time in more than 15 years. But by routing Islamist rebels, Ethiopia's action also holds geopolitical implications for the war on terror. And in the midst of these developments, the government of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir could find the pressure off for accepting a robust United Nations-mandated security force for Darfur, experts say.
After months of stalling, Mr. Bashir last week announced his readiness to accept an expanded international security presence in Darfur, the vast western region where more than 200,000 people have died and millions more have been displaced. The largely interethnic fighting pits forces aligned with the majority Arab Muslim government against non-Arab Muslim minorities. [ Editor's note: The original version mischaracterized the conflict in Darfur and misidentified Darfur's location.]
Sudan says it will allow the first of more than 175 UN advisers and peacekeeping staff officers to deploy in Darfur within days. UN diplomats hoped this would be the foot in the door for a much larger peacekeeping force to fortify the 7,000 African Union security soldiers already there.
But Sudanese officials continue to offer conflicting statements on the size and makeup of any force, although some say it is no longer a question of the 20,000-strong force of blue helmets the Security Council approved for Darfur in August. The ambiguity and backtracking by the Sudanese government is leading some observers to speculate that Bashir may be finding Somalia's crisis a convenient cover for further procrastination.
"The international interest in Darfur is not going away. But at a broader level, Bashir must realize that there's only so much time in a day and so much energy that diplomats can put into one region," says Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. "If a roiling crisis in the Horn of Africa puts Darfur and Sudan into the back pages and becomes a major preoccupation in the Security Council for a couple of months, it may be just what Bashir needs to drag things out."
Developments in Somalia
After Somalia's provisional government retook the capital of Mogadishu from the rebels of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) last week, diplomats have been trying to arrange an African peacekeeping force for the country. The diplomats want peacekeepers to replace forces from Ethiopia, a majority Christian country held in disregard by Muslim Somalians. So far, a few African countries appear to have offered forces.
Still, with overtones of the US war on terror in both Somalia and Sudan, some observers worry that US action in the globally strategic region will be driven even more by security interests than by humanitarian concerns.
"All along with Sudan, the US has put other interests above the humanitarian crisis. And we can expect to see more of that with the support for Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia," says Nii Akuetteh, executive director of Africa Action, a Washington advocacy group supporting international intervention in Darfur. "What else explains the gulf between the American leadership - including President Bush - describing what is happening in Darfur as genocide, and the steps to do something about it?"
Mr. Akuetteh says the United States has welcomed Sudanese intelligence officials for briefings with the CIA - despite some of those same officials' association with the Janjaweed, the notorious pro-government militia responsible for many of the deaths in Darfur.
"The explanation seems to be that the US values terrorism intelligence over the genocide issue," he says.
Some experts say Sudan's ability to resist a robust UN force in Darfur is another example among many of waning American influence in Africa. But others, like Akuetteh, say the US continues to have leverage with Khartoum.
Andrew Natsios, White House special envoy on Darfur, has warned Sudanese officials that the US would consider a "Plan B" for getting action on Darfur if Sudan did not approve a peacekeeping force by Jan. 1.
But Mr. Morrison of CSIS qualifies much of the current threatening by the US as "smoke" to cover for a lack of options in an environment of weakened influence. Three options the US is considering - imposing a no-fly zone over Darfur, blocking the financial transactions of individuals targeted for abuses in Darfur, or seeking action by the International Criminal Court - have drawbacks and would be of limited impact, he says.
"We tend to forget that the US had a lot of leverage in Sudan after 9/11 and was able to use that to make important headway," says Morrison. "But then came the blowback from the invasion of Iraq, and Bashir was able to play off the animosity in the Arab community."
Muslim perceptions
Others say the loss of leverage the US has suffered in Sudan could be joined by heightened disregard for the US among the world's Muslims, given tacit American support for Ethiopia's entry into Somalia against the Islamists of the ICU.
"For many Muslims this will be seen as, 'Once again, the US supports attacks on a Muslim government and state," says David Smock, an expert at the US Institute of Peace who specializes in Africa and the interplay of politics and religion.
Mr. Smock sees little evidence to support State Department claims that the ICU controls an Al Qaeda cell in Somalia. But what does worry him, he says, is a Somalia that remains unstable because of fighting among warlords - which leads to the prospect of it becoming a major terrorist haven.
"We've seen this happen in Iraq," he says, "and I fear the same could happen here: A Muslim country that is exaggerated as a terrorist base is invaded by a non-Muslim power, and in the ensuing chaos it becomes one."
• Material from wire services was used in this report.
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Uganda (ICC)
Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Situation in Uganda
Uganda: IDPs unlikely to meet deadline to vacate camps
IRIN News
December 26, 2006
An end of year deadline set by the Ugandan government for all internally displaced persons (IDPs) in war-ravaged northern Uganda to return home looks unlikely to be met, both IDPs and aid workers have said.
Continued uncertainty over security in the region is causing IDPs to delay their return to their original villages.
Earlier this year, the government set a deadline of 31 December for all IDPs to vacate the camps that have been set up during the 20-year period of unrest caused by hostilities by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
Speaking in October, Uganda's relief and disaster preparedness minister, Tarsis Kabwegyere, said, "The camps must be empty. The soonest it can be, the happiest I will be. Anybody who will delay the process will be answerable to the people and God."
The IDPs remain unmoved. "People here are still not moving, not leaving the camps. They are thinking about it, planning to do it eventually," a camp leader at Acholibur, Pader District, said. "Everyone is tired of staying in the camps, but people aren't sure of these peace talks. This is not the first time the rebels talk about peace and nothing changes."
He was referring to faltering peace talks between the Ugandan government and the LRA in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba.
Observers believe the talks, mediated by southern Sudanese Vice-President Riek Machar, provide the best opportunity for a peaceful settlement to the 21-year-old conflict in northern Uganda. However, despite the fact that the talks have led to a ceasefire, there is little confidence among some 1.6 million IDPs that the end of the conflict is in sight.
Both the government and rebels have been sending out mixed signals, slowing the process.
For example, on 29 November the LRA pulled out of the talks, claiming that the Ugandan army had killed three of their fighters, thereby violating a ceasefire agreement. The army denied the claims, saying the rebels were diverting attention from their failure to remain at Owiny Ki-Bul and Ri-Kwangba, in southern Sudan, as required by the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement.
Slow returns
Aid workers in northern Uganda have warned that the announcement of a deadline for IDPs to be moved must be carefully planned. "We have to handle carefully these sort of proclamations. Sometimes they are nothing more than random announcements made for political opportunism," said one aid worker in Acholibur.
"On the ground, resettlement and decongestion is managed by district committees and by the UPDF [Uganda Peoples Defence Force]. This means a high level of unevenness on the return process in the various districts," he added.
The enormity and complexity of the task to send IDPs home means that the process can only move at a snail's pace.
At the launch on 13 December of an appeal by aid agencies for US $296 million to support humanitarian activities in northern Uganda in 2007, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Activities (OCHA) warned that up to a million people could remain in camps in 2007, waiting for confirmation that it was safe to return home.
Speaking at the launch, Kabwegyere said, "In the Acholi sub-region, the security situation has greatly improved and preparations for emptying the camps are on course."
Statistics compiled by aid workers show that at least 350,000 people have moved out of camps in Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum, Lira, Oyam, Pader and Apac districts. According to aid workers, the fragile security situation in these districts has not allowed a massive scale of returns.
The situation is better in the northeastern districts of Teso and Lira where returnees already constitute 80 percent of the population. Still, about 130,000 people remain in camps in Teso due to continued Karamoja-induced instability, where the pastoralist Karamojong communities have been carrying out cattle raids on their neighbours.
According to Martin Mogwanja, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Uganda, "only peace and its dividends will guarantee the voluntary return of the displaced population to their homes."
Scepticism
A walk across Acholibur IDP camp, in the northern part of Pader district, clearly illustrates the situation: out of the 27,000 inhabitants of this large settlement, only a few thousand have moved back to their villages.
The majority of the IDPs continue to live in the crowded huts they built five to 10 years ago when the fear of attacks by LRA rebels forced them to abandon their original homesteads. In the camp they rely heavily on aid agencies for food. According to the IDPs, the return procedures are taking place slowly, and it is unlikely that the end of December deadline will be met. For example, by the end of the year, Pader district local authorities and the army will have established 18 new sites where people are encouraged to relocate temporarily before making the final journey home.
These sites, known as 'decongestion sites' or 'transit sites', are far less crowded than the camps, but still have to be protected by the army to ensure the security of the residents.
"The majority of those moving out of the camps still want some kind of protection from the army, and would not move without it," Malan Amara, head of the OCHA office in Pader, said. "However, there are a few spontaneous sites that have developed in the last months, where people are relocating without external assistance."
Humanitarian aid workers in northern Uganda say aid dependency has also played a part in the attitude of IDPs towards resettlement. The majority of the long-term displaced have lived in the camps for almost 10 years, and have grown complacent about returning to the villages. This is especially true of the younger generation who have spent most of their lives in an IDP camp.
"If you ask them why they are still there instead of going home, many would answer that they are waiting for their 'resettlement package' and they won't move until they get it," said one humanitarian worker in Pader.
"In many cases they just commute from the new sites, where they can farm and have access to land, but usually leave the rest of the family to benefit from schools, health facilities and food distributions that are not available in the decongestion sites," he added.
The war in northern Uganda has lasted more than 20 years. For the 1.6 million IDPs returning back to their original homes would mean starting a new way of life.
Lingering questions
There are questions that need to be answered before large-scale returns can take place. Observers say that until a clear message emerges from Juba that Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA, has decided to abandon rebellion, the situation will remain uncertain.
Kony and four of his commanders are wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) to answer charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including the abduction of children and rape. Humanitarian agencies believe that up to 25,000 children were abducted by the rebels in the course of the war.
Last week, Kony, in a message to President Yoweri Museveni, called for an accountability process in Uganda, which would give them a better chance of reporting their side of the story compared with a similar process at the ICC.
"The ICC should leave Uganda to handle the issue of accountability since Uganda has a functional justice system with jails in Luzira, Lugore etc.," Kony said referring to two prison facilities.
"The Juba peace process appears to be a bait to get us arrested, the charges should be dropped," Kony's deputy, Vincent Otti, said in the same message. "Lubanga was arrested after a negotiated settlement but is now being tried in The Hague," he added in reference to Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese militia leader who was indicted by the ICC last year.
"I do not think Kony would accept peace as long as there is the ICC warrant on him. Why should he walk out when he knows he would go in jail?" an aid worker asked.
Aid workers also say one of the issues some IDPs are concerned about is their land. Unlike in central and western Uganda, where most land is titled and registered, there is no widespread formal ownership structure in the Acholi districts.
Proof of ownership comes from family and clan lineage and by virtue of living and farming a given piece of land, sometimes for decades. There are fears that people would no longer be able to prove ownership of the land where they used to live and to recognise its boundaries. Land disputes would then fuel new conflicts in the area.
For many IDPs, 2007 could bring better fortunes, but it is still too early to tell. "Peace would make people go back to their lands," said Akelo from Acholibur camp. "But people cannot really see the peace. They still don't know what it would look like and what they will do once it comes."
LRA ambush UPDF in Juba
New Vision
by Henry Mukasa
December 29, 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."
50% Lira IDPs go home
The New Vision
January 3, 2007
WHILE over half a million displaced people have returned to their villages in Northern Uganda, hundreds of thousands did not meet the December 31 deadline set by the government to vacate the camps.
Ali Mao and Alfred Wasike visited the main camps in the affected districts to find out why some internally displaced people have not yet gone home.
Not so long ago, Aloi camp in Moroto County was one of the biggest camps in Lira District. The place now looks deserted as most of the huts are abandoned.
Of the 56,000 people who flocked the trading centre in 2003, only 366 are left.
“Those remaining are the most destitute, who are not able to construct a house in their villages”, explains camp leader Salim Oryem.
“We put up walls as required by the resettlement committee, but they were destroyed by the rains.”
The return was spontaneous and orderly, Oryem stressed, though there were problems of water, health facilities, roads and land disputes in the villages.
Apala IDP camp, 15km away, is also largely empty. Of the almost 43,000 people who fled there at the peak of the insurgency, less than 2,000 are remaining, according to the camp authorities.
“By March we expect every body will have vacated the camp”, said the camp leader Jimmy Akii.
“We ask the Government to rehabilitate the health centres, the road network and water sources in the villages,” Akii added. In Lira municipality, Erute was the biggest camp, hosting almost 30,000 displaced people.
Today, some 4,000 are still there.
Uncertainty about the fate of the peace talks and cattle rustling by the Karimojong warriors are keeping them in the camp.
“We are not sure yet whether the peace talks in Juba will materialise”, said the camp leader, Charles Okello.
“We want to go back home but we are asking the Government to address the Karamojong threat.”
Others simply lack the means to return to their homes. “I don’t have the means to go back”, said Acen Maria (45), who hails from Adwari.
The situation is quite different in the northern part of Lira district.
In Agweng, a camp of 30,000, very few people have undertaken the journey home.
Bordering Acholi land, where the insurgency was more intense, they don’t believe that the war has ended. The lack of iron sheets and basic facilities in their home villages are other factors that keep them in the camps.
“I am asking the Government to speed up the peace talks and Joseph Kony to declare to the world that he will not come again to kill, abduct and chop off people’s lips,” pleaded 50-year -old Hellen Ogwal.
“We can not leave the camp because we are at the border with Acholiland. We first want to hear the results of the peace talks,” explained the camp leader, Alfred Okello Ongiro.
“Schools, health centres and water sources have collapsed.
“The President promised us iron sheets, oxen and non-food items but up to now, we have not seen them.”
Criminal elements and land disputes are other problems preventing people from going home.
Okello cited an incident where a returnee in Acetlela parish was threatened by thugs and forced to pay sh39,000 to save his life.
Over-all, of the 350,000 displaced people in Lira district, about 50% have returned to their villages, according to a report by the Prime Minister’s office.
eastern parts of Lira district, mainly because of the Karimojong threat.
The security forces have deployed strategically to support the return process.
“We are now shifting from a strategy of camp protection to community protection,” said the UPDF 5th Division commander, Brig. George Etyang.
‘The Amuka auxiliary force and the Anti Stock Theft Unit have been retrained, reorganised and redeployed in the villages where people are returning to, under the command and control of UPDF.
“We have also deployed at the north eastern border to ensure that infiltration by Karimojong is stopped.”
It notes an 80% return in Aloi, Abako and Amugo sub-counties in Moroto County, while the return in Bata and Dokolo sub- counties reached 100%.
However, voluntary return is only about 20% in the northern and eastern parts of Lira district, mainly because of the Karimojong threat.
The security forces have deployed strategically to support the return process.
“We are now shifting from a strategy of camp protection to community protection,” said the UPDF 5th Division commander, Brig. George Etyang.
‘The Amuka auxiliary force and the Anti Stock Theft Unit have been retrained, reorganised and redeployed in the villages where people are returning to, under the command and control of UPDF.
“We have also deployed at the north eastern border to ensure that infiltration by Karimojong is stopped.”
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International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
Official Website of the ICTY
Vojno indictees plead not guilty
BIRN Justice Report
December 26, 2006
Three former members of the Croat Defence Council (HVO) have pleaded not guilty for crimes committed in Vojno detention camp - and called the Court of BiH "dishonourable".
Marko "Maka" Radic, Dragan "Petarda" Sunjic and Damir "Zingi" Brekalo have denied involvement in crimes committed in 1993 and 1994 in Vojno camp, which was located near Mostar.
"I don't want to enter a plea because my rights have been violated. At Christmas, the Croats' biggest holiday, I have to enter a plea," Radic said and added that this makes the Court of BiH "dishonourable".
As Radic chose to not enter a plea the Court established, in accordance with the law, that he is denying his guilt.
Indictee Dragan Sunjic noted that he "joins the protest" of Radic and pleaded not guilty, which the third indictee, Damir Brekalo who used to be called Emir, also repeated.
The Prosecution has charged the three former HVO members that from July 1993 to March 1994 they, as members of HVO's Bjelopoljska bojna Second Brigade, formed Vojno detention camp and took part in the psychological, physical and sexual abuse of Bosniak civilians.
The indictment, which was confirmed by the Court on December 1, claims that Vojno camp inmates were used as forced labour and were abused in the most brutal of ways, including torture with electricity, beating with wooden bats and axe handles.
The Prosecution charges indictee Radic with issuing orders and assisting in various physical and psychological abuses of civilians, including the rape of underage girls in the Vojno camp.
Brekalo, a member of Bjelopoljska bojna, and Sunjic, deputy warden of Vojno camp, are charged with the rape, beating and murders of Vojno camp inmates, all of which took place in August and October 1993.
In 1996 indictee Brekalo was sentenced to five years imprisonment on rape charges and in 2005 Sunjic was found guilty on murder charges. Both crimes were committed after the war.
In accordance with an order issued by the Bosnian prosecution, members of SIPA arrested the trio on June 2, 2006.
Karadzic, Mladic should not evade trial: U.S. envoy
Reuters
January 2, 2007
SARAJEVO – Two top Bosnian Serb war crimes suspects should still face an international court if captured after the closure of the U.N. war crimes court in three years, a U.S. envoy was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
If Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic were caught before 2010, the court in The Hague would remain open to try them, Clint Williamson, U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes, told the Sarajevo newspaper Dnevni Avaz.
'But if that didn't happen, there needs to be found a body in the international system that will try them,' he said.
'The only absolutely unacceptable thing for the government of the United States is for them to be tried, for example, in Belgrade, that is before local courts,' Williamson added.
The Hague court has started transferring middle- and lower-level cases to courts in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia as part of its closure strategy.
Its Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte asked the U.N. Security Council last month to extend the life of the court until key suspects were brought to justice, but the council has not yet responded.
Karadzic, Bosnian Serb leader in the 1992-95 war, and his wartime military chief Ratko Mladic top the list of six remaining fugitives who are all Serbs, four from Bosnia, one from Croatia and one from Serbia proper.
The duo were indicted twice for genocide over the war-long siege of Sarajevo and for the July 1995 massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in the U.N. 'safe area' of Srebrenica.
Del Ponte says that the army has sheltered Mladic in Serbia while Karadzic's whereabouts are a mystery.
Seventh Trial to Start at the Tribunal after Winter Recess
Press Advisory of the ICTY
January 5, 2007
Following the end of the winter recess, court proceedings at the Tribunal will recommence on Monday, 8 January 2007 with the continuation of the Prlić et al. case. The cases against Milan Martić, Popović et al. and Mrksić et al. will continue during that same week.
The trial against Dragomir Milošević will start on 11 January 2007, with a pre-trial conference to be held on 10 January 2007. This will bring up the number of trials running concurrently before the Tribunal to seven, involving 25 accused.
On 9 January 2007, new ad litem judge Frederik Harhoff will be sworn in. Further in the week there will be status conferences in the Miroslav Bralo and the Haradinaj et al. cases.
The regular weekly press briefings will resume on Wednesday, 10 January 2007 at 12 p.m.
New war crimes trials to begin
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN)
January 5, 2007
The War Crimes Chamber will begin 2007 with four new trials.
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina's War Crimes Chamber has announced that a total of nine trials will take place next week.
The trial of Radmilo Vukovic, a former member of Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) who is charged with war crime of rape committed on the territory of Foca, will begin on Tuesday, January 9.
The Prosecution has proposed two days to question two witnesses and present physical evidence, while the defence announced that it would question up to four witnesses and hear an expert opinion of a neuropsychiatrist.
Vukovic is charged with the physical and psychological abuse of protected witness A. It is stated in the indictment that the indictee raped her more than once during June and August 1992 in Miljevina, Foca municipality, after which she gave birth to a child.
It was announced at the status conference that there is a possibility that this trial will be closed for the public in order to protect the witness' identity.
The status conference before the beginning of the process against Nenad Tanaskovic, who is charged with war crimes against civilians committed on the territory of Visegrad municipality, is scheduled for January 12.
Tanaskovic is charged that in 1992 he, as member of reserve units of Public Security Station Visegrad police and jointly with members of former Army of Srpska Republika BiH, took part in attacks on the civilian population of Visegrad municipality.
It is further stated in the indictment that hundreds of civilians were killed, tortured, beaten, raped, illegally detained and forcefully transferred from the territory of the municipality during this attack.
Pasko Ljubicic, a former commander of the Croat Defence Council (HVO) Military Police 4th Battalion, will enter a plea next week, on January 9.
The indictee is charged that during the disputes between Army of BiH and HVO he took part in an attack against civilian population in Busovaca and Vitez municipalities.
He is also charged with involvement in the detention of unarmed civilians and use of those civilians as forced labour and other illegal purposes.
The indictment also includes allegations of murders. One of the counts of the indictment describe the attack that took place on April 16, 1993 on villages Ahmici, Nadioci, Pirici and Santici, during which more than 100 Bosniak civilians were killed.
On Tuesday January 9, Zdravko Bozic, Mladen Blagojevic, Zeljko Zaric and Zoran Zivanovic are scheduled to enter a plea based on the charges pressed by the prosecution.
The indictment against the four was confirmed at the end of December last year. Twelve counts of the indictment charge them as members of the Bosnian Serb Military Police Bratunac Light Infantry Brigade with participation in the illegal detention, murder and forced relocations of Bosniak civilians, which took place in July 1995 after the Bosnian Serb forces entered Srebrenica.
Zdravko Bozic and Mladen Blagojevic were deported from United States of America in June and November last year, while Zivanovic and Zaric have been in custody since they were arrested in mid-December.
According to court announcements, Zeljko Lelek - a policeman from Visegrad charged with war crimes against civilians - will appear before the judges on Friday, January 12.
In December 2006 Lelek pleaded not guilty on all six counts of the indictment against him. The prosecution holds him responsible for the expulsion of the civilian population on the territory of Visegrad municipality in April, May and June 1992, as well as murders, illegal detention, torture and beatings.
Lelek is the first person charged with mass rapes and sexual abuse of women in Visegrad municipality. According to the indictment, he forced women to have sexual relations, working jointly with Hague indictees Milan and Sredoje Lukic as well as other soldiers in "Vilina vlas" spa in Visegrad.
The status conference before the beginning of the trial should be held next week.
On Tuesday, January 9, the prosecution will begin presenting its evidence against Niset Ramic, former member of Territorial Defence (TO) Visoko Municipal Staff Diversion Unit, who is charged with the murder of a group of Serb civilians.
State Prosecutor Slavica Terzic announced that prosecution witnesses would confirm the statements in the indictment in their testimonies.
"Two surviving witnesses as well as Ramic's fellow soldiers who helped those who were injured will confirm that. We will question a total of nine witnesses and present numerous pieces of physical evidence," Terzic said.
According to the indictment, Ramic was in a group of TO members but was the only one who shot at the detainees.
The trials that started earlier and will be continued next week are those against Momcilo Mandic, 11 indictees charged with genocide in Kravica and the Damjanovic brothers, Goran and Zoran.
The prosecution will continue presenting evidence at the trials of Mandic and the 11 indictees charged with genocide, while the defence is in the process of presenting evidence at the trial of the Damjanovic brothers.
International Justice Failing Rape Victims
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
by IWPR Staff in the Hague, London and Sarajevo
January 5, 2007
International justice has come a very long way since the summer of 1992, when violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina raged and reports surfaced for the first time of mass rape being used as a weapon of war.
As Bosnian Muslim women flooded into the government-controlled down of Zenica escaping attacks on their villages, accounts emerged of Serb forces engaging in systematic rape, with many of the victims made pregnant.
Fadila Memisevic, a founder of the Zenica Centre for Research on War Crimes and Genocide, remembers the account of just one woman made a delegation from the European parliament go numb.
Scars clearly visible on her body, the woman, from a village near Prijedor in northwestern Bosnia, explained that she had been hiding in a basement in order to care for her pregnant daughter-in-law, but was discovered by a group of Serb soldiers. Despite her pleas, they ordered her to strip, and the entire group raped her. To muffle her cries, she bit into her own arm, so that her son, nearby, would not hear what was happening to her.
Her story took two hours to tell, and when she was done the faces of the women from the parliamentary group, which had been tasked to investigate the issue, were white. One was sick. Although they had asked to speak to at least 50 victims, they said they didn’t want to hear any more accounts.
“They talked to only one woman . . . [but] there were thousands of women with similar stories,” said Memisevic.
The episode is revealing, as it underscores the delicacy and the difficulty of uncovering this most sensitive of crimes. Initial estimates of 60,000 and more raped women were not substantiated. The parliamentary group’s report settled on an estimate of 20,000 rapes, while recognising the difficulty of ever achieving precise numbers.
But it also marked a turning point, as the role of rape as an explicit tool of war became more widely understood. Shortly afterwards, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights, whose research cited a figure of 12,000 victims of sexual violence, concluded that “rape has been used as an instrument of ethnic cleansing”.
The plethora of new war crimes courts have all taken up rape, mounted investigations and in many cases successfully prosecuted cases sexual violence as a war crime. The International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, secured its first conviction for rape in the ground-breaking 2001 Foca verdict, which confirmed the use of rape as a crime against humanity.
Hundreds of thousands of rapes allegedly took place during the 1994 Rwanda genocide, and in its 1998 verdict against Jean-Paul Akayesu, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, ICTR, handed down not only the first genocide conviction by an international court, but the first conviction for rape as an act of genocide.
Yet despite this progress, there are complaints that international justice is still failing the victims of sexual violence - that too many crimes in Africa and elsewhere are going unpunished because of inadequate investigations and prosecutions. Even in the Balkans, after all the international attention, the success of local courts in prosecuting rape cases as war crimes is also being questioned, particularly in Bosnia.
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International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
Official Website of the ICTR
Four Rwandans held on genocide warrant: Appearance before magistrates today: Extradition sought over men who settled in Britain
The Guardian
by Dan Bell
December 29, 2006
Four Rwandans who settled in Britain were last night arrested in a coordinated operation after their home country sought their extradition in connection with its 1994 genocide.
The men, named as Vincent Bajinya, Charles Munyaneza, Celestin Ugirashebuja, and Emmanuel Nteziryayo, were detained separately in London, Manchester, Essex, and Bedfordshire at 9pm last night. They will appear before Westminster magistrates in London later today.
They are accused by the Rwandan authorities in the capital Kigali of playing a part in the 1994 slaughter of ethnic Tutsis - an action which left hundreds of thousands of people dead.
According to the provisional extradition warrant issued earlier this week, they are accused of killing and conspiring to kill groups of Tutsis "with the intent to destroy in whole or in part, that group" between January 1 and December 12 1994.
It is believed that formal requests for extradition were made several months ago and British investigators had also travelled to Rwanda to assess evidence.
All four men are believed to be in their 40s or 50s. Two of them, Mr Munyaneza and Mr Ugirashebuja, were town mayors in provinces of southern Rwanda where many killings took place. Earlier this year the Guardian revealed that the two were living in Britain despite being named on a list of the 100 most wanted genocide suspects compiled by Rwandan prosecutors.
Mr Munyaneza is accused by prosecutors of playing a part in killings of Tutsis in Gikongoro, southern Rwanda. Prosecution witnesses claim he wore a military uniform, carried a gun, and visited roadblocks set up to catch Tutsis.
In an interview with the Guardian in May, he denied taking part in the killings, saying: "There are people spreading lies about me. I am prepared to go into a court in England and prove my innocence."
Mr Nteziryayo arrived in Britain three years ago. He had been mayor of Mudasomwa commune in Gikongoro province. He has denied any involvement in the genocide and dismissed claims that he is number 71 on the top 100 list.
Human rights groups have expressed exasperation at the slow progress in bringing to justice Rwandan genocide suspects who have settled in Europe. When the Guardian revealed the whereabouts of Mr Munyaneza and Mr Ugirashebuja in May, they had yet to be contacted by the British authorities.
Had they been investigated when they first arrived in the UK in 2000, the men could have been sent for trial to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Tanzania. However, the tribunal has now been instructed by the UN security council to complete all trials by 2008, and to stop issuing indictments.
Asylum seekers 'led genocide death squads'
The Daily Telegraph
by Amy Iggulden
December 30, 2006
FOUR Rwandan men living in Britain, including one given citizenship, appeared in court yesterday accused of organising the mass slaughter of Tutsis in the 1994 genocide.
Vincent Bajinya, who changed his name to Brown on becoming a citizen last year, Charles Munyaneza, Celestin Ugirashebuja and Emmanuel Nteziryayo face extradition. They were arrested after a deal under which Rwanda becomes a temporary extradition partner with Britain. Rwanda has waived the death penalty to secure their extradition.
In the first case of its kind here, they are accused of orchestrating the killing of "tens of thousands'' of Tutsis. They exploited their position as community leaders to set up militias, kill their countrymen and incite mass murder during the 100-day genocide in 1994, City of Westminster magistrates were told.
Up to a million people were killed when Hutu militias attacked Tutsis between April and June 1994. The Rwandan government claims that the four, who have been living throughout Britain for up to seven years, played a key role.
Ugirashebuja was refused asylum last year and Munyaneza had his refugee status cancelled in September because it was obtained by deception, the court heard. Miss Gemma Lindfield, representing Rwanda, said: "They were the organisers and facilitators in the genocide.''
Police believe the men have links to a group of exiles that continued to spread the ideology of Hutu ethnic supremacy, Miss Lindfield said. Munyaneza had demanded a court translator "who was not Tutsi'' and had an anti-Tutsi document when arrested. She said police believe all four had been in contact in England.
Munyaneza, a 48-year-old father of four living in Bedford, and Ugirashebuja, 53, from Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, used their sweeping power as local mayors - or bourgmestres - to set up killing militias, Miss Lindfield said. Munyaneza, now a cleaner, toured Hutu districts urging them to "wipe out'' Tutsis. He also told Tutsis in his Kinyamakara area to shelter in public buildings, knowing they would be massacred.
"More than tens of thousands were killed and as bourgmestre he was very much responsible for the implementation and planning of those killings.''
Ugirashebuja held a similar position in Kigoma, close to the capital Kigali. "His role was to make sure that the Tutsis were being killed and to monitor how many were being killed . . . he is responsible for many thousands of Tutsi lives'', Miss Lindfield said. Bajinya, a 45-year-old father of two who lives in housing association flats in north London, and Nteziryayo, a 43-year-old father of five living in Manchester, are also accused of mass killing. Bajinya trained as a doctor, worked for a refugee charity in Britain and served on a Government advisory committee. He arrived in 2000, two years after his wife, Rosalie, and their son and daughter, now 15 and 10. Miss Lindfield said that in Rugenge, a district of Kigali, he "organised road blocks and ordered [the] militia to kill people suspected of being Tutsi . . . he also led militias to search houses [where Tutsis were hiding] and kill them''.
The allegations against Nteziryayo were not read out because he did not apply for bail. Reports have suggested he has been living on welfare and is another former mayor of a district where many thousands of Tutsis were killed.
The four deny the accusation in a provisional extradition warrant which says they killed Tutsis "with the intent to destroy in whole or in part, that group''. Rwandan authorities have 90 days to provide evidence of a case to answer, which will be heard by a district judge. The final extradition decision rests with the Home Secretary.
Prosecutor Hails UK Genocide Arrests
AllAfrica.com - The New Times (Kigali)
by Felly Kimenyi
January 2, 2007
Rwanda has welcomed last week's arrests by United Kingdom (UK) of four suspects of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, describing the move as an example that should be followed by other countries.
Speaking to The New Times on Monday, Prosecutor General Martin Ngoga said, the four men had a leading role in the killings that claimed at least one million ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. He said the arrests were a call to other countries where Genocide suspects live to do the same.
Ngoga said that the four mean are in the same category as the wife of former President Juvenal Habyarimana, Agatha Kanziga, who currently lives in France, among other fugitives.
"We have some European countries that have decided to foster the culture of impunity within their corridors, which I think should borrow a leaf from the UK," Ngoga said by telephone.
He in particular mentioned France for not having arrested any suspect even when several suspects reside there. "They (French) are not only obstructing Rwandan justice but also international justice."
He said that the fact that France has "deliberately refused to hand in a person like Laurent Bucyibaruta, the former Gikongoro Prefet who is sought by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), is nothing less than obstructing international justice."
The arrest of the quartet; Charles Munyaneza, Emmanuel Nteziyaryo, Celestin Ugirashebuja and Vincent Bajinya, who had named himself Vincent Brown; comes after series of investigations by both Rwandan and UK judicial officials.
The officer in the Prosecutor General's office in charge of tracking Genocide fugitives, Emmanuel Rukangira, said this particular operation showcases the willingness of London to see that perpetrators of the Genocide are brought to book.
"The fact that all the four were captured at the same time in different places means a lot of work that was involved and we are happy for that," Rukangira said yesterday.
Both Ngoga and Rukangira were optimistic that these fugitives will be extradited to Rwanda to face justice considering that the UK has no jurisdiction to try Genocide crimes.
To ensure such an extradition, Kigali has agreed to waive the death sentence on the suspects, they said.
Three of the fugitives; Munyaneza, Nteziyaryo, Ugirashebuja are former district mayors while Bajinya is a former director of the now disbanded National Population Office (ONAPO).
According to agencies, a remand hearing for all four defendants is due to take place on 5 January, although they are not expected to appear in person before the court again until 26 January.
In a related development, a Canadian delegation is due to visit Rwanda early this month in pursuit of evidence in the upcoming trial of one Desire Munyaneza who is in detention in the state on Montreal.
Judges to Try 60th Defendant Before the ICTR in January
AllAfrica.com - Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
January 4, 2007
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will open the trial of the sixtieth defendant on January 8th. Tharcisse Renzaho, former prefect of Kigali, is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity.
This trial will be presided by Judge Erik Mose, President of the ICTR. It will also resume the activities of the ICTR after a three-week recess. Among the most important events in January are the appeal in the Media trial and probably the closing of the debates in Militaries I.
On January 9th, the trial of Simeon Nshamihigo will be reopened. It started last year on September 25th. This session is supposed to last until February 9th and should allow the prosecution to go through the presentation of evidences. Until now, 7 witnesses have been heard; the prosecutor should present 18 or 20 more.
From January 13th on, three French officers will testify in Militaries I, a trial which started in April 2002. These hearings, conducted via video conference from The Hague, should allow the defense to close the presentation of evidences for their clients. The Rwandan Minister of Defense, Marcel Gatsinzi, who worked as head of the Rwandan Army Staff at the time of the genocide, has also been called to testify. Militaries I was expected to be closed in December but in spite of all his efforts, Judge Mose did not manage to meet the schedule.
The trial in appeal of the verdicts against Ferdinand Nahimana, Hassan Ngeze and Jean Bosco Barayagwiza in the trial called « Media » will take place between January 15th and 20th. The first two have been condemned to life and the third one to 35 years in prison. The verdict was issued in December 2003 at the conclusion of a three-year long trial. A witness will testify in the morning of the 16th and the closing arguments will begin the next day.
Mika Muhimana, a former councillor sentenced to life imprisonment in 2005, will also appear before the appeals chamber on the 15th.
The court will take the opportunity of his presence in Arusha to pronounce, on January 16th, its judgment in the case of Emmanuel Ndindabahizi. The ex-minister was condemned to life in detention in July 2004.
The trial of Joseph Nzabirinda is also scheduled to begin on the 17th. After having accepted his guilty plea last December, the Chamber will now hear the arguments of the prosecution and the defense. Both parties have settled on a sentence ranging from 5 to 8 years but the Chamber is not complied to follow their recommendation.
The oldest trial before the ICTR, « Butare », will resume on the 22nd. Heated debates can be expected now that the Chamber has asked the last three attorneys to conspicuously shorten their list of witnesses. After having let the first defendants' presentation of evidences drag on, the ex-minister for Family Pauline Nyiramasuhuko and her son Arsène Ntahobali, the chamber apparently wishes to speed up the debates and has declared that it intends to close the trial in July.
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Iraqi High Tribunal
Official Website of the Iraqi High Tribunal
Grotian Moment: The Saddam Hussein Trial Blog
Unofficial English Translation of Iraqi High Tribunal Appellate Chamber Opinion in the Dujail Trial
Grotian Moment: The Saddam Hussein Trial Blog
January 3, 2007
The Dujail trial ended in August 2006. Three months later, on November 5, 2006, the five-member Iraqi High Tribunal Trial Chamber issued its verdict in the Dujail trial. The Trial Chamber's 298-page Opinion was published on November 22 and the Defense appeal briefs were filed on December 3, 2006. Three weeks later, on December 26, 2006, the nine-member Iraqi High Tribunal Appellate Chamber issued its Judgment and Opinion in the Dujail Trial Appeal. On January 3, 2007, we were provided this "unofficial English translation" to post on this Website.
Unofficial English Translation of the Dujail Appellate Chamber Opinion
Hussein executed with 'fear in his face'
CNN
December 30, 2006
Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who spent his last years in captivity after his ruthless regime was toppled by the U.S.-led coalition in 2003, was hanged before dawn Saturday for crimes committed in a brutal crackdown during his reign.
The execution took place shortly after 6 a.m. (10 p.m. Friday ET), Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, told Iraqi television.
"This dark page has been turned over," Rubaie said. "Saddam is gone. Today Iraq is an Iraq for all the Iraqis, and all the Iraqis are looking forward. ... The [Hussein] era has gone forever."
Al-Iraqiya state television aired videotape of Hussein's last moments several hours after the execution.
The video showed Hussein, dressed in a black overcoat, being led into a room by three masked guards.
The broadcast only showed the execution to the point where the noose was placed over Hussein's head and tightened around his neck. No audio was heard.
Rubaie, who witnessed the execution, said the former leader was "strangely submissive" to the process.
"He was a broken man," he said. "He was afraid. You could see fear in his face."
Rubaie said that Hussein carried with him a copy of the Quran and asked that it be given to "a certain person." Rubaie did not identify that person.
On Al-Arabiya television, Rubaie said the execution took place at the 5th Division intelligence office in Qadhimiya. He said Hussein refused to wear a black hood over his head before execution and told him "don't be afraid."
White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel said President Bush was asleep when the execution took place and was not awakened. The president had been briefed by national security adviser Stephen Hadley before retiring and was aware the hanging was imminent, Stanzel said.
The White House issued a statement praising the Iraqi people for giving Hussein a fair trial.
"Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule," Bush's statement read. "It is a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial." ( Full story)
The execution took place outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, Rubaie said, and no Americans were present.
"It was an Iraqi operation from A to Z," he said. "The Americans were not present during the hour of the execution. They weren't even in the building."
He added that "there were no Shiite or Sunni clerics present, only the witnesses and those who carried out the actual execution were present."
Hussein was hanged for his role in the 1982 Dujail massacre, in which 148 Iraqis were killed after a failed assassination attempt against the then-Iraqi president.
Two other co-defendants -- Barzan Hassan, Hussein's half-brother, and Awwad Bandar, the former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court -- were also found guilty and had been expected to face execution with Hussein, but Rubaie said their executions were postponed.
"We chose to postpone Barzan and Awwad's execution to a later date because we wanted to have this day to have an historic distinction," he said. "We wanted to have one specific date for Saddam so people remember this date to be linked to Saddam's execution and nothing else."
Rubaie said the execution was videotaped and photographed extensively from the time Hussein was transferred from U.S. to Iraqi custody until he was dead.
Many of those who witnessed the execution celebrated in the aftermath. ( Full story)
"Saddam's body is in front me," said an official in the prime minister's office when CNN telephoned. "It's over."
In the background, Shiite chanting could be heard. When asked about the chanting, the official said, "These are employees of the prime minister's office and government chanting in celebration."
He said that celebrations broke out after Hussein was dead, and that there was "dancing around the body."
Iraqi-Americans celebrated in the street in Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest concentration of Iraqis in the United States.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki did not attend the execution, according to an adviser to the prime minister who was interviewed on state television.
"It's a very solemn moment for me," Feisal Istrabadi, Iraq's U.N. ambassador, said on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360." "I can understand why some of my compatriots may be cheering. I have friends whose particular people I can think of who have lost 10, 15, 20 members of their family, more.
"But for me, it's a moment really of remembrance of the victims of Saddam Hussein."
Friday evening, a U.S. district judge refused a request to stay the execution.
Attorney Nicholas Gilman said in an application for a restraining order, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, that a stay would allow Hussein "to be informed of his rights and take whatever action he can and may wish to pursue."
Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court that upheld the former dictator's death sentence, called Gilman's filing "rubbish," and said, "It will not delay carrying out the sentence," which he called "final."
Throughout the day, there were conflicting reports about who had custody of Hussein. Giovanni di Stefano, one of Hussein's defense attorneys, told CNN the U.S. military officially informed him that the former Iraqi dictator had been transferred to Iraqi custody, but that the move in U.S. court could have meant that Hussein was back in U.S. custody.
There had been speculation that Hussein would be executed before Eid Al-Adha -- a holiday period that means Feast of the Sacrifice, celebrated by Muslims around the world at the climax of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The law does not permit executions to be carried out during religious holidays.
Eid began Saturday for Sunnis and begins Sunday for Shiites. It lasts for four days. Hussein was a Sunni Muslim.
Meeting with half-brothers
Another defense lawyer, Badie Aref, told CNN that Hussein met with two of his half-brothers in his cell on Thursday and passed on messages and instructions to his family.
"President Saddam was just bracing for the worst, so he wanted to see his brothers and pass on some messages and instructions to his family," Aref said. The half brothers who visited were Sabawi and Wathban Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, he said.
He never asked to see anyone else -- not even his wife, said his lawyers. She was the mother of his five children.
Aref said the U.S. soldiers guarding Hussein on Tuesday took away a radio he kept in his cell so he could not hear news reports about his death sentence, which was confirmed that day.
"They did not want him to hear the news from the appeals court upholding the sentence," he said. "They gave him back the radio on Wednesday."
Aref said Saddam found out about the appeals court verdict "a few hours after it was announced."
Crimes against humanity
Hussein was convicted on November 5 of crimes against humanity in connection with the killings of 148 people in the town of Dujail after an attempt on his life.
The dictator was found guilty of murder, torture and forced deportation.
The Dujail episode falls within 12 of the worst cases out of 500 documented "baskets of crimes" during the Hussein regime.
The U.S. State Department says torture and extrajudicial killings followed the Dujail killings and that 550 men, women and children were arrested without warrants.
CNN's Aneesh Raman, Arwa Damon, Ryan Chilcote, Sam Dagher, Jomana Karadsheh and Ed Henry contributed to this report.
Was justice too swift?
Chicago Tribune
by Aamer Madhani and Tom Hundley
December 31, 2006
Critics say Hussein's speedy execution casts doubt on Iraq's judicial system and leaves unresolved more grievous alleged crimes
Saddam Hussein's trials and his march to the gallows were intended to be turning points in Iraq's history in which justice was delivered on behalf of hundreds of thousands of people killed by the dictator's brutal regime.
But for many human-rights advocates and legal experts who followed the trials, Hussein's rapid conviction and execution instead left them with doubts about the emerging Iraqi government and the fairness of its judicial process.
Hussein died on the gallows in Baghdad on Saturday, less than two months after an Iraqi court sentenced him to death for the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail and just four days after the Iraqi appeals court upheld the verdict. Witnesses said he was buried Sunday near his hometown of Tikrit. Even some American advisers who helped set up the new judiciary after Hussein's fall reportedly were surprised by the speed of the process.
Few denied that Hussein was guilty of war crimes and atrocities against his own people, and many said the execution reflected the heartfelt desire of the Iraqi people. President Bush said in a statement that Hussein "was executed after receiving a fair trial--the kind of justice he denied victims of his brutal regime."
Yet in the end, critics said, the flawed trials and the swift appeals process suggested that the system did little more than provide victors' justice, delivered by a Shiite-dominated government against a Sunni Arab who repressed Shiites for more than two decades.
The execution in the Dujail case also will minimize the impact of the second trial of Hussein on even more grievous charges of killing tens of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq. The truth-seeking commission is to continue its case against Hussein's six co-defendants and come to a conclusion on whether the former dictator committed genocide and other crimes. But it is unlikely the proceedings will be as closely followed now that Hussein is dead.
"It was absolutely right that Saddam Hussein should be held to account for the massive violations of human rights committed by his regime, but justice requires a fair process and this, sadly, was far from that," said Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North African monitoring program. "The trial should have been a landmark in establishment of the rule of law in Iraq after decades of Saddam Hussein's tyranny. It was an opportunity missed."
What might have been most jarring about the proceedings that led to Hussein's hanging was how quickly the appellate court came to its conclusion, said Scott Horton, a Columbia University law professor who has served as a defense attorney for Iraqi journalists accused of crimes in Iraq.
Horton said that in his dealings with the Iraqi criminal justice system, judges spent little time reviewing cases that were on appeal, even capital cases. On a trip to Iraq to represent an Iraqi journalist, he said he was stunned to see judges dispensing of serious cases in as little as 10 minutes and defense counsel playing the role of a "potted plant" during proceedings.
"It's still in the process of finding its way," Horton said of the Iraqi judicial system. "I think the big question that Americans should be asking is, `Are we are moving it to be more transparent and just or we moving it toward being fast?'"
Lightning appeal
The short time for the appellate proceedings in Hussein's case was in marked contrast to death penalty cases in the U.S., where condemned people often wait on Death Row for years while myriad appeals are considered.
Doug Cassel, an international law expert who worked with the United Nations in its investigation of atrocities in El Salvador, pointed out that while the Iraqi court took about nine months to hear a case that included hundreds of witnesses, thousands of pages of testimony and documentary evidence, the appellate court needed just weeks to review and uphold the sentence.
"The lesson that is sent to the world is that the United States talks a big game about due process, but in reality it doesn't really believe in it," said Cassel, now a law professor at the University of Notre Dame.
Hussein's execution also could deepen the rift between the U.S. and its key European allies. Capital punishment is banned throughout the European Union, where political leaders and human-rights organizations spoke out strongly against hanging the Iraqi leader.
Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's staunchest ally in Iraq, opposed executing Hussein.
"We are against the death penalty," Blair said. "However, what I think is important about this is to recognize that this trial of Saddam has been handled by the Iraqis themselves. ... It does give us a very clear reminder of the total and barbaric brutality of [Hussein's"> regime."
In Italy, which has one of the strongest anti-capital-punishment movements in Europe, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi warned that executing Hussein would be counterproductive. Berlusconi, who supported the invasion of Iraq and sent Italian soldiers there, said the hanging was "a step backward in Iraq's difficult road toward full democracy."
Even as the trials progressed, human-rights organizations raised questions about the process. Court watchers said they were troubled by a laundry list of problems that marked the chaotic proceedings. At times, defendants and prosecutors shouted over each other, and an occasional scrum broke out between defendants and bailiffs, overshadowing the vivid testimony of witnesses and the damning documentary evidence.
The trials were punctuated by tantrums, harsh rebukes of the court's legitimacy and several boycotts of the proceedings by the defendants and their lawyers.
Political interference
The proceedings also were marred by political interference and by the failure to take adequate measures to protect witnesses and defense lawyers, court watchers said.
Even before the appeal was considered, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki predicted that Hussein would be hanged before year's end. The chief judge in the Dujail case, a Kurd, resigned after Shiite politicians complained that he was giving Hussein too much leeway to make speeches. The chief judge in the second case was removed after making a statement that some politicians said was prejudicial in favor of Hussein.
During the course of the trial, three defense attorneys were killed, 200 relatives of victims of Dujail were slain and several families of witnesses were moved to the heavily fortified Green Zone for their protection.
But Michael Scharf, a professor at Case Law School in Cleveland who helped train judges and prosecutors for the Iraqi tribunal, told CNN that the trials were more thorough, orderly and systematic than is widely believed.
"The judges really dealt with all the analysis in great detail," Scharf said.
He later added: "There were a lot of things that went wrong during this trial, but overall it was not a miscarriage of justice."
Ken Joseph, an Iraqi exile and author of the soon-to-be-published book "Who Lost Iraq," said critics fail to realize that the Iraqi judicial system was a mockery during Hussein's reign. In comparison, Hussein and his co-defendants were treated fairly.
"It wasn't perfect," Joseph said. "But if you want to compare it to the other courts in the Middle East, what it did was historic."
Hours before Hussein's hanging, some critics also warned that the dictator's fast-track execution would confound efforts to establish exactly what happened during his rule and would be another squandered opportunity for Iraqis to come to terms with their past.
When Hussein was executed, he was in the midst of a second trial for the Anfal campaign, the 1987-88 operation that resulted in the deaths of 180,000 Kurds, including tens of thousands who died in chemical attacks. Many Kurds protested the announcement that Hussein would die before the Anfal trial could be concluded.
"The other victims are being cheated out of justice," said Cassel, the Notre Dame law professor. "There is no need to rush to execution."
After the execution, al-Maliki called on Iraqis to look at the hanging as punishment not just for Hussein's crimes in Dujail but for the totality of suffering he caused.
In a statement, the prime minister said: "Let the families of Iraqi martyrs killed in mass graves, Anfal, Halabja [a Kurdish village where 5,000 people were killed in a chemical attack in 1988"> or those executed in the cells of the dead regime be happy. The mothers, orphans and widows should celebrate the death of the buried dictator."
Cassel and Horton also suggested that Hussein's quick execution served U.S. interests by leaving unanswered questions about U.S. support of the dictator's regime before his 1990 attack on Kuwait.
Bid for international trial
Before the trial started, many human-rights advocates pushed for Hussein and other members of his coterie to be tried by an international court. But U.S. and Iraqi officials chafed at the idea of trying Hussein outside the country, arguing that the Iraqi tribunal would serve a crucial role in healing the country's open wounds.
Richard Dicker, an international law expert at Human Rights Watch, said it was not that the Iraqi judges and prosecutors lacked the know-how to deal with Hussein's staggering record of criminality. Rather, Iraq's judiciary simply "did not have the infrastructure and capacity available to deal with the most complex criminal procedure imaginable."
Dicker said that a mixed court of Iraqis and international jurists could have produced a more credible verdict. The Bush administration, however, has long been suspicious of international courts.
"What I fault the U.S. for was the insistence, even before Baghdad had fallen to coalition troops, that it wanted an all-Iraqi court to try Saddam," he said. "I believe that this was a decision taken regardless of facts on the ground, motivated by an ideological and political point the administration was trying to make: that you don't need international courts."
Dicker said the appeals process in Hussein's case "failed even more starkly than the trial."
Specifically, he pointed out that after the verdict and sentence were handed down Nov. 5, Hussein's lawyers were given 30 days to appeal, but they did not receive a copy of the 300-page trial decision until Nov. 22. The appeals chamber held no hearings before issuing its decision last week.
"The proceedings against Saddam Hussein are a lost opportunity on a grand scale," Dicker said. "There was no shortage of evidence that could have been used against him. . . . The race to execution will undercut the legitimacy of the whole process and deprive the Iraqi people of an indisputable record of what happened during his regime."
Era ends as Saddam Hussein is put to death
Christian Science Monitor
by Dan Murphy
January 2, 2007
The deposed Iraqi dictator was executed Saturday morning.
Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who got his start in politics as an assassin and who never lost that brutal approach as he led Iraq for more than 30 years, was led to the gallows by a group of burly men in balaclavas and executed early Saturday morning.
Hussein was executed for the only crime for which he's been convicted: the 1982 murder of more than 200 people from the village of Dujail. Many Iraqis, though, particularly the Shiites and Kurds who lost hundreds of thousands to his bloody regime, saw his death as justice for the broader crimes of his rule.
Yet peace is unlikely to follow, analysts say. Hussein still has the power to arouse fierce passions among Iraqis. His death was cheered by millions of Iraqis, setting off wild celebrations in the Shiite quarters of Baghdad and other cities. Many Sunnis, however, saw it as a national humiliation - a proud Arab leader put to death at the hands of a government the United States helped to install - and were angered by the fact that the execution took place on Eid al-Adha, Islam's most important holiday.
Still, the demise of the man who led bloody wars against Iran and the United States, and whose police state was famously called the "republic of fear" by one dissident, may now be oddly irrelevant to Iraq's future, as the country's broad sectarian violence has moved far beyond camps of Hussein supporters and opponents.
While the US once believed Hussein's fall would help stabilize Iraq - his capture in a dim spider hole three years ago set off celebrations in US military command centers "akin to VE day," one US military intelligence officer recalls - that is no longer the case. What was once described as an insurgency largely made up of Baathist holdouts and some Sunni Islamist fighters, is now seen as a battle for power among Iraq's major sects.
President Bush reflected that view when he cautioned against too much optimism on Saturday.
"Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq," Mr. Bush said in a statement. "But it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy."
Since Hussein's capture and trial, tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in the deepening civil conflict, and sectarian militias have mushroomed throughout the country. Shiite death squads allied to some of Iraq's major political parties have been particularly active in Baghdad and Basra, the country's second largest city, and have used torture techniques to rival those of Hussein's feared secret police.
Last Monday, for instance, British forces raided and then destroyed the serious crimes unit in Basra, which they said was a base of operations for a Shiite militia. They found more than 100 prisoners there, many of whom had been tortured with electric shocks, burned with cigarettes, or shot in the knees.
Before Hussein's execution, US and Iraqi forces braced for a possible surge in violence. About 70 people were killed around Iraq following his death, most by two suicide car bombs, one in the Shiite town of Kufa, the other in Baghdad, a level of violence that has been fairly common in recent months.
The move to execute Hussein was swift. He was on trial facing charges of genocide against Iraq's Kurds, and at least four other trials were expected to follow. While US advisers to the court had said that they expected that the execution would be delayed to allow the justice process to go forward for his other crimes, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite Islamist whose popularity has flagged as Iraq's violence has deepened and unemployment has surged, grew determined to see Hussein killed without further delay.
Ahead of the execution, Mr. Maliki said the swift carrying out of the sentence underscored his government's commitment to protecting "human rights."
Michael Scharf, a legal scholar at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio, and expert in war-crimes tribunals who has provided legal advice to the judges who tried Hussein, former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, and other dictators, says that he is "saddened" that Hussein won't face further charges.
But, he says, he understands why the Iraqi government made the decision. "In a way, it cheapens his crimes. It's like treating Saddam as if he were Al Capone. Crimes against humanity are a very serious charge, but there is a hierarchy of evil, and at the top of that pyramid is genocide."
Hussein's execution was held in a former torture facility of Hussein's in the Shiite neighborhood of Khadimiya, another piece of symbolism designed to appeal to Iraq's Shiite majority. State television showed the noose being put around Hussein's neck, and later displayed footage of his body. Celebratory gunfire - Iraqis call it "happy fire" - broke out, particularly in Sadr City, the stronghold of militant cleric and Shiite militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, who US officers now say is among the greatest threats to peace and stability.
In a statement, Maliki said that the carrying out of Hussein's sentence provided a "lesson" to dictators around the world. He said it was wrong to view him as a Sunni Arab, or to blame Sunni Iraqis in general for Hussein's crimes.
"The tyrant represented nothing but his own evil soul," the statement reads.
Many observers note that Hussein's foreign wars, and the international sanctions that followed his 1991 attempt to annex Kuwait, drove the economy into the ground. But he is also remembered by many Iraqi Sunni Arabs and some Shiites as presiding over an unprecedented era of prosperity. He came to power amid the region's oil boom, and his Arab Socialist Republic, as he called it, poured much of that wealth into health and literacy programs that left the country with the best university system in the region and its largest middle class.
Hussein was also a popular figure in the broader Middle East, where state-controlled media almost never reported his crimes. Instead, he was seen as a rare Arab leader willing to stand up to the US, and who took a strong stand in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, giving thousands of dollars to the families of Palestinians killed in attacks on Israel.
Most Arab regimes, close to the US but mindful of the popularity of the ousted dictator among their people, have avoided comment on the execution so far, though Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi declared three days of national mourning. In contrast, Iran, which lost hundreds of thousands of its citizens in the war with Iraq in the 1980s, hailed the execution as an act of justice.
Few doubt that Hussein was responsible for mass murder and the routine torture of political opponents and even one-time friends - he ordered the executions of a number of the men who helped him seize power in 1968, his two sons-in-law, and was alleged to have personally murdered opponents in the Baath Party during his rise to power.
But the fairness of his trial was criticized by international human rights organization. Human Rights Watch charged in a report last month that his trial was "deeply flawed" and damaged the rule of law in Iraq. Among the group's concerns was the violence against the court - three defense lawyers were assassinated in the course of the trial -as well as what it alleged was government interference in the workings of the court, and "demonstrated bias" of the presiding judge, an ethnic Kurd who lost family members when Hussein's government attacked the Kurdish village of Halabja with sarin nerve gas.
Mr. Scharf disputed the criticisms of Human Rights Watch and others. He says that he would give the tribunal a "low passing grade" and agrees with Maliki that it does send a message to dictators.
"We are really entering this new period where dictators can't count on a comfortable retirement," he says. "With [Chilean dictator Augusto] Pinochet dying under house arrest, Milosevic dying in custody, and now this. I tell the critics they should read the 298-page judgment against Saddam - the largest war-crimes judgment since Nuremberg - before going any further."
Scharf says that the government decided the cost of allowing Hussein to live to face further charges was greater than ending his life now. "Early on, there was a feeling that people would want him around to face justice in these other cases," he says, "but [their view is that] he's been not only a continuing disruptive influence in court but actually inciting violence outside of it."
UN urges stay of Iraq executions
BBC News
January 7, 2007
New UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged Iraq to postpone the execution of two of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's co-defendants.
His appeal comes amid growing international criticism of the handling of Saddam Hussein's hanging, at which he was taunted and filmed.
Mr Ban was criticised this week for failing to state the UN's policy of opposing the death penalty.
Saddam Hussein's intelligence chief and chief judge are also due to be hanged.
Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad al-Bandar were convicted along with Saddam Hussein for their part in the killing of 148 Shia Muslims in the Iraqi village of Dujail in the 1980s.
Saddam Hussein was hanged on 30 December.
Campaign
In a letter to the Iraqi representative at the UN, Mr Ban urged restraint in carrying out death sentences imposed by the Iraqi High Tribunal.
The BBC's Keith Adams says Mr Ban's comments on Saddam Hussein's hanging caused a stir this week - his first in the job.
He said capital punishment "was for each and every member state to decide" - words that seemed at odds with the UN's policy of opposing the death penalty.
Our correspondent says Mr Ban now seems to be asserting the established UN stance.
The UN said Mr Ban's letter "also refers to the secretary general's view that all members of the international community should pay due regard to all aspects of international humanitarian and human rights laws".
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has reacted angrily to the international outcry over the execution.
He said his government could review relations with any country that criticised the action.
Mr Maliki said the hanging was a "domestic affair" for the benefit of Iraq's unity, adding that the former president had received a fair trial.
International protest has continued, however. On Saturday Rome's mayor lit up the Colosseum to highlight Italy's support for a global ban on the death penalty.
Italy this week began a diplomatic push to have the issue taken up by the UN General Assembly.
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called the execution a "political and historic error".
The UK's finance minister, Gordon Brown, described the way Saddam Hussein was executed as "deplorable" and "completely unacceptable".
He said the manner of Saddam Hussein's death would do nothing to ease the tension between Sunnis and Shias.
Several Sunni Arab countries have criticised the hanging as sectarian.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said it had turned the former leader into a martyr.
Iraq court drops Saddam's charges
BBC News
January 8, 2007
The Iraqi High Tribunal has dropped all charges against Saddam Hussein, who was hanged on 30 December, as the genocide trial of six co-defendants resumed.
They are charged with crimes against humanity over a campaign against Kurds in the 1980s that left 100,000 dead.
Saddam Hussein was hanged after an earlier trial over the killing of 148 Shia Muslims in the town of Dujail.
Many Kurds were disappointed that he was executed before facing justice for his role in the Anfal campaign.
Among the six remaining defendants is Saddam Hussein's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, sometimes known as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged use of chemical weapons against the Kurds.
As the trial resumed he tried to read a prayer from the Koran in memory of his cousin, but the judge ordered him to stop.
The prosecution then played a video, allegedly containing the voice of Mr Majid threatening to bomb the Kurds.
"I will attack them with chemical weapons," the voice said.
The tape also showed pictures of dead men, women and children.
The defence argues the campaign - codenamed al-Anfal, or "the spoils of war" - was a legitimate operation to quell a rebellion after some Kurds sided with the enemy during the Iran-Iraq war.
In other developments:
- President George W Bush is due to name US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad as the country's new envoy to the UN
- Mr Bush's long-awaited address on a new strategy in Iraq is scheduled for Wednesday, officials say
- Violence on the ground continues, with at least nine people killed in an ambush on a bus carrying workers to Baghdad airport.
Executions 'this week'
The Baghdad trial had been in recess since 21 December.
Its resumption throws the spotlight back on the Iraqi judicial system which has come under international criticism for the handling of Saddam Hussein's execution.
The former leader was taunted at the gallows and illicit images of his execution later appeared on the internet.
The UN has called for a stay of execution for two others sentenced to death in the Dujail trial.
But the Iraqi government says the execution of Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad al-Bandar will take place this week.
A lawyer for the two defendants said that they had told they were going to be hanged along with Saddam Hussein on 30 December.
The lawyer, Issam Ghazawi, said this was "torture" and that waiting for death was "more difficult that death itself".
Correspondents say the Iraqi government, dismissed by growing numbers of Iraqis as weak and ineffectual, is keen to push these executions through in order to prove its strength.
Keen to assert his independence, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Monday said any political objectives announced this week by the White House will have come from Baghdad, not Washington.
President George Bush is to due to set "benchmarks" for political reform following widespread calls in Washington for a strict timetable of political progress to be imposed on their Iraqi partners.
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Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) &
Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Offical Website of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
The Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme
Liberia's Truth Commission begins hearings mid January
Africa News
January 3, 2007
Liberia 's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) announced here Wednesday that it will formally begin holding public hearings on 16 January for victims of atrocities and alleged perpetrators in the country's past civil wars and conflicts.
TRC chairman, lawyer Jerome Verdier told a privately owned radio station in Monrovia that plans were being finalised to begin the public hearings on schedule.
He said the TRC gathered nearly 2000 statements of abuses and atrocities committed in Liberia between 1979, when bloody so-called riot riots took place just a year preceding the first-ever military coup in which President William Tolbert was assassinated.
Verdier said the statements were gathered from eyewitnesses who were at the scenes of those atrocities.
The Liberian TRC was one of those institutions created under the August 2003 comprehensive peace Agreement signed in Ghana to end the last civil war and effect the departure of ex-President Charles Taylor.
The TRC, which was reconstituted last year, has a two-year mandate to investigate the root causes of Liberia's civil conflicts dating to 1979.
Verdier praised the Liberian government for providing US$1.2 million and OSIWA (the Open Society for West Africa) for contributing US$250,000 for the operation of the TRC.
He, however, said the commission's timetable was on course, but urgent financial support was needed from international donors to implement activities of the TRC.
Amnesty International Adds Voice to TRC's Work
AllAfrica.com - The Inquirer (Monrovia)
January 5, 2007
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), commends Amnesty Internationals' booklet " Liberia: A Brief Guide to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission," launched at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) headquarters in Monrovia on December 20, 2006. The guide describes the mandate and functions of the TRC and includes recommendations to the TRC and to the Liberian government.
The TRC takes note of the recommendations and is pleased to receive this worthy contribution from Amnesty International and sees it as a sign of positive partnership.
In its press release of the same day, Amnesty International recommended greater transparency and accountability in relation to work done and future work, as well as better communication with the donors to ensure the smooth functioning of the TRC.
The TRC appreciates Amnesty International's comments, and however, wishes to clarify that all of its functions border on the principles of transparency, accountability, professionalism and straight adherent to the TRC's Act. This is why financial reports are placed on the TRC's website (www.trcofiliberia.org). The TRC produces quarterly reports and distributes copies to all its partners. After the first quarter of its operation, the TRC requested an audit of the United Nations. Eventually, the Government of Liberia did the auditing.
The TRC encourages all of its partners and civil society groups to get directly involved in the process and it is opened to their monitoring and also welcomes questions about its activities.
Meanwhile, the TRC announces the appointment of Mr. Nathaniel T. Kwabo as its Executive Director. Mr. Kwabo's appointment follows a rigorous screening and recruitment exercise of the TRC's "Selection panel" comprising of UNDP, UNMIL, EU, ECOWAS, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and LBDI, respectively. Mr.Nathaniel T. Kwabo is a Liberian "Veteran Human Rights Activist." He holds a Masters degree in "International Peace and Conflict Resolution" and in "International Relations." He was selected among 12 short listed candidates. The Secretariat is completed by his appointment.
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United States
U.S. appeals court will not consider arguments from retired judges in Guantanamo detainee case
Associated Press via International Herald Tribune
December 29, 2006
WASHINGTON : An appeals court considering whether Guantanamo Bay detainees have U.S. constitutional rights said Friday that it will not accept arguments by seven retired federal judges who oppose a new U.S. anti-terrorism law.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is examining whether so-called enemy combatants should be allowed to challenge their detention in U.S. courts. President George W. Bush signed a law this fall forbidding such challenges and the Justice Department says detainees are not protected by the U.S. Constitution.
Seven federal judges from both political parties filed friend-of-the-court briefs in November urging the appeals court to declare key parts of the new law unconstitutional. They said the law, which sets up military commissions to hear terror cases, "challenges the integrity of our judicial system" and effectively sanctions the use of torture.
In a 2-1 decision Friday, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said it would not accept that brief on a legal technicality, saying the title "judge" should not be used to describe former judges in legal proceedings.
The panel's more conservative judges, David B. Sentelle and A. Raymond Randolph, issued the opinion with Judge Judith W. Rogers, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, dissenting.
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, said it is unusual for such briefs to be rejected. He said the ruling could indicate a decision in the detainee case is near.
FBI Reports Duct-Taping, 'Baptizing' at Guantanamo
Washington Post
by Dan Eggen
January 3, 2007
FBI agents witnessed possible mistreatment of the Koran at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including at least one instance in which an interrogator squatted over Islam's holy text in an apparent attempt to offend a captive, according to bureau documents released yesterday.
In October 2002, a Marine captain allegedly squatted over a copy of the Koran during intensive questioning of a Muslim prisoner, who was "incensed" by the tactic, according to an FBI agent. A second agent described similar events, but it is unclear from the documents whether it was a separate case.
In another incident that month, interrogators wrapped a bearded prisoner's head in duct tape "because he would not stop quoting the Koran," according to an FBI agent, the documents show. The agent, whose account was corroborated by a colleague, said that a civilian contractor laughed about the treatment and was eager to show it off.
The reports amount to new and separate allegations of religiously oriented tactics used against Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. After an erroneous report of Koran abuse prompted deadly protests overseas in 2005, the U.S. military conducted an investigation that confirmed five incidents of intentional and unintentional mishandling the book at the detention facility. They acknowledged that soldiers and interrogators had kicked the Koran, had stood on it and, in one case, had inadvertently sprayed urine on a copy.
The reports released yesterday were the result of an internal survey conducted in 2004 by the FBI, which asked nearly 500 employees who had served at Guantanamo Bay to report possible mistreatment by law enforcement or military personnel. More than two dozen incidents were reported, including some that the government had revealed in earlier document releases.
The new documents were turned over as part of an ongoing lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.
In them, FBI employees said they had witnessed 26 incidents of possible mistreatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, including previously reported cases in which prisoners were shackled to the floor for extended periods of time or subjected to sexually suggestive tactics by female interrogators.
In a previously unreported allegation, one interrogator bragged to an FBI agent that he had forced a prisoner to listen to "Satanic black metal music for hours," then dressed as a Catholic priest before "baptizing" him.
One agent reported being told that while questioning male captives, female interrogators would sometimes wet their hands and touch detainees' faces in order to interrupt their prayers. Such actions would make some Muslims consider themselves unclean and unable to continue praying.
Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement last night that "the issues and facts raised" in the documents "are not new" and that 12 reviews have showed there were no Defense Department policies that condoned abuse.
"The Department of Defense policy is clear -- we treat detainees humanely," Carpenter said. "The United States operates safe, humane and professional detention operations for enemy combatants who are providing valuable information in the war on terror."
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said all the information from the survey has been turned over to the Defense Department's inspector general.
An FBI memorandum that accompanied the documents emphasized that none of the incidents involved agency or Justice Department employees. It said the reports concerned personnel from other government agencies or outside contractors.
Jameel Jaffer, deputy director of the ACLU's National Security Program, said the new documents highlight the need for more focused and aggressive investigation of allegations of detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay. He questioned how aggressively the FBI pursued the allegations by its employees, because authorities conducted follow-up interviews in only nine of the 26 cases.
"More comprehensive investigation is needed, not only into the scope of abuses but into the root causes and policies that led to those incidents," Jaffer said.
Some previously reported tactics mentioned in the new documents include wrapping a prisoner in an Israeli flag, subjecting others to extreme heat and cold, and aggressively using strobe lights on others.
Such approaches were allowed under aggressive Pentagon detention policies in place at the time, and the new documents include several instances in which interrogators appear to cite such approval as justification for their actions.
But one FBI agent who visited Guantanamo Bay in the fall of 2003 described a tactic called the "frequent flyer program," in which detainees who were deemed uncooperative were placed on a list to be subjected to special sleep-deprivation tactics. The prisoners were moved frequently from cellblock to cellblock at intervals of two to four hours to interrupt their sleep, the agent said.
In September, the Pentagon adopted new interrogation rules, outlawing harsh techniques adopted at Guantanamo Bay, detention facilities in Iraq and other prisons overseas since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Peace activists plan trip to Cuba to protest US base at Guantanamo
Associated Press via International Herald Tribune
January 4, 2007
HAVANA : American activist Cindy Sheehan will join an international delegation traveling to Cuba next week to protest treatment of terrorism suspects five years after the first prisoners arrived at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, organizers said Thursday.
Zohra Zewawi, the mother of a terror suspect still held at the base, will also be in the group protesting outside the U.S.-run prison in southeastern Cuba, peace activist Medea Benjamin said in a release.
"I am traveling all the way from Dubai because my heart is overflowing with grief over the abuse and ongoing detention of my son," Zewawi said in a statement distributed by Benjamin's Global Exchange group of California, a lead organizer of the trip with the U.S. group CODEPINK: Women for Peace.
Zewawi said her son, British citizen Omar Deghayes, had been tortured and blinded in one eye since he was imprisoned in September 2002 and still had not been charged or tried.
Sheehan, 49, of Vacaville, California, became an anti-war activist known as the "peace mom" after losing her 24-year-old son Casey in Iraq in April 2004. She has drawn international attention after camping outside U.S. President George W. Bush's ranch to protest the war in Iraq, and has been arrested numerous times for trespassing.
Also planning to travel to Cuba is Asif Iqbal, a former Guantanamo detainee who was freed after no charges were filed. A retired U.S. Army colonel and a constitutional rights attorney will also be in the group.
The 12-member delegation is to arrive Tuesday in Havana, and later travel to the Cuban side of the U.S. base in the island's extreme southeast — a 14-hour drive away.
Next Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 11, 2002 arrival of the first prisoners to Guantanamo, the group plans to march to the main gate separating the base from Cuban territory to protest the treatment of prisoners inside.
In December 2005, American Christians with the Witness Against Torture activist group held a protest march outside the base.
The U.S. military still holds about 395 men on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban, including about 85 who have been cleared to be released or transferred to other countries. The military says it wants to charge 60 to 80 detainees and bring them to trial.
" U.S. federal courts, not military commissions, should hear the cases against those charged with terrorist acts, Ann Wright, the retired colonel said in the statement. "The infamous prison in Guantanamo should be immediately shut down."
Additional protests calling for closure of the Guantanamo prison are scheduled on the same day in England, Australia, and the Netherlands.
Dozens of gatherings are also planned in U.S. cities, including Washington D.C., New York, and outside the U.S. Southern Comm
