War Crimes Prosecution Watch

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)

Justice for Cambodia
Wall Street Journal
By Leslie Hook
January 4, 2008

The news from the Khmer Rouge war-crimes tribunal is good: Five former leaders are in custody and the first hearings began in November. The news is so good, according to the U.S. State Department, that Washington is mulling injecting a chunk of money into the tribunal. Supporters say this will help the impoverished nation come to grips with Pol Pot's 1975-1979 genocide, which left a quarter of the population dead.

Not so fast. Although it's finally getting off the ground, the tribunal is flawed, and has yet to prove it's capable of delivering justice. Before any taxpayers' dollars are put on the line, there are several issues to consider.

For starters, the tribunal will likely try fewer than a dozen defendants. During negotiations between the Cambodian government and the United Nations in the 1990s, the definition of whom the tribunal could try -- "senior leaders" and "those most responsible" for the genocide -- was carefully crafted to limit the court's scope. In the eyes of Cambodian government officials, many of whom had some involvement with the Khmer Rouge, the sooner this dark period can be laid to rest, the better.

Phnom Penh also insisted the trials be held in Cambodia -- the first time a U.N. genocide tribunal has been held where the crimes were committed. After years of negotiations, the U.N. and Phnom Penh agreed that a majority of judges would be Cambodian, but that foreign judges would hold a supermajority power. This meant that no decision could be passed unless at least one foreign judge agreed.

A few sponsoring nations, including the U.S., balked at this arrangement, on the grounds that the notoriously corrupt Cambodian judicial system would still play a leading role. Yet the U.N. had no trouble persuading more than 20 other countries to ante up, and nearly $50 million in donations have poured in since fund raising began in 2004.

The cash has not been enough. The official courtroom is still under construction. The translation team is already backed up, unable to handle the 300,000 pages of Cambodian-language documents through which the judges are sifting. The witness protection team has a skeleton staff and no director. On the day I attended the court last month, a throng mobbed the entrance and the security check took nearly an hour.

Then there are the corruption allegations. A U.N. audit last spring found, among other irregularities, that the Cambodian side of the court had hired underqualified staff and was paying inflated salaries. The United Nations Development Program, which oversees that part of the program, tried to bury the news, limiting circulation of the audit and refusing media inquiries. The report was finally released in October, but only after these pages exposed the scandal. In an interview last month, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An promised, "We are deeply engaged in the fight against corruption." Sounds good, but where are the actions to back up these words?

Now the tribunal has its hands out for more cash. The U.N. is planning a major fund-raising drive this month that will likely double the court's original budget estimate to more than $120 million. For the first time, there's a real chance that Washington may chip in.

In October, the U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh cabled Washington that it was time to start investigating whether the tribunal met the standards that would qualify it for congressional funding. This prompted exploratory visits by representatives of several members of Congress and the ambassador-at-large for war crimes, Clint Williamson. Last month, after a trip to Cambodia, Mr. Williamson said the tribunal is "moving in a very positive direction." In an interview, U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia Joseph Mussomeli acknowledges there have been "bumps in the road," but puts his faith in the international judges, who would "walk out" if the court didn't meet international standards.

That's not good enough: At the very least, the U.S. should use any offer of money as a lever to enforce new and better practices -- such as a full investigation into the allegations of kickbacks that have dogged the court's administrative offices.

The real measure of the war-crimes tribunal's success, however, will be whether it can bring a sense of closure to Cambodia's people. On the day I was in court, a man sitting nearby told me, "My father was killed at S-21." Sothea Sambath was referring to the torture and detention center run by the defendant, Duch. "This man signed on top of my father's confession," he said. "I really wanted to see his face, to look him in the eyes, and to see the beginning of justice." He smiled politely, as if this tragic part of his family history is an ordinary matter.

In some sense, it is: Practically every Cambodian has a relative who died during the Khmer Rouge genocide. Which is all the more reason to ensure that these trials turn out not to be a sham.

Cambodia's ruling party warns against politicising genocide trials
AFP via Yahoo News
January 7, 2007

Cambodia's powerful ruling party Monday warned against politicising the country's genocide trials, while voicing its support for prosecuting leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the 29th anniversary of the ouster of the Khmer Rouge, Chea Sim, president of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), said he believed the trials had international backing.

But he also lashed out at "absent-minded elements" and "ill-willed political circles" who oppose efforts by Cambodia to reconcile after years of civil strife, which include trying those behind the Khmer Rouge killing fields.

"We condemn any acts to use the courts with the aim of creating instability or disrupting society," he said.

The five top surviving leaders of the regime, blamed for the deaths of up to two million people through overwork, execution or starvation between 1975 and 1979, were arrested last year by Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal.

The first public trials are expected to be held this year, but the tribunal has been plagued over the last decade by delays amid concerns over political interference.

Rights groups and some opposition politicians have accused the government of trying to derail the trials for fear of exposing atrocities committed by former regime cadres currently serving in Prime Minister Hun Sen's administration.

Hun Sen himself was a former Khmer Rouge military commander who later fled to Vietnam and returned as part of a Hanoi-backed military force that helped overthrow the regime in January 1979.

U.N.-tribunal meets Khmer Rouge cadres to calm fears
Reuters News
By Ek Madra
January 15, 2008

French and Cambodian judges of the U.N.-backed "Killing Fields" tribunal met former Khmer Rouge fighters in one of Pol Pot's final strongholds on Tuesday to allay their fears about the long-awaited trials.

Even though the $56 million court was set up to investigate only those "most responsible" for the deaths of the Khmer Rouge's estimated 1.7 million victims, many ageing former guerrillas are worried they will be sucked into the process.

However, French investigating judge Marcel Lemonde assured government officials in Pailin, a Khmer Rouge redoubt on the Thai border, this was not the case and asked for help in convicting five top cadres already charged with atrocities.

"The court cannot achieve its goal without participation from the local authorities and public," Lemonde said.

Sam Yet, a 49-year-old former black-shirted guerrilla, said he was ready to provide evidence against his former commanders, a rare expression of support for the court in a region where Pol Pot is still revered as a national hero.

"The leaders of the Khmer Rouge should be held accountable and punished for their roles," he told Reuters as he walked with his wife down the main street in Pailin, a wild border town under Khmer Rouge control until a 1997 surrender deal.

"Brother Number One" Pol Pot died in the final redoubt of Anlong Veng, also on the Thai border, in 1998, nearly two decades after his four-year ultra-Maoist regime was removed by a Vietnamese invasion.
However, his right-hand-man, Nuon Chea, as well as former president Khieu Samphan, former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife were charged with crimes against humanity or war crimes last year.

The other suspect in detention is Duch, commandant of the notorious "S-21" interrogation and torture centre in Phnom Penh's Tuol Sleng high school. Duch has already confessed to mass murder and implicated members of Pol Pot's inner circle.

Pailin governor Ee Chhean, one of Pol Pot's messengers during his time in the jungle, said he believed the trials would not stir up too much dirt in a region where all survivors have dark secrets.

"The government is not going to have a trial that causes social unrest," he said.

Prosecutors visit Khmer Rouge killing fields
Bangkok Post
January 17, 2008

Court officials from Cambodia's special chambers to try a handful of former leaders ended a visit to the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin Wednesday, confident the visit was successful.

The visit was aimed at explaining the court to former Khmer Rouge rank and file and allaying fears that it was a witch hunt which may spread to the lower levels of the now-defunct movement.

The prosecutors visited a pagoda and "met with the people," according to media spokesman Reach Sambath, attempting to spread the message to the predominantly former Khmer Rouge community that the court was open to them to approach and was intent on finding justice.

However, many of the region's former Khmer Rouge officials boycotted the two-day visit, with some even fleeing their former sanctuary on the north-western border with Thailand to travel nearly 500 kilometres to the capital to avoid the media frenzy which accompanied it.

The 56-million-dollar joint UN-Cambodia court has so far arrested five former leaders and charged them with crimes against humanity as well as war crimes in some cases.

Four of them were officially residents of Pailin until their arrest and remain popular in the community there after they helped broker a deal to defect to the government in 1996, ending the war but allowing former Khmer Rouge autonomy, and spent lavishly on items such as local Buddhist pagodas.

Up to 2 million Cambodians died under the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime.

US seeks role in Cambodian KRouge trials: official
AFP via Google News
January 17, 2008

The United States wants an advisory role in Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal and would consider helping fund the cash-strapped court if given the post, a Cambodian official said Thursday.

The offer was made during talks with the US State Department's Assistant Secretary of State Scot Marciel, said Kao Kim Huorn, a secretary of state with the foreign ministry.

"The US requested that Cambodia create another post -- a special advisor to help the Khmer Rouge tribunal," Kao Kim Huorn said after meeting with top US officials.

"This is a condition if Cambodia wants the US to provide funds for the tribunal. Cambodia is considering the request," he added, saying the advisor's role was under discussion.

The United States is a key Cambodian donor but has not pledged funding for the 56.3 million-dollar tribunal established to try senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

"The US is worried about the independence and standards of the court," Kao Kim Huorn said.
US Embassy spokesman Jeff Daigle could not be reached for comment on the offer. Marciel is in Cambodia through Friday to meet top government officials.

The UN-backed tribunal has come under fire amid allegations of political interference, corruption and fiscal mismanagement.

Sean Visoth, Cambodia's top administrator to the tribunal, declined to comment on the offer, which comes at a crucial time for the court.

Already burdened by a multimillion-dollar shortfall when it opened in 2006, the tribunal is set to run out of funds by March without another cash injection from the international community.

Court officials have said they would embark on a major fund-raising drive early this year as the prosecution of former regime leaders looks set to go forward.

Five top cadre have been arrested so far, with the first trials expected to begin in mid-2008.

Up to two million people died of starvation, disease and overwork, or were executed under the 1975-79 rule of the Khmer Rouge, which emptied Cambodia's cities, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia.

Schools, religion and currency were outlawed and the educated classes targeted for extermination by the communists.

Nuon Chea Ready for Pre-Trial 'Struggle'
VOA Khmer
By Sok Khemara
January 17, 2008

The lawyer for jailed Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea said Thursday he is ready to present his client’s case for pre-trial release at a tribunal hearing next month.

The lawyer, Son Arun, said he will present a strong case on Feb. 4 for Nuon Chea’s release, despite a finding against similar arguments for the jailed prison chief Duch in November.

“As to guaranteeing Nuon Chea getting out of detention, there will be a struggle,” Son Arun told VOA Khmer. “The lawyer’s struggle must be to try. Whether he succeeds or doesn’t succeed, it’s the privilege of the judge and lawyers to find laws, forms, arguments, evidence to release the client. That’s our effort.”

Experts said Thursday Nuon Chea will have to demonstrate he is not a threat to public security, evidence or witnesses and will have to show guarantees he will appear before the courts when called.

“I believe both lawyers of Nuon Chea will raise some of these points in the pre-trial chamber,” said Hisham Moussar, a tribunal monitor for the rights group Adhoc.

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Democratic Republic of the Congo (ICC)

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

Sexual violence in Congo is “the worst in the world”
Derechos Humanos via Parlemento Europeo
January 17, 2008

Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the international community to take action against the widespread sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which it describes as "the worst in the world".

According to the resolution, the war and unrest in eastern DRC "has resulted in sexual violence against women on a widespread and alarming scale committed by armed rebel groups, as well as by government, army and police forces". Women are being "systematically attacked on an unprecedented scale".

War atrocities are "structured around rape, gang rape, sexual slavery and murder". This not only leads to "the physical and psychological destruction of women" but seems to be used "as a way of humiliating women in front of their families and communities and thus destroying the integrity, morale and cohesion of those communities". The end result is to "destroy all social networks and represent a genuine national threat".

Perpetrators can be prosecuted under national and international law

Parliament's resolution "condemns the use of rape as a weapon of war and recalls that the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over such acts", which are classified under the ICC's statute as crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The government of DRC also has a clear responsibility "to put an end to impunity and to implement the new law adopted by its Parliament outlawing sexual violence, which lays down stiffer penalties for perpetrators".

Parliament therefore urges that "the perpetrators of sexual violence against women be reported, identified, prosecuted and punished, in accordance with national and international criminal law".

Support needed from global community

The wider international community is called upon "to take all necessary steps to support the relevant national authorities in investigating these acts and prosecuting those responsible", while the EU is urged "to allocate substantial funds to providing medical, legal and social support for victims of sexual abuse and empowering women and girls as a way of preventing further sexual abuse".

The EU and the UN are asked "formally to recognise rape, forced impregnation, sexual slavery and any other forms of sexual violence as crimes against humanity, serious war crimes and a form of torture, whether or not they are carried out in a systematic manner". All UN member states that send personnel on the MONUC peacekeeping mission are urged "to bring individuals who have committed sexual abuse to court as quickly as possible".

Lastly, the DRC government and the UN mission (MONUC) are asked to guarantee security for members of humanitarian organisations.

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Darfur, Sudan (ICC)

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

China, Russa quash ICC efforts to press Sudan over Darfur crimes
IWPR, via Sudan Tribune
By Katy Glassborow
January 12, 2008

(THE HAGUE) — A United Nations Security Council, UNSC, statement calling for the Sudanese government to comply with the International Criminal Court, ICC, by handing over two men suspected of war crimes in Darfur has been scrapped due to opposition from China and Russia.

The countries, two of the five permanent UNSC members, refused to endorse the presidential statement which urged the Government of Sudan, GoS, to cooperate fully with, and provide any necessary assistance to the ICC.

Human rights workers, officials and court representatives are now calling for the UNSC to take a tougher stance.

Back in March 2005, the UNSC referred Darfur to the ICC under Resolution 1593 because it considered the situation in Sudan a threat to international peace and security. The resolution urged all states to cooperate fully with the court.

In April 2007, ICC judges issued arrest warrants for government minister Ahmed Harun, and Janjaweed commander Ali Kushyb. However, the GoS refused to accept the jurisdiction of the ICC over crimes in Darfur, insisting that the Sudanese justice system is capable to trying suspects.

Khartoum refuses to cooperate with the court, and in a show of defiance, Harun has been promoted to minister in charge of humanitarian affairs, and as liaison for the new UN-African Union hybrid peacekeeping force, UNAMID.

The statement calling for greater cooperation from the GoS was drafted after the ICC prosecutor reported in December that a second wave of atrocities was being committed against 2.5 million Darfurians, who had previously been forcibly displaced from their homes and are now living in camps.

In his report, Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo spoke of a "calculated, organised campaign by Sudanese officials to attack individuals and further destroy the social fabric of entire communities", as well as an increasing number of attacks against humanitarian personnel and peace keepers.

He gave examples of the joint attack on the town of Muhajiriya by allied GoS and Janjaweed forces on October 8, 2007 in which 48 civilians praying in a mosque were rounded up and slaughtered, as well as a Sudanese airforce bombing of Adilla in August the same year which displaced a further 20,000 people.

Moreno-Ocampo asked the UNSC to send a strong, unanimous message to the GoS, requesting compliance and the execution of arrest warrants for Harun and Kushyb.

"It would be inaccurate and confusing to convey in any way to the GoS that the arrest warrants and the obligation to comply with Resolution 1593 will go away," said Moreno-Ocampo.

At the time, the then president of the UNSC, Italy’s ambassador Marcello Spatafora, described the contents of Moreno-Ocampo’s report as "very disturbing”. Following the prosecutor’s briefing, he said a UNSC declaration should be drafted.

"We cannot stay silent, and have to send a strong message [to the Sudanese authorities] so we propose this to the members and ask the countries to circulate a draft. It is now under consideration," he said.

Slovakia, Italy, UK, France, and Belgium then proposed a statement, citing the ICC arrest warrants for Kushyb and Harun, and urged Khartoum to cooperate with the ICC "in respect of these individuals".
However, on December 7, after two days of discussions between the 15 members of the UNSC, the statement was suddenly abandoned.

In an apparent about-turn, Spatafora told journalists that a statement was “not needed” because UNSC members had already been “loud and clear” about their views that the GoS should cooperate with the ICC.

UN sources told IWPR that China and Russia felt the presidential statement was not conducive to humanitarian, political and peacekeeping efforts.

UK ambassador to the UN John Sawyers suggested that China was responsible for blocking December’s statement. He said he was "confident that if the Chinese had not taken such a firm line against the statement, it would have been adopted".

ICC watchers, such as David Donat Cattin from Parliamentarians for Global Action, were not surprised the statement was scrapped and feel that it would not have made any real difference to the Darfur crisis.
"It would have been a nice political move, but would not have added anything to the legally binding Resolution 1593," he said.

But representatives of rebel groups in Sudan are disappointed that the UNSC has backed down.

Ahmed Diraige, chairman of the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance and former head of the National Redemption Front, said in order to stay credible and respected by Darfurians, organisations such as the UN and ICC must prove they are fulfilling their duties.

"The resolve of the international community to bring people in Sudan to justice is a farce. The UNSC and ICC have passed resolutions and indicted individuals, but have no means of enforcing decisions and the government is defying them, and not handing individuals over,” said Diraige.

"One has been promoted to status of minister of humanitarian affairs when he is accused of violating human rights. This is very damaging to the reputation of these institutions. People will laugh and say they do not exist and are only names.”

He told IWPR that the international community must take a tougher stance against the Sudanese authorities.

"People in Darfur have lost faith. Injustices are continuing. The international community, international institutions and heads of state are not doing anything," he said.

Justice minister of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, JEM, Bushara Suleiman, said that whether Kushayb and Harun end up in The Hague is entirely dependent on pressure from the UNSC on the government, and is calling for further sanctions.

"The UNSC need to impose oil sanctions, which is the only thing which will stop the genocide in Darfur, but [permanent member] China will never allow this,” he said.

"The Chinese have a UNSC veto and also have oil interests in Sudan. So rebels need to control cities like El Genina, El Fasher and Nyala, because any other sanctions will not convince the GoS to comply with the ICC."

China buys most of Sudan’s oil, and rebels accuse the country of indirectly funding Khartoum’s campaign in Darfur by investing in the country’s oil industry and thereby channelling money to the government.

Bushara told IWPR that those who have committed crimes have to be taken to the ICC and that "we will fight until this happens. For us it is clear. We need comprehensive sanctions".

But Sawyers is not confident about the resolve of fellow UNSC members over imposing progressively more hard-hitting sanctions against Sudan.

“If we press for further sanctions, we might find a number of other countries, not just China, but also Russia, Libya, Vietnam South Africa being cautious about applying that pressure,” he said.

Observers point out that the current sanctions imposed against Sudan by the UNSC are not working.
Cattin said that a travel ban currently in place against Harun is short-sighted because "experience tells us that the best way to arrest these people is to allow them to travel and arrest them outside Sudan".

Steve Crawshaw from Human Rights Watch said that blame for the UNSC’s half-hearted response to the Darfur crisis cannot be laid solely at the feet of China and Russia.

He said that right across the UNSC, there has been a lack of will to help the ICC, and added that the body was sending out “confusing signals” to Sudan.

In mid-2007, as the UN negotiated with the Sudanese authorities to send a deployment of hybrid peacekeepers to Darfur, the UNSC did not want to acknowledge the GoS was failing to cooperate with the ICC in case it ruined the deal.

Crawshaw said that Khartoum was praised by the UN for cooperating in discussions over peacekeepers, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon failing to raise the issue of justice on a trip to Sudan.

"You can’t have Khartoum praised, and not mention that Harun was appointed as the liaison to UNAMID. This is a shameful slap in the face to the UN, and every government has to confront this," added Crawshaw.

Belgium’s UN ambassador Johan Verbeke told IWPR he has "again and again stressed the importance of the fight against impunity in Sudan, particularly in relation to the case of Harun, and succeeded in making an increasing number of UNSC members sensitive to the issue.

"Belgium will not accept Sudan’s utter defiance of its obligations.”

These are welcome words for ICC prosecutors after what they describe as “months of silence from the international community”.

An ICC spokesperson told IWPR that "it is now up to the members of the UNSC to live up to their responsibility and ensure that the GoS respect its obligations under Resolution 1593 and cooperate with the ICC, in particular through the arrest and surrender of Harun and Kushayb".

The Chinese and Russian delegations to the UN declined the opportunity to respond to interview requests from IWPR.

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Uganda (ICC)

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

Ugandan Peace Talks Stall
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
By Samuel Okiror Egadu
January 16, 2008

As Kampala blocks a mission to meet the Ugandan rebels in their stronghold, military forces are poised to push them out of the Congo.

Recent political and military developments have made the prospect of renewed talks between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army increasingly remote.

The Ugandan authorities have warned negotiators not to go and meet rebel commander Joseph Kony at his base in the Garamba national park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, citing fragile security at the jungle camp.

The travel ban comes just weeks before a January 31 deadline which Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has set for signing a peace deal. Museveni also says the Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA, must abandon its jungle hideout or else face attack by Congolese and United Nations forces already poised in the region.

The threat of military action against Kony comes in the wake of a September 2007 agreement between Museveni and DRC president Joseph Kabila, and statements by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Kony should leave the Congo and make peace.

Although armed action against Kony could sabotage the peace talks which have continued since July 2006, it could also trigger a violent response from his rebel force, perhaps even a renewal of war in northern Uganda.

Regardless of the risks, Ugandan army officials say the planned offensive by their colleagues in DRC is in line with an agreement reached in the Juba peace talks in August 2006 that required the LRA’s guerrillas to assemble at Ri-Kwangba in South Sudan, not in the Garamba park.

“We have signed an agreement with Congo government to flush out the LRA rebels from Garamba forests. The operations will be done by Congo and [UN] MONUC forces,” Ugandan army captain Paddy Ankunda told IWPR.

“According to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement [CHA], the LRA are supposed to be in Ri-Kwangba, not in Garamba. But the LRA have continued to violate the agreement. The joint operations will be in line with the CHA and will reinforce the Juba peace process”

The move appears to have the backing of the United States.

Jendayi Frazer, the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, hinted at American support during a meeting with Museveni last year in Kampala. Although she did not specifically mention the LRA, Frazer said the US government was “very concerned about the situation in the eastern Congo, and we are working to ensure that the security situation improves”.

At the time, Uganda and DRC were attempting to settle a military clash over oil drilling in Lake Albert, which both countries share.

The travel ban issued by Kampala comes on the eve of a planned visit by some 400 or 500 people from Uganda to meet with Kony on the South Sudan-Congo border.

“At the moment, we are not sure of what would happen to anyone who travels to meet Joseph Kony,” said Henry Okello Oryem, Uganda’s state minister for international affairs, who had been named as deputy head of the peace mission prior to the ban.

Okello said his government was worried about the safety of its citizens because of the unpredictability of Kony, not least the reports that he killed his own second-in-command, Vincent Otti, in October 2007.

“The government will not allow any Ugandan to travel to Garamba until LRA gives a clear and proper explanation [of the] circumstances that led to execution of Vincent Otti,” Okello told IWPR. “Those who will go against our advice are going at their risks as government can’t guarantee their safety and security.”

Okello said Kony’s call for some 500 people to meet him in Garamba was designed to delay signing a peace agreement.

“It’s very unfortunate. This issue [trip] is misplaced and intended to delay the peace process,” he said.

Meanwhile, a number of people who had initially planned to make the trek to Garamba have cancelled.

The Anglican bishop of northern Uganda, Nelson Onono Onweng, dismissed the need for any further meetings with Kony in the bush.

“There is no need to think and waste time to go to Garamba. Even if I was given 5,000 dollars, I wouldn’t go,” Onono told IWPR in an interview.

“What should people go and do in the bush? There is no need to go there. The LRA delegation came here, consulted and we gave them our views. Let them go and brief Kony and return to the negotiating table in Juba to complete the peace talks.”

Bishop Onono said Kony may have called for the massive meeting because he no longer trusted his own negotiating team, which is lead by Martin Ojul.

Ojul is reportedly in Juba and has been unable to meet Kony. Attempts by IWPR to reach Ojul for comment failed.

“I am suspicious, and begin to have a feeling that his delegation seems to be at a loss,” said Bishop Onono. “Kony seems to have lost trust in his delegation. Since they completed their consultations [in Uganda] three weeks ago, they have not reported to him.”

Other officials from the north have also cancelled, saying they would be risking their lives if they went on the trip.

“Personally, I will not go. It’s too risky and I wouldn’t advise the people to go. For those who will go, who will guarantee their security and safety?” said Gulu Resident District Commissioner, Walter Ochora.

“It’s useless for 400-500 to visit Kony [when] his delegation just recently completed consultations in Uganda. The LRA delegation should talk to Kony and return to Juba [rather] than wasting time trying to fly 400 people to meet Kony.”

In the northern Ugandan town of Lira, district commissioner Franco Ojur accused the LRA negotiating team of dragging out the talks merely so that money assigned to cover their costs would keep flowing.

“I am not going to lead any delegation to Garamba to do nothing,” said Ojur. “There is nothing to do in Garamba any more.

“If Kony just wants to see the people, let him come out of the bush and meet us here in Lango. There is no point for us to go to Garamba. I am not going to risk to take people there.”

However, Santa Okot, a member of the LRA delegation, defended the trip, arguing that it was intended to build confidence.

“The meeting is very necessary for confidence building as it draws leaders from South Sudan, northern Uganda, international observers and Ugandans in the diaspora,” explained Okot. “It‘s going to be helpful as there will be face-to-face discussions between Kony and the delegates.”

Okot said predicted that some delegation members would defy the government’s ban.

“If government wants to block people from travelling, they can go ahead,” she said, adding that this would not hamper those who wanted to go.

The trip is being sponsored by the government of South Sudan, which is mediating the talks in Juba, and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army is to provide security for the delegates, she said said.

Okot said a peace agreement could be reached by March.

“By March, the peace agreement will be signed,” she told IWPR. “After meeting Kony, and the planned meeting of 400 people, we shall return to Juba and finish the two remaining items on ceasefire and disarmament, demobilisation and integration of rebels before we sign a final deal.”

The LRA rebellion has lasted 21 years and seen at least 100,000 people die and 1.7 million others become internal refugees.

After the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for the LRA’s top commanders for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the guerrillas retreated to the remote northeast corner of DRC.

Kony has exerted his control over the talks from his camp. No date has been set either for the planned meeting between him and his delegation, or for the resumption of peace talks.

Mistrust threatens Uganda's fragile peace
Independent Online
January 9, 2008

Kampala - There was joy for many, including northern Ugandan Catholic Archbishop John Baptist Odama, when talks began in July 2006 between the Ugandan government and the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) guerillas.

When the secession of hostilities agreement that saw diplomacy replace the gunfire of one of modern Africa's longest and most brutal civil conflicts was finally inked by the two foes a month later, Odama called it "the happiest day of my life."

Now, 18 months since the negotiations began under the mediation of southern Sudan's leaders, however, the aging cleric and reknown peace campaigner is less enthusiastic.

"Mistrust between the two sides is serious," Odama told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, speaking from the war-battered region.

The archbishop is not the only observer worried that the country may be sliding back to war in light of the apparent impasse between the government and the LRA.

The patience of the Ugandan government seems to have run out over the snail-pace of talks which it has accused the LRA of deliberately delaying.

As the rebels become more elusive than ever, the talk and actions on the part of the government appear to point to a resumption of war.

"The suspicion is not only between the government and the LRA but it is among all the individuals involved in the peace talks. Everybody is suspicious of (LRA leader Joseph) Kony," lawyer Alphonse Owiny-Dollo told dpa.

Kony has been a key player in the Ugandan war that began shortly after President Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986. The elusive and fanatical former lay preacher initially vowed to one day take power and rule by the Bible.

His jungle combatants, however, unleashed terror on the civilian population with murder and the amputation of limbs, lips, noses and ears. Nearly 2 million people were forced to flee their homes.

The LRA abducted tens of thousands of children, forcing them to fight alongside rebels, partaking in the atrocities and carry loot. The girls among them were turned into sex slaves.

The group's leadership is currently holed up in a game park in the remote north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo where they ended up after being flushed out of bases in southern Sudan.

In late 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued warrants for the arrest of five LRA commanders, including Kony for war crimes, while Museveni offered them amnesty.

Squabbles on both sides have delayed the conclusion of a final peace treaty, with matters becoming worse after an apparent split within the LRA.

Kony has been accused of having killed his second-in-command. The deputy leader of the government negotiating team warned this week that Kony could turn on other members of the LRA, including its peace delegation.

Museveni has given January 31 as a deadline for the LRA to sign the final peace treaty or at the very least show readiness to do so.

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International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Official Website of the ICTY

Bosnia envoy seizes Karadzic family's passports
Reuters
By Maja Zuvela
January 10, 2008

SARAJEVO, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Bosnia's top international envoy ordered on Thursday the seizure of travel documents from members of Radovan Karadzic's family, on suspicion of helping Bosnia's top war crimes suspect evade capture.

"The order was issued at the request of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and in close cooperation with relevant local law enforcement agencies," Miroslav Lajcak said in a statement.

The measure applies to Karadzic's wife Ljiljana Zelen-Karadzic, son Aleksandar, daughter Sonja Karadzic-Jovicevic and son-in-law Branislav Jovicevic.

"These four persons are ... the subject of orders by the state court, a decision by the council of ministers, international financial and travel sanctions and ongoing criminal investigations for their role in the support network of Radovan Karadzic," he said.

Separately on Thursday, the central cabinet decided to freeze assets of four remaining fugitives from the Hague-based court -- Karadzic, his military chief Ratko Mladic, Stojan Zupljanin and Goran Hadzic. The measure will be implemented over the next 12 months.

GENOCIDE

Karadzic and Mladic have been charged with genocide over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys and the 1992-95 Sarajevo siege in which about 11,000 people were killed.

Zupljanin was charged in 1999 with crimes against Muslims and Croats in western Bosnia early in the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Hadzic, a Croatian Serb leader, has also been indicted by the ICTY.

The Bosnian Serb Republic police confirmed they had taken away personal and travel documents from members of the Karadzic family. "The move will prevent them from leaving the country," said Tamara Despenic, an Interior Ministry spokeswoman.

She added that Bosnian security agencies, as well as those in neighbouring countries, had been informed about the measure.

Family members living in the Bosnian Serb wartime stronghold of Pale, 16 km (10 miles) east of the capital Sarajevo, have denied any contacts with Karadzic since 2002.

But international officials say evidence collected from their homes indicates such contacts have continued.

NATO and the European Union peacekeepers have raided the homes of Karadzic's family members several times and seized documents. The last such raid was two months ago.

After Aleksandar Karadzic was detained by NATO in 2005, his mother publicly urged Radovan Karadzic to voluntarily surrender for the sake of the family. (Reporting by Maja Zuvela; editing by Andrew Roche)

Bosnia’s foreign fighter dilemma
ISA Consulting
January 13, 2008

Bosnia plays a legal back-and-forth with foreign fighters from Islamic countries who arrived in the 1990s.

A Bosnian court on 11 January reversed the government’s decision to strip Bosnian citizenship from Tunisian born Abu Hamza, who has been linked repeatedly by security forces to criminal and radical Muslim groups. ISA experts reported in late December that Abu Hamza was one of the first candidates slated to be deported from Bosnia to his country of origin.

After the Bosnian government’s Commission for Citizenship Revision revoked the citizenship of Abu Hamza, also known as Karray Kamel bin Ali, in April 2007, he submitted an appeal to the Bosnian high court, arguing that the move violated legal procedures.

When the commission revised his case, they found several irregularities. The commission discovered that Abu Hamza had given false identity information in his citizenship application and that he had falsely claimed that he was a member of the Bosnian Army at the time of application. The authorities have also labeled him a potential national security threat who maintains ties to figures with terrorist aspirations.

However, based on the documentation presented by his lawyer, the court found that at the time of his citizenship application, Abu Hamza was commander of the El-Mujahid unit and that under Bosnian laws he had the right to gain citizenship through his marriage to a Bosnian woman, who left him after the war. This unit was under the official jurisdiction of the Bosnian Army during the war, though it operated autonomously and was comprised of foreign fighters from Islamic countries.

In its decision, the court said there were legal elements proving that Abu Hamza had gained Bosnian citizenship legitimately and that an evaluation of whether any documents had been falsified did not fall under the commission’s jurisdiction. Still, the court called for authorized institutions to investigate Abu Hamza’s case further.

However, Bosnian security forces have shown a keen interest in Abu Hamza for at least a decade. According to police information, Abu Hamza was part of a 15-20 member group hailing from the larger of Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya who arrived in the central Bosnian cities of Zenica and Travnik in the summer of 1992.

Living in Bosnia until 1998, Abu Hamza used several names and falsified documents, such as El Akil Abdellah Ahmed, born in Yemen; Bega Kamel, born in Libya; and five other names with Yemeni and Libyan documents, each with different places of birth and dates, all proved to be false. Some of those documents he used while applying for Bosnian citizenship.

Initially, he became known to the Bosnian public after murdering Egyptian Hisham Diab, alias Abu Velid, in 1997 in Zenica. An investigation into the case later showed that the real Hisham Diab was still alive and an active member of an organization called "New Jihad."

Diab was formerly a close associate of the radical Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is serving a life sentence for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The identity of the person Abu Hamza killed in Zenica remains unknown.

After managing to evade arrest for three years, Abu Hamza was finally captured in Germany in 2000 and deported to Bosnia, where he was sentenced to seven years in prison. He was released in January last year.

After his release, he become an "advisor" to his former cellmate, Jusuf Barcic, a self-proclaimed Bosnian sheikh who led several unarmed raids on mosques in Sarajevo, Tuzla and Zenica in early 2007, attempting to take control of them to the outrage of the local moderate Islamic community. Barcic also served a seven-month prison sentence for domestic violence.

When Barcic died in a car accident in early May 2007, Abu Hamza assumed his role as an aggressive preacher calling for a return to traditional Islam, which is supported by radical Wahhabis in Bosnia. Bosnian police now believe that it was Abu Hamza who organized previous incidents in local mosques, rather than their original suspect, Barcic.

Then, just weeks before ISA sources from the citizenship revision commission announced that Abu Hamza might be in the first group to be deported, since he was classified as threat to the national security, he was involved in a shooting incident in a village near Zenica.

Abu Hamza and three associates, all members of the radical Muslim Wahhabi movement, were arrested on 9 June after an attack on a house owned by Zijad Kovac in which three members of Kovac’s family were wounded.

Police still do not have a motive for the attack at the Kovac home. The Kovac family is not known to have any criminal connections or to be involved in any religious matters. The family owns a small sawmill in Zenica.

However, Zijad Kovac is a distant relative of Zahid Kovac, a Zenica prosecutor at the time when Abu Hamza was tried for the murder of Abu Velid. Speaking to local media, prosecutor Zahid Kovac said he did not believe that he was the intended target, but did not exclude the possibility that the attackers had come to the wrong address.

Another theory put forward by police is that the attack was intended to end with the detention of Abu Hamza in order to prolong his stay in Bosnia through a court case. Should he return to Tunisia he would face another prison term, having been sentenced there to 13 years in absentia.

On 30 November, a local court in Zenica sentenced Abu Hamza to two years and 10 months in prison for the assault on the Kovac home.

Yet, Bosnian authorities released him the same day as his sentencing, citing overcrowded local prisons. Local media reported that security forces have remained on alert since and during the trial, in which Abu Hamza threatened the media, police and “all enemies of Islam.”

On 21 December, a court in Zenica ordered that Abu Hamza be incarcerated following the filing of a complaint the previous week by his ex-wife, who claimed he had assaulted her after his release. The prosecutor in the case, Sasa Sarajlic, also presented the court with threatening letters he received from Abu Hamza, according to local media reports.

Since early 2006, some 600 naturalized Bosnian citizens from Islamic countries have had their citizenships revoked. However, authorities have been slow to act on international orders to have those in question deported to their home countries.

On 16 December, Bosnian authorities deported Algerian Atau Mimun to his native country, after his citizenship was revoked following evidence that the he had contacts with some figures linked to terrorism.

Mimun arrived in Bosnia in 1992 from Pakistan and according to Bosnian media reports, served as a trainer for mujahideen fighters in camps located in the Pakistan-Afghan border area. He gained Bosnian citizenship in 1994 due to his membership in the Bosnian Army and marriage to a Bosnian woman.

Out of an estimated 6,000 Arab volunteers who arrived during the early stages of the war, some 1,500 gained Bosnian citizenship and the Bosnian Foreign Ministry estimates that around 1,000 remained in the country as naturalized Bosnians.

After Mimun was deported, the Bosnian Security Ministry said no one else would be deported for the time being, citing the complicated legal procedure.

The Bosnian court’s decision on 11 January to reverse the citizenship ruling for Abu Hamza, which will reverse his deportation order as well, will likely throw a wrench in plans to deport others slated for the process. It is likely that those who have not been linked to specific crimes or have not been deemed threats to national security will follow in Abu Hamza’s legal footsteps - a development undoubtedly supported by human rights groups who have criticized the deportation process. However, the international community, which has been pressuring the Bosnian government to deal with these war-time foreign fighters and their legacy, is certain to respond negatively.

Šešelj trial resumes in Hague
B92
January 15, 2008

THE HAGUE -- The trial of Vojislav Šešelj resumes at the Hague today with the second prosecution witness Goran Stoparic taking the stand.

The Serb Radical Party leader is accused of war crimes against non-Serbs in Croatia, Vojvodina and Bosnia-Hercegovina between 1991 and 1993.

After a discussion on procedure, the prosecution brought out its second witness, Stoparic, who, as a former member of the Scorpions paramilitary unit, has already testified once at the Hague, at the trial of former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic and his co-accused for crimes committed in Kosovo.

The witness, at the beginning of his testimony, said that he had served as a volunteer in a Territorial Defense Force in battles in eastern Slavonia, and that the calls for volunteers had been issued by Šešelj and the SRS, though he added that they had not been the only ones, also implicating Serbian Renewal Movement leader Vuk Draškovic.

Prosecution motion rejected

At the start of the session, Presiding Judge Jean-Claude Antoinetti said that the Court’s three-member council appointed by Tribunal President Fausto Pocar had decided to reject the prosecution’s request for Harhoff’s exclusion, though he did not go into any further details.

Last week, Prosecutor Christina Dahl asked for Harhoff’s exclusion because, in 1993, as a volunteer in the Danish Helsinki Commission for Human Rights, he interviewed Isak Gashi, who is due to testify at the trial about war crimes committed in Brcko in 1992.

Šešelj claimed yesterday that the prosecution was “kidnapping” his witnesses and called for the Court to put a stop to this.

According to the defendant, of 16 prosecution witnesses due to appear in January and February, “eight are defense witnesses and won’t come, unless you force them,” while another, protected witness VS-12, has died.

“If you subpoena them, they’ll come here, but they’ll testify as defense witnesses and will refuse to have any contact with the Tribunal,” he warned.

“These people do not wish to be prosecution witnesses, but mine… Witness VS-12 has died and I don’t know how the prosecution intends to bring him here – maybe he’ll testify via video link,” quipped the defendant.

Dahl confirmed that she had not known of VS-12’s death, adding that she would be “grateful” if Šešelj could give her the relevant information.

She claimed that subpoenas had been issued to two witnesses who were due to testify this month.

Prosecutor Plans New Push to Capture Karadzic, Mladic, UN Says
Bloomberg
By Michael Heath
January 17, 2008

Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- The new United Nations war crimes prosecutor plans a fresh drive to capture Bosnian Serb wartime leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, who are wanted for genocide and have been on the run since 1995.

Their arrest is ``an absolute priority,'' Serge Brammertz, who took over from Carla del Ponte, said in The Hague yesterday, according to a UN statement. ``We owe this to the victims.''

Del Ponte stepped down after eight years as the prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, having failed to detain the men most wanted for crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina. She accused the authorities in Serbia of protecting them.

Karadzic, 62, the former Bosnian Serb president, and Mladic, 64, the Bosnian Serb military commander, were indicted by the tribunal in 1995 for genocide for the massacre of at least 7,500 Muslims in the town of Srebrenica and for the 43- month siege of Sarajevo during Bosnia-Herzegovina's 1992-1995 civil war, the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

Brammertz, a Belgian lawyer, was the chief investigator of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The UN-led probe implicated agents from Syria and Lebanese intelligence officials. Syria denied any involvement.

The Hague Tribunal will ``rely on the crucial support and assistance of states in the former Yugoslavia and the international community to finally bring'' Mladic, Karadzic, Goran Hadzic and Stojan Zuplijanin to justice, Brammertz said.

Mladic's Location ``I know where Mladic is and that Serbia can give me Mladic,'' Del Ponte told reporters after delivering her final report to the UN Security Council in December.

Del Ponte said Serbia has denied investigators access to war-era archives, claimed documents were destroyed in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 1999 bombing and hasn't passed laws to give prosecutors greater powers and freeze the assets of people who aid fugitives.

Serbia offered 1 million euros ($1.46 million) in October for information that would lead to the arrest of Mladic.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague, which is separate from the tribunal, ruled last year that Serbia's leaders failed to prevent massacres during the three-year conflict. The court also ruled Serbia should ``immediately take effective steps'' to hand over genocide suspects for trial.

Ethnic Cleansing

Bosnian government lawyers had said the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, led by Slobodan Milosevic, armed, financed and encouraged Bosnian Serbs to conduct an ethnic cleansing campaign that amounted to genocide in an attempt to create the so-called ``Greater Serbia.'' The court of justice cleared Serbia of responsibility for the genocide. Milosevic, Serbia's president from 1989 to 2000, died in prison in The Hague in March 2006 at the age of 64.

Bosnian police last week seized the passports of Karadzic's family, who are suspected of helping him evade capture, the British Broadcasting Corp. said at the time. They deny having contact with him since 2002, the BBC said.

NATO and European Union peacekeepers regularly raid the homes of Karadzic's relatives in Pale, near Bosnia-Herzegovina's capital, Sarajevo.

The civil war shattered Bosnia-Herzegovina's economy and infrastructure, killed tens of thousands of people and created a million refugees before the Dayton peace agreement partitioned the former Yugoslav republic into two entities, one dominated by ethnic Serbs and the other by Muslims and Croats, in 1995.

The country has since been administered by the UN and patrolled by NATO troops.

Week Ahead: Thirteen Trials in one Week
BIRN
January 18, 2008

18 January 2008 Thirteen trials are expected to continue at the Court of BiH in the coming week, including the beginning of a trial related to crimes committed in Jajce.

A status conference before begining of the trial of Mirko (son of Spiro) Pekez, Mirko (son of Mile) Pekez and Milorad Savic, former members of Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) and reserve police members accused of crimes committed in the Jajce area during 1992, gets underway next Friday.

The three are accused of the capture, pillage, mistreatment and execution of Bosniak civilians from the Draganovac area in September 1992. The Balesic, Bajramovic, Mutic and Zobic families were killed in the incident.

The trial of Mirko Radic, Dragan Sunjic, Damir Brekalo and Mirko Vracevic will continue on Monday. The four are indicted for the murder, rape and beating of imprisoned Bosniaks from camp Vojno near Mostar, and their use as forced labour during 1993 and 1994.

The Prosecution will continue its evidence presentation against Milorad Trbic on January 21 and 22. Trbic, as deputy to the head of the security section of the VRS Zvornik brigade during July 1995, is accused of involvement in genocide at Srebrenica.

Also on January 21, former Visegrad policeman Zeljko Lelek, who is indicted for the murder, rape and mistreatment of Bosniaks in Visegrad during 1992, will continue with the examination of an additional four defence witnesses.

The start of the Defence evidence process in the trial of Sefik Alic is expected to take place on January 22 and 23, when the first witnesses will be examined.

The Prosecution considers Alic responsible for failing to prevent or punish the murders of four members of VRS in August 1995 during the military operation "Oluja". The trial of Zdravko Bozic, Mladen Blagojevic, Zeljko Zaric and Zoran Zivanovic - charged with having killed and maltreated people from Srebrenica - will continue on January 22 and 28, when the defence plans to examine new witnesses.

Meanwhile, the trial of 11 men accused of killing around a thousand Bosniaks in Kravica following the fall of Srebrenica will continue on January 23 and 24.

A court expert in neuro-psychiatry is expected to testify.

Beginning of the Defence evidence presentation in the trial of Savo Todovic and Mitar Rasevic, who are both accused of crimes committed in Foca Correctional Facility during the war, was set for January 22 and 25.

Brothers Rajko and Ranko Vukovic, accused of crimes committed in Foca, are expected in Court on January 23, when a number of defence witnesses are scheduled to appear.

On January 24, indictee Enes Handzic's Defence attorney Fahrija Karkin should announce a decision on whether to agree to a proposal from Nisvet Gasal's and Musajb Kukavica's Defence - that the two cases be joined. Handzic and Senad Dautovic, and Nisvet Gasalo and Musajb Kukavic, are all considered responsible for crimes committed in the Bugojno area during 1993 and 1994.

On the same day, the evidence presentation process will continue against Suad Kapic, a former member of 517th brigade of the 5th Corps of ABiH, considered responsible for crimes against prisoners of war in the Sanski Most area.

The cross-examination of indictee Zijad Kurtovic - considered responsible by the Prosecution for the crimes committed in the church of All Saints in Donja Dreznica during 1993 and 1994 - is also scheduled for January 24.

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The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, War Crimes Chamber

Official Website

Veiz Bjelic and Ferid Hodžic pleaded not guilty
Court of BiH
January 8, 2008

At a plea hearing before a Preliminary Hearing Judge of Section I for War Crimes of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Veiz Bjelic and Ferid Hodžic pleaded not guilty. Veiz Bjelic and Ferid Hodžic have been charged with War Crimes against Civilians and War Crimes against Prisoners of War.

According to the Indictment, the Accused Ferid Hodžic, in the period from May 1992 to 26 January 1993, in the capacity of the Vlasenica Municipality Territorial Defence Commander, ordered an unlawful arrest of Serb civilians and prisoners of war, members of the Army of the Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and their detention in the prison known as “Štala” in the village of Rovaši, Vlasenica Municipality. Serb civilians and prisoners of war were allegedly kept for seven months in inhuman conditions and exposed to inhuman treatment by the soldiers of the RBiH Territorial Defense.

According to the Indictment, the Accused Veiz Bjelic, in the period from June 1992 to 26 January 1993, as a prison guard in the prison known as “Štala”, forced a person to sexual intercourse and also enabled unidentified soldiers of the RBiH Territorial Defense to take the keys to the Štala or to bust the door and enter the room and physically and mentally abuse Serb civilians. The Accused did not inform his superior officer of the aforementioned actions, but rather restored everything into the previous condition, knowing that the soldiers would return and inflict physical and mental pain on the civilians. Allegedly, the Accused Veiz Bjelic repeatedly raped one female person and then threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the rape.

BIRN Justice Report: Djukic Denies Tuzla Guilt
BIRN Justice Report
January 14, 2008

The former commander of the Republika Srspka Army's Ozren Tactical Group pleads not guilty to charges related to the shelling and massacre committed in Tuzla in 1995.

Novak Djukic, a former senior officer of the Republika Srpska Army (VRS), has pleaded not guilty to all counts in the indictment charging him with the shelling of Tuzla in 1995, when the city was in the United Nations' protected zone.

"Honourable court, I plead not guilty," Djukic told the preliminary hearing judge, adding that he had received and understood the Prosecution's indictment. The indictment charges Djukic, as commander of the VRS Ozren Tactical Group, with having ordered the shelling of Tuzla on May 25, 1995. The indictment alleges that one artillery projectile hit the downtown area of Tuzla, the part called Kapija, where 71 persons were killed and 240 wounded "after a fierce explosion".

The second count in the indictment charges Djukic with having ordered the "firing of nine artillery projectiles" at Tuzla, which hit the bus station killing one person, and caused great material damage to the iron foundry and a few other buildings.

The State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) arrested Djukic on November 7 last year. He has been held in custody since then.

Djukic's trial is due to commence within the next 90 days.

Analysis: Families Torn Apart
BIRN Justice Report
By Merima Husejnovic
January 15, 2008

The State prosecution completes its evidence presentation against Mirko Todorovic and Milos Radic, who are charged with Bratunac crimes, by examining 12 witnesses and one court expert.

By presenting its material evidence, the Prosecution of BiH has completed its evidence presentation process at the trial of two former members of the Republika Srpska Army (VRS) charged with crimes against humanity committed in Bratunac. The Defence evidence presentation process is due to commence on January 16, 2008. Inductee Mirko Todorovic will testify in his Defence. The Prosecution of BiH considers that, on May 20, 1992, Mirko Todorovic, Milos Radic and four other soldiers attacked a group of 14 civilians who were hiding in the vicinity of Borkovac village in Bratunac municipality. After some of the captives were tortured and beaten, and their property pillaged, the civilians were taken to a nearby brook and executed.

The indictment was confirmed in June 2007. Todorovic and Radic were arrested on May 22, 2007, and have been held in custody since then. It is alleged that eight persons, including two women, were killed in Borkovac. Naser Sulejmanovic, Mehmed Jahic, Ibro Dzananovic, Amer Ramic, Muharem Salkic and Hamed Alic survived the shooting, and some have testified as Prosecution witnesses. The surviving witnesses described how a group of soldiers, including the inductees, captured them and took them to a nearby brook to shoot them. "That is the moment when I wished to be dead, when I realized it was not the worst thing that could happen to me," said witness Hamed Alic, who was taken together with his wife. He survived, but she was killed. "They told us to form a line by the riverbank edge and to turn towards them. A soldier whom they called Mali Raso (Little Raso) said: 'Pray to God' and then started shooting at us," said Alic, adding that he and his wife, who was still alive, fell into the brook. "After some time, someone said: 'Look at that woman" and then I heard shooting. They killed her. Her hand was still in mine, but now it was becoming cold... Still holding her hand, I could sense that she was dying," Alic recalled, visibly shaken. Describing the events in Borkovac on May 20, Naser Sulejmanovic said that, although they did not shoot at him, the inductees did not try to help him either. "We were terribly afraid at that moment. Despite the fact that they did not shoot, they could have helped us if they wanted to," said Sulejmanovic. Amer Ramic and his sister Hamedina, who was killed, were among the captured civilians. Amer was 18, and his sister was 22 years old at the time. "She sighed and that was the last thing she did. They shot at her head. When she fell down, her head was above mine. I could feel her blood pouring over my face and eyes," said witness Amer, adding that he recognized the inductees among the soldiers. "When I saw Mirko Todorovic I was relieved. I expected him to save us, as I had known him all my life. I tried to give Milos Radic a sign to help us. He did not react at all," recalled Amer Ramic.

The Prosecution invited the witness' father Hamed Ramic to testify. While he was not in Borkovac when the crime was committed, Hamed Ramic said that other people had told him what had happened to his daughter. "A group of savages took Hamedina to a nearby house. I heard that those barbarians had raped her. After that they took her to the brook and shot her in her head. The girl was 22... Mirko must tell me who raped my child, who killed my child. I have to know," said Hamed Ramic, with tears in his eyes. The witnesses said that the survivors waited for the night to come before they escaped. Radoje Zivkovic and Dane Loncarevic, who worked for the Communal Company in Bratunac - which was a part of the civil protection unit at the time - took the bodies from the brook and transported them to a mass grave. "We were told to collect the killed people and cattle in Hranca, Glogova and Borkovac. We found seven or eight bodies in the brook, put them in bags and loaded them on a tractor," said Zivkovic, adding that, not far from there, the bodies were "unloaded as if they were logs" and buried. "At that time I was tasked with the rehabilitation of Bratunac town. Therefore, as per an order made by Dragan Mirkovic, Chief of the Communal Company, I went to Borkovac to transport six bags containing the corpses. Dragan said: 'Unload them and then go back to your work', which I did," explained Dane Loncarevic. The bodies were exhumed from Borkovac mass grave on April 29, 2004. Court expert Dr Vedo Tuco, a pathologist who was present during the exhumation, said that eight bodies – six male and two female - were found in the mass grave. "They were all dressed in civilian clothes," said Tuco, adding that seven persons "probably died due to shooting injuries" and it was not possible to determine the cause of death of one person.

In the course of the evidence presentation process, the Prosecution examined family members of the victims who died in Borkovac. These people found out about the death of their close family members from their neighbors and survivors later on. Some of the family members who testified at the trial were Safa Sulejmanovic, Sadeta Hasanovic, Ruseta Sulejmanovic and Zejneba Avdic, whose husbands were shot on May 20, 1992, as well as Elma Kaljevic, whose father was killed when she was 16. "All I want to know is: why? Why?" Elma Kaljevic asked the inductees during her testimony.

At the end of its evidence presentation process, the Prosecution presented death certificates for all Borkovac victims, as well as some verdicts pronounced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. As announced by the inductees' attorneys, Milos Radic's defense will need two days to examine its eight witnesses, while Mirko Todorovic's attorney did not say how much time he would need to examine the 12 proposed witnesses.

Vukovic Brothers: Attempt to Influence Witnesses
BIRN Justice Report
January 16, 2008

Additional Prosecution witnesses have claimed that another Prosecution witness, who was examined earlier, called them before the trial to try to persuade them to change their statements.

At the trial of Rajko and Ranko Vukovic, two additional Prosecution witnesses have alleged that someone tried to put pressure on them in an attempt to persuade them to change their statements. Nedjo Todorovic and Dragisa Milutinovic claimed that "a member of the Hukara family" called them and asked them to change their statements. "I received a phone call from Redzo or Bajro Hukara, who told me what I should say at the hearing today. I was supposed to say that my son Slavko did not come to Podkolun village at the beginning of the war in 1992," said Nedjo Todorovic, answering questions from defense attorney Veljko Civsa. "A member of Hukara family, I think it was Redzo, called me on my home phone. I did not want to listen to him at all," said Dragisa Milutinovic, adding that, as a result, he would not answer some questions, such as Prosecutor Behaija Krnjic's question on whether he was in Podkolun or not.

The Prosecution did not react to the witnesses' allegations. Rajko and Ranko Vukovic, former members of the Serbian Republic of BiH Army, are charged with having killed - together with Ranko and Blagoje Golubovic - Avdija Hukara and Mejra Bekrija in Podkolun in late May 1992. The indictment also charges Ranko Vukovic with having raped protected witness A. Bajro Hukara testified as a Prosecution witness on November 14 last year. He said that he had seen the Vukovic and Golubovic brothers entering the village together and killing his father Avdija Hukara and his aunt Mejra Bekrija. Milutinovic was invited as an additional Prosecution witness, after some Defence witnesses associated him with the crime scene. During their testimony on January 9, Miladin and Cvjeta Stanic said that they saw him entering Podkolun together with a group of soldiers. Milutinovic said that he did not know these witnesses at all, and that he did not believe they knew him. The same witnesses claimed that Nedjo's son Slavko Todorovic was among the soldiers who were together with the Vukovic brothers. Slavko was killed during the war, and his father Nedjo, an additional Prosecution witness, was not able to confirm if his son went to the village and if he knew Miladin and Cvjeta Stanic. The trial is due to continue on January 23, when additional defense witnesses will be examined.

Srebrenica Report Sent to RS Police
BIRN Justice Report
January 16, 2008

The BiH State Prosecutor has informed the police of Republika Srpska, RS about its investigation into alleged participation in the Srebrenica genocide by 36 RS police officers.

The Prosecutor's Office sent RS Police Director Uros Pena a report on Wednesday on the investigation about the alleged involvement of the officers who were suspended from the RS police by High Representative Miroslav Lajcak in July 2007. "We expect Mr. Pena to take certain steps in accordance with his competencies," David Schwandiman, Chief of the War Crimes Section of the BiH Prosecutor's Office, said. "I do not know whether he is going to do that, but I do hope that he will." Among the 36 officers suspended by the High Representative in July last year was Dragomir Andan, Deputy RS Police Director. Schwandiman would not comment on the current phase of the investigation or give the names of individual officers mentioned in the report. At the time of the suspensions Lajcak said there was reason to believe that some of the officers had deliberately given false statements during war-crimes trials. The Prosecutor's investigation, launched in the wake of the suspensions, is still ongoing.

The report sent to Pena includes material evidence and information derived from witnesses' statements. Schwandiman said the report would make it possible to begin disciplinary procedures, "if necessary". He added that the War Crimes Section would continue its investigation in order to determine whether there are grounds for criminal convictions. Schwandiman also announced that the Prosecutor's Office War Crimes Section will open a field office in Srebrenica before the end of March. Similar offices may be opened later in other parts of BiH where investigations into war crimes are underway.

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International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

Official Website of the ICTR

Rights Body Accuses ICTR Staff of Intimidating Witnesses
The New Times
By Edwin Musoni January 18, 2008

Human rights watchdog, African Rights (AU) has protested alleged intimidation and threats against witnesses in the case of Father Hormisdas Nsengimana who is currently held at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

The trial of Fr. Nsengimana began on June 22 last year and lasted six days before it was adjourned to today, January 18.

But in a 15-page protest report issued yesterday, African Rights said key prosecution witnesses were intimidated as away of discouraging them from going to Arusha to testify against Nsengimana.

The rights body gives a number of people accused of failing justice and that those involved are residents of the former Nyanza, Butare Prefecture (now Southern Province), where Nsengimana had worked and lived during the 1994 Genocide. They include a fellow-priest as well as Nsengimana’s relatives.

Those implicated include Ephrem Gasasira, an ICTR staff who is currently working in the documentation department at the tribunal.

Gasasira was president of the Court of Appeal in Nyanza in 1994, and is himself accused by the same witnesses of working closely with Nsengimana to perpetrate genocide in Nyanza and beyond.

‘Before the trial began in June, African Rights informed the ICTR about the allegations against Gasasira, with respect to both the intimidation of witnesses, and the charges that he took an active part in the genocide,’ the AU report says.

It also indicates that if Gasasira remains at the ICTR in Arusha, witnesses would be fearful for their lives as they prepare to leave for Arusha.

Nsengimana was the rector of Christ Roi Secondary School in Nyanza, in the commune of Nyabisindu in 1994.

France Stops Genocide Transfer
BBC News
January 16, 2008

France's Supreme Court has overruled a decision to hand over a Rwandan genocide suspect to an international tribunal in Tanzania, his lawyers say.

Dominique Ntawukuriryayo is accused by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda of co-ordinating the killing of up to 25,000 Tutsis in April 1994.

His lawyer, Thierry Mausis, told the BBC an earlier ruling was overturned because of procedural violations.

Two other Rwandan suspects held last year in France were subsequently freed.

'Invalid' warrants

Mr Ntawukuriryayo, born in 1942, was a sub-prefect in the area of Gisagara at the time of the five-day killings at Kabuye Hill.

Thousands of Tutsis had gathered there and were told they would be safe.

He was arrested the southern French town of Carcassonne last October.

One of his lawyers, Philippe Greciano, told French media that the lower court had failed to examine a "report outlining the various procedural steps allowing the indictee to defend himself".

The case will now return to a lower court, which will be asked to review it.

In September, a Paris appeals court ordered the release of Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Catholic priest, and Laurent Bucyibaruta, a former government official.

The court said the warrants issued by the ICTR, based in Tanzania, were "invalid".

The ICTR later withdrew the warrants and asked the French authorities to prosecute them - to the anger of the Rwandan government.

Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during the 100-day massacre in 1994.

Since 1997, the ICTR has convicted 29 ringleaders of the genocide and acquitted five people.

It is due to finish its work by the end of the year.

Indict RPF Soldiers too, Say Tribunal Lawyers
The East African
By Sukhdev Chhatbar
January 14, 2008

Defence Lawyers at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha Aare demanding the speedy indictment of Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) members alleged to have committed atrocities during the 1994 genocide.

The Association of Defence Lawyers official Christopher Black claimed that since the tribunal was started in November 1994, only ethnic Hutus had 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 General Assembly that the prosecution would conclude investigations into the alleged RPF crimes this year, Mr Black was dismissive He said “It will be for cosmetic reasons,” adding that even if that happens, it is highly probable that the trials will take place in Rwanda so that Kigali maintains control over the process.

Mr Black alleged that, like his three predecessors — Richard Goldstone, Louise Arbour and Carla Del Ponte — Mr Jallow has continued with the Anglo-American and tribunal policy of protecting RPF soldiers who committed massacres in Rwanda, including President Paul Kagame, who was the leader of his advancing troops.

“They have given the RPF complete immunity from prosecution and justice,” he claimed.

Mr Black said that the international justice system is and will remain a mockery until the RPF members are brought to trial by the UN tribunal before it closes down by end of this year.

The UN Security Council has set a December 2008 for completing all cases and appeals by 2010.

This association, he said, strongly believes that without bringing RPF soldiers to the dock, the tribunal will not have done justice and instead of national reconciliation in Rwanda “it will remain in continual conflict .”

However, the ICTR prosecutor has maintained that the tribunal is independent and is carrying out its mandate as assigned by the UN.

“We’re perusing the files (of RPF) and if need be, we will deal with them accordingly,” the Gambian-born Jallow told the press.

The Rwandan government has denied the RPF atrocities, and h dismissed the allegations as baseless.

The RPF has been credited with stopping the genocide, but in the process some of its members allegedly committed mass murder.

President 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 of Rwanda and Burundi’s president, Cyprian Ntayamira, near the capital, Kigali, which sparked the killings.

The two presidents were returning from a meeting of East and Central African leaders in Dar es Salaam, where they had discussed an end to the ethnic violence in their respective countries.

According to UN estimates, more 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the April-July massacres in 1994 across the country.

Currently, 28 suspects are on trial before the Arusha-based UN court and six new cases are expected to start this year. Since the tribunal’s establishment, 35 judgements have been delivered, among them five acquittals.

Trial of Catholic Priest Resumes Before UN Court
Hirondelle News Agency
January 14, 2008

Arusha, 14 January 2008 (FH) - The trial of Abbot Hormisdas Nsengimana, a catholic priest accused of genocide and crimes against humanity , resumed Monday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), reports Hirondelle News Agency.

It is the first trial to resume after the end of year festive holidays.

During 1994 genocide, the priest, who has pleaded not guilty, was vice-chancellor of the College of Christ the King of Nyanza, southern Rwanda, one of the most prestigious schools of the country.

The prosecution Monday called a witness who worked at the College of Christ the King and claimed that the accused had ordered death of a Tutsi identified as Kayombya, who lived in the vicinity of the College.

Presenting himself as "an old man who can neither read nor write", the witness alleged that the victim was never seen again.

"I never saw him again (...) I concluded that they killed him", he told the court, without elaborating further.

Nsengimana was arrested in March 2002 in Yaounde, Cameroon, and was transferred to the ICTR detention facility in April, the same year.

The accused is among other three Rwandan catholic priests indicted before the UN court over their roles in the 1994 killings.

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Iraqi High Tribunal

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

Anfal Trial Judgment Now Available on Case Western's Grotian Moment Website
Click here to read the Anfal Judgment in English
January 16, 2008

Anfal Judges to Speak at Case Western on January 29

On June 24, 2007, the Iraqi High Tribunal convicted “Chemical Ali” (Ali Hassan al-Majid) and five other military leaders of Saddam Hussein’s regime of international crimes related to their roles in a three-year crackdown of northern Iraqi Kurds known as the Anfal campaign. The Tribunal’s judgment marks one of the only times in history individuals have been convicted of genocide - the worst crime known to humankind.

The Iraqi High Tribunal and the US Regime Crimes Liaison Office have provided Case Western Reserve University the just-completed English translation of the Anfal Trial Judgment for us to post on our award-winning Grotian Moment Website: http://law.case.edu/grotian-moment-blog/ (Click on Iraq High Tribunal Trials, Documents). This is the only place in the world where researchers can read the English translation of the historic opinion, whose 900 pages detail the legal and factual conclusions of the Tribunal. Note, at the request of RCLO all witness/victim/family names have been redacted for their safety.

The judges who presided over the Anfal trial will be making a live presentation at Case Western Reserve University School of Law at 4:00 pm on January 29, 2008. Through translators, the judges and other officers of the Iraqi High Tribunal will discuss the challenges faced, the precedent that their historic judgment set and the question of fairness in the proceedings. This trip, which also includes stops at American University and Vanderbilt, will mark the judges’ first public appearance outside of Iraq. A transcript of the January 29 session will be posted on the “Grotian Moment” Website after the event.

This program is part of the law school’s year-long series to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Genocide Convention, which has included a day-long symposium on September 28 that featured Robert Petit, Chief Prosecutor of the Cambodian Genocide Tribunal; the October 16 Cox Center Humanitarian Award Lecture by Luis Moreno Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and the January 15 Klatsky Human Rights Lecture by W. Michael Reisman. The webcasts of those events are available for viewing at: http://law.case.edu/lectures/index.asp#webcast The law school provides research assistance to five war crimes tribunals, including the Iraqi High Tribunal, and has a special program in which students spend a semester interning at the international tribunals.

Iraq seeks end to "Chemical Ali" execution impasse
Reuters UK
By Waleed Ibrahim January 16, 2008

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is trying to end an impasse that has delayed the execution of Saddam Hussein's cousin and two other men convicted of genocide, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.

Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as "Chemical Ali", former Defence Minister Sultan Hashem and former army commander Hussein Rashid Muhammad are in U.S. military custody awaiting execution after they were convicted for their roles in a campaign against Iraq's Kurds in 1988.

An Iraqi court in September upheld death sentences against the three men. Iraq's constitution stipulates that the sentences must be carried out within 30 days but they remain in custody while Iraq's leaders squabble over who has authority to sign off on the executions.

The legal dispute between the government and Iraq's presidency council has been complicated by growing calls for Hashem to be spared. Many Sunni Arabs say he was a soldier who was just following the orders of Saddam's feared cousin Majeed.

"The prime minister is trying to find a solution and a sort of balance between these demands and upholding the law and the constitution and the decisions made by the court," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told a news conference.

Dabbagh did not say what form the balance might take, or whether Maliki was considering any compromises in the dispute or a pardon for Hashem.

The U.S. military has said it will not hand the men over for execution until it receives what it calls an "authoritative government of Iraq request".

"It's dependent on a decision still to be taken by the government of Iraq," U.S. military spokesman Major-General Kevin Bergner said at the same news conference.

What constitutes such a request, and who is authorised to make it, is at the heart of the argument between Shi'ite Islamist Maliki and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Sunni Arab Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi.

Maliki has written to U.S. President George W. Bush demanding that he order the three men be handed over.

Talabani and Hashemi say Maliki has no right to make such a request and the three man-presidency council -- made up of the president and two vice-presidents -- should sign the order.

Saddam prosecutor says demoted for whistle-blowing
Reuters
By Ahmed Rasheed
January 18, 2008

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The chief prosecutor who tried Saddam Hussein said on Friday he had been demoted and transferred after speaking out against what he described as "financial and ethical corruption" in the Iraqi High Tribunal.

Jaffar al-Moussawi also said he believed he was being punished for calling for the death sentence given to Saddam's former defense minister, Sultan Hashem, to be reduced.

He said the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT), set up to try former members of Saddam's regime, had transferred him from Baghdad to the northern city of Sulaimaniya as an investigative judge.

The head of the tribunal, Abdul-Razak al-Shahine, could not be reached for comment. His son said he was traveling in the United States and that no telephone number was available to contact him. The tribunal does not currently have a spokesman.

Dressed in his red and black prosecutor's robes, Moussawi became a familiar face during Saddam's televised 2006 trial for crimes against humanity. Saddam was hanged on December 30, 2006.

"The decision to remove me was made after I wrote a memo on January 14 to the IHT head disclosing legal breaches and violations committed by judges inside the court," Moussawi said.

"The more serious issue which I mentioned in my memo was the financial and ethical corruption inside the court."

He also said he was being targeted for his request to the court to reduce Saddam minister Hashem's death sentence.

Hashem was sentenced to death along with Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as "Chemical Ali", and former army commander Hussein Rashid Muhammad for their part in the 1988 Anfal campaign in which tens of thousands of Kurds were killed.

Their executions have been delayed by a legal wrangle between the Shi'ite-led government and President Jalal Talabani and Sunni Arab Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who both oppose Hashem's execution. All three prisoners remain in U.S. custody.

Hashem, a Sunni Arab, is a popular former general who fought in the 1980-1988 war against Iran and is regarded by many Iraqis as a courageous soldier who should not be executed for following orders. The government wants him executed as soon as possible.

Moussawi said the tribunal did not have the power to transfer him. This could only be done by the presidency council, which includes Talabani and Hashemi.

"The prosecution is an independent body and is not under the authority of the court. I will never obey this order," said Moussawi, who served as chief prosecutor for three years.

Moussawi has also been overseeing the prosecution's case in the ongoing trial of former Saddam regime members for their role in crushing the Shi'ite uprising in southern Iraq in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War.

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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

Judges to Allow Video in Taylor Trial
Associated Press
by Mike Corder
January 8, 2008

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Judges in the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor on Tuesday allowed video of victims describing how they were sexually assaulted or dismembered by rebels who plundered West African diamond fields.
The ruling by the three-judge panel, overriding defense objections, capped the testimony of the first witness in the trial, a diamond expert who said Sierra Leone rebels backed by Taylor used slave labor to dig up diamonds worth between $60 million and $125 million a year, and terrorized the population to assert their control of the fields.
Prosecutors allege that diamonds from Sierra Leone were smuggled through Liberia, and Taylor used the proceeds to buy arms and ammunition for the rebels — earning the gems the name "blood diamonds."

Taylor "was involved in both weapons and diamonds," said the Canadian expert, Ian Smillie, who co-wrote a U.N. report on the influence of diamonds in West Africa's civil wars.

Under cross-examination, Smillie denied that he was "hostile" toward Taylor.
"We felt sorry for him. He had squandered his opportunity to turn Liberia from war to peace," he said. "We felt badly for Liberia and sorry that it had missed that opportunity."

Taylor, 59, is accused of orchestrating rape, murder and mutilation in Sierra Leone from his presidential palace in Liberia's capital, Monrovia. He has pleaded not guilty to all 11 charges.

Taylor's trial resumed Monday after a six-month recess. It was adjourned last June after a chaotic opening day during which he boycotted proceedings and fired his lawyer.

Taylor is the first former African head of state to appear before an international tribunal.
Prosecutors won the first courtroom skirmish when presiding Judge Julia Sebutinde accepted the videos and overruled objections by defense counsel Terry Munyard questioning the reliability of Smillie's research on the diamond traffic.

"This is more the work of an amateur sleuth than someone preparing a professional analysis," Munyard said.

Smillie was part of a U.N. team that investigated arms smuggling in Liberia in 2000, a probe that included interviewing Taylor. In that interview, Taylor conceded that Sierra Leone diamonds likely were being smuggled into and out of Liberia, but denied involvement.

However, Smillie said he stood by the findings of his team's report and read to judges a summary that was included in a 2001 U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Taylor's regime for its support of the rebel Revolutionary United Front, or RUF.

The resolution said that diamonds smuggled through Liberia were the key source of RUF income "and that such illicit trade cannot be conducted without the permission and involvement of Liberian government officials at the highest levels."

Smillie also explained why the RUF developed the signature atrocity of the 10-year Sierra Leone civil war that ended in 2003.

"I think that part of the tactic in chopping hands and so on was to create such a fear of the RUF that the areas would be cleared for them to do whatever they wanted, including diamond mining and foraging for supplies," he said.

In the videos, one diamond miner said rebels forced him to lay out his arms and then hacked off both his hands so that he could never again vote in elections.

Another woman said she was sexually assaulted by a rebel and then saw her husband staggering out of the jungle with blood spurting out of his arms where his hands had been hacked off.

"These are true accounts. This is not a Hollywood movie," said prosecutor Nick Koumjian, arguing for their admissibility as evidence.

The judges also accepted photos of a plane formerly used by the Seattle Supersonics — the basketball team's logo still on the tail — that Smillie said was used to smuggle 68 tons of Ukrainian weapons and ammunition.

The arms — in cases strapped into and crammed under the plane's leather seats — were smuggled into Liberia through Burkina Faso in March 1999, Smillie said.

Prosecutors have 144 witnesses, but only expect to call half of them to appear in person. The complex case was expected to last nearly two years. An appeal would likely carry the legal process into 2010.

The trial is being held in The Hague because of concerns that holding it in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, could spark new unrest.

Taylor Trial Hears Account of Atrocities
Associated Press
by Mike Corder
January 8, 2008

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Sierra Leone clergyman brought the horrors of his country's civil war to a courtroom Tuesday, becoming the first survivor of the carnage to testify at the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

Alex Tamba Teh, a soft-spoken pastor and teacher, recounted watching young boys methodically hack off the hands and feet of another teenager, hearing the terrorized screams of women being raped, stepping over corpses too many to count and being forced to help unload weapons for Sierra Leone rebels from a Liberian helicopter.

Prosecutors accuse Taylor, 59, of orchestrating the atrocities in Sierra Leone from his presidential palace in Liberia's capital, Monrovia. Taylor has pleaded not guilty to all 11 charges.

Tamba Teh, 47, provided only tenuous links between Taylor and the rebels he is accused of supporting, particularly the Revolutionary United Front. But his testimony was a riveting account that brought home the brutality of the civil war and gave a voice to the tens of thousands of victims who suffered through the 10-year conflict.

Tamba Teh said he was among about 250 civilians captured by rebels in April 1998 in the diamond mining district of Kono.

The men were separated from the women and children, and taken to a shelter near a mosque, where a rebel commander known as "Rocky" told the pastor to pray for his fellow captives before mowing them down with a machine gun. Rocky later told another commander called "Rambo" that he had killed 101 men.

"After he had killed the civilians ... he gave instructions that they be decapitated," Tamba Teh told the three-judge tribunal.

A group of child soldiers known as a Small Boys Unit beheaded the corpses with machetes and cutlasses, Tamba Teh said.

Minutes later, a teen he estimated to be about 16 was dragged to a log, screaming and asking what he had done wrong. The other boys pinned their victim down, and hacked off his hands and feet with machetes, Tamba Teh said.

After the mutilation, they grabbed the boy by the stumps. "They were swinging him. They threw him over into a toilet pit. I saw it myself. The boy was screaming, shouting, crying," Tamba Teh said.

Months later, Tamba Teh said he saw weapons delivered to rebels by a Liberian helicopter. A rebel leader known as "Mosquito," who took possession of the weapons, identified Taylor as his "boss."

However, under cross examination Tamba Teh conceded he did not mention Taylor in previous statements to prosecutors and that earlier he said there were two Liberian helicopters, not one.

"It is the pressure," Tamba Teh said, acknowledging he was traumatized by the harrowing events of 1998 and 1999. "My memory cannot serve me well."

Taylor sat calmly throughout Tuesday's testimony, taking notes and occasionally sipping water.

Shortly after he was captured, Tamba Teh said, he was brought before a group of 30 rebel commanders and narrowly survived a vote to kill him.

He was then taken to a rebel camp where captured women were repeatedly raped and forced to forage for food.

Prisoners had the acronyms of the RUF and an allied rebel group, the AFRC, carved on their chests and backs, preventing them from fleeing because they would be killed by enemy rebels if found with such markings, Tamba Teh said.

He was later transferred to another rebel camp where a commander smashed out his front teeth with the barrel of a gun. Tamba Teh opened his mouth and removed a denture to show the court his missing teeth.

Earlier Tuesday, judges allowed into evidence segments from documentary in which victims told of being sexually assaulted or dismembered by rebels who plundered West African diamond fields.

On Monday, a diamond expert testified Sierra Leone rebels backed by Taylor used slave labor to dig up diamonds worth $60 million to $125 million a year, and terrorized the population to assert their control of the fields.

Prosecutors allege diamonds from Sierra Leone were smuggled through Liberia, and Taylor used the proceeds to buy arms and ammunition for the rebels — earning them the name "blood diamonds."

The trial resumed Monday after being was adjourned in June following a chaotic opening day during which Taylor boycotted proceedings and fired his lawyer.

The trial is being held in The Hague because of concerns that holding it in Sierra Leone could spark new unrest.

Security Aide Tells of Taylor's Meetings With Sierra Leone Warload
AFP
January 9, 2008

THE HAGUE (AFP) — A former insider working for Charles Taylor's security services told the war crimes trial of the former Liberian president Wednesday that Taylor gave money and weapons to RUF rebels in Sierra Leone.

Taylor is accused of arming, training and controlling the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in Sierra Leone in exchange for still-unknown quantities of diamonds. The prosecution is relying on so-called insider witnesses to establish a link between Taylor and the rebels who committed atrocities on the ground in Sierra Leone.

Varmuyan Sherif, who worked for Taylor's Special Security Service and organized his motorcade, was ordered by Taylor to accompany RUF leader Sam Bockarie on a trip to Liberia in late 1998 or early 1999.

Bockarie, also known as Mosquito, met with Taylor and apparently recounted the details of that meeting to Sherif who was bringing him back to Sierra Leone.

"Sam Bockarie told me: '(Taylor) gave me money, I have money and he gave me a satellite phone so anytime I want I can communicate with that person (Taylor),'" Sherif told the court, recounting Bockarie's version of the events.

After bringing Bockarie back to Sierra Leone, Sherif met again with Taylor who told him to bring weapons to the RUF and secure a safe passage for the fighters to Monrovia.

"Taylor called me back and said whatever arms and ammunition I am bringing into Monrovia I could bring them to Sam Bockarie," he told the judges.

"He also said I should speak to the former fighters in Lofa county (close to the border with Sierra Leone) that there should be an open corridor and nobody should harm RUF fighters" who crossed into Liberia, Sherif added.

Sherif worked directly under Benjamin Yeaten whom prosecutors said was Taylor's right hand man and the principal liaison between the Liberian president and the forces in Sierra Leone.

Taylor faces 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity including terrorising the civilian population, murder, rape and the use of child soldiers. He has pleaded not guilty.

According to the prosecution of the Special Court for Sierra Leone Taylor controlled RUF rebel forces in neighbouring Sierra Leone who went on a blood diamond-funded rampage of killing, mutilation and rape during the 1991-2001 civil war.

Around 120,000 people were killed in the conflict, with rebels mutilating thousands more, cutting off arms, legs, ears or noses.

Sherif told the court of various trips he or his subordinates made to Sam Bockarie to give him arms and ammunition. He also recalled seeing the RUF leader on two occasions in Monrovia, where Bockarie met with Taylor's right-hand man Yeaten. Sherif told judges that he overheard Yeaten instructing Bockarie to launch an RUF attack from Sierra Leone on neighbouring Guinea.

The prosecution is trying to prove that Taylor supported and financed the rebels in return for so-called blood diamonds that the rebels mined in Sierra Leone.

Sherif told the judges that on one trip with Bockarie he noticed the RUF leader was carrying diamonds.

"I saw a mayonnaise bottle in his pocket and I realized there were diamonds in there," he said.

"One of my senior officers even said we can take these diamonds and go away to another country," he added.

Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission Hears Public Testimony
Voice of America News
by Naomi Schwarz
January 15, 2008

Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission has entered its final phase: public testimonies by victims of civil war and by those they accuse. Many Liberians say airing the crimes will help the country heal from the psychological wounds of war and instability. But others say Liberia should focus on moving forward and not look back. Naomi Schwarz has more from VOA's regional bureau in Dakar.

Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created by the accord that ended the civil war in 2003. It has collected more than 20,000 written testimonies covering the period from 1979 when Samuel Doe seized power in a coup, to 2003 when a large force of U.N. peacekeepers arrived in the country. The testimonies tell of widespread rape, massacres, and children forced to be soldiers.

Now victims have begun testifying in public hearings.

James Makor of Liberia's non-governmental organization Save My Future says the public statements still contain surprises.

"One musician around here, I had never knew that he was a general, but during the public hearing we got to know that he was a general," said Makor. "So in that case now, most of his songs he had always won public sympathy that he was victimized, instead people now know that he was one of the guys that had a lot of power to himself."

Makor is referring to Michael David, known as Sundaygar Dearboy. Witnesses have accused David of rapes and beatings. One of Liberia's most popular stars, he sang the campaign song for Liberia's president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf when she ran for office in 2005.

Makor says it is good for Liberians to know the truth about what happened.

"It is necessary that we get to know some of the people, what they did. For us to have the past information, so we can know how to interact with them," added Makor.

But some Liberians say the information could be dangerous.

Lamii Kpargoi of Liberia's Media Watch says he feels it is too soon to stir up these wounds.
"There are a lot of people walking the st