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)

The long, long wait for justice
The Guardian
By Tom Fawthrop
May 5, 2007

The Khmer Rouge nightmare that terrorised Cambodia during the 1970s ended nearly 30 years ago. In Rwanda and Sierra Leone, the wheels of justice turned quickly, with tribunals investigating events that kicked off within a few years of the mass killing.

For Cambodians, it has been an agonisingly long wait for justice. Since the Khmer Rouge tribunal was finally established in Phnom Penh in 2006, they have been kept waiting again, with legal squabbles over rules of evidence delaying the indictment stage, when some senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge would be formally charged under international law with crimes against humanity and genocide.

This hybrid tribunal, with international and Cambodian judges sitting together as co-prosecutors, was also adopted by the Sierra Leone tribunal. A special UN mission is in charge of legal assistance to the tribunal.

The final hurdle - the legal fees to be paid by foreign lawyers defending the accused (senior Khmer Rouge leaders) to the Cambodian bar council, has just been sorted out.

The original demand, that foreign defence lawyers should pay around $4,900 a year for the privilege of addressing a "Cambodian court", has been knocked down to a reasonable $500 fee. The international judges threatened a boycott against "extortionate" fees that might have undermined the right of the accused to choose foreign counsel (the prosecution is led by a Canadian lawyer with a Cambodian co-prosecutor).

French lawyer Jacques Vergès, who has made his mark with his energetic defence of notorious clients including Klaus Barbie and Carlos the Jackal (Ilich Ramírez Sánchez), has promised to appear at the tribunal on behalf of Khieu Samphan, president of the Khmer Rouge regime and, as it happens, a former student classmate of Mr Vergès in Paris.

Why such monumental procrastination over Cambodia? In the aftermath of the Pohl Pot bloodbath, international lawyers were largely silent, when, in 1979 and the early 80s, Cambodian survivors publicly called for an international tribunal.

The US and some western governments preferred to support the bloody credentials of the Khmer Rouge - keeping them in the Cambodia seat at the UN - rather than the cause of international justice. Many observers in the 1980s and even the 90s predicted that a Cambodia tribunal would never happen.

It was only in 1997 that the UN belatedly recognised that these terrible crimes should be addressed. Even then, UN-Cambodia negotiations dragged on for six years until a final agreement in 2003.

Certainly no other tribunal has endured so many obstacles and so many governments vehemently opposed to the cause of justice.

Finally, a tribunal was announced (officially known as ECCC – the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia*) and set up last year. But even this glimmer of justice is under threat from many quarters.

The purveyors of doom and gloom have cast a pall of pessimism over proceedings. Rumours abound of international judges about to walk out, the tribunal on the verge of collapse, or speculation that Prime Minister Hun Sen's government is hell-bent on sabotaging the whole thing.

But the Phnom Penh reality is far more complicated and nuanced. The decades of cynical neglect during which time several Khmer Rouge leaders have died, including Pol Pot, and the tortured history of negotiations has made this a uniquely complicated tribunal from the outset.

No one is more deeply committed to a tribunal than Khmer Rouge victim Chhang Youk, who today heads the internationally respected Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) the genocide research centre set up in 1994 after US Congress passed the Cambodian Genocide Justice Act.

Mr Chhang told the Guardian: "I am very satisfied with the prosecution with both Cambodian and international lawyers. They are working just fine together there is no conflict here. They are a model of cooperation for the rest of the tribunal." DC-Cam has released more than 58,000 documents to the prosecution, including vital telegrams and communications sent by top leaders.

Unfortunately, arguments over legal fees and rules of evidence have obscured the impressive progress made by the joint prosecution team led by Canadian Robert Petit.

Mr Petit, an international prosecutor who served in war crimes tribunals in Rwanda, Kosovo, East Timor and Sierra Leone, is among the most positive. "We've made a lot of progress, more than other tribunals [at this stage]. We have a pretty good record, especially considering the limited resources we have."

The prosecution team is ready to proceed with indictments. The tribunal has not run aground, but it continues to sail through turbulent waters. As one insider who is trying hard to make the tribunal work describes it: "Some international judges seemed to have a hard time understanding anything about Cambodia, [and] more than a few Cambodian judges do not understand much beyond the borders of Cambodia." This is a recipe for acute misunderstanding.

It has been suggested that keeping this tribunal on the rails and on time to deliver justice requires a special UN envoy. The existing UN body is headed by Michelle Lee, a UN coordinator who runs the administration of the international component.

In most UN missions, New York appoints a credible diplomat to head the mission and mediate any conflict with the host government.

The history of UN-Cambodia negotiations over the tribunal has often been acrimonious. In 2002, the UN legal affairs team staged a unilateral walkout over the negotiations, which delayed the formation of the tribunal by at least a year.

The tribunal has also faced hostility from China, who, it seems, never wanted it to happen in the first place. Flip-flops from Prime Minister Sen and his tribunal task force are partly explained by intense pressure from Beijing to save face from damning facts that will come out in the trial concerning their complicity and support for the Pol Pot regime.

The struggle to ensure this tribunal abides by international standards and solves conflicts quickly is crying out for dynamic mediator. The UN needs to appoint an outstanding diplomat or former statesman to help both sides avoid further deadlock.

This tribunal will continue to be plagued with bottlenecks and problems until the UN finds a respected mediator, acceptable to both sides, to expedite the process

Wheels of justice grind slowly
The Dominion Post (NZ)
By Kimberly Rothwell
May 5, 2007

Dame Silvia Cartwright should be in Phnom Penh, but she's not. Instead, e-mails are whizzing about while she is in New Zealand, eagerly wondering how she will get around engagements in time to be part of the long-awaited trial of the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders. Nearly 30 years after the regime that killed nearly one-fifth of the Cambodian population fell, international efforts to bring those responsible for the genocide to trial are floundering.

The Khmer Rouge survived as rebels till the late 1990s, and in 1997 Cambodia first appealed to the United Nations to set up the Khmer Rouge Trial Task Force.

There have been on-again off-again negotiations. More than US$50 million was scraped together by the UN to fund the court, and accusations have been hurled at the Cambodian Government for interfering in the process. Late last year both Cambodian and international judges were finally sworn in and the nitty gritty of setting up a hybrid court began. Dame Silvia, former governor-general of New Zealand, is one of 15 international judges.

The latest hold-up, the one that has Dame Silvia twiddling her thumbs and rearranging her schedule, has come down to an administration fee.

The Cambodian Bar Association can charge an administration fee to process any foreign lawyers wanting to take part in the trials. But the nearly US$5000 the association has proposed has the international judges putting their foot down, saying the fee jeopardises the rights of victims and the accused to choose the lawyers they want to represent them. There have been suggestions in Phnom Penh that the fee is simply a kickback for the association. Latest negotiations have the fee down to $500, which is still "ridiculous", says Dame Silvia, but the international judges will agree if it means getting a move on.

According to the UN, no other bar associations in an international tribunal of this type have charged a fee. The only equivalent is the Association of Defence Counsel practising before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which charges about US$200 to be a member, and lawyers must be members to take a case at the tribunal.

Since the end of last year, the Cambodian and international judges have kneaded out the rules the court will operate under, but haven't set them in concrete because of the fuss over the bar association fees.

"It's particularly difficult because in Cambodia, there is a need to build overtly certain safeguards to ensure fair trials. In Cambodia law, you can have trials of people in absentia, so the person isn't even there, and may not even know that the trial is occurring. The person could be convicted and sentenced and will eventually get to know about it, and if they come back to Cambodia they will be arrested and have to serve their sentence without any real chance to defend themselves.

"What we've done is to look at what the international principles for fair trials are, and incorporate them into the local practice. It's not (the local people's) fault their judicial system is so weak because 30 years ago most of the lawyers and judges were wiped out or had to leave the country. So it's a very shallow pool of expertise. All the judges I will be working with have been trained outside Cambodia, but in very different systems, such as Vietnam, Moscow and Kazakhstan."

IN APRIL 1975, armed militia entered Cambodia's capital city, Phnom Penh, and began forcing people out of their homes. The city's two million residents were marched into the countryside, as had already happened in towns and villages across the country, and marshalled into forced labour camps. The armed men were Khmer Rouge soldiers, and they began a regime that would last four years and take nearly two million lives, leaving few Cambodian families unscarred.

The Khmer Rouge's ideal society was agrarian, communist, and free from the bourgeois influences of religion, money and foreign powers. Lawyers, doctors, artists, writers, or anyone who spoke a foreign language was purged, some tortured first before they were killed. Everybody worked in the fields - some to death - while others were killed for daring to grow their own private gardens to avoid starvation. Others died from routine diseases that were left untreated by a regime that refused to allow any medical treatment. Children were brainwashed into dobbing in their parents for petty crimes – even smiling was banned.

When the regime was toppled in 1979 by invading Vietnamese forces, nearly a fifth of the Cambodian population was dead. Almost 30 years later, the hold-up is frustrating to those who want to see justice done.

"You talk to pretty much anyone in the street, as it were, and they will say, `what's the trouble - why aren't these happening? It's been 30 years now, we just want to understand what's going on'."

Dame Silvia says the impact of the genocide is "enormous" and still much in evidence in Phnom Penh today.

"It's like the most terrible crime on a person. Someone whose close relative has been murdered, their whole life changes. In this case the whole country's life has changed and I'd say most families have lost members. They've been dispossessed of all sorts of rights and assets and they've lost the intelligentsia of a whole generation. And it's one of the most cruel, cruel periods because the whole country was involved. You only have to go into the city of Phnom Penh and see how intricate a city it is. Try to imagine the militia coming in and forcing you out of your home and making you walk in the heat – you can't even begin to imagine what it must be like."

So will Cambodia have to wait a bit longer to see justice served?

"If we can adopt the rules very soon, I do believe it will (go ahead), because the investigative phase starts as soon as the rules have been adopted and (those) two judges are ready and waiting. My trial phase will start about six months later for these to come through the system. Most (of those to be charged) are living in Cambodia, as I understand, but I don't know who they are, but the big picks are living in villages around the country."

If the trials do go ahead will they deliver the justice the country is seeking?

"It'll hopefully give justice but only in a few instances. There were thousands of people who committed grave offences during the period and we're talking about six to 10 people who will be representing that group. So in personal terms, most people will not see someone who is personally responsible for the killing of their mother, father, sister, brother or whatever brought to trial, but what it will do is demonstrate what actually happened for the Cambodian people. And perhaps give them some understanding of what, to me, is still a mystery and I'm sure it is to the Cambodian people as well. How something of this scale could happen.

Cambodian leader to stop talking about Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal
The China Post/ AP
May 8, 2007

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP)

Cambodian leader Hun Sen said Tuesday he will stop discussing the Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal in the wake of suspicions that long delays in convening the trial were caused by government meddling.

"Some people have accused me of commanding (the tribunal) from behind," he told reporters. "Everything related to the Khmer Rouge tribunal, I will not talk about it anymore."

The tribunal was created by a 2003 pact between Cambodia and the United Nations to try those responsible for atrocities during the Khmer Rouge rule of the mid-1970s. About 1.7 million people died during the period.

The trials were expected to begin this year. But a dispute over legal fees proved yet another obstacle preventing the tribunal from moving forward.

Human rights groups have accused the Cambodian government of foot-dragging, which the government has repeatedly dismissed.

Hun Sen's critics have also long speculated that he would not like to see too extensive a list of defendants, which could include former middle-ranking Khmer Rouge members who later became his allies. Hun Sen himself was a junior Khmer Rouge member who defected from the group before it was overthrown in 1979.

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Democratic Republic of the Congo (ICC)

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

DR Congo refugees start going home
Reuters via AfricaCast
May 8, 2007

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has started repatriating the first group of 60 000 Congolese from Zambia under a three-year voluntary programme, said a spokesperson on Monday.

UNHCR spokesperson Kelvin Shimo said 20 000 refugees would initially be repatriated to the vast, mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with logistical support from Zambia in 2007, and 40 000 would start returning home in 2008.

"We ferried 415 refugees on Thursday to Kalemi in the Democratic Republic of Congo and another convoy of over 300 refugees will leave this week," said Shimo.

Zambia hosts thousands of Congolese refugees who fled the 1998-2003 civil war in their country when rebel factions launched an onslaught on the Kinshasa government in a bid to topple the administration of late President Laurent Kabila.

The repatriation of the 20 000 to the former Belgian colony began on Thursday and would be completed later this year under a $5.5m programme, but more funds were needed, said Shimo.

More than 400 000 Congolese still live in exile, said the UNHCR in February.

The international community had hoped for stability following the inauguration of President Joseph Kabila, who won the first democratic elections in four decades last year.

But the the country remains volatile after the civil war, which killed nearly 4 million people through violence, hunger and disease.

Rebels loyal to defeated Congolese presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba fought government troops in March.

Nearly 300 fighters loyal to Bemba are living in limbo since the bloody clashes.
The violence and crackdown on the Bemba-led political opposition dented international hopes for a consolidation of democracy in the DRC after the polls.

Shimo said Congolese refugees who want to return home would be transported by road to Lubumbashi, Pweto, Kalenga and Moba in the DRC every week until the end of this year.

"We are settling these refugees in areas that have been declared safe after clearing land mines and where schools, clinics and water can be provided," he added.

They would initially be kept in transit centres and be screened for any diseases and provided with information on Aids, said Shimo.

"The refugees are being given construction kits so that they can start building their new houses," he said. - Reuters

Congo army raids spread terror in eastern Congo
Reuters
By Joe Bavier
May 9, 2007

"I buried my child in the forest," said Jeannette Nyirarukundo, who fled her village in eastern Congo when it was attacked by the government army meant to protect it.

Six-year-old Moise starved to death before the family reached the safety of a camp at Nyongera, 70 km (44 miles) from North Kivu's provincial capital Goma.

Some 113,000 civilians have fled fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu since February, and the province now has 600,000 displaced people, according to the U.N. humanitarian coordination agency OCHA.

"We slept in the forest for two weeks, and then they came after us there too. It wasn't safe anymore, and we came here," said Nyirarukundo, 28, who was accompanied by her husband and three surviving children.

Eastern Congo is no stranger to violence, but ironically the latest surge in killing started with a deal designed to bring peace to this corner of the vast country nearly four years after a nationwide accord officially ended a 1998-2003 war.

Laurent Nkunda, a dissident Congolese army general, led his two brigades into the bush in 2004, vowing to protect his fellow ethnic Tutsis. He is under an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes after his men occupied Bukavu, South Kivu.

After last year's historic polls saw President Joseph Kabila become Congo's first democratically elected leader in more than four decades, the army and Rwandan mediators began negotiations to bring Nkunda and his soldiers into existing army brigades stationed in North Kivu. That process began in January.

But instead of ending the violence, the five new mixed brigades began hunting down Nkunda's enemies in the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu-dominated Rwandan rebel movement based in eastern Congo.

"CATASTROPHIC"

"There's more and more movement every day ... If this military strategy continues, we could be looking at another 280,000 more (displaced)," said Luciano Calestini, emergency specialist for eastern Congo for U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF.

"The next six months is going to be a disaster. It's going to be catastrophic," he said.

Human rights observers accuse the mixed brigades of killing, raping and forcing civilians from their homes.

Soldiers from the mixed Bravo Brigade arbitrarily executed at least 15 mostly Hutu civilians in Buramba village about 100 km (60 miles) north of Goma, the human rights division of Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission said in a report.

Bravo Brigade commander Colonel Sultani Makenga blamed the massacre on the FDLR.

"What we did was separate the population from the FDLR. That's why the villages are uninhabited," Makenga told Reuters in an interview. "We evacuated the civilians in order to fight the FDLR alone ... It was to protect them."

Makenga said operations would continue until the FDLR were chased out of Congo or destroyed.

Dominique Bofondo, territorial administrator of Rutshuru, where Bravo Brigade is based, said civilians now lived in fear of the mixed brigades.

"These are the same soldiers who killed people, who raped women. And now they are here to take care of us? ... We are in the hands of a killer," Bofondo said.

In Nyongera camp, Nyirarukundo said she is still afraid to return home but says her surviving children are hungry and sick.

"For now, we have nothing. There's no food. Nothing. We just want security, so we can go home," she said.

More Rebels Hand in Arms in Ituri
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
11 May 2007

Another group of militias from one of the last active rebel movements in the troubled Ituri district of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has handed in its weapons under an ongoing demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) process, United Nations sources said.

About 223 former fighters of the Front des nationalistes et intégrationnistes (FNI) militia, whose leader, Peter Karim, was made a colonel in the national army in October 2006, surrendered their arms in Doi village, near the town of Kpandroma, northwest of Bunia, Ituri's administrative centre, according to Maj Gabriel de Brosses, spokesman for the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC).

Among those demobilised this week were child soldiers, who were immediately separated from adult fighters and put under the care of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Italian non-governmental organisation, COOPI.

This was the second group of FNI militias to hand in their weapons this year. About 170 militiamen, out of FNI's estimated 1,000 fighters, surrendered their arms in February. The FNI had been, until then, outside the DDR process because Karim had imposed conditions on his group's participation.

"Colonel Peter Karim has said that 100 more fighters should surrender [their arms] this week," said De Brosses.

Thirty-eight AK47 assault rifles and 98 rounds of ammunition were handed in during the latest demobilisation exercise.

Two other armed groups, which continued their military campaign during the transition period after the 2003 peace agreement designed to end civil war in the DRC and even after the 2006 elections, have surrendered their arms under the DDR programme.
Ituri has been ravaged by ethnic conflict since 1999. More than six armed groups have fought intermittently, leaving more than 50,000 people dead and another 400,000 displaced.

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Darfur, Sudan (ICC)

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

International Criminal Court Issues Warrants for First Darfur War Crimes Suspects
UN News Service
May 2, 2007

The International Criminal Court (ICC) today issued its first warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region, giving the country's Government responsibility for the arrest of a Sudanese minister and a militia commander.

The court's Pre-Trial Chamber I issued warrants of arrest for Ahmad Muhammad Harun, former Minister of State for the Interior of the Government of Sudan and currently Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs, and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Al Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb.

"As the territorial State, the Government of the Sudan has a legal duty to arrest Ahmad Harun and Ali Kushayb," ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said, adding, "This is the International Criminal Court's decision and the Government has to respect it."

The two men are accused of targeting civilians in attacks on four villages in West Darfur between August 2003 and March 2004, according to the warrant that outlines multiple counts of personal responsibility for murder, pillaging and rape for each.

"In his public speeches, Ahmad Harun not only demonstrated that he knew that the Militia/Janjaweed were attacking civilians and pillaging towns and villages, but also personally encouraging the commission of such illegal acts," the judges concluded.

It alleges that Ali Kushayb, leader of the Janjaweed in the Wadi Salih, "enlisted fighters, armed, funded and provided supplies to the Militia /Janjaweed under his command thereby intentionally contributing to the commissions of the crimes."

The Court noted that he "personally participated in some of the attacks against civilians."

According to the Court, in early 2003, Mr. Harun was appointed head of the "Darfur Security desk," where his main task was to manage and personally recruit, fund and arm the Janjaweed militia - forces that would ultimately number in the tens of thousands.

The communique emphasizes that the case highlights the connection between a high Government figure and a powerful Janjaweed leader, and shows the underlying operational system that enabled massive crimes against civilians who were known not to be involved in the conflict.

The issuance of the warrants comes amid increasing international efforts to stop the bloodshed and improve humanitarian assistance in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and at least 2 million others forced to flee their homes since 2003.

Despite numerous recent attacks against relief workers in Darfur, the humanitarian community continues to explore ways to increase its access and resume activities in hard-to-reach areas, the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) reported today.

The mission said that a key road in West Darfur has been re-opened for humanitarian traffic after being declared a no go' zone in October 2006, and that efforts are being undertaken to resume operations in other areas of West Darfur that had been plagued by road attacks over the past few months.

Also today, in an effort to further facilitate humanitarian activities, Sudanese Government and UN officials met with representatives of the European Commission, Jordan and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at the Ministry for Humanitarian affairs in Khartoum.

Sudan rejects ICC arrest warrants
Sudan Tribune
May 2, 2007

(KHARTOUM) — Sudan rejected the first arrest warrants issued Wednesday by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the Darfur conflict for a Sudanese minister of state and a militia leader accused of murder, torture and rape.

"Sudan rejects the ICC prosecutor’s decision and our position is in line with international law because Sudan is not a member of the treaty that founded this jurisdiction," Mohammed Ali al-Mardhi told reporters.

In documents released Wednesday, ICC judges said there were "reasonable grounds" to conclude that Ahmed Haroun, Sudan’s secretary of state for humanitarian affairs and a former minister in charge of Darfur, and Ali Kosheib, a principal leader of the Khartoum-backed Janjaweed militia, were "criminally responsible" for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The arrest warrants, dated April 27, charge the pair with a long list of 51 counts including murder, torture, mass rape and the forced displacement of entire villages during a series of attacks in western Darfur in 2003 and 2004.

International Criminal Court officials meet Sudanese refugees in Chad
UN News Service
May 3, 2007

Following this week’s arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against suspects wanted in connection with the violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, ICC officials are conducting a three-day visit to refugee camps in eastern Chad to explain their work to some of the estimated 2 million people who have fled there.

The ICC Registrar Bruno Cathala and the Head of the Division of Victims and Counsel Didier Preira arrived in eastern Chad yesterday to talk with refugee representatives in three camps, the Court said in a press release.

Those camps, at Bredjing, Farchana and Treguine, are together home to about 65,000 people who are part of the vast population of Sudanese displaced by the conflict that has raged in Darfur since 2003.

During the visit, which is part of the Court’s outreach strategy on Darfur, Mr. Cathala and Mr. Preira will focus on the rights of victims to participate in ICC proceedings, including in presenting their views and concerns at all stages, regardless of whether they are called to testify as witnesses.

Yesterday, one of the ICC’s pre-trial chambers issued arrest warrants for crimes against humanity and war crimes for two men after endorsing the evidence found during an investigation by Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo into the situation in Darfur.

Ahmad Muhammad Harun, former Minister of State for the Interior of the Government of Sudan and currently Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs, and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Al Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, now face arrest.

The two men are accused of targeting civilians in attacks on four villages in West Darfur between August 2003 and March 2004, according to the warrant that outlines multiple counts of personal responsibility for murder, pillaging and rape for each.

Hague court issues first Darfur war crimes warrants
The Guardian (London)
By Xan Rice
May 3, 2007

The international criminal court announced yesterday that it had issued arrest warrants for a Janjaweed militia leader and a Sudanese government minister suspected of involvement in murder, torture and rape in Darfur.

However, Khartoum said it had no intention of handing over the men - Ali Muhammad al Abd-al-Rahman, known as Ali Kushayb, and Ahmad Muhammad Harun, the state minister for humanitarian affairs, who are accused of 41 and 50 counts respectively of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The men are alleged to have had lead roles in joint army and militia attacks on four West Darfur villages in 2003 and 2004, where hundreds were murdered.

Human rights groups applauded the action, which was a first for Darfur.

Presenting his case to the international court in February, the chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, had requested the two men be summoned to The Hague, a move that would have put pressure only on Sudan to ensure their appearance. But the three sitting judges yesterday chose to go further by issuing arrest warrants. This puts the onus on all countries that recognise the court to help apprehend the suspects.

The court said yesterday there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that Mr Harun, 43, a former judge, encouraged attacks on civilians while he was government head of the Darfur security desk. Mr Rahman, 50, described by the prosecution as a "colonel of colonels", is accused of personally participating in attacks by the Janjaweed, the mainly Arab militia sponsored by Sudan's government.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said yesterday that the government had "a legal duty" to arrest the two men.

But Sudan's government, which fears that further prosecutions could hit ministers all the way up to the president, Omar al-Bashir, yesterday repeated its insistence that the court had no jurisdiction over it. The justice minister, Mohammed Ali al-Mardi, told the Associated Press in Khartoum: "Whatever the (court) does, is totally unrealistic, illegal and repugnant to any form of international law." On a visit to Nairobi last month he said there was "not a shred of evidence to implicate Harun in incidents in Darfur".

Mr Harun remains a minister in Khartoum. Mr Rahman is reportedly on trial in Sudan but on separate charges.

Leslie Lefkow, a Human Rights Watch researcher, said that if Sudan's government failed to act the security council should ensure the warrants were executed.

2 Countries are said to arm Sudan
Associated Press via The Boston Globe
Setarreh Massihzadegan
May 9, 2007

CAIRO -- A top human rights group accused China and Russia yesterday of violating a United Nations arms embargo by supplying Sudan with weapons and equipment that were used to fuel deadly violence against civilians in Darfur and neighboring Chad.

Moscow and Beijing, which have balked at US and British efforts to put new pressure on their trade ally Sudan, quickly rejected Amnesty International's allegations. Sudan said the report was false.

"The report is totally incorrect ," Sudanese government spokesman Bakri Mulah said from Khartoum.

The report said "the bulk" of the arms used in Darfur and Chad were transferred from China and Russia, with Sudan importing $83 million in arms from Beijing and $34.7 million in military equipment from Moscow in 2005, the latest available figures.

The rights group said China and Russia should have been aware that their military equipment was "deployed by the Sudanese armed forces and militia for direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks in Darfur."

Amnesty said it was particularly concerned about Russian Mi-24 helicopter gunships acquired by the Sudan Air Force that were allegedly being used to launch attacks in Darfur.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China's weapons sales to Africa were made to sovereign nations and were "very limited and small in scale" but would not say specifically how much was sold to Sudan.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said "no Russian weapons have been shipped to Darfur.

UN accuses Sudan of violating law
Reuters via Independent Online
May 11, 2007

The United Nations' human rights chief on Friday said recent air raids by Sudanese forces on at least five Darfur villages appeared to be "indiscriminate and disproportionate", and violated international law.

The attacks between April 19 and 29 have already been condemned by United States Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, although Khartoum says they never took place.

Making no reference to the Sudanese denial, the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said the attacks were reportedly carried out by helicopter gunships and Antonov aircraft.

There were "numerous civilian casualties and destruction of property," with school children amongst the wounded, Arbour's spokesperson Jose Luis Diaz said in a statement.

At least five villages near El Fasher in North Darfur were targeted during 10 days of attacks which had "contributed to an already critical humanitarian situation".

"The bombardments appear to have been indiscriminate and disproportionate", and as such constituted "violations of international humanitarian and human rights law," Diaz added.

Earlier this month, Ban called for an end to air raids by Sudanese forces, which he said had caused civilian deaths and destruction, although he gave few details at the time.

But Sudan's ambassador to the UN Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem denied the reported attacks and said rumours were being spread by people out to torpedo peace talks with rebels.

The United Nations says that about 200 000 have died and more than two million have fled their homes since conflict flared in Darfur in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government accusing it of years of neglect.

Sudan says only 9 000 have perished.

The UN has sent some peacekeepers to Darfur, in western Sudan, and is trying to get agreement with the Khartoum government on more

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Uganda (ICC)

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

Uganda: LRA Denies Killings as Peace Talks Resume
IRIN
May 2, 2007

KAMPALA, 2 May 2007 (IRIN) - The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) denied claims by the Ugandan military that it was responsible for killing seven people in an ambush in the north of the country on Monday evening.

The Ugandan army on Wednesday also charged that the insurgency was in violation of a truce agreement signed in 2006 to pave the way for peace talks under way in southern Sudan.

The LRA, however, denied responsibility for Monday's attack on the passengers traveling in three lorries from southern Sudan to Uganda.

"Three trucks heading from Sudan to Uganda were ambushed and the occupants abducted. They were moved about one-and-a-half kilometres from the scene as one of the eight victims escaped and the seven were undressed, the rebels tied their hands at their backs and used clubs to smash their heads and kill them," said army spokesman Lt Chris Magezi, quoting an account of the incident obtained from the survivor.

"This is a blatant violation of the [truce] agreement and it is an indication that they [the LRA] lack seriousness to pursue a peace deal with the government. The mediators and observers should investigate these incidents because they are of concern to us," said Magezi.

Justin Labeja, a member of the LRA delegation to the peace talks in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, said the army's accusation was "unfair", telling IRIN by telephone from Juba: "It is always fashionable for the Ugandan military to blame any attack on the LRA."

The talks resumed on 27 April after four months of uncertainty that followed an LRA demand that Sudanese mediators be replaced and the venue of the talks moved. The United Nations special envoy to the talks, Joaquim Chissano, managed to convince the LRA to abandon its demands and go back to the negotiating table. The cessation of hostilities agreement initially signed in August 2006 has been extended until the end of June and the rebels have six weeks to assemble at Ri-Kwangba in southern Sudan during the talks.

The peace talks are aimed at ending the conflict that has raged in northern Ugandan since 1988, when the elusive LRA leader Joseph Kony took over leadership of a two-year-old rebellion among northern Uganda's ethnic Acholi minority. Thousands of civilians have died in the war and nearly two million people have been displaced by the conflict and forced to live in squalid camps.

Kony and four other LRA leaders have been indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes, including the abduction of thousands of children for conscription into the LRA forces and forced marriage to soldiers.

Uganda Confident of Rebel Deal, Despite World Court
Reuters
By Tim Cocks
May 8, 2007

KAMPALA, May 8 (Reuters) - Uganda said on Tuesday it was confident international arrest warrants for the leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels would not derail the signing of a peace deal being thrashed out at talks in south Sudan.

LRA leader Joseph Kony and four of his deputies are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their role in a two-decade civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted nearly 2 million more.

Negotiations began in Juba, southern Sudan, in July to seek an end to the fighting. Delegates agreed a temporary truce in August, and last week signed a second part of a multi-stage deal agreeing to solve the humanitarian crisis caused by the war.

Talks turn to the more controversial topic of accountability on Friday. Kony, who is charged with massacring civilians, rape and abducting children as recruits, has vowed never to agree a peace deal until the world court arrest warrants are scrapped.

But the deputy head of the government's negotiating team, Oryem Okello, said the guerrillas had been advised that making peace first was the best way for them to avoid prison.

"I believe it is possible (to) have an agreement without the lifting of the ICC indictment," he told reporters in Kampala.

"They are aware they committed offences ... The government is offering to deal with justice using our national laws."

The ICC says Uganda, and other states in the region, have a legal obligation to arrest and handover the wanted men. Most of the rebels are in south Sudan, east of the Nile, or with their leaders in remote northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Okello said an amnesty offer issued to the fugitive rebels last year by President Yoweri Museveni could still stand, but not as a precondition of any deal.

"They are starting to realise that President Museveni is their best ally," he said. "He has given them a way out."

Controversy over ICC Victim Participation
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
By Katy Glassborow
May 8, 2007

Judges say victim-support office went too far by remarking on which applicants were suitable to attend the trial of Lord's Resistance Army leaders.

A new office at the International Criminal Court, ICC, has been accused of overstepping the mark in carrying out its remit to help victims of human rights abuses take part in the trials of those accused of carrying out these abuses.

The controversy arose when judges at the ICC dismissed a document which the Office of Public Counsel for Victims, OPCV, had submitted concerning 49 Ugandans who had applied to take part in a future trial of four leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army, LRA, a rebel group which has mounted a two-decade-long insurgency in northern Uganda.

The four, including LRA leader Joseph Kony, have not been apprehended, so any trial is still a distant prospect, but the dispute raises serious concerns about the arrangements for allowing victims a role in ICC trials.

The ICC is the first international war crimes tribunal to invite victims to participate in proceedings on a voluntary basis, rather being summoned to testify as witnesses. Victims are free to make submissions to judges on issues they themselves feel are important, unlike witnesses who are required to give testimony and are subjected to questioning by prosecution and defence lawyers.

But before they are accorded this right, victims must fill out application forms. These are scrutinised by judges, who then decide whether to invite them to take part in the trial , at which point they are provided with legal counsel. Individuals are not automatically granted legal representation from the moment they submit their applications, and only have a right to it once they have been approved by judges and assigned the legal status of victims.

The controversy relates to the intervening period between application and the judges' decision, when it is unclear how much legal advice and representation applicants can be offered by the court's institutions.

In the case of the 49 Ugandans, the OPCV – an independent office set up in 2005 to look after the legal interests of victims at the ICC – clearly interpreted the rules differently from the judges, offering comments on the applicants' suitability as well as advising them on their rights.

This disparity in interpretations has created some confusion over the OPCV's precise remit, and has made human rights organisations worry about how the legal rights of individuals applying for participation are being safeguarded. OPCV staff recently travelled to Uganda to meet the 49 people who had filed applications to take part in the LRA trial.

On February 1, prior to the visit, pre-trial judges at the ICC issued a decision which sought to define the OPCV’s role in assisting victims. It tasked the OPCV with giving applicants “any support and assistance which, albeit falling short of legal representation, may be necessary or appropriate at this stage of the proceedings".

Judge Mauro Politi, the judge assigned to look after matters relating to victims in the LRA case, explained that what this meant was that the OPCV should explain the ICC's process to applicants before any decision on their application was taken, and inform them of the rights they would enjoy as trial participants if their application was successful.

Staff at the OPCV told IWPR that they interpreted this as enabling the office to "provide comments to the chamber, if this is useful to the applicants"; in other words, that they could not only give applicants the factual information referred to by Judge Politi, but also report back to the court with findings from their meetings and observations on the applicants.

On returning to The Hague, the OPCV team submitted a document to judges on March 27 which outlined the legal merits of each applicant's case and commented on whether he or she should be allowed to participate.

ICC prosecutors came back with a riposte on April 3, filing an objection which said the OPCV's observations were "without a legal basis and outside the mandate conferred" in the judges' February 1 statement. Lawyers looking after the rights of the defence also objected to the OPCV's submission.

In a ruling issued on April 16, Judge Politi ruled that the OPCV had indeed acted outside its mandate, and that its observations were inadmissible. There was no legal basis for the "spontaneous submission of legal observations as to the admissibility and the merits of the victims' applications", he said. He said the OPCV had not interpreted the February 1 decision the way that judges had intended it.

The OPCV was established to provide "support and assistance to the legal representative of victims and to victims, including legal research and advice, and appearing before a Chamber in respect of specific issues". Its regulations require it produce factual background documents on situations the court is looking into, write research papers, and "provide advice on selected aspects of international criminal law, in particular on law relevant to victim's participation".

However, Judge Politi made it clear that under the court's regulations, all the tasks that the OPCV performs are "conditional upon their being appropriate". Filing observations on the admissibility of applicants was not, he concluded, "appropriate".

The OPCV still maintains that it had the right to act as it did. Its head Paolina Massidda told IWPR that the February ruling "implies the possibility to provide legal arguments to the Chamber in favour of the applicants", especially because judges had asked the OPCV to provide assistance in any manner it considered "useful and necessary".

But Politi's view is that whenever there is any doubt or ambiguity, the OPCV should consult first before taking any action. "As far as any activity or initiative not specifically authorised by the Chamber is concerned, the proper way for the OPCV to fulfil its mandate is to refrain from taking any initiatives vis-à-vis the Chamber without prior seeking authorisation to do so," he said in his ruling.

Anabela do Céu Atanásio Alves of the Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law, and a former advisor to ICC judges, told IWPR that the February decision which set the stage for the OPCV's Ugandan visit left the level of assistance that could be offered a very open matter that was left to the OPCV to interpret.

Alves said the OPCV's role is an advisory one, and does not envisage it providing legal arguments or acting as counsel for victims, unless it is specifically requested to do so by judges. As such, she said, the February 1 decision was "too open, reflecting the broad language of the statute".

According to Alves, judges could have given clear guidance as to the OPCV's precise role in assisting victims, thus setting a precedent for other ICC cases. As things stand, however, "unfortunately it remains unclear how far the office can go", she said.

She added that "now is the time to set guidelines, parameters and precedents", so that there are clear interpretations of the rules defining who plays what role at the ICC when it comes to arranging the participation of victims.

"The ICC is a unique system and there are no precedents," she said, noting that as the court's rules are an amalgam of different legal systems, when the rules were drafted many issues were left for the judges to decide.

"Many procedural issues in the wording were left open, which reflects the compromise that had to be made during the drafting," she said.

Describing the procedural grey areas as "vacuums" which must be filled by judges as soon as possible, Alves insisted that precise regulations are "fundamental for the good running of proceedings from the outset".

Given the lack of clarity surrounding the process of applying to participate in an ICC in the capacity of a victim, human rights organisations have on occasion stepped in to fill the breach.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Avocats Sans Frontières, ASF, assisted victims of the Ituri conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo to fill in ICC application form.

Martine Schotsmans of ASF takes the view that "any victim who files a request should be represented legally from the moment a request is filed".

It cannot be fair, she argues, that people who find that their request to participate is rejected at the initial stage are not entitled to legal representation. This means that while the prosecution and defence are invited to comment on their applications, the victims themselves cannot respond.

In addition, the jurisprudence regarding victim participation is developing with every decision that is made, and the trial proceedings themselves are very complex. Schotsmans argues, therefore, that "victims should be given representation, otherwise the right to participate in complex proceedings is just an empty right - victims need legal assistance".

In dismissing the OPCV's observations on the 49 Ugandan applicants, the ICC judges were careful to make it clear that their decision would not prejudice future requests for OPCV assistance, "on a case-by-case basis".

Regardless of the legal wrangling, Massidda remains upbeat about the role her office can play. "We are studying their [victims'] issues all day and are in a position to provide advice," she said.

Victim participation is still a new and evolving concept where "everything needs to be defined", she said, adding that "we need to wait for further jurisprudential developments to see to what extent participation will be effective in court proceedings".

Peace or Justice in Northern Uganda?
Reuters AlertNet
By Megan Rowling
May 9, 2007

As the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army rebels head into phase three of peace talks, they face what's likely to be the toughest challenge yet. On the table for discusson: the hyper-sensitive issue of accountability.

Fugitive LRA leader Joseph Kony and four of his commanders are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. Kony - who's charged with massacring civilians, rape and abducting children as recruits - has vowed not to sign a peace deal until the indictments are scrapped.

This week, the deputy head of the government's negotiating team, Oryem Okello, said the guerrillas had been advised that making peace first was the best way for them to avoid prison.

While Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni initiated the ICC process, he changed his tune last summer, suggesting that arrest warrents could be cancelled and offering Kony total amnesty if the LRA joined talks and gave up "terrorism".

For now, the situation remains as clear as mud.

At a recent debate on war crimes trials at the London School of Economics, the former chief prosecutor of the U.N. International Crimes Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Richard Goldstone, said Museveni could not simply withdraw his referral of the case to the ICC.

But there is an alternative. "If Uganda wants to avoid the ICC tribunal, it could set up its own credible trials," Goldstone explained.

The emphasis here is on credible. "Sham national proceedings aimed at shielding the accused from responsibility, unfair trials, or even meaningful prosecutions accompanied by a slap-on-the-wrist sentence will not pass muster with the ICC judges who will ultimately decide whether a trial in Uganda is an acceptable alternative," argued Elise Keppler and Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch in a comment piece in the Ugandan Monitor newspaper.

A total amnesty certainly wouldn't fit that bill. Neither, it seems, would the suggestion that's been floated by Kony's tribe, the Acholi, of traditional "Mato Oput" justice. That would involve a reconciliation ritual in which a murderer faces relatives of the victim and admits his crime before both drink a bitter brew made from a tree root mixed with sheep's blood.

Human Rights Watch asserts that only "fair and credible trials" of LRA and Ugandan army members responsible for the conflict's worst crimes will send the message that such atrocities won't be tolerated under the rule of law. This echoes a key criticism of the ICC's approach, which has not charged any Ugandan troops so far, despite what Goldstone described as "overwhelming" evidence of war crimes committed by this side too.

Whether trials involving one or both parties will actually take place - either under national or international jurisdiction - is hard to predict. But one thing experts agree on is that northern Uganda highlights the pitfalls of the wider trend towards "justice in real time", as Leslie Vinjamuri, assistant professor at Georgetown University, calls it.

"Indicting the LRA during a time of war and peace negotiations has very high stakes," she argued at the LSE debate. "When (war crime trials) are least likely to be effective is when the parties participating in the war are also taking part in the peace."

But timing isn't the only issue. Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society, suggested in this month's edition of Prospect magazine that the ICC should be more sensitive to local contexts and non-Western concepts of justice and reconciliation.

"Surely it is better for the LRA leaders to perform some ritual and to be given pensions, cars and houses, and for the war to end, than for them to face trial thousands of miles away, with a result that means nothing to their victims — while the war continues," he wrote.

A controversial suggestion perhaps - but one that has resonance among the 1.7 million northern Ugandans forced from their homes during the brutal two-decade insurgency. As this Reuters feature reports, for them the priority is peace and the opportunity to resume some kind of normal life.

"We shouldn't overstate the importance of accountability for victims," said Vinjamuri. "There is a gap between what the international community wants and local populations, who have different norms and ways of forgiving."

Thanks in no small part to civil society groups, accountability for war crimes has come to be seen as an issue that should be dealt with not after the transition to peace, but during it.

That raises a whole new set of questions about the complex relationship between justice and peace. We'd like to hear what you think. Is peace reconcilable with justice in northern Uganda? And what about in Darfur and elsewhere? Are there lessons to be learned from Bosnia, Rwanda or Sierra Leone?

Please note that we cannot publish comments that are libelous, racist, abusive or would not make sense to the general reader.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urges Uganda and Lord's Resistance Army to commit to principle of no-impunity for serious violations
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
May 11, 2007

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour today urged the Government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to reject impunity and ensure respect for international standards during peace talks set to resume tomorrow in Juba, southern Sudan.

"For a peace agreement to be durable it must be based on the principles of justice, accountability and the rule of law", the High Commissioner said. "Any accord must reaffirm the commitment of both parties to the core principle of international law that there can be no amnesty for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and gross violations of human rights.

Recalling that members of the LRA have been indicted by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity and war crimes, the High Commissioner said. "Discussions concerning those persons should be focusing on the terms and circumstances of their surrender so they can go and address the charges against them before the ICC".

The High Commissioner also encouraged parties in Juba to commit to a national "victim-centered consultative process" aimed at gathering the views of all stakeholders on appropriate justice, accountability and reconciliation mechanisms. "The peace agreement should set a timeframe for the national dialogue and identify an independent institution to coordinate the process, so that past abuses and violations, as well as deep-seated social and economic inequalities, may be addressed comprehensively", she added.

The High Commissioner commended the parties for extending the cessation of hostilities agreement and said the Juba talks provided a unique opportunity to set a framework for the longer term restoration of the rule of law and the rebuilding of a democratic society.

Uganda: Talks Delayed Over Accountability Questions
IRIN
May 11, 2007

Talks aimed at ending two decades of fighting in northern Uganda could not resume on Friday as scheduled because of disagreement over how to handle issues of accountability and reconciliation in the war that has killed thousands.

Ugandan and rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) sources confirmed that they had presented their positions to the mediators and that these would form the basis of debate when the talks resume, probably next week, in the Southern Sudanese capital of Juba.
"We have made our proposal on agenda item number three which is concerned with reconciliation and accountability. We were supposed to return to Juba today [Friday] morning and resume the talks, but we were informed by the mediators that there were some small things that have come up and that they were still consulting and analysing both our proposals and that of the LRA," the Ugandan government delegation spokesman Captain Bahoku Barigye said by telephone.

The LRA delegate to the talks, Justin Labeja, confirmed that the LRA had already made its proposals, but could not divulge much about the contents, saying they could only be released when they were being debated.

But Barigye said the Ugandan delegation was seeking acceptance by the LRA that it had committed atrocities in northern Uganda: "Really the point is that the LRA should accept that they committed atrocities and apologise. If they accept, then are the people willing to accept their apology and if so, what [form of] justice [should be taken]?"

Labeja said the talks may resume on 15 May for the negotiators to start dwelling on one of the most controversial issues of the talks. This item will address the LRA's fears about the indictments by the International Criminal Court against five of its leaders, including Joseph Kony and his deputy, Vincent Otti.

The LRA has insisted the ICC drops the indictments before it will sign a comprehensive agreement with the Ugandan government. Instead, it wants to resort to Uganda's legal system, including the traditional Acholi justice system known as the Mato oput.

Labeja repeated these fears, saying the ICC stance on the talks would weigh on the process if the indictments remained in place. "If the ICC is still standing as it is currently, the problems will still be there for the peace process," he said.

The two sides signed an agreement on 2 May setting targets on what had to be achieved at the peace talks by agreeing on "principles of comprehensive solutions to the political, social and economic problems in Uganda, mainly the northern region - the bedrock of the rebellion. Key to the agreement is the Ugandan people's right to exercise universal principles of democracy."

The talks that resumed in Juba in April are seen as the best chance to end the conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced almost two million people.

[back to contents]

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Official Website of the ICTY

Del Ponte Demands Release of Disputable Documents
Javno
By Lajla Mlinari?
May 3, 2007

The prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had requested the release of documents from the process against Slobodan Milosevic, about which the tribunal should made a decision in the following days. Yesterday’s order, in which the Hague Tribunal’s president nominated judges to decide about the prosecution’s request, does not mention the contents of the documents whose issuing has been requested, Sarajevo’s Dnevni Avaz daily writes.

In the interest of transparency

Spokeswoman for the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Olga Kavran, confirmed that on April 25 the prosecution had forwarded a request that the status of confidentiality be removed from two documents.

The prosecution submitted this request because it believes that it is in the interest of transparency and justice and these two court documents, the decision of the Appeals Chamber and the prosecution’s motion, be released to the public, Kavran said.

She said that the prosecution had requested that the decision of the Appeals Chamber from April 6, 2006, that is in relation with the request of Serbia and Montenegro to review the decision of the appeals council, be available to the public. The second document is a motion made by the Prosecution on February 9 of last year. Since they are confidential documents, Kavran could not speak about their contents.

Accusations of cooperation with Serbia are the reason

Sources at the ICTY told the AFP agency that the request had been made by the chief prosecutor herself because the media and her former associates had begun accusing her of cooperating with Belgrade.

The prosecutor that led the case against Slobodan Milosevic, Geoffrey Nice, recently accused Del Ponte of having, without any legal foundation, agreed to use minutes from sessions of the Supreme Defence Council of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) that had been previously amended by authorities in Belgrade. According to Nice, Serbia had utilised this deal to “conceal evidence on Yugoslavia’s involvement in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina from the International Court of Justice” during the proceedings Bosnia had levelled against FRY for genocide.

The office of the Chief Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, dismissed the accusations as untrue and stressed that all decisions on the confidentiality status of documents before the tribunal were made exclusively by judges.

Many claim that the blacked-out parts of the documents contain explicit evidence on the existence of control and orders from Serbia, even Belgrade’s financing and endorsement of the war in Bosnia.

EU troops in Bosnia search home of alleged supporter of war crimes suspect
International Herald Tribune
May 7, 2007

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina: European Union peacekeepers searched the home of an alleged supporter of one of Bosnia's most wanted war crimes suspects, Radovan Karadzic.

The EU force said troops seized a number of items in Monday's raid that they intended to further analyze. No details were given.

The home, in the village of Rudo in southeastern Bosnia, belongs to Vojislav Topalovic, who is suspected of being a member of a network supporting Karadzic, the Bosnian Serbs' leader during the 1992-95 war, the EU force said.

Karadzic is wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague, Netherlands. He and former Bosnia Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic are the tribunal's two most-wanted suspects.

The two have been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, and their indictments include the slaughter of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in July 1995 by Bosnian Serbs who overran the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica.

Karadzic, believed to be hiding in neighboring Serbia or in the Serb-controlled part of Bosnia, has evaded several attempts by NATO-led peacekeepers to capture him despite a U.S.-sponsored US$5 million (€4 million) reward for information leading to his arrest.
The EU force and NATO troops have repeatedly raided the homes of suspected members of a support network that is believed to be providing fugitives with logistical and financial assistance.

The war killed some 260,000 people and left 1.8 million homeless.

Special police unit nabs Bosnian war crimes suspect
Aftenposten
May 8, 2007

A man charged with war crimes in Bosnia-Hercegovina in 1992 was arrested Tuesday by Norway's national crime unit Kripos.

The 40-year-old man is originally from Bosnia-Hercegovina, but came to Norway with his family in September 1993 and obtained Norwegian citizenship in 2001, reports Aftenposten.no.

The suspect, a Muslim, has no criminal record in Norway but prosecutors said he’d been under investigation for Bosnian war crimes for the past two years. He's charged with aggravated assault, holding prisoners and rape, crimes that he allegedly committed in Bosnia from May to September 1992.

It's believed he belonged to a paramilitary organization and was among those who tortured prisoners at the DREPELJ concentration camp.

Prosecutors are calling his arrest potentially historic, because it marks the first time a Norwegian citizen has been charged with war crimes since World War II. Since he’s a citizen, his trial will likely be held in Norway, not where the crimes were committed.
Norwegian police disclosed last fall that they believed more than 50 persons suspected of Bosnian war crimes and human rights abuses are living in the country. Many came as refugees during and after the war in the Balkans.

Norway has been accused of being a haven for war criminals, and prosecutors seem anxious to prove that's not true.

Another 40-year-old Bosnian was arrested two weeks ago and remains in custody, suspected of war crimes in the autonomous region of Bihac in 1994.

Convicted war criminal Damir Sireta was also arrested last November in Norway, after having lived quietly in the country for at least three years.

Appeals Chamber Acquits Vidoje Blagovic of Aiding Srebenica Genocide, Affirms Other Convictions against him and Dragan Jokic
ICTY Press Release
May 9, 2007

The Appeals Chamber today confirmed the convictions of former Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) officers Vidoje Blagojevi? and Dragan Joki? for crimes against humanity and violations of laws and customs of war committed against Bosnian Muslims in the area of Srebrenica in July 1995. It reversed Blagojevi?'s conviction for complicity in genocide and accordingly reduced his sentence to 15 years' imprisonment. Dragan Joki?'s sentence of nine years' imprisonment was confirmed.

Vidoje Blagojevi?, former commander of the VRS Bratunac Brigade, was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment by the Trial Chamber judgement of 17 January 2005. The Appeals Chamber upheld Blagojevi?'s convictions for aiding and abetting the persecution and forcible transfer of the Bosnian Muslim population of the Srebrenica enclave, as well as aiding and abetting the murders of Bosnian Muslim men and boys committed in Bratunac town. The Appeals Chamber dismissed all of Prosecution's grounds of appeal with regard to Blagojevi?, including one under which the Prosecution sought to reverse the Trial Chamber's conclusion that Blagojevi? did not have knowledge of the mass killings between 12 and 14 July 1995.

The Appeals Chamber dismissed several grounds of appeal brought by Blagojevi? with regard to his convictions for crimes, but it held that the Trial Chamber had erred in finding Blagojevi? guilty of complicity in genocide. The Appeals Chamber stated that "no reasonable trier of fact could find beyond reasonable doubt that, without knowledge of the mass killings, Mr. Blagojevi?'s awareness of the other facts related to the forcible transfer operation shows that he had knowledge of the principal perpetrators' genocidal intent".

Noting that "Mr. Blagojevi?'s complaints about his counsel's performance during trial stem from his refusal to communicate with his counsel and instruct his Defence team", the Appeals Chamber dismissed Blagojevi?'s first ground of appeal under which he alleged that his trial was not fair. Judge Shahabuddeen dissented and considered that Blagojevi?'s request for a new trial should have been granted.

Dragan Joki?, former Chief of Engineering of the Zvornik Brigade of the VRS, was found guilty by the Trial Chamber of aiding and abetting extermination, murder and persecutions. All grounds of appeal relating to Joki? brought by the Defence and the Prosecution were dismissed, and the sentence of nine years' imprisonment was affirmed. The Appeals Chamber considered that "it was reasonable for the Trial Chamber to conclude that the assistance Mr. Joki? provided in his capacity as Chief of Engineering in deploying engineering machinery and personnel for the burial operations at Orahovac, Pilica/Branjevo Military Farm, and Kozluk, had a substantial effect on the commission of the mass executions at these three sites".

As of today, the Tribunal has rendered final judgements against six persons in connection with the genocide and other crimes committed in Srebrenica. A trial against seven accused is ongoing, and three accused are in pre-trial phase. One case has been referred to Bosnia and Herzegovina for trial. Of the six remaining fugitives, Radovan Karadži?, Ratko Mladi? and Zdravko Tolimir are charged with genocide in Srebrenica.

Croatian lawmaker, ex-ruling party member, indicted for 1991 war crimes
International Herald Tribune
May, 10 2007

ZAGREB, Croatia: A Croatian lawmaker has been indicted for war crimes, charged with ordering the torture and killing of Serb civilians during the 1991 Serbo-Croat war, his attorney said Thursday.

The Zagreb district court accused Branimir Glavas of forming a paramilitary unit in 1991 in Osijek — an eastern town where he was seen as a warlord — and ordering the detention, torture and killing of at least two Serb civilians.

Glavas, once a fiery nationalist and former senior member of the ruling party, is the first senior Croatian official to be charged with war crimes stemming from the 1991 war, which erupted when minority Serbs took up arms to rebel against Croatia's independence from the former Yugoslavia.

According to the indictment issued late Wednesday, witnesses alleged one victim was forced to drink battery acid and was shot dead as he tried to escape from a garage near Glavas' office.

This is the second indictment against Glavas. He was charged last month in connection with war crimes against about a dozen Serb civilians, many of whose bodies were found gagged and floating in a river.

Glavas, who has been held since the first indictment was brought against him, has denied any wrongdoing, claiming he only defended his country against Serb assaults. His lawyer, Ante Madunic, said the case against his client was politically motivated.

Glavas was first detained late last year after an investigation was opened against him, but he went on hunger strike and was released when doctors said his life was in danger.

For years, Croatia insisted that Croats were the sole victims of the war and refused to bring charges for allegations of war crimes committed by its own people.

A senior member of the governing Croatian Democratic Union throughout the 1990es, Glavas was expelled two years ago after a row with Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.

He has since formed his own party, which won local elections in eastern Croatia last year. He also kept his parliament seat, now as an independent.

The chamber, where Sanader's party holds a majority, lifted Glavas's parliamentary immunity in October to enable his prosecution.

Criminal Charges For War Crime Against 19 Croats
Javno
By Ivona Bari?
May 10, 2007

Between July and November 1991, 18 civilians and one member of the back-up team of the Ministry of the Interior (MUP) police force were tortured and killed. Based on the investigation conducted between March and May this year in cooperation with the County public prosecution in Osijek, reasonable doubt was established that those responsible for the torture and murders were the first accused Jovan Rebraca (52) who was responsible for giving orders as the commander of the Tenja territorial defence at the time, and the second and third accused members of the territorial defence Bozo Vidakovic (59) and Milan Macakanja (60) as the perpetrators.

Faber only gave their initials.

He explained the manner in which the civilians and the member of the MUP back-up team Djuro Kis were tortured, abused and murdered. What was established among other things is that the third accused and another Tenja territorial defence member brought the bodies of the murdered Kis and another civilian to Djuro’s mother Marija Kis’ house and left them in the courtyard on July 7, 1991.

It was also established that, in July 1991, the second and third accused had forcibly taken the 11 captured civilians from the improvised prison to the village Silas by truck and kept them locked in the cargo truck all day without food and water, in inhumane conditions at high summer temperatures. Late in the afternoon, they drove the civilians by truck to the so-called Bobotsko mrciliste, after which any trace of them was lost. Their remains have not been found and the 11 civilians are registered as missing.

They are: Ivan Valentic, Mara Carenko, Ana Horvat, Katica Kis, Pero Mamic, Josip Medved, Stipe Penic, Evica Penic, Vladimir Valentic (all residents of Tenja), and Josip Prodanovic and Franjo Burca from Osijek.
The remains of Djuro Kis were exhumed on February 25, 1998 at the Catholic cemetery in Tenja and, the next day, the remains of the seven Tenja residents who had been killed after being tortured, were exhumed in Betin Dvor near Tenja. They are: Mara and Marko Knezevic, Manda Banovic, Franjo Fucek, Nedjeljko Gotovac, Elizabeta Gotovac and Andrija Gotovac.

When asked by the press why the investigation of the 19 murdered Croatian citizens was started after 16 years, the head of the Osijek – Baranja County police department Faber said that gathering material evidence had been the problem. He thanked citizens for helping find the perpetrators.

He added that “the police department is continuing the investigation into the criminal acts in question and still inviting citizens to cooperate.”

Police department head Faber did not wish to comment on his departure, which has been announced, nor on the position he would be assigned to, pointing out that this was a question for his superiors.

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International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

Official Website of the ICTR

Nshamihigo Accuses Witnesses of Having Lied
AllAfrica.com - Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
April 30, 2007

Simeon Nshamihigo, a former magistrate in Rwanda's southwest accused of genocide, started his defense last Wednesday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), alleging that more than half of prosecution witnesses have lied.

In its preliminary brief, Nsamihigo's lawyer, Mr. Denis Turcotte (Canada), specifically accused fourteen out of twenty-four prosecution witnesses, stating that they "either lied or contradicted their testimony." Mr. Turcottte accused these individuals detained in Rwanda for their participation in the genocide of Tutsis in 1994 of being "criminal witnesses." According to him because of their position, their depositions pose a "moral dilemma."

According to Mr. Turcotte, "the prosecution is not the holder of truth. The only truth that exists at this time is that Mr. Nshamihigo is innocent of all the crimes of which he is accused."

Arrested on May 19, 2001 while working under a false name as an investigator for the ICTR defense, Nshamihigo is accused of massacres of Tutsis in several locations in Cyangugu including at least four churches. His trial stared on September 25, 2006. The defendant has pleaded not-guilty.

Mr. Turcotte has alleged that prosecution witnesses "have themselves said that they hoped to be favourably viewed by judicial authorities in Rwanda following their testimony." According to him, he has promised to call "direct witnesses to the events. They will say that Nshamihigo did not participate in the massacres." Nshamihigo's defense hopes to prove that the defendant rather housed "families and Tutsi friends to protect them."

Mr. Turcotte brought up the vulnerability of the accused in this "grave crisis situation which was dangerous and paralyzing." His home had been attacked, he explained. "Even the senior trial attorney wasn't immune from danger in Cyangugu at this time," pleaded Mr. Denis Turcotte who hopes to call "around fifty witnesses."

Nshamihigo also denies having participated in criminal meetings or having been a leader of the Interahamwe, the youth movement affiliated with the former presidential party considered the spearhead of the genocide. "It is easy to state that Mr. Nshamihigo is an Interahamwe leader. It's another thing to prove it," Mr. Turcotte stated.

With regard to criminal meetings, Nshamihigo's lawyer indicated that his alleged associates had been acquitted by Rwandan courts or by the ICTR for lack of evidence. At the ICTR, Nshamihigo is accused of collaborating with the former prefect of Cyangugu, Emmanuel Bagambiki, already exonerated by the judges.

"What is the significance of the declaration of Bagambiki's innocence?" the lawyer wondered.

Born in Gutare, Cyangugu, Nshamihigo, aged 46, was an inspector for the judicial police from 1979 until 1980, and was then a senior trial attorney in 1994. He worked in Kigali, Kibuye (west), and Cyangugu. The prosecutor alleges that he was recruited by presenting "fake credentials." Nshamihigo rejects these allegations.

The first eighteen witnesses will be heard until May 4. The following session, which will last four weeks at most, will start "immediately or shortly after the end of this (phase)," the presiding judge, Denis Byron (Saint Kitts and Nevis) said during a status conference last Monday. Judge Byron is being assisted by the Burkinabe Judge Gustave Kam and the Czech Judge Robert Fremr.

MRND Trial Will Not Start Anew
AllAfrica.com - Arusha Times (Arusha)
April 30, 2007

The genocide trial of three former directors of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND), ongoing since September 2005 before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) will not start anew, contrary to the wishes of the three defendants, it was learned from a judicial source on Monday.

After the withdrawal in January of the Ghanaian Judge Emile Francis Short, the president of the former presidential party, Mathieu Ngirumpatse and the Secretary-General Joseph Nzirorera had asked for a new trial whereas the former Vice-President of the party, Edouard Karemara consented, with conditions, to the continuation of the trial with a substitute judge.

Accused of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity, the three men who have pleaded not-guilty are specifically charged with murders and rapes committed in 1994 by members of the Interahamwe militia, the MRND youth group.

On March 6, the remaining judges, Denis Byron of Saint Kitts and Nevis and the Burkinabe Gustave Kam decided to continue the trial, a decision which Ngirumpatse and Nziorera appealed.

In its decision made on April 20, of which the Hirondelle Agency obtained a copy on Monday, the Appeals Chamber rejected the arguments made by the two former MRND heavyweights and confirmed the decision of the Trial Chamber to continue the trial with a new judge.

"In sum, the Appeals Chamber finds no merit in the arguments raised by the Applicants with respect to alleged errors by the remaining judges," reads the decision . "The Appeals Chamber finds that the continuation of the Applicants trial would not result in a failure to uphold their fair trial rights," adds the text which puts an end to months of uncertainty.

On January 19, while only 13 prosecution witnesses out of a scheduled hundred-something had been heard, Judge Short, returning from a judicial recess, announced his withdrawal for health reasons.

Seizing the opportunity, Ngirumpatse and Nzirorera's defense teams immediately argued that the trial had been even otherwise marred by numerous errors of law and that only a new trial could correct these errors.

The other argument raised was an issue of time: the trial, which had been going on slowly, would not finish by December 31, 2008, the date set by the United Nations to put an end to the work of this Tribunal. They also asked the ICTR for a transfer before a national court, but in a country other than their own.

Rejected in Trial Chamber by the two remaining judges, the arguments were also unconvincing to the Appeals Judges.

According to non-official sources, the trial could reopen at the end of May and an individual extension beyond the deadline of December 31, 2008 is possible.

This impasse which the Trial Chamber resolved is not the first for this trial considered one of the most important of the ICTR. On November 27, 2003, after several fits and starts, a first trial opened in which the three former MRND leaders appeared with a party opponent, the former Minister of Instruction, Andre Rwamakuba.

The acts which on the one hand, leaders of the party of President Juvenal Habyarimana were accused and those in Rwamakuba's prosecution justified a joinder, a strategy which the Office of the Prosecutor at the time used. At the end of April 2004, a first impasse arose when the defense revealed the existence of a relationship between the Senegalese President of the Chamber, Andresia Vaz, and one of the members of the prosecution team on the case, her compatriot Dior Fall.

Eventually, the Appeals Chamber ordered a trial "de novo," after which the Prosecution, reviewing his initial strategy, asked for a separate trial for Rwamakuba.

As a result, Judge Dennis Byron from Saint Kitts and Nevis presided in two trials: that of Rwamakuba which opened on June 9, 2005, and that of Karemera et. al. which opened 3 months later.

While the MRND trial continues, Rwamakuba has been free since his acquittal on September 20, 2006.

Judge Vagn Joensen Sworn In
ICTR Press Release
May 2, 2007

At a ceremony held today at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Judge Vagn Joensen( Denmark) was sworn in as an ad litem judge. The ceremony was carried out by the Tribunal’s President, Judge Erik Møse and witnessed by the Registrar, Mr. Adama Dieng, representing the United Nations Secretary General. Judge Joensen replaces Judge Karin Hökborg ( Sweden).

Following the withdrawal of Judge Emile Short from the Karemera et al. trial due to health reasons on 19 January 2007, the two remaining judges decided to continue the proceedings with a substitute judge. On 20 April 2007, the Appeals Chamber rejected an appeal of that decision. Judge Joensen was appointed by the Secretary-General as an ad litem judge to form part of the bench in that trial.

Before joining the ICTR, Judge Joensen was a High Court judge of the Eastern High Court of Copenhagen (since 1994). He has also served as an international judge for UNMIK, Kosovo. Judge Joensen has been member of several committees in the Council of Europe and has teaching experience in criminal, constitutional and civil law at the Universities of Århus and Copenhagen. Judge Joensen completed his legal studies in Denmark, the United Kingdom and Harvard Law School.

Acquitted By the ICTR But Unwelcome in Belgium
AllAfrica.com - Arusha Times (Arusha)
May 7, 2007

More than three years after having been acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Emmanuel Bagambiki, aged 59, prefect of Cyangugu during the genocide of 1994, is still a pariah for the Belgian state which refuses to admit him, even after having naturalised his wife and children.

With two other former Rwandan leaders also acquitted he is sharing a house in Arusha, rented by the Tribunal, which continues to safeguard their security and future life. Every day they go to the library of the tribunal to check for mails. Their only contacts with the outside world are made on the premises of the United Nations.

On 25 February 2004 the former prefect thought that the nightmare he had been living before, like Andre Ntagerura, former minister of transports, was over. But his hopes were soon dampened. The demonstrations in Rwanda which followed the acquittals engendered the mistrust of the ICTR: at the prosecutor's request both men were kept under the control of the Tribunal. In unanimously confirming the acquittals on 8 February 2006, the Appeal Chamber definitively cleared the men of any suspicion.

Since then their situation has not improved at all. Bagambiki's situation seemed to be a better one: his wife and their three children obtained the Belgian nationality and a family reunion seemed to be self-evident for everybody. Except for the Belgian state.

With the agreement of the Tribunal, which refused the prosecutor's claim for a prolonged detention, in March Bagambiki applied for a visa to join his family in Belgium. The Tribunal simply asked the receiving country to guarantee his stay during the judgement in appeal. But the revision of his file by different ministries has been dragging on for a long time since.

According to Mr. Vincent Lurquin, Bagambiki's lawyer, the Rwandan ministry of foreign affairs, in contact with the Belgian embassy in Kigali, has tried to convince the Belgian authorities to oppose the family reunion right from the filling of the request. In answering on numerous requests of Laurette Onkelinx, Belgian minister of justice, the general prosecutor of Kigali finally wrote that "an investigation would possibly be opened against Mr. Bagambiki". According to the lawyer the file in question comprised nothing else than a vague note without any relevance.

When in November 2004 still nothing had happened on the part of the Immigration office, responsible for a decision on the matter, Mr. Lurquin addressed himself to the Security Council of the United Nations in order to lift the blockade and to persuade Adama Dieng, registrar of the ICTR, to organize a meeting in Belgium between the minister of the interior, the minister of foreign affairs and the minister of justice.

Just the announcement of this meeting seems to have accelerated the Belgian administration's proceedings: they rejected his demand on the ground of a possible breach of the public order, without any other justification. The meeting did not take place.

A motion of appeal was entered before the Supreme Administrative Court of Belgium, which is empowered to adjudicate on appeals of decisions rendered by the Immigration Office, in order to obtain arrest of judgement. The plaintiff had to prove a serious and irreparable prejudice. The Court declared the rejection unlawful and held that there was no risk of breach of the public order.

The Belgian administration nevertheless decided not to follow this decision, referring to the appeal of the acquittal filed before the ICTR. If it should be confirmed, the administration will change its position, it assured. In the meantime Kigali has issued an international warrant of arrest against Bagambiki based on facts that had not been taken into account in their judgement by the ICTR. The latter however decided not to react and signed an agreement with Tanzania to prevent his arrest and extradition.

Today, an action concerning the annulment of the decision of the Immigration Office is still pending with the Supreme Administrative Court. According to Mr. Lurquin, this second appeal should normally be completed with new elements that had not been looked into by the Belgian administration.

Nevertheless the acquittal has been confirmed before and Mr. Lurquin does not understand why the Court spends so much time today to deal with the dossier. A second visit of Adama Dieng was supposed to take place in Belgium but the minister of justice refused to receive him. "I suspect a lack of courage of the Belgian authorities to oppose Kigali's will to prosecute Bagambiki", the lawyer claims and adds that Belgium does not recognize the work already carried out by the international justice.

According to Mr. Lurquin, the demonstrations which took place in Bugesera and Cyangugu after the announcement of the acquittal and the visit of President Kagame in Belgium seem to have determined Belgium's refusal. "I am afraid that, in the end, the states choose to accept persons judged by the ICTR "a la carte", whether they are convicted or not", he confides.

The situation of Emmanuel Bagambiki has, in any way, to be sorted out in 2008 when the ICTR is closing its gates. The lawyer reminds that Belgium, which is currently holding a seat in the Security Council, has played a pioneer role with its law on universal jurisdiction, and affirms that Emmanuel Bagambiki, aged 59, has no longer any intention to start a political debate whatsoever. But he assures that he will go on right to the end of the proceedings.

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Iraqi High Tribunal

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

Saddam Hussein's former defense minister denies receiving order to use chemical weapons
International Herald Tribune
May 6, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq: Saddam Hussein's former defense minister denied Sunday that he received orders to use chemical weapons during a 1980s military crackdown against Kurds and said he had been offered protection if he surrendered.

The comments by Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai came as the defense began its closing statements in a trial of former regime officials accused of crimes against humanity. The other defendants in the so-called Anfal trial include Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali" for allegedly ordering poison gas attacks against the Kurds.

If convicted, the defendants could be sentenced to death by hanging.

Al-Tai, who was defense minister when Saddam was ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2003, was defiant as he testified that he had not received orders from his superiors to use chemical weapons against Kurdish population when he was the head of the Iraqi Army 1st Corps operating in the Kurdish region.

"I did not receive any order asking me to use chemical weapons, but if so I would have implemented it," he told the special tribunal. "I did not receive any chemical related weapons."

Chief Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said al-Tai had knowledge about the chemical attack, presenting a letter sent by his superiors asking him to use "special ammunition (chemical weapons) against enemy poison" ahead of an Iraqi army attack against Kurdish fighters.

Al-Tai and the other defendants face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity arising from their roles in a military crackdown on Iraq's Kurdish population in 1987-88. The prosecution says 180,000 people, most civilians, were killed.

Besides, al-Majid, the other defendants are former director of military intelligence Sabir al-Douri; Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces; and Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, former head of military intelligence's eastern regional office.
Saddam was a defendant in the case but was hanged last year after his conviction for the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail after a 1982 attempt on his life.

The defense also noted that the Americans had promised al-Tai "protection and good treatment" before his surrender.

Al-Tai, a Sunni Arab from the northern city of Mosul surrendered to U.S. forces in September 2003 after weeks of negotiations. At that time, a Kurdish official who arranged the surrender also said the American military had promised to remove Ahmad's name from the list of 55 most-wanted, meaning he would not face indefinite confinement and possible prosecution.

The lawyer said that his client was only defending his country against Iranian attacks in northern Iraq during the 1980-88 war between the two countries.

Associated Press writer Hamid Ahmed in Baghdad contributed to this story.

Former Saddamist Denies Chemical Orders
The Washington Post
by Sameer N. Yacoub
May 6, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Saddam Hussein's former defense minister said Sunday that he had no access to chemical weapons and received no orders to use them in an operation that killed tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds.

Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai's testimony was followed by the defense's closing statements in the trial of former regime officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in the 1980s campaign code-named Operation Anfal.

The prosecution says 180,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed.

Also on trial is Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali" for allegedly ordering poison gas attacks against the Kurds.

If convicted, the defendants could be sentenced to death by hanging.

Al-Tai, who was defense minister when Saddam was ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2003, defiantly testified that he had not received orders from his superiors to use chemical weapons against the population when he was head of the Iraqi Army 1st Corps operating in the Kurdish region.

"I did not receive any order asking me to use chemical weapons, but if so I would have implemented it," he told the special tribunal. "I did not receive any chemical-related weapons."

Chief Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said al-Tai knew about the chemical attack, presenting a letter sent by his superiors asking him to use "special ammunition (chemical weapons) against enemy poison."

Other defendants on trial include Sabir al-Douri, former director of military intelligence; Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces; and Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, former head of military intelligence's eastern regional office.

Saddam was a defendant in the case but was hanged last year after his conviction for the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail after a 1982 attempt on his life.

Al-Tai, a Sunni Arab from the northern city of Mosul, surrendered to U.S. forces in September 2003 after weeks of negotiations.

The defense noted that the Americans had promised al-Tai "protection and good treatment" before his surrender. Al-Tai's lawyer also said that his client was only defending his country against Iranian attacks in northern Iraq during the 1980-88 war between the two countries.

Associated Press writer Hamid Ahmed in Baghdad contributed to this story

Saddam Hussein’s Cousin denies using chemical weapons against Kurds as defense wraps up arguments
International Herald Tribune
May 10, 2007

BAGHDAD: Saddam Hussein's cousin, who has long been known as "Chemical Ali" among Iraqis, on Thursday denied the allegations that he was responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Kurds in the late 1980s.

Ali Hassan al-Majid also defended the government's actions during the so-called Anfal campaign, saying they were aimed at stopping an Iranian invasion. More than 100,000 Kurds were killed.

"As for the chemical weapons ... I did not use or issue order to use them. I do not know who used them if they were ever used," he told the court as the defense wrapped up its closing arguments.

Al-Majid said the Iraqi government was compelled to take actions to stop invading Iranian troops from advancing into northern Iraq with the help of Kurdish rebels.

"I did what should have been done at that time," he said.

Al-Majid is one of five former regime officials facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from the military campaign during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. If convicted, they could be sentenced to death by hanging.

He also denied any knowledge of mass graves and genocide campaigns against the Kurds.

Chief prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon, however, presented a document issued by the higher command of the Iraqi armed forces in April 1988, asking the Iraqi army unit operating in the Kurdish region to take more than 2,500 Kurdish detainees, separate the men, women and children and send them to three different detention camps.

"Were those children also Iranian agents?" he asked.

Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai's, another defendant and the head of the 1st Corps in the northern area in the 1980s, protested, calling the document a "bad forgery."

He pointed out that the document bore the slogan of the ruling Baath Party "which has never ever been used in the Iraqi army correspondence.

"When the Chief Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa asked for the original document, the chief prosecutor said he had found the copy on the Internet.

Summing up its arguments, the defense read a statement saying its clients had no choice but to implement orders issued by superiors or face punishment.

The other defendants are Sabir al-Douri, former director of military intelligence; Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces; and Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, former head of military intelligence's eastern regional office.

The trial adjourned until June 10.

Prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi told the Associated Press in a telephone interview that the court needs more time to examine the case and will announce a date for the verdicts later.

Associated Press writer Hamid Ahmed in Baghdad contributed to this story

A Tough Fight Still Looms, Cheney Warns G.I.’s in Iraq
The New York Times
May 11, 2007

Vice President Dick Cheney spoke Thursday to American troops stationed near Saddam Hussein's birthplace, Tikrit, telling them in somber tones that they were the front line in the fight against global terrorism and making no promise that an end was in sight.

''We are here, above all, because the terrorists who have declared war on America and other free nations have made Iraq the central front in that war,'' his prepared text said.

His assessment was a stark contrast to the one he made two years ago when he declared in an interview on CNN that the insurgency was in its ''last throes.''

Mr. Cheney made his visit as the Iraqi High Tribunal heard the closing arguments in the trial of six colleagues of Mr. Hussein who, prosecutors said, planned and ordered attacks during the 1980s that killed as many as 180,000 Kurds in the so-called Anfal military campaign.

Mr. Hussein was one of the defendants in the trial until his execution in January. The remaining defendants, led by Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Mr. Hussein's who became known among Iraqis as Chemical Ali for his role in the poison-gas attacks that were central to the campaign, have pleaded not guilty to charges of war crimes and genocide.

Baghdad was relatively quiet on Thursday until nightfall, when a car bomb exploded in the Karada neighborhood as an American convoy passed, an Interior Ministry official said. A second bomb exploded in that neighborhood just after midnight.

The American military also announced Thursday that a marine had died in combat on Wednesday in western Iraq.

The ministry also reported that 20 bodies had been found around the city, and that two people had been killed by mortar fire.

Elsewhere in Iraq, at least 20 people were killed or found dead. Among them were five Iraqi Army soldiers and four police officers.

In a video released Thursday by the Islamic State of Iraq, which is another name for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, those nine men were shown being shot in execution style by men in black clothes and hoods. The men were abducted in Diyala Province this week, according to the videotape and Diyala police officials.

In the tape, a voice said to belong to the insurgent group's leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, said the men had been killed because they were apostates, a label often applied by militants to those who aid the government.

In Salahuddin Province, where Mr. Cheney was visiting, there was a mortar attack near Baiji that wounded seven people, and a roadside bomb wounded seven police officers, according to Iraqi officials at the Joint Security Center in Tikrit. Two bodies were also found, an official said.

On this visit to Iraq, Mr. Cheney's second as vice president, he seemed to want to send the message that the administration realized it was asking a great deal of American soldiers and that it was a brutal fight.

''Extremists from inside and outside the country want to stir an endless cycle of violence, and Al Qaeda is operating and trying to open new fronts,'' he said in his speech, to soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division and Task Force Lightning stationed at Camp Speicher.

He cited the comments of Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq, who was traveling with him. ''General Petraeus has underscored the fact that the enemy tactics are barbaric,'' Mr. Cheney said, according to a report by The Associated Press, which had a reporter at the base. ''We can expect more violence as they try to destroy the hopes of the Iraqi people,'' he said, still quoting General Petraeus.

Mr. Cheney also acknowledged the discouraging effects of the latest three-month extension for many troops deployed in Iraq. ''That puts unexpected hardship on you and your families,'' he said. ''I want you to know the extension is vital to the mission.''

He also presented medals to 11 soldiers, The A.P. reported.

Mr. Cheney is the highest-ranking Bush administration official to spend the night in Iraq. Extensive security measures were employed, including a news blackout from the end of his public appearance on Wednesday until he spoke to the troops at midday.

People who live in Tikrit were unaware of the vice president's visit until after he had left, when it became public on television and radio. Camp Speicher, at the site of the former Iraqi Air Force academy, is about seven miles outside the town. It is heavily secured and covers a huge area, making it possible to keep a high-profile visitor all but invisible.

After leaving Tikrit, Mr. Cheney flew to Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, the next stop on his weeklong tour of the Middle East, which will include visits to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.

Izzat said he had in his possession CIA documents to prove the case.

'Clear rift'

But Izzat told Al Jazeera.net that US military personnel immediately surrounded him and prevented Iraqi security from apprehending him.

"I was taken to an American safe house in the Green Zone and guarded by US forces who refused to hand me over to the Iraqi court," he said.

Izzat believes there is now a "clear rift" between the Iraqi and US governments over his status.

On the fourth day of his house arrest, he was taken in a US armoured convoy to the airport, placed on a commercial airline, and flown out of the country.

"Despite the fact that I'm totally and absolutely against the occupation and will continue to be so, personally I'm very grateful to the American personnel who have saved my life from being killed by the Iraqis," he said, adding he was now "technically, a fugitive".

When asked why the US military saved him, Izzat explained, "To keep the defendants without a defence would be embarrassing to the Americans."

Politics?

But Sabah Al-Mukhtar, President of the Arab Lawyers Association in the United Kingdom, believes that geopolitics may have also played a role.

"I believe the Americans want to give him [Izzat] some protection because of his accusations against Iran."

When contacted by Al Jazeera.net, a spokesperson with the US military public information office in Baghdad, said: "The US military has no comment on that situation."

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

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

Special Court Resumes RUF Trial
Allafrica.com - Concord Times (Freetown)
by James Fallah
May 3, 2007

The Special Court for Sierra Leone on Wednesday resumed sittings on the ongoing trial of the three accused members of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)-Issa Sesay, Augustine Gbao and Morris Kallon, Trial judge, Justice Bankole Thompson in his address to the court, highlighted issues to be deliberated on in the state of conference. The defense team intimated the court about the health conditions of its clients.

Counsel for the first accused, Wayne Jordash told the court that his client, Issa Sesay underwent a four-hour surgical operation and is currently admitted at the Choithram Hospital where he is responding well to treatment.

The second accused, Augustine Gbao according to his legal counsel, is reported to be in good health while the third, Morris Kallon is also said to be doing fairly good.

However, the defense team in its opening statements denied the use of a common witness, arguing that a common witness is not in its clients' interest.

Meanwhile, the trial judge, Bankole Thompson asked the defense team to summarize its statements to meet a 45-minute time line. The defense team later called for increment of salaries which it said should be paid regularly because the prosecution team gets its salaries regularly and on time.
It threatened to boycott proceedings if the said concerns are not met.

Proceedings continue today.

UN Remains Committed to Reconciliation
Allafrica.com - The Analyst (Monrovia)
May 3, 2007

The senior Economist and Officer-in-Charge a UNDP, Dr. Kamil Kamaluddeen says the United Nations remains totally committed to the reconciliation and wider development process in Liberia.

He said 'the truth and reconciliation process is seen by us as an important process in the overall transition exercise". Dr. Kamaluddeen was speaking during the handover of Internet technology equipment to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at a program held at UNDP head office in Monrovia.

He said now that the TRC is totally functional with a fully mobilized secretariat, UNDP will continue to apply its best efforts to support the work of the TRC within its own resource limitation and the extensive network available to it. "UNDP is just but one of the partners in this process.

While we continue to strive for further strengthened partnerships with the TRC, we also want to encourage the TRC to reach out to other partners to project its own role and its own efforts and to demonstrate that what ever support is provided will not only be adequately and effectively utilize but will also be directed to the one fundamental output of reconciliation" he noted.

The Internet technology equipment given the TRC is valued at US$29,963 and is expected to enhance the work of the commission by providing access to information on TRC activities in other parts of the world and at the same time serving as the storage of vital data collected from the statement taking process.

Receiving the equipment, the Executive Director at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Mr. Nathaniel Kwabo, said he is inspired by UNDP's renewed efforts to engage the TRC.

"UNDP has been in the forefront of assisting the TRC in its effort aim at bringing peace and reconciliation to the country" he added. Mr. Kwabo said the TRC couldn't adequately operate without a functional Internet technology component.

He expressed the total commitment of TRC to the process because according to him, it is the beginning of the rebuilding of the country after many years of war and destruction.

He thanked UNDP for the donation and hoped that the organization will support efforts to mobilize more resources from other bilateral and multilateral donors to enhance the work of the TRC.

UN Secretary Comments On Press Freedom

The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon has commented on several attacks against journalists and other acts against press freedom.

In a statement issued on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, he pledged the UN commitment: "We reaffirm our commitment to the right of freedom of opinion and expression, enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

He observed the challenges in getting information across because of self-imposed bottlenecks by those in authority. "In our time, more and more people are gaining the means to reach, and reach out to, a wider audience.

But too often, they face attempts to restrict, deny or block the flow of information and ideas," he said but he added "In the face of such threats, it is the job of the United Nations to be an unflinching defender of press freedom, and of the women and men whose talent and dedication bring it to life."

He said in seeking to shed light on the plight of others, journalists themselves become targets, recalling that over the past year, more than 150 media professionals have lost their lives in the line of duty while others have been injured, and detained, harassed or held hostage.

According to him, this happens not just in the midst of armed conflict, but also in pursuit of stories on corruption, poverty and abuses of power.

"Most recently, I've been following with dismay the abduction of BBC journalist Alan Johnston. Mr. Johnston's coverage of issues relating to the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has rightly earned worldwide respect.

No cause is served, and any cause is undermined, by his continued captivity. I appeal again for Alan Johnston's immediate and safe release," Mr. Ki Moon demanded.

He said attacks on freedom of press are attacks against international law, against humanity, against freedom itself - against everything the UN stands for. A free, secure and independent press is among the very foundations of democracy and peace.

He reminded members countries that governments, international organizations, the media and civil society have a role to play in upholding those foundations, adding "On World Press Freedom Day, let us reaffirm our commitment to this mission."

Ex-rebel chief testifies in war crimes trial
Independent Online (South Africa)
May 4, 2007

Freetown - Former rebel commander Issa Sesay began testifying on Thursday in his war crimes trial arising from the activities of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) during Sierra Leone's brutal civil war.

Sesay, who rose to be the third most senior commander in the RUF, faces 18 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. With him in the dock are two other former RUF leaders, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbow.

Dozens of people, among them victims of the civil war, listened as the 36-year-old interim leader of the RUF recalled how he joined the rebel war, which from 1991 wrecked the tiny west African country.

The RUF's decade-long rebellion was considered one of the most brutal in modern history. The conflict killed up to 200 000 people and RUF rebels mutilated thousands more, cutting off arms or legs, ears or noses.

Sesay said he was in Ivory Coast, trying to get an education he was recruited by Foday Sankoh, then the leader of the RUF, on the pretext of job offers at restaurants in Burkina Faso.

He was among the first group of about 200 Sierra Leoneans to be sent to Liberia for training between September 1990 and March 1991.

Sesay went on to lead a string of attacks on Sierra Leone's eastern diamond mines.

Sesay, who was in the Senegalese capital early this year for a surgery to remove a bullet lodged in his leg, pleaded not guilty when the trial began in 2004.

Sesay is charged, among other things, with having abducted UN peacekeepers.

Under his command, RUF fighters allegedly captured and abducted women and girls to rape and use as sex slaves; used men and boys into slave labour; and abducted children to force them to fight in the conflict.

Earlier, Sesay's defence lawyer Wayne Jordash said he could produce dozens of witnesses, including "miners, police officers, journalists, farmers and herbalists... to reject the evidence of the prosecution in its totality".

The RUF trial began in July 2004 and the prosecution closed its case in August 2006.

Liberian warlord and former president Charles Taylor is due go on trial next month for war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Sierra Leone war.

Taylor is accused of sponsoring and aiding rebel groups who perpetrated murder, sexual slavery, mutilation and conscription of child soldiers in Sierra Leone's civil war in exchange for a share in the lucrative diamond trade.

A pre-trial status conference on Taylor, whose trial is due to open at The Hague on June 4, is due on Monday, the special court said in a statement. - Sapa-AFP

Trial of Charles Taylor Set for June 4 Opening
SCSL Press Release
May 7, 2007

Following today’s Pre-Trial conference in The Hague, opening arguments in the highly anticipated trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor are set to take place on June 4.

“Great efforts have been made to bring this case to trial since Mr Taylor was indicted in March 2003”, said Stephen Rapp, Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

“His arrest and transfer last year were the result of three years of intense diplomacy by many in the sub-region and abroad. Up to now, attention has been on the process. On June 4, all eyes can focus on the trial itself”.

“The very fact that this man is going on trial is a victory over impunity. Taylor’s indictment, apprehension and arrest are a credit to the persistence of the world community, the governments of the region, and above all the courageous people of Sierra Leone.”

“That Charles Taylor will now face justice is the very embodiment of the maxim that no one is above the law.”

Taylor is charged with 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, including mass murder, mutilations, rape, sexual slavery and the use of child soldiers.

The Prosecution has indicated its intention to present up to 139 core witnesses. Of these, 62 will be predominantly “linkage” witnesses. Proving the connections between Taylor and the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone is a necessary part of the Prosecution’s case. Witnesses to these connections will include persons with inside knowledge of Taylor’s alleged activities.

Taylor defense witnesses refusing to testify in fear of UN sanctions: lawyer
Jurist
by Jeannie Shawl
May 7, 2007

[JURIST] A defense lawyer for former Liberian President Charles Taylor [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] told the Special Court for Sierra Leone [official website] Monday that potential defense witnesses are refusing to testify for the defense because they fear the possibility of UN-imposed sanctions. Lawyer Karim Khan told the court he planned to file a motion asking the court to grant witnesses protection from sanctions, including travel bans and the freezing of assets. Khan also said that the court has not provided enough funding to assemble an adequate defense team for Taylor; the prosecution's legal team is twice the size of Taylor's defense team.

Taylor's trial is scheduled to start in The Hague on June 4. The court has already delayed the trial [order, PDF] to allow the defense more time to prepare, but Taylor's lawyers still seek additional time. Taylor was indicted [amended indictment text, PDF; SCSL materials] in 2003 on charges of crimes against humanity and violations of international humanitarian law, including murder, rape and the recruitment and use of child soldiers during the war in Sierra Leone. After being captured last year trying to flee Nigeria, where he had been in exile, he was taken to The Hague [JURIST report] to await trial. AP has more.

Charles Taylor Trial Set to Begin Amid Complaints from Defense
Voice of America
by Kari Barber
May 8, 2007

Prosecutors at the Special Court for Sierra Leone say everything is set for the Charles Taylor case to begin June 4 in The Hague. But the former warlord's lawyers have complained that they need more help. Kari Barber reports from VOA's West Africa bureau in Dakar.

In pre-trial conferences this week, defense lawyers for former Liberian president Charles Taylor told the court they need more experienced counselors on their team to handle the complicated case. Taylor is to be represented by two lawyers who will face a 10-attorney prosecution team.

Taylor is charged with numerous counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other human rights violations, including mass murder, rape, physical mutilation and the use of child soldiers, based on his role in neighboring Sierra Leone's civil war in the 1990s.

The defense also argued that it is difficult to get witnesses to testify because U.N. restrictions still bar many close associates of Taylor from traveling.

Stephen Rapp, the head prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, is calling the approaching trial a victory over impunity. He says efforts should be made to ensure that Africans can monitor the proceedings closely, even though the trial is taking place in Europe.

"Our judges from here are going up there, but still supported from here by substantial resources and with us constantly working to make sure the information about that trial reaches the people of Sierra Leone and the region so that they have got as close as possible the same access to those proceedings that they would have had if the proceedings would have remained in Freetown," he said.

Carolyn Norris with the International Crisis Group says that because the trial is to take place in The Hague, there are some in Sierra Leone who would like to go, but will not be able to.

"I think certainly in Sierra Leone there is a feeling of disappointment in a way that he [Charles Taylor] is not going to be tried in the country where those alleged crimes were committed," she said. "But also I think there is also a general feeling of relief among Liberians and Sierra Leoneans that this man is further away from where he caused them problems."

Norris says the Taylor trial will likely have a regional impact, influencing how Liberia handles those accused of war crimes in the country.

"I think once this case, the Charles Taylor case, is under way and it reaches a verdict, I think that will re-open the debate within Liberia as to who should be brought to trial there," she said.

London-based human rights activist Ibrahim Kane says he hopes the trial will lead to more convictions of those responsible for escalating Sierra Leone's brutal civil war.

"They have committed the same atrocities; it was done in the same country, which is Sierra Leone," he said. "It was done by people who had different positions in militia groups. I think if they have been arrested for those atrocities they have to face the same situation, the same rules."

Taylor's trial is being held at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for security reasons. The trial was supposed to begin in April, but was postponed until June to allow the defense more time to prepare.

Press Release: Justice El Hadji Malick Sow of Senegal Sworn in as Alternate Judge
SCSL Press Release
by Kari Barber
May 9, 2007

Justice El Hadji Malick Sow of Senegal was sworn in Friday as an alternate Judge of the Special Court’s Trial Chamber II.
Justice Sow made his solemn declaration before Acting Registrar Herman von Hebel at a special ceremony held in the Court’s landmark courthouse in Freetown. Court President Justice George Gelaga-King then gave the closing address.

The solemn declaration was witnessed by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Mr Frederick Carew on behalf of the Government of Sierra Leone. Mr Kedar Poudal, the Human Rights Co-ordinator at UNIOSIL’s Rule of Law Unit attended on behalf of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Justice Sow was joined by his fellow Judges from the Trial and Appeals Chambers, led by Justice King. Members of the diplomatic corps, Special Court staff, and journalists were also in attendance.

Justice Sow is the first alternate Judge at the Special Court. He will join Justice Julia Sebutinde of Uganda, Justice Richard Lussick of Samoa, and Justice Teresa Doherty of Northern Ireland to hear evidence in the Special Court’s trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor at The Hague.

In accordance with Article 12 (4) of the Statute of the Special Court, Justice Sow will be present at each stage of the trial, and will replace a Judge if that Judge is unable to continue sitting.

Justice Sow has extensive experience in Senegal’s judiciary, both at the regional and national level. From 1984 to 1990 he served in various capacities as Judge of the Regional Tribunals of Ziguinchor and Diourbel the Labor Tribunal of Dakar.

Since 1994, Justice Sow has served as Judge in a number of Senegalese courts, including the Première Chambre Sociale, the Première Chambre Civile et Commerciale, and the Troisième Chambre Correctionnelle, the Chambre d’Accusation, and the Première Chambre Correctionnelle of the Court of Appeals of Dakar.

In November 2006 he was named President of the Criminal Chamber of the Appeals Court in Dakar.

Justice Sow also worked as a Technical Advisor to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Justice, respectively.

Justice Sow received his Masters (L.L.M) in International and Comparative Law from the Southern Methodist University, in Texas in 2004, and his L.L.M in Private and Business Law from the University of Dakar in 1982.

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United States

Court Refuses to Block Detainee Transfer
The Washington Post
by Pete Yost
May 1, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused to stop the Bush administration Tuesday from transferring a Guantanamo Bay detainee to his home country of Libya.

Lawyers for the man argued he faces torture at the hands of the Libyan government if sent there.

Abu Abdul Rauf Zalita says he married an Afghan citizen and that after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, he and his pregnant wife fled to Pakistan where he was handed over to U.S. authorities for a bounty.

The U.S. government classified him as an enemy combatant, saying Zalita was a member of a known terrorist organization and received weapons training from the group.

The Supreme Court denied Zalita's application seeking an injunction to prevent the transfer.

In opposing Zalita's request, the Justice Department said the Military Commissions Act of 2006 ends federal court jurisdiction over legal challenges by enemy combatants.

Zalita invoked the international convention against torture, but his request "ignores Congress's explicit mandate" that U.S. courts not consider challenges like his, the Justice Department solicitor general's office said.

The Libyan detainee's attempt to block his transfer came as 75 lawyers for nearly 400 detainees held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, urged Congress on Tuesday to give the prisoners access to U.S. courts.

Fanning out across Capitol Hill for private meetings with senators and House members, the attorneys are seeking legislation to overturn a section of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that stripped the detainees of court access.

Under last year's law, the detainees are entitled to a procedural review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia into whether they were properly designated unlawful enemy combatants.

Congress has supported "executive branch extremism" by enacting legislation that overrides Supreme Court rulings, retired federal appeals court judge John J. Gibbons said at a news conference with some of the lawyers. The court ruled in 2004 and a year ago that detainees do have rights.

"We're not talking about a get-out-of-jail-free card; we're simply talking about having a right to be heard in court," said Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

The center, acting largely on its own, filed the first lawsuits on the detainees' behalf in February 2002, a month after the Bush administration brought the first prisoners to Guantanamo Bay.

Since then, more than 500 lawyers from prominent firms and law schools nationwide have donated their time and paid their own expenses to represent the detainees.

Study Finds Lapse in Battlefield Ethics
The Chicago Tribune
by Pauline Jelinek
May 5, 2007

WASHINGTON -- In a survey of U.S. troops in combat in Iraq, less than half of Marines and a little more than half of Army soldiers said they would report a member of their unit for killing or wounding an innocent civilian.

More than 40 percent support the idea of torture in some cases, and 10 percent reported personally abusing Iraqi civilians, the Pentagon said Friday in what it called its first ethics study of troops at the war front. Units exposed to the most combat were chosen for the study, officials said.

"It is disappointing," said analyst John Pike of the Globalsecurity.org think tank. "But anybody who is surprised by it doesn't understand war. ... This is about combat stress."

The military has seen a number of high-profile incidents of alleged abuse in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the killings of 24 civilians by Marines, the rape and killing of a 14-year-old girl and the slaying of her family and the sexual humiliation of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.

"I don't want to, for a minute, second-guess the behavior of any person in the military -- look at the kind of moral dilemma you are putting people in," Christopher Preble of the libertarian Cato Institute think tank, said of the mission in Iraq. "There's a real tension between using too much force, which generally means using force to protect yourself, and using too little and therefore exposing yourself to greater risk."

The overall study was the fourth in a series done by a special mental health advisory team since 2003 aimed at assessing the well-being of forces serving in Iraq.

Officials said the teams visited Iraq last August to October, talking to troops, health care providers and chaplains.

The study team also found that long and repeated deployments were increasing troop mental health problems.

But Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, the Army's acting surgeon general, said the team's "most critical" findings were on ethics.

"They looked under every rock, and what they found was not always easy to look at," said Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of defense for health.

Findings included:

_Sixty-two percent of soldiers and 66 percent of Marines said that they knew someone seriously injured or killed, or that a member of their team had become a casualty.

_The 2006 adjusted rate of suicides per 100,000 soldiers was 17.3 soldiers, lower than the 19.9 rate reported in 2005.

_Only 47 percent of the soldiers and 38 percent of Marines said noncombatants should be treated with dignity and respect.

_About a third of troops said they had insulted or cursed at civilians in their presence.

_About 10 percent of soldiers and Marines reported mistreating civilians or damaging property when it was not necessary. Mistreatment includes hitting or kicking a civilian.

_Forty-four percent of Marines and 41 percent of soldiers said torture should be allowed to save the life of a soldier or Marine.

_Thirty-nine percent of Marines and 36 percent of soldiers said torture should be allowed to gather important information from insurgents.

Lt. Col. Scott Fazekas, a Marine Corps spokesman, said officials were looking closely at the ethics results, taken from a questionnaire survey of 1,320 soldiers and 447 Marines.

"The Marine Corps takes this issue of battlefield ethics very seriously," he said. "We are examining the study and its recommendations and we'll find ways to improve our approach."

Pollock said officials concluded from the overall study that "there's a robust system in place to provide mental health care, but issues continue with the stress of a combat deployment."

Based on the findings, officials have revised training programs to focus more on Army values, suicide prevention, battlefield ethics and behavioral health awareness, Pollock said.

The study team said shorter deployments or longer intervals between deployments would give soldiers and Marines a better chance "to reset mentally" before returning to combat. The Pentagon last month announced a policy that extends tours of duty for all active duty Army troops from a year to 15 months. Pollock acknowledged that was "going to be a stress" on troops.

Marine tours are seven months, one likely reason that soldier morale was lower than Marine morale, she said.

Pike contrasted Iraq's campaign to World War I, saying: "The trenches were pretty stressful, but a unit would only be up at the front for a few months and then get rotated to the rear. There's no rear in Iraq; you're subject to combat stress for your entire tour."

Panel: Detainee Trials Could Take Years
The New York Times
May 9, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It will take several years to complete military commission trials for 60 to 80 Guantanamo Bay detainees if the Bush administration decides to conduct that many, a House subcommittee was told Wednesday.

The Pentagon estimate came as the appropriations panel chaired by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., questioned how long the Bush administration will keep the prison open and whether to move the 380 detainees.

A week ago, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced a measure to close the Guantanamo Bay facility and move commission trials to the United States.

At the hearing, one Republican, Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Florida, suggested California should take the detainees.

Some serious thought should be given to reopening Alcatraz, Young said during the three-hour session.

''I certainly wouldn't want to send them to any place else except San Francisco,'' joked Rep. Jerry Lewis, a Republican from southern California.

After the hearing, Young said he was being serious about Alcatraz as a place to take the detainees in the event that Guantanamo Bay is closed. Young opposes closing Guantanamo.

The prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., has 70 open beds, said Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan, chief defense counsel for the Office of Military Commissions. The brig in Charleston, S.C., has space for an additional 100 prisoners, Sullivan told the congressional panel.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said Congress and the administration should work together to allow the U.S. to permanently imprison some of the more dangerous Guantanamo Bay detainees elsewhere so the facility can be closed.

It would take three years or so to complete a process of conducting 60 to 80 military commission trials, said Daniel J. Dell'Orto, principal deputy general counsel at the Defense Department.

In the months after Sept. 11, the military considered locations in the United States and elsewhere for the detention facility that ended up at Guantanamo Bay, said Joseph Benkert, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for global security affairs.

One factor in locating it at Guantanamo was that the isolation of the Navy base would make it a difficult target for terrorists.

About 30 detainees who were released from Guantanamo have re-joined the fight against the United States, said Benkert.

In a one-year span, Guantanamo Bay detainees made 726 threats, engaged in 227 physical assaults and there were 422 incidents of detainees throwing bodily fluids at guards, said Rear Adm. Harry Harris Jr., commander of the Joint Task Force-Guantanamo.

The Supreme Court last month declined -- for the time being -- to review whether Guantanamo Bay detainees may go to federal court to challenge their indefinite confinement. Since that opinion, lower-court judges have been dismissing the legal challenges brought by the detainees. U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer dismissed several such challenges Wednesday.

U.S.-led raid kills 40 civilians in Afghanistan: witnesses
Reuters
by Saeed Ali Achakzai
May 10, 2007

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - At least 40 civilians were killed in an air strike in Afghanistan by foreign forces, witnesses said on Thursday, but the U.S.-led coalition said only rebels were hit and it knew of no other casualties.

The deaths on Tuesday in the southern province of Helmand, if confirmed, would raise the civilian toll at the hands of foreign troops to 110 in the past two weeks.

"Foreign troops are killing Afghans every day, but our government has closed its eyes and does not see our casualties," local resident Haji Ibrahim said.

Helmand governor, Assadullah Wafa, said earlier 21 civilians, including women and children, were killed in Tuesday's air strike in Sangin district -- a major opium-growing area and the scene of a large anti-Taliban operation by foreign troops.

The U.S.-led coalition said its troops and Afghan soldiers on patrol in the area had come under fire on Tuesday and there were no reported injuries to any civilians.

"During the 16-hour battle, Afghan National Army and coalition forces fought through three separate enemy ambush sites while dozens of Taliban fighters ... reinforced enemy positions," the coalition said in a statement.

It estimated 200 Taliban fighters were involved in the clash, in which one coalition soldier died, and said the air strikes destroyed three rebel compounds and an underground tunnel network.

Governor Wafa said the Taliban hid in civilian homes during the air strike and that they must take responsibility for the deaths.

Residents disputed that Taliban fighters were involved. "There were no Taliban in our area," Mohammad Rahim, a resident of Sangin, told Reuters by phone, adding he had seen 24 bodies in three houses.

One resident said President Hamid Karzai should travel to Sangin and see for himself the civilian casualties.

Civilian deaths are a growing issue for Karzai who is also under pressure over the country's slow economic recovery and rampant corruption since the Taliban's overthrow in 2001.

Karzai has repeatedly urged the troops to avoid civilian casualties while hunting militants, to stop searching people's houses and to coordinate attacks with his government.

Last week, Karzai said the patience of Afghans was running out over civilian killings by foreign troops.

Irate Afghans in the east and west, the scenes of last month's operations by coalition forces, have protested against civilian casualties reported by Afghan officials, and demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces and Karzai's resignation.

A U.S. military commander on Tuesday apologized for the deaths of 19 civilians in the east. They were killed by U.S. troops early last month.

U.S. Backs Off Limits on Guantánamo Lawyers
The New York Times
by William Glaberson
May 11, 2007

The Justice Department yesterday withdrew one of its proposals to tighten restrictions on lawyers representing detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but said it would continue to press a federal appeals court for a series of other limits on the lawyers.

In a filing Friday morning, Justice Department lawyers said they were no longer asking the appeals court in Washington to limit the lawyers to a total of three visits with detainees at the Guantánamo naval base, where about 380 men are now held.

A series of Justice Department proposals to curtail detainees’ lawyers drew wide attention and was criticized by legal groups and in Congress, with opponents saying the administration was denying detainees the most rudimentary tools to challenge their confinement.

“After further consideration of this issue by the Department of Defense,” the terse filing said, the government “is no longer seeking to incorporate a three-visit threshold for the number of counsel visits.”

But the filing made clear that the Bush administration would continue to press in court for other limitations on the lawyers, including permitting only one visit for a detainee to authorize a lawyer to handle his case, screening mail sent by lawyers, and permitting government officials, on their own, to deny lawyers access to secret evidence used against detainees.

The filing came days before arguments are scheduled in a case that has become one of the main battlegrounds in the legal struggle over the Bush administration’s detention policies. The case involves challenges by eight detainees to the findings that they are properly held as enemy combatants. Arguments are scheduled for Tuesday in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The proposal that would have cut off lawyers’ access to their clients had been controversial, partly because it came as many detainees were resisting cooperating with their lawyers, adding a new layer of complexity to the legal battle over Guantánamo.

Some critics said yesterday’s government action was a strategic retreat on the proposal that had drawn the most fire, but that the remaining proposed restrictions would so damage the relationships between lawyers and detainees that they would leave the government without effective opposition on detainee issues in court.

“This is window dressing,” said Vincent Warren, the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, an advocacy group that has coordinated the detainees’ lawyers. “The remaining restrictions — which include monitoring attorney-client mail — makes meaningful representation impossible,” Mr. Warren said.

The president of the New York City Bar Association, Barry M. Kamins, who has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Justice Department proposals, said yesterday’s retreat would not win over lawyers’ groups that have opposed the Justice Department proposals.
“The easing of this one rule barely begins to address the egregious violations of the attorney-client relationship,” Mr. Kamins said.

But some supporters of the government proposal said critics had not paid adequate attention to the government’s allegations that the restrictions were necessary because the detainees’ lawyers had caused unrest at Guantánamo by providing the detainees information about terrorist attacks and other events.

“There are real national security issues here,” said Gregory S. McNeal, a professor at Penn State University’s Dickinson School of Law who has been a consultant to war-crimes prosecutors at Guantánamo .

One new rule the Justice Department is still proposing would reverse existing procedures to permit government officials to unilaterally deny the lawyers access to secret evidence used by military panels to determine that their clients were enemy combatants.

Another proposal declares that if officials conclude that detainees’ lawyers violate any of their rules governing their actions, the government “may bar counsel from visiting the U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba” without any court authorization. Under the current practice, lawyers said, disputes have been brought to a federal magistrate.

Some administration critics said they saw the Justice Department decision as the most recent example of a pattern of withdrawing proposals that draw extensive criticism just before courts are called on to rule.

In their original request for the new rules, described in a April 26 article in The New York Times, the Justice Department lawyers had said commanders at Guantánamo had called for the restrictions because of “intractable problems and threats to security at Guantánamo” that they blamed on civilian lawyers for detainees.

But in an interview in The Miami Herald last week, Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris, the commander at Guantánamo, was quoted as saying that the officers had changed their view. He said the remarks cited by the Justice Department had been made last summer, after a riot and the suicides of three detainees and that the circumstances were now less turbulent.

Yesterday’s filing included a two-page affidavit dated Thursday, in which Admiral Harris said the detention facility “has re-evaluated its requirements to ensure that its procedures concerning attorney visitation and related matters are not more stringent than necessary.” He declined an interview request yesterday.

A Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon, said the remaining restrictions the government was seeking in court “remain warranted and appropriate in light of operations at Guantánamo .”

A spokesman for the Justice Department, Erik Ablin, said that in the court case “the position of the United States is driven by base security operational and resource concerns.”

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UN Reports

Ex-Indonesia armed forces chief defends East Timor record
International Herald Tribune
May 6, 2007

For the retired General Wiranto, the former armed forces commander of Indonesia and one-time presidential aspirant, it was a well-rehearsed script. Speaking to a largely sympathetic crowd overflowing a hotel ballroom here, he branded as absurd allegations that the Indonesian military and police officers had committed grave human rights violations during East Timor's fraught passage to independence in 1999.

In the years since Indonesian security forces and loyalist militia beat a destructive and bloody retreat from East Timor, Wiranto has consistently proclaimed his innocence of any crime in the face of allegations by human rights activists and an indictment from a crimes unit funded by the United Nations.

It was unlikely that he would change his story in testimony Saturday to a hearing of the Indonesia and East Timor Commission of Truth and Friendship, an initiative of the two governments to close a bitter chapter in their shared history.

Wiranto told the hearing that "there was no policy to attack civilians, there were no systematic plans, no genocide or crimes against humanity."

The commission is purported to be a last attempt to uncover the truth about the events in East Timor in 1999, avoid the slim possibility of the United Nations setting up a tribunal to investigate the violence and allow the two countries to finally move on. But analysts and human rights activists say the refusal of senior Indonesian military and police officers to accept any responsibility means that by the time the commission concludes hearings at the end of July it will have learned little truth and delivered no justice.

"It is not a really credible effort to find out who was responsible and to seek justice," said Marcus Mietzner, a visiting fellow at the Indonesia Institute in Jakarta, who has studied the Indonesian military.

Justice for the violence in East Timor has always been about more than assuaging the pain of the victims in the dirt-poor former Portuguese colony that was occupied for 24 years after Indonesia invaded in 1975. It has ramifications for Indonesia's military ties to the West, particularly the United States, and the accountability of the security forces in Indonesia's burgeoning democracy.

Since the country embarked on a democratic path eight years ago, analysts say the conduct of its military and police forces has notably improved. But there has been little appetite and even less success when it comes to prosecuting senior officers over alleged abuses from Aceh to Papua.

The truth and friendship commission, set up in 2005 with the support of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia and President Xanana Gusmão of East Timor, is supposed to be a small step toward increasing the accountability of the security forces to civilian authority. Many of its members have experience in conducting such inquiries and are drawn from both East Timor and Indonesia.

Still, there is a trade-off. The commission is offering amnesties to anyone who wants to tell the truth about what really happened in East Timor and the extent of official involvement in a rampage of looting, arson and murder soon after the East Timorese voted for their independence in a referendum carried out under UN supervision.

Before testifying Saturday, Wiranto, a Muslim, took an oath to tell the truth with a copy of the Koran held above his head by a cleric. His appearance was voluntary. But his version of events, recounted over an hour and a half to occasional interjections of applause, remained at odds with the findings of numerous investigations in Indonesia and East Timor.

The military and the police, he said, had done their best under difficult circumstances, and the allegations of systematic crimes with the approval of senior commanders were "senseless and crazy."

"If we had an evil agenda to scuttle the referendum, there wouldn't have been a referendum and there wouldn't have been an independent East Timor," he said.

The retired four-star general was one of a succession of senior Indonesian army and police officers to come before the commission who have refused to concede any culpability for what happened in East Timor.

UN-funded prosecutors there contend that the Indonesian Army had "formed, funded, armed and controlled" militias responsible for much of the violence and that senior officers, including Wiranto, knew about it. In 2004, they indicted Wiranto, and a U.S. judge sitting on a Special Panel for Serious Crimes in East Timor later granted an arrest warrant. Wiranto was also one of several Indonesian officers placed on a U.S. visa watch list.

The United Nations has decided not to cooperate with the truth and friendship commission, in a significant blow to its credibility. The head of the UN mission in East Timor in 1999, Ian Martin, is one of several officials who have declined to testify.

Although analysts say that it is extremely unlikely that the world body will be able to get member states to agree to set up its own tribunal on East Timor, it has not wanted to be associated with a process that might allow military officers, militia commanders or civilians to avoid judicial reckoning.

David Cohen, director of the Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center at the University of California, who has been employed as an adviser to the commission, said in an interview that that was a mistake.

He said that while the truth and friendship commission did not have a mandate even to recommend prosecutions, it still provided an opportunity to reveal more of the truth.

The commission has requested a number of documents from the armed forces that could help shed light on the actions of the security forces. Some junior personnel have also been prepared to admit wrongdoing before the commission.

"If the UN refuses to cooperate, it will only make it more difficult for the commission to fulfill its mandate of reviewing all the available evidence and establishing conclusive proof of what happened," Cohen said.

"Whatever critics may or may not think about the commission, I don't know why they would not want to have the commission receive all the information necessary to do its work."

In the aftermath of East Timor, Western countries, including the United States, severed virtually all ties to the Indonesian military. Those links have been steadily rebuilt largely because of the valuable role played by Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim country, in fighting terrorism.

In mid-April, Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono received a warm reception on a visit to Washington. Yet the United States still restricts contacts with the Indonesian military and occasionally refuses to train some officers implicated in abuses and raises objections to certain officer promotions.

Analysts say those problems will not go away unless Indonesia is prepared to do more to change its military, starting with greater accountability for military personnel implicated in past abuses.

"It is not in the top five issues that Indonesia has to deal with," said Sidney Jones, Southeast Asia director of the International Crisis Group. "But military reform should be writ large as one of the issues the government has to face."

UN renews aversion to draft amnesty bill
Pajhwok Afghan News
May 7, 2007

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) Monday restated its past position on the so-called draft national reconciliation bill, giving alleged war criminals a blanket amnesty.

Set to be signed into law by President Hamid Karzai, the bill was approved by the Upper House of Parliament (Meshrano Jirga) on Sunday. The measure grants amnesty to all war criminals, barring those accused of fundamental human rights violations by individuals.

Speaking at a press conference here, UNAMA spokesman Adrian Edwards stressed any decision of the Afghan government on talks with al-Qaeda and Taliban should be in accordance with the United Nations Security Council policy.

He said the UNAMA supported all initiatives for bringing peace to Afghanistan in line with the country's constitution. But those involved in crimes against humanity did not qualify for amnesty, the top UN official added.

Our stance is clear: Families of victims alone have the right to forgive the criminals, the explained the spokesman, who also referred to the 50 civilians killed in the recent military operations in Zerkoh Valley in Shindand district in western Afghanistan.

Voicing concern over the expulsion of refugees by Iran, Adrian Edwards called on Tehran to work out a proper plan for repatriating the Afghans. Around 50,000 refugees have so far been driven from the neighbouring country over the last two weeks, or so.

Timor's tense game of two-up
The Australian
by Stephen Fitzpatrick
May 7, 2007

The huge white UN choppers, with their gruffly spoken Russian crews, have delivered hundreds of thousands of ballot papers and sealed boxes across the country; tiny pack ponies are standing by, ready to carry vital electoral materials across rocky streams in the most remote of locations.

Welcome to East Timor, which goes to a second-round run-off presidential election this week after two candidates - Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta, and the ruling Fretilin party's Francisco "Lo Olo" Guterres - emerged from a field of eight in polls a month ago, neither with a clear majority.

Expectations are high that Wednesday's vote will be just as peaceful as April's. Although there has been a steady murmur of gang violence around the capital, Dili, in recent weeks, the 1700-strong UN Policing force (UNPOL) has largely kept a lid on tensions.

The Australian-led International Stabilisation Force, effectively an ad hoc military operating outside of the UN's remit, has also been able to smother any potential firestorms in the districts, including by limiting the influence of fugitive former military policeman Alfredo Alves Reinado.

The actual conduct of the vote is expected to be straightforward and electoral officials are hopeful of a significantly improved performance in ballot counting, compared with the often dismal shambles of a month ago.

Although polling then was an overwhelmingly peaceful and orderly process, the national election commission was unable to provide a credible or consistent running result in the days immediately after polling.

The commission's standing was also undermined by the inexperience of its spokesman, Martinho Gusmao, who publicly backed one candidate - Fernando "Lasama" de Araujo - a week before the vote, then angrily denied his comments had been intended to endorse Mr de Araujo at all.

However, the UN's chief electoral officer, Steven Wagenseil, is confident of a "significant improvement" come Wednesday, after three weeks of intensive retraining of 7500 voting booth officials across the country, as well as close attention being paid to how the electoral commission's senior staff conduct the tabulation process. "The electoral commission had never done this before, and they're happy to admit they made mistakes," the diplomat said, tactfully.

While keen to emphasise the UN's merely advisory role in the poll, Mr Wagenseil admits that the presidential election this week is in some ways a dry run for a parliamentary vote due on June 30. The test then will be whether Fretilin can cling to power. It holds 55 seats in the 88-seat parliament, short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass legislation, and even that legislative advantage is predicted to shrink at the June poll.

"Right now we're looking at the presidential race and it won't hinge on just one vote," Mr Wagenseil said. "But when it comes to the parliamentary election, with proportional voting, a fraction of the vote could determine whether a party gets one seat, two seats or no seats.

"So you could say that the first round was the test go at it, the second is the chance to polish the process but the parliamentary election is where the government will come from."

Despite bitter claims of first-round ballot rigging and low turnout, official figures in fact showed more than 81 per cent of 522,000 registered voters took part, with just over 5 per cent of these votes invalid or blank.

All sides are waiting to see whether Fretilin, with its strong historical ties to East Timor's 1975 declaration of independence from Portugal and ensuing 24-year guerilla war against Indonesia - and a still-powerful grassroots support network - can call on its membership to deliver Mr Guterres the largely symbolic presidential post.

Most losing first-round candidates have directed their supporters to vote for Mr Ramos Horta, with key seats in a possible Horta government - particularly mining and energy, which controls the lucrative oil and gas money flowing into East Timor's $US1billion ($1.2 billion) petroleum fund - the hoped-for quid pro quo. Jostling for favour and a place in the inner circle will only increase after the election, but the general wisdom is that Mr Guterres enters Wednesday's race as the underdog.

Final rallies at the weekend overwhelmingly backed this picture, with Mr Guterres drawing about 500 people to a stump speech in Dili and Mr Ramos Horta attracting an estimated 8000 supporters to an event in the central districts town of Ermera, where his network has been working hard to stoke the fires of anti-Fretilin discontent.

However, Mr Ramos Horta's deal with the devil to keep that support alive could yet come back to haunt him.

His early backing of the Australian-led military campaign to hunt down the renegade Reinado cost him dearly in the central districts, where Democratic Party chairman Mr de Araujo's political capital is built heavily on the labour of Reinado supporters.

Mr Ramos Horta recently, and extravagantly, called off the search for Reinado, saying he preferred dialogue - except that the Australian commander of the International Security Force, Brigadier Mal Rerdon, pointed out that he had received no official order to that effect.

It turned out the statement did not actually come from the Prime Minister's office at all: Mr Ramos Horta, playing a canny game of wedge politics, was hoping the electorate would not notice it was Jose the presidential candidate, not Jose the Prime Minister, who had declared the hunt over.

So long as Mr de Araujo's supporters believe Reinado is no longer a fugitive, Mr Ramos Horta hopes, he will attract their significant bloc of votes.

However, the thorny problem of what to do with Reinado almost pales alongside the sharp rifts that still exist in East Timorese society. The wounds caused by 1999's violent separation from Indonesia remain visible on the heads and limbs of those who escaped crazed machete gangs, and in the psyches of those who fear a return to a riven society that knows no rule of law.

Atul Khare, head of the United Nations mission in East Timor, expects a resumption within weeks of a UN investigation into the 1999 atrocities, which will carry with it the possibility of criminal charges.

However, he is dismissive of the current joint East Timorese-Indonesian Commission for Truth and Friendship, "because the UN cannot support anything which carries with it the possibility of amnesty".

In its latest round of hearings, the toothless commission took evidence at the weekend from General Wiranto, the man in charge of Indonesian forces at the time of the slaughter and the subject previously of recommended war crimes charges.

The general took the "I know nothing" approach on the stand, saying that if any of his men were involved in the violence that claimed thousands of lives, that was not his business.

He blamed the violence on the short amount of time given security forces in the former Indonesian territory to prepare for the September 4, 1999, independence referendum. The vote was proposed by then Indonesian president B.J. Habibie only three months earlier - less than a year after the fall of dictator Suharto and under international pressure, particularly from Australia.

Evidence was in fact discovered after the bloodshed directly pinning responsibility on the Indonesian military, including through its arming and training of the main anti-independence militias.

General Wiranto's evidence at the weekend also suggested complicity - by way of negligence - by the previous UN administration in East Timor in the atrocities, a situation the Secretary-General has been called on to directly address.

"UN silence on this matter would not only assist in denying Indonesia's responsibility for the violence, but would actually perpetrate a grave injustice against the thousands of victims," the New York-based International Centre for Transitional Justice warned at the weekend.

The centre called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to directly rebut General Wiranto's evidence.

However, it would be disingenuous to ignore the general's point entirely - which is that there are deep divisions in East Timorese society, ready and able to be cynically manipulated as part of the political process.

Indeed, in this newly emerging democracy there are those, including some at the very top, who see such manipulation as legitimate tools in the hunt for power.

Such was the lesson, for many, of a 24-year-long fearful existence in the jungles, opposing the brutal Indonesian military machine.

This week's poll, and next month's parliamentary vote, will be a powerful test of whether East Timor's leadership has gone beyond those lessons or remains stuck, in adolescent fascination, in the classroom of angry revolution.

French judge resigns from International Criminal Court because of poor health
UN News Centre
May 8, 2007

The head of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has paid tribute to Judge Claude Jorda of France, whose permanent ill-health has forced him to resign from the body set up under an international treaty to hear trials of individuals charged with acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since 2002.

Judge Jorda, whose resignation will take effect on 12 August, was assigned to the Court’s pre-trial division and has been serving as the presiding judge in the case against Thomas Lubango Dyilo, a former militia leader from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who is charged with war crimes for enlisting child soldiers, in the first such trial for the court.

In a statement issued by the Court in The Hague, ICC President Judge Philippe Kirsch voiced regret at Judge Jorda’s departure and thanked him “for his service and for his commitment to fulfilling his obligations before leaving the Court.”

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, which currently has 104 members, will now elect a judge to fill the vacancy created by Judge Jorda’s resignation.

Before joining the ICC, the Frenchman had served previously as a judge and as the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

UN official urges Ugandan parties to put human rights at centre of talks
UN News Centre
May 11, 2007

The top United Nations human rights official today urged the Government of Uganda and the insurgent Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to reject impunity and ensure respect for international standards during peace talks set to resume tomorrow in Juba, southern Sudan.

“For a peace agreement to be durable it must be based on the principles of justice, accountability and the rule of law,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said in Geneva.

“Any accord must reaffirm the commitment of both parties to the core principle of international law that there can be no amnesty for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and gross violations of human rights,” she said.

Recalling that members of the LRA have been indicted by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity and war crimes, the High Commissioner said, “Discussions concerning those persons should be focusing on the terms and circumstances of their surrender so they can go and address the charges against them before the ICC.”

The High Commissioner also encouraged parties in Juba to commit to a national “victim-centered consultative process” aimed at gathering the views of all stakeholders on appropriate justice, accountability and reconciliation mechanisms.

“The peace agreement should set a timeframe for the national dialogue and identify an independent institution to coordinate the process, so that past abuses and violations, as well as deep-seated social and economic inequalities, may be addressed comprehensively,” Ms. Arbour said.

Since the LRA rebellion began in 1986, the rebel group has become notorious for abducting children and then using them as soldiers or porters, while subjecting some to torture and allocating many girls to senior officers in a form of institutional rape.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in October, 2005 issued its first-ever arrest warrants against Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, and four of the group’s commanders – Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen and Raska Lukwiya – on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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NGO Reports

Sudan: Hand Over War Crimes Suspects to ICC
Human Rights Watch
May 2, 2007

UN Security Council Has Obliged Khartoum to Cooperate With the Court

(New York, May 2, 2007) – The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision today to issue arrest warrants against a Sudanese minister and a Janjaweed leader, both charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, obligates Khartoum to hand over the two suspects for trial in The Hague, Human Rights Watch said.

Earlier today the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I issued warrants of arrest for State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Ahmed Haroun and the Janjaweed militia leader known as Ali Kosheib (a pseudonym for Ali Mohammed Ali). The two suspects are accused of playing leading roles in a series of attacks against civilians in West Darfur in 2003 and 2004. The Janjaweed leader Ali Kosheib is currently in custody in Sudan on the basis of other charges being brought in national proceedings.

“Today’s ICC decision is an important step for victims in Darfur,” said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. “Khartoum is now obligated to comply with the arrest warrants and send these suspects to The Hague.”

The Pre-Trial Chamber found that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that Haroun and Kosheib bear responsibility for persecuting, raping, attacking and killing civilians in four villages in West Darfur. According to the 58-page court decision, evidence shows Haroun allegedly recruited, paid and supplied arms to the Janjaweed who carried out the attacks. Ali Kosheib is alleged to have led the attacks and mobilized, recruited, armed and provided supplies to militia and Janjaweed under his command.

In its decision to issue warrants, the Pre-Trial Chamber noted the Sudanese foreign ministry’s public statement that Khartoum will not cooperate with the ICC. It also noted indications that Ahmed Haroun is concealing evidence, and the fact that Ali Kosheib is in Sudanese custody and thus unable to voluntarily appear before the court without a warrant.

The United Nations Security Council resolution 1593, which in March 2005 referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC’s prosecutor, requires Sudan to cooperate fully with ICC investigations.

“The Security Council has obligated Sudan to cooperate with the ICC, and Sudanese officials should stop flouting their responsibility to comply,” said Dicker. “The council needs to monitor Sudan’s conduct and insist that it hands over the suspects as required.”

The cooperation required from Sudanese authorities includes not only executing arrest warrants, but also responding positively to requests from the ICC prosecutor. The Arab League and the African Union should also take steps to ensure the Sudanese government complies with these obligations.

Human Rights Watch has comprehensively documented the Sudanese government’s responsibility for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur since early 2004. In the December 2005 report, “Entrenching Impunity: Government Responsibility for International Crimes in Darfur,” Human Rights Watch detailed the Sudanese government’s strategy of using civilian officials and its armed forces to recruit, support and coordinate the Janjaweed militias.

The report also highlighted the role of senior Sudanese government policy makers and others, including Haroun and Kosheib, in initiating and implementing the campaign.

Trading Justice for Peace in Uganda Won’t Work
Human Rights Watch
by Elise Keppler and Richard Dicker
May 2, 2007

Published in The Monitor

The resumption of the Juba talks on April 26 renews the chance for an end to the horrific 20 year conflict in the north. But to achieve this much needed peace, the warring parties and the mediators cannot bargain away prosecution of the LRA leaders who have been charged with grave crimes. Simply put, a solution that avoids meaningful justice will undercut the prospects for a durable peace.

For over 10 years our organisation, Human Rights Watch, has documented widespread crimes committed by the LRA leaders against civilians. The crimes include widespread killings, mutilations, rape, abduction and forcible conscription of children. While lesser in scale, we also documented the involvement of the UPDF in abuses, including beatings, sexual violence, and killings.

Last month we spoke with people who were victims of the massive displacement that occurred in the north due to the conflict. Nearly all those we met in displaced camps expressed an intense desire to return to their homes. A number conveyed real concern that prosecution of LRA leaders could further delay their departure and therefore saw the ICC as an obstacle. A distinct vocal minority, however, declared a desire to see those most responsible brought to trial, although they questioned how the ICC could arrest those it had charged.

International law demands justice for crimes against humanity and war crimes, but the need to prosecute those responsible at the top levels goes far beyond a legal obligation. Handing the LRA leaders associated with the most serious crimes a "get out of jail free card" would have serious consequences for the peace the people of northern Uganda so urgently want.

By issuing its arrest warrants against four senior LRA leaders, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has taken an important step to seeing that justice is done for the crimes committed in northern Uganda.

Not surprisingly, Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti want to avoid trial at the ICC. Indeed, they have made every attempt to barter their signature on a peace agreement for immunity from meaningful prosecution. They have painted the ICC as the obstacle to peace, while minimising their role in the horrible crimes that occurred.

By depicting the ICC as the problem, the LRA leaders are trying to turn reality upside down. It is believed that the ICC warrants were an important factor in getting the LRA leaders to agree to the Juba talks. Moreover, after many victims realise that the crimes against them and their loved ones have been excused, a peace agreement based on impunity for the likes of Kony and Otti would likely prove not to be worth the paper it is printed on.

Of course, the ICC is not the only means through which justice can be achieved. The ICC cases against the LRA leaders could be tried in Ugandan courts. But any national alternative to an ICC trial must demonstrate a genuine ability and willingness to conduct the investigation or prosecution.

Sham national proceedings aimed at shielding the accused from responsibility, unfair trials, or even meaningful prosecutions accompanied by a slap-on-the-wrist sentence will not pass muster with the ICC judges who will ultimately decide whether a trial in Uganda is an acceptable alternative.

The ICC requirements for genuine national trials are necessary to ensure that justice plays its role in providing accountability and promoting stability in an area torn apart by war and displacement. In this situation, fair and credible trials -- of those in both the LRA and the UPDF responsible for the most serious crimes -- with appropriate penalties will send the message that widespread atrocities will not be tolerated, thereby helping to rebuild respect for the rule of law.

There will also be a need for other mechanisms to ensure accountability: trials for lesser offenses, a truth commission, and, where appropriate, traditional justice measures. In addition, northern Uganda will need reconstruction and development assistance.

A peace worth having cannot rest on impunity. It is up to key players such as the UN Secretary-General's special envoy, former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano to convey this message loud and clear at the Juba talks. Governments also have a key role to play, including the "core group" on Uganda (the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, and Norway), and the African observers to the talks (Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo).

Those with an interest in seeing a lasting end to the conflict in northern Uganda should insist on an outcome that includes peace and justice. Anything less would be abandonment of the victims, international principle and won't last long.

Elise Keppler is counsel and Richard Dicker is director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. They recently returned from mission in Uganda

Sudan Must Surrender Suspected War Criminals
Amnesty International
May 2, 2007

(New York) -- Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) welcomed today's decision by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for two suspected Sudanese war criminals, and urged the Sudanese government to arrest the two men immediately and hand them over to the court in The Hague.

The court issued arrest warrants for Ahmad Harun, current State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, and Ali Muhammad Ali Abdelrahman, the renowned Janjawid leader (also known as Ali Kushayb). They face 51 counts of alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, persecution, the destruction of property, pillaging, rape, torture and other inhumane acts.

Amnesty International called on the U.N. Security Council to demand that Sudan -- or any other state on whose territory the two suspects are found -- arrest and surrender them immediately.

Vienna Colucci, director of AIUSA's International Justice Program, said: "Enforcement is at once both the most critical and most challenging aspect of the international justice system. The Security Council asked the ICC to investigate the situation in Darfur -- now that the ICC has done this and issued arrest warrants, it is up to the Security Council to do all that it can to ensure that the suspects are arrested and delivered to the ICC."

"While we campaign to get U.N. peacekeepers on the ground in Darfur to end the slaughter that has gone on for four years, we must also aggressively bring those responsible for the carnage in Darfur to justice," said Denise Bell. Amnesty International USA country specialist for the Sudan. "This will serve to make any political solution, when it is found, more just and more lasting."
Bell also urged that the U.N. Mission in Sudan be requested and equipped to arrest and surrender them.

Amnesty International also urged the African Union to press the Sudanese government to arrest and surrender the two men, and to direct their forces currently in Darfur to do the same if they are found within their sphere of operations.

In addition, Amnesty International called on the Sudanese government and on other governments to investigate and prosecute, in accordance with international standards, other war crimes and crimes against humanity not prosecuted by the ICC prosecutor and to ensure that victims and their families are able to seek and obtain reparations.

Ali Kushayb is thought to be currently in detention in Darfur, awaiting trial.

More than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur in the ongoing conflict and hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes and into bordering Chad.

Council of Europe: Hold Serbia to Account
Human Rights Watch
May 7, 2007

As Chair, Belgrade Should Turn Over Fugitives

(Brussels, May 7, 2007) – The Council of Europe should require Serbia to turn over Ratko Mladic to the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal as it takes on the chair of the council’s Committee of Ministers, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to that committee released today.

“Serbia is the only country ever judged to have violated the Genocide Convention, and it’s persisting in that violation by not turning over Ratko Mladic,” said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program. “The Council of Europe, the ‘human rights conscience of the European Union,’ should insist that Serbia cooperates fully with the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.”

On February 26, 2007, the International Court of Justice ruled that Serbia breached its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by failing to prevent the 1995 genocide at Srebrenica, during which more than 7,000 Bosnian men and boys were killed, or punish those responsible. It further found that Serbia’s continuing failure to transfer Mladic to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) amounts to an ongoing violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention. Mladic, the wartime commander of Bosnian Serb forces, and the then Bosnian Serb president, Radovan Karadzic, were indicted for genocide by the ICTY. Mladic is believed to be hiding out in Serbia.

The primary aim of the Council of Europe, which has 46 member states, is to protect human rights and the rule of law. Its work is rooted in the European Convention on Human Rights. The chair of the council’s Committee of Ministers is held for a six-month term on a rotating basis in alphabetical order. Human Rights Watch believes governments holding the chair of the Council of Europe’s highest decision-making body should respect its aims, including by addressing any unfulfilled membership requirements.

Prior to being admitted to the Council of Europe in 2003, Serbia agreed to fulfill certain obligations, including full cooperation with the ICTY and to do “its utmost to track down all 16 indicted persons who are still at large and hand them over to the ICTY.” While Serbia assisted with the surrender of a series of less prominent suspects to the tribunal in 2004 and early 2005, its cooperation has since stalled. Recent Council of Europe monitoring reports deplore Serbia’s lack of commitment to arresting Mladic.

“For the Council of Europe to retain credibility as a human rights champion, it can’t abandon the victims of genocide in Bosnia,” said Dicker. “To demonstrate that impunity for war crimes is unacceptable, European leaders should require Serbia to immediately arrest and turn over the remaining fugitives.”

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