War Crimes Prosecution Watch
is a bi-weekly e-newsletter that compiles official documents and
articles from major news sources detailing and analyzing salient issues
pertaining to the investigation and prosecution of war crimes
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Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (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)
Khmer Rouge jailer demands his human rights
Bangkok Post
November 27, 2007
A single survivor of the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison sat stoney-faced in the public gallery as the jail's former commandant began his first day of court hearings for pre-trial release on human rights grounds.
One of less than 10 survivors of the S-21 torture centre, Chum Mey listened as attorneys for his former jailer, Kang Keng Iev, alias Duch, argued that detaining the 65-year-old for more than eight years without trial breached his human rights and appealed for bail.
Duch, a born-again Christian, was discovered in 1999 working as a teacher in the northwestern province of Battambang and has been imprisoned virtually ever since.
Duch has never argued that he was not in charge of Phnom Penh's S-21 torture centre, Toul Sleng, where it is estimated up to 17,000 people were "processed" and survivors taken to the "killing fields" to be executed or worked to death in agricultural labour camps.
"This is a relief for me. This feels like at last something is happening to start to find justice," Chum Mey said outside the courtroom. "It is my duty as a survivor to come. The others were too ill to come or could not make it here today, so I represent them."
Duch has been formally charged with crimes against humanity by the joint UN-Cambodia tribunal, and security was tight as people crowded into the court Tuesday morning.
Tuesday's hearing consisted mainly of complex legal arguments, although the prosecution detailed some of the atrocities alleged to have taken place inside the prison.
Those included placing people in pits filled with water and watching as the prisoner drowned; electric shock therapy; pulling out fingernails and other forms of torture.
Duch made a brief speech early to the court in the morning, his hands clasped in front of him in supplication as he gave basic details of his family and places of residence before his arrest.
The hearing is expected to last at least two days with a decision scheduled for late this month or early next month, according to court spokesman Reach Sambath.
It comes nearly three decades after the 1975-79 regime was toppled by invading Vietnamese forces. Up to 2 million Cambodians perished under the Khmer Rouge in its drive to transform the country into a classless agrarian utopia.
Four other former leaders have been charged by the court: former leader Pol Pot's chief deputy, Nuon Chea; former head of state Khieu Samphan; former deputy prime minister Ieng Sary and his wife, Pol Pot's sister-in-law Khieu Thirith.
Outside the courthouse Tuesday, Khieu Samphan's wife So Socheat mounted her own vigil for her husband, who was arrested and charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes Monday.
"I am waiting to be allowed to see him. We will also be asking for the court to allow him to be freed before his trial," she said.
Trial of Khmer Rouge should end impunity
Bangkok Post
By Anuraj Mahibhandu
November 27, 2007
Thirty years after the events, it is hard to believe that justice will be done for Cambodians who lost people they loved to the ruthlessness of the Khmer Rouge.
But there is sense in the argument that the United Nations-backed tribunal, expected to begin in earnest next year, will help reassure Cambodians that there is a chance for justice in future.
Not least important, the tribunal _ however much or little it succeeds in incriminating the ageing Khmer Rouge leaders _ will help send the message to political supremos everywhere that they will not escape with impunity if they commit crimes against their people.
Youk Chaang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, convincingly presents his argument on the benefits of the tribunal in an article posted on the website of the Cambodian Tribunal Monitor.
He starts by relating the experiences of members of his family under the Khmer Rouge and their differences of opinion to the upcoming tribunal.
The Khmer Rouge cut open his sister's stomach after her husband had been beaten to death for stealing rice from the commune kitchen. Following the overthrow of the regime, his mother alone in the family accepted as a form of apology the offering in bananas and meat from the chief of a village where some other family members disappeared. His niece, who was only five or six when her parents were killed, holds that no justice in the world will bring her family back.
Two reasons which Youk Chaang puts forward for insisting that the tribunal matters are persuasive.
"We need prosecution before we can ever reach the point of true forgiveness," he writes.
Secondly, he points out that justice has already been done "to some degree", during the 1980s, when people "took the law into their own hands and killed many of the worst Khmer Rouge perpetrators".
"For this reason, I feel that the trials _ if they are successful _ will not so much bring justice to the victims as give people a perception that justice is possible for the future."
The years of delay in the setting up of the tribunal _ officially called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) _ have given Cambodians and observers of Cambodia ample time to debate questions of crime, punishment and reconciliation.
The Khmer Rouge are held responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people through overwork, starvation, torture and execution from 1975-79. Youk Chaang, who has spent 10 years researching the excesses, reckons a "vast majority" of Cambodians want to see the "intellectual authors" of the genocide put behind bars. In a paper presented in Singapore in 2005, he says these Cambodians are unlikely to be satisfied. He cites the ages of many candidates for prosecution, the possibility that the trials will drag on for years, the likelihood of appeals, and the track record of the Cambodian legal system.
With the arrests of three well-known figures in recent days, and the demand for bail of the Khmer Rouge's chief interrogator, debate has resumed over the prospects for the tribunal and the end of the culture of impunity in Cambodia.
Duch, who was arrested in July by order of the ECCC, stood before it on Nov 20 to appeal against his detention without trial since 1999. Also known as Kaing Guek Eav, he and the three Khmer Rouge leaders arrested on Nov 14 and 19 face charges of crimes against humanity.
These are Ieng Sary, the former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, his wife Ieng Thirith, who served as a minister for social services, and Khieu Samphan, the former president. Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge's chief ideologue taken into custody in September, faces similar charges.
The arrest of Khieu Samphan came a day before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations drew contempt for again procrastinating on the question of setting up a proper human rights body. The Asean charter signed by heads of government on Nov 20 left it up to foreign ministers to spell out the terms of reference for the mechanism, although the idea has been discussed by officials and expert groups for close to 30 years.
The member government that was seen to benefit from such unfinished work was Burma. But other regional governments, including Thailand's, know full well how such a status quo protects their respective situations.
The coincidence of the Khmer Rouge arrests, Duch's appeal for bail and Asean's failure to set up a human rights body was a reminder of the difficulties of bringing change to the region.
Thailand contributed US$10,000 to the tribunal.
Worth a lot more is the information stored in the memories of officials who took charge of some 300,000 Cambodian refugees encamped along the eastern border.
These included Khmer Rouge dependents and victims.
Cambodia tribunal to rule on bail for torture commandant
Earthtimes.org
November 28, 2007
Phnom Penh - The tribunal to bring former Khmer Rouge leaders to justice Wednesday announced it was ready to rule on the appeal against pre-trial detention of the commandant of the notorious S-21 torture centre. The special court said it would hand down its decision on whether or not to release Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, by Monday.
Lawyers for Duch argued last week that his more than eight years of pre-trial detention violated his human rights and appealed for bail pending his trial on charges of crimes against humanity.
Prosecutors have countered that his release would allow him to access key witnesses against him and he may be a flight risk.
Up to 2 million Cambodians died during the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime, and up to 17,000 died after entering S-21, a former school in Phnom Penh converted into a prison.
Cambodia Tribunal Monitor Web Site Posts Video of First Pre-Trial Public Hearing...
Reuters
November 28, 2007
The Cambodia Tribunal Monitor Web site today posted complete videotaped coverage of the first pre-trial public hearing of appeal by Person Under Detention Kaing Guek Eav in the long-awaited special war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The November 20 public hearing, held by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), concerned the appeal of Kiang Guek Eav, also known as "Comrade Duch," against the Order for Provisional Detention. Duch has been charged with carrying out executions and torture at the Tuol Sleng prison, where 17,000 people were incarcerated in Phnom Penh during the Khmer Rouge regime.
The Web site will offer complete videotaped footage throughout the court proceedings and serve as the leading independent source of news and information on the upcoming trials of senior officials of the Khmer Rouge regime for atrocity crimes. The formal trials are expected to begin early 2008.
The Web site currently posts news updates and guest commentaries by leading international experts on the recent history of Cambodia, politics, human rights and international law. It also provides background information on the history of the Khmer Rouge and ECCC and important resources such as court documents and bibliographies of scholarly articles and books. Eventually, it will also include video interviews with Cambodian citizens documenting their reaction to events.
From April 1975 to January 1979, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodian citizens died under the Khmer Rouge regime. After nearly 10 years of negotiations, this special war crimes tribunal has commenced. The ECCC, as the special Cambodian court is formally known, will oversee the proceedings and is a joint partnership of the United Nations and the Royal Government of Cambodia.
Background on the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor Web site:
The Cambodia Tribunal Monitor was developed by a consortium of academic, philanthropic and non-profit organizations committed to providing public access to the tribunal and open discussion throughout the judicial process. The academic manager and sponsor of the site is Northwestern University School of Law's Center for International Human Rights, joined by co-sponsors Documentation Center of Cambodia and the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. The prime sponsor of the site is the J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation.
The Web site concept was conceived by Illinois State Senator Jeff Schoenberg, a Chicago-area legislator who also advises the Pritzker family on its philanthropy. In January 2007, Schoenberg participated in a trip sponsored by Build Cambodia, a U.S. based not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping Cambodians build their lives and society. As a result of the experience, Schoenberg enlisted the support of the aforementioned sponsors, and with their assistance the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor was created.
Khmer Rouge Court to Make Test-Case Ruling in Genocide Trials
Bloomberg.com
By Ed Johnson
November 29, 2007
A United Nations-backed genocide court in Cambodia said it will rule next week whether a Khmer Rouge prison chief should stay in detention while he awaits trial, a test-case for the tribunal probing regime atrocities.
Kang Kek Ieu, who allegedly ran the Khmer Rouge's S-21 jail where thousands of prisoners were tortured and murdered, is the first regime official to challenge his detention.
The Dec. 3 ruling by a panel of judges in the capital, Phnom Penh, may influence whether four other regime leaders, aged between 75 and 82 and some complaining of ill health, will remain in custody as they await trial on charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity.
The trials, which are due to begin next year, are central to the process of reconciliation in the Southeast Asian nation, where one in five people died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979.
The movement, which forced the population out of cities to work on collective farms as it tried to establish an agrarian state, is blamed for the deaths of at least 1.7 million people through starvation, disease or execution.
Kang Kek Ieu, also known as Duch, 65, was charged in July with crimes against humanity.
Prosecutors at the UN-backed tribunal, known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, allege that ``countless abuses'' were carried out against prisoners under Duch's authority.
Torture Allegations
``The allegations include keeping of some prisoners in pits which would fill with rain causing them to drown, and torture inflicted upon prisoners by them being beaten, suspended from ropes and stabbed, having their fingernails punctured or removed and being bled to death,'' according to a court document published earlier this month.
Duch's lawyers argued at the two-day appeal hearing which began Nov. 20 that he should be released on bail because he has already spent eight years in government custody in breach of international standards of justice.
The former teacher's defense team said he wasn't a senior regime member and was among more than 2,000 people who ran jails for the Khmer Rouge.
The court's Pre-Trial Chamber will announce its decision on whether to release Duch on bail at a public session on Dec. 3 at 2 p.m. Phnom Penh time, tribunal spokesman Peter Foster said in an e-mailed statement late yesterday.
Duch was the first Khmer Rouge official to be charged by the court, which comprises international and Cambodian judges.
Pol Pot
Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge's prime minister, died in his jungle hideout in 1998, 19 years after the movement was ousted by Vietnamese forces. Ta Mok, the group's military chief, died in custody in July 2006.
Nuon Chea, 81, Pol Pot's second-in-command, is awaiting trial following his arrest in September. Former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, 82, his wife, Ieng Thirith, 75, who was social affairs minister, and former head of state, Khieu Samphan, 76, were detained and charged earlier this month. They all deny the charges and may also appeal their detention.
Khieu Samphan argued in court earlier this month that he suffers from hypertension and has no intention of trying to escape if freed on bail.
Ieng Thirith told the court she suffers from ``chronic physical and mental illness,'' while her husband noted he is ``old and sick.'' Nuon Chea told the court that ``he does not intend to tarnish the honor of his country by fleeing'' if he is released on bail.
Vietnamese forces captured Phnom Penh in January 1979, ending the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Fighters resisted in the west of the country until the final units surrendered to the Cambodian army 20 years later.
The tribunal process is costing $56.3 million, with the UN providing $43 million and Cambodia's government $13.3 million.
Cambodian genocide tribunal rejects Khmer Rouge prison chief's appeal for release on bail
Associated Press via PR-Inside
December 3, 2007
Cambodia's genocide tribunal rejected the appeal of a former Khmer Rouge prison chief for release on bail, saying Monday that he might try to flee or threaten witnesses.
Defense lawyers for Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, demanded last month that he be released because his human rights had been violated by the more than eight years he has already been in jail without trial. He has been charged with crimes against humanity.
Chief Judge Prak Kimsan announced the court's dismissal of the appeal after an hour of deliberations, echoing the prosecution's argument that he might try to flee and could pose a threat to witnesses.
Khmer Rouge jailer appeal rejected
Al Jazeera English
December 4, 2007
A United Nations-backed tribunal in Cambodia has rejected an appeal by the former Khmer Rouge prison chief against his continued detention.
Passing their ruling at a special court in the capital Phnom Penh on Monday, the panel of judges ruled that Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, might try to flee the country or threaten witnesses if he were set free ahead of his trial.
"The provisional detention is a necessary measure to ensure the security of the witnesses [and] the charged persons, to preserve evidence, to ensure the presence of the charged person during the proceedings, and to preserve public order," Judge Prak Kimsan said.
"There is a risk that he will disappear," he added.
Duch's defence lawyers had argued last week that he should be freed because his human rights had been violated by the more than eight years he has already been in jail without trial.
The former boss of the notorious S-21 torture and interrogation centre is awaiting trial on crimes against humanity, expected to begin next year.
During last week's hearing prosecutors said that Duch's release would pose a threat to public order in Cambodia, and he could attempt to escape justice by fleeing the country.
They argued that he should remain behind bars for his own safety because he could be harmed both by "accomplices wishing to silence him and by the relatives of victims seeking revenge".
Duch showed no emotion as the decision was read out, although a member of his legal team later said they were "frustrated" at the ruling.
His case was the first heard before a UN-backed tribunal for former Khmer Rouge members and had been seen as a key test of the court's credibility.
Duch was initially arrested by the Cambodian government in 1999. Last year he was handed over to the tribunal and charged with crimes against humanity.
He is one of five former senior Khmer Rouge leaders currently in detention awaiting trial before the tribunal.
During the Khmer Rouge's rule over Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 Duch was in charge of the Khmer Rouge's secret police as well as the notorious S-21 torture and interrogation centre at Phnom Penh's former Tuol Sleng high school.
Some 17,000 people are thought to have passed through the centre, with only a handful surviving.
Among the five former officials awaiting trial Duch is the lowest ranking member of the former regime, but his role in charge of S-21 has made him one of the most notorious.
He has insisted he was simply following orders from the top to save his own life.
"I was under other people's command, and I would have died if I disobeyed it," he told a government interrogator after his arrest.
The first formal trials before the tribunal are expected to get under way early next year.
Justice Delayed, But Justice Nonetheless
Asia Sentinel
By Suzy Khimm
December 4, 2007
Cambodia finally starts to bring a handful of ageing war criminals to trial for sowing the killing fields
Nearly three decades after Cambodia's murderous Khmer Rouge were ousted from power, the first of a handful of geriatric accused war criminals — a 66 year-old former prison chief named Duch — is finally being brought to justice.
The war crimes tribunal ruled Monday that Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, must remain behind bars while he awaits trial for allegedly overseeing the torture of some 14,000 people. In the court's first-ever ruling, a panel of five judges unanimously denied bail to the defendant, who was arrested in July on charges of crimes against humanity. Duch has publicly admitted to serving as the director of the infamous S-21 prison, where thousands were tortured before being executed between 1975 and 1979.
For the past decade, the United Nations and Cambodia have been in desultory negotiations to establish the court and hold the former Khmer Rouge leaders accountable for their crimes. The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, as the tribunal is known, is unique in that it is a domestic Cambodian court functioning in partnership with the UN and embracing international criminal law and standards of due process. At one point, the UN cut off talks after concluding that Phnom Penh would not guarantee a free and fair trial. But after marathon delays—due as well to politics and civil war — the tribunal opened on November 20-21 with Duch’s bail hearing.
The court is now racing against time to try the regime's ageing leaders. The leader of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, was never brought to justice, dying in a jungle clearing in 1998. Duch is the youngest of the five regime officials arrested to date, some of whom have complained of health problems that could threaten to derail the proceedings. In an appeal brief released last week, Nuon Chea, 82, known as "Brother Number Two," was described as suffering from hypertension, cardiovascular disease, impaired memory, and gout, resulting in "diminished mental abilities" that allegedly compromised the court hearings following his arrest in September.
Khieu Samphan, 76, the former Khmer Rouge president, suffered an apparent stroke last month and was arrested only days afterward on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The regime's ex-foreign minister, Ieng Sary, 82, and his wife, Ieng Thirith, 75, the former social affairs minister, were also arrested last month by the tribunal, which is restricted to trying the "most senior" regime officials.
In dismissing Duch’s appeal for bail, the judges cited the need to guard potential witnesses from the defendant and to protect Duch himself from survivors and victims' families who could be seeking vengeance.
“Thousands were tortured before being executed by the cruellest means," said Prak Kimsan, president of the pre-trial chamber, as he read out the judges' decision. "The passage of time has not diminished the importance of the [Khmer Rouge regime] on Cambodian society….[and] revenge is easily accessible."
Duch sat in court with his eyes slightly downcast, rarely changing his expression during the hour-long proceeding. His trial is expected to begin in June 2008.
The November start of the UN-backed court has brought a measure of hope to a country that remains haunted by its brutal past. An estimated 1.7 million people perished during the four-year Khmer Rouge regime as a result of starvation, disease, overwork, and execution. Not a single person has been held accountable to date for the atrocities, and many feared that surviving regime leaders would die before ever being brought to justice.
"We cannot wait anymore," said Thun Saray, director of local rights organization Adhoc, which has been conducting outreach activities about the court. "We delayed and delayed lots of times in the past…And if we give bail to the other Khmer Rouge leaders, it would delay the process again."
As news of the trials has begun spreading across Cambodia's provinces, more regime victims have been coming forward to issue complaints as civil parties to the court, Thun Saray said, adding that he was heartened by the public's reception of the tribunal.
Nevertheless, the passage of 30 years' time has led others to wonder if the trials will resonate with most Cambodians, the vast majority of whom were born after the regime ended. Official textbooks still barely mention the period, and despite the steady stream of tourists to Cambodia's genocide memorials—which include Duch's own S-21 prison—shockingly little about the past atrocities seems to have trickled down to the next generation.
The tribunal "has to be something of an education for Cambodia's young generation, said photojournalist Nic Dunlop, who tracked down and uncovered Duch in the 1996. "It's important that justice is not only being done, but also understood."
Gau Mat, 38, echoed Dunlop's sentiments at the tribunal's opening proceedings last month. "If we don't have this [trial], maybe the new generation will follow the regime people," said the Cham Muslim, one of the many Khmer Rouge survivors attending the hearing. "If there's no justice, in the future, [the guilty] will be released if they give money. The regime leaders should have to pay for what they have done."
But while a sense of reprisal may already be in the air, court analysts maintain that the tribunal's impact will depend as much upon a strong defense as the final verdict.
Evaluating Monday's ruling, Youk Chhang, the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said that the judges' decision sharply exposed the defense's weaknesses. During the hearing last month, he said, one of the defense lawyers introduced Duch to the court as the director of S-21—effectively implicating his client before the trials had even begun.
"The idea of a defense is a new concept [in Cambodia], and it's very important that it cross into the minds of the public," Youk Chhang said. "The defense needs to work harder, be stronger…and do its homework already."
US War Crimes Ambassador to Tour Tribunal
VOA Khmer
By Heng Reaksmey
December 5, 2007
The US ambassador at large for war crimes, Clint Williamson, arrived in Cambodia Wednesday for a three-day study of the Khmer Rouge tribunal.
Williamson's visit comes as the US is considering funding for the cash-strapped tribunal, officially known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC.
"While the US wants to be in a position to be able to support the ECCC politically and financially, the State Department is still reviewing all the facts about the tribunal and its operations, including whether or not it is capable of meeting international standards of justice," the US Embassy in Phnom Penh said Wednesday in a statement.
Williamson will meet with tribunal, government and rights officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, the embassy said.
The US was instrumental in establishing the framework for the hybrid tribunal, which pairs UN-appointed international and national jurists across several offices and court chambers.
Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said Wednesday the courts welcomed the visit.
"We have iterated from the beginning that the US is a country involved in this tribunal, and a country that pushed for the formation of the ECCC," Reach Sambath said.
The tribunal, which in recent months has arrested five top Khmer Rouge leaders, opened its doors February 2006, after years of wrangling. Observers now say it will overreach its time limit, and that necessary funds will be needed to keep it running.
But the process has been tarnished by accusations of corruption, kickbacks and a lack of transparency, and US officials have said in the past these need to be overcome before the US will help fund it.
"The US takes seriously allegations of mismanagement or impropriety in the ECCC's Office of Administration," the embassy said Wednesday. "There have been multiple assessments this year of the ECCC's administration, and these are important tools for identifying and correcting weaknesses in the ECCC's operations. The US looks forward to receiving updates on the steps taken by the ECCC's administration to address the concerns identified in these audits."
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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
Congo's Humanitarian Crisis Worsens Shades of Congo's Troubled Past Appear
NPR
By Corey Flintoff
November 26, 2007
A little more than four years after the close of the fiercest war in African history, the Democratic Republic of Congo is bracing for what could be another spasm of violence.
A rebellion led by a former army general in eastern Congo threatens to reignite ethnic hatreds and undo years of effort to disarm fighting factions. It could also wreck efforts to develop the rich resources belonging to one of the world's poorest populations.
But experts say that lost opportunities in the past could offer some valuable lessons for the United States and the international community to help head off another war.
The Horrors of War
The horrors of war are a constant memory in Congo. The latest conflict, a five-year battle ending in 2003, was one of the deadliest since World War II. Eight countries were drawn into what is sometimes known as the Great War of Africa. Famine, disease and fighting killed nearly 4 million people. Millions more fled, only to wind up in the near-permanent displacement of refugee camps.
Mauro De Lorenzo, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, says Congo's recent woes began with an earlier refugee crisis. Between 1994 and 1996, at least a million Hutu tribal members crossed the border from Rwanda. Most were fleeing revenge, after a Hutu-led genocide killed at least 500,000 Tutsis and thousands of moderate Hutus.
Hiding among the Hutu refugees were former militia fighters who had actively taken part in the genocide.
"We as American taxpayers were nourishing and providing succor to people who had just committed genocide," says De Lorenzo. "They managed to control the aid and use it to re-arm."
He says the first Congo War might have been prevented if Congo's neighbors and the international community had been more aggressive in separating the extremists from the other Rwandan refugees.
Backing Laurent Kabila
Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko was losing his grip on the country after 30 years in power, and he did nothing to stop the Hutu militias from staging raids back into Rwanda. That led Rwanda and neighboring Uganda to back Congolese rebel groups led by Laurent Kabila, who overthrew Mobutu in 1997.
Kabila's victory in the civil war didn't bring peace to much of the country.
For one thing, his allies from Rwanda and Uganda ignored his requests to remove their troops from Congolese territory. A United Nations report later accused the two countries of systematically looting Congolese resources, including diamonds and cobalt. When Kabila finally ordered them out in the summer of 1998, they switched their support to anti-Kabila rebels who launched an offensive toward the capital city, Kinshasa.
Kabila's government might have fallen if it were not for the backing of other regional powers. President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe sent troops, reportedly in return for contracts that allowed his family-owned companies to exploit hundreds of millions of dollars worth of mineral resources in eastern Congo.
Kabila also received support from Angola, Namibia, Chad and Libya. Sudan cooperated by supporting rebel groups in Uganda. Despite U.N. mediation efforts and a series of ceasefire agreements, the fighting boiled on.
Kabila was assassinated in 2001 and succeeded by his son, Joseph. The younger leader was able to hold out until his opponents began to exhaust their resources and to fight among themselves. Both Rwanda and Uganda signed peace agreements and withdrew their troops in late 2002.
Accusations of Atrocities
The end of the war brought an end to much of the foreign intervention in Congo's affairs, but internal rebel groups have continued to raid and abuse civilians in the eastern provinces. Among the most powerful groups is the Forces Democratique de la Liberation du Rwanda, or FDLR, the Hutu militia that's blamed for the 1994 Rwandan genocide. But all sides, including the Congolese Army and the United Nations peacekeeping force, have been accused of atrocities, including gang-rape, sexual slavery, mutilation and forced cannibalism.
The American Enterprise Institute's De Lorenzo says Kabila should never have cooperated with the FDLR, which has been on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations for years. He points out that Kabila could use American help in expanding his political base so that he doesn't need the Hutu militia's support.
The latest convulsion in Congo seems to have all the elements that have led to war in the past.
A former Congolese army commander, Gen. Laurent Nkunda, has assembled a sizable rebel force over the past several years, claiming to want to prevent genocide against members of his own Tutsi tribal group. Like most other armed groups in the region, Nkunda and his troops have repeatedly been accused of war crimes and atrocities, and he is under investigation by the International Criminal Court.
Early this year, the Congolese government attempted to integrate Nkunda's troops back into the national army, but he broke away again. A recent U.N. report says the rebel force presents the single most serious threat to stability in the Congo.
President Bush met last month with President Kabila at the White House, and he congratulated the Congolese leader on organizing and winning free and fair elections in 2006. For his part, Kabila said his government needs continued support from the United States to extend stability and development throughout the country.
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Darfur, Sudan (ICC)
Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Situation in Darfur, Sudan
UN: Demand Arrests of Darfur Suspects
Human Rights Watch
December 4, 2007
Security Council Should Urge Cooperation With the International Criminal Court
The United Nations Security Council should follow up on the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s report tomorrow and call on Sudan to surrender two suspects to the court, Human Rights Watch said today.
“The Security Council made a commitment to justice for the victims of Darfur when it referred the situation there to the International Criminal Court prosecutor,” said Richard Dicker, International Justice Program director at Human Rights Watch. “With two arrest warrants, the rubber has hit the road and the council must now insist on arrests. Failing to do so would betray the people of Darfur and make a mockery of the council’s own actions.”
On March 31, 2005, the Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC prosecutor and imposed an obligation on Sudan to cooperate fully with the court’s investigations under UN Resolution 1593.
On April 27, 2007, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for Ahmed Haroun and “Ali Kosheib” (the nom de guerre of Ali Mohammed Ali), charging 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their leading roles in a series of attacks against civilians in West Darfur in 2003 and 2004. The charges include acts of murder, persecution, rape, and forcible displacement.
Haroun is currently Sudanese state minister of humanitarian affairs. When the UN secretary-general was in Sudan, Khartoum appointed Haroun to co-chair a committee mandated to hear complaints of human rights abuses in Darfur. Ali Kosheib, a top “Janjaweed” leader, was in Sudanese custody on other charges at the time the warrants were issued, but has recently been released.
“Khartoum has had seven months to take steps to turn over the suspects,” said Dicker. “Instead of arresting the accused war criminals, it has promoted one and freed the other. As Sudan’s government repeatedly flouts its obligation to cooperate with the court, the Security Council’s silence will be heard clearly in Khartoum.”
In a November 29, 2007 letter to the Security Council, Human Rights Watch urged the council to take strong steps in calling on Sudan to fulfill its duties under resolution 1593 and to further demonstrate its commitment to justice by sending a mission to Sudan for the express purpose of assessing Sudan’s cooperation with the court.
More than 2 million of Darfur’s estimated population of 6 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes, and tens of thousands have been killed as a result of a government campaign of “ethnic cleansing” against populations considered supportive of Darfur rebel groups. Since early 2004, Human Rights Watch has comprehensively documented the Sudanese government’s responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
“Our research indicates that official responsibility for widespread atrocities in Darfur goes to the highest levels of the Sudanese government,” said Dicker. “These first two accused are just the tip of the iceberg. That’s why it is important to hear from the prosecutor on his ongoing investigations into the horrific crimes since 2003.”
ICC prosecutor to open two new Darfur cases - UN
Reuters
by Claudia Parsons
December 4, 2007
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 4 (Reuters) - The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court plans to open two new cases in Sudan over attacks on humanitarian workers and peacekeepers in Darfur, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
The ICC, which aims to try crimes that national governments cannot or will not, had previously issued only seven arrest warrants: four in Uganda, one in Democratic Republic of Congo and two in Sudan over events in Darfur.
Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo issued arrest warrants in February for Ahmad Haroun, a former Sudanese state minister of interior, and Ali Kushayb, a Janjaweed militia leader, for mass executions, rapes and forcible evictions.
Sudan has refused to hand them over and appointed Haroun to a committee to investigate human rights abuses in Darfur.
U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Moreno-Ocampo would open two new cases as part of a probe into atrocities in Darfur started at the request of the U.N. Security Council.
"The prosecutor did not identify new potential suspects but said the new cases will relate to attacks on humanitarian workers and peacekeepers, such as the Haskanita incident," Montas told a news conference at U.N. headquarters.
She was referring to an attack that killed 10 African Union peacekeepers in the eastern Darfur town of Haskanita in late September. A preliminary U.N. report indicated the attack was carried out by rebels using vehicles marked with the letters JEM, standing for the Justice and Equality Movement.
JEM, a powerful rebel group, has denied any involvement.
The underfunded and overstretched AU force has struggled to protect itself amid rising tribal violence and rebel attacks.
Aid workers have also increasingly come under attack.
Aid groups told visiting U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes this month of a series of incidents in the four months since a U.N. resolution was passed authorizing 26,000 U.N.-AU peacekeepers to deploy to Darfur to take over from the existing AU force.
Five aid workers have been shot and wounded, 34 temporarily abducted or physically or sexually assaulted, three truck drivers contracted to transport aid killed and humanitarian compounds raided 18 times, the groups said in a statement.
They told Holmes there were also 61 vehicle hijackings.
Moreno-Ocampo is due to brief the U.N. Security Council on his investigation in Darfur on Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch urged the Council on Tuesday to press Sudan to fulfill its obligations and hand over the two suspects already indicted by the ICC.
"The Security Council made a commitment to justice for the victims of Darfur when it referred the situation there to the International Criminal Court prosecutor," said Richard Dicker, an attorney with HRW.
"With two arrest warrants, the rubber has hit the road and the council must now insist on arrests. Failing to do so would betray the people of Darfur and make a mockery of the council's own actions," he said in a statement.
Sudan denies the court has jurisdiction over the cases. (Editing by David Wiessler)
Sudan has failed to cooperate with International Criminal Court, prosecutor says
UN News Centre
December 5, 2007
The Sudanese Government is not cooperating with the International Criminal Court (ICC), its Chief Prosecutor said today, calling on the Security Council to send “a strong and unanimous message” to Khartoum to arrest and surrender two men accused of committing war crimes during the conflict in Darfur.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo told a Council meeting that although “Sudan has known the nature of the case against Ahmad Harun and Ali Kushayb for 10 months, they have done nothing. They have taken no steps to prosecute them domestically, or to arrest and transfer them to The Hague [where the ICC is based].”
Mr. Harun, currently Sudan’s Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs, and Mr. Kushayb, a leader of a pro-Government Janjaweed militia, are accused of targeting civilians in attacks on four villages in West Darfur between August 2003 and March 2004, according to their warrants, which outline multiple counts of personal responsibility for murder, rape and pillaging for each man.
“The only realist solution today is to request the removal and arrest of [Mr.] Harun as a first step to any solution,” Mr. Moreno-Ocampo told Council members. “It will send a signal to the perpetrators of crimes in Darfur that the international community is not only watching, but will hold them accountable for their actions.”
The Prosecutor said “massive crimes continued to be committed” across Darfur, where at least 200,000 people have been killed since 2003 and up to 2.5 million others forced to leave their homes because of fighting between rebel groups, Government forces and allied Janjaweed militias.
He is planning to open two new investigations into the situation in Darfur: one into “a pattern of attacks by Sudanese officials” against civilians, and the other into the rising number of attacks, with involvement by rebels, against peacekeepers and aid workers.
“In Darfur in 2003-2004, we witnessed the first phase of the criminal plan coordinated by Ahmad Harun. Millions of people were forced out of their villages and into camps. In the second phase – happening right now in front of our eyes – the victims are attacked in the camps.”
Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said that to characterize recent attacks and crimes as “sporadic violence” or “inter-tribal clashes” only served to cover up the reality.
“We are witnessing a calculated, organized campaign by Sudanese officials to attack individuals and further destroy the social fabric of entire communities. All information points not to chaotic and isolated acts, but to a pattern of attacks.”
He added that Darfur’s displaced are routinely subjected to persecution and abuses, such as unlawful killings, illegal detentions and episodes of sexual violence, while those living inside camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) “are deliberately kept in a state of destitution. Obstacles to the delivery of aid are part of the pattern of attacks.”
Mr. Moreno-Ocampo expressed particular concern that Mr. Harun, despite being indicted by the ICC, was responsible as a Sudanese Government minister for providing relief to the victims of violence and displacement in Darfur.
“Formally, he shares responsibility for the safety and well-being of the displaced population. In reality, he joins in constant abuses against them,” he said, accusing a component of Mr. Harun’s ministry of promoting organized disturbances in the camps.
Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said Mr. Harun has also been present during specific operations against IDP camps in recent months, and added that he was last month appointed to a national group overseeing the deployment of UNAMID, the hybrid UN-African Union peacekeeping force that is being set up to try to quell the violence and suffering in Darfur.
“Maintaining Harun is his position is a direct threat to millions of victims and to the humanitarian workers and peacekeepers seeking to protect them. When will be a better time to arrest Harun? How many more women, girls, have to be raped? How many persons have to be killed? Must we really wait, again, for the destruction of entire communities?”
Turning to the increasing number of attacks against aid workers and peacekeepers, he noted that in late October 10 soldiers of the existing AU mission in Sudan were killed, eight others injured and one unaccounted for after an attack on the mission’s base at Haskanita.
“Such attacks or threats of attack on peacekeepers and aid personnel will be investigated by my Office. They can constitute a war crime under the Statute. They also further undermine efforts to protect the civilian population.
The Prosecutor added that “we note with concern that the Sudan is taking no measures to protect international forces. There are allegations that some Sudanese aircraft have been painted with UN or AU colours and are used in Darfur. Such acts – among others – undermine the UN and AU, create the impression of collusion and can encourage attacks against them.”
The ICC is an independent, permanent court that investigates and prosecutes individuals accused of the most serious crimes of international concerns, such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Prosecutors at the Court are currently probing four situations: Darfur, northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR).
UN CHIEF CALLS FOR ARRESTS OF WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS
AllAfrica.com
December 5, 2007
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on the international community to do more to help arrest leaders indicted on war crimes charges. Six Sudanese and Ugandan suspects have been evading trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for up to two years.
Addressing a meeting of the parties to the Rome Statute, the international instrument which set up the court, at UN headquarters in New York on Monday, Ban noted that there were “a number of outstanding arrest warrants” that had to be executed.
“I urge all member states to do everything within their powers to assist in enforcing these warrants” he pleaded.
The ICC issued warrants for the arrest of five leaders of Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army in July 2005, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since July 2002. One leader has since died, but the others, including the top LRA leader, Joseph Kony, are still at large. (The court is still investigating the accuracy of reports that Kony recently killed another of the suspects, his deputy, Vincent Otti.)
Earlier this year, ICC prosecutors obtained arrest warrants for Ahmad Muhammad Harun, a Sudanese government minister responsible for its “Darfur security desk,” and a Janjaweed militia leader, Ali Kushayb. The two men are charged with 51 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, committed in attacks in villages and towns in West Darfur between August 2003 and March 2004.
Speaking in New York on Monday, Ban said that five years after its establishment, the ICC “has established itself as the centrepiece of our system of international criminal justice ... It serves notice to any would-be [Slobodan] Milosevic or Charles Taylor that their actions today may lead to international prosecution tomorrow.”
However, he added: “The single most important determinant of success for any international tribunals is cooperation.”
He acknowledged the pressures – currently experienced in Uganda – for ICC indictments to be withdrawn in exchange for those charged signing peace agreements.
He said “questions about the relationship between peace and justice are unavoidable” in unstable situations where peace had not yet taken hold.
“There are no easy answers to this morally and legally charged balancing act,” he added. “However, the overarching principle is clear: there can be no sustainable peace without justice. Peace and justice, accountability and reconciliation are not mutually exclusive. To the contrary, they go hand in hand.”
Darfur War Crimes Statement Dies In Security Council, Called "Gutted" and Not Needed
Inner City Press
By Matthew Russell Lee
December 7, 2007
With a whimper in the Security Council on Friday, a proposed statement on Darfur, supporting the call by International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo for Sudan to arrest two ICC indictees, died on the vine. Thursday it was said that China had asked for changes to the draft. Friday morning, a diplomat from another Permanent Five member of the Council said that China was "gutting" the proposed statement so much that their might be no statement at all.
When Inner City Press asked Moreno-Ocampo about this, late Friday morning, he said that the statement was coming out soon, he'd been told. Sudan's Ambassador, on the other hand, told Inner City Press that the opponents of the draft included not only China, but also Qatar. South Africa, he said, would also be opposed, but as a state party to the ICC, felt a need to take a different position.
At one p.m., Council president Marcello Spatafora stepped to the stakeout microphone and spoke about Cyprus. After asking unsuccessfully if the issue of Northern Cyprus' "isolation" had been discussed in the Council, Inner City Press asked Amb. Spatafora about the status of the ICC statement. Amb. Spatafora read from notes that sounded suspiciously like a version of the draft statement. Video here. Inner City Press asked, so has the statement been adopted? No, Amb. Spatafora said, arguing that what Council members had said after Moreno-Ocampo's briefing had been "so clear" that no statement, it turned out, was necessary. But why had one been proposed?
Later, Inner City Press asked a Council diplomat if it would be fair to say that the draft had been so watered down that the initial proponents no longer wanted it. You got that right, the diplomat answered, insisting that this be not for attribution. And so it goes in the UN Security Council...
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Uganda (ICC)
Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Situation in Uganda
Deputy of Uganda's rebel LRA executed - deserter
Reuters
By Francis Kwera
November 30, 2007
KAMPALA - Deserters from Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) said on Friday the rebels' leader Joseph Kony had executed his deputy Vincent Otti due to Otti's enthusiasm for peace talks.
"Kony ordered Otti's execution on the 2nd of October," former LRA commander Sunday Otto told reporters, speaking on behalf of seven rebels flown to Kampala after handing themselves in to U.N. peacekeepers.
"Otti's killing sent a chill in LRA, and that's why we left, and there are very many others who are following."
Otti, regarded as the brains behind the group in contrast to the volatile Kony, was a prime mover behind the LRA joining peace talks that began last year in Juba, South Sudan, aimed at ending its 20-year insurgency.
Rumours of his death had been circulating for weeks in Uganda, with various rebel and mediator sources saying he had been arrested by Kony. But until Friday, no credible source had offered confirmation of the speculation that Otti was dead.
A mediator in the peace process had said Kony punished Otti on allegations of spying while Ugandan media have said there was a dispute over money and control.
Otto said problems arose because Otti was pro-peace.
"The rift between Vincent and Kony is because Otti wanted peace talks and Kony was completely against," he said.
Otto said Kony informed him about it via phone between their hideouts in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
"Then Kony later called me and my colleague Odong Richard justifying Otti's execution," he said.
The seven LRA members, who included four commanders and three child combatants, surrendered themselves this week to the U.N. peace mission MONUC in Congo.
On arrival at Entebbe airport, just south of Kampala, the seven appeared exhausted and still wore the unwashed military fatigues in which they had walked for miles without food or water from their hideout.
SUFFERED CHOLERA
LRA spokesman Godfrey Ayoo has said Otti is still alive, although he suffered cholera during a recent outbreak in his camp.
Kony and Otti were indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for war crimes committed during their armed campaign against the government.
The war uprooted 2 million people in north Uganda alone and destabilised parts of Sudan and Congo.
A truce was signed at the Juba talks in August 2006.
But the LRA's top leaders have stayed hidden in Congo, fearing arrest if they show their faces.
Otti often spoke to mediators and reporters by satellite phone from his hideouts. But he fell silent in recent weeks and his various numbers went unanswered.
Otto, who was captured by government forces in 2003 but returned to the LRA in 2005, said he had tried to persuade Kony that peace negotations were his only option. "But when he killed Otti, I quickly realised he is not interested in peace."
U.N. officials said other LRA rebels should come out soon.
"This should be the first batch of LRA combatants surrendering to MONUC, there are many more and we hope this is the beginning of a fruitful process," said Shaku Jalloh, of a U.N. demobilisation team. (Writing by Andrew Cawthorne, editing by Robert Woodward).
UN chief urges arrest of Sudanese, Ugandan rebels accused of crimes against humanity
The Associated Press
December 3, 2007
UNITED NATIONS: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged all countries on Monday "to do everything in their power" to help arrest two Sudanese accused of crimes against humanity in conflict-wracked Darfur and five Ugandan rebel commanders accused of abducting thousands of children and turning them into fighters or sex slaves.
The International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, has issued warrants for the arrest of the seven men. But the Sudanese government has said repeatedly it will never hand over any of its citizens, and the Ugandan government has promised not to turn over Lord's Resistance Army rebels if they sign a peace deal.
In an address to the court's annual two-week meeting, Ban recalled the launch of the tribunal in July 2002 and noted "with some satisfaction" that two individuals indicted by the court — rival Congolese militia leaders — have been arrested and transferred to The Hague, Netherlands for trial.
During the Congo conflict, which Ban called "one of the bloodiest conflicts in Africa," he said "thousands of civilians, including countless children, have become victims of mass atrocities and abuse."
One of the Congolese warlords, Thomas Lubanga, who is charged with war crimes for recruiting and using child soldiers, is scheduled to be the first person tried by the court, starting early next year.
But the secretary-general said "there are still a number of outstanding arrest warrants that have to be executed."
"I urge all member states to do everything within their powers to assist in enforcing these warrants," he said, stressing that "the single most important determinant of success for any international tribunals is cooperation."
"Of course, the arrest and surrender of indicted individuals can only be undertaken by states, even where peacekeeping operations have been mandated to assist with the task," Ban said.
The tribunal has issued arrest warrants for former Sudanese interior minister Ahmed Muhammed Harun, who was in charge of security in Darfur and was appointed Sudan's humanitarian affairs minister after his indictment was announced, and Ali Kushayb, known as a "colonel of colonels" among the janjaweed Arab militias who have terrorized Darfur villages.
Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, reiterated again on Monday that "our people will not be handed over to the Hague for any trial."
The conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region has claimed over 200,000 lives and uprooted 2.5 million people from their homes since violence erupted in early 2003 when rebels from the ethnic African majority took up arms against the Arab-dominated government. Critics accuse Sudan of retaliating by arming the janjaweed, and the government is blamed for widespread atrocities against civilians — which it denies.
Ban said that "in Darfur ... unspeakable crimes on a massive scale are still being committed."
The court has also issued arrest warrants for five top commanders of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group based in northern Uganda that is notorious for cutting off the hands, lips and ears of its victims. The U.N. estimates that the LRA has abducted 20,000 children who were forced to fight or become sex slaves during a 20-year anti-government insurgency.
Since July 2006, the Uganda government and the LRA have been engaged in on-off peace negotiations in an attempt to end one of Africa's longest running conflicts that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's government has promised not to hand over LRA suspects if they sign a peace deal.
The court's meeting opened Friday with tough words from its president, Judge Philippe Kirsch, and its chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, on the obligation to enforce the tribunal's arrest warrants.
Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, said Friday that without a tough message from Ban, the Sudanese government may get the idea they "can flout this court at will without facing repercussions from the leadership of the United Nations."
The International Criminal Court can prosecute cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, but it will step in only when countries are unwilling or unable to dispense justice themselves.
Sudan is not one of the 105 countries that have ratified the 1998 Rome statute, which established the court, but the U.N. Security Council referred the Darfur case to the International Criminal Court in 2005 in a resolution that required Sudan's government and all other parties in the conflict to cooperate.
Sudan's Mohamad said Monday that "we are not at all concerned by what he (Ban) said because we are not party to the Rome statute, and I don't think that the secretary-general is encouraging piracy — for countries to engage in unlawfully arrest people whom they have no jurisdiction over."
"The Security Council is a political organization and this (court) is a legal body, not part of the U.N. apparatus, and the secretary-general and the Security Council has no role at all in these things," he said.
"Ocampo is an enemy of the peace process in Sudan," Mohamad said. "He's playing politics. ... He's singing a song that would entertain some people here, but will destroy the peace in the country, and we will never allow that to happen."
"Our judiciary system is very capable of trying whoever is accused," Mohamad said.
Uganda: Govt Grants Amnesty to LRA Defectors
New Vision
By Henry Mukasa
December 5, 2007
THE LRA fighters who defected from the rebels' hideout in Garamba have been granted amnesty. Sunday Otto, Vincent Okema, George Okello and Richard Odongo-Kau arrived in Uganda on December 1, after they parted ways with LRA leader Joseph Kony who they said killed his deputy Vincent Otti.
The four, together with three young girls, whose identity was concealed, were flown in by MONUC from the DR Congo. They escaped from the rebel base in DR Congo on November 7 and moved through the dense Garamba forest before making contact with MONUC.
"We have given them amnesty," Justice Peter Onega who heads the Amnesty Commission said yesterday at Hotel Africana in Kampala.
Onega, who was attending a consultative meeting of the LRA on accountability and reconciliation, said the former rebels would receive their certificates today at the commission offices.
During the meeting, Onega called for the speeding up of the talks so that peace was permanently restored in the North.
"We cannot keep this peace process going on for years. The people who have been suffering are tired. Let us not wait when they have broken down completely and we sign. What I have said applies to the LRA and to the Government."
He cautioned the LRA against tackling their ICC the indictments in a confrontational manner. The judge said the ICC would not push to try anybody after the conflicting sides had signed an agreement.
Participants told the LRA team to pursue solutions to the original causes of the rebellion and not adopt other issues they have found along the way during the talks.
"Overtime, you have taken on causes like federalism that were not associated with the rebellion. You will become politicians instead," said Arthur Bainomugisha of ACCORD.
Max Omeda, a former rebel who signed an agreement to end the Teso insurgency, advised the LRA to trust the Government, saying it could not renegade on the deal.
"Don't create more complications and drag the talks. As a former rebel I urge you to think about the suffering people."
Mwambutsya Ndebesa of Makerere University said the AU and the UN should be guarantors of the peace agreement to be signed, while Apac MP Betty there was a general view among some MPs that the war be solved using traditional justice.
Erute North MP Gutumoi Angiro asked the parties to conclude the agreement in January and attend the commemoration of the Barlonyo massacre on February 21.
David Pulkol, a former spy chief, predicted that dragging Kony to Juba to sign the agreement would be a huge call with the indictments hovering over his head.
"The arrest warrant must be suspended. If Kony gets in a helicopter to go to Juba, how sure will he be that it will not end up in The Hague?"
LRA delegation chairman Martin Ojul pleaded that he should not be distracted from his mandate of talking peace with questions on Otti's death.
"My mandate doesn't include military and administrative matters of the LRA. Therefore, when Kony says his deputy is under house arrest, it would be unfair to ask me to confirm or deny the statement."
"He (Kony) confirmed to me that any military or disciplinary measures in their command have nothing to do with the peace process."
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International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
Official Website of the ICTY
Serge Brammertz appointed prosecutor for UN’s Balkan war crimes tribunal
UN News Centre
November 28, 2007
The Security Council today approved the appointment of Serge Brammertz, currently leading the independent probe of the 2005 killing of a former Lebanese prime minister, as the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for a four-year term starting on 1 January.
In a resolution adopted unanimously this morning, Council members noted that the ICTY completion strategy calls for the court – which is based in The Hague in the Netherlands – to do its best to complete all trials at first instance by the end of next year and all work, including appeals, by 2010.
The four-year term of Mr. Brammertz, who is Belgian, could therefore be terminated earlier by the Council if the ICTY is able to complete all of its work.
Mr. Brammertz will replace Carla Del Ponte as ICTY Prosecutor. Ms. Del Ponte and ICTY President Judge Fausto Pocar issued a joint statement today welcoming the appointment and noting Mr. Brammertz’s long experience as a lawyer in tackling organized crime, global terrorism, corruption and other issues. He becomes the Tribunal’s fifth prosecutor, following Ms. Del Ponte (Switzerland), Louise Arbour (Canada), Richard Goldstone (South Africa) and Ramon Escovar Salem (Venezuela).
Since early 2006, Mr. Brammertz has served as Commissioner of the International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) examining the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and other killings in the country. Earlier this month Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced plans to appoint Daniel Bellemare of Canada to replace Mr. Brammertz.
In April 2005 the Council set up the IIIC after an earlier UN mission found that Lebanon’s own inquiry into the Hariri assassination was seriously flawed and that Syria was primarily responsible for the political tensions that preceded the attack. Mr. Hariri died in a massive car bombing in Beirut in February 2005 that also took the lives of 22 others.
Mr. Brammertz told the Council last year that evidence obtained so far suggests that a young, male suicide bomber, probably non-Lebanese, detonated up to 1,800 kilograms of explosives inside a van to assassinate Mr. Hariri. The IIIC is also probing at least 17 other cases in Lebanon.
This year Mr. Ban began taking measures to formally establish a special tribunal of an “international character” to try the suspected killers of Mr. Hariri, and possibly those responsible for the subsequent assassinations in Lebanon as well.
Today Mr. Ban sent the latest report of the IIIC, in which it provides an overview of its most recent progress and details of measures taken to prepare for a handover to a special tribunal, to Council members.
Attorneys plan no defense for former Kosovo prime minister in UN war crimes trial
International Herald Tribune
November 30, 2007
THE HAGUE, Netherlands: Lawyers representing Kosovo's former prime minister will not call any defense witnesses in his U.N. trial on war crimes charges including murder, rape and torture, according to a written ruling issued Friday by judges in the case.
The decision by attorneys for Ramush Haradinaj and two other former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj, suggests they do not believe prosecutors managed to build a credible case against the men.
It is believed to be the first time in cases against more than 100 defendants before the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal that lawyers have declined to put up a defense, said prosecution spokeswoman Olga Kavran.
"The defense does not have an obligation to put on a case," she said.
The prosecution case, which began in March, has been plagued by witnesses who have been unwilling to testify, citing fears of reprisals or intimidation. Ultimately, most witnesses did testify, though two refused and two others testified only after being indicted for contempt of court, arrested and flown to The Hague.
Despite the setbacks, Kavran said prosecutors were confident of convictions.
"We believe we have put forward strong evidence for our case," Kavran said. "It is obviously up to the judges to make the final determination."
Haradinaj's lead attorney Ben Emmerson could not be reached for comment Friday night.
Haradinaj, Balaj and Brahimaj face a total of 37 counts of atrocities against Serbs and their suspected supporters in Kosovo in 1998 as the Kosovo Liberation Army fought Serb forces for control of the breakaway province. All have denied the charges. They face maximum life sentences if convicted on any charge.
Haradinaj was a KLA commander who turned to politics after NATO air strikes against Serbia ended the Kosovo conflict in 1999.
He served briefly as prime minister before quitting and turning himself in to the tribunal after he was indicted in 2005.
Judges ordered defense attorneys and prosecutors to file final briefs in the case by Jan. 14 and scheduled closing statements for Jan. 21-23.
Witness: Air support in Srebrenica came too late
B92
December 2, 2007
THE HAGUE -- A Dutch general testified at the Hague trial of the Srebrenica Seven last week.
Kees Nicolai, former UNPROFOR chief of staff in Bosnia, believes the air support called in by UNPROFOR came too late in Srebrenica in July 1995 because the UN leadership hesitated too long in approving the use of the NATO air force.
Testifying at the trial of Bosnian Serb military and police officers charged with crimes in Srebrenica and Žepa, Nicolai described that close air support for the Dutch Battalion deployed in Srebrenica enclave had been postponed several times in June 1995 despite frequent attacks of the Bosnian Serb forces.
After the hostage crisis in May 1995, he explained, the UN command introduced restrictive guidelines for air support. The guidelines specified that it was better for the blue helmets to withdraw if the UN checkpoints came under attack, than to call in NATO air strikes.
In June 1995, UNPROFOR responded to the attacks by making written and verbal protests to the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) General Staff. In most cases, General Nicolai was the one to protest. The Dutch general said that the VRS General Staff would usually deny that the VRS had anything to do with the attacks on the UN troops.
General Zdravko Tolimir and General Milan Gvero, with whom he communicated, kept saying this, and in his view those were lies. Tolimir was Mladic’s assistant for security and Gvero his assistant for morale and religious affairs in the VRS General Staff.
General Nicolai confirmed the authenticity of the minutes of these conversations, shown to him by the prosecution, including the conversation he had with General Gvero on July 11, 1995, on the day when NATO finally launched air strikes and when Mladic’s troops captured Srebrenica.
The minutes indicate that when Nicolai demanded that the VRS immediately stop attacking the enclave, Gvero said that he ‘couldn’t stop the attacks even if there were any’ because the VRS is not attacking either UNPROFOR or the civilians in Srebrenica.
Gvero threatened that General Nicolai and UNPROFOR would be considered responsible for any consequences if NATO air strikes did not stop.
General Nicolai took this as a threat that the VRS would shell the Dutch Battalion compound in Potocari where a large number of civilians from Srebrenica had already gathered. The air campaign stopped and the negotiations with the VRS command continued.
They resulted in the withdrawal of UNPROFOR from Srebrenica on July 21, 1995. According to the agreement signed by General Rupert Smith, the commander of UN forces in Bosnia, and Ratko Mladic in Belgrade on July 19, 1995 the Dutch soldiers were given a guarantee that they could safely withdraw from the enclave with all of their equipment and weapons.
General Nicolai supervised the withdrawal of the Dutch Battalion.
In a video clip shown in court, Mladic is personally seeing the Dutch off and saluting the UN soldiers in the convoy. As there were "many soldiers among the Dutch who, after all that had happened did not want to salute Mladic", General Nicolai decided to decrease the tension and reduce the risk of the Dutch Battalion’s evacuation being disrupted and saluted the soldiers together with Mladic.
He wanted to make it possible for the weary UN soldiers to salute him and not the hated Bosnian Serb general
B92
December 4, 2007
BELGRADE -- Hisni Berisha described how 48 members of his family had been killed in the Suva Reka massacre yesterday.
The war crimes trial began on October 2 last year before the Special Court in Belgrade, and the case itself opened the question of mass graves in Batajnica, at a special forces assault course.
The witness, Hisni Berisha, who also saw the victims of the Suva Reka massacre, recognized three of the eight accused, as they had been police officers at the location.
The witness described the events that took place in Suva Reka at the end of March and start of April, 1999.
He saw the police officers leading members of the Berisha family out from their house, and directing them towards the guild center where the crimes were carried out. He did not see the actual execution.
Berisha was driven out of Suva Reka in 1999.
“They forced us to leave our houses, and set off for Prizren in a seven-kilometer long column. The police and army fired sporadically at the column and I know one boy was wounded. We went through a blaze, everything had been set alight,“ recalled the witness.
On his return to Suva Reka in June 1999, he started looking into what had happened to his family. “I went to the house where this 100-year old woman used to live. I didn’t think she would be able to move around, and that I would find something. I found a bloody blanket, everything had been demolished, photos were lying on the floor,“ he continued.
Before this, he had visited the local pizzeria where the victims had been killed. “I saw blood everywhere in the pizzeria. Things were scattered everywhere, on the floor, children’s shoes, a dummy, a stick, I knew they had been killed there. There were lots of empty shell casings lying around, and a bloody stretcher that had been used to carry the victims away,“ Berisha recounted.
The witness came to the trial in Belgrade accompanied by two policemen and members of his family.
According to the charges, and Berisha’s testimony, the police officers led from their houses and killed 46 members of the family on March 26.
They locked the civilians, including a woman of 100, toddlers and a pregnant woman, inside the pizzeria before tossing inside two hand grenades. They then fired shots at anyone who was still showing signs of life.
The bodies were first taken to Prizren, then later exhumed and on the orders of Hague accused Vlastimir Đordevic transported and buried in a mass grave in Batajnica, at the special forces’ assault course, some 10 kilometers from the center of Belgrade.
First accused Radoslav Mitrovic, until his arrest in October 2005, was deputy commander of the Gendarmerie, while at the time of the crime he had been commander of a special forces unit in Niš. All the accused are former members of the police or security services.
Mladic helpers trial adjourned indefinitely
B92
December 6, 2007
BELGRADE -- The trial of 12 people accused of aiding and abetting the hiding of Ratko Mladic has been adjourned indefinitely.
The decision has been taken for two reasons; three of the accused are unable to attend the trial; furthermore, the Second District Court in Belgrade has declared the matter outwith its jurisdiction.
Presiding Judge Dejan Dobrosavljevic said at the hearing that the Court had already submitted a proposal to make such a declaration, following the latest amendments and supplements to the Law on Organization and Powers of State Institutions in War Crimes Proceedings, that places jurisdiction for the trials of those suspected of harbouring Hague Tribunal fugitives within the hands of the District Court.
The amendments mean that even ongoing trials can be transferred to the competent court, which has not been the case up to now.
First accused Jovo Đogo, Tatjana Vaskovic and Ratko Vucetic did not attend today’s hearing.
In the opinion of forensics expert Dušan Dunjic, Đogo will not be in any condition to attend for another eight months owing to health problems.
Đogo’s lawyer Đorde Kalanj said that his client had undergone two pancreatic operations in March at the Military-Medical Academy in Belgrade, and that he had been receiving chemotherapy since September.
Vaskovic submitted medical documentation via her lawyer that she was on maternity leave, while Vucetic informed the court that he was currently at a rehabilitation clinic in Banja Koviljac.
The prosecution had no new proposals today, while the court returned Saša Badnjar his Bosnian passport.
Judge Dobrosavljevic stated that a witness, Mileva Ivanovic, the mother of one of the accused, had passed away on November 10. In the opinion of her son’s lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic, she was “the first victim of this staged political process.“
The previous hearing took place on June 7, when the court rejected a prosecution motion to split the charges, explaining that Đogo was cited in each indictment, and that it was inexpedient to divide the process.
Thus far, all the defendants, save retired officer Marko Lugonja, who admitted hiding Mladic in his flat for five or six days in 2002, have denied the charges.
Alongside Đogo, Lugonja and Vaskovic in the dock are Stanko Ristic, Blagoje Govedarica, Ljiljana Vaskovic, Saša Badnjar, Predrag Ristic, Ratko Vucetic, Borisav Ivanovic and Bojan Vaskovic.
They are accused of harbouring Mladic for an “extended period“, even though they knew the Hague prosecution has brought 15 charges against him.
Serbia's EU Bid Hinges on Mladic Arrest, Says del Ponte
Deutche Welle
December 7, 2007
Carla del Ponte says her report will be negative unless Mladic is handed over
If Belgrade hasn't handed over fugitive General Ratko Mladic by Monday, chief UN War Crimes Prosecutor Carla del Ponte says the EU should refuse to sign Serbia's membership proposal.
Del Ponte, whose eight year mandate ends on January 1, said Mladic would only be caught if the EU made his arrest a condition for signing a partnership pact with Serbia.
Serbia's path to closer ties with the European Union has been consistently blocked by its failure to arrest four war crimes suspects including Mladic.
Del Ponte argued that if the EU signed a partnership accord before their arrest, "it will weaken the real (Serbian) intention to give us the fugitives".
"It will depend exclusively on the EU if we will have Mladic in The Hague in the next weeks and months," del Ponte told news agencies.
Mladic and former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic are still at large, wanted on genocide charges during the 1991-95 Bosnian war, including masterminding the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslims.
Negative assessment
Radovan Karadzic (r) und Ratko Mladic -- still on the loose
The prosecutor will be submitting a report on Serbia's work with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to the UN Security Council on December 10, when EU foreign ministers will also be discussing Serbia's EU accession.
If Mladic is not in custody in The Hague by Monday, "there will be a negative assessment on (Serbia's) cooperation with the tribunal," said del Ponte.
EU officials initialed a pre-membership deal with Serbia on Nov. 7, after saying it was satisfied with Belgrade's efforts. But del Ponte, says a formal signing of that agreement hinges on full cooperation.
"For me, it means Mladic," she said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. "Mladic in The Hague."
The Kosovo question
International opinion on the future make-up of Kosovo is divided
But the outgoing war crimes prosecutor also pointed out that making Mladic's arrest all the more unlikely is the issue of Kosovo independence, which is currently "distracting Belgrade," she told Reuters.
The future of the province with its ethnic Albanian majority has played a key role in her efforts to arrest Mladic.
The UN Security council is also set to discuss the status of Kosovo on Monday -- the last day of the UN mandate on the Serbian province, when Serbia's negotiations with Kosovo formally end.
"Politically, it is a very delicate situation," said del Ponte in an interview with Reuters. "In the end the Kosovo decision…prevents the arrest of Mladic."
"The Kosovo issue is unfortunately combined with our request (to the EU)," Del Ponte has said. "They have other political priorities and that makes it difficult for us to obtain the arrest and transfer of Mladic".
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The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, War Crimes Chamber
Official Website
Serb war crimes suspect arrested in Bosnia
Focus
November 29, 2007
Sarajevo. Bosnian police on Thursday arrested a Serb suspected of committing war crimes during the country's war in the early 1990s, a local court said.
Rade Veselinovic, 63, was detained in Pale, the Bosnian Serb wartime stronghold near Sarajevo, on suspicion committing war crimes against Muslim civilians, Court of Bosnia-Hercegovina prosecutors said in a statement.
The alleged crimes took place in the Sarajevo's suburb of Hadici in 1992.
Some estimates say 200,000 people were killed and 2.2 million displaced during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, but an independent study issued in June put the number of war dead at fewer than 100,000.
Karadzic Family Files Appeal
BIRN
November 29, 2007
After it reviews the appeal filed by the war crimes fugitive's family, the Appellate Chamber of the Court of BiH will decide whether it will issue a temporary ban on the free use of their property.
Justice Report has learnt that Dragisa Jokic, attorney of the family of Hague indictee Radovan Karadzic, has filed an appeal against a decision rendered by the Court of BiH ordering a temporary ban on the use of that family's property.
Jokic claims that the decision was rendered on November 23 this year. However, the attorney has not provided any details concerning the appeal, which he believes has now been forwarded to the Appellate Chamber of the Court of BiH.
The temporary ban on the use of the property refers to the house, which belongs to Karadzic's wife Ljiljana Zelen Karadzic in Krivace settlement; the apartment owned by his daughter Sonja and her husband Branislav Jovicevic, as well as business premises, which are under construction. In addition, the list of property contains the apartment owned by Karadzic's son Sasa.
All the above-mentioned objects are located on the territory of Pale, where Karadzic, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, was stationed in the nineties. For ten years, Karadzic has managed to evade an international warrant issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, which charges him with having committed genocide and war crimes during the war.
According to the current law, which was passed in 2006, the temporary measures can be introduced in order to forbid some persons from selling their property or gaining any financial benefits from its use.
"This is a very complicated case, which should be conducted according to the Criminal Code of BiH. As far as I am concerned, the family members should have been examined prior to making such a decision, but this is one of the issues covered by the appeal," said Jokic, adding that the aim of the temporary measures is to "disable [the family's] ability to help Karadzic escape".
Court representatives have not been able to confirm or deny if such a decision has been rendered. Selma Hadzic, a representative of the Public Outreach Section of the Court of BiH, told us the following: "In view of the investigation, which is currently conducted, I cannot tell you if the decision has been rendered or not".
The State Prosecutor's Office has also not given Justice Report any details concerning these measures.
In addition to the case of Karadzic's family, the Court of BiH earlier rendered a decision ordering a temporary ban on the use of property to persons who are considered to have provided help to ICTY indictee Slobodan Zupljanin in his escape. By that decision, his son's property was blocked.
The international community has repeatedly asked for the introduction of these measures against the members of Karadzic's family, and also against other ICTY fugitives who are believed to be in BiH.
ANALYSIS: Horrors of Omarska and Keraterm
BIRN Justice Report
By Aida Alic
November 19, 2007
In less than a year, the Prosecution of BiH has examined 45 witnesses and presented 201 pieces of material evidence against the four indictees charged with crimes committed in Omarska and Keraterm detention camps.
The Prosecution's evidence presentation process against the so-called "Prijedor Four", which has lasted for about a year, has now been completed.
In that period, 45 witnesses - including 28 protected witnesses - have been examined and more than 200 pieces of material evidence have been presented. This is the first case conducted before the Court of BiH in which the inductees are charged with involvement in "a joint criminal enterprise". The indictment charges the four men with having participated in the murder, rape, torture and beating of Bosniaks and Croats in Omarska and Keraterm detention camps during 1992. All four inductees have pleaded not guilty.
The first Prosecution witnesses were examined in late February 2007. Throughout the Prosecution phase, there were several instances where data on protected witnesses was revealed to the public in the courtroom. However, due to the responsible actions of the media, this sensitive information was not reported. Most of the Prosecution witnesses were former detainees from the two camps. Day after day, they told stories of the horrors they survived in Omarska and Keraterm - and said what they knew about the four indictees. International journalists revealed the existence of Prijedor's detention camps in August 1992, and the resulting television images from Omarska were broadcast around the world. These recordings were also shown in the courtroom as material evidence. The witnesses said that the sexual abuse of two prisoners was the most difficult moment of their detention in Omarska. They spoke, with the same dose of sadness, about the mass execution of 12 men, members of the Garibovic family. "In Omarska every night was difficult, but, to me, one was particularly difficult. This was when they took two young men out. After a while we heard mourning, screaming and kicking. I know they ordered them to bite off each other's genital organs. We never saw them again," said Ermin Strikovic.
Mass beating of detainees over the so-called "bloody lunch", which happened in June 1992, is something protected witness K041 will always remember. "They ordered us to walk on all fours between two lines of soldiers who were beating us. The prisoners were covered with blood. Some people's ears were hanging off; they were cut all over their bodies," described K041. Witnesses claim that 37 women were also detained in Omarska, and suffered physical, mental and sexual abuse. Protected witnesses K035 and K027 said that, in July 1992 in Omarska detention camp, Zeljko Mejakic took Sadeta Medunjanin and Edna Dautovic "down the road that led to death". "I saw when a bus, with a 'Seselj' sign written on it in Cyrillic, arrived. Zeljko Mejakic took Edna out of the room. We never saw them again," said protected witness K035. Twenty-seven witnesses confirmed that they saw Mejakic in the detention camp. They claimed to have heard that he was commander or chief of security. This is in line with the allegations contained in the indictment, which say that Mejakic was commander of the detention camp from May 24 to August 30, 1992. Two witnesses also said that they saw Mejakic participating in the beating of detainees together with other guards. On the other hand, some witnesses recalled Mejakic's positive role in the camp. Kerim Mesanovic and K036 said that Mejakic helped the detainees by bringing them food. In addition, Mesanovic said that Mejakic helped him leave BiH.
Thirteen witnesses said that Momcilo 'Ckalja' Gruban was one of the three guard commanders in the same detention camp. This is in accordance with the allegations in the indictment. They all said that Ckalja treated the detained Bosniaks and Croats "better than other guards". "During our detention in Omarska, we could hardly wait for Gruban's shift because we felt safe then. We were allowed to drink water and we were not beaten," said witness Enes Kapetanovic, who told the court that Gruban had saved his life. Most former detainees in Omarska detention camp confirmed that they used to see the bodies of killed Bosniaks and Croats in front of the "Bijela kuca" on a daily basis. A yellow truck "drove the bodies in an unknown direction". "From July 20 they started taking away policemen, engineers, medical doctors and other prominent people in Prijedor. Later on, some of them were found in mass graves," said witness Nusret Sivac. Witnesses also spoke about Dusko Knezevic, known as Duca, who often visited Omarska and Keraterm and participated in the beating and murder of detainees.
The indictment alleges that Knezevic murdered and beat up a number of prisoners, without being interrupted by anybody. "Although he was not a guard, Duca visited the detention camp very often, together with his group. He would usually first go to the 'Bijela kuca', where he used to beat the detainees. He would come out of there all sweaty. Later on, he would come back and shoot the survivors," said witness K042. Protected witness K033 recalled the day when Knezevic beat the detainees in Keraterm detention camp with "bars, legs, hands, but most often with wooden sticks". The witness blamed him for the death of many people.
Nine witnesses testified about inductee Dusan Fustar. They all said they saw him in the detention camp and that he was commander of the guard shift, which some of them called "the darkest one". The indictment alleges that Fustar had "actual control over the guards' behaviour". "On the eve of Fustar's shifts we used to say: "How shall we survive this night?'," said protected witness K010. One witness described how Fustar cruelly beat him up in Keraterm detention camp in June 1992. He said he beat him with "a cable to which nails were attached" and that the injury the witness suffered "got infected with maggots later on". Some witnesses also recalled that, at the end of July 1992, between 90 and 190 detainees were shot in Keraterm detention camp. "We could hear shooting from automatic guns, machine guns, and then we heard screams. All that was coming from the direction of hall number 3. The morning after, we saw bodies being loaded onto a truck covered with a yellow awning. Blood was dripping from the truck," witness K08 recalled.
The indictment alleges that more than 7,000 Bosniaks and Croats were systematically detained in camps established on the territory of Prijedor in 1992. As per a request filed by the Prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, in July 2005 the tribunal's referral bench rendered a decision to refer the case of the Prijedor Four to Sarajevo for further processing. The ICTY prosecution filed the request considering that the crimes charged upon the inductees are "sufficiently severe to be tried by the tribunal", but they cannot be characterized as "so severe that they must be tried before the ICTY". In May 2006, the four inductees were transferred from the detention unit in Scheveningen to the detention unit in Sarajevo. Soon after that, the indictment was amended in accordance with the local legislation. The trial began in December last year. So far, the ICTY has sentenced the following persons for having committed crimes in Omarska and Keraterm detention camps: Zoran Zigic (25 years' imprisonment), Mladjo Radic (20 years), Dusko Sikirica (15 years), Predrag Banovic (eight years), Miroslav Kvocka (seven years), Damir Dosen, Milojica Kos and Dragoljub Prcac (five years) and Dragan Kolundzija (three years).
Lawyer Arrested for War Crimes in Kljuc
BIRN
December 7, 2007
A war crimes suspect considered to have committed crimes against non-Serbs in Kljuc municipality was a defence lawyer before the Court of BiH.
The State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) has arrested Vinko Kondic, 54, who is considered to have committed crimes against humanity in Kljuc municipality.
Kondic was arrested on the basis of a warrant issued by the Prosecution of BiH, who will examine him and then decide if a custody order motion is necessary.
The suspect served as additional defence council of Momcilo Gruban, one of four Bosnian Serbs currently on trial before the Court of BiH for war crimes committed in Omarska and Keraterm camps near Prijedor. He is on the list of attorneys able to defend war crimes suspects as Court appointed lawyers.
Justice Report has learned that Kondic was commander of the Public Safety Centre in Kljuc at the beginning of the war in 1992, and was also a member of the Crisis Committee in that city.
Following the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, he was appointed as Minister of Labour, Social Protection and Displaced Persons with the government of Republika Srpska, whose prime minister, at the time, was another war crimes suspect Gojko Klickovic, who is currently being held in the detention unit of the Court of BiH.
Balkan War Crimes Court Plan Gains Little Support
IWPR
December 7, 2007
Opponents say proposal looks good on paper, but in reality there are too many practical obstacles.
Bosnian officials, angry at war crimes suspects evading justice by crossing national borders, have suggested establishing a single court for ex-Yugoslavia when the Hague tribunal closes in two years time.
The proposal has met scant support from other countries in the region, but reflects some original thinking in the Balkans about how to proceed once the court shuts.
The Hague tribunal must hear its last case by the end of next year, and its last appeal by 2010, with several top war crimes suspects still at large.
Marinko Jurcevic, the chief state prosecutor for Bosnia and Hercegovina, is particularly frustrated by dual nationality. A suspect who holds, say, a Croatian or a Serbian passport can leave Bosnia knowing he will not be extradited back again. This is why Jurcevic has proposed a regional court.
“That would be a way to solve all of the issues people are talking about,” he said following a discussion among the region’s chief prosecutors about the challenges of war crimes cases.
“It would also be a method to show the world that only through regional integration will we be able to deal with the crimes, the war crimes that were committed.”
The nature of the war in the former Yugoslavia, when ethnic Serbs and ethnic Croats fought in Bosnia or Croatia means justice is unusually plagued by issues of jurisdiction. This was not a problem for the tribunal, which can demand suspects from anywhere, but is frustrating for local courts.
The president of the Court of Bosnia and Hercegovina, Medzida Kreso, told the Sarajevo-base daily Avaz that a regional court could try fugitives who manage to evade capture after 2010. The most high-profile of all the suspects, Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, remain at large.
She said the Balkan court could be based in Zagreb, Sarajevo or Belgrade and work in accordance with standards currently applied at The Hague.
"Judges could be from Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia, and why not even from Macedonia,” she was quoted as saying.
But for international experts and for officials in Serbia or Croatia, the proposal is just wishful thinking which goes against the tide of the last few years, when substantial resources have been poured into strengthening local courts.
“It’s a nice idea on paper, but in reality there are far too many practical obstacles,” said James Rodehaver, chief of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s department of human rights and the rule of law in Sarajevo.
He estimated it would take a minimum of two to three years before a regional court could recruit and train the staff it needed to even begin functioning efficiently, and that’s not including time for the political negotiations that would be needed to establish it.
“I don’t think the region has two to three or even three to four years to make those sorts of strides,” he said. “After so many resources and so much time and political capital have been invested in improving the court systems of the region, it’s now better to hold those systems accountable.”
And how would the court even function?
“This idea’s isn’t good, because international law is one big principle and must be applied equally to everyone. My opinion is that the International Criminal Court must be recognised as the unique international court for all countries,” said Belgrade lawyer and international legal expert Ivan Bajazit.
“Even if it were set up, such a regional court would have to be under United Nations jurisdiction. Regional courts don’t have the power or authority to bring justice as an international court does.”
However, even if the regional court idea is a non-starter, most legal experts are convinced that Balkan-wide cooperation is necessary to ensure war crimes suspects do not manage to evade justice.
The UN Development Programme has organised meetings of regional judges and prosecutors to discuss issues common to them all, and it said there was a broad consensus that they could not just retreat to national boundaries after 2010.
Its suggestion for a “regional expert commission to examine the harmonisation of penal policies in order to facilitate the transfer of cases from one national court to another” lacks the drama of a regional court, but is certainly more realistic. And such low-level cooperation is the future, said Ljubica Gojdic, the Hague correspondent from Serbia’s B92 television.
“I think that the biggest success of the Hague tribunal was establishing local courts for war crimes. Witnesses from Bosnia and Croatia came to Serbia, and those from Serbia have gone to Bosnia and Croatia. Those courts and prosecutors exchange evidence, and their mutual co-operation is evident,” she said.
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International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
Official Website of the ICTR
Four Trials, One Guilty Verdict
Hirondelle News
December 7, 2007
The former prefect of rural Kigali, François Karera, 69, was sentenced to life in prison Friday by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which did not find any extenuating circumstances.
He was convicted for genocide and crimes against humanity (extermination and assassination). The tribunal concluded that his responsibility was established in the massacres of Tutsis in three sites: the Ntarama church, Rushashi and Nyamirambo. Karera had presented a defence alibi which was not accepted by the chamber. The defendant had indicated that he had taken refuge in Ruhengeri (northern Rwanda) when the alleged crimes were committed. The judges estimated that the alibi witnesses were members of his family or neighbours of one of his sons.
The chamber regarded as an aggravating circumstance "his empty promise" of protection made to Tutsis in Ntarama the day before their killings. Karera was arrested in Kenya on 20 October 2001. His trial began on 9 January 2006. The prosecutor called 18 witnesses and the defence 25. The judges had been deliberating since 24 November 2006. They explained that the drafting of the judgment was long, the chamber being seized with three other cases.
Besides the Karera judgment, the tribunal held hearings in four cases this week. They were Karemera, Zigiranyirazo, Military II and Butare.
In Karemera, which involves three leaders of the former presidential party, the prosecutor was invited to rest his case. The trial started in September 2005. The next hearing should be held on 3 March, the defendants will present their cases in the order of the indictment: Edouard Karemera, Mathieu Ngirumpatse and Joseph Nzirorera. The three men who directed the National Republican Movement for Development (former single party: MRND) are accused of genocide and crimes against humanity. They have pleaded not guilty. Matthieu Ngirumpatse was president of the MRND in 1994, Edouard Karemera was second vice-president of the party and Joseph Nzororera was secretary-general.
In the case of Protais Zigiranyirazo, a brother-in-law of former President Juvénal Habyarimana, the defence introduced its last witness this week. The proceedings began on 3 October 2005. The following phase is the closing arguments. The parties will present their arguments in the end of May 2008. The prosecution theory is that the genocide was planned by the akazu, a circle of close relations of the former president; which included Mr. Z. The defence argued that the concept akazu is an invention by opponents that aim at discrediting the Habyarimana regime.
In Military II, which involves four officers, it is one of them, General Augustin Bizimungu, who started testifying on his own behalf this week. Bizimungu was Chief of Staff of the Rwandan army during the genocide. He is accused of playing an active role in the massacres. During his testimony, Bizimungu stated that he had spent all his time organizing the defence of the country which was being attacked by the rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). He also denied any connection with the Interahamwe, spearhead of the genocide.
In the Butare case, which involves six defendants, it is the fifth, former mayor Joseph Kanyabashi, who continued his defence this week. The proceedings, slowed down by the repetitive objections of other defence counsels, their interests being divergent, generally proceeded in closed sessions.
Next week should function at an idle pace in prelude to the end of year holidays which will last a month. The attempt of the assistant registrar not to respect a Tanzanian national holiday failed, the tribunal will be closed Monday. Then, two trials are scheduled (Butare and Military II).
In New York, the president of the tribunal will try, for his part, to persuade the United Nations General Assembly of the interest to prolong the proceedings beyond its limit scheduled for 31 December 2008.
Former Governor Jailed for Life On Genocide
Rwanda News Agency
December 7, 2007
The UN Tribuna
