War Crimes Prosecution Watch

Cambodian Extraordinary Chambers (ECCC)

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

EU president urges Cambodia to prosecute Khmer Rouge leaders soon
Monsters and Critics
January 23, 2007

Phnom Penh - Cambodia must prosecute former Khmer Rouge leaders quickly, or risk losing the 'logical reason' as defendants and witnesses grow older and frailer, German Ambassador to Cambodia Pius Fischer said Tuesday.

Fischer, who is the acting European Union (EU) president, said the EU was anxious that proceedings begin soon and warned that the eyes of the world were on Cambodia's handling of the trials.

He said the EU, which directly donated approximately 1.2 million dollars to the 56-million dollar joint UN-Cambodian trial budget in 2005, had a 'serious interest in this process living up to our expectations.

'A lot of time has been lost in delays and some potential witnesses ... are now elderly,' he said during a seminar in Phnom Penh on EU-Cambodian relations. 'Very soon maybe the logical reason will not be around any more. It is very important that this trial starts as soon as possible.'

Fischer also said that allegations of political interference are being closely monitored and delays are being carefully noted.

The Cambodian government denied it was interfering in the process, calling the allegations by rights' groups including New York-based Human Rights Watch politically motivated.

'It is very important this tribunal will actually satisfy all international standards and will be able to take off and grow as soon as possible. We should have a trial as soon as possible,' Fischer said.

Up to 2 million Cambodians died during the genocidal 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime, but most of the aging former leaders still live freely in their communities. Former leader Pol Pot died at his home in 1998.

The press officer for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Reach Sambath, said Tuesday that an update on the progress of the debate over procedural rules was expected Friday.

'We can't make any promises or predictions at this stage but we are optimistic,' Sambath said.

Advocates of a trial have long urged haste, saying a successful prosecution of former leaders would be a key step in helping victims of the regime come to terms with the past and move forward.

Khmer Rouge Tribunal - Interview with a Co-prosecutor
Radio Free Asia
by Dan Southerland
January 26, 2007

PHNOM PENH —When it comes to international war crimes trials, Robert Petit seems to have done it all.

Following stints in Rwanda, Kosovo, East Timor, and Sierra Leone, the veteran Canadian prosecutor is now facing one of his biggest challenges—developing cases for Cambodia’s long-awaited Khmer Rouge tribunal.

Towards the end of last year, the U.N.-backed effort to open the tribunal ran into serious difficulties when Cambodian and international jurists failed to reach agreement on internal procedures.

The two sides are now making a new effort to overcome differences.

Critics argue that Cambodian judges are subject to political interference from the Cambodian government, making it difficult to hold fair trials.

Unlike the trials dealing with the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and East Timor, the Cambodian tribunal will be more closely linked to Cambodian law.

And, as Robert Petit acknowledges, Cambodian law is full of “gaps and inconsistencies.”

'A lot of progress'

Some critics suspect that the Cambodian government has been using its influence to delay progress toward the opening of the tribunal, partly because of a fear that the findings could implicate or embarrass members of the government, some of whom are former Khmer Rouge themselves.

Petit, who is a co-prosecutor working with a Cambodian counterpart, declines to speculate about Cambodian government motivations or possible delaying tactics. He argues instead that he and the other jurists involved are making good, steady progress.

“I don’t comment on speculation,” said Petit in an interview with Radio Free Asia. “I don’t think that would be wise on my part.”

“We’ve made a lot of progress, more than other tribunals [at this stage]. We have investigators who have started amassing a fair amount of information. We’ve developed cases. And we have a pretty good idea already of where we’re going to go.”

“So I think that overall in six months we have a pretty good record, especially considering the limited resources we have, compared with any other tribunal that I know about.”

Petit served as a criminal prosecutor in Montreal for nearly a decade. Then he decided to try something different. He launched a new career as an international prosecutor.

From 1996-99, he worked as a legal officer in the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. From 1999-2004, he served in quick succession as a legal adviser with the U.N. mission in Kosovo, a prosecutor with the U.N. mission in East Timor, and senior trial attorney with the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Petit sees similarities between the Khmer Rouge case and those of other war crimes trials. But he also sees significant differences.

As for similarities, he says, “It’s always about victims, isn’t it? And trying to bring justice for somebody whose rights and integrity have been violated. To a certain extent, it’s always the same.”

But then he finds huge differences in Cambodia.

To begin with, much time has passed. The Khmer Rouge began their full-scale reign of terror more than 30 years ago, in April 1975.

Many Cambodians have been reluctant to talk about what happened and their government has not encouraged discussion. School textbooks barely touch on the subject.

Many are still confused as to why the Khmer Rouge killed so many innocent people. By some estimates up to two million people died from executions, starvation, and overwork.

“Obviously the passage of time is a big factor,” says Petit. “There is a lack of understanding about what happened.

“In Rwanda, you knew why you were being killed. It was because you were a Tutsi. And the government had been saying for 30 years that the Tutsi were the enemy. Here that’s not the case. A whole generation grew up not really learning about this. And there are all those survivors who don’t really want to tell their children what happened to them.

“There’s a knowledge gap that did not exist in some other cases. It’s not either harder or easier to deal with—just different.”

Since last July, Petit has been working on a regular basis with a Cambodian counterpart, East-German trained co-prosecutor Chea Leang.

“We’re working very well together,” says Petit.

In a brief interview, Chea Leang agreed. “We have strong cooperation and good relations and good planning to achieve the purpose of our mission,” she said.

Does she believe that trials will begin this year?

“Now we are working on internal rules,” she says. “If we agree on those, we expect a trial to take place in 2007.”

Asked if he expects to see trials this year, Petit says: “Yes. I would hope so. And I’d be very surprised if we didn’t have trials. I’d be very disappointed. There must be. There’s no way around it. There must be.”

Unwieldy court further complicates Khmer Rouge trial
International Herald Tribune
by Seth Mydans
January 25, 2007

The Cambodian judges were on one side and the foreign judges on the other this week in a dispute that captures a decade of difficulties in bringing to trial the last surviving leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge.

If they cannot agree on procedural rules soon, analysts and officials at the tribunal say, some foreign judges could walk out, casting a further shadow over a process that some critics say is already so compromised as to be of doubtful value.

Seventeen Cambodians and 12 foreigners took office as judges and prosecutors last July, inaugurating a United Nations-sponsored process that mixes Cambodian law with international standards of justice.

It is an awkward formula made all the more questionable by the involvement of poorly trained Cambodian judges who were appointed by and are answerable to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Pragmatists say that a flawed trial is better than none at all and that there is no choice but to proceed with the tribunal you've got rather than the tribunal you might wish to have.

Three decades have already passed since the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia, causing the deaths of 1.7 million people through killings, torture, starvation and overwork in a regime that lasted from 1975 to 1979.

The potential defendants are aging and some have died, notably the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, in 1998. The trial targets top leaders and "those most responsible" for the crimes and is expected to focus on at most a dozen defendants.

A handful of names are generally mentioned as potential defendants, only one of whom is in custody, with the remainder living freely in Cambodia.

The foreign prosecutor, a Canadian named Robert Petit, has been pursuing the evidence vigorously and has not said where it is leading him.

In an interview, he said he was ready to propose his first indictments once the judges have formalized the rules at a plenary session tentatively set for March. A trial might then begin by the end of the year.

A rules committee of nine judges is attempting to resolve the differences now. Sean Visoth, the tribunal's Cambodian coordinator, said: "If there is no compromise and there is no plenary, the international judges will walk away."

The delay has revived a familiar concern that Hun Sen might not in fact want the trial to proceed and might be throwing up the latest in a long series of roadblocks that have stalled it over the years.

Among other things, he is believed to be under pressure from China, which does not want to see a trial that would be likely to demonstrate its close ties to the Khmer Rouge regime.

Cambodia and the United Nations reached agreement on the structure of the mixed tribunal in 2003 after years of difficult negotiations that involved both technical and political differences.

Those differences remained at the heart of the disagreements that have stalled the trial since last November, according to experts on the tribunal.

There are more than 100 sometimes complicated procedural rules to be agreed upon. But the core disputes appear to involve a fundamental, long- running issue: the independence of the trial from Cambodian political manipulation.

On the Cambodian side, an important issue is control, the U.S. ambassador, Joseph Mussomeli, said. "The government in general tries to keep tight control over the judiciary and anything that could have negative consequences," he said.

The first concern is the scope of indictments in a country where the politics of the present remain tangled in the past. Some former middle-ranking Khmer Rouge are prominent in the current government, including Hun Sen — although experts say he is not culpable.

Other potential defendants may have powerful patrons who seek to protect them from indictment.

One point of contention among the judges, according to people close to the negotiation, is an extremely complex provision that would in effect allow an indictment to proceed without the agreement of the Cambodian side.

That provision is one of several balancing acts in the tribunal's supermajority system that at most junctures allows foreign and Cambodian judges to cast what amount to vetoes over one another's decisions.

In addition, the Cambodian side is seeking to limit the right of defendants to be represented in court by foreign lawyers, which it says is a violation of Cambodian legal sovereignty.

Foreign analysts say that the Cambodian concern is that aggressive foreign lawyers would be independent of any political guidance and could send the case in unpredictable directions.

A British lawyer, Rupert Skilbeck, has already set up a Defense Office to coordinate the work of individual lawyers once they are hired. He said that without the right to select their own lawyers defendants would be placed at a disadvantage.

"It's important that the trials are very fair because if they're seen as show trials, then there will be no justice," he said in November, speaking to the Cambodian Bar Association, which is closely allied with Hun Sen and which opposes participation by foreign lawyers.

Mussomeli said that the Cambodian government, accustomed to controlling the judiciary, might be reacting defensively to Petit, who has taken on his job as prosecutor with an energy and independence that is unfamiliar here.

In the interview, Petit sought to calm these concerns, saying he was aware of the sensitivity of his role and of the possibility that the tribunal could be derailed by an overly aggressive prosecution.

"We have to apply the law in the context of Cambodia," he said. "I'm not stupid. You have to exercise discretion."

Petit has been involved in international tribunals in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Kosovo and East Timor, and he said that he understood that in cases like these it is not possible to follow the law blindly, without reference to its context.

"We all have a sense of our responsibilities," he said. "Our primary responsibility is to deliver justice to the victims of these crimes." That would not be possible, he said, if the process was shut down for any reason.

"Having a right and exercising it with good judgment is two different things," he said.

He said he did not yet know how many cases he would forward to the next level of the tribunal, the investigating judges, who are to issue indictments.

"In this particular tribunal there are very specific expectations," he said. "Everyone knows what happened. We've got the evidence there, you just have to pick it up and carry it into court — well, it doesn't work that way.

"We have to grasp events of great magnitude that happened 30 years ago and be legally and morally convinced that we have cases against individual people," he said.

Cambodian, foreign judges fail to resolve rift on rules for Khmer Rouge trial
Associated Press via The International Herald Tribune
January 26, 2007

Cambodian and international judges have failed again to resolve their differences on draft rules for a genocide trial of Khmer Rouge leaders, the tribunal's office said Friday.

The disagreement threatens to further delay the long-pending trials, meant to mete out justice for atrocities committed when the communist Khmer Rouge held power in the late 1970s.

A committee of five Cambodian and four foreign judges appointed to the tribunal have met over the last two weeks to try to resolve disagreements left over from a plenary session in November last year.

They made "solid progress" in "significantly narrowing the number of outstanding issues," a tribunal statement said Friday.

"Nevertheless, there remain several major issues to be fully resolved," involving how Cambodian and international law can be integrated into the internal rules to ensure transparency and fairness, especially for the defense side, it said.

The tribunal was created by a 2003 agreement between Cambodia and the United Nations to seek justice for crimes committed when the Khmer Rouge held power from 1975-79. The radical policies of the now-defunct communist group led to the deaths of some 1.7 million people from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition.

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

The 110 draft rules cover every phase of the proceedings — preliminary investigations, judicial investigations, the trial and appeals. They also delineate the roles of all parties, including prosecutors, defense attorneys and defendants.

In November, the judges ended their plenary session with disagreements on how Cambodian law can be integrated with international standards and how the special tribunal will operate within the Cambodian court structure, under which the tribunal was established.

Critics have often described the Cambodian judiciary as weak, corrupt and susceptible to political influence.

The statement Friday did not provide any details of the two-week meeting but indicated that previous disagreements still persist.

It said the committee will meet again in March. It, however, set no date for the next plenary session to adopt the rules.

A coalition of Cambodian civil society groups warned Wednesday that international senior officials could pull out of the process should the internal rules not meet minimum international standards.

"We are ... disappointed and concerned that more than half of the first year's operation has passed with little to show in the way of justice for the victims" of the Khmer Rouge, it said.

Cambodia: Progress in Khmer Rouge [tribunal] but ‘major issues’ remain: UN spokesman
UN News Service
January 26, 2007

A judicial review committee in Cambodia, looking to resolve differences that have stalled the long-awaited trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders, accused of mass killings and other horrific crimes during the 1970s, has made progress over the last two weeks but several “major issues” still need to be resolved, a United Nations spokesman said today.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) Review Committee concluded its two-week session in the capital Phnom Penh earlier today, on the draft Internal Rules for the court, Farhan Haq told reporters in New York. The UN is funding most of the $56.3 million three-year budget for the Khmer Rouge trials.

“Solid progress was made during the two-week session of the Review Committee, significantly narrowing differences on a number of issues. Nevertheless, there remain several major issues to be fully resolved,” he said.

“Such as the way in which Cambodian and international law can be integrated into the Internal Rules to ensure a transparent and fair registration process and full rights of audience for foreign defence counsel,” he added. A further meeting of the Review Committee is scheduled for March.

In a press release from Phnom Penh, the Review Committee said it was “acutely aware of the urgent need to ensure fair and open trials for the benefit of the Cambodian people,” adding that it was “committed to achieving that goal” and had been working constantly since November on the various disagreements.

Judges and prosecutors for the trials were sworn in last July. Under an agreement signed by the UN and Cambodia, the trial court and a Supreme Court within the Cambodian legal system will investigate those most responsible for crimes and serious violations of Cambodian and international law between 17 April 1975 and 6 January 1979.

The UN will pay $43 million of the $56.3 million budget for the trials, with the Government of Cambodia providing $13.3 million.

At a pledging conference in 2005 to support the UN assistance to the trials, former Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that the crimes committed under Khmer Rouge rule “were of a character and scale that it was still almost impossible to comprehend,” adding that “the victims of those horrific crimes had waited too long for justice.”

[back to contents]

Democratic Republic of the Congo (ICC)

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

UN chief urges DRC democracy pact
BBC News
January 27, 2007

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for a "good governance pact" in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"I would like to invite you to work out a pact with yourselves and the people you represent as well as with all your international partners," Mr Ban said.

He was addressing members of the DRC parliament at the start of a five-day tour of Africa - his first official foreign trip since taking office.

The DRC has the largest deployment of UN soldiers anywhere in the world.

Mr Ban will also join an African Union summit in Ethiopia - the key business part of his trip - and visit Kenya.

He has promised to keep Africa high on his agenda as UN chief.

'Real opposition' needed

The secretary general began his tour in a country still emerging from a bloody civil war.

To loud applause, Mr Ban told the Congolese national assembly the country's elections in 2006 were a real source of hope for Africa - but the task of rebuilding was enormous.

He said there could be no democracy without justice.

"To be a healthy and thriving democracy [it] needs a real political opposition in which everyone can express himself freely and without fear of being intimidated," Mr Ban told lawmakers.

Calling on the Congolese politicians to co-operate, he said: "This would be a kind of good governance pact, because restoring the state's authority and ensuring the primacy of the rule of law across the country are indispensable for consolidating peace and democracy."

The UN secretary general spoke of the need to re-establish security and urged the creation of "a professional, well-paid and well-equipped army and police as a priority" - and promised continued UN support.

Mr Ban will meet the key opposition leader, Jean-Pierre Bemba and President Joseph Kabila on Sunday.

The UN's theory is that if this vast country can make the transition from war-torn nation to fledgling democracy, it will be a stable influence on the rest of troubled sub-Saharan Africa, says the BBC's UN correspondent, Laura Trevelyan, who is travelling with Mr Ban.

About 17,000 United Nations peacekeepers operate in the country, overseeing the peace process after the end of a bloody five-year war in 2002.

'Deep concern'

Mr Ban is also due to meet President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan at the AU summit, which opens in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Monday.

Our correspondent says in theory the Sudanese leader has accepted the idea of a joint AU-UN peacekeeping force in the troubled region of Darfur, but it has not happened yet.

The UN chief said the situation in Darfur was "on the top" of his agenda.

"I... am deeply concerned about the continuing violence and the suffering of the civilians there. This time we need action and to make real progress," he said.

He said he would urge President Bashir "to make a clear commitment" to accept the deployment of an UN-AU peacekeeping force in the war-torn region.

Nearly four years of fighting in Darfur has killed some 200,000 people there and more than two million people have been displaced.

UN official hails international court’s decision to try Congolese militia leader
UN News Service
January 29, 2007

The top United Nations official dealing with children and armed conflict today welcomed a ruling by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to try Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo for war crimes involving recruiting children as soldiers, in what would be the Hague-based court’s first trial.

“This case is considered a major milestone in international attempts to fight against impunity in order to eradicate the practice of using child soldiers. It will be the first trial of the ICC and, importantly, focuses exclusively on child soldiers,” said a statement from the Office of UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy.

“The former militia leader from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is charged with war crimes for enlisting, recruiting and using children under fifteen in hostilities. The Office of the Special Representative reiterates its supports to the ICC and will follow closely the different steps of the proceedings and due process of the Court,” it added.

The Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC confirmed the charges against Mr. Lubanga Dyilo and referred the case to trial.

Mr. Lubanga Dyilo was formally charged by the ICC Prosecutor’s office in August last year and hearings took place in November. He was arrested in March and is the President of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) and was the commander-in-chief of its former military wing, the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC) in 2002-03 in the Ituri district in the north-eastern DRC.

He is accused of playing “an overall coordinating role” in the policy of the FPLC to recruit and enlist child soldiers and providing the “organizational, infrastructural and logistical framework for its implementation.”

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

The Assembly of States Parties to the ICC’s Rome Statute – the Court’s management oversight and legislative body – met today at UN Headquarters in New York, where its President, Bruno Stagno Ugarte of Costa Rica, announced that the charges had been confirmed against Mr. Lubanga Dyilo. All concerned are “pleased, very pleased that the ICC is moving forward” on the case, he said.

Amnesty International Welcomes Confirmation of Charges Against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo
Amnesty International
January 29, 2007

(Washington, DC) -- Vienna Colucci, Director of Amnesty International USA's Program for International Justice and Accountability, responded to today's confirmation of charges against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, leader of an armed Ituri group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC):

"Amnesty International applauds the International Criminal Court (ICC) for taking the landmark step of ending impunity for those who use children to fuel the conflicts that are tearing many African countries apart. Amnesty International researchers have interviewed child soldiers in the DRC who were as young as six when they were recruited. Forcing children to fight and kill, or to serve as human shields or sex slaves, is among the worst crimes in the world.

"Lubanga's trial must be only the beginning of a comprehensive effort to ensure justice for the widespread human rights abuses that have been committed in the DRC. The international community must fully support the ICC in its crucial work."

UN Official Welcomes Deal With Dissident General
AllAfrica.com - Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)
by Srabani Roy
January 30, 2007

International human rights groups applauded Monday's indictment by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) of a former militia leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a positive first step toward trying others accused of war crimes.

The ICC formally charged Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, the onetime leader of the country's Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC), with "war crimes of enlisting and conscripting of children under the age of fifteen years into the FPLC [Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo]."

The FPLC is the military wing of the UPC. Lubanga was charged with using children "to participate actively in hostilities in Ituri [in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC] from September 2002 to 13 August 2003."

"This case is considered a major milestone in international attempts to fight against impunity in order to eradicate the practice of using child soldiers. It will be the first trial of the ICC and, importantly, focuses exclusively on child soldiers," said Radhika Coomaraswamy of the Office of the U.N. Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict in a statement.

The charges against Lubanga will initiate the first trial under the ICC, which was set up in 2001 and came into force in 2003 to handle cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Violence continues in parts of DRC, although peace agreements were signed in 2002 and a historic presidential election held last year, which was eventually won by incumbent President Joseph Kabila in a run-off in October.

The DRC government referred the issue of the most heinous crimes committed during the country's 1998-2003 civil war, in which more than four million people died, to the ICC in March 2004. At the outset of the investigation, Ituri was singled out as one of the most violent regions, and the military wing of the UPC identified as one of the most violent militias.

"We welcome the decision of the ICC to confirm the charges against Lubanga," Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Programme at Human Rights Watch in New York, told IPS. "We see the trial as the beginning of the end of the absolute impunity against the horrific crimes in eastern Congo."

Lubanga was arrested in Kinshasa and transferred to the ICC in March 2006. He is being held in a detention centre near The Hague. A date for his trial has not yet been set but it is expected to begin later this year.

Many human rights and legislative groups agreed that the fact that the ICC was able to bring charges and initiate a trial in less than a year is an indication of the improved efficacy of the international court, which has come under criticism in the past for failing to move swiftly in its investigations. These include DRC, Uganda and Darfur, Sudan.

"Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is exactly the type of person for whom the ICC was created -- a warlord who has forced children as young as nine to commit murder, rape, and mutilation, often against their own family members," said Golzar Kheiltash, a legal analyst with Citizens for Global Solutions, in a statement issued by the Washington-based non-governmental organisation.

David Donat Cattin, a legal advisor with the International Law and Human Rights Programme of Parliamentarians for Global Action, a network of legislators and parliamentarians worldwide, concurred.

"A big change compared to Yugoslavia and Rwanda is that the victims were allowed to participate," Cattin noted as a significant difference between the ICC and these other independent international tribunals, in which he said victims were only allowed to observe the proceedings. "Justice has been done for the victims."

Although generally seen as crucial move forward by the ICC, Dicker of HRW and others expressed disappointment about the limited nature of the charges.

Besides conscripting children, Lubanga has been accused of heinous crimes, including ethnic massacres, torture and rape.

"We had expected the charges to go further in terms of the alleged crimes [against Lubanga]," Dicker told IPS.

He added that his organisation had also expected that charges would be brought against other militia leaders in Uganda and Rwanda, accused of alleged involvement in the violence in Ituri in the later years of the conflict. Dicker noted that going beyond the borders of the DRC was "in line with the prosecution's case against Lubanga."

Similarly, Mariana Goetz, ICC programme advisor for the Britain-based non-governmental organisation REDRESS, which works with survivors of torture, noted in a statement that limiting the charges to child recruitment "may deepen cleavages amongst rival factions in Eastern Congo and alienate victim populations."

The ICC's charges do not reflect justice for many victims, including girls who were often used at sex slaves, REDRESS noted.

Given the limited nature of the ICC's charges, some human rights organisations worry that it is not enough to deter other militia leaders and war criminals from continuing with their violence.

"It will take more than these charges to deter others," HRW's Dicker told IPS.

DRC: Opinion split in Ituri over rebel's indictment
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)
January 30, 2007

BUNIA, 30 Jan 2007 (IRIN) - Residents in the volatile district of Ituri in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo have largely welcomed the International Criminal Court's (ICC) indictment of rebel leader Thomas Lubanga for war crimes, specifically the conscription of children.

"This is good news," Christian Lukusha, head of the Rights Assistance and Protection Unit of the agency Justice Plus in Bunia, capital of Ituri, told IRIN on Tuesday.

On Monday, the court in The Hague said there were sufficient grounds for Lubanga’s trial. He is expected to become the first defendant to stand trial at the court.

Lukusha and a researcher for Human Rights Watch, Geraldine Mattioli, said although the indictment was an "important step", the court needed to go further against Lubanga.

"We still hope that other charges will be added in a future case against Lubanga and also other leaders of the UPC [the Union of Congolese Patriots]: massacres, sexual violence, torture," Mattioli said. "We also hope that the International Criminal Court will investigate high-ranking people who have supported, financed and armed these militias."

Lubanga, 46, was arrested on 17 March 2006 in Ituri, becoming the first suspect to be taken into custody, two years after the tribunal's prosecutor launched investigations into his activities during the conflict in Ituri. He was transferred to The Hague and remains its only detainee.

However, some members of his Hema ethnic group said it was unjust to single out Lubanga.

"Why only our leader and not the others who also committed crimes in Ituri?" Pascal Mateso, an Ituri farmer, asked.

The agency Espoir Pour Tous (Hope For All) said the court should issue another arrest warrant so that it is seen to be acting in an impartial manner and as a deterrent.

"This is a strong message from the international community fighting against impunity and for those who use or might want to use children in armies," Monoodge Munubay, spokesman for the United Nations Mission in DRC in Ituri, said.

The court needed the collaboration of Ituri residents to make their indictment, and some have said the court needed to protect witnesses and victims of brutality.

"They mentioned my name during the confirmation meeting despite an agreement that I remain anonymous; that has really caused me a great deal of insecurity. The Union de patriotes congolais of Thomas Lubanga has threatened me," said a reporter, who asked not to be named.

The court is an independent and permanent body set up to bring to trial suspects of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Rome Statute, which came into force on 1 July 2002, governs its jurisdiction and functioning.

Lubanga, a father of seven, remained calm during the pre-trial hearing and often took notes. He has denied the charges and described himself as a patriot.

He founded the Union des patriotes Congolais in 2000. UPC members were mostly ethnic Hema who consider the neighbouring Lendu their enemies. He also set up UPC's military wing, the Forces patriotiques pour la libération du Congo, in September 2002.

Ituri was one of Congo's worst-scarred war zones. At least 60,000 civilians were killed, according to the UN. In addition to abuses committed by the UPC, serious human-rights violations were allegedly committed by other groups, including the Front des nationalistes et intégrationnistes (Nationalist Integrationist Front) led by Floribert Ndjabu Ngabu, a Lendu militia. Ngabu is in custody in Kinshasa but has not yet been indicted by the Hague court.

After his arrest by Congolese authorities in February 2006 following the killing of nine UN peacekeepers in Ituri, he was imprisoned in the capital, Kinshasa, until he was handed over to the ICC on 16 March 2006.

The court's pre-trial chamber ruled that there were sufficient grounds to believe that Lubanga was criminally responsible as co-perpetrator for the war crimes conscripting children into an armed group and using them to fight from September 2002 to 13 August 2003. The government welcomed the ruling.

"This decision is a move in the right direction and in line with what those in the DRC government have always wanted," Madelaine Kalala, the Congolese Minister for Human Rights, said. "It is a strong signal for the country in its fight against impunity. It is up to us to fight impunity here."

[back to contents]

Darfur, Sudan (ICC)

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

The UN Human Rights Council High-Level Mission to Darfur must act quickly and focus on effective protection of the civilians in Darfur
Amnesty International
January 29, 2007

Amnesty International notes the appointment of the members of the Human Rights Council’s High-Level Mission to Darfur and urges the Mission to begin its work without delay. The human rights and humanitarian situation in Darfur remains catastrophic and is spreading into eastern Chad. After months of inaction, it is imperative that the Human Rights Council makes a substantial contribution to the protection of civilians in Darfur promptly when it meets in its fourth regular session, which starts on 12 March 2007. Amnesty International counts on the High Level Mission to assist the Council in that regard by providing it with a considered and authoritative assessment of the human rights situation and sound recommendations for the protection of the civilian population of Darfur and eastern Chad.

Amnesty International’s research, and that of other organizations including the UN itself, demonstrates that civilians in Darfur continue to suffer murder, rape, forced displacement and other serious violations of their most fundamental human rights. The violations have also increasingly extended into eastern Chad since the end of 2005.

Despite assertions to the contrary by the Sudanese government, attacks on civilians by the Janjawid militia are ongoing in Darfur. Rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of gender based violence continue to be committed in Darfur by Janjawid militias.

Although armed groups opposed to the Sudanese government have also committed serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, the government of Sudan bears the primary responsibility for protecting civilians in Darfur. Not only has the government persistently failed to fulfil its responsibility, but it is continuing to support Janjawid militias which, together with Sudanese government forces, bear the largest responsibility for grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

Amnesty International has advocated that the members of this and similar missions be selected for their impartiality, integrity and competence, be independent of any government and appear to be independent. In this regard, Amnesty International questions the appropriateness of the nomination and appointment to the Mission of Geneva ambassadors that have taken positions, individually or as a member of a group of states, in the Human Rights Council down-playing the responsibility of the government of Sudan for the human rights violations in Darfur. The organisation looks to all members of the High-Level Mission to rise above previously enunciated national and group positions to identify effective measures to halt the human rights violations and protect civilians in Darfur and eastern Chad. It calls on the government of Sudan and other parties to the conflict in Darfur to cooperate fully with the High-Level Mission.

Amnesty International’s recommendations to the High-Level Mission:

It is essential that the High-Level Mission draws extensively from the ample information on the human rights situation in Darfur in the reports of the International Commission of Inquiry, the Special Procedures, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Secretary-General to identify the steps that the government of Sudan and the international community must take, separately and jointly, to end violations of human rights in Darfur. A starting point should be the full and prompt implementation of the recommendations contained in these reports, in the resolutions by the Human Rights Council, the former Commission of Human Rights, and the Security Council, as well as the African Union Peace and Security Council and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The High Level Mission must address directly the persistent failure of the government of Sudan to meet its responsibility to protect the civilian population of Darfur. Despite the reported acceptance by the government of the deployment of a hybrid operation of African Union and UN peacekeepers in Darfur, many issues still remain to be resolved, and no timetable for the deployment of the AU/UN force has been agreed. The High-Level Mission should add its authoritative voice to support the immediate establishment of an effective peacekeeping mission in Darfur, with the necessary mandate and resources to protect civilians from human rights violations.
In order to achieve its objectives, the High-Level Mission must be able to travel freely in the area and have unfettered access to persons, locations and documentation without restrictions imposed by the government of Sudan or other parties to the conflict. The High-Level Mission must also ensure the effective protection of witnesses and any other persons contributing to or participating in its activities. Given the well documented links between the human rights crises in Darfur and in neighbouring Chad, the High-Level Mission should also travel to eastern Chad, for the purpose of documenting the human rights violations committed by all parties, including those active in Darfur.

Darfur: Populations Displaced by Violence Remain Isolated and Deprived of Assistance
Doctors Without Borders
January 29, 2007

New York, January 29, 2007 – Since late December 2006, new attacks in west Darfur, Sudan, have destroyed several villages and have led to the displacement of thousands of people. Displaced persons have found refuge in Ardamata and Dorti camps, situated on the outskirts of El Geneina, the capital of west Darfur, while other people remain blocked further north in Tanjeke.

While some 750 families—more than 5,000 persons—have so far been able to reach the Ardamata and Dorti camps, numerous others have been left behind and remain at the mercy of armed groups still active in the region. In the village of Tanjeke, located 30 km north of El Geneina, at least one thousand families are gathered in small, individual shelters made of grass and leaves that lack adequate roofs. The displaced persons also lack water and soon will be in need of food. People are mostly coming from the camps of Artega and Kouta and are on the run for the second time in less than three years. On January 19, a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) evaluation team was able to reach Tanjeke, but high levels of insecurity on the road have prevented any further intervention. This highly volatile environment leaves the already weakened displaced population without much needed assistance.

Meanwhile, in El Geneina, displaced persons continue to arrive in small groups, mostly at night due to the risk of attacks on the roads. There are many reports of acts of violence perpetrated against villagers. In Ardamata camp, MSF has set up a mobile medical unit to screen new arrivals, and more than 500 people have been treated. In addition, on January 8, non-food items such as water containers, blankets, and plastic-sheeting were distributed in Ardamata and Dorti camps to 750 families. High-energy protein biscuits have also been distributed to the displaced. A number of shelters have been erected.

"The living conditions in the camp are particularly difficult at this time of year, with temperatures falling to close to five degrees Celsius at night," said Stephane Reynier, MSF field coordinator in El Geneina. "The displaced population still trapped in the Sirba area are enduring very difficult conditions, in addition to coping with the insecure environment."

The constant insecurity in the region, and on the roads in particular, is rendering movements extremely difficult for aid workers. In Darfur today, accessing populations in need is, in many cases, impossible.

MSF has been working in west Darfur since January 2004. MSF, an independent international medical humanitarian organization, has been working in Darfur since 2003 and in west Darfur since 2004. MSF currently has over 2,000 staff working in 17 locations throughout Darfur.

Secretary-General says resolving Darfur conflict will help entire Sudan
UN News Service
February 1, 2007

Painting a generally grim picture of the two years since the signing of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended 21 years of civil war between the north and the south, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says resolving the conflict in Darfur could go a long way towards restoring trust in the deal.

In his latest report on Sudan to the Security Council, Mr. Ban writes that despite the CPA having been signed on 9 January 2005, “implementation has not progressed as effectively as was hoped.” In the most serious violation of the ceasefire since 2002, clashes last November in Malakal in Upper Nile state killed at least 150 people.

“The recent crisis in Malakal is a reminder that the hard-won Agreement is not yet stable or self-sustaining, but needs constant encouragement. Mistrust between the parties remains a serious obstacle, potential spoilers still exist and the war in Darfur has diverted international attention and support from implementation of the Agreement.

“A swift, peaceful resolution to the conflict in Darfur could go a long way towards restoring trust between the parties to the Agreement. Conversely, the longer the conflict drags on, the harder it will be to persuade the southern Sudanese that their best interests lie within a united Sudan.”

In Darfur, more than 200,000 people have been killed and at least 2 million others displaced since 2003 because of fighting between Government forces, allied militias and rebel groups seeking greater autonomy. About 4 million people depend on outside aid.

Mr. Ban said 2007 should be a “year of increased focus” on the Agreement, adding that sustained international support will be indispensable, as he also urged all Sudanese sides to give their full support to the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) in its efforts to assist them in implementing the deal.

“Both parties must cease using militias as proxy forces and make the integration of other armed groups a top priority… international support for the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration mechanisms will continue to be critical to implementation,” he writes, referring to fighters from both sides.

Mr. Ban’s report was released as his Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy and Deputy Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Rima Salah completed a week-long visit to Sudan, including Darfur, where they urged all parties to commit to ending child recruitment and to immediately release any children associated with their forces.

In another development, UNMIS strongly condemned the killing in North Darfur of a member of the Civilian Police of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) who was shot dead today by unknown armed men during a hijacking inside a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs). It also requested the release of an AMIS peacekeeper abducted on 10 December.

On Saturday, UNMIS will take part in joint operations to return up to 150,000 IDPs to their places of origin in southern Sudan and South Kordofan. Return operations for this year will be launched with the first convoy of displaced Sudanese set to leave Dar El Salam camp in the capital Khartoum.

UNMIS is working with the Government of National Unity, the Government of Southern Sudan and the International Organization on Migration (IOM).

UN humanitarian arm vows to stay in Darfur despite rising tide of attacks
UN News Service
February 2, 2007

Despite the recent alarming surge in the number of violent attacks against relief workers in the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur, United Nations humanitarian officials pledged today to continue their work across the area, even if they have to modify operations.

Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator Margareta Wahlström said Darfur is becoming one of the most dangerous areas in the world for aid workers, with many places and roads now either deemed “no go” or extremely insecure, making it difficult to reach those in need, especially in North and West Darfur.

“Every day there are more people who need our help, yet our colleagues are being threatened by all sides,” she said in a statement. “We need all parties to stop the fighting and attacks. We finally need an effective ceasefire, after almost four years of relentless violence.”

About 4 million people across Darfur, an impoverished region roughly the size of France, depend on 13,000 relief workers from UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for basic aid and services, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The situation continues to deteriorate: more than 2 million people are internally displaced, with another 25,000 added to that total last month alone. Fighting continues between Government forces, allied militias and rebel groups seeking greater autonomy, and officials have warned that the conflict threatens to spill over into neighbouring Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR).

Ms. Wahlström said she was particularly concerned that the attacks were rising, despite repeated and clear appeals from the UN and NGOs that they should be spared. The attacks include hijackings of humanitarian convoys.

Yesterday a civilian police officer with the AU peace monitoring mission in Darfur (known as AMIS) was killed at a camp in North Darfur for internally displaced persons (IDPs), and in mid-December armed groups launched a major attack against NGO compounds in the South Darfur town of Gereida.

OCHA said it was also appalled by last month’s incident in which Government police and local security officials arrested and assaulted 20 UN staff members and NGO workers taking part in a social gathering in the town of Nyala.

“We have been promised a full investigation into this terrible incident,” Ms. Wahlström said. “The Government has to ensure that the perpetrators will be held accountable, and send a strong message that it will not tolerate attacks against relief workers by its own officials or anyone else.”

Hu to Sudan: Allow U.N. bigger Darfur role
Associated Press via CNN
February 3, 2007

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao told Sudan's leader he must give the United Nations a bigger role in trying to resolve the conflict in Darfur and also said China wanted to do more business with its key African ally, Sudan state media reported.

In what appeared to be China's bluntest message to Sudan on the Darfur crisis, Hu urged President Omar al-Bashir in a face-to-face meeting Friday to boost the U.N.'s "constructive role in realizing peace in Darfur" along with the African Union, the official Sudan news agency SUNA reported.

China buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil and is the largest investor in the country, giving it some leverage with al-Bashir's government. Sudan has defied a U.N. Security Council call for the underpowered African Union mission of 7,000 troops in the western region of Darfur to be taken over by a U.N. operation of 22,000 peacekeepers.

China usually refuses to mix human rights issues with diplomacy, but Hu has come under international pressure to use his clout with Sudan to push it to accept U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur. More than 200,000 people have been killed in four years of fighting in the region between rebels and the army, backed by the notorious janjaweed militia.

Human rights activists expressed concern ahead of Hu's eight-country tour of Africa that China is overlooking abuses to gain access to Africa's resources. Africa has become an important source of oil and other natural resources to feed China's rapid economic growth.

Sudanese officials briskly ushered journalists out of the room Friday when Hu began voicing his expectations on Darfur to al-Bashir. Later, a Sudanese official told The Associated Press that Hu had told al-Bashir his government "should work more earnestly to get the rebels who did not sign the Darfur peace agreement to join the peace process."

The government signed the peace agreement with one rebel group last May, but other rebels rejected the accord as inadequate and the conflict escalated.

This week, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Sudan to accept a compromise deal by which a U.N. force would deploy in Darfur in a "hybrid mission" with African peacekeepers. Ban has also asked China's U.N. ambassador for help in trying to persuade the Khartoum government.

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer urged Sudan Friday to accept a U.N.-led peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

"If the message the Chinese are bringing President Bashir is clear and is unequivocal that we need to move forward and they need to end this nightmare, it's going to be very positive," the California Democrat said of the meeting between the two leaders. Boxer was speaking at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol insisted that Hu's words on Darfur were not hostile.

Akol told reporters after the meeting that Sudan was willing to see the mixed U.N. and African Union force deployed in Darfur "as soon as funding and troops were secured."

Diplomats in Khartoum said Hu's position on Darfur could be linked to Chinese concerns about Sudan's stability, as well as that of neighboring Chad. The Chinese have recently improved relations with Chad, which also has important oil reserves and is fighting rebels in eastern provinces. Chad has accused Sudan of backing its rebels -- a charge that Khartoum denies.

Sudan wanted to draw attention to the trade and investment side of its relationship with China.

After meeting him at the airport, al-Bashir took Hu to the Chinese-built Friendship Hall, where they signed several accords. China undertook to build schools and a new presidential palace, reduced import tariffs on some Sudanese goods, granted a loan of 600 million yuan (US$77.4 million) for infrastructure, and gave a grant of a US$40 million.

The SUNA agency said China also canceled debts of 470 million yuan (US$60.7 million) and US$19 million.

" China is more fair than the West in dealing with Sudan and its policy has helped boost both business and peace in the country," said al-Bashir, who pointedly praised Beijing for not interfering politically in African countries.

The two later visited what they referred to as the finest Sino-Sudanese achievement: the Khartoum refinery where 100,000 barrels of oil -- a fifth of Sudan's production -- are refined each day.

Jointly owned by Sudan and the Chinese National Petroleum Company, the refinery stands near the village of Aljaili about 70 kilometers (43 miles) north of Khartoum.

Hu's trip to Cameroon, Liberia, Sudan, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and Seychelles began Jan. 30 and runs until Feb. 10.

[back to contents]

Uganda (ICC)

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

Govt to compensate LRA victims
New Vision
by Alfred Wasike and Ali Mao
February 1, 2007

FAMILIES who lost their relatives to the LRA terror will be compensated. That was announced by President Yoweri Museveni at the closure of a two-day leadership seminar at Adwari Secondary School in Otuke county, Lira District.

“We are going to compensate the victims of LRA terrorism in northern Uganda. Those families who lost their relatives, those whose lips, ears and noses were cut off by the LRA will be compensated as part of mato oput (reconciliation),” Museveni said to thunderous applause.

“There is no way we can resettle the terrorists and ignore the victims of the LRA. But to achieve this goal, we are going to raise money from here ( Uganda) and from our friends abroad.”

The President, who was hosted by lands minister Omara Atubo, rubbished claims that he or his government had grabbed land in the North.

“There is this nonsense I am hearing that the Government or Museveni has grabbed your land. I am a big land owner in Rwakitura. How can somebody with lobo madwong (lots of land) grab your land?”

He stressed that according to the constitution land belongs to the people.

“ Uganda is the only country in East Africa where it says land belongs to the people. You came from IDP camps and returned to your land. Is that not so?” he asked the cheering audience.
On leadership, the topic of the workshop, he lashed out at politicians who were telling lies to win elections.

“Do something about the political leaders who go to radios and tell lies that the government is taking your land. We introduced a new type of politics. Our leadership comes through elections, not witchcraft or guns. All of us, from the LC1 up to me, are elected by the people. So the conduct of leadership should be a new one. You should not use goba (lies) to get votes from wananchi (locals). A leader who is a liar is a disaster to the community.”

He attributed the improved security in the north to increased military capacity of the army, noting that the place had already been largely pacified before the Juba peace talks.

“We had a weak army because those governments had no time to build an army. Some people say that Museveni has been in power for a long time. That is a very good thing because I have had the time to complete building the army. Problems like Kony, cattle rustlers are things of the past. Kuc (peace) is here to stay because good politics and a strong army are in place,” he stressed.
The President went on explaining that the problem of the Karimojong rustlers started when they got hold of guns.

“Cattle rustling came here in 1979 when the government of Amin collapsed. The Matheniko went to Moroto barracks and looted guns.

“The guns ended up into the hands of ignorant people. Those guns spoilt them. They now even fire at our gunships but we are now disarming them.”
Reacting to a request of the local leaders on the district status of Otuke and Moroto counties, the President said: “I have seen the area is far from Lira town, I will not launch a jihad (holy war) against the idea. Just follow the procedure and I will support you.”

Museveni was accompanied by ministers David Wakikona, Dorothy Hyuha, Michael Werikhe, Urban Tibamanya and Kasirivu Atwoki.

Reopen talks, major donors tell govt, LRA
The Monitor
by Grace Matsiko & Evelyn Lirri
February 2, 2007

Sixteen diplomatic missions and the UN have called on the government and the rebel Lords Resistance Army (LRA) to resume the stalled South Sudan mediated peace negotiations in Juba.

"We the undersigned Heads of Diplomatic Missions in Kampala wish to express our concern that the talks in Juba have not yet resumed. We call on all parties to prove their commitment to the talks and make the most of this opportunity to build a lasting and peaceful solution to the conflict," the diplomatic missions said in a statement yesterday.

They said a peace agreement would be an important first step in addressing the needs of the communities in northern Uganda and improving peace and security in the region.

The signatories to the statement are Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, European Commission, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, UK and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The LRA last month announced they were disengaging from the peace negotiations with the Ugandan government, and that they would not continue the process until a neutral host country is found.

The LRA, who have since called for the sacking of the mediator South Sudan Vice President Riek Machar, want Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki to intervene as the current chairman of the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and find a new venue and mediator.

The rebels want the peace talks, which began in July 2006, moved from Juba in South Sudan where they say they are unwanted, to Nairobi. But the government is more comfortable with Juba. It is still unclear if Nairobi will agree to host the talks.
A landmark truce was signed in August last year, which raised hopes of a an end to the two-decade civil war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced over 1.7 million people.
The rebels said their decision followed recent comments by Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit that the LRA was no longer welcome in south Sudan. The donors yesterday said the international community is closely following developments related to the Juba talks and has provided financial, technical and logistical assistance to the overall effort.

"A long-term solution should be found that is compatible with local community wishes, national laws and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court," they said in a joint statement. "We welcome the appointment on December 1, 2006 of former President Joaquim Chissano as UN Special Envoy for LRA-affected areas, and his recent visit to the region. We encourage him to continue his efforts to support the Juba process and are ready to assist him, as appropriate, in those efforts."

The UN Security Council, the African Union and the wider international community have welcomed efforts aimed at bringing to an end one of Africa's longest conflicts, which has sometimes undermined security in the wider region.

The diplomats commended the Government of South Sudan for hosting the talks in Juba. They said the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CHA), which remains in force, has led to a significant improvement in the security situation in northern Uganda. This has meant that 300,000 displaced people have been able to return to their villages and start rebuilding their lives, the diplomats said.

Meanwhile, President Yoweri Museveni has said the government plans to compensate all victims of the atrocities committed by the LRA.
Mr Museveni particularly singled out victims who suffered in mass killings and mutilation by the LRA during the 20-year-old insurgency. Once the Juba peace talks are successfully concluded, the compensation will be part of the Mato Oput process, a traditional justice mechanism system among the Acholi to promote community reconciliation, a statement from State House said. The statement says Mr Museveni made the revelations on Wednesday while addressing participants at a three-day seminar at Adwari Secondary school in Otuke county in Lira district.

The seminar, under the theme "Transforming Otuke Through Servant Leadership'' was organised by the area MP and Land Minister Omara Atubo.

Mr Museveni reportedly told the LRA victims that the government would mobilise funds from within and outside the country to compensate them. He said the relative peace prevailing in the region would be strengthened to ensure that it lasts forever.

The conflict in northern Uganda has displaced over 1.7 million people who now live in squalid conditions in internally displaced peoples camps. Gross human rights abuses, including raping of women, killings and forceful conscription of children into rebel ranks, have characterised the conflict which has also left hundreds of innocent civilians dead.

Uganda: Kony Hires Lawyers for World Court
AllAfrica.com - The Monitor
by Herera Sebikali & Grace Matsiko
February 3, 2007

Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and four of his collegues who were indicted for war crimes have hired two international criminal lawyers to represent them at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Kony's deputy Vincent Otti, who is also indicted, told Daily Monitor yesterday that the LRA had identified two lawyers who would travel to The Hague to meet the ICC team and present their case on the government's role in the 20-year war in northern Uganda.

"Ever since the ICC issued the warrants on us, it is only the government that has been going to The Hague to meet the ICC to tell lies about us. We also want to meet them to present our issues against the government," Otti said via satellite telephone.

The LRA deputy commander said the team would also visit The Hague to find out the exact charges against the indicted commanders, how the ICC plans to execute their indictments and the exact accounts on each of the commanders.

"We need to know all this information so that we can prepare further because even the government needs to be investigated, " he added. Otti refused to state what crimes the government had committed during 20-year conflict saying it would not be proper.

"We have our position and a document that my delegates will present to the ICC team when they meet soon," he said.

Otti said the LRA is waiting for a new venue to be identified for the talks. He said the team of lawyers would go to The Hague soon after.

"We have made all the arrangements for them to travel. I am just waiting for my delegates in Nairobi ( Kenya) to identify a new venue for the talks and they will proceed," the rebel leader said.

Daily Monitor has established that one of the delegates expected to go to The Hague is Prof. Omii Olara.

On October 13, 2005, the ICC issued warrants of arrest against the five LRA commanders and transmitted them to the governments of Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The accused are Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Raska Lukwiya and Dominic Ongwen. Lukwiya was, however, killed by the UPDF last year.

The five are accused of multiple counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder, abduction, sexual crimes and child conscription.

In another development, the United States has opposed the LRA's demand for change of the venue for the peace talks from Juba ( South Sudan).

It also opposed the rebels' call for the replacement of South Sudan Vice President Riek Machar who has been mediating the talks between the Ugandan government and the rebels.

In a Thursday statement from Washington published by the Associated Press (AP), The US said the call to end the South Sudan government's role as mediator and host of peace talks would delay the return of peace to northern Uganda.

"We are concerned that demands to change the mediator and venue of the talks will only delay peace in the region and further the suffering of displaced northern Ugandans," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The LRA peace negotiating team recently announced they would not return to Juba for any further peace talks with the Uganda government.

The order for the rebels not to go back to Juba, where the talks had been going on for the past eight months, was issued by Kony's deputy Vincent Otti.

The rebels also said they did not want Dr. Machar as the mediator on claims that he was not neutral.

The rebels' position followed statements by Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir and South Sudan President Salva Kiir that the LRA were no longer wanted in Sudan.

But the Uganda government insists that Sudan is suitable for the talks and that Dr Machar has been the best mediator.

Sixteen diplomatic missions in Uganda including the UN have also called upon the LRA and the government to resume talks.

The LRA delegation chairman Martin Ojul welcomed the donors' concerns.

"The LRA delegation welcomes the concern by the 16 Heads of Diplomatic missions in Kampala...and their support for the appointment of former President Joachim Chissano as the UN Special envoy for northern Uganda" Ojul said in a statement read by the delegation spokesman Obonyo Olweny.

"We call upon the diplomatic missions in Uganda and Kenya and the international community to exert pressure on the Uganda government to accept an alternative venue as demanded by the LRA to enable a speedy resumption of the peace process," Ojul said.

The rebel delegation said they are still committed to the peace process "for a just and lasting peace in northern Uganda".

Mr Cormack said the United States has been promoting reconciliation and supporting the reintegration of former abductees and ex-combatants into their communities.

"The United States continues to provide humanitarian assistance to victims of the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda" he said.

[back to contents]

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Official Website of the ICTY

Markale Massacre Revisited
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
by Merdijana Sadovic
January 26, 2007

Witness testimony in trial of Serb general charged with Sarajevo siege centres on one of the most shocking incidents of the Bosnian war.

The trial of Bosnian Serb general Dragomir Milosevic this week focused on the second Markale market massacre in Sarajevo, which left dozens of people dead and injured, in one of the bloodiest episodes of the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Shocking scenes of the massacre broadcast around the world shortly after the crime outraged the international community and prompted NATO bombing of Serb positions around the city, which finally ended the three-and-a-half-year siege of Sarajevo and led to the Dayton Peace Agreement a few months later.

However, controversy surrounding the United Nations investigation immediately after the massacre - which occurred in downtown Sarajevo on August 28, 1995 - and conflicting statements made by UN officials in the days that followed, sparked many conspiracy theories, one of which is that the Bosnian Muslims fired the shells themselves, in a ruse to gain international sympathy and force NATO to intervene and stop Serb attacks.

Dutch general Cornelis Nikolai, who was the United Nations Protection Force, UNPROFOR, Chief of Staff in Sarajevo at the time of the massacre, told the trial of Dragomir Milosevic this week that even he was puzzled by the results of the UN investigation.

He said it was strange that no one heard any of the five 122 mm mortar shells that hit the market, and that none of them was picked up by sophisticated radar systems UNPROFOR had at its disposal at that time, to determine the direction of the incoming fire.

But he was adamant that the results of the UN investigation, announced on August 29, 1995 - the day NATO bombing of the Serb positions around Sarajevo began - showed “with 99 percent certainty” that the mortars were fired from the Serb-held territory near Sarajevo.

Dragomir Milosevic succeeded Stanislav Galic as commander of the Sarajevo Romanija Corps in August 1994, having served as his chief of staff from March 1993, and is suspected of having commanded 18,000 military personnel to shell, shoot at, terrorise and kill tens of thousands of Sarajevo civilians whilst they went about their everyday lives.

About 10,500 civilians were killed, 1,800 of them children, and 50,000 wounded during the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo.

Galic was recently sentenced to life imprisonment on appeal for his role in the shelling and sniping campaign.

General Nikolai told the Milosevic trial this week that Serb forces around the city often fired “in response to provocations by the Bosnian army”, whose positions were in the besieged city itself, but he added that response was almost always disproportionate and too severe.

He also said firing modified air bombs at highly populated residential areas could not be justified by provocations of the enemy side. “They were not guided missiles,” he said, and therefore no one knew where they might land.

In his cross-examination of the witness, Milosevic’s lawyer Branislav Tapuskovic mainly focused on the “mystery”, as he called it, of the shells that exploded at the Markale market, killing 37 and wounding 90 people.

Out of five 122 mm shells, four landed near the market, causing only minor material damage, while the one, which hit the roof of a building overlooking the stalls, was fatal. Its shrapnel fell “like rain” on a crowd at the market, said Nikolai, with terrible consequences.

Tupuskovic pressed the witness to explain how it was possible for mortar shells of such high caliber to be undetected by Dutch and British radars installed in Sarajevo, or to land without their approach being heard, as apparently many witnesses later said.

“I’ll say this bluntly: I suggest that these shells were not launched from Serb positions, but were triggered at the market itself. What is your answer to that?” said Tapuskovic.

But Nikolai’s answer seemed evasive. “I can only say that no-one heard these shells coming, and they were not detected by our radars,” he said.

However, he added that there is a possibility that radars were pointed in some other direction at that time, and that the shells were fired from long distance, in which case they would not be heard.

Tapuskovic then mentioned peace negotiations between Serbs and Muslims prior to the massacre, “which were going very well for the Serb side, especially after the fall of Srebrenica and Zepa”, and suggested it was clearly in the interest of the Bosnian Muslims to provoke an incident which would trigger NATO air strikes and put them in a better position for negotiations.

“These are just assumptions and I can talk only about facts,” said Nikolai.

“But do you agree that if the interests of a state are at stake, it is possible to sacrifice one’s own people to achieve those goals?” continued Tapuskovic.

“That’s a possibility we didn’t exclude,” answered Nikolai.

Tapuskovic then put it to the witness that on the day of the massacre, UN investigators themselves said they could not say with any certainty where the shells were fired from. However, he continued, the green light for the NATO air strikes was given the same day, although the results of the investigation were still inconclusive.

But Nikolai rejected these claims, and said NATO bombing was approved a day later, on August 29, 1995, when UN investigators said with “99 percent certainty” that the shells were fired from the Serb positions outside the city.

A prosecution witness who testified last week also shed some light on this mystery.

David Harland, former head of UN Civil Affairs in Bosnia, said he was responsible for the assessment that UNPROFOR was unable to determine who fired the mortar shells that caused the massacre. He told the court he personally advised UNPROFOR Commander General Rupert Smith to state that “it is unclear who fired the shells” in order not to alarm the Bosnian Serbs, and thus warn them of the impending NATO airs strikes.

Date Set for Haradinaj Trial
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
by Merdijana Sadovic
January 26, 2007

The trial of Kosovo’s former premier is due to start in March.

Judges at the Hague tribunal announced this week that the trial of Kosovo’s former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj will begin on March 5, 2007.

He will stand trial together with his two co-accused, Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj.

The three are accused of attacking and persecuting Serb civilians in Kosovo, and “the forcible, violent suppression of any real or perceived form of collaboration with the Serbs by Albanian or Roma civilians” between March 1 and September 30, 1998.

During that period, Haradinaj was one of the most senior Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, leaders in Kosovo. He had overall command of the KLA forces in one of the KLA operational zones bordering Albania and Montenegro, called Dukagjin.

Balaj was a member of the KLA and acted as the commander of the special unit known as the Black Eagles. According to the indictment, he was subordinate to Haradinaj, reported directly to him, and worked closely with him.

Brahimaj, a close relative of Haradinaj, was a member of the KLA and acted as the deputy commander of the Dukagjin Operative Staff. The prosecution claims he too was subordinate to Haradinaj, reported directly to him, and worked closely with him.

All crimes alleged in the indictment occurred between March 1and September 30, 1998 in Kosovo and were directed against the Serb civilian population and those members of the Albanian and Roma civilian population in Decani, Pec, Djakovica, Istok, and Kline municipalities, perceived to be collaborators or not supporting the KLA.

According to the indictment, between the second half of May and August 1998, at least 16 civilians were detained, beaten and tortured at a make-shift detention centre at the KLA headquarters in Jablanica. One of the detainees is known to have died while the others are still missing. The detention centre was allegedly run by Brahimaj.

The indictment also states that during the end of August and the beginning of September 1998, Serb forces retook temporarily the area surrounding Glodjan, and a Serbian forensic crime scene team conducted an investigation in that area. They identified at least 39 bodies and partial remains.

Several of these remains have been identified as those of Serb, Roma and Albanian civilians who disappeared between April and early September 1998 in the Dukagjin area.

All three accused are charged on the basis of individual criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war, including forcible transfer of civilians, murders and rape.

The indictment against Haradinaj alleges that "as a commander... he established a system whereby individuals were targeted for abduction, mistreatment and murder, and whereby a systematic attack on vulnerable sections of the civilian
population was carried out".

It further states that "he personally participated in the abduction of persons who were later found murdered", and on at least one occasion gave his tacit
approval as a commander for detained persons to be executed.

Haradinaj was indicted in 2005, and soon after that he voluntarily gave himself up to the tribunal and resigned from his post as a prime minister.

A few months later, he was granted provisional release so that he could return
to Kosovo, where he is today pending the start of his trial.

In June 2006, the trial chamber allowed Haradinaj to continue in his capacity as president of his political party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK.

UK to Decide on Croatian Extradition Request
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
by Rory Gallivan
January 26, 2007

A new extradition hearing was held in London this week for Milan Spanovic, a Croatian Serb convicted of war crimes in absentia by a court in Croatia and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Spanovic, 43, has been living in London for the last 15 years. The Zagreb authorities learnt of his whereabouts after he was arrested for shoplifting on June 13.

The crimes he was charged with included torturing - and shooting at - civilians and plundering and setting fire to civilian and religious facilities in the Glina area in 1991.

Croatia has asked for his extradition, but Spanovic claims that he is a refugee under British law and has repeatedly demanded asylum.

The latest extradition hearing was held on January 25 at the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London.

Spanovic’s lawyer Julian Atlee told the court that issues relating to his client’s identity, human rights and the passage of time between the initial indictment against him and the extradition request had to be addressed before a decision could be made as to whether he should be extradited.

The lawyer explained there appeared to be another person called Milan Spanovic, who had been a policeman in the village of Rajic, and who fits the description of the person sought by the Croatian government.

“The question of identity needs to be revisited; enquiries need to be made,” said Atlee at the extradition hearing.

Questioned by Adina Ezekiel, acting on behalf of the Croatian government, Spanovic said that in 1991 he had been a member of the Yugoslav National Army and subsequently the army of the self-proclaimed Serb Autonomous Region, SAO Krajina.

He said he was conscripted into both armies.

Ezekiel asked Spanovic his date of birth and confirmed that this matched the description of the person sought by Croatia.

The judge hearing the case, Timothy Workman said he was “satisfied at this stage that the person being sought is the person before me.”

Ezekiel also challenged Spanovic’s claims that he was involuntarily drafted in the SAO Krajina army, pointing to his previous statement in which he said, “I took part in the rebellion because I sincerely believed that it was the intention of [the Croatian president] Franjo Tudjman to remove the Serb population from Croatia.”

On the question of whether the human rights of the Serb minority in Croatia were adequately protected for Spanovic to be extradited there, his lawyer referred to a recent report by Human Rights Watch.

He said the report was at odds with a 2003 European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, judgment in the Tomic versus United Kingdom case, which stated that the problem of discrimination against ethnic Serbs had been sufficiently dealt with in Croatia.

Milovan Tomic, a Serb from Eastern Slavonia, applied for asylum in the UK in 2002, complaining that due to his past military service as an officer with a Serb paramilitary group involved in the conflict, he would be at risk of retributive action. However, the UK rejected his application and this was upheld in 2003 by the ECHR, which said that the position of Serbs in Croatia, including those who were ex-combatants, was not sufficiently unsafe as to warrant his not being returned to Croatia.

Atlee disputed this 2003 ECHR judgment, and said he had heard the situation of Serbs in Croatia had worsened following recent elections in Serbia, in which the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party emerged as the most popular party in this country.

Ezekiel countered that elections in a neighbouring state could have little relevance to the situation in Croatia.

Atlee also said that the time delay between the initial indictment against Spanovic in 1993 and the 2006 request that he be extradited from the UK further weakened the grounds for extraditing him.

He said that the Croatian government had been given ample opportunity to seek to try Spanovic but had declined to do so.

Spanovic, who denies committing war crimes, said that he remained in Croatia until 1995 when the Serbs in SAO Krajina were expelled. After that, he went to Serbia, but soon returned to the part of Eastern Croatia that was under United Nations control from 1995 to 1998.

He said that during this time he was issued with a Croatian passport and repeatedly crossed the border between Croatia and Serbia, without being hindered by the Croatian authorities.

Spanovic said he first learned that he had been sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1998 when his cousin, also called Milan Spanovic - but not the one who lived in Rajic and was a policeman - returned to Glina and was arrested and beaten by Croatian police.

Spanovic said his cousin was released soon after the police realised they had the wrong Milan Spanovic.

Spanovic, the defendant, said he had not known what he had been sentenced for, but fled to the United Kingdom when his cousin told him about the judgment.

Spanovic said he immediately applied for asylum when he arrived in the UK in 1998, telling the authorities about the judgment against him, and was given Indefinite Leave to Remain, ILR.

He said that he first became aware that the judgment against him related to war crimes when he saw it on the internet in 2000, but remained in contact with the Croatian embassy, visiting it between 10 and 15 times between 2001 and 2006 when he applied for Croatian passports for his two sons and dealt with legal matters relating to his property in Croatia.

Atlee said that Spanovic’s frequent contact with the Croatian authorities after 1995 demonstrated that they must have been aware of his whereabouts and that he had not sought to hide from them.

“The country of his birth has permitted him to establish a new life in this country; they knew where he was and did nothing to terminate his residence,” said Atlee.

However, Ezekiel said that the region where Spanovic lived from 1995 to 1998 was not under Croatian government control at that time - it was run by the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia - and that his visits to the Croatian embassy in London would not necessarily have made his whereabouts known to the Croatian government.

Presenting further arguments against Spanovic being extradited to Croatia, Atlee said that his in absentia trial had relied on unreliable hearsay evidence, which may also be the case in the retrial to which he is entitled under Croatian law.

However, Ezekiel said that the retrial was unlikely to rely only on hearsay evidence and that Spanovic said he knew many people in his home village in Croatia, which could appear as defence witnesses.

Judge Workman adjourned the hearing and asked Atlee to collect further evidence related to the issues discussed in time for the next hearing on March 5. He added he would then consider all the evidence and present this to the home secretary who would decide whether Spanovic is to be extradited.

Del Ponte prepares to leave war crimes court
NZZ Online
January 30, 2007

United Nations war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte of Switzerland has confirmed that she will step down from her post in The Hague in September. Del Ponte, who has been chief prosecutor for the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for almost eight years, said she wanted to hand over to someone else to complete the work of the court by 2010.

"After eight years I will not stay any longer," Del Ponte, aged 59, told journalists in the Netherlands city on Tuesday. "I think it is the right time to leave."

While deeply disappointed about the death of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic last year just months before his trial had been due to conclude, Del Ponte said she believed she had done a lot, with proceedings now running against 61 accused.

"If you look at what we have done, it is an historical achievement," she said, noting she had resolved many thorny issues such as access to witnesses and documents in the Balkans.

"It's time for me to go back to the normal life. I see that I can go very easily because we have no other investigations. We are just preparing trials and conducting trials," she said. "For my successor it will be an easier task."

No remorse

Del Ponte said she had not seen any real remorse from those she had tried and few signs of reconciliation on the ground.

"It takes time, generations before we arrive at a real reconciliation," she said.

The tribunal, set up by the UN Security Council in 1993 as bloody conflicts tore the former Yugoslavia apart, is due to finish all trials by 2008 and all appeals by 2010.

Del Ponte said she hoped former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic would be caught before she steps down, or at least before 2010.

"My hope is to get Karadzic and Mladic before September when I must leave... Let's see whether I will be a happy prosecutor or a frustrated prosecutor in September leaving The Hague."

But she said she feared some European Union states could push for EU

membership talks with Serbia to resume, damaging the chances of Belgrade handing over key war crimes suspects.

Keep up pressure

Del Ponte, who travels to Brussels on Wednesday said she would urge the EU to keep up its pressure on Serbia to cooperate with the war crimes tribunal as a condition of entry talks, and deliver Karadzic and Mladic.

Del Ponte said she felt a change in mood and a softer stance towards Serbia among the international community as a UN plan looks set to grant Serbia's Kosovo province virtual independence and after Montenegro voted for independence from Belgrade.

"Now the situation is sensitive and delicate because someEuropean Union states ... they think 'poor Serbia'," Del Ponte commented.

The European Commission decided to freeze talks with Serbia in May last year after Belgrade failed to keep a promise to arrest Mladic, but del Ponte said Italy, Austria and Spain were considering resuming negotiations.

"This is extremely damaging for me because I know Belgrade and I know the authorities there," she said. "If they resume negotiations without full cooperation with us ... I think we can forget those two fugitives, particularly Mladic."

Ceku warns Serbs against partition
B92, Reuters, AP
February 3, 2007

PRIŠTINA -- In an interview to Reuters, Agim Ceku warned Serbs “not to separate from Kosovo”.

Kosovo’s prime minister told the agency that although Martti Ahtisaari’s proposal did not fulfil all the Kosovo Albanians’ expectations, any attempt on the part of the Serbs in the north of the province to partition territory “will not work”.

“Serbs need to realize this is not 1991. They cannot do what Serbs in Croatia did. That will simply not be allowed”, Ceku warned.

“Ahtisaari’s document guarantees Kosovo territorial integrity and the entire territory of Kosovo will be governed by Kosovo institutions”, he added.

Ceku also said he was “not worried” over Russia’s support to Belgrade and its position favoring Kosovo within Serbia.

“I hope that, in the end, Russia will support a new UN resolution on Kosovo”, Ceku said.

Earlier, Kosovo's prime minister told The Associated Press he expected the UN to adopt a new Kosovo resolution “by April”.

Agim Ceku, who accepted a UN proposal released Friday on the future of Kosovo, said the plan described the province as an independent state and gave it the attributes of statehood.

"Kosovo is definitely running the last mile toward independence," Ceku said.

Speaking after the meeting with Ahtisaari on Friday, Ceku said the UN envoy's document “opened the doors to Kosovo’s independence”.

“The way Ahtisaari describes Kosovo, it’s a sovereign and independent state. However, this document still falls short of all our expectations, all our demands, all that belongs to us and that we have asked for and we will examine it critically during the next couple of weeks”, Ceku said.

Kosovo Albanians’ negotiating team believes the proposal is a basis for the creation of independent Kosovo.

Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiu said, after meeting UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari in Priština Friday, that his comprehensive status proposal will make the province “a sovereign and independent state”.

“The negotiating team will offer its comments and suggestions on president Ahtisaari’s document very soon and remains committed to continuing the process as planned”, Sejdiu said.

Democratic Party of Kosovo leader Hashim Thaci said Kosovo had entered a new phase which represents a foundation of statehood and sovereignty on its entire territory. He dubbed February 2 “a historic day” for the province.

In a session held late yesterday, Kosovo government said that Ahtisaari’s status proposal was “a good message for the Kosovo citizens”.

“At the same time this is proof that the international community is determined to resolve Kosovo’s status without delay”, a statement issues after the session read.

The government stressed that “Ahtisaari’s proposal further clarified Kosovo’s future, opening way to independence”.

[back to contents]

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

Official Website of the ICTR

Rwanda: Killings Threaten Justice for Genocide
Human Rights Watch
January 22, 2007
Click here for report, "Killings in Eastern Rwanda"

New York, January 22, 2007) – Rwandan police and judicial authorities must ensure prompt and effective law enforcement to deal with recent killings of participants in the justice system for genocide known as gacaca, Human Rights Watch said in a report published today.

The 20-page report, “Killings in Eastern Rwanda,” documents two incidents in late November 2006 in which 13 persons were killed. On November 19, genocide survivor Frederic Murasira was killed in the commercial center of Mugatwa in eastern Rwanda. Within hours, residents of a nearby village inhabited by genocide survivors killed eight Mugatwa residents who apparently had played no part in the murder. The victims included children aged three, six, eight and 13, as well as two women and a 70-year-old man. One suspect has surrendered to police and has been arrested for the killing of Murasira, and several others have been detained for the reprisal killings.

“Killings of genocide survivors cost human lives and threaten the delivery of justice,” said Alison Des Forges, senior Africa advisor to Human Rights Watch. “Prompt and effective law enforcement is the way to deal with this threat, not reprisal killings. Reprisal killings have been rare in the past, but if they become more frequent, they could spur a new cycle of violence.”

Gacaca jurisdictions, established to prosecute crimes committed during the 1994 genocide, have been trying suspects throughout Rwanda since July. Since that time, survivor groups have expressed alarm at attacks on survivors and witnesses.

The suspect in the killing of the genocide survivor, once imprisoned on charges of genocide, had been provisionally released and was awaiting trial before a gacaca jurisdiction. The uncle of the victim is a gacaca judge who was reportedly prepared to make new accusations against the suspect.

Rwandan officials have said that 16 genocide survivors were killed in 2005 and seven in 2006, but survivor groups estimate the number to be around 20 per year for the last several years.

In a second incident, a gacaca judge was murdered in Rwamagana district on November 23. Police promptly arrested three suspects. One, a half-brother of the victim, had reportedly tried unsuccessfully to get the murdered judge to quash genocide charges against him.

Police shot and killed the three suspects the evening of their arrest. According to police authorities, the killings were in self-defense during an abortive escape attempt. Evidence from the scene and witness testimony suggest that the three may have been victims of extrajudicial execution. A police investigation of the killings that apparently cleared the officers leaves a number of important questions unresolved.

“An effective and independent investigation into these lethal shootings in custody is essential,” said Des Forges. “In any society, deaths in custody at the hands of law enforcement must be subject to the highest scrutiny. Police officers as well as citizens must be held accountable if they commit crimes.”

Ignoring Rwanda: From Genocide to Justice
Peace Magazine
by Caroline Thomas
January 2007 / March 2007

A few feet away from me stands Tharcisse Muvunyi, former commander of the Rwandan military school Ecole des Sous Officiers (ESO). A tall, powerful-looking man, he seems younger than his 53 years, and has an air of authority and confidence in his grey pinstripe suit and red patterned tie.

"The 18 orphans were forced to lie down on the volleyball court, and were killed one-by-one," the judge tells him. "And you did nothing to stop it." Muvunyi stares straight ahead.

The judge carries on reading a litany of atrocities committed by the ESO under Muvunyi's command - rape, mutilation, murder. The courtroom and press gallery are silent.

When the judge tells Muvunyi he has been found guilty of genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity, and sentences him to 25 years imprisonment, Muvunyi's face - until now registering no emotion - cannot hide his fury. He blinks hard, and purses his lips as if to stop himself from shouting out.

The gallery, however, is a whirl of English, French and Kinyarwanda - we want to talk about it; we want to get our stories out so everyone will know.

But as I step back into the empty halls of the court complex I sense a familiar feeling of isolation creep over me - the same feeling I've had every day at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda - and I can't stop myself from wondering: does anyone even know this place exists?

THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF JUSTICE

For 100 days between April and July of 1994, Rwanda was plunged into a bloody and horrific genocide, in which Hutu citizens massacred Tutsis and Hutus who did not believe in their "Hutu Power" ideas.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was established by the UN's Security Council on November 8, 1994, 3 months after the end of the genocide which left over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead.

The UN chose the Tanzanian town of Arusha as the location for the Tribunal, a bustling and somewhat ugly town, used by tourists mainly as a set-off point for safaris to Tanzania's national parks. The Tribunal is housed just off one of the main roads leading to the town center, in the Arusha International Conference Center - a huge building made even more noticeable by giant satellite dishes and "No Photography" signs.

More than 800 staff representing 90 nationalities work at the Tribunal in Arusha and at a research centre in Kigali, Rwanda. Over 1,500 witnesses from all over the world have testified before the court.

Among those tried or awaiting trial include senior military leaders, high-ranking government officials, businessmen, priests, journalists, amusician, and one former prime minister, Jean Kambanda - the first time a head of government has acknowledged his guilt for and been convicted of genocide.

The aim of the ICTR was to prosecute those who masterminded, organized, or funded the genocide. As of November 2006, 72 people had been arrested by the court, and 31 sentences had been handed down. The ICTR delivered the first-ever judgment of genocide by an international court, described by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as "a testament to our collective determination to confront the heinous crime of genocide in a way we never have before."

The work of the Tribunal, however, is not widely known. Bocar Sy, senior public affairs officer at the ICTR, explains that when the trials first began in 1996, the media center was packed with journalists from all over the world: "We used to have many press agencies housed here: the BBC, Hirondelle, Internews, they all used to be here.

After the initial enthusiasm, however, interest started to wane. "Three years ago, the media organizations started to leave," says court reporter Haruna Farage. "Now, there's barely anyone left."

The ICTR certainly has the resources to provide for the media. The complex houses a fully-equipped press center with work stations and high-speed internet access, a library stacked with books on international law, human rights and African history and video cassettes of every moment of every trial held at the court. It also organizes press briefings when important people visit, when trials start or when judgments are handed down.

But with only one permanent journalist left at the ICTR - a reporter from Hirondelle - and only a handful of freelancers present even when judgments are announced, these resources are woefully underused. "The media has less interest in what's going on here in the Tribunal, that is the problem," comments Sy.

REACHING OUT TO THE WORLD

The ICTR, however, does what it can to encourage media organizations to pickup the story of Rwandan justice. Its excellent, if sometimes out of date, website (www.ictr.org) contains a wealth of information on the work of the Tribunal, and the status of detainees. The ICTR also issues regular press releases by fax or e-mail to those on its mailing list.

In addition, the ICT R has an outreach program, which aims to educate people about the work of the Tribunal and improve international legal awareness through training and seminars.

The ICTR acknowledges that the most important audience to communicate with is the diverse Rwandan public - from people with little access to education and modern forms of media, to academics and legal practitioners.

The ICTR has established, in partnership with the national university of Rwanda, research awards for Rwandan law students. The Tribunal also flies on UN planes - up to six Rwandan journalists at a time to Arusha to report on important events such as trial openings and judgments.

Radio is the most widely used form of media in Rwanda (used to horribly effective use during the genocide), so many journalists brought to the ICTR come from Rwandan radio stations. Judgments are also broadcast live in Rwanda via a link-up between the ICTR and Radio Rwanda, and radio and television journalists can be provided with audio or videocassettes of any hearings to broadcast to the country.

In 2000, the ICTR established an information center in Kigali, which has become the focal point of its outreach program. It contains a library, and provides the latest updates from the ICTR in Arusha. It receives around 100 members of the Rwandan public every day mainly students and researchers. In the near future, the ICT R plans to provide a live television link-up between itself and the information center during judgments, so the Rwandan public can watch the sentencing from Kigali.

The ICTR is now working on educating those not based in Kigali, by distributing information from the center in Kigali to around 100 institutions around the country, and by conducting awareness-raising workshops in all Rwandan provinces. It also plans to open new permanent information centers in other locations across Rwanda which will, among other things, show documentaries about the Tribunal.

The Rwanda tribunal's Arusha headquarters

According to the ICTR, these education plans have myriad aims: to ensure Rwandans understand and have confidence in the Tribunal, to help with the process of national reconciliation, and to assist with unraveling the devotion to authority that was one factor in so many people taking part in the genocide. "[We want to] show Rwandans that the planners of the genocide are being tried, sentenced and punished by the tribunal," ICTR literature states. "Consequently, they will no longer follow orders blindly if they are able to see the genocide leaders being convicted and their ideology refuted by the international legal community."

For the rest of the world, the ICTR broadcasts a weekly round-up and a summary of all important events over its satellite (in English and in Kinyarwanda), which can then be picked up by any news agency free of charge.

When asked how often these broadcasts are picked up, or how often a news agency mentions the work of the ICT R, Sy acknowledges that he does not know: "I'm working on researching into that, but our infrastructure here is not very developed. We're not in a big city like Nairobi, so we don't have many resources to reach out and communicate with the rest of the world."

It seems a tragic shame that a genocide that was so ignored by the rest of the world, now that some of those responsible are being tried, is still not getting the attention it deserves. T his may be due to a lack of ability of the ICTR to push its story out, it may be because our attention span is too short to engage with trials for crimes committed over a decade ago, it may be because the media is dominated by atrocities which are being committed on a daily basis.

But, most depressing of all, it may be because it is easier to forget about the genocide than deal with difficult questions about human nature and its capacity for evil. When leaving the ICTR after Muvunyi's sentencing, I stop by the coffee shop about 100 meters from the courtroom and chat with the barista, Susie, a Tanzanian woman in her twenties.

I ask her if she knew there was a judgment being handed down today. "No, what happened?" she asks excitedly, and I have her full attention while I tell her: 25 years for terrible, terrible crimes. "Oh, that's sad," she says, not really listening as she turns away.

Caroline Thomas is a journalist based at UN headquarters in New York.

[back to contents]

Iraqi High Tribunal

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

More tapes said to 'Chemical Ali' played
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
by Sameer N. Yacoub
January 23, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The prosecution in the trial of Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid played more tapes Tuesday in which a man it identified as the defendant called Iraq's current president "wicked" and "a pimp," and vowed not to leave alive anyone who spoke Kurdish.

President Jalal Talabani was a Kurdish guerrilla leader when the recording allegedly was made of al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali" for allegedly using chemical weapons against the Kurds in the 1980s.

Saddam suspected the Kurds, a non-Arab ethnic group in northern Iraq, of siding with Iran during their 1980-88 war.

Al-Majid later told the court he used such language as "psychological and propaganda" tools against the Kurds to frighten them into not fighting government forces.

"All the words used by me, such as 'deport them' or 'wipe them out' were only for psychological effect," al-Majid said, as the so-called Anfal case continued before the Iraqi High Tribunal.

Al-Majid is one of six defendants who still face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from the Anfal military campaign. More than 100,000 Kurds were killed.

Several audio tapes were played during Tuesday's session. In one, al-Majid was heard to say that Talabani was asking for a truce and ready to turn against the Iranians if Saddam's army stopped displacing Kurds from their home region.

Al-Majid is then heard to declare, "my response is that there will be no truce, no negotiation and no cease of the deportations."

The recordings of the voice said to be that of al-Majid also carried comments in which he called Talabani "wicked and pimp because he even wants a truce for one day in order to stop the deportation in order to depict himself as a savior of the Kurds."

He is then heard saying "I will leave no Kurd (alive) who speaks the Kurdish language."

A Kurdish lawyer told the court after hearing the tape that such words "are part of the culture of this man who is ready to attack Kurds with chemical weapons for whatever reason."

Al-Majid told the court that he was not worried about a death sentence, saying "I will face death with open arms."

In the previous session Jan. 11, al-Majid told the court he ordered the displacement of Kurds from their villages in northern Iraq in the 1980s. He also acknowledged that he ordered executions of people who entered prohibited areas near the border with Iran.

The judge asked al-Majid what he ordered Iraqi troops to do if they captured anyone in the prohibited areas.

"Interrogate him, then execute him," he snapped in quick response.

The trial was adjourned until Wednesday.

Iraq delays death penalty hearing
BBC News
January 25, 2007

An Iraqi court has postponed a decision on whether to execute Taha Yasin Ramadan, who was vice-president under Saddam Hussein.

He was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killing of 148 Shia villagers in Dujail in 1982.

The Appeals Court ruled that the sentence was too lenient and recommended the death sentence.

Three of his co-defendants, including ex-President Saddam Hussein have already been executed by hanging.

Executions criticised

The Iraqi High Tribunal adjourned the hearing until 12 February after the lawyers for the prosecutors seeking the death sentence failed to appear because they were not notified, judge Ali al-Kahishi said.

Taha Yasin Ramadan was originally sentenced on 5 November, the same day Saddam Hussein, his half-brother and former head of Iraq's secret police Barzan al-Tikriti, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar - a former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court - were sentenced to death for the Dujail killings.

Saddam Hussein was hanged on 30 December. Barzan and al-Bandar were hanged on 15 January.

All three executions have been criticised by the international community.

Three other defendants in the Dujail trial were each sentenced to 15 years in prison while a seventh defendant was acquitted.

'Chemical Ali' claims Iraqi immunity
Associated Press via Yahoo! News
by Bassem Mroue
January 29, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein's cousin told Iraq 's High Tribunal on Monday that it had no right to try him for war crimes because he had the same kind of immunity from prosecution that U.S. forces enjoy in Iraq.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged use of chemical weapons in the 1980s against the Kurds in northern Iraq, said, "If I made a mistake, then those (the Iraqi government and U.S. troops) who are currently implementing a law that covers all parts of Iraq should be punished. I issued a law for a part of Iraq only."

He was referring to an area in the northern Kurdistan region that he ordered residents not to enter during the Anfal campaign. Al-Majid told the court this month that his orders to troops were to interrogate people who entered the region, then execute them.

Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, a legal arrangement has existed under which American troops are immune from Iraqi law, although many have been tried before U.S. military courts.

Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon told al-Majid that U.S. troops "have immunity in Iraq only. There were soldiers who were tried and received harsh punishment."

Al-Majid challenged the jurisdiction of the court a day after he testified he had given orders to destroy scores of villages during the campaign against the Kurds. Saddam's regime suspected them of collaborating with Iran during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Al-Majid is one of six defendants facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from Baghdad's military campaign, in which more than 100,000 Kurds were killed.

Earlier in the day, al-Faroon introduced 45 documents that he said incriminated the defendants. He demanded each stand to deny or accept responsibility for the Anfal campaign or declare they were acting on orders from superiors.

Former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai said, "I was a military man and the orders were clear. I had no business with civilians."

He said he had only been in Kurdistan for a short period. "There were some things that happened that I had nothing to do with."

Defendant Farhan Mutlaq Saleh al-Jubouri, former head of military intelligence's eastern regional office, declared he was innocent.

"People hear that Fahran al-Jubouri ordered executions, that villages were destroyed and that he was behind mass graves. My reputation is ruined. I am innocent of all charges against me," he said.

Rashid Hussein Mohammed, former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces, said he was fighting the Iranian army and did not order any attacks on Kurds.

The trial was adjourned until Feb. 7.

Before his execution Dec. 30, Saddam was a defendant in the Anfal trial. He was sentenced to death after his conviction for the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt against him in Dujail.

Iraq: UN Experts Call on Authorities to Suspend Execution of Saddam’s Co-Defendants
Scoop, independent news
January 30, 2007

The Iraqi authorities should suspend without delay any further executions until it is ensured that a fair trial is provided following major concerns over shortcomings in the trial and hanging of former president Saddam Hussein and two of his co-defendants, United Nations human rights experts have warned.

“International law allows the imposition of capital punishment only within rigorous legal constraints, including respect of fair trial standards,” Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Leandro Despouy and Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Leïla Zerrougui said in a statement.

“However, these standards were not guaranteed by the Iraqi High Tribunal,” they added, referring to the forthcoming sentencing of former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was convicted in connection with the same crimes against humanity for which Mr. Hussein and the other two co-defendants were hanged. The Tribunal's Appeals Chamber ruled that the life sentence imposed on him was too lenient and ordered the court to re-sentence him.

Among the main concerns cited over the trials is the violation of a number of international human rights standards on the right to be tried by an independent and impartial tribunal and on the right to defence, including numerous reports of external pressure on the judges that appear to have led to the removal and resignation of some of them.

The right to an appropriate and independent defence was also severely undermined, in particular by the “extremely serious attacks” against defence lawyers, some of whom were killed. “The assassination of defence attorneys appearing before the Iraqi High Tribunal threatens the entire procedure, since the role of defence lawyers is critical to a fair trial,” the statement said.

It noted that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour had both called on the Government to refrain from carrying out the death sentences imposed on Mr. Hussein and the other two co-defendants.

“In light of the gravity of the shortcomings of the trial against Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants, the experts strongly call upon the Iraqi authorities to suspend without delay any further executions until it is ensured that a fair trial is provided to those accused under their jurisdiction, in full respect of all due process guarantees required by international human rights law,” it concluded.

[back to contents]

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

Offical Website of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
The Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme
Official Website of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia

TRC Postpones Public Hearings
TRC of Liberia Press Release
January 25, 2007

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia has announced postponement of the commencement of its Hearings which was scheduled to begin on January 30, 2007 at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion in Monrovia to a later date.

The Commission wishes to state that “while the Commission has worked assiduously to stick to its work plan regarding the commencement of Hearings, it has however assessed its readiness capacity to commence these Hearings as scheduled, and determined that much more is needed to be done to ensure that the public is fully aware, informed and participate in the proceedings of the Hearings”. Further, this decision to defer the Hearings to a later date was reached following broad consultations with stakeholders, local and international partners of the TRC.

Meanwhile, the TRC extends thanks and appreciation to the general public for its continued support and participation in its processes noting that a new date for hearings will be announced shortly.

The TRC, since its commissioning in February 2006 has been engaged in an extensive process preparatory to the Hearings including outreach and sensitization, statement taking, women and Diaspora engagement with the process, etc. in the face of serious resource and logistical constraints.

Prosecutor Welcomes Start Date in Taylor Trial, Promises Access for Sierra Leonians
SCSL Press Release
January 29, 2007

The trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor is slated to begin this spring, as ordered by a Judge of the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. The case against Mr. Taylor, who is accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during the civil war in Sierra Leone from 1996 through 2002, will begin on June 4.

At the Taylor Status Conference held on January 26 at the trial venue in The Hague, it was announced that the date for commencement of trial had been changed from the original date of April 2 at the request of the Taylor Defence to provide additional time for its preparations.

Justice Teresa Doherty, who presided at the Status Conference, made rulings on several other matters, including the setting of the date for the filing of pre-trial briefs.

Taylor has pleaded innocent to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the killing, mutilation, and sexual violence involving thousands of victims, as well as the recruitment and use of child soldiers.

Responding to reporters’ questions after the hearing concerning the nature of the Prosecution’s case, Stephen Rapp, The Prosecutor, said, “The indictment alleged acts that included the most horrendous things humans can do to one another”.

Whereas the other trials of the Special Court for Sierra Leone are being conducted in that nation’s capital, Freetown, the Taylor case will unfold at the facilities of the International Criminal Court in The Hague . The Prosecutor noted that the decision to move the trial was a result of negotiations aimed to keep the peace in Sierra Leone and the region as a whole. The decision was supported by the United Nations and the key governments in the region, including Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

Mr. Rapp emphasised that while the trial has been moved due to regional security concerns, “it is the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and only the Special Court, that is conducting this trial. I want to emphasise from the outset that this trial will be conducted first and foremost in the name of, and on behalf of, the people of Sierra Leone”.

Regarding concerns that the distance between The Hague and the Sierra Leonean capital would prevent the people of the country from witnessing justice being done, The Prosecutor spoke about the extensive Outreach programme of the Court. “Last year, 780 meetings were held in every region of the country to inform the public of the Court’s work”, Mr. Rapp commented. “Every effort is being and will be made to ensure that Sierra Leoneans have transparent access to this trial. Each case at the Special Court is heard, argued and decided upon in their name, and the many miles between The Hague and Freetown will not change that”.

Court Summary -- Week Ending 2 February 2007
SCSL
February 2, 2007

Trial Proceedings – Courtroom No. I

The trial of The Prosecutor vs. Norman, Fofana and Kondewa is now adjourned while the Judges consider their verdicts.

The case of The Prosecutor vs. Sesay, Kallon and Gbao (the RUF Accused) is currently adjourned until 2 May 2007 when the Defence case will begin.

Trial Proceedings – Courtroom No. II

Prosecutor vs. Brima, Kamara and Kanu (the AFRC Accused), Defence Case

The trial of the Prosecutor vs. Brima, Kamara and Kanu Kondewa is now adjourned while the Judges consider their verdicts.

Press Releases

29 January – (OTP) Prosecutor Welcomes Start Date in Taylor Trial, Promises Access for Sierra Leoneans.

Court Documents

During the week, the following documents were filed before the Court and circulated by Court Management:

In the case of the Prosecutor vs. Brima, Kamara and Kanu (the AFRC Accused)

No documents were circulated during the week.

In the case of the Prosecutor vs. Norman, Fofana and Kondewa (the CDF Accused)

No documents were circulated during the week.

In the case of the Prosecutor vs. Sesay, Kallon, Gbao (the RUF Accused)

31 January, Document No. SCSL-04-15-702 – Kallon Defence reply to Prosecution response to Kallon motion for immediate protective measures for witnesses and victims and for non-public disclosure.

31 January, Document No. SCSL-04-15-701 – Reply to the Prosecutor’s response to Defence application for an adjournment of the 16th February 2007 filing.

29 January, Document No. SCSL-04-15-700 – Confidential Prosecution response to Sesay Defence motion requesting the lifting of protective measures in respect of requested witnesses.

29 January, Document No. SCSL-04-15-699 – Public Prosecutor’s response to Defence application for an adjournment of the 16th February 2007 filing.

29 January, Document No. SCSL-04-15-698 – Gbao submissions on Sesay request for modification of time limits for filing.

28 January, Document No. SCSL-04-15-697 – Public Kallon Defence application to vary the 16 February 2007 filing date.

28 January, Document No. SCSL-04-15-696 – Public Kallon Defence response to the Sesay Defence application for adjournment of the 16 February 2007 filing date.

26 January, Document No. SCSL-04-15-695 – Public Gbao motion for immediate protective measures.

In the case of the Prosecutor vs. Charles Taylor

2 February, Document No. SCSL-03-01-171 – Scheduling order for a Pre-Trial Conference pursuant to Rule 7 3bis.

1 February 2007, Document No. SCSL-03-01-170 – Defence response to the “Registrar’s response to the ‘Defence reply to the Registrar’s submission on the corrigendum to the second Defence motion requesting cessation of video surveillance of legal consultations’”, filed on 29 January 2007.

29 January, Document No. SCSL-03-01-169 – Registrar’s response to the ‘Defence reply to the Registrar’s submission on the corrigendum to the second Defence motion requesting cessation of video surveillance of legal consultations, filed on 23 January 2007.

26 January, Document No. SCSL-03-01-168 - Public Defence application for leave to appeal ‘joint decision on Defence motions on adequate facilities and adequate time for the preparation of Mr. Taylor’s defence dated 23 January 2007.

New Date for Taylor Trial
Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR)
by Merdijana Sadovic
February 2, 2007

The long-awaited proceedings against Charles Taylor will begin in June.

The trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor is due to start this summer, a status conference at the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague, announced last week.

The date was set by a judge at the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. The defence had argued that plans to hold the trial in April would not leave them enough time to prepare their case.

The case against Taylor - who is accused of crimes against humanity committed during the civil war in Sierra Leone - will begin on June 4 in The Hague. He is charged with the killing, mutilation, and sexual violence involving thousands of victims, as well as the recruitment and use of child soldiers.

The charges against Taylor stem from his alleged arming and training of rebels in Sierra Leone during the later years of their insurgency, which began in 1991.

Taylor is accused of selling diamonds and buying weapons for the Revolutionary United Front, RFU, rebels, who were notorious for hacking off the hands and legs of civilians during a decade-long war.

Taylor's indictment is related to crimes said to have been committed between November 1996 and January 2002.

The indictment "covers the gamut of the most horrendous things humans can do to one another", prosecutor Stephen Rapp told reporters after the hearing last week.

Tens of thousands of people died in the interlinked conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Taylor faces a life sentence if convicted.

He was arrested in Nigeria in March last year, and transferred to Holland in June, due to security concerns.

His trial was originally scheduled to start on April 2, but the date has been changed at the request of Taylor’s defence team, who said they needed more time to prepare their case.

Taylor's lawyer Karim Khan explained to the court that his team would not be ready to start in April given the huge volume of prosecution evidence.

Taylor did not appear in the courtroom in The Hague because he is apparently being treated for back problems.

While other trials of the Special Court for Sierra Leone are being conducted in that nation’s capital, Freetown, the proceedings against Taylor will take place at the ICC in The Hague. The prosecutors noted that the decision to move the trial was a result of negotiations aimed at keeping the peace in Sierra Leone and the region as a whole.

The decision was supported by the UN and key players in the region, including Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

Addressing the reporters soon after the date for the start of the trial was announced, Rapp said that while the trial has been moved to Holland, “it is the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and only the Special Court, that is conducting this trial”.

He added that “this trial will be conducted first and foremost in the name of, and on behalf of, the people of Sierra Leone”.

Regarding concerns that trying Taylor in The Hague would prevent people in Sierra Leone from seeing justice being done, the prosecutor said the main purpose of the extensive outreach programme of the court is to help solve this problem.

“Last year, 780 meetings were held in every region of [ Sierra Leone] to inform the public of the court’s work,” he said, adding that every effort is being made to ensure that Sierra Leoneans have transparent access to this trial.

“Each case at the Special Court is heard, argued and decided upon in their name, and the many miles between The Hague and Freetown will not change that.”

According to Rapp, Taylor’s trial will last approximately 12 to 18 months, which is considerably shorter than other UN-backed trials of war crime indictees.

Rapp stated that his prosecution team will “present the most concise case possible”, drawing on evidence from crime scenes as well as testimony already presented in other tribunals.

He also acknowledged that there are several challenges, including the logistics of having witnesses having to make 10,000 kilometre roundtrips to testify at The Hague and ensuring their safety upon their return.

The Special Court was established on January 16, 2002 by an agreement between the government of Sierra Leone and the UN and is mandated to try “those who bear greatest responsibility” for war crimes and crimes against community committed in the country after November 30, 1996. Thus far, 11 people have been indicted by the court.

Unlike two other UN-backed war crimes tribunals - the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, ICTR - which are funded by UN member states, the Special Court for Sierra Leone runs entirely on voluntary contributions.

Rapp said that he is confident that the court will raise the 33 million US dollars it needs to operate this year and be “a model of international justice serving not just the legal principles that are so important, but also the people of the region”.

Merdijana Sadovic is IWPR’s Hague project manager.

[back to contents]

United States

Probable cause in Afghan torture case
United Press International
January 26, 2007

U.S. Army investigators say they have determined probable cause in the probe of two soldiers accused of assaulting detainees in Afghanistan.

Members of the Army's Criminal Investigation Command said the two soldiers allegedly acted improperly at a Special Forces firebase in March 2003, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. The investigation stems from reports of torture at the base that led to the death of a detainee. The death had been hidden from military authorities until revealed by the Times in 2004.

The investigators said they also determined probable cause for dereliction of duty charges against one of the two soldiers. Top Special Forces officials say the incident was never reported to commanders and Army criminal codes classify failure to report such incidents as dereliction.

Christopher Grey, chief of public affairs for CID, said the findings were sent to the U.S. Army Special Forces Command at Ft. Bragg, N.C., where officials will decide whether to bring formal charges against the soldiers.

Marines Probe Leak in Haditha Civilian Killing Case
Associated Press via NBC San Diego
January 30, 2007

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- The Marine Corps said Monday that it has ordered a probe into how a government report on the killings of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha was leaked to the news media.

Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the top general at Camp Pendleton, ordered the investigation after several defense attorneys complained that sensitive information about their clients had been leaked, Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said.

The Washington Post published photos and eyewitness accounts Jan 6. from the military's investigative file that had not been made public. One photo showed five Iraqis who had been shot dead near a taxi.

Four enlisted Camp Pendleton Marines were charged Dec. 21 with unpremeditated murder, and four officers were charged with failing to properly report the killings.

Jack Zimmerman, attorney for Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, said Mattis ordered the investigation Jan. 23.

"I was very pleased that he shared our thought that the investigation should never be released," said Zimmerman.

The killings are the biggest U.S. criminal case involving civilian deaths to come out of the Iraq war. A total of 24 Iraqis -- including women and children -- were killed by Marines on Nov. 19, 2005.

Marine lawyers have said the troops were responding with legitimate force after a roadside bomb killed one of their squad.

A person who answered the phone after regular business hours at the Post deferred comment to the paper's public relations department, which was closed.

Khadr faces fresh U.S. charges: Guantanamo prosecutor hopes to open murder case this summer against young Canadian held for five years
The Toronto Star
by Michelle Shephard
February 3, 2007

Guantanamo Bay's chief military prosecutor has prepared murder charges against former Toronto resident Omar Khadr, once again starting the process of putting the Canadian on trial for war crimes.

Col. Morris Davis, the chief prosecutor, said in an interview last night that he hopes Khadr's case will be tried before military commissions held on the U.S. navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as early as this summer.

Proceedings under previous tribunals were halted last year when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the process illegal. Congress passed a new law authorizing the military commissions and President George W. Bush signed it into law in October.

Under this new commission, Khadr, now 20, again faces charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiring and providing support to Al Qaeda and an additional charge of spying.

Two other detainees also had charges sworn against them yesterday – Australia's David Hicks and Osama bin Laden's alleged driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdam, who is from Yemen.

Khadr's lawyers called the new charges an abuse of justice, saying the tribunals permit hearsay, coerced and secret evidence – making them not much different from what the Supreme Court previously rejected.

"For a boy who was 15 when he was captured and who has been held by the U.S. for almost five years, it's ridiculous to charge him. You've got to just get him home to Canada now," Khadr's military-appointed lawyer, Lt.-Col. Colby Vokey, said yesterday.

Khadr was captured in July 2002 by U.S. forces in Afghanistan and brought to the Guantanamo prison camp three months later, after his 16th birthday.

He is accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier and injured others following a lengthy attack by U.S. forces on a suspected Al Qaeda stronghold where Khadr was the only survivor.

Khadr now resides in a new maximum-security facility known as Camp 6, which the Toronto Star toured this week. He is kept in isolation except for a couple of hours a day of recreation in a caged-in area outside. Questions are now being raised about Khadr's mental ability to stand trial.

Although the modern facility is not unlike North American federal prisons – and a far cry from the outdoor metal cages where the first detainees were brought five years ago – many lawyers have complained that the isolation is leading to serious psychological problems.

Six former Canadian foreign affairs ministers, including Liberal Bill Graham who held the position when Khadr was detained, wrote an open letter this week urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper to "speak up."

"He must press the U.S. government to deal with Guantanamo detainees, and all other detainees held in the `war on terror,' in a manner consistent with international human rights standards. He should appeal to the U.S. to respect the rule of law and close Guantanamo," they wrote.

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay told reporters in Ottawa yesterday that Canada had received U.S. "assurances" that "humanitarian standards have been met" at Guantanamo.

"If there was any evidence to the contrary, we would ask that it be brought forward."

Khadr's case has not generated the type of public outrage in Canada that has occurred in other countries such as Australia, where demonstrations and intense public pressure about Hicks have forced politicians to answer questions about their negotiations with the U.S.

Australian newspapers have also reported there is a possibility that Hicks may be allowed to serve his sentence at home if convicted.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Department spokesperson Alain Cacchione declined to answer whether Khadr, if convicted, might be allowed to serve his sentence in Canada, saying yesterday that the question was speculative and citing Khadr's privacy rights.

Now that Davis has signed the charges under the new military commissions, his recommendations will go to a convening authority appointed by the U.S. secretary of defence, who can approve, reject or alter the charges.

If approved, Khadr will be officially charged and could appear before the commission for pre-trial hearings within 30 days.

New Charges for 3 Guantanamo Detainees
Associated Press via New York Times
February 3, 2007

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- The U.S. military prepared new charges Friday against three of the best-known detainees at Guantanamo Bay -- a key step toward resuming the military tribunals for terrorism suspects that were halted by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

Authorities drafted new charges -- including murder, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism -- against Canadian Omar Khadr, Australian David Hicks and Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen, said Air Force Col. Morris Davis, chief prosecutor in the Guantanamo war crimes trials.

Under military rules, the charges are not considered formally filed against the detainees until they are approved by a U.S. Department of Defense legal adviser and another official who oversees the tribunals.

That process is expected to take two weeks, Davis said. Court hearings are not expected to begin at Guantanamo until at least the spring.

Also Friday, a military defense lawyer whose paralegal reported overhearing guards at the U.S. Navy base in southeastern Cuba brag about beating detainees said she was accused by a military investigator of filing a false statement.

Army Col. Richard Basset, who was ordered by the U.S. Southern Command to investigate the allegations into guards' actions, told the paralegal, Marine Sgt. Heather Cerveny, that the guards denied her account of their September conversations in a Guantanamo bar, according to Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey.

The investigator accused Cerveny of having made a false statement, Vokey told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He said Basset met with the Cerveny late last year at Camp Pendleton, Calif., where she is based.

The probe began after Vokey filed a complaint with the Pentagon's Inspector General's office in October and attached a sworn statement from Cerveny. Jose Ruiz, a spokesman for Southern Command the where Basset is based, declined to comment on contents of the investigation.

In an earlier attempt to try detainees, the military had charged 10 of them and begun pretrial hearings at Guantanamo. The tribunals were halted by a Supreme Court ruling that their rules violated U.S. and international law.

Congress passed a new law authorizing the military commissions and President Bush signed it into law in October. The military then drafted a new set of rules for military commissions that have drawn criticism because they permit coerced or hearsay evidence.

The military has said it plans to charge 60 to 80 of the detainees at Guantanamo, where nearly 400 men are held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

Davis said it made sense to start with Hicks, Khadr and Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, because all were among those previously charged.

''Those three have been around for a while, and they were prepared and ready to go,'' he said.

Hicks, a former kangaroo skinner who converted to Islam in his native Australia, allegedly fought for the Taliban before he was captured in Afghanistan. Toronto-born Khadr, who is accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan, has allegedly acknowledged being trained by al-Qaida. Hamdan has said he worked for bin Laden but denied any links to terrorism.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Saturday welcomed the U.S. announcement that fresh charges have been prepared against Hicks.

''I'm glad that the charges are being laid and that the deadline I set has been met,'' Howard told reporters, referring to his demand that Hicks be charged by mid-February. Howard has come under mounting political pressure to have Hicks tried or set free.

[back to contents]

Reports

UN Reports

UN urges Nepal war crimes trials
BBC News
January 24, 2007

The UN's top human rights official has called for troops and former Maoist rebels to be prosecuted for human rights abuses during Nepal's civil war.

Speaking after a six-day visit to the country, Louise Arbour told the BBC war crimes had been committed in Nepal.

At least 13,000 people were killed and hundreds went missing in the conflict.

The Maoists agreed to peace last year and are set to join a multi-party government. The parties and the Maoists say they will form a truth commission.

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kathmandu says Ms Arbour's message is that severe human rights violations in Nepal in the past and present are made more likely by impunity, or what she called very poor law enforcement.

Truth commission

In her BBC interview, the UN high commissioner for human rights accused the country's political players of acting insultingly to victims of rights abuses committed during nearly 11 years of conflict.

She welcomed moves to set up a truth commission, but said it would be catastrophic to grant amnesties on either side before the commission did its work.

"The UN totally rejects any amnesties for very serious offences - genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity - and certainly war crimes here would be clearly applicable," she told the BBC.

She made clear at a news conference that people on both sides should be punished.

"There should be prosecutions of those most responsible for these levels of gross violations of human rights, disappearances, killings, and torture," she told reporters in Kathmandu.

Ms Arbour did not say prosecutions had to happen immediately, nor did she indicate what kind of tribunal should deliver justice. The International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction in Nepal.

She added that post-conflict political environments are very fragile but "justice should not be held hostage" to that.

'Additional insult'

The UN says more than 600 people who disappeared during the insurgency are still missing and during her trip Ms Arbour met many such families.

She said the families were enduring "terrible suffering" and criticised the government and Maoists for launching "perfunctory investigations".

"Frankly it's an additional insult to them to have a system that is totally dismissive, totally unresponsive to their quest for the truth, for answers," she told the BBC.

She also said that many a times information provided by the government to human rights monitors were found not credible, while the Maoists were reluctant to cooperate.

Ms Arbour also expressed "great concern" for the recent violence in the south-eastern town of Lahan, where five people, including a 16-year-old boy, have been killed in unrest since Friday.

"Now we see what the conflict was hiding - which is much more chronic violations such as discrimination on a very large scale of all kinds of minority groups." Since a ceasefire between the Maoists and security forces began last April there has been only one inquiry commission that has allocated blame.

It pronounced King Gyanendra and 200 other people responsible for suppressing the huge April demonstrations in which more than 20 people died and thousands were injured.

International Criminal Court working group nearing agreement on crime of aggression
UN News Service
January 31, 2007

The countries overseeing the structure and management of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are making “very good progress” towards agreement on a definition of the crime of aggression, the head of a key working group told a press conference at United Nations Headquarters today.

Christian Wenaweser, Liechtenstein’s Permanent Representative to the UN and the Chairman of the Special Working Group on the Crime of Aggression of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC, said the definition – a long-running source of contention in international law – “is shaping up, to my mind, very clearly.”

If a definition is agreed upon, the individual leaders of a State face potential prosecution for acts of aggression ranging from an invasion to a bombing campaign or armed blockade.

But Mr. Wenaweser warned that several sticking points remain, both over the definition and what role the Security Council should play in determining whether acts of aggression by States have taken place, and the working group may not be able to agree before it is scheduled to wind up by the end of next year.

The Rome Statute in 1998 that led to the creation of the ICC included the crime of aggression as one of the four categories of crimes over which it has jurisdiction (the others are genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes). But it said the Court cannot exercise its rights in the area until it has agreed on a definition, which it stated must also be consistent with the UN Charter.

The working group, which has been meeting this week in New York, has been debating the question of a definition since 2002. Mr. Wenaweser said a General Assembly resolution from 1974 “which to some extent does define aggression” was proving central to the current discussions.

That resolution listed many actions as fitting the definition, including armed invasions and attacks, bombardments, blockades and violations of territory.

Mr. Wenaweser said it was not clear yet whether all of those acts would ultimately make the ICC definition, but he added it was likely to contain a threshold clause stating that any act of aggression must constitute a “manifest violation” of the UN Charter.

Countries remain divided over whether there should be a higher threshold depending on the intended purpose behind the act of aggression, and also over whether the Security Council, the ICC or some other body should take the lead in determining whether acts of aggression have occurred.

Mr. Wenaweser stressed that although the crime of aggression would apply only to the action of one State against another, it would entail individual criminal responsibility for one or more of the leaders of that State.

The ICC can try cases involving individuals charged with crimes committed since July 2002, although any charges over the crime of aggression could only relate to events that take place after a definition is reached. The Security Council, the ICC Prosecutor or a State Party to the court can initiate any proceedings, and the ICC only acts when countries themselves are unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute.

Only countries that have ratified or acceded to the Rome Statute are classed as States Parties to the ICC and able to serve on the assembly and working groups overseeing the Court. There are currently 104 States Parties.

NGO Reports

Chad: urgent need to protect the people of eastern Chad
Amnesty International
January 29, 2007
Click here for report, "Chad: 'Are we citizens of this country?'"

Amnesty International calls for immediate and effective action to protect civilians in eastern Chad. Rapes and killings are continuing in this region and the people cannot wait any longer for protection. Amnesty International considers that as in neighbouring Sudan’s Darfur region, crimes against humanity and war crimes are being committed in eastern Chad.

During its last mission to Chad in November 2006 and documented in its report “Chad: Are we citizens of this country”(AI Index AFR 20/001/2006) Amnesty International noted an escalation of deliberate and targeted attacks on the civilian population by Janjawid militia crossing over from Sudan and by local Chadian Arab and some non Arabgroups. One 14 year-old girl witnessed the summary killing of 19 men by the Janjawid outside the village of Wiririké in the Darsila region on 11 October 2006:

“It was about midday and I was going back to the village when three men on horseback chased me and captured me. They hit me and tied my two arms behind me with rope and put a rope around my neck and made me run with them. They also captured my uncle. They then walked us towards the Wadai village of Wiririké and took us to the field just outside. There were 19 men with their arms tied behind their backs. There were maybe 50 or so armed men. (…) A man in green uniform came and shot the men one by one along the line in the head. One bullet did not work and so he used a stick and smashed the head of the man until he was dead. They were all killed …”

Amnesty International is wondering how many more testimonies are needed to persuade the Chadian Government and the United Nations to act quickly and effectively to protect civilians.

Since the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1706 of 31 August 2006, which foresaw the establishment of a multidimensional presence in key locations in Chad, progress has been slow. The government of Chad has been either unable or unwilling to protect the inhabitants of eastern Chad from attacks. On the other hand, the United Nations sent a second technical assessment mission to the region in January 2007 to gather more information about the situation on the ground before authorizing the deployment of a multidimensional United Nations presence. According to the findings of the first technical mission, which visited Chad in November 2006, any multidimensional United Nations presence should have a ‘robust monitoring and protection’ component, including a military force.

The findings of any further technical mission should not delay the United Nations Security Council but be used to strengthen the effectiveness of its action. Today in Eastern Chad as well as in Sudan’s Darfur region, a human rights and humanitarian crisis is unfolding. In the face of such atrocities and given the urgency of the situation, Amnesty International urges:

The governments of Chad and Sudan, as well as all the armed groups operating in their territories, to respect their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law, in particular those relating to the protection of civilians;
The United Nations Security Council to authorize without undue delay the deployment in the region of an international presencemandated to effectively protect all civilians. This United Nations presence in the region should be of the size and have the means to fully implement its mandate;
The United Nations member states to support any eventual Secretary General’s call to contribute troops and other personnel to United Nations presence in the region.

Senegal: New Law Will Permit Habré’s Trial
Human Rights Watch
February 2, 2007

(Brussels, February 2, 2007) – The Senegalese National Assembly’s adoption on Wednesday of a law to allow Senegalese courts to try the exiled former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré, is an important step toward justice, Human Rights Watch said today.

Habré was first arrested in Senegal in February 2000 on charges of crimes against humanity and torture stemming from his 1982-1990 rule in Chad. Senegal refused to prosecute him in 2001 or to extradite him to Belgium in 2005, but in 2006, Dakar agreed to abide by an African Union decision that Habré should be put on trial in Senegal. Wednesday’s law allows such a trial by permitting Senegal to prosecute cases of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture, even when they are committed outside of Senegal.

At the same time Human Rights Watch took issue with an estimation by Senegal’s Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane Gadio on Tuesday that Hissène Habré might not be brought to trial “before three years.”

“ Senegal has taken an important step in the right direction,” said Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch, who works with Habré’s victims. “If the Senegalese government moves forward quickly to open an investigation, and takes advantage of the years of work already done by Belgium, a trial could be held relatively soon.”

Human Rights Watch said that Senegal needed, in particular, to:

• Maintain the required legal measures to ensure that Habré does not leave the country;
• Present a plan and reasonable budget for the investigation and trial to international donors;
• Create and train a special unit to investigate serious international crimes; and,
• Request the assistance of Belgium, which has offered to make available the results of the four-year Belgian investigation into Habré’s alleged crimes.

Human Rights Watch noted that the Belgian authorities – the investigating judge and a special unit of experienced investigators who deal exclusively with international crimes – spent four years putting together evidence in this case before issuing the indictment. Human Rights Watch said that if the fruits of that investigation – police reports, witness interviews, and the analysis of thousands of documents of Habré’s political police – could be used by the Senegalese courts, this would not only reduce the cost involved, but would eliminate the long delay that would be caused by starting from scratch, and would allow the Senegalese investigators to concentrate on new and additional elements.

On January 10, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal called on the Senegalese judiciary to “meet the challenge” of Habré’s investigation and trial. A commission created by the Senegalese government to examine the legal and financial issues related to the trial, and headed by Malick Sow, Coordinator of the Senegalese Committee for Human Rights, is expected to hand in its report soon.

Human Rights Watch called on the friends of Senegal, such as the European Union and the United States, to provide training and funding to assist Senegal in bringing Habré to trial. It noted that Senegal would be the first developing country to prosecute a foreigner for serious international crimes committed abroad.

“The challenges and cost of investigating and trying massive crimes committed in another country 15 years ago are considerable,” said Brody. “If Senegal shows that it has the political will to deliver justice, the international community must come forward to help.”

Background

Habré ruled the former French colony of Chad from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990 by President Idriss Déby Itno and fled to Senegal. His one-party regime was marked by widespread atrocities. A 1992 Truth Commission accused Habré’s regime of some 40,000 political murders and systematic torture.

Habré was first indicted in Senegal in 2000 before courts ruled that he could not be tried there. His victims then turned to Belgium and, after a four-year investigation, a Belgian judge in September 2005 issued an international arrest warrant charging Habré with crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture committed during his 1982-90 rule. Pursuant to a Belgian extradition request, Senegalese authorities arrested Habré in November 2005.

When a Senegalese court refused to rule on the extradition request, the Senegalese government announced that it had asked the African Union to recommend “the competent jurisdiction” for Habré’s trial. On July 2, 2006, the African Union, following the recommendation of a Committee of Eminent African Jurists, called on Senegal to prosecute Habré “in the name of Africa,” and President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal declared that Dakar would do so.

Other

Japan's NHK in WWII sex slave row
BBC News
January 29, 2007

Japan 's state broadcaster NHK has been ordered to pay compensation in a row over a television programme about the country's use of sex slaves in wartime.

Tokyo 's High Court decided the broadcaster had altered the contents of the programme, based on a mock trial of Japan's wartime Emperor Hirohito.

The changes were made following interventions by senior politicians, including the current prime minister.

NHK has called the ruling unjust and says it will appeal.

Any criticism of Hirohito is controversial.

But when Japan's state broadcaster made a programme six years ago which found him guilty of crimes against humanity, politicians were incensed.

Legal responsibility

NHK's show was based on a mock trial called the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal.

The event was part of a campaign to urge the government to take legal responsibility for the Japanese Army's use of women as sex slaves during World War II.

At the end of the mock trial, a panel of four international judges found the emperor guilty of a war crime for accepting institutionalised sex slavery.

Before it was broadcast, Shinzo Abe, now the country's prime minister, urged NHK to alter the programme because he thought its contents were biased.

NHK decided to remove the "guilty" verdict on the late emperor, testimonies of former soldiers and the name of the women's group that had organised the event.

The broadcaster denies this was the direct result of the pressure from the politicians.

Cover-up charge

But the group felt betrayed because the programme had been re-edited without consulting them.

They complained this would lead to a further cover-up of the issue of war-time sex slavery and they also felt that such interventions by politicians should be challenged.

Tokyo 's High Court has now found in their favour and ordered NHK and other defendants to pay them more than $16,000 (£8,182, 12,382 euros) in compensation.

It ruled that the programme had been changed after taking into account the remarks of the politicians.

Mr Abe admits that he complained about the show but has always denied he put the broadcaster under any pressure.

[back to contents]