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
throughout the world. To subscribe, please email warcrimeswatch@pilpg.org and type "subscribe" in the subject line.
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)
March in Cambodia urges Fast Trial
Associated Press via CNN.com
December 25, 2007
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- Some 600 hundred protesters, including Buddhist nuns and Cambodian Muslims, marched in the capital Tuesday to urge a speedier trial for former leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge.
A long-delayed, United Nations-backed tribunal is seeking accountability for atrocities during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule, under which an estimated 1.7 million people died from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.
The marchers, with students and Buddhist monks also among them, walked around five kilometers (three miles) to the tribunal's office on Phnom Penh's outskirts.
The genocide trials are scheduled to begin next year. Five high-ranking former leaders are in detention after being charged with crimes against humanity and other charges.
Cambodian Tribunal Needs More Money
Associated Press
by
Ker Munthit
December 26, 2007
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — With five former leaders of the Khmer Rouge finally in custody awaiting trial — three decades after their murderous regime tumbled from power — Cambodia's U.N.-backed genocide tribunal can credibly say it is on the road to justice.
But its future hinges on the generosity of foreign aid donors who, responding to reports of alleged corruption and mismanagement by tribunal officials, are demanding greater accountability before agreeing to give more money.
The process took a big step forward last month when Kaing Guek Eav, the head of a notorious torture center, became the first major Khmer Rouge figure to appear as a defendant in a public courtroom, appealing unsuccessfully for release on bail.
He and four other suspects — Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith and Khieu Samphan — are being held in the tribunal's custom-built jail, awaiting trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
But the tribunal says more work is needed to get to full-fledged trials to establish responsibility for the deaths of some 1.7 million Cambodians under the communist Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s.
The tribunal is appealing for an unspecified additional sum on top of its budgeted $56.3 million, saying a heavy workload means that its operation, originally supposed to end in 2009, has to be extended through 2010.
Peter Foster, a U.N.-appointed spokesman for the tribunal, said the present funds may run out in about six months due to unanticipated costs.
"We're not talking about buying fleets of Mercedes and helicopters; we're talking about essential elements of an international court," he said.
For instance, said Helen Jarvis, the tribunal's Australian public affairs chief, the court needs to increase the number of translators to 40 from the current 14, and to create victim support and court transcription services.
Donors raised concerns after two U.N. reports this year painted a troubling picture of the tribunal's administration.
One of them, sidestepping allegations of corruption, accused the Cambodian side of serious mismanagement.
The other found problems in sharing responsibilities between Cambodian and foreign personnel, operating under Cambodian law.
To win more funding, the tribunal must show it can function "efficiently and devoid of corruption," David Scheffer, a former U.S. war crimes ambassador and a professor at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, said in an e-mail.
"The worst-case scenario is that the international staff and administration would have to pull out and the trials would proceed in a strictly Cambodian-staffed court," he said.
Joseph Mussomeli, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, said the United States, which did not contribute to the original budget, is considering whether to pitch in. Washington harbors widely shared doubts about the competence and impartiality of Cambodia's courts.
"It would simply be irresponsible to suggest using American taxpayer money until we're sure that the administrative process is also fixed," he said.
The corruption issue arose this year when a New York-based legal group, Open Society Justice Initiative, alleged that Cambodians had to pay kickbacks to government officials for tribunal jobs.
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Darfur, Sudan (ICC)
Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Situation in Darfur, Sudan
Darfur war crimes suspect attempted travel on a forged passport
Sudan Tribune
By Wasil Ali
January 2, 2008
(KHARTOUM) — A Sudanese government minister wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) made a failed attempt last month to travel abroad for the first time since his indictment.
A well placed source in Khartoum told Sudan Tribune that minister of state for humanitarian affairs, Ahmed Mohamed Haroun, wanted to fly to Saudi Arabia in December to perform the annual Islamic pilgrimage.
The judges of the ICC issued their first arrest warrants for suspects accused of war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region in early May.
The warrants were issued for Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs, and militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdelrahman, also know as Ali Kushayb. Sudan has so far rejected handing over the two suspects.
The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) circulated a notice for the arrest of Haroun last June.
The ICC has an agreement with the INTERPOL enabling it to use its telecommunications network and databases.
The source said that Haroun wanted to use a fake passport with a different name for his planned trip in order to apply for a visa to enter Saudi Arabia. However he could not confirm if Haroun actually submitted a visa application to the Saudi consulate in Khartoum.
Haroun ended up cancelling his travel plans after the Sudanese government found out, the source added.
No official at the Saudi consulate in Khartoum was available for comment because of New Years holiday in Sudan.
Saudi Arabia is not a signatory of the Rome Statue that forms the basis of the ICC. However UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution 1593 referring the Darfur situation to the ICC urged all non-State parties to “cooperate fully”.
Last September Haroun told daily Al-Rayaam newspaper that he is not concerned about the International Police (INTERPOL) red notices distributed worldwide asking for his arrest and he will travel if needed.
However it is unlikely that the Sudanese government will allow Haroun to travel abroad given the pending arrest warrants against him.
Haroun was in Jordan, the only Arab country who is party to the ICC, for medical treatment when the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced charges against him late February. The Sudanese minister returned immediately to Khartoum that day.
No extra security measures have been placed on Haroun since the ICC arrest warrants. Last June Haroun’s cell phone was stolen during a wedding he was attending in Khartoum.
Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statue, but the UN Security Council triggered the provisions under the Statue that enables it to refer situations in non-State parties to the world court if it deems that it is a threat to international peace and security.
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Uganda (ICC)
Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Situation in Uganda
LRA rejects deadline, draws up its own
The East African
By Barbara Among
December 31, 2007
As clouds of uncertainty gather over peace talks between the Uganda government and the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels — the rebels have tabled a counter proposal that extends the January 31 ultimatum for completion announced by President Yoweri Museveni to mid-March 2008.
The situation inside the LRA has become more fluid with last week’s alleged raid by the rebels on a Catholic mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which analysts says points to either a further meltdown in the group or an attempt to project force. Uganda’s two-track approach to the LRA is also being blamed for fomenting uncertainty over the process as hostile statements have been issued intermittently.
Describing the deadline as an act of provocation, LRA spokesperson Godfrey Ayo told The EastAfrican the group would not respect the ultimatum but will instead stick to the agreed date of March 15 or April. He said the team agreed on this date with donors sponsoring the Juba talks and also suggested the same to President Museveni during their meeting on December 18, 2007 at State House Nakasero, Kampala.
“In these parallel pronouncements, we only recognise the Juba peace process; so we do not consider the ultimatum as one of the legal agreements,” said Ayo.
During a meeting with an LRA delegation in Kampala a fortnight ago, Museveni announced that the final peace agreement must be arrived at by January 31, failing which the rebels would be flushed out of their hideouts in northeastern DRC.
The threat followed a similar declaration by Ugandan and Congolese military officials following a meeting in Kampala early December.
LRA leader Joseph Kony accused President Museveni of jeopardising the Juba peace talks, set to resume in January.
According to the LRA proposal, the earliest the talks can resume is in the last week of January 2008, leaving no time for arrival at a comprehensive peace agreement by January 31.
Ayo told The EastAfrican that the team would return to Juba on January 5 and subsequently travel to the Garamba hideout to brief Kony on the just concluded consultations.
The LRA timetable shows that rebel leader Kony will then meet a delegation from different parts of the country at Garamba between January 10 and January 20 for consultation on the third agenda of accountability and reconciliation before his team can produce a final report on its consultations.
The protracted peace talks between the government of Uganda and the LRA rebel group have been going on for 16 months now.
However, the chances of reaching an agreement became uncertain by early October after reports alleged that Kony had killed his deputy, Vincent Otti.
At the Northern Uganda peace conference held in Gulu last week, President Museveni said that Kony was not ready for peace, otherwise he would not have executed Otti.
Further doubts were cast on the future of the talks after reports that the LRA had attacked and looted food and drugs from the Comboni Mission in Duru town in the DRC last week.
Analysts said the incident reflected an increasingly desperate situation within the LRA camp — pointing to declining stocks of basics such as food but was also probably a show of force in response to the mixed signals from Kampala and Kinshasa.
“These must have caused a degree of restlessness within the LRA. Besides, we do not know the cohesiveness within the LRA at the moment with the killing of Otti,” said Rev. Grace Kaiso, executive secretary of the Uganda Joint Christian Council.
While initially dismissing the reports as government propaganda, LRA spokesman Godfrey Ayo conceded that the group was running low on food and had instituted a rationing regime. He said the team last received food deliveries from Caritas in November.
“The fact that they didn’t do the delivery does not mean we have to loot. We are rationing what we have now,” said Ayo.
However, the Kampala government has on several occasions alleged that the LRA were selling or exchanging the Caritas food supplies for firearms. Recent defections from the group would have also reduced the number of mouths to feed.
Minister of State for International Affairs Okello Oryem, who doubles as the deputy leader of government delegation to the Juba talks, said the attack was unacceptable as they were receiving food stocks out of proportion to their numbers on the ground.
Uganda Minister for Defence Dr Crispus Kiyonga said a meeting in Addis Ababa gave the LRA an opportunity to assemble at the neutral point of Ri-Kwangba as agreed upon in the cessation of hostility truce.
“If they don’t, the Congolese army will act against them,” said Dr Kiyonga.
Article 1(b) of the September Ngurdoto agreement stipulates that the government of the DRC shall formulate an action plan to neutralise the negative force, particularly the LRA and Allied Democratic Force, which shall become effective January 2008.
Dr Kiyonga told The EastAfrican that the action plan is ready and has been given to the government of Uganda.
The LRA, however, maintain that they will only respect agreements made in Juba as legally binding. Ayo said that addendum 4 to the cessation of hostilities agreement allows the LRA fighters to stay within a radius of 40km into DRC from the assembly point of Ri-Kwangba.
“Cessation of hostilities is still valid but the LRA has not respected it wholly. We are hoping they assemble in good spirit; we want peace to obtain and would love the Juba peace process to continue till we achieve peace. But the time will come when we say enough is enough,” said Dr Kiyonga.
Government sources however told The EastAfrican that the resolution to pass an ultimatum for the peace talks was backed by the meeting of the Great Lakes countries in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on December 5, 2007.
Officials who attended the meeting told The EastAfrican that the ultimatum had however been agreed on earlier in the Tanzanian town of Arusha on September 8, 2007 when Presidents Museveni and Joseph Kabila of DRC met at Ngurdoto.
The government defends the ultimatum, saying it is committed to the peace process and the LRA will only be attacked if they do not assemble at the neutral point agreed on in the Cessation of Hostilities agreement. The two parties renewed a truce for the third time in June, 2007.
“This ultimatum is no different from the ICC warrant of arrest; it is just to put pressure on the LRA to move on. Some pressure has to be put so that these issues are dealt with and put to an end,” said Okello Oryem.
The LRA team has since November been consulting different Ugandan communities on how to deal with atrocities committed during the two-decade war that pitted the LRA against the Ugandan government.
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International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
Official Website of the ICTY
War crimes fugitive Mladic in Serbia, Karadzic 'in the region'
International Herald Tribune Europe
December 25, 2007
BELGRADE, Serbia: Serbia's war crimes prosecutor said wartime Bosnian Serb army commander Gen. Ratko Mladic is believed to be in Serbia, while his political leader Radovan Karadzic is in the Balkan region, the Beta news agency reported Tuesday.
Vladimir Vukcevic said the two most wanted war crimes fugitives would be arrested and handed to the U.N. war crimes tribunal when "more closely" located, according to the report.
It was not clear from the report if authorities had indeed discovered a general location of the two, who have been indicted by the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for the slaughter of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 by the Bosnian Serb troops.
However, Serbia's Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac said that he has no new knowledge about Mladic being in Serbia.
"I have no such knowledge and I don't know on which basis Vukcevic said it," Sutanovac told reporters.
Mladic, who was last seen in Belgrade 2006, is believed by U.N. war crimes prosecutors to be hiding under the protection of his hardline allies in the Serb military. Karadzic, who disappeared from public view in 1998, is possibly being sheltered by the nationalist clergy within the Serbian Orthodox Church, they said.
SERBIA'S DIFFICULT CHOICES - Belgrade Boxed in Over War Criminals, Kosovo and EU Membership
Spiegel Online International
December 27, 2007
Serbia is at a crossroads. Whether or not it has a future within the EU rests on how it deals with Kosovo -- and with its past. This week Belgrade seemed to break the silence on the whereabouts of war criminals Karadzic and Mladic, but said it would shun the West if Kosovo's independence is recognized.
Serbia must be feeling like it's in a no-win situation these days: Kosovo is threatening to declare independence, while Serbia's membership of the European Union may depend on its willingness to hand over war criminals to the UN tribunal in The Hague. What's more -- there appears to be a crack in the Serbian wall of silence about the whereabouts of Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, both wanted in The Hague for war crimes committed during the war in Bosnia.
Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladmir Vukcevic said Tuesday that Mladic was in hiding within Serbia and that Karadzic was "in the region," according to the Serbian Beta news agency.
The prosecutor's comments come as a surprise as they contradict repeated claims by the Serbian government that they have no knowledge of the men's whereabouts and confirm comments made by prosecutors at the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.
"I have no such knowledge and I don't know on which basis Vukcevic said it," Serbia's Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac told reporters in response, according to the Associated Press.
Mladic and Karadzic were the military and political leaders, respectively, of the Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-1995 war that split the former Yugoslavia apart. Both have been indicted by the UN tribunal for genocide and, in particular, for their alleged involvement in the slaughter of an estimated 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the eastern Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in 1995.
Mladic was last seen in Belgrade in 2006 and is believed to live under the protection of hard-line elements in the Serb military. Karadzic has not been seen since 1998. UN war crimes prosecutors believe that he might be sheltered by the nationalist clergy within the Serbian Orthodox Church.
The departing chief prosecutor of the UN war crimes court, Carla Del Ponte, has repeatedly insisted that Serbia knows Mladic's whereabouts. In a recent news conference, Del Ponte urged that the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, which she led for eight years, not be shut down and that the EU not allow Serbia full membership of the bloc until the two were handed over to the court and prosecuted.
"The fact that Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic are still at large is a stain on our work, a stain on all these great achievements," Del Ponte said.
Earlier in December, Del Ponte told the Belgrade daily Blic that the Serbian government had unsuccessfully negotiated with Mladic to surrender himself in early 2006 and that he was not arrested, even though the officials knew exactly where he was located.
Such comments were strengthened in mid-December by Raffi Gregorian, a US diplomat and deputy international administrator in Bosnia. "Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica can solve the issue of (Mladic's and Karadzic's) arrests with just one phone call," Gregorian told Bosnia's BHT1 television, adding that he was "sure" that the two were hiding in Serbia.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Serbia's national assembly passed a resolution by a vote of 220 to 14 stating that it would not sign any international treaties -- such as one making it part of the EU -- if Kosovo declares independence and the international community recognizes the secession.
Serbia might not get a chance, however, to turn down an offer for admission to the EU. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen, for example, pledged last week to not sign any agreement advancing Serbia's membership until Mladic is handed over.
"If we would water down at this stage these conditions, the European Union would lose its credibility," Verhagen said. "Ratko Mladic will have to be arrested and handed over to the tribunal."
PREPARING FOR THE INEVITABLE - Serbs in Kosovo Uneasy as Independence Looms
Spiegel Online International
By Renate Flottau
December 27, 2007
What happens when Kosovo becomes independent? While Belgrade threatens war as an option, Serbs in the province are preparing for the inevitable -- or getting ready to move away.
Few pedestrians ever walk across the bridge dividing Mitrovica into its Albanian southern half and Serbian north. Giant rolls of barbed wire are lined up along the railing, to be used as barriers should violence erupt in the city once again. Dozens of tall buildings lining both sides of the river form opposing fronts of concrete, providing cover for snipers to hide behind windows, ready to transform this old industrial city into a death zone at a moment's notice.
Geographically speaking, the Serbian section of Mitrovica marks the beginning of northern Kosovo, but in reality this is already Serbia. Serbian plainclothes police officers suspiciously size up every pedestrian who crosses the bridge spanning the Ibar River and enters their territory. Posters depicting radical Serbian leader Vojislav Seselj -- currently on trial for war crimes before the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague -- hang from most buildings and shops, with the words "The Conqueror" printed below. Blue signs marked "Boulevard Ratko Mladic" hang on house doors, indicating who the true heroes are in this part of Kosovo. Mladic, a Serbian general in the Bosnian war, is said to have ordered his soldiers to "shoot only at human flesh."
Mitrovica's Serbs also have a number of new heroes. One of them is Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose photograph is displayed on kiosks and in bars. A wide banner, framed by the Serbian and Russian flags, is stretched across the sidewalk in downtown Mitrovica and reads "Help us, Russia." Across the street, a new memorial has been built to Russian Consul Grigory Stepanovic-Scerbini. Serbs have considered him a martyr ever since he was killed in Mitrovica by the Turks in March 1903, when this part of Serbia was still under Ottoman rule. At the time, Serbs hoped that his death would prompt Russia to declare war on Turkey. But the Russian czar had no such plans and, according to historical accounts, was content with financial compensation from the sultan.
Today's Serbs have also pinned their hopes on the Russians coming to their aid if Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority opts for independence instead of continuing as a Serbian province.
About a dozen soldiers from the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR), which has provided security in the small province since the 1999 war, are sitting in Pizzeria Nr. 1 in downtown Mitrovica. The men are supposed to be outside on patrol, but the cold and rainy weather has brought them indoors, where they insist they can be reached by radio.
Marko Jaksic is also a regular at the pizzeria. An orthopedist and the director of a local hospital, he was part of the Serbian delegation to the recent negotiations over Kosovo's future led by a trio of international diplomats. War is inevitable, Jaksic says coolly, and it will lead to Serbia reestablishing sovereignty over the province. He is convinced that not even the battalions of the German military, the Bundeswehr, stationed along Kosovo's northern border with Serbia since November will be able to prevent this from happening. The contingent of more than 500 Germans, together with 200 US soldiers, was deployed to the region to prevent the north from seceding and becoming part of Serbia as soon as the government in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, declares independence.
Jaksic finds the international community's maneuvers extremely amusing. Serbia, he says, has long been negotiating with Moscow over weapons shipments and the deployment of Russian military advisors who, as he says, could easily be slipped past the Germans and Americans and brought into Kosovo.
Since the trio of diplomats from the European Union, the United States and Russia declared their mission a failure on Dec. 10, the only remaining issue is Kosovo's timing in declaring independence. Hashim Thaçi, the likely future prime minister, has promised to coordinate his efforts with Washington and Brussels. With the United States serving as Kosovo's protector, Albania and Macedonia will likely set an example by quickly recognizing the new country, with most European Union nations expected to follow suit.
But what happens after that?
Serbia has issued a number of threats, including blocking transit routes for ethnic Albanians and cutting off power supplies to Kosovo. "We will not yield one centimeter of Serbian territory, and we will ignore any declaration of independence by the Kosovo leadership," says Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. Serbia could also attempt to incite its fellow Serbs in Bosnia to secede with their Republika Srpska "as compensation for the loss of Kosovo." And in northern Mitrovica, an office intended to serve as the seat of a Serbian parallel government has already been opened, despite protests from the United Nations administration.
Serbian President Boris Tadic has inspired somewhat more confidence in the West than Kostunica. He has assured the international community that his country will only defend Kosovo by peaceful means, but he has also made it known that he will appeal to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to determine whether it is even legal, under international law, for the southern province to declare independence unilaterally. As president, Tadic is also the commander-in-chief of the military, although this could change after the Serbian presidential elections set for Jan. 20. Tadic faces stiff competition from Tomislav Nikolic, the candidate for the Serbian Radical Party.
For most Serbs, Kosovo is the cradle of their nation. The Serbs fought the historic Battle of Kosovo against the Ottoman Turks in 1389, and the region is home to many of their Orthodox monasteries. Serbian newspapers and television stations have recently intensified their criticism of the West, rehashing former President Slobodan Milosevic old war propaganda by referring to the Kosovo conflict as a malevolent game for the major powers. Even the respected daily newspaper Blic has incited Serbs in northern Kosovo to violence by claiming that there is "information that the international community would not intervene in a limited revolt" and would not oppose a partition of Kosovo.
The media hysterics have been met with enthusiasm in the northern part of the province. But elsewhere in Kosovo, with its more than 80,000 Serbs living in enclaves, the reaction has been decidedly different.
Roads with potholes so deep that even Jeeps can only travel at a snail's pace lead to Caglavica, less than a 10-minute drive from Pristina. The few stray chickens roaming in front of houses suggest that people still live here. But despite the fact that, according to official statistics, the village still counts close to 1,000 residents, there is no one in sight. Budimir Nicic, the community's 30-year-old mayor, points to a fenced-in meadow in front of his house, which he says was sold for 2 million. According to Nicic, the Albanians are paying astronomical prices -- up to 30,000 per hectare (2.47 acres) -- for worthless pasture and farmland. The sales have turned pig farmers into overnight millionaires, who have used the proceeds to buy themselves villas in Serbian cities.
Nicic is more incensed with Belgrade than with the Kosovo-Albanians, who he is convinced are deliberately buying up property in Serbian enclaves. "We feel manipulated and abandoned," says the mayor. According to Nicic, not a single politician from the Serbian capital has visited Caglavica in eight years, despite the fact that Albanian extremists have carried out eight bombing attacks, claiming two lives, since the war. Belgrade, he says, pays the wages of community residents, but only those who comply unquestioningly with its political directives.
Gracanica, a nearby Serbian enclave, is much livelier. In addition to serving the shopping needs of smaller Serbian villages in the surrounding area, Gracanica has also emerged as a center for business-minded attorneys and so-called brokering agencies. Many inhabitants have already secured houses and apartments in southern Serbia, says Zoran Stankovic, the editor-in-chief of Radio Gracanica. According to Stankovic, Gracanica's former residents have sold portions of their properties, and many return to the town only on weekends.
Radio Gracanica, a Serbian radio station that broadcasts throughout Kosovo, employs a staff of 30, most of them earning less than 100 a month. The station derives its funding almost exclusively from the sale of on-air messages Serbs send to each other. Because of the volatile situation in the province, says Stankovic, he has cancelled his employees' vacations for December and January. The editorial staff is considering how best to notify its listeners if violence erupts in Kosovo. According to opinion polls, this would prompt more than 70 percent of Serbs living in the south to leave Kosovo. The government in Belgrade is said to have already developed evacuation plans.
But not everyone plans to leave. A nun who looks to be about 70 and lives in the orthodox monastery in Gracanica, with its famous five-domed church in the Byzantine style 10 kilometers (6 miles) southeast of Pristina, says she would rather die than be driven from sacred Serbian territory. KFOR soldiers guard the tall stone walls of the monastery, built in 1310, to protect it against attacks by ethnic Albanians. The church, its walls adorned with frescoes, is empty and bitterly cold. Only a few dinar bills beneath icons and candelabras are testimony to the occasional visitor.
The monastery is home to Bishop Artemije, who was critical of the Milosevic regime and condemned the atrocities Serbs committed against the Albanians. But this hasn't prevented him from being vehemently opposed to independence for Kosovo. In fact, Artemije even wants to see Belgrade issue "military threats" should the West turn the province into an independent nation.
The bishop is the only true Serb left in the area, says the nun. She is adamant when she says that blood -- a lot of it -- will have to flow so that the old order can be reestablished.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
Croatian minister quits over boar hunt with suspected war criminal
ABC News
December 30, 2007
Croatia's Interior Minister has resigned after being pictured on a wild boar hunt with a suspected war criminal, who was subsequently arrested for breaking his parole.
Several newspapers had published pictures this week of Mladen Markac - a 52-year-old former commander of the Croatian police special forces who is awaiting trial for war crimes - enjoying the hunt in north-eastern Croatia.
Markac, who was standing with a group of hunters in the photos, was accompanied by Croatian Interior Minister Ivica Kirin who resigned on Saturday (local time) and apologised for his actions.
Mr Kirin's presence had sparked greater outrage since the Interior Ministry is responsible for ensuring that Markac does not violate the terms of his provisional release.
"I consider it a moral act and my duty due to circumstances in which I was involved regarding the case of general Markac," Mr Kirin said in a statement.
"I regret and offer my apology to all those that might have been harmed by it.".
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) asked the Croatian government to immediately arrest Markac before handing him over on Sunday to a UN detention unit in the Netherlands.
A statement issued by the ICTY in the Hague confirmed the tribunal had sought Markac's arrest as he had violated his parole by leaving his residence in the Croatian capital Zagreb without permission.
The tribunal also noted that Croatia had failed to inform it of Markac's breach of parole conditions, as it was required to do.
Markac has been charged with war crimes by The Hague-based UN tribunal along with two other former generals - Ivan Cermak and Ante Gotovina - in connection with an August 1995 operation.
Brammertz set for new post at court for former Yugoslavia
The Daily Star
By Gerald de Hemptinne
December 31, 2007
THE HAGUE: Serge Brammertz, who led the UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, will take up his post as chief prosecutor of the UN war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia on Tuesday. The 46-year-old Belgian has two important tasks before him at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY): stepping up the pressure to arrest the most wanted fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic and closing down the court in 2010.
Brammertz succeeds the mediagenic Carla Del Ponte who held the post of ICTY prosecutor for eight years. Previously, he headed the UN investigation into the February 2005 assassination of Hariri. He will be replaced by former Canadian prosecutor Andre Bellemare.
Bellemare was appointed late in November by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to replace outgoing Brammertz.
Before that, Brammertz was deputy prosecutor in charge of investigations of the International Criminal Court, the world's first permanent war crimes court also based in The Hague. There he led investigations into atrocities committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Darfur and Uganda.
Born in Eupen in the German-speaking region of Belgium, he has degrees in law and criminology from Belgian universities and was a professor of law at the University of Liege.
He started his career as a lawyer before quickly moving up in the ranks of the Belgian national prosecutor's office. In 2002 Brammertz became federal prosecutor in Belgium. He is considered an expert in fighting cross-border organized crime, and international legal cooperation in the fields of terrorism, arms trafficking and human rights violations.
Brammertz is a demanding boss, but works very hard himself and always makes time for his colleagues, a former assistant who did not want to be identified, told AFP.
Brammertz is expected to continue much as Del Ponte has but be more pragmatic.
Brammertz shies away from media interest and considers himself more of a magistrate than a diplomat. He has yet to comment publicly on his appointment to the ICTY.
In The Hague, he will focus on trying to bring the last remaining fugitives to justice before the tribunal is set to close its doors in 2010.
The most wanted fugitives are Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military chief, and his former political boss Karadzic. The pair have been indicted for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity over the campaign of ethnic cleansing during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia. Their indictment includes charges over the 1995 massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys at the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.
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The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, War Crimes Chamber
Official Website
Indictment confirmed in the Gojko Klickovic case
Court of BiH
December 19, 2007
On 19 December 2007, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) confirmed the indictment against Gojko Klickovic, who is charged with Crimes against Humanity in conjunction with War Crimes against Civilians and War Crimes against Prisoners of War.
The indictment alleges, that the accused Klickovic together with other members of the SDS in the so called Serb Municipality of Bosanska Krupa, participated in joint criminal enterprise which began in the summer of 1991. The accused, in capacity of the Commander of the Crisis Staff of the Serb Municipality of Bosanska Krupa, established the so called Serb Municipality of Bosanska Krupa by using armed force. This was the territory occupied only by Serb population in which Serbs were able to control all areas of authority and administration.
The accused, as alleged in the indictment, together with other members of the Head Committee of SDS, committed persecution of Muslim population from the Municipality of Bosanska Krupa, and also planned, instigated, ordered and participated in persecution, attacks on civilians, unlawful captures and detention, tortures and inhumane treatment as well as the commission of other criminal offenses.
Three Thousand Days of Detention
BIRN Justice Report
By Erna Mackic
December 28, 2007
In 2007, the Court of BiH ordered custody for 29 war crimes suspects, some of whom were eventually indicted, while others were released without charge.
Acting on warrants issued by the Prosecution of BiH, the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) in 2007 arrested 29 persons considered to have committed war crimes on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995.
During this year, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ordered a total of 3,761 days of detention for suspects. Shortly after being arrested and put into custody, some suspects were released under certain restrictive measures - such as a ban on leaving their place of residence, an obligation to report to a police station on a regular basis, or a prohibition from contacting potential witnesses.
Others were put into custody right away, where they spent a few months until the indictments against them were filed or final decisions on their status were made.
According to the current Law on Criminal Procedure, suspects may be held in custody for a maximum of nine months following their arrest. Unless an indictment is filed within that period, the suspect must be released.
On average, suspects had to wait around four months for such decisions in 2007.
Awaiting indictments
The war crimes unit within the Court of BiH has been hearing war crimes since 2005.
In 2007, for the first time ever, the prosecution did not ask for custody but instead for the introduction of restrictive measures against some suspects arrested earlier this year. Prosecutors justified their decision by the suspects’ readiness to appear at the court whenever summoned.
The case of Radenko Stanic, Goran Garic, Djordje Ilic, Dragisa Tesic and Rajko Losic, who are suspected of having committed crimes against humanity, is one example of this.
The prosecution concluded that it was not necessary to request custody for these suspects, as “they regularly appear at the court when summoned”. Nevertheless, due to the possibility that the suspects might flee to Serbia and thus evade justice, the prosecution requested the introduction of certain prohibiting measures. As a result, the suspects may not leave their place of residence, have to report to competent authorities on a regular basis and are not allowed to meet with other people. These suspects are considered to have been involved in the unlawful detention and maltreatment of Bosniak civilians on the territory of Vlasenica municipality in the period from May 1992 to an unknown date in 1996.
Two other suspects, Admir Kalem and Ahmed Sadikovic, were released without charge after two months in custody “because the grounded suspicion ceased to exist”. The custody of Kalem and Sadikovic was originally ordered by the district court of Eastern Sarajevo, but the case was eventually referred to the Prosecution of BiH due to its “sensitivity”.
In 2007, Enes Handzic, Senad Dautovic, Nisvet Gasal and Musajb Kukavica spent the longest time in custody. Handzic and Dautovic were arrested in mid April, while Gasal and Kukavica were arrested on March 22. They are alleged to have committed crimes against Croatian civilians in the Bugojno area.
War crimes suspects are currently being held in detention units all over the country, in Foca, Doboj, Banja Luka, Mostar and Eastern Sarajevo, as the Court of BiH's detention unit has only 21 cells and is usually full to capacity. At present, there is no state prison in BiH. A foundation stone for a new state prison has been laid, but the building is not expected to be ready for some years.
At present, persons suspected of having committed crimes in Velika Kladusa area (Suljo Karajic), Kotor Varos (Mirko Skrobic), Foca (Momir Savic), Kljuc (Vinko Kondic), Hadzici (Rade Veselinovic, Azemin Sadikovic, Admir Kalem and Ahmed Sadikovic), Tuzla (Novak Djukic), Nevesinje (Krsto Savic and Mile Mucibabic) and Doboj area (Predrag Kujundzic) are held in custody awaiting indictments against them to be filed. This year, the Court of BiH confirmed indictments against 17 persons who allegedly committed war crimes in Bugojno (Kukavica, Gasal, Handzic and Dautovic), in Jajce (Mirko Pekez, son of Spiro; Mirko Pekez, son of Mile, and Milorad Savic), Kalinovik (Ratko Bundalo, Djordjislav Askraba and Nedjo Zeljaja), Borkovac settlement in Bratunac (Mirko Todorovic and Milos Radic), Foca (Rajko and Ranko Vukovic), Vogosca (Mladen Milanovic), Sanski most (Suad Kapic) and Kljuc (Idhan Sipic).
Possibility of escape
Citing the reasons for custody order motions, the prosecution most frequently mentioned the possibility that suspects might leave the country; may influence witnesses or accessories, and the severity of punishment that may be prescribed for the particular crimes. Serbia and Croatia are most often mentioned as the countries to which the suspects may flee. It often happens that Bosnian citizens of Croat or Serb ethnicity also have citizenships of one of those countries, whose constitutions do not allow for extradition of their citizens to other countries.
By law, in addition to a custody order, which is considered to be “the least preferred” measure, the court may also order certain restrictive measures and accept bail. Kreso Lucic, charged with having committed war crimes in Kresevo, offered bail in order to be released from custody, which was accepted by the Court of BiH. His defence handed over his travel documents and submitted evidence that his property, worth KM 200,000, was mortgaged.
In mid September Lucic was sentenced, by a first instance verdict, to six years’ imprisonment. He is still free but, in addition to the bail, he is obliged to report to a competent police station on a daily basis.
The Court of BiH ordered prohibiting measures against suspects Sreten Lazarevic, Dragan Stanojevic, Mile Markovic and Slobodan Ostojic, which were dismissed shortly after. Lazarevic and others are charged, as “members of the reserve police forces with the Public Safety Centre in Zvornik and the former Serbian Republic of BiH Army”, with having maltreated Bosniaks detained in the criminal offence court building and “Novi izvor” factory in Zvornik between May 1992 and March 1993.
The prosecution considered that it was not necessary to file a custody order motion in the case of Ferid Hodzic and Veiz Bjelic, suspected of crimes against civilians and prisoners of war in Vlasenica municipality.
The Prosecution of BiH filed an indictment against Hodzic and Bjelic on November 23, but the court has still not confirmed it. The two men are charged with having captured and tortured Serbian civilians and prisoners of war in “Stala” prison in Vlasenica during the armed conflict between the former Territorial Defence (TO) of the Republic of BiH and the former Serbian Republic of BiH Army conducted in 1992.
Every month, the court inspects if the reasons for custody or prohibitive measures are still valid. Following a similar inspection, indictee Rajko Vukovic was re-arrested, despite his earlier release from custody and introduction of prohibitive measures. The Court of BiH explained that the indictee was arrested again due to the “existence of certain circumstances, which indicate that, should he remain at liberty, the indictee might attempt to influence the criminal proceeding by influencing witnesses and accessories”.
In the course of his trial, indictee Sefik Alic was allowed to defend himself while on bail, after spending 11 months in detention. The Court of BiH ordered his release and introduced certain prohibiting measures, including “a ban on attending social gatherings on the territory of Buzim and Bosanska Krupa municipalities“, as well as “a ban on meeting the witnesses whose names are mentioned in the indictment”. Alic is charged, as former member of the Army of BiH, with having failed to punish the killer of four Serbian prisoners of war during operation Storm.
Earlier this year, Goran Damjanovic was released from custody while certain restrictive measures were ordered against him, including the confiscation of his passport, personal ID card, driving license and other personal documents. The custody release decision, rendered by the Court of BiH, prohibited Damjanovic from leaving the Eastern Sarajevo area and ordered him to report to the Public Safety Centre in Eastern Sarajevo on a daily basis. Goran Damjanovic and his brother Zoran were sentenced to a total of 22 years and six months’ imprisonment for having beaten up civilians in Bojnik settlement near Sarajevo in 1992. Following the pronouncement of the verdict, the two brothers were released from custody until the Appellate Chamber confirmed the verdict. After that, they were sent to prison to serve their sentences. Jadranko Palija also defended himself while on bail. Following the pronouncement of a first instance verdict against him, sentencing him to 28 years’ imprisonment for crimes committed in Sanski Most, he was arrested as he was leaving the courtroom. The court rendered an order putting him under custody until a second instance verdict was pronounced. Marko Samardzija, who is charged with having committed war crimes in Kljuc, was sentenced to 28 years’ imprisonment by a first instance verdict. The verdict was revoked and he is now awaiting the commencement of a retrial while at liberty. Restrictive measures against Samardzija have been pronounced, which means that he has to report to the police station in Prijedor twice a week and has no right to visit Kljuc municipality.
Pasko Ljubicic has probably been in detention for the longest time of all the indictees and suspects. He was first held in detention unit in Scheveningen, The Hague, and then in Sarajevo after the Tribunal transferred him to state court for further processing.
The defence team of Ljubicic, who has been held in custody for six years, has requested that their client be released on several occasions. At one stage it offered a bail, by mortgaging his property worth KM 200,000, but the Trial Chamber rejected the proposal. Ljubicic is charged, as commander of the Fourth Military Police Battalion with the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), with having committed war crimes in central Bosnia during the conflict between the Army of BiH and HVO.
Analysis: An Intense Year
BIRN Justice Report
By Aida Alic
December 28, 2007
In its third year, the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of BiH sentenced ten persons to a total of 142 years and six months imprisonment for their participation in war crimes, while the Prosecution of BiH opened 312 investigations against 894 persons.
The appointment of new judges and prosecutors at the state level in the past year has led to the opening of new investigations and trials before the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of BiH, as well as to intensive operations to arrest war crime suspects.
In 2007, the Court of BiH pronounced 17 verdicts, including ten second instance, four first instance verdicts and three verdicts that were revoked by the Appellate Chamber due to "wrongly determined factual status" and violation of "Criminal Procedure Code provisions". The first legally binding verdict acquitting an indictee of all charges was pronounced this year. This was the verdict against Zoran Jankovic, who the Prosecution of BiH charged with having participated in crimes committed in Zvornik area in 1992. The first guilt admission agreement was also signed this year. The Prosecution of BiH and Idhan Sipic signed an agreement by which he admitted the murder of one person in August 1995. However, after the indictee complained to the Trial Chamber concerning some parts of the indictment, the trial will be conducted after all.
Also this year, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council appointed six new prosecutors in the BiH Prosecutor's Office. At the end of the year it appointed David Schwendiman, a prosecutor from the USA, as its new chief of the War Crimes Section. Milorad Barasin, former Chief Prosecutor with the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office in Livno, was appointed as Schwendiman's deputy.
Awaiting justice at liberty
Acting on warrants issued by the Prosecution of BiH, in 2007 the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) arrested 29 persons considered to have participated in war crimes. Vinko Kondic, an ex-officio attorney at the Court of BiH, was among those arrested. Kondic was arrested in December 2007, on the basis of suspicion that he participated in crimes committed in Kljuc area. Radovan Stankovic's escape from the Foca prison in May 2007 and the transfer of Milorad Trbic from The Hague to the Court of BiH the following month will certainly be remembered. Stankovic was the first indictee to be referred to the Court of BiH by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. The Court of BiH pronounced a second instance verdict sentencing him to 20 years' imprisonment for crimes committed in the Foca area, while Trbic was indicted for alleged involvement in the genocide in Srebrenica committed in July 1995.
In 2007, the Court of BiH initiated 16 processes against 22 persons charged with crimes committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and confirmed 17 indictments, which were filed by the Prosecution of BiH against 29 persons. At the last week of December, Prosecution submitted three more indictments to the court for confirmation. The indictments are against Predrag Kujundzic, ex paramilitary leader from Doboj, Novak Djukic, a former senior officer of Bosnian Serb army who has been charged for May 1995 shelling which killed over 70 people, and Suljo Karajic, who is hold responsible for war crime committed against Bosniaks in Bihac municipality. Out of the total number of war crime indictees or suspects, the Court of BiH allowed 24 persons to defend themselves while on bail. Marko Samardzija and Momcilo Mandic are also awaiting their retrials while at liberty.
In November 2006, Samardzija was sentenced to 26 years' imprisonment for crimes committed in the Kljuc area. However, in May 2007, following the appeals by the Prosecution of BiH and the defence, the Appellate Chamber revoked the verdict and ordered a retrial. He was released in October and he is awaiting the retrial to commence. Momcilo Mandic is in a similar position. In July 2007 he was acquitted of charges that he participated in the functioning and establishment of detention camps in the Sarajevo and Foca regions. Following the pronouncement of the verdict, Mandic was released. However, he has been held in custody since then, because he is serving a five-year sentence for abuse of authority, which he committed as director of the Privredna banka in Srpsko Sarajevo. He is allowed to go home at weekends.
Hunger strike with vitamins
In January and again in September 2007, a number of indictees in went on hunger strike in protest at the non-harmonised application of criminal codes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.The Court of BiH applies the 2003 Criminal Code of BiH, which allows prison terms of up to 45 years. Local courts, on the other hand, apply the Criminal Code of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
(SFRY) and entity laws, which, according to the detainees, prescribe less severe punishments.
During the first hunger strike, in January 2007, some detainees were hospitalized in Kasindol hospital in Eastern Sarajevo due to exhaustion caused by hunger. While they were on strike, the Court of BiH stressed that it "would not give way to the pressures". The trials continued according to the original schedule without the presence of the indictees, who refused to appear at hearings.
Various medical reports on health state of the indictees suggested that, during the strike, they did take tea, juice, coffee, water, soup and apples, and they were given infusions while they were in the hospital. The first strike was halted after the Constitutional Court of BiH rendered a decision rejecting the appeal of Abduladhim Maktouf concerning violation of his human rights in the course of the trial due to application of laws. The decision indicated that the appeal was unfounded because "the constitutional rights and the rights guaranteed under the international laws have not been violated".
In September 2007, detainees in the Correctional Facility in Kula in Eastern Sarajevo started another hunger strike. They made the same requests as the ones made by the strikers in January. At the trial of the four indictees charged with crimes committed in Bratunac in July 1995, indictee Mladen Blagojevic got sick in the courtroom due to exhaustion caused by the fact that he did not take any food. The strike lasted for more than a month before it was halted, without any explanation.
In July, Milorad Trbic started an individual hunger strike that lasted for 24 days. Trbic refused to consume food, because he thought he was not guilty and he asked the Court of BiH to dismiss the criminal process against him. After the Court of BiH confirmed the indictment against him, his trial commenced in November 2007.
Unprotected witnesses
The War Crimes Chamber has examined about 800 witnesses during its two and a half years in operation. Some witnesses have testified under pseudonyms with protection of their personal data; there were testimonies via video links with no tone or voice, and testimonies from separate rooms in the Court of BiH building. In order to protect witnesses, the Court of BiH has excluded the public from some trials. So, 20 hearings were held behind closed doors. Of this number, 11 were held as part of the trial of the four indictees charged with crimes committed in Vojno detention camp near Mostar during 1993 and 1994.
At some trials, persons suspected of crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as persons convicted by the ICTY, have testified as prosecution or defence witnesses. Some indictees charged with war crimes before the Court of BiH have testified as protected witnesses. At one trial, an indictee testified in his own favor, but, at the request of his defence, the Trial Chamber ordered the introduction of protective measures and the exclusion of the public during his testimony. The media was not allowed to publish his name, although his defence attorney had announced earlier that his client would testify in his own favor at the beginning of the defence evidence presentation process. At the trial of 11 indictees charged with genocide in Srebrenica, most witnesses were former members of the Republika Srpska Army who were involved in the happenings in July 1995.
Despite the introduction of protection measures, the personal data of some witnesses was revealed during the trial on several occasions. During the trials for crimes committed in Vojno detention camp and Omarska and Keraterm detention camps near Prijedor, the personal data of several protected witnesses was revealed.
Despite the protective measures and the fact that their safety was ensured by the Court of BiH, several witnesses were exposed to unpleasant experiences.
At the trial of Zeljko Lelek, who is charged with crimes committed in Visegard area in 1992, the indictee threatened witness Bakira Hasecic several times.
In early December 2007, Lelek insulted Hasecic in the presence of court policemen in the Court of BiH hall. Hasecic leads the Association of "Women, Victims of War" whose members are rape survivors.
Protected prosecution witness A was also exposed to pressure and threats. He was offered money if he would be prepared to make a false statement at the trial of Zdravko Mihaljevic for crimes committed against civilians in Kiseljak area. The incident was reported by the prosecution, which also opened an investigation against several persons due to "existence of a grounded suspicion that they helped in revealing of the protected witness' identity" and "interfered with the work of the judiciary". Another protected witness found himself in a similar situation. He was supposed to testify as a defence witness of one of the 11 indictees charged with genocide in Kravica, committed in July 1995, but, due to "anonymous threats" his testimony was postponed.
The first trials for crimes committed in the areas of Vlasenica, Bugojno, Nevesinje, Cazin,Velika Kladusa and Jajce are due to commence next year. The trial of the four indictees charged with having committed crimes in Omarska and Keraterm detention camp is expected to end next year. The process has been ongoing before the Court of BiH for a year already. The trials of the 11 indictees charged with genocide in Kravica, which has been going on for more than a year, and that of former policeman Zeljko Lelek, charged with crimes committed in Visegrad, are also expected to end soon.
Kujundzic: Prosecution Witnesses "Threatened"
BIRN Justice Report
January 3, 2008
The Prosecution of BiH has asked that Predrag Kujundzic continue to be held in custody after allegations that some Prosecution witnesses have been threatened.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina claims that some witnesses contacted during the investigation against Predrag Kujundzic have received threats. Sixteen potential witnesses have already requested protective measures in case they decide to appear before the court, and one has refused to testify. In view of this, and the fear that the indictee might attempt to escape or endanger the safety of citizens, the Prosecution of BiH has filed a custody extension motion for Kujundzic with the Court of BiH.
However, Kujundzic's Defence has asked that the indictee be allowed to defend himself while at liberty, adding that the Prosecution's fears are "unfounded". By the Court decision, custody may last until competition of the trial. Kujundzic, also known as Predo, is charged with having committed murder, persecution, rape, slavery and physical and mental maltreatment of Bosniaks and Croats from the Doboj region in 1992. In that period, Kujundzic led the "Predini vukovi" ("Predo's Wolves") paramilitary group.
"The Prosecution of BiH considers that there is a grounded fear that the indictee might attempt to interfere with witnesses if he is allowed to defend himself while at liberty," Prosecutor Bozidarka Dodik told the Court. "We have received an anonymous letter from a group of citizens from Doboj concerning attempts to threaten and bribe the witnesses. One witness claims that he received an anonymous phone call, when one person threatened him by telling him that he will always remember who "Predo's Wolves" were. This witness asked not to be invited to appear at the court during the evidence presentation process. "The indictee participated in persecution, causing of permanent physical and mental pain, and murders committed in Doboj in an insensitive and extremely bold manner. Many persons can still feel the consequences of these acts," said Dodik.
Citing the reasons for the custody extension motion, Dodik stressed that there was "a realistic danger that he might try to escape" and that the custody order was needed in order to protect "the safety of citizens". "We consider that the indictee, after being faced with possible punishment, has a very strong motive to try to escape or hide. He is also suspected of being a member of the support network aiding fugitives from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Should he be released, he would get all the necessary support to enable him to escape, and he would be able to cross the border without any difficulties," Dodik added.
Miroslav Ristic, Kujundzic's defence attorney, described the Prosecution's requests as "ungrounded presumptions and abstract things". "The Prosecution of BiH has not submitted any concrete pieces of evidence. We consider that there is no fear that Kujundzic might attempt to escape, because he used to live in his Polje village before the war. This is where he went to school and where he still lives," Ristic explained. The Defence has also indicated that the threats against witnesses were "mere assumptions" and that previous criminal reports filed against the indictee, for menacing of public order and peace, actually referred to "drunken guests" who visited his restaurant
Bosnia court indicts Serb ex-general for war crimes
Reuters
January 4, 2008
SARAJEVO, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Bosnia's war crimes court indicted a retired Serb general on Friday for ordering a shelling in 1995 that killed 71 people and wounded hundreds in the northern town of Tuzla, it said in a statement.
"The Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina confirmed the indictment in the Novak Djukic case, which charges Novak Djukic with war crimes against civilians," the statement said.
Djukic was a commander of the Bosnian Serb army in the Tuzla region during the 1992-95 war. Tuzla was declared a United Nations safe zone in 1993.
Djukic, who was promoted to the rank of general after the war and became the Bosnian Serb army chief of staff before retiring in 2005, was arrested in November under suspicion that he ordered one of worst massacres in the Bosnian war.
A single artillery shell, fired from Serb mountain positions west of Tuzla, slammed into a group of youngsters in the town's central square. Most of the dead and wounded were between 18 and 25 years old. The youngest casualty was a three-year-old boy, hit while in the arms of his father.
The indictment said that on May 25, 1995 Djukic ordered his units to fire a missile at the centre of Tuzla.
"As a result of the explosion of the missile, 71 persons were killed while approximately 240 sustained injuries," the court said.
The Bosnian war crimes court was set up to take over some of the workload of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). It is currently handling low and mid-level cases as the Hague-based court plans to wind down by 2010. (Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic)
Karajic: Indictment Confirmed
BIRN Justice Report
January 4, 2008
The Court of BiH confirms an indictment against the former Army of BiH member charged with crimes committed in the Bihac area.
The Prosecution's indictment against Suljo "Hodza" Karajic, former commander of the Second Military Police Squad with the 505th Knights Motorized Brigade of the Fifth Corps of BiH Army (ABiH), has been confirmed by the Court of BiH.
The indictment charges Karajic with having committed war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war. It is alleged that, between August 1994 and February 1995, Suljo Karajic took part in the armed conflict between the Fifth Corps of ABiH and the National Defence of the Western Bosnia Autonomous Region
(NDWBAR) in the wide area of Bihac town, Northern Bosnia. It alleges that Karajic "ordered and committed the deprivation of liberty and inhumane treatment of prisoners of war and civilians".
The indictment alleges that on August 4, 1994, Karajic asked one of the captured members of the NDWBAR, who were detained in the basement of "Radoc" motel in Buzim, to come and see him. After that, the indictee fired a few bullets at the prisoner and killed him. The indictment further alleges that, in December 1994, the indictee "performed ungrounded imprisonment of civilians", who, he thought, supported the autonomy of Western Bosnia. After that, he exposed them to inhumane treatment and mental torture and killed them. In addition, Karajic is alleged to have ordered his subordinates, members of the Military Police Squad, to capture civilians.
The plea hearing is scheduled on January 11.
The Western Bosnia Autonomous Region and its National Defence were established by Fikret Abdic in September 1993. This act was contradictory to the provisions of the Republic of BiH Constitution.
In 2005 Abdic was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment in Croatia, whose citizenship he holds. The State Investigation and Protection Agency arrested Karajic on October 17, 2007. He has been held in custody since then.
The Prosecution of BiH has filed a custody extension motion for Karajic "due to the possibility that he might attempt to influence witnesses, accessories and concealers". "The crime was committed in an outrageous manner. Citizens remember that the indictee was ready to do anything in order to achieve his goals," said Prosecutor Munib Halilovic, adding that 17 witnesses, examined in the course of the investigation, have asked for protective measures.
Defence attorney Hasan Veladzic objected to the Prosecutor's request, claiming that Karajic, who is 80 per cent disabled, cannot endanger witnesses. "Over the past ten years, all those witnesses have been examined four times. In that period, the indictee was able to find out who they were and what they said during the investigation. He has not tried to influence any of them. And, if the witnesses are now protected, the indictee cannot influence them in any way," Veladzic said.
The Court decided than Karajic will stay in custody until the end of the trial.
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International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
Official Website of the ICTR
Defence Lawyers Exert Pressure Over RPF Indicments
Hirondelle News Agency
January 2, 2008
The Association of Defence Lawyers (ADAD) at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has exerted pressure on the Prosecutor to speed up indictment of Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) members alleged to have committed atrocities during the 1994 genocide.
ADAD's Press Counsellor, Christopher Black, claimed that since the tribunal was started in November 1994, it was only ethnic Hutus have been targeted for prosecution before the UN tribunal while the crimes of the "RPF Tutsis were being covered up by the Tribunal."
Responding to Prosecutor Hassan Jallow's recent statement to the UN Security Council that the prosecution would conclude investigations into the alleged RPF crimes this year (2008), Mr Black was dismissive, saying that " it will be for cosmetic reasons," adding that even if that happens it was highly probable that the trials would take place in Rwanda so that RPF maintains control over the processs.
Black alleged that, like his three predecessors--Richard Goldstone, Louise Arbour and Carla Del Ponte, Mr Jallow has carried on the clear Anglo-American and Tribunal policy of protecting RPF soldiers who committed massaccres in Rwanda, including President Paul Kagame, who was the leader of his advancing troops. "They have given the RPF complete immunity from prosecution and from justice," he claimed.
Mr Black added that the international justice system is and would remain a "mockery" if the RPF members are not brought to trial by the UN tribunal before it closes down by end of this year. The UN Security Council has set a deadline of completing all cases by December 2008 and appeals by 2010.
ADAD, he said, strongly believes that without bringing RPF to the dock, the tribunal would have done no justice and instead of forging national reconciliation in Rwanda "it will be continual conflict .
However, the ICTR Prosecutor has maintained that they are independent and are carrying out their mandate as assigned by the UN. "We're perusing the files (RPF) and if need be we will deal with them accordingly," the Gambian-born tall Prosecutor, Justice Jallow told Hirondelle News Agency.
The Rwandan government has denied RPF atrocities, and all along has said that the allegations are baseless. The RPF has been credited for stopping the genocide, but in the process some of its members allegedly committed mass murders.
Mr Kagame has personally denied any wrong doing and has publicly dismissed allegations of involvement in the shooting down of the plane which killed President Juvenal Habyarimana near the capital, Kigali, which sparked the killings. Also killed in the plane, which was brought down by rocket fire, was Burundi's President Cyprian Ntayamira
The two presidents were returning from a meeting of east and central African leaders in Tanzania's commercial city of Dar es Salaam at which they discussed ways to end the ethnic violence in Burundi and Rwanda.
According to the UN estimates, about 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the April-July 1994 spontaneous bloodshed. Currently, 28 detainees are on trial before the Arusha-based UN court. Since the tribunal's establishment, 35 judgements have been delivered, including five acquittals.
2007 - the Year That Was
The New Times (Kigali)
By Gasheegu Muramila
January 1, 2008
The year 2007 is no more. It had blessings and everything that could describe an eventful year. The year showcased Rwanda's ability of hosting vast conferences coupled with its hospitality.
But there was no ceremony in the year that could rival the Kigali centenary celebrations.
The festivities came with a host of events that truly defined the city today from that of 1907 when it was a small colonial outpost administered by German, Richard Kandt.
One of the events which marked the anniversary was a road-and-street naming exercise overseen by Premier Bernard Makuza during which two Kigali City roads were renamed.
The road from Prince House junction in Remera to Kigali City centre main roundabout is now Africa Union Boulevard while the route from Kigali International Airport to Kimuhurura roundabout near Kigali Business Centre (KBC) is Kigali International Airport Boulevard.
Rwanda's first ever public recreation park was inaugurated in Kimihurura as a sign that Rwandans were not only heading for a safe, clean and green city, but also one full of entertainment. The celebrations also came with a move that will turn the city into a more proactive one after city authorities launched the 24-hour operation for the business community.
When a summit that brought together several regional mayors finally came to an end, the skies of Kigali became alive in a colourful fireworks display accompanied by South Africa's Chaka Chaka and Ugandan songbird Juliana Kanyomozi at the Amahoro National Stadium.
Conferences
The year came with high profile conferences that any country would have loved to host. Kigali's gates were opened to the outside world when the 2007 HIV/Aids Implementers' Meeting was held in June. Rwanda was chosen to host the meeting in recognition of its leadership in the fight against HIV/Aids and the impressive results it has achieved. Under the theme; 'Scaling up through partnerships', the meeting attracted hundreds of delegates from around the world.
The story did not end there. In recognition of its advancement in the Information Technology (ICT) field, Rwanda hosted the African Heads of State Connect Africa Summit in October. It was a major initiative where strategies were laid on how to accelerate broadband and wireless connectivity in Africa.
Rwanda also hosted the 14th session of the African, Caribbean and Pacific and the European Union (ACP-EU) joint Parliamentary Assembly in November which saw President Paul Kagame calling on the international community to intervene and have peace restored in the war-ravaged Somalia.
In an effort to chart ways aimed at reducing aid dependency and stimulating economic growth, the annual Development Partners Meeting (DPM) was also held in November. In her speech, the UK Minister for International Development, Shriti Vadera, called for a review of the existing studies on the Rwandan economy as part of efforts towards a new partnership to accelerate the country's growth.
Visitors
The list of visitors to Kigali in the past year is endless. The visit by members of Britain's Conservative Party in July could pass as the most memorable one. Over 40 members of the party including eight Members of Parliament arrived in Kigali a week ahead of their leader, David Cameron's visit.
The Tories, as they are known, engaged in voluntary work across the country, visited Genocide memorial sites and paid glowing tribute to Rwandans for their achievements barely fifteen years after the 1994 Genocide.
On his arrival, Cameron launched a report of their policy paper on global poverty at the Parliament. He stated that the main reason developing countries remained poor was because they are denied the opportunity to do trade with rich nations.
He pointed an accusing finger at politicians who talked of trade as a long-term prosperity and called for the removal of trade barriers, which affect developing countries.
In sports and leisure, Rwanda hosted international tennis player Martina Navratilova and Hollywood movie star Ben Affleck. The film star was reportedly on a reconnaissance trip to discover investment opportunities in Rwanda. In the religious corridors, Ugandan televangelist Robert Kayanja was here for a crusade that attracted tens of thousands of believers seeking spiritual healings at Amahoro Stadium.
Tough Year Ahead for ICTR as Completion Strategy Approaches
Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
December 31 2007
The just ended year which saw the election of a new president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, was marked by only three judgements and intense diplomatic activity for the transfers of accused to national courts.
Several group trials progressed and are in the defence phase of the cases. Others completed their cases. According to ICTR President Dennis Byron, six judgements are awaited in the first half of next year, at least four before April.
During the past year, two judgements were delivered following guilty pleas, which considerably accelerated the procedures. Joseph Nzabirinda, youth organizer in Ngoma commune, was sentenced on 23 February to 7 years in prison and Juvénal Rugambarara, Governor of Bicumbi commune, handed down 11 years jail.
Only one judgement was the result of a full scale trial. François Karera, former Mayor of Kigali, was sentenced to life in prison on 7 December. He is the eleventh person sentenced by the ICTR to the maximum sentence allowed under the UN statute.
In all, 35 accused have been tried since the establishment of the tribunal in November, 1994 by the UN Security Council. Five were acquitted.
The appeals chamber rendered two judgements. Aloys Simba, Lieutenant Colonel in the Rwandan Army, saw his sentence of 25 years in prison confirmed and three defendants in the media case--media executives, Ferdinand Nahimana(founder of RTLM), Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza(Director of RTLM) and Hassan Ngeze(Editor-in-Chief of Kangura newspaper), saw their sentences slightly reduced after majority of their charges were dismissed.
Under the completion strategy as outlined by the UN, there remains just a year for the ICTR to try its last defendants. Also, diplomatic contacts were made in order to transfer these defendants to other national courts but without much success. Thus, Michel Baragaza, former boss of the state the state-run tea industry regulator who is alleged to have ordered tea agency workers to kill hundreds of Tutsis who were seeking refuge in the factory, who was to be tried in the Netherlands, will have to finally return to Arusha.
Earlier efforts to have him tried in Norway also failed because the Scandinavian country has no genocide laws and can not try somebody accused of that crime.
Two accused--Wenceslas Munyeshyaka (former head of the Sainte-Famille parish in Kigali) and Laurent Bucyibaruta (ex-prefect)--were living in France and whose indictments had remained under seal, were arrested. Their cases have been referred by the ICTR to French authorities.
Another defendant, Augustin Ngirabatware, Rwanda's ex-planning minister in 1994 when an estimated 800,000 people were killed, is the subject of an extradition request in Germany. If transferred to Arusha, he will be added to the six people awaiting trial.
To reduce this list, the prosecutor filed transfer requests to Rwanda.
In 2007, the Prosecutor, Hassan Jallow, requested that five people to be tried in Rwanda-- Jean Baptiste Gatete, former mayor of Murambi, Lieutenant Ildephonse Hategikimana, Commander of Ngoma camp, two businessmen Yussuf Munyakazi and Gaspard Kanyarukiga; and the former police detective Fulgence Kayishema. Only the latter, still at large, is not detained in Arusha.
The transfer requests have yet to be authorized by the ICTR judges.
In spite of the abolition of the death penalty in Rwanda, the issue of transfers is facing opposition from human rights groups.
Two organizations for the defence of human rights-- Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, like the International Association of Democratic Lawyers--have expressed doubts on the fairness of possible trials in Kigali.
And this raises a question that just in case that the cases are not transferred to Rwanda, will the tribunal be able to meet its completion strategy of 2008? By the way, it is only Rwanda which has formally requested to try the accused.
The problem of sentenced prisoners is also crucial. Agreements have been signed for several years with five countries to receive ICTR convicts but it still has not succeeded.
With the exception of the six first convicts transferred to Mali in December 2001, no prisoner has found a host country, and none is opening the door down to receive them; except for Rwanda.
The other countries which have offered to host the convicts are: Benin, Swaziland, Italy and France.
The first prisoner to have served his sentenced, Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, Pastor of Seventh Day Advesntist Church left prison in December 2006, but died a month later.
The requests for early release were not; compared to the past, receive more positively. At the halfway mark of his sentence, Samuel Imanishimwe, ex top army officer, had requested to benefit from it. Before him, three other convicts had been refused this measure under the pretext of the gravity of their crimes.
Bereavement
But the hand of death did not let 2007 go scot-free; it was there to remind Rwandans that amongst them were are those who still harboured the Genocide ideology. Sixteen Genocide survivors were brutally killed in different provinces of the country.
The country also lost some of her wealthy businesspersons like Mzee Vedaste Rubangura and international telecommunication magnate, Miko Rwayitare. Former Chief Justice Simeon Rwagasore also breathed his last in King Faisal Hospital last year. Millions of Rwandans also mourned South Africa's reggae star Lucky Dube, who had a big following in Rwanda.
Govt Wants Genocide 'Big Fish' Tried By Gacaca
The New Times (Kigali)
By Felly Kimenyi
December 29, 2007
The judiciary is lobbying stakeholders to have cases under category one of Genocide crimes transferred to Gacaca traditional courts.
This was disclosed on Thursday during the annual national dialogue conference, which brought together various national leaders and Rwandans from the Diaspora.
First category Genocide cases include people classified as masterminds, senior leaders and rapists.
"We want to take this opportunity to seek your opinion on having Gacaca courts trying category one suspects because of the backlog of cases from our classical courts," Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama told participants.
Procedurally, Gacaca courts try suspects in category two and three while those in the first category are tried by classical courts.
Over 7,000 cases have been forwarded to conventional courts from Gacaca courts. Another 1,200 were already before classical courts before Gacaca courts commenced.
"We cannot wait for all these cases to be completed; it would take ages for justice to be realised because of the kind of work that is involved," Karugarama said.
He suggested that the conventional courts handle only cases that are expected to be transferred from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and others that may be sent from national jurisdictions.
The Chief Justice Aloysia Cyanzayire said that there is an urgent need to solve the backlog of cases and the only solution is to transfer the first category Genocide cases to Gacaca courts.
"In classical courts, a lot of logistics are needed for instance transport for witnesses which may not be needed in Gacaca since all witnesses are found in the neighborhood," she said.
However, Senator Odette Nyiramirimo said that the category one cases cannot be handled by Gacaca system since most of them involve technical knowledge giving an example of rape cases where people may need privacy.
"Instead there should be specialised chambers put in place to do this work," she said.
But Cyanzayire said that there is lack of personnel to run such chambers "besides, it is allowed for a Gacaca session to be held in camera; so when privacy is required, it can be granted."
During an interview, Karugarama said that they are going to draft a bill on the transfer of category one Genocide cases from conventional court system to Gacaca jurisdictions.
The bill would be presented to cabinet for approval.
Gacaca courts, which were originally expected to end with this year, have so far handled over one million cases.
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Iraqi High Tribunal
Official Website of the Iraqi High Tribunal
Grotian Moment: The Saddam Hussein Trial Blog
Henchmen still avoid gallows a year after Saddam execution
Arab Times Online
December 29, 2007
BAGHDAD, Dec 29, 2007 (AFP) - Iraq marks the first anniversary of Saddam Hussein's execution on Sunday with some of his most notorious aides still managing to avoid the gallows despite being sentenced to death.
On June 24 the judiciary sentenced 'Chemical Ali,' one of Saddam's most feared henchmen, to death in a bid to sweep away yet another piece of the executed Iraqi dictator's ruthless regime.
Two other pillars of the regime were also sentenced to hang with him, former defence minister Sultan Hashim al-Tai and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, the former armed forces deputy chief of operations.
All three were convicted of playing key roles in the slaughter of tens of thousands of ethnic Kurds in 1988.
But the US military which is holding the three condemned men says they will be handed over for execution only after a legal row between some of Iraq's highest ranking officials is resolved.
The government has been split over the legal and procedural requirements for carrying out the sentences handed down by the Iraqi High Tribunal, the court set up to try former officials of the Saddam regime.
The supreme court upheld the sentences in September, and under Iraqi law all three should have been executed by the end of the day on October 4.
But Iraq decided to postpone the hangings until after the holy Muslim month of Ramadan which ended on October 15, because of the outcry that followed Saddam's hanging during another
Muslim holiday last year.
The executions have been further delayed because two members of the presidential council -- President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni -- have refused to sign the execution orders.
Visiting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told reporters in Baghdad this month that the men would remain in American custody until the legal problems are resolved.
Ali Hassan al-Majid acquired the nickname 'Chemical Ali' for ordering poison gas attacks against Kurds in a scorched-earth campaign of bombings and mass deportations that left an estimated 182,000 people dead.
Majid, 66, was a cousin of Saddam and served as his enforcer against Iraq's now dominant Shiites and Kurds.
Others in the former president's inner circle of family members and many of his cronies -- mostly Sunni Arabs from the Tikrit region of northern Iraq -- have been hunted down.
Former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan followed Saddam to the gallows. He was convicted of crimes against humanity over the 1980s killing of 148 Shiites and was hanged in March on the anniversary of the 2003 US-led invasion.
Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, a half-brother and former chief of the dreaded Mukhabarat intelligence service, was hanged on January 15. His head was ripped from his body by the rope.
Uday and Qusay, Saddam's two sons who were pillars of the regime, were killed in a gunbattle with US troops backed by air power in the northern city of Mosul in July 2003.
All four were buried in their home village of Awjah near Tikrit, along with Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, the executed chief judge of Saddam's disbanded Revolutionary Court.
Only fugitive Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, who has a 10-million-dollar bounty on his head, has escaped capture among those closest to Saddam's seat of power, amid frequent unconfirmed reports of his death.
He was Saddam's number two in the decision-making Revolutionary Command Council, having stood by his side ever since the 1968 coup that brought their Baath party to power.
Former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz, seen as his master's voice who represented the acceptable face of Saddam's Iraq on the international scene, surrendered to US troops in Iraq in April 2003, and has since been held near Baghdad international airport without being formally charged.
Saddam's wife, Sajida Khairallah Tulfah Hussein, and eldest daughter Raghad remain on a US wanted list. They were among the women and children in Saddam's family who fled abroad before the US-led invasion.
Iraq's Shiite-led government has repeatedly expressed its determination to continue chasing down Saddam's surviving aides.
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Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) &
Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Offical Website of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
The Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme
Official Website of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia
NEC Declares July 5 for Local Elections
AllAfrica.Com
by Ibrahim Tarawallie
January 3, 2008
National Electoral Commission has declared July 5, 2008 as the date set aside for the conduct of the local government elections.
The commission successfully conducted the presidential and parliamentary elections some three months ago.
Making a statement on behalf of the NEC's chairperson, Commissioner Northern Province, Alhaji Algassimu Jarr told journalists that the commission has the sole authority as mandated by the constitution to prepare and conduct all public elections and referenda.
He said the commission would conduct elections for five City Councils in Freetown, Bo, Kenema, Koidu-New Sembehun and Makeni, one Municipal Council in Bonthe Township and thirteen District Councils.
NEC's Director of Operations, N'far Conteh said the local government election is ward based adding that the commission is conducting the election under the Local Government Act and the Electoral Laws Act of the constitution of Sierra Leone.
He said the commission would also conduct by-elections in March 2008 for vacant parliamentary positions.
"We will not succeed in the conduct of any public elections if the security atmosphere in the country is not conducive," he observed.
When contacted, Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party, Jacob Jusu Saffa said they were not informed as a party.
"The commission did not officially inform us about the set date for the local government election. We have nothing to do as a party but to accept the date for the election," he said.
PMDC's Publicity Secretary, Mohamed Bangura said they are happy with the date set by NEC for the local government election, adding: "As a party we are well prepared for the upcoming election." He expressed hope that NEC will continue to maintain its neutrality as they have done in the past presidential and parliamentary elections.
Prosecutor: 144 Witnesses to Testify Against ex Liberian President
Earthtimes.org
January 4, 2008
The Hague - The chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), Stephen Rapp, told reporters Friday he has 144 witnesses lined up to testify in the trial against former Liberian president Charles Taylor. Rapp was speaking at a press conference in The Hague. On Monday, the trial against Taylor is due to resume after an adjournment of more than six months to allow the defence lawyers familiarize themselves with Taylor's case.
The first witness to be called to the stand is an expert on the trade in so-called "blood diamonds" in West-Africa.
For security reasons, the trial against the former Liberian president is taking place in the Netherlands, in the building of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Taylor is the first president of an African country to be charged of serious crimes under international law by an international criminal court.
On July 3, the former president entered a plea of not guilty to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with actions committed by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group during the 11-year civil war in Sierra Leone that ended in 2002.
Taylor allegedly backed the rebel forces in Sierra Leone to gain control of the country's diamond mines. In 2003 he went into exile as rebels closed in on the Liberian capital.
Taylor Insider to Testify Against Former Liberian Leader
Reuters Africa
by Alexandra Hudson
January 4, 2008
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - An insider once close to former Liberian President Charles Taylor who can link him to atrocities committed in Sierra Leone will be among the first witnesses in Taylor's trial, his prosecutor said on Friday.
Taylor, whose trial begins in earnest on Monday after a 6-month break, is accused of orchestrating murder, rape and mutilation in a quest for diamonds during the civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Prosecutor Stephen Rapp of the U.N. special court for Sierra Leone said a victim of the violence as well as experts on the international diamond trade and the wider regional conflict would also appear as initial witnesses.
"This is an important test for international justice ... it will have ramifications throughout the world," he said of the trial.
"There have been other cases involving chiefs of state that have not gone well ... But I am confident that we can present the case and show that it is possible to hold a chief of state responsible in a fair and just trial."
Taylor is accused of trying to gain control of Sierra Leone's mineral wealth, particularly its diamond mines, and seeking to destabilise the Freetown government to boost his own influence throughout West Africa.
The indictment focuses on the horrific practices of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels between 1996 and 2002, who prosecutors say Taylor supported and supplied.
In Sierra Leone, a generation of civilian amputees -- their hands or legs hacked off by rebels -- are a painful reminder of the cruelty of the conflict, in which drugged rebels and militias, often child soldiers, killed, raped and maimed.
Taylor has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His trial is being held in The Hague because of fears it could spur instability if held in Sierra Leone.
JUDGEMENT SEEN IN 2009
Prosecutors intend to include evidence from 144 witnesses but hope half of those witnesses can submit their testimony in writing, allowing them to wrap up their case in around 8 months, Rapp said.
He added he hoped a judgment could be delivered by the end of 2009, but an appeal would likely stretch into 2010.
Taylor, 59, boycotted the opening of his trial last June in a dispute over the resources allocated to his defence, prompting legal wrangling and repeated delays.
More funds were eventually made available to Taylor and a new defence team was appointed in July.
The former strongman is receiving legal aid despite suspicions he amassed a considerable personal fortune.
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United States
CIA Faces Criminal Inquiry Into Loss of 'torture' Tapes at Guantanamo
The Independent
by David Usborne
January 3, 2008
The Central Intelligence Agency was last night rocked by the formal opening of a criminal inquiry into the destruction of video tapes of US interrogations of al-Qa'ida suspects at Guantanamo Bay which allegedly included the use of "water-boarding".
The US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said he was appointing an outside prosecutor to lead the investigation, which will determine whether criminal charges should be brought. The CIA has claimed that the tapes of the interrogations of two terror suspects were destroyed in 2005 to protect the identity of the agents involved. Democrats in Congress have mocked the claim.
The practice of "water-boarding", which simulates drowning, has been branded as torture by several leading Democrats, including those vying for the presidency. The White House maintains that the US does not practice torture.
But the investigation will also put a flame under President George Bush and his administration. Officials have conceded that at least four senior White House lawyers were party to long deliberations about the fate of the video tapes.
John Durham, the chief prosecutor of Connecticut who is leading the inquiry, is likely to empanel a grand jury to look into the case, which is likely to entail senior officials being called to testify. The co-chairmen of the panel that investigated the September 11 attacks of 2001 have publicly charged the CIA with deliberately obscuring the facts.
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UN Reports
Four New Judgments Against Genocide Accused Expected in April
Hirondelle News Agency
December 27, 2007
Four judgements of Rwanda genocide suspects on trial before the Arusha-based UN court are expected to be ready by April next year, according to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) President, Dennis Byron.
“We expect to be ready with at least four judgments before April (2008),” he told Hirondelle News Agency. He added that the speeding up of the judgements was part of the completion strategy of the ad hoc tribunal as ordered by the United Nations Security Council.
The UN has set a deadline of completing all pending cases by December 2008 and appeals by 2010.
The tribunal was set up in November 2004 to try key perpetrators of the 1994 killings which, according to the UN estimates, claimed lives of more of more than 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Among awaited judgements include that of Colonel Theoneste Bagosora in the joint trial with three other senior army commanders.
Col. Bagosora, then Director of Cabinet in the Ministry of Defence, is alleged to have masterminded the killings and usurped powers after the killing of the President Juvenal Habyarimana in a plane crash near the capital, Kigali, by unknown assailants on April 6, 1994.
Although, he was present at the negotiations of the Arusha (Tanzania) Peace Accords in August, 1993, Bagosora allegedly never supported them and is widely cited as saying, once everything was signed, that he was returning to Rwanda to prepare for the apocalypse. Luc Marchal, a Belgian Colonel, who was Romeo Dallaire’s (then UN Commander) Kigali sector commander, reported that Bagosora told him that the only way to solve Rwanda’s problems was to get rid of the ethnic Tutsi.
Bagosora is alleged to have been responsible for establishing paramilitary ‘self-defense’ units, the notorious pro-Hutu Interahamwe, that operated in every commune in the tiny central African republic. Bagosora was also responsible for distributing arms and machetes throughout Rwanda.
The other three accused in the so-called "Military Trial" are Lieutenant-Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, former Commander of Military operations in Gisenyi sector, Major Aloys Ntabakuze, former Commander of Para-Commando Battalion and Brigadier-General Gratien Kabiligi, former Chief of Military Operations.
It is the first time top military figures were brought before the tribunal, and the prosecution hopes this might help shed some light on how the Rwandan army leadership plotted the killings.
All four accused have pleaded not guilty to genocide and crimes against humanity.
The other judgement expected is in the case of Simeon Nshamihigo,ex-Deputy Prosecutor in Cyangugu prefecture.
The suspect had been working as a defense investigator for the war crimes tribunal under a Congolese passport and the name Sammy Bahati Weza. He was arrested by Tanzanian police and handed over to the UN tribunal in May 2001.
Judge Byron said that the judgements against Tharcisse Renzaho, former Mayor of Kigali, and Protais Zigiranyirazo (Mr 'Z'), ex-businessman and a brother-in-law of President Habyarimana, are also scheduled to be ready before April, next year.
“Two other judgements of musician Simon Bikindi and military chaplain Emmanuel Rukundo, are expected to be ready before first half of next year”, added the ICTR President. All accused have pleaded not guilty.
The UN court has so far rendered 35 judgements , including five acquittals.
Currently 28 detainees are on trial and six new cases are expected to start next year.
Government Asked to Involve UN in Trial Process
The Daily Star
December 30, 2007
Speakers at a discussion yesterday demanded that the present government begin the prosecution of war criminals and involve the international community including the United Nations (UN) in the process.
They also urged the government to form an enquiry commission to mobilise witnesses and evidence for the trial.
Titled "Genocide and Impunity", the discussion was held at the National Press Club in the city. It was organised by War Crimes Fact-finding Committee and presided over by Prof Anisuzzaman.
Eminent writer Selina Hossain, Prof Farida Banu, sister of a martyred intellectual, Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and Yasmeen Haque, teachers of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), MA Hasan, convenor of War Crimes Fact-finding Committee, Sarwar Ali, a trustee of Bangladesh Liberation War Museum, Shamsur Rahman Khan, former director general of National Museum, Dr M Nurun Nabi, a councilman of New Jersey, US and Dr Dipu Moni, an Awami League leader.
Prof Anisuzzaman said the government should form a fact-finding committee to collect evidence of numerous atrocities committed during the Liberation War and place those before the tribunal.
He said war criminals would have to be tried under the International War Crimes (Tribunals) Act -1973.
Calling on the government to include the UN, international jurists and human rights organisations in the process of trial, he said it is high time that the war criminals are brought to book.
Dr MA Hasan said the trial is still possible but for that to happen there must be a political will.
Placing several evidence of crimes committed by the collaborators of occupying Pakistan forces, he said, "As per the law, instructions of perpetrators and their collaborators, propagated through radio, television, wireless and print media can be used as court evidence."
He added, "Absence of trial has thrown the nation into a cycle of denial of justice, eroding the moral fabric and self-confidence.
"The government has to take the initiative to form an enquiry commission and tribunals to break the silence of impunity."
Dr Muhammad Zafar Iqbal described how his father was killed by the Pakistan army and their collaborators in Pirojpur.
He said a group led by Captain Ijaz and Colonel Atique of the occupation force and local Muslim League leader Afzal Hossain had waylaid his father and a few others returning from work. They killed them all and dumped the bodies in the river.
Dr Yasmeen Haque in her speech said trial of the war criminals was hindered after Ziaur Rahman took power.
Prof Farida Banu urged the government to revive the cases filed at different times.
Criticizing Information Adviser Mainul Hosein, the sister of martyred intellectual Giasuddin Ahmed said, "The present caretaker government is doing many things that are not related to election.
"They have time for raising the age limit of those in public service but no time for beginning the trial of war criminals."
Depleted UN Unit Joins Darfur Peace Effort
Financial Times
by Harvey Morris
December 31, 2007
A joint United Nations African Union force takes over peacekeeping operations in the Sudanese province of Darfur today with barely a third of its planned 26,000 personnel deployed.
It is an inauspicious start to what was to have been the world's largest peacekeeping operation, mandated to aid and protect the hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced in more than four years of conflict between the Khartoum government and its militia allies and Darfur rebel groups.
UN officials, including Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretarygeneral, have accused Khartoum of "foot-dragging" over the deployment of nonAfrican contingents. But the new force, Unamid, is also being hampered by the failure of UN member states to provide the hardware to make the peacekeeping effort effective.
Unamid will take over command today from an all-African force, Amis. Apart from existing African peacekeepers exchanging their green headgear for the blue berets of the UN, little will change in the short term.
The result of Khartoum's refusal to accept peacekeepers from Thailand, Nepal and Scandinavia is that the new force is, at 9,000, barely larger than the ineffective and poorly funded all-African force that has failed to halt the bloodshed in Darfur.
An estimated 2.5m people have been driven from their land since the Darfur conflict broke out in 2003 and at least 200,000 have been killed, many of them victims of pro-government militias.
Rwandan and Nigerian battalions have been added, along with an advanced party of Chinese military engineers. But the troops will lack the transport and attack helicopters needed to operate in the vast territory.
Mr Ban lamented this month that, despite his appeals to every UN member state capable of providing helicopter support, none had come forward with offers. He has declined to name the reluctant contributors, who might be wary of committing their hardware to a mission that appears doomed not to meet its objectives.
The idea of a unique, "hybrid" UN-AU force was set out in UN Security Council resolution 1769 in July, which expressed concern at attacks on civilians and humanitarian workers in Darfur. The Unamid peacekeepers would have a mandate to use force to protect civilians and themselves.
The UN has been pursuing a political track towards a settlement between Khartoum and the rebels. But talks launched in Libya in October have made little progress, partly because of the refusal of key rebel groups to attend.
Despite the looming debacle over the Unamid deployment, the Security Council has failed to take any tougher measures against Sudan, which relies on the support of China to avert any likelihood of sanctions.
The council failed this month to come up with a statement condemning Khartoum for its failure to hand over alleged war criminals.
UN Tribunal Terminates Provisional Release of Former Croatian Commander
UN News Service
December 31, 2007
The United Nations war crimes tribunal set up to deal with the worst crimes of the Balkan wars of the 1990s has ordered the arrest of a former Croatian commander for violating the terms of his provisional release by leaving his designated residence to go on a hunting trip without permission.
On 28 December, the Duty Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) requested the Government of Croatia to immediately arrest Mladen Markac and transfer him to the UN Detention Unit in The Hague, Netherlands, where the court is based.
Last week, the Tribunal received information that Mr. Markac had left his designated residence in Zagreb to go on a hunting trip in Biligora on 22 December. Croatian authorities did not report any breach of provisional release conditions in the five days following that trip, photos of which were published in the local media, but did confirm the violation upon the Registry’s request.
Mr. Markac – accused of murder, persecutions, deportation, inhumane acts and other crimes allegedly committed during his time as Commander of the Special Police of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia – has been on provisional release since December 2004.
He is to stand trial with two co-accused, Ante Gotovina and Ivan Cermak. The start of the trial has not yet been scheduled.
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NGO Reports
US: New Law Extends Prosecutions for Genocide
Human Rights Watch
December 24, 2007
(Washington, DC, December 24, 2007) – The Genocide Accountability Act closes a loophole by allowing the United States
