Michael P. Scharf and |
War Crimes Prosecution Watch Volume 4 - Issue 6 |
Editor in Chief Managing Editor Senior Technical Editor |
War Crimes Prosecution Watch is a bi-weekly e-newsletter that compiles official documents and articles from major news sources detailing and analyzing salient issues pertaining to the investigation and prosecution of war crimes throughout the world. To subscribe, please email warcrimeswatch@pilpg.org and type "subscribe" in the subject line.
International Criminal Court
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Special Court for Sierra Leone
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia
Uganda (Truth & Reconciliation & Domestic Prosecutions / Non-ICC)
Court of Bosnia & Herzegovina, War Crimes Chamber
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Central African Republic & Uganda
Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Cases: Central African Republic
Former Congolese VP Facing War Crimes
Voice of America
By Scott Stearns
June 17, 2009
Former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba is facing five counts of war crimes before the International Criminal Court. Lawyers for the former rebel leader said he did not control his fighters in the neighboring Central African Republic.
Jean-Pierre Bemba looked like one of the winners in the last war in Congo, gaining a vice presidency as part of a 2003 peace deal with the government in Kinshasa.
Elections that followed put him in a head-to-head runoff with President Joseph Kabila. But Bemba lost that vote and was charged with treason after his militia fought with government troops in the capital.
Now, he is in The Hague facing three counts of war crimes and two counts of crimes against humanity for abuses allegedly carried out across the border in the Central African Republic by rebels from his Movement for the Liberation of Congo.
"According to the warrant of arrest Bemba is responsible for alleged crimes committed in the territory of the Central African Republic between October 2002 and March 2003," said Sonia Robla, the International Criminal Court's press officer. "The judges found reasonable grounds to believe that he was the leader and commander in chief of the MLC - a group which committed crimes or systematic attacks against the population of the country, during which rape, torture, pillage and outrages of dignity were committed."
Bemba ran his rebellion from the Congolese city of Gbadolite, known as "Versailles in the Jungle" for the series of palaces built by Mobutu Sese Seko during more than 30 years in power - an extravagance that flew-in Chinese craftsmen to hand detail an emperor's compound at at time when the people of what was then Zaire were among the world's poorest.
Bemba's family benefited from the kleptocracy that defined Mobutu's rule. His father was one of Mobutu's closest business associates. That success sent Bemba to private schools in Brussels and landed him a job as Mobutu's personal assistant in the mid 1990's.
But Bemba's personal wealth from electronics, coffee, and mining also grew through his relationship with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
In an interview in Gbadolite nine years ago, Bemba acknowledged that President Museveni was backing his rebellion, but stressed that while Ugandan soldiers were training his men in the use of heavy weapons, it was Congolese who were doing the fighting.
"We are not puppets. We do not see even the reason why Ugandans should die. It is a Congolese war. But they are our best allies, it is true. And we respect and thank them for what they are doing for us Congolese," he said.
At the time of that interview, Bemba's rebels were already across the river in the Central African Republic's capital of Bangui where civilians were beginning to complain about human-rights abuses.
Bemba said it was the Congolese army of then-President Laurent Kabila that was attacking civilians.
"We are not there to kill them. We are protecting them, really protecting them. All these moves that you see of refugees in Congo-Brazzaville and Bangui came from these attacks by Kabila to show you that they do not believe in Kabila. They do not like Kabila. That is why they run away. But I think that you may start to see the move of people coming back and so because they know that MLC soldiers are there. And they know the MLC soldiers. Our conduct code is very strict," he added.
Bemba's lawyers now say his rebels were not under his control when they helped put down a 2002 coup attempt in Bangui. Instead, they say those Congolese fighters were led by then-Central African Republic president Ange-Felix Patasse.
When President Patasse was finally ousted in 2003, the new government in Bangui brought charges against both him and Bemba. That led to an investigation by the International Criminal Court and the subsequent war-crimes indictment.
Prosecutors say they will prove a direct link between Bemba and alleged atrocities committed in the Central African Republic. They say Bemba organized systematic rape and murder to terrorize civilians so they would not support the overthrow of the Patasse government.
ICC confirms charges against former DR Congo leader
UN News Center
June 16, 2009
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has confirmed charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against former Congolese vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo for acts committed in the Central African Republic (CAR).
In the decision announced yesterday, judges in The Hague-based ICC found that Mr. Bemba had the “necessary criminal intent” when in 2002 he ordered his armed group, the Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC), into CAR to back up embattled leader Ange-Félix Patassé.
According to the ICC, MLC fighters committed war crimes and crimes against humanity on that mission, with Bemba “effectively acting as military commander.” His alleged responsibility covers crimes committed between October 2002 and March 2003.
The alleged crimes include rape, murder and pillaging. Torture was among the crimes the Court did not uphold, citing a lack of evidence.
Mr. Bemba was arrested in May 2008 by Belgian authorities and transferred to the ICC in July.
He is to stand trial at a date still to be determined.
The situation in CAR is one of four – along with Darfur, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda – currently under investigation by the Prosecutor of the ICC, an independent, permanent court that tries persons accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Uganda urged to prioritise reviving talks with LRA
The Daily Monitor
By Tabu Butagira
June 12, 2009
A top official of the European Union Council says Uganda must prioritise reviving talks with the LRA to end the menace of her home-grown rebellion, now “exported” to regional neighbours - eastern DRC and south Sudan.
“We are going to try to revitalise the peace process between government of Uganda and the LRA while the interim [provisions of the Juba peace agreement] should be implemented,” the female official, whom we cannot name for protocol reasons, said in Brussels on Wednesday.
She suggested that Uganda government ought not to rejoice for expelling LRA fighters from its territory yet the outlaws are visiting their signature cruelty on hapless villagers within the Great Lakes region.
“The LRA problem has now been exported to neighbouring countries,” she lamented. The EU Council is main decision-making body of the 27-member continental grouping headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
These could ruffle officials in Kampala, including President Museveni, boasting that the UPDF have dismantled the command and capability of the rebels who would never return to disturb the prevailing peace in Acholiland – the former epicentre of the two-decade rebellion.
Separately, a French military general said in Paris on Tuesday that proponents of the exclusive use of military force to annihilate the rebels are misguided because victories in field battles singularly do not end armed revolts.
“There should be use of both political and military solutions. Yes, there must be military pressure to bring, for instance, the LRA rebels to sign the peace agreement but those advocating for only a military solution are definitely wrong and I am a military general saying this.”
And he added: “[The LRA problem] needs a geo-political solution and the military approach is just a component of that solution.”
The government of Uganda and the Joseph Kony-led LRA - with donor financing – dialogued for two years in southern Sudan’s city of Juba from 2006.
But the rebel chief shocked observers and sympathizers last year, when he suddenly declined to endorse the Final Peace Agreement unless standing International Criminal Court warrants of arrests against him and other top commanders are dropped or deferred.
The inconclusive talks upset the donors, forcing the US administration under former President Bush to nudge Uganda to use force against the rebels it has been fighting for more than 20 years now.
However, that military campaign in Garamba that ran from December 14 and baptised Operation Lightning Thunder, ended prematurely after three months amid opposition by Congolese activists.
Although some cornered top LRA commanders eventually surrendered to UPDF, Joseph Kony himself, reported to have escaped the initial assault by just five minutes, was never captured or killed as planned, creating fear he could re-organise his forces for more deadly raids.
Ugandan authorities have shrugged off such ominous possibility, but the EU official in Brussels put Kampala on notice that donors were aware that both President Museveni and Kony were not committed to the peace process in the first place.
Asked if EU would consider Kony’s plea to the UN to defer the ICC warrants of arrest by six months or a year, the diplomat said the proposal is “perfectly legal but we have moral objections because such exemption from criminal liability breeds impunity.”
She, however, acknowledged that there was still divided opinion among international actors on how to conclusively resolve the LRA menace. She said a final decision would depend on what former Mozambican President; Mr Joachim Chissano opts to do as UN’s special envoy for LRA affected areas.
Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Situation in Darfur, Sudan
Sudan: Al-Bashir's Sit-Tight Bid And the Country
All Africa
June 12, 2009
It surprises no one that President Omar Al-Bashir of the Sudan is perfecting a sit-tight bid with a rock-solid plan to contest the seat of the presidency in the general elections of his conflict-rocked country, billed for February, 2010. History is laden with innumerable instaances of leaders super-gluing, or attempting very desperately to superglue, tightly to power even if the existing imperatives of their entities necessitate otherwise.
They stop at nothing to muster every required strength to maintain the firmest possible grip of power until coup d'état, severe ill health, severe senility or death, or a popular revolution do them part. Are the entities crisis-ridden or, in more ferocious sense, conflict-shattered? They would want to be seen presiding over the conflict and the shattering, even if they are the fuels of the conflict themselves and their continued ruling may stoke the existing situation.
The Republic of the Sudan, the biggest country in Africa, with a population of over forty million, is one of the most beleaguered African nations now.
On one hand, there is President Omar Al-Bashir, who took over power in 1989 and is already marking time to contest the presidency on the platform of his political party, the National Congress Party (NCP), as its sole candidate in the general elections of February, 2010.
On the other hand, there is the Republic of the Sudan rocked by the decades-old conflict with the South Sudan, which has simmered down now by the grace of the autonomy granted the ten-state region in the grand process of, possibly, granting it self determination according to a political timetable drawn by both the NCP-premised Khartoum authorities in the North, and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the South; the crisis of the three-state Darfur; and the conflict with (the Khartoum authorities would call it the aggression of) the neighbouring Chad Republic.
Very significantly, there is also the Warrant of Arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the sword of Damocles, hanging over Al-Bashir, on the charge of genocide, served on him last March. What is the organic linkage between these four issues factoring vitally in the politics of the Sudan, and the sit-tight bid of Al-Bashir?
In his capacity as the head of government of a sovereign nation, according to the Statute of Rome establishing the ICC, he is immune to arrest by any global judicial outfit. The moment he is no more in this privileged capacity, he is bereft of the immunity, and the sword of Damocles would be let loose on him. The ICC would swoop at him and pick him in the fashion of a hawk on a defenseless lonely chick. So, he 'must' sit tight on the seat in the comfort of the immunity, and continue managing the relationship and diplomatic intercourses between his political personae on one hand, and the global judicial outfits and the entire international community on the other.
The Khartoum authorities and their cronies are in a concerted sensitization campaign on the Sudanese public and all other friends in sympathetic parts of the continental and international community that the ICC Warrant is a travesty of justice against which everyone must rise in solidarity with Al-Bashir. They swoop on the ICC, challenging it to, first, serve such warrant on the former President Bush of the United States for his genocide in Iraq before it does so on Al-Bashir.
"Of course, as a matter of fact, there is not a single justification for issuing the warrant of arrest against a sitting president," Dr. Lam Akol, a South Sudanese and former Foreign Affairs Minister in the NCP/SPLM Unity Government, now a member of the Sudanese National Assembly, argued, maintaining, "neither the statute of Rome, on which the ICC is based, nor normal diplomacy can allow that."
Dr. Akol argued emphatically: "The concept of sovereignty of state, on which the 193 member United Nations Charter is predicated, does not allow a sitting president to be indicted outside his own country. The ICC Charter itself in the Rome statute in Article 98 says that nothing in that statute would make a country that is party to the Rome statute and, therefore, member of ICC, would allow the ICC to arrest somebody with immunity in his own country unless that country he belongs to withdraws that immunity. So, this covers anybody enjoying immunity, let alone the president against being arrested by the ICC."
According to him, "All this has nothing to do with law. It is all politics. Suppose there is a crime committed. Has Bashir gone personally to the ground to commit the crime? Somebody must have done it on his behalf under his orders. The law should have apprehended the person who committed the crime. Let him be the one to say, 'I got my orders from the president.' There is nothing that justifies the indictment of the president."
He stated conclusively: "We have passed a resolution here in the Parliament that no single citizen should ever go to The Hague and appear before the ICC because Sudan is not a party to the ICC, it is not a signatory to the Rome statute. It is just a game of the strong playing with the weaker one. Because Sudan is weak, they can do anything they want with it."
In spite of the protracted crisis with the South Sudan and the possible preference for self determination with the status of an independent country by the peoples of the South, the Khartoum authorities seem at pains to let go of that region for whatever fortunes accruable from there to a united Sudan.
The referendum to be conducted there on the self determination, as a vital feature of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) reached with the ten-state region, represented by the SPLM, and the Sudanese government, represented by the NCP, is slated for 2011, a year after the general election, which Al-Bashir would, most possibly, have won.
Al-Bashir 'must' continue presiding over the process of the CPA with the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) and perfect the play of pranks or lobby right from across the South Sudan itself, through the entire Sudan to the continental and global spheres. So, he 'must' sit tight on the presidency.
"We are just implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that has put forward two options for the Southerners, either they decide to be part of the Sudan, which will be respected, the choice is theirs, or not. If the choice is that the South secedes, it will also be respected," assured Dr. Lam Akol.
"But of course, the two parties to the agreement, the SPLM and the Sudan government represented by the National Congress Party, both of them have committed themselves to work for the unity of the Sudan, that they will advise the voters (in the referendum) to vote for a united Sudan. Of course, the decision is not in their hands. It is in the hands of the people of Southern Sudan. They may listen to the advice of the SPLM, they may not," he recalled.
The parliamentarian weighed the pros and cons of South Sudan secession: "Secession is an old sentiment since the beginning of the problem of the South Sudan in 1947. They have been fighting for a long time and they say, may be the best way for us is to part ways. There are people who think like this. But there is a counter argument. We as southerners have ruled ourselves for eleven years.
That experience has opened our eyes to ethnicities, how power can be used for or against certain tribes. Even today, four years after the CPA, the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) has been unable to deliver basic services. There is the issue of insecurity, which has become rampant there. The corruption there is on a very large scale. So, this evokes another thought by other people that if this is the future that I am going to have, the devil I know is better than the devil I don't know. Even the dye-hard separatists are now thinking twice that how will we look like after secession if this is the way we are treating ourselves?"
Along this line, therefore, the Sudanese government is, most probably, mounting an intense clandestine lobby, and could be prepared for an intense play of pranks to fade away the sentiment, douse the raging flames of any agitation and, possibly, crumble the issue of granting self determination to South Sudan before the referendum.
Al-Bashir Cannot Escape ICC
Time
June 12, 2009
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will eventually face justice, even if it takes six years to arrest him, the prosecutor who indicted him for war crimes said in Cape Town today.
Speaking on South African radio on the last day of the World Economic Forum on Africa, International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo vowed: "Bashir will face justice," even if it took, "two months, two years ... even six years."
The ICC in March issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Western Sudanese province of Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of people have died since 2003 in an ethnic-based conflict.
Al-Bashir has denied the charges. The African Union and the Arab League had asked that the ICC hold off on indicting him, arguing that the ICC action threatened peace efforts in Sudan.
South Africa, the continent’s biggest power, took the same line.
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki has been mandated by the AU to intercede with the UN on al-Bashir’s behalf.
Since the warrant was issued, al-Bashir has travelled to several countries in the Middle East and Africa that are not signatories to the Rome Statute that founded the ICC and not obliged, therefore, to implement the warrant.
Last weekend, he attended a trade meeting of eastern and southern African leaders in Zimbabwe.
By doing so, Ocampo said the Sudanese leader was merely "showing his desperation."
"He is indicted," the prosecutor said. "The government of Sudan has the duty, the legal obligation to arrest him," he said.
A handful of African heads of state, including South African President Jacob Zuma, are attending the three-day Cape Town meeting.
On a recent visit to the continent, the president of the ICC Sang-Hyun Song urged African countries to enact their own legislation on war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide to to reduce the need for trials at the Hague-based court.
Sudan opposition leader returns home amid growing dissent
Sudan Tribune
June 14, 2009
The leader of the largest Northern opposition party in Sudan returned home after an extended stay abroad that lasted over three months.
Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi head of the Umma National Party was greeted by large number of supporters including the party leadership and members of his family.
The former prime minister has left Sudan during the last few days of the party’s convention where tensions ran high over the selection of many perceived as a pro-government Secretary General.
Al-Mahdi defended the choice of controversial Lieutenant Sideeg Ismail as Secretary General, saying that he was legitimately elected by the party members.
However, many within the party say the election mechanism was flawed.
Some observers have said that Al-Mahdi’s departure was to avoid confrontation with the dissatisfied party members over the SG choice.
Al-Mahdi has also left the country few days prior to the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant issued for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir raising speculations that he did not want to take sides on the issue.
The Umma party chief has generally expressed support to the ICC but opposed the warrant for Bashir saying it is “unacceptable”.
Al-Mahdi led the Friday weekly prayers telling his followers that Sudan’s problems include problems facing the North-South peace agreement, Darfur crisis, economic situation, regional tensions and ICC row.
He warned that the items he listed will lead to the “bloody” division of Sudan if no remedies are found saying that he tried his best to unite the internal front “with no success”.
He also proposed a pact with the Sudan people Liberation Movement (SPLM) calling it ‘Attractive Unity or brotherly neighborhood’ saying it lays the framework for the upcoming referendum by the South on secession in 2011.
Al-Mahdi also said he will present a new initiative on the Darfur crisis and will demand that the presidency not endorse death penalties handed down by Sudanese courts over the last few months against members of Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).
He also warned against taking the Darfur war crimes issue “lightly’ and reiterated his opposition to extraditing Bashir to The Hague.
Over a year ago the Umma party led by Sadiq al-Mahdi and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) signed an agreement known as “National Reconciliation Agreement” which largely outlines a number of fundamental principles that both sides share the same views on.
The “National Reconciliation Agreement” has come under fire from other opposition parties who viewed it as a step towards a political alliance between the NCP and the Umma party, something which Al-Mahdi has strongly denied.
At the time Al-Mahdi blasted other opposition parties and advised them to join the agreements “before it is too late”.
However, last December the Umma Party leader acknowledged the failure of the agreement blaming “hawks inside the regime and within the opposition”.
Al-Mahdi was ousted as prime minister in a bloodless military coup in 1989 by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and has been one of the most outspoken critics of the government ever since. However lately he has taken a more favorable position towards the government saying the latter became more accepting of other political parties.
ICC escalates pressure on Sudan
Workers World
June 14 2009
International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has called for the immediate arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Hague-based court indicted Al-Bashir in March in connection with the government’s efforts to halt rebel attacks in the western Darfur region of the central African state.
“The government of Sudan has the responsibility to arrest him [al-Bashir],” Moreno-Ocampo told the United Nations Security Council on June 5, citing legal obligations mandated by the U.N. Charter and resolutions.
In addition, the ICC prosecutor told the Security Council that the Sudanese government “has also the duty to arrest” Sudanese ex-minister Ahmad Haroun and Civil Defense Forces leader Ali Kushayb who were also cited by Moreno-Ocampo for alleged war crimes in the Darfur region of the country.
Moreno-Ocampo then accused the Sudanese government of violating U.N. resolutions by appointing Haroun as governor of South Kordofan province. “We are at a crossroads. There’s a chance to stop the violence. Crimes have to be stopped,” the ICC prosecutor said.
In the aftermath of these statements by Moreno-Ocampo, the Sudanese Ambassador to the United Nations, Abdel-Haleem Abdel-Mahmood, confronted the ICC prosecutor outside the Security Council chambers, resulting in a near-clash between the two men. Abdel-Mahmood accused the Moreno-Ocampo of being a “liar” and said his actions are promoting the destruction of Sudan.
The “official called on the United Nations Security Council to put an end to Ocampo’s mandate saying that his government appointed a special prosecutor to look into crimes taking place in Darfur. He also described Ocampo as ‘the man on his left’ as a ‘fugitive from Sudanese justice’ and said that the ICC prosecutor is practicing ‘criminal tourism’ with his backers around the world.” (Sudan Tribune, June 5)
The U.N. Security Council was not expected to take any action or issue a statement in response to the ICC report. Russia and China, two permanent members of the Security Council, have in the past blocked actions against Sudan.
Abdel-Mahmood reiterated the position of the Sudanese government: “We are not going to cooperate with this politically motivated court [the ICC].” He went on to say: “The prosecutor has outlived his usefulness and has become a liability for his own promoters.” (AFP, June 5)
Sudan rejects isolation
Despite these charges against the Sudanese leader, the government has remained defiant and is refusing to cooperate with the ICC. President Al-Bashir traveled to Zimbabwe on June 6 in order to participate in a Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa regional conference. He was welcomed by Zimbabwe Vice-President Joice Mujuru and President Robert Mugabe.
The Zimbabwe Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa said that the Sudanese leader was welcome to visit the country. “We are aware that the President of Sudan is under an ICC warrant of arrest which he disputes. We are not a state party under the Rome Statue. We have no obligation under the Statue of Rome to execute that obligation,” he said. (Sudan Tribune, June 6)
President Al-Bashir has traveled to other countries since the indictments were issued against him in March. He has visited Qatar, Egypt, Eritrea and Ethiopia and has been welcomed by the governments of these states.
On June 8 an African Union meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, convened with representatives of 30 countries who are signatories to the Rome Statue that established the International Criminal Court. African nations constitute the largest regional group that has recognized the ICC, yet they are charging that the court unfairly targets African leaders. All the indictments issued by the ICC have been against former African leaders and officials, rebel commanders and, of course, the sitting head-of-state in Sudan.
Although a number of organizations inside the United States and the government itself have accused Sudan of genocide in Darfur, the ICC indictments speak only of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In a recent statement by President Barack Obama in Germany criticizing Sudan and charging the government there with genocide, the U.S. leader said that his administration is still very much engaged in seeking a resolution to the conflict in Darfur.
However, the Sudanese foreign ministry spokesperson Ali Al-Sadiq responded to Obama, saying that the statements made by the U.S. president were “out of context” and politically motivated. Al-Sadiq pointed out that the newly appointed U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, did not accuse the African state of genocide during a recent visit to the country.
“Al-Sadiq said that even the judges at the International Criminal Court dropped the genocide charges against Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir last March. The Sudanese diplomat’s statements mark a rare criticism of the new U.S. administration. Washington appeared to soften its tone toward Khartoum and even suggested that normalizing bilateral relations and lifting sanctions imposed since 1997 are on the table.” (Sudan Tribune, June 7)
Supporters of the Darfur rebel movements in Sudan have been critical of President Obama’s efforts in recent months. They are saying that he is backing away from promises made during the 2008 campaign for Washington to take an even tougher line toward the Sudanese government on the Darfur question.
The ICC and the struggle against imperialism
Sudan is one of Africa’s major oil-producing countries, and has therefore been targeted for destabilization and domination by the Western imperialist states led by the U.S. The country has maintained an independent domestic and foreign policy over the last two decades and has refused to cooperate with the U.S. on a number of its initiatives related to the Iraq war and relations with Iran and Palestine.
Earlier this year the Israeli Air Force bombed a convoy of vehicles in Sudan, claiming that the government was involved in arms shipments from the Islamic Republic of Iran to Palestinians in Gaza. The Darfur support movement in the United States is largely composed of pro-Israeli organizations that have continued to make unsubstantiated claims of genocide against the Al-Bashir government.
In a recent article by Zafar Bangash entitled “The ICC: An Instrument of Imperialism,” the author states: “Church groups, Zionists and a number of Western governments are interfering in Sudan. Since all people in Darfur are Muslim, the anti-Muslim card cannot be used as was so effectively done in Southern Sudan. Here, an ethnic twist is utilized: the Darfurians are presented as ‘Africans’ while the central government in Khartoum is run by ‘Arabs.’
“Why Arabs cannot be Africans is not explained but the propagandists can count on the ignorance of their own people, especially in North America. Africa is a continent and being African is not an ethnic label: if white South Africans are considered Africans because they reside in an African country, on what logic are northern ‘Arab’ Sudanese excluded from being African?”
When the Rome Statute was established in 2002, only 66 of the world’s 192 countries ratified it. That is only one-third of the recognized states in the United Nations. At present the number of signatories to the Rome Statute have reached a total of 108 states.
Even three permanent members of the Security Council, the U.S., Russia and China, have not ratified the Rome Statute and are therefore not bound by the ICC. Nevertheless, the ICC is being utilized by the imperialist states to undermine the sovereignty of Sudan.
The fact that only Africans have been indicted by the ICC calls its legitimacy into serious question. Bangash points out in his article: “The non-ratifiers clearly have no faith in it for a variety of reasons ranging from reluctance to relinquish sovereignty to seeing it as the white man’s justice.
“Since the overwhelming majority of countries in the world fall in the category of ‘non-white’ and are situated in the South—as opposed to the European and North American North—this division clearly comes into play.”
Moreover, the genocidal policies carried out historically by the Western imperialist states have never been addressed by any of the existing international bodies. The founding of the European colonies in the Western Hemisphere resulted in the mass extermination of the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Latin America and North America.
In addition, the Atlantic slave trade that went on for over three centuries transported tens of millions of Africans from the continent to the Western Hemisphere for the sole purpose of labor exploitation. Millions of Africans died in the process, and even today there has never been any effort to pay reparations or make amends for this historical injustice.
Over the last two decades from 1991 to 2003, over 1.5 million Iraqis have died as a result of the Gulf War and sanctions. The invasion and occupation of Iraq led by the U.S. and Britain from 2003 to 2009 has brought about the deaths of another 1.3 million people, and the displacement of 4 million others.
There is well-documented evidence of torture and other crimes against humanity leveled by the U.S. against people in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia. Yet the ICC or other Western-based and -controlled institutions have taken no action against these horrendous crimes.
Consequently, targeting Sudan by the imperialist states must be opposed by anti-war and social justice advocates in the Western countries. This double-standard must be exposed and the real perpetrators of racism, national oppression and genocide should be brought to justice for their crimes against humanity.
Sudan denies expelled aid groups allowed to return
AFP
By Guillaume Lavallee
June 15, 2009
Sudan on Sunday disputed a declaration by UN humanitarian chief John Holmes that it would allow expelled aid groups to return to Darfur, insisting the agencies must have "new names and new logos."
Sudan expelled 13 international aid groups in March after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Beshir over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Khartoum accused the NGOs of spying and working for the ICC, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon describing the expulsions as "an extremely negative development (that) puts well over one million people at life-threatening risk."
On Thursday Holmes said that four of the aid groups were to resume their operations.
The "possibility (of return) is there for all the organisations which were expelled and some of them already have taken advantage of it," Holmes said.
"They now got very recently new registrations and will be restarting their operations."
Holmes said four groups -- CARE, Mercy Corps, Save the Children and PADCO, an international development consulting firm -- had already "this week completed initial registration processes in Khartoum."
But Holmes' statements suggested that the NGOs were the very same that had been expelled and were now going to resume their work, provoking a sharp reaction from Sudanese authorities.
What Sudan had accepted was to host "new NGOs" with "new names" and "new logos," according to the head of Sudan's Humanitarian Affairs Commission Hassab Mohammed Abdelrahman.
"The government has no intention of allowing the expelled organisations to return to operate once again in Sudan," Abdelrahman said in a statement.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the organisation Holmes is in charge of, issued a later statement clarifying that the four NGOs Holmes referred to "should not be characterised as 'returning'."
"While from related organisational families, they are not the same, and have been registered in Sudan as new international NGO implementing groups and authorised to open new operations in the Sudan on that basis."
Mercy Corps also issued a statement that it "is not resuming operations in Northern Sudan. Mercy Corps Scotland, a UK-based charity, has registered to work in Sudan."
And CARE USA said that Holmes' statements implied that it would be "allowed to return to Sudan. This however is not the case. CARE USA's registration in Sudan remains void, and CARE USA will not resume operations in North Sudan."
Sudan mulled several options in response to the ICC's charges against Beshir, its first against a serving head of state, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, including expelling diplomats
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their homes since ethnic minority rebels in Darfur rose up against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum in February 2003.
Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.
Democratic Republic of the Congo (ICC)
Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Witness Claims Lubanga Visited Training Camp
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
By Rachel Irwin
June 9, 2009
Defendant Thomas Lubanga visited military training camps to boost the morale of young recruits, a former child soldier told prosecutors at the International Criminal Court, ICC, this week.
“I saw the president on two occasions,” the unnamed witness told the court. “The first time he came, he asked about our situation in general. The second time, he tried to boost our morale—it was a few days before training ended.”
“Do you know the name of the president?” asked prosecutor Nicole Samson.
“Yes,” replied the witness. “Mr Thomas Lubanga…I saw him with my own eyes.”
The witness, who testified in Swahili with voice and face distortion, said that he was kidnapped by soldiers on his way home from primary school and forced to undergo military training in the camp, allegedly run by Lubanga and other commanders in the Union of Congolese Patriots, UPC.
Lubanga is charged with recruiting, conscripting, and using child soldiers, defined as fighters under the age of 15, in the ethnic conflicts that raged in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, during 2002 and 2003.
The witness said he also saw other high-ranking UPC officials in the camp, including Bosco Ntaganda, who is currently wanted by the ICC for recruiting and using child soldiers, and Floribert Kisembo, the former UPC chief-of-staff.
“As far as Kisembo is concerned, it was as if you woke up in the morning and saw your mother, father, brothers and sisters,” said the witness. “Seeing him wasn’t special or different.”
The commanders, said the witness, forced the recruits to participate in extensive weapon training, which was often practiced with pieces of wood.
“I treated the piece of wood like my own weapon,” explained the witness, who added that he was whipped on one occasion when he misplaced it.
He said that beatings were common in the camp, especially when the recruits first arrived.
"Can you describe how you were beaten?" asked Samson.
"No, I can't," the unnamed witness replied. "I might have problems and get angry [if I talk about it]."
He also declined to describe what happened when he attempted to flee the camp, where recruits received extensive weapons training.
“In the case of certain events, it’s better not to talk about it,” he said. “It awakens certain feelings.”
As the witness spoke, Lubanga appeared sullen and sat with his arms folded across his chest.
After the four months of training ended, the witness said he was issued a weapon and uniform and sent to the village of Djugu, where his battalion acted as “reinforcements” for the other army units. He did not provide details about his activities as a soldier.
In other developments, judges reprimanded prosecutors for an inadequate response to a May 22 request from victims’ attorneys who want charges against Lubanga expanded to include sexual slavery and cruel treatment.
“The prosecution [response] in present form fails to address issues raised [by the victims’ lawyers],” presiding Judge Adrian Fulford told prosecutors. “It would be helpful to us to have a substantive position set out…given this affects the very charges brought against the accused.”
Lawyers for the victims contend that the charges should be expanded because the many witnesses have testified about seeing or experiencing rape by commanders at the UPC training camps.
The prosecutors responded to the victims’ lawyers in a three-page filing on May 29.
Judge Fulford dismissed the prosecution’s response as “technical” and requested a more complete response be submitted to the court by June 12. The defence has until June 19 to respond to the prosecution resubmission, and the victims’ lawyers must respond to both parties by June 26.
Witness Deflects Defense Questions
LubangaTrial.org
By Rachel Irwin
June 9, 2009
A former child soldier deflected questions during cross-examination today and accused Thomas Lubanga’s defense lawyers of trying to trap him.
“What you’re doing is satisfying yourself with information provided to you by your client,” the witness told Marc Desalliers, one of Lubanga’s lawyers. “Perhaps the court will decide that [Lubanga] is innocent…. But what I say [is that] … even if he didn’t commit these things with his own hands, he was the leader.”
The unnamed witness, who continued his testimony from last week, spoke in Swahili with face and voice distortion.
When pressed about discrepancies between his original statement to investigators and his testimony in court, he defended himself by saying, “You cannot explain everything you went through at any given time. Sometimes it takes 20 or 30 statements. I said what was important [at the time].”
Defense lawyers, however, asserted that the witness had left out a major detail in his original statement to prosecutors when he did not say he had been part of part of the Lubanga’s Union of Congolese Patriot’s (UPC) militia.
“Is it correct that during your first meeting with investigators, you never mentioned that you were a member of UPC at any time?” asked Desalliers.
“That’s correct,” the witness responded. “I did not wish to give them that information.”
The defense alleged that the witness originally told investigators he had been part of the ethnic Lendu militia known as the Front for National Integration (FNI) - a main enemy of Lubanga’s ethnic Hema UPC militia.
The witness did not deny that he fought with the FNI after he left the UPC, but the details of his time with the FNI were never clarified in open session.
Instead, the witness explained why he did not mention the UPC during his first meeting with investigators.
“This story about the UPC, I will not tell it [to] my children,” he told the court. “Nothing hurts me more than what I lived through in the UPC. I never like to tell it to anyone.”
Child Soldiers Made Toys
LubangaTrial.org
By Rachel Irwin
June 10, 2009
The children taken into Thomas Lubanga’s militia made their own toys and played marbles when they weren’t learning to use weapons, a witness told the court today.
“They were always on the ground playing little games,” said the unnamed witness, identified as a soldier with the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) who also trained young recruits. “You could see that they were children.”
The young soldiers in training included girls as well as boys, the witness said.
“I did not see big girls in Mandro [training camp], only little girls,” he explained. “It was these girls who were doing the cooking for everyone in Mandro.”
The witness said he knew that the girls were young because they picked long blades of grass to make braids.
“A person who does this is someone who has not reached an age of maturity,” he said.
When prosecutor Manoj Sachdeva pressed to him to explain how he could tell the girls’ ages, the witness responded that he was a father.
“As a parent and a man of experience, you can determine someone’s age from their appearance and their actions and behaviors,” he responded. “…In my opinion I didn’t find any girl who was aged 17.”
The witness estimated that children comprised 75 percent of the militia.
“They had just arrived from their homes,” he explained. “Many had lost their parents [in attacks] and joined [the] army …for vengeance.”
Lubanga Wanted to Remake Congo
LubangaTrial.org
By Rachel Irwin
June 11, 2009
Defendant Thomas Lubanga told new military recruits that he wanted to transform the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a witness revealed to prosecutors on Thursday.
“[Lubanga] simply asked the men to be calm, and said the [Union of Congolese Patriots] wanted peace and that we were going to remake our country,” explained the unnamed witness, a former UPC soldier who also trained new recruits. “It would be a new and young country.”
The witness, who continued his testimony from Wednesday, said Lubanga made his remarks during a morale-boosting speech delivered at a large military training center in Mandro, about 12 miles outside the Ituri city of Bunia.
Children in the camp were also present during Lubanga’s speech, the witness said, and they sang songs in Swahili to raise their spirits and prepare for battle.
When prosecutor Manoj Sachdeva questioned the witness about Lubanga’s role in military operations, he said Lubanga was not directly involved.
“The president didn’t have any role in operations because he wasn’t soldier,” the witness said. “He would stay in his residence and wait for reports [from his main staff].”
When Sachdeva pressed the issue, the witness reiterated that Lubanga wasn’t a “military man.”
“He would not be present where there was shooting amongst soldiers,” he said.
The defense, which began cross-examination late Thursday, will continue on Friday.
Rape in Training Camp
LubangaTrial.org
By Rachel Irwin
June 12, 2009
Girls recruited into Thomas Lubanga’s militia were raped by trainers and guards, a former soldier in the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) told the court today.
In court for the third consecutive day, the witness is one of many who have testified about sexual violence in the militia’s training camps.
“The trainers and other guards from the [training] center took advantage of situation,” the witness told Judge Elizabeth Odio Benito, after she asked him to explain the role of female recruits. “These girls were used for everything.”
That included domestic and sexual services, the witness said.
Later, when prosecutor Manoj Sachdeva asked him how old the girls were, the witness responded that he “couldn’t determine ages from their appearance.”
However, he reiterated that rape occurred in the Mandro training center, located about 12 miles outside the Ituri city of Bunia.
“I clearly said that there was rape - that is, carrying out sexual intercourse with someone who is not willing or doing so by force,” the witness explained. “That is what I qualify as rape.”
“Do you know if the commander of the center and other senior officers were aware that this took place?” asked Sachdeva.
“How could they not realize that this was taking place?” responded the witness, explaining that the senior officers were often the perpetrators
Court Hears Child Soldiers Wanted Revenge
LubangaTrial.org
By Rachel Irwin
June 12, 2009
Children joined Thomas Lubanga’s militia to avenge the murders of family and friends, a witness told prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) this week.
“They had just arrived from their homes,” explained the unnamed witness, identified as a former soldier in the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) who also trained young recruits.
“Many had lost their parents [in attacks on their villages] … and joined the army in order to get vengeance.”
The witness said that he trained children as young as 14 to use weapons at the UPC’s training centre in the village of Mandro, about 19 kilometres outside the Ituri town of Bunia.
Many of the younger child soldiers made their own toys and played marbles when they weren’t learning to shoot, he added.
“They were always on the ground playing little games,” said the witness. “You could see that they were children.”
Lubanga is charged with recruiting, conscripting, and using child soldiers, defined as fighters under the age of 15, in the ethnic conflicts that raged in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during 2002 and 2003.
The witness said the young soldiers in training included girls as well as boys,
“I did not see big girls in Mandro [training camp], only little girls,” he explained. “It was these girls who were doing the cooking for everyone.”
The witness said he knew that the girls were young because they liked to make braids with long blades of grass. “A person who does this is someone who has not reached an age of maturity,” he said.
When prosecutor Manoj Sachdeva pressed to him to explain how he could tell the girls’ ages, the witness said that he was a father.
“As a parent and a man of experience, you can determine someone’s age from their appearance and their actions and behaviors,” he explained. “In my opinion I didn’t find any girl who was aged 17.”
The witness also said he saw Lubanga deliver a morale-boosting speech to recruits at the Mandro camp, where the accused vowed to transform the DRC.
“[Lubanga] simply asked the men to be calm, and said the [Union of Congolese Patriots] wanted peace and that we were going to remake our country,” he said. “It would be a new and young country.”
Children in the camp were also present during Lubanga’s speech, said the witness, and they sang songs in Swahili to raise their spirits and prepare for battle.
However, Lubanga was not directly involved in military operations, he said.
“The president didn’t have any role in operations because he wasn’t soldier,” said the witness.
“He would stay in his residence and wait for reports [from his main staff].”
When Sachdeva pressed the issue, the witness reiterated that Lubanga wasn’t a “military man”.
“He would not be present where there was shooting amongst soldiers,” he said.
Congo Warlord Loses Bid to Block ICC Trial
AFP
June 12, 2009
Congo ex-militia chief Germain Katanga for his war crimes trial to be thrown out.
Judge Bruno Cotte dismissed an argument by Katanga that the case was inadmissible on the basis that legal proceedings had been brought against him before courts in his home country.
His lawyers had argued the ICC could only intervene if national courts were unwilling or unable to investigate and try war crimes suspects.
"The Democratic Republic of Congo has quite clearly decided to allowed the court to institute proceedings against Germain Katanga and to put Germain Katanga on trial," said Cotte.
"The chamber dismisses the challenge to admissibility and hereby declares that the case against Germain Katanga is admissible before the court."
Katanga, 31, is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, including using child soldiers, murder, rape and sexual slavery.
He and co-accused Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, 38, are scheduled to go on trial before the ICC on September 24.
Charges against the men arise from a joint attack on the village of Bogoro, in the country's mineral-rich Ituri region in February 2003, by the two militias of which they were allegedly the leaders.
The ICC has issued four arrest warrants for war crimes in the DR Congo.
The other two accused men are ex-militia chief Thomas Lubanga, on trial in The Hague, and another warlord, Bosco Ntaganda, who is still at large.
Witness Admits to False Statement
LubangaTrial.org
By Rachel Irwin
June 16, 2009
A man known as Witness 15 who was to testify Tuesday against Thomas Lubanga told judges that he had given a false name and statement to investigators.
“Shortly after [Witness 15] was called to give evidence, he indicated that he provided the [Office of the Prosecutor (OTP)] with a false name and that the statement he provided was, in important respects, inaccurate,” said presiding Judge Adrian Fulford.
Although the witness’s confession came during closed session, Judge Fulford read sections of the session transcript aloud in open court, saying he wanted the public to know what had occurred.
“So your statement to the OTP is substantially inaccurate?” Fulford read, quoting himself from the transcript.
“That’s the case,” the witness had responded. “It’s a false statement.”
Fulford said a new statement would be obtained from the witness “setting out what he says is the truth.”
A person from the prosecutor’s office who is not working on the Lubanga case would take the statement outside of the courtroom, Fulford said.
Prosecutor Nicole Samson suggested that the witness’s new statement be recorded for audio and videotaped. A member of the defense team would be also be present, she said, but had agreed not ask any questions.
The court noted that it could not predict the witness’s new statement. “We have no idea what [the] result will be,” Fulford said. “But one can envisage a result where the defense might want to call this witness itself.”
Before adjourning for the day, Fulford said that the witness should be counseled on the issue of self-incrimination and given access to a lawyer.
“Advice given to the witness…should include a warning against giving false testimony,” he added.
It is not the first time that a witness in the Lubanga trial has recanted a previous statement in court.
On January 28, just two days after the trial began, the prosecution’s first witness told Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that he had lied during his testimony and had been coached on what to say.
Ex-DRC Leader on War Crimes Charges
AlJazeera.net
June 16, 2009
A leading political figure from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been formally charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled on Monday that Jean-Pierre Bemba - a former vice-president of the country - will now face trial for a series of offences committed by his troops.
According to a court statement, a pre-trial panel of judges at The Hague "found that there is sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to believe that Jean-Pierre Bemba is criminally responsible" for murder, rape and pillaging.
They "referred the case for trial" on three counts of war crimes and two of crimes against humanity for atrocities allegedly committed in the Central African Republic (CAR) from October 2002 to March 2003 by militia controlled by Bemba.
Bemba appeared before the ICC in The Hague in January for a hearing to confirm the charges against him, following his arrest on an ICC warrant during a visit to Brussels in May 2008.
After a years-long civil war in the DRC, Bemba became one of four vice-presidents in a transitional government ahead of elections in the country in 2006.
He unsuccessfully challenged Joseph Kabila for the presidency.
'Atrocities committed'
Bemba then led the opposition, but was forced into exile when government forces tried to disarm his private militia in clashes that killed at least 300 people in March 2007.
Prosecutors claim Bemba had sent 1,000 to 1,500 troops to the CAR to retain control of the border area with the Congolese province of Equateur in a war between his Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) and the then DRC leader Laurent Kabila, the father of the current president.
While there, the prosecution alleges that MLC militia brutally gang-raped men, women and children, and tortured and murdered civilians.
Bemba had argued before the court in January that MLC militia in the CAR had not been under his command when deployed to help put down a coup.
His lawyers told the court that the men were under the command of Ange Felix Patasse, the then CAR president, whose government provided their transport, fuel, money and uniforms, while Libya supplied the weapons and ammunition.
They claimed the case was part of a conspiracy to sideline Bemba politically.
But in their decision on Monday, the pre-trial judges said there was evidence that Bemba "actually knew about the occurrence of the crimes".
Expert: Militias Spoke in Contradictions
LubangaTrial.org
By Rachel Irwin
June 17, 2009
An expert on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) told the court Wednesday that militias in the Ituri region often made contradictory statements about the use of child soldiers.
The militia leaders would both justify the use of child soldiers and then deny they did it, said Roberto Garreton, a Chilean lawyer and former United Nations special envoy on human rights in the DRC.
“[Militia leaders] would say, ‘We don’t use child soldiers, but they are useful because…’ — it was often a contradiction,” he explained.
Garreton appeared as an expert witness to provide context on the history of the DRC. Children were widely used as soldiers, he said, despite the condemnation of international human rights groups.
“Were people generally aware that use of child soldiers was internationally disapproved of?” asked prosecutor Nicole Samson.
“The general public did not have access to this information,” Garreton responded, because, “This war, like any war, was not conducted in a democracy.”
Only educated elites in Kinshasa, he said, would have access to international news and opinions that often condemned the use of child soldiers.
On one occasion when he was in the DRC during the early 2000s, he saw armed children at the Bunia airport and estimated them to be between nine and 12 years of age, he said.
A few days later, Garreton said he went to the home of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of the Movement for Liberation in Congo (MLC) who is currently awaiting trial at the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Garreton told Bemba he had seen child soldiers. Bemba apparently replied that “here there are ethnicities where people are very small,” implying that the soldiers he saw were not actually children.
The witness will be questioned by Lubanga’s defense lawyers on Thursday morning.
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
Defence case against oldest detainee to commence on August
31
Hirondelle News Agency
June 8, 2009
The defence case of former Rwandan businessman, Yusuf Munyakazi, on trial for genocide and crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), will commence on August 31, 2009.
During a status conference on Monday presided by the President of Trial Chamber I, Judge Florence Rita Arrey the parties have agreed that the defence should submit particulars of defence witnesses by July 31.
Tanzanian Professor, Jwani Mwaikusa, lead defence counsel for the accused told Hirondelle after the status conference, that he was working with a tentative figure of 36 would be defence witnesses, including two experts.
The prosecution rested its case on June 4, after fielding 12 witnesses to support accusations against the defendant.
The 74 year-old man was arrested in May 2004 in east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where he pretended to be an Imam, under the name of Mzee Mandevu (literally, the bearded old man in Kiswahili).
The trial began on 22 April.
Tribunal on Rwandan genocide seeks extension of tenure
AFP
June 13, 2009
A UN-backed special court trying key suspects in Rwanda's genocide wants a year-long extension to finish work, since it cannot meet the deadline of December, its top judge said Friday.
Set up by the United Nations in November 1994, the tribunal is tasked with prosecuting the prime suspects in the genocide that claimed 800,000 lives in Rwanda earlier that year, but its judge president, Dennis Byron, has asked for more time.
A UN Security Council decision on the request is expected "soon, probably next week," Byron said Friday, in a speech he gave staff of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
"We expect the appeals to continue until mid-2013," he told the staff at the court in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha. "The Security Council is aware that our work will continue beyond 2010."
Byron presented his biannual report to the Security Council on June 4, when he said that some of the trials would not be finished by the year's end.
Fifteen years after the genocide, the court is still after 13 people who are indicted fugitives on the run.
They include Felicien Kabuga, a wealthy Rwandan businessman accused of funding the genocide. He is suspected to be in Kenya where he is believed to own several properties.
The UN estimates that Hutu extremists killed some 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, during the 100-day genocide.
Setako: Trial of ex-Rwandan military officer resumes
Hirondelle News Agency
June 15, 2009
The trial of former Rwandan military officer, Lt. Col. Ephrem Setako, charged for genocide and crimes against humanity resumed, Monday before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) with the testimony of the 25th defence witness.
The protected witness code-named ‘'MCR'' for security reasons, was arrested for genocide charges in 1996 and prosecuted by the Rwandan semi-traditional courts known as gacaca, but was acquitted and released in 2007.
Led in Examination-in-Chief by Setako's lead American defence counsel, Professor Lennox Hinds, the witness acknowledged to have met the accused way back in 1992 during a burial ceremony in Rwanda, but never saw him again.
Prof. Hinds is expected to field at least 10 last defence witnesses, including the defendant himself. Prosecution ended its case on April 22, 2009 after presenting a total of 20 witnesses.
ICTR prosecution counsel, Ifeoma Ojemini-Okali, cross examined the witness after the evidence in chief.
Lt. Col Setako is facing six charges, including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. He has denied the charges.
The case presided by Judge Erik Mose of Trial Chamber I, continues on Tuesday.
Give us evidence on Kabuga’s departure, ICTR tells
Kenya
Hirondelle News Agency
June 17, 2009
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has requested from the Kenyan authorities to furnish it with an evidence of an alleged departure from their territory of the most-wanted Rwanda genocide fugitive, businessman Felicien Kabuga.
"All efforts including my recent mission to Nairobi in March 2009, to obtain from Kenyan authorities the particulars and circumstances of his [Kabuga's] alleged departure from Kenya have been fruitless", stated the ICTR prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow, in an interview with Hirondelle Agency Tuesday.
According to Jallow, the Director of Immigration Services in Nairobi informed the Tribunal on 8 January, 2009 that Kabuga had already left Kenya.
The ICTR requested in vain from the Kenyan authorities to provide it with evidence attesting to the departure of the wealthy businessman and his destination, regretted the ICTR prosecutor, stressing that the arrest of Kabuga continues to be a top priority for the ICTR.
During his address before the UN Security Council on 4 June, Jallow had indicated to have "incontrovertible evidence that Kabuga entered Kenya in 1994 and was granted a residence permit as well as a permit to do business in that country".
In spite of repeated requests on behalf of the Tribunal for the arrest of the accused and the freezing of his assets, only a property, the Spanish Villa[ in Nairobi], has been seized to date," deplored the ICTR prosecutor.
Regarding other suspects at large, the Gambian-born Prosecutor had stated that there were "consultations" in progress with the authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Jallow added that the majority of the 12 other people wanted by the ICTR are suspected to be hiding in DRC.
The Prosecutor reiterated before the UN Security Council for all states to cooperate with the ICTR in the arrest and transfer of the fugitives. Other suspects still on the run include the former Minister for Defence, Augustin Bizimana.
Muvunyi: Ex-officer allegedly used ethnic proverbs to incite
Tutsi killings in 1994
Hirondelle News Agency
June 18, 2009
The first prosecution witness in the first ever re-trial of former Rwandan military officer, Lt. Col. Tharcisse Muvunyi, told the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Tuesday that the accused used Rwandan proverbs to incite Hutus to kill Tutsis.
The accused, added the witness, insisted that Tutsis, be male or female, had to be slaughtered to death if they were married to Hutus.
Led in Examination-in-Chief by ICTR Prosecution Senior Counsel, Charles Adeogun Phillips, protected witness code-named "FBX "to shield his true identity for security reasons, explained that the defendant uttered the words at a public meeting in Gikore trading centre in Nyaruhengeri commune, Butare prefecture, south Rwanda in May 1994.
The witness who claimed to have attended the meeting, further elaborated that the accused also called upon Hutus who sheltered or protected Tutsis should also be killed along with them, reminding the Kinyarwanda adage : ‘'If a snake rounded itself on a calabash you cant kill it without breaking the calabash itself.''
Making his opening statement, Phillips pointed out: ‘'these proverbs were understood by his audience as a call on the Hutus to exterminate all the remaining Tutsi civilians in the area (Gikore).''
According to the prosecution, the meeting, which was attended by between 60-80 people, was mostly made up of local Hutu population and militia. The accused allegedly did so in his capacity as the Commandant of the Senior Military Officers' College (ESO) based in Butare, a position he held between April 7 to end of May 1994.
The particular significance of Muvunyi's speech, Phillips explained, was the use of Kinyarwanda proverbs which contained inflammatory language such as referring to the Tutsis as ‘'inyenzi'' (cockroaches) or inzoka (snakes).
The prosecution is expected to field a total of six witnesses out whom five would be factual witnesses and a social linguistic expert, Evariste Ntakuritimana.
The accused was earlier found guilty of genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and other inhuman acts by the court of first instance and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment on September 12, 2006 but the penalty was cancelled by the Appeal Court and ordered a retrial on one count.
The appellate judges ordered a new trial for direct and public incitement to commit genocide on August 29, 2008 particularly on the speech made by the accused at the Gikore commercial centre
According to the Chamber's schedule, the new trial is expected to be completed two weeks after the commencement of the hearing.
If found guilty he would not be sentenced to more than 25 years as was the case in his previous penalty.
The trial continues on Thursday.
Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL)
Offical Website of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
The Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme
In Sierra Leone, Deputy Special Court Prosecutor Completes
Successful European Mission
The Awareness Times
June 5, 2009
The Deputy Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Joseph F. Kamara, has completed a mission to several European capitals where he promoted the work of the special court.
One of the goals of the events was for participants to profit from the lessons of the Special Court. "Sharing our knowledge and learning from one another, we further the cause of justice and peace for all", said Mr. Kamara
During the month of May, Mr. Kamara first delivered a lecture at a training seminar in Berlin, Germany on rapid response to humanitarian crisis. He spoke on the role of the Special Court in securing peace and justice in Sierra Leone.
Next, the Deputy Prosecutor was in Oslo, Norway, for am INTERPOL conference, where he addressed the challenges of prosecuting international war crimes.
Mr. Kamara then gave two final presentations in the Dutch capital of The Hague, seat of the Special Court trial of former Liberian President, Charles Taylor.
At the International Criminal Court, he spoke on the RUF Judgment and what it means for international jurisprudence and for Sierra Leone.
At the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Mr. Kamara concentrated on the legacy of the Special Court.
Participants were keenly interested in the precedents set by the Court. Mr. Kamara focused in particular on the recent groundbreaking rulings in the RUF judgment. "The groups I met with were particularly impressed by the Sexual Slavery as aCrime against Humanity and forced Marriage - the first such convictions in world history".
"The Special Court has set a standard of independence and fairness hitherto unknown in the sub region", said Mr. Kamara.
"There is great interest in our work and accomplishments internationally. Sierra Leoneans should be proud to know this tribunal is looked to as a model for justice in many respects".
Charles Taylor is ‘Now a Jew,’ Wife Says
The Jerusalem Post
By Haviv Rettig Gir
June 7, 2009
Former Liberian president Charles Taylor, on trial in The Hague for alleged war crimes committed during the civil war in Sierra Leone, has adopted Judaism, one of his wives said.
The former warlord is on trial in the Special Court for Sierra Leone for allegedly encouraging atrocities during that country's civil war, which ended in 2002.
On a broadcast aired last week, Victoria Taylor told the BBC World Service's Peter Ndoro that Taylor "is now a Jew. He's practicing Judaism."
Asked if Taylor believes his newfound faith will aid him in his trial, his wife suggested he does.
"Oh yes, I have seen a lot of transformation in my husband," she said, "and I know he truly wants to serve God with all his heart, all his mind and all his might."
In fact, Taylor found his Judaism upon entering the courtroom, she said.
"When he got to The Hague, he got to know that he really, really wanted to be a Jew. And he wanted to convert to Judaism. And that's what he has done… He wants to know deeply about God and all about creation, and he wants to serve God accordingly and immediately."
His wife insists, however, that he remains a believing Christian.
"He wants to follow the two religions," she said, adding that while he had questions concerning Christianity, "of course, he does believe in Christ."
Ndoro asked if Taylor's "conversion" included admitting "to having done wrong for which he's seeking forgiveness right now.
"To be honest with you," Victoria replied, "I have never raised that question with him. I have never talked to him about that. I know he has a lot of regret concerning all that happened in his presidency and in the war... We don't talk in detail concerning that."
[Charles Taylor’s Defence Counsel] ‘I’m Hampered in
Defending Him’
New Democrat via AllAfrica.com
June 8, 2009
With Mr. Charles Taylor expected to take the stand on 29 June in his own defence, one of his lawyer, his Liberia-based lawyer Cllr. J. Lavali Supuwood, says the Court's decision in curtailing his (Taylor's) privileged" communications here is a setback for effectively defending him.
In an interview Sunday with this paper, Cllr. Supuwood said the ban on communication with his client will pose problems for his defence, adding that it undermines Mr. Taylor's fair trial and right to defend himself.
He said the right of the accused to communicate with his lawyer is an internationally observed one, and that its abrogation violates Mr. Taylor's right.
He said if he had known that the Special Court would curtail his client's rights in such a manner, he would not have opted to serve as his lawyer.
He said there are investigators here, along with potential witnesses, that Mr. Taylor would like to communicate with for his defence, and that by ending the privileged contacts, adequate preparation will not be possible.
"There are critical witnesses that Mr. Taylor should talk to", the lawyer said.
He said the Special Court's rules specifically guarantee this rights, and that with its abrogation, "It is impossible" for Mr. Taylor to prepare for his case.
Last week, the spokesperson of the UN backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, Peter Andersen, confirmed the provisional ban imposed on Mr. Taylor, which stops him from talking with his local lawyer here due to concerns about the misuse of the privilege.
He said Mr. Taylor and his local lawyer have misused the opportunity granted them to consult and communicate privately and regularly on issues relevant to his trial.
It is not clear how Mr. Taylor and his lawyers have allegedly abused the opportunity, but there are hints of discussions outside the framework of the trial between Mr. Taylor and his Liberian lawyers.
"Mr. Taylor's privileged communications with his Liberian counsel has been provisionally suspended due to concerns about misuse of the privilege," Mr. Andersen told this paper via E-mail Wednesday, after it made an inquiry into the matter.
He said the ban with his Liberian lawyer, Cllr. J. Lavali Supuwood, does not affect his other counsels outside Liberia.
"The provisional ban in no way affects his privileged communications with his other counsel," Andersen added.
But He said it is not the Special Court's policy to prevent an accused from communicating with his lawyers, adding that Mr. Taylor would be allowed an unprivileged communication with his Liberian counsel until further notice based on the concerns raised. This indicates that consultations will not be private but in the presence of others.
Mr. Taylor is on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity he allegedly committed in Sierra Leone.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia
Official Website of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia
Escape From the ‘Land of Blood and Tears’
CNN
By John Blake
June 9, 2009
Michael Chea can't forget what they did to him. Though he is standing in the morning sunlight, surrounded by giggling teenagers and chirping birds, his face is twisted by grief.
American John Etherton talks to a Liberian about his country's violent past.
He is reliving the moment when he escaped death in the "land of blood and tears."
"In 1990, I was a very small, and I saw so many things," he said. "The war took us away in the forest, and we started running. They killed my grandmother. They killed my grandfather. They killed my auntie."
Chea could have easily become just another anonymous victim of war in Liberia. At least 200,000 Liberians were killed in a series of conflicts between 1989 and 2003 that transformed the tiny nation on the west coast of Africa into a wasteland.
But Chea found a way to preserve his pain. His story was captured on film by a skinny 27-year-old American college student who is using an interactive video system mounted on a SUV to show others how nations emerging from war can come to terms with their violent past.
'It really feels like the Wild West'
John Etherton, a graduate of Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, is a "post-war correspondent." He is part of a school program called GTV, or Greater Truth through Voices, that dispatches people through Liberia to record the experiences of war victims like Chea.
The Georgia Tech program isn't just concerned with the past; it's preparing Liberians for the future. The collected stories will be sent to Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a group formed to rebuild trust among Liberians by identifying war crimes and encouraging victims to come forward. The commission is holding its final hearing this month and is expected to release its final report soon.
Liberia is trying to move away from its violent past. It elected Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first female head of state, as president in 2006. And the country's former notorious warlord, Charles Taylor, is being tried for war crimes.
But Etherton says the country still feels on edge. Streetlights have bullet holes in them, roads aren't paved or free from bandits, and there's no electricity in many cities.
"It really feels like the Wild West," Etherton said. "It's an eerie, surreal feeling to know that this was a war zone five years ago, and people were dying here."
Now Liberians are trying to learn how to live again. Part of that journey begins with listening to one another's stories. That is part of the rationale behind Liberia's commission: A nation that can confront its violent past will have a better shot at a stable future.
"It's necessary for people to talk and share their stories and engage in debate," Mike Best said. The Georgia Tech professor says GTV uses a cartoon character who looks and speaks like a typical Liberian to show war survivors how they can record their stories on the mobile video system.
"Ultimately, some transformative truths will allow people to see themselves in a new way."
'Land of blood and tears'
Getting at those truths, though, may require Liberians to sift through some gruesome memories.
During its civil wars, various warlords fought for control of the country. The war's savagery turned surreal at times. It spawned thousands of child soldiers clutching AK-47 assault rifles. It featured soldiers charging into battle wearing blond wigs and amulets that they thought would protect them from bullets. And it was propelled by men like Gen. Butt Naked, a warlord who fought in the nude because he thought it would terrorize his enemies.
According to Amnesty International, war crimes became routine. Various armed factions engaged in the arbitrary killings of civilians, systematic rape, forced amputations and the abduction of children.
Marguerite Michaels, a journalist who took a tour of the country near the end of its last civil war, said in a Time magazine essay that the psychological damage to Liberia's war-weary citizens "cannot be fathomed." She spoke of the country's white beaches, marred by corpses sticking out the sand. She called Liberia the "land of blood and tears."
Etherton soon learned that that the war didn't just leave its mark on Liberia's physical landscape. It left its mark on its people. At times, he would share a joke with an easy-going Liberian and learn later that his entire immediate family had been murdered.
"So many people have lost someone," he said. "No one is unscathed."
Yet getting Liberians to share these stories isn't easy, he says. Many wanted to know whether Etherton was going to provide them with a job when he arrived with his camera. They weren't eager to dredge up painful memories.
"They're coming out survival mode," he said. "They haven't had the luxury of sitting back and discussing the war. Their attitude is more like, what do we have to do right now to not die."
The tangled U.S.-Liberian relationship
Violent divisions have been part of Liberia's history.
The country was founded in 1847 by freed slaves traveling from America. During the 19th century, various groups thought the best solution to slavery was returning freed slaves to Africa where they could create colonies.
But when freed slaves arrived in Liberia, many recreated the slave-master relationships they experienced in America, historians say. They created a caste system where they were the masters and systematically discriminated against -- and some say enslaved -- the indigenous people of Liberia.
Tribal divisions persist in Liberia today, Etherton says.
He says he saw evidence of these divisions when President Obama was elected in November. Many Liberians rejoiced but were puzzled when Obama's opponent, Republican Sen. John McCain, appeared on television to graciously concede the election.
"A lot of people thought that was amazing," he said. "They said that would never happen in Africa. No one would ever gracefully bow out."
Perhaps the stories collected by Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission will help teach Liberians how to move forward. It did seem to help Chea, the war survivor, when he shared his story with Etherton.
When he speaks about his war experiences, Chea is at first so angry at losing his family that he can barely put his thoughts into words. The muscular young man waves his hands in frustration as he tries to explain what happened to him.
Chea says he wishes he had a different childhood, where he didn't have hide for survival in the forest while soldiers hunted down his family.
"In the forest, nothing good I learn," he yelled.
Then Chea begins to talk about the needs of his country and its war survivors. His voice calms as Etherton keeps the camera rolling.
Once, Chea may have been a frightened boy who was hunted by strangers. At least on this day, however, a stranger was treating him like a human being.
"Just to express yourself to someone who cares and to know that your voice is important is very empowering," Etherton said later. "If nothing else, just knowing that someone cares is important."
National Reconciliation Conference Begins Monday
Truth And Reconciliation Commission of Liberia
June 11, 2009
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia (TRC) will Monday convene a weeklong National Reconciliation Conference at the Unity Conference Center in Virginia, outside Monrovia.
TRC Chairman Counselor Jerome addressing a news conference Wednesday said the National Reconciliation Conference will afford Liberians a final opportunity in the current TRC process to impact the TRC’s peace building initiatives, discuss the issues that led the nation to conflict and division and begin the process of reconciliation aimed at bringing closure to Liberia’s conflict past.
Cllr. Verdier said that the conference will provide an occasion for garnering the contribution of all Liberians to the reconciliation process and ensure that the TRC process is inclusive leading to its final report which will be representative of the views of a broad spectrum of the Liberian society.
He said the conference will also establish a national consensus on the implementation of the TRC recommendations.
The deliberations, Cllr. Verdier said will complement issues that featured during the TRC Regional County Consultations and the TRC process in general. He said delegates from the political subdivision of Liberia, civil society and other stakeholders will make presentations on how cohesiveness and national reconciliation can be attained in Liberia.
He said the conference will create a forum where victims and perpetrators will engage each other in public demonstration of reconciliation, healing and forgiveness, aimed at setting off the nation’s reconciliation agenda.
The TRC Chair said that Liberians from the 15 counties, the Diaspora, government functionaries, stakeholders, TRC local and international partners and civil society organizations will be represented.
'Amnesty for Some, Prosecution for Others' TRC Declares National Reconciliation Conference Soon
Daily Observer
By Stephen Binda
June 11, 2009
Authorities at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) have officially announced that it will at the end of this month conclude its operation in the country and subsequently forward recommendations to Central Government and partners for implementation.
Speaking Wednesday in Monrovia, the Chairman of the Commission, Cllr. Jerome Verdier, said as part of its drawdown activities, the Commission will organize a National Reconciliation Conference to be held in the country. He said the holding of the National Conference is aimed at bringing together Liberians both at home and abroad to a roundtable so as to enable them settle their differences.
He added that as part of the TRC mandate, his outfit had organized public hearings geared toward bringing reconciliation and peace to post-war Liberia.
Chairman Verdier said the conference will commence from June 15 to 20 2009 and is expected to take place at Unity Conference Center in Virginia, outside Monrovia.
The National Conference on Reconciliation, according to Chairman Verdier, will be co- organized by the Governance Commission with Madam Elizabeth Mulbah serving as chairperson on the steering committee.
According to the TRC Chairman, the Conference will be attended by more than 400 delegates from both Liberia and other countries.
“At this conference, the 15 counties will be represented and each county will be asked to make a statement,” Cllr. Verdier disclosed.
He noted that the Commission prays that all Liberians forget the past and allow the rule of law to prevail.
When asked to comment on issues to be raised in the Commission's recommendations to Central Government, Cllr. Verdier would not say much but stated that the Commission takes into account calls by some Liberians for the establishment of a war crimes court in the country.
He stressed that there could be no reconciliation in any given nation or society without justice and a rule of law.
“There will be amnesty to those who deserve it and there will be prosecution for those who also deserve to be prosecuted,” TRC Chairman stressed.
Also speaking at the press conference was Commissioner Massa Washington. In responding to recent comments by Nimba County Senior Senator Prince Johnson to the effect that some 200 people including himself had been listed for prosecution, Washington said they as a Commission were not working for Senator Johnson and that they were working for the Liberian people.
She noted that they at the Commission were not moved by such remarks on grounds that “Senator Johnson is entitled to his opinion. Maybe Senator Johnson is afraid of his own shadow.”
The TRC was established three years ago to launch an investigation into the root causes of the country's civil war and forward recommendations to Central Government for implementation.
Since then the Commission has been conducting hearings both in Liberia and elsewhere from both perpetrators and victims aimed at finding a way forward for justice, peace and the rule of law.
“Call for war crimes court for Liberia justified" says
Human Rights activist
Running Africa
By James Seitua
June 12, 2009
Calls for a war crimes court for Liberia are justified but difficulties in securing funding for its operation may dampen prospects for its realization, Liberian human rights activist Torli Krua has said.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Mr. Krua, who is executive director of the Boston-based Universal Human Rights International (UHRI), said “No one should be under the illusion that there is an unlimited supply of money sitting out there in the international community to pay for all the ills of the world.” He however said Liberia can have a war crimes court today if Liberians are willing to pay for it.
Citizens from the 15 political subdivisions of Liberia, following regional consultative meetings organized by the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, recently called for a war crimes court for the war-ravaged West African state to prosecute individuals alleged to have committed heinous crimes and violated international humanitarian laws during the country’s 14-year civil war. That call was strongly re-echoed a few days later by a consortium of Liberian women organizations.
Civil war broke out in Liberia on December 24, 1989, when rebels of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) launched a cross-boarder attack from neighboring Ivory Coast. Taylor announced a week later his group had launched a “90-day armed campaign to remove (President) Samuel Doe from the backs of the Liberian people.”
Doe was captured and tortured to death in September 1990 by a breakaway faction of the NPFL led by Prince Johnson who is now a senior senator for Nimba County. But the death of President Doe never ended the war, and despite massive international efforts to restore order, fighting intensified and armed groups proliferated until the country became a virtual patchwork of armed factions, with each fighting group targeting the NPFL, while at the same time turning the guns on each other, looting, raping, and executing civilians.
Despite stiff opposition against Taylor, his National Patriotic Party was declared winner of the 1997 general and presidential elections conducted on the basis of proportional representation in which the winner takes all. Those elections were intended to return the country to democratic civilian rule. But Taylor’s resolve to use his victory as a license to revenge and run the country as a private firm led to much discontent, with rebel forces going back into the bush to regroup against him. Aid agencies conservatively estimate that over 250,000 people died in the war, which ended in 2003 with the ouster of Charles Taylor after the concerned parties signed a peace accord in Accra, Ghana, which also paved the way for the election of current President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in 2005.
“Liberians have been talking about a war crimes court for the country but this is the first time something concrete has come out of the street talks to demonstrate the seriousness of Liberians about a war crimes court,” a journalist closely following the Charles Taylor’s trial in The Hague said on condition of anonymity.
“We can have a war crimes court today if Liberians are able and willing to pay for it,” Krua said, adding, “Right now, Liberians crying to the international community is not going to solve anything because the international community has its own interests which may not be the same as Liberia’s.”
Flashback: Partial view of the War Crimes court in session
Crimes committed during the Liberian civil war waged from 1989 to 2003 include the recruitment of child soldiers, massacres, rape, and sex slavery. “These crimes violate international humanitarian laws and the international community is under obligation to bring the perpetrators to justice,” one analyst says.
But the UHRI boss strongly believes Liberians are capable of paying for things they desire, including a war crimes court, if they stop taking what he called “free rides” and learn to live within their means. “It’s only then we can begin to benefit not only from a war crimes court but also from our places of worship, associations, political parties…” he pointed out.
Krua lamented what he called “excessive and unsustainable compensation of public servants” in Liberia. “When an impoverished post-conflict country pays $20,000 salary per month to a public servant, it becomes clear to me that the unsustainable and reckless patterns of governance that make public service a path to personal wealth is totally out of step with democracies around the world,” he insinuated. Krua did not elaborate, but he called for legislations to limit the incentives and salaries of public officials to enable the government keep vital programs up and running.
He said Liberians should not expect taxpayers around the world to pay for something dear to the hearts – justice, if they cannot act responsibly in their associations, political parties and live within their means.
In budgetary terms, it’s not known what’s needed to set up a war crimes court for Liberia. But the United Nations-backed War Crimes Court for neighboring Sierra Leone set up to try rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) following that country’s brutal civil war, waged from 1991 to 2001, had an initial budget of US$85 million, with a mandate of three years.
Former Liberian rebel leader turned President Charles Taylor, accused of supporting the RUF rebels known for chopping off the limbs, ears, and noses of thousands of civilians as they vandalized Liberia’s western neighbor, is presently on trial at the Sierra Leonean war crimes court now sitting in The Hague, the Netherlands, facing 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Taylor, who is alleged to have trained and armed the RUF rebels for “blood diamonds”, is also accused of bearing the “greatest responsibility” for war crimes in Liberia. And with war crimes trouble already weighing heavily on him, the most flamboyant rebel leader in modern history could face war crimes charges again, this time in his own country, experts say.
However, Krua said for a war crimes court to become a reality in the country, “the system of politics in Liberia must be changed from one that perpetuates the professional governing class at the expense of individuals dedicated to serving the interests of constituents and the greater common good of the public…to a new system of governance not set up by the same people who benefited from the failed system.” He said most of the crucial decision makers in Liberia are “recycled politicians” who will never make a decision for a war crimes court because “they were all part of the war” and they want to avoid punishment for their crimes.
But internal political maneuvering, analysts say, can not stop the setting up of a war crimes court for a country in which war crimes are proven to have been committed and international humanitarian laws violated.
The issue of a war crimes court for Liberia has added to the ongoing debate regarding how to move the country forward following 14 years of devastating civil war. Opponents of the idea maintain the security situation in Liberia is still too fragile and indicting former warlords on any count of war crimes may spark off a new round of violence that may derail the peace process, but advocates of the court believe not holding people accountable for their roles in an armed conflict that left more than 250,000 people dead will send a wrong message to would-be trouble makers and set a dangerous precedence for the country.
Official Website of the International Criminal Court
ICC Public Documents - Situation in Uganda
Uganda: The State of Human Rights in Uganda
AllAfrica.com
May 28, 2009
Amnesty International
Selections taken from the chapter on Uganda in Amnesty International's 2009 report on "The State of the World's Human Rights"
Security in the north increased after progress was made in peace talks between the government and the armed group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), aimed at ending the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda. However, the final peace agreement was not signed by the end of 2008. The government continued to undermine freedom of expression and press freedom. Violence against women and girls persisted throughout the country. State security agents tortured or otherwise ill-treated detainees with impunity.
Background
A major corruption case remained pending. A former health minister, his two deputies and a government official faced criminal charges of embezzlement and abuse of office in connection with the Global Fund against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Armed conflict
The peace negotiations, which led to a number of agreements between the government and the LRA, were concluded but a final peace agreement was not signed by the end of 2008.
In February, the government and the LRA signed an Annex to the Agreement on Accountability and Reconciliation signed in June 2007. Under the terms of the Agreement and Annex, LRA leaders accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes would be tried by a Special Division of the High Court. The proposed framework fell short of a comprehensive plan to ensure that the truth is told, justice is done, and that reparation is provided for all the victims of the conflict. The arrest warrants issued in 2005 by the International Criminal Court for Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, and three LRA commanders remained in force, but were not executed by the Ugandan or regional governments.
In February, the parties signed an Agreement on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR), committing both parties to an orderly DDR process in line with national policies and international standards. The agreement had significant flaws regarding victims' rights to measures to help them rebuild their lives.
Thousands of men, women and children who suffered abuses during the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda remained destitute and physically and mentally traumatized due to the government's failure to put in place a comprehensive reparations programme.
LRA forces outside Uganda were believed to have abducted hundreds of people during 2008, including children, and to have committed a number of other human rights abuses, including unlawful killings, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),Southern Sudan and the Central Africa Republic. In December, Ugandan government armed forces participated in a joint operation with troops from South Sudan and the DRC in a military operation against the LRA.
Internally displaced people
By the end of 2008 over half (about 900,000) of the internally displaced people (IDPs) in northern Uganda had left the IDP camps. Most moved to transit sites, smaller camps closer to their homes and some returned to their original villages. However, in Acholiland - the area most affected by the conflict - only 24 per cent of people reportedly returned to their villages of origin.
Right to health
In March, a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health noted that important right to health issues, such as sexual and reproductive health rights, were not fully captured in the government's policies. This neglect was evident in regular reports on cases of maternal mortality. Government health programmes aimed at prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS left out certain categories of vulnerable people.
Trial of Kizza Besigye
The trial of opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye and six others accused of treason remained pending in the High Court in Kampala. By the end of the year an application to the Constitutional Court challenging the continuation of the trial had not been decided.
Two cases of murder against Dr Besigye's six co-accused also remained pending. At the end of 2008 all six were free on bail.
Freedom of expression
Attacks on freedom of expression and press freedom continued.
In April the ruling National Resistance Movement party parliamentary caucus announced its support for a Bill which, if passed, could significantly hamper the right to freedom of expression in Uganda. The Bill had not been debated by the end of the year.
Two criminal cases in which five journalists working for The Monitor newspaper were charged with criminal libel and sedition in 2007 remained pending in court. The charges related to articles about the secret training of soldiers as policemen and the reinstatement of the Inspector General of Government onto the government payroll after retirement, in breach of public service regulations.
In April Andrew Mwenda, managing editor of The Independent, a bi-monthly news magazine, and two of the magazine's staff were arrested and interrogated in connection with a story about claims of torture at alleged secret government-run detention centres. Police raided the magazine's offices and took away equipment. In May the three men were charged with sedition and "the publication of false news".
Freedom of assembly and association
In May the Constitutional Court ruled that section 32 of the Police Act amounted to an unjustified limitation on the rights to freedom of assembly and association in the Ugandan Constitution. The section gives unilateral powers to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to prohibit any assembly or procession where he has reasonable grounds for believing that it was likely to cause a breach of the peace. The court decision did not deal with section 35 of the Police Act which empowers the Minister of Internal Affairs to declare any part of the country a gazetted area in which it is unlawful to demonstrate or convene an assembly of more than 25 people.
The government appealed against this decision to Uganda's highest court - the Supreme Court.
The appeal was pending at the end of the year.
Refugees and asylum-seekers
From early August onwards, refugees and asylum- seekers fled from the DRC following a resurgence and escalation of fighting in eastern DRC. By mid- November more than 13,000 had arrived in Uganda.
According to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, as of the end of October, Uganda hosted a total of more than 140,000 refugees, most of them from the Great Lakes and East and Horn of Africa regions. More than 48,000 were Congolese.
There was ongoing repatriation of Southern Sudan refugees back to Sudan, a process started in 2005.
A number of urban refugees and asylum-seekers, particularly from Ethiopia, Eritrea and DRC, complained of unlawful and arbitrary arrests, harassment and extortion by the police and other state security agencies.
Torture and other ill-treatment
Reports of torture and other ill-treatment committed by the police and other state security services, including in alleged secret detention centres, persisted. The Uganda Human Rights Commission's 10th annual report recorded that people held in detention facilities were still tortured to the extent of sustaining serious wounds. There were no prosecutions of alleged perpetrators of torture and other ill-treatment and a significant number of the
Commission's compensation awards to victims of torture remained unpaid by the state.
Violence against women and girls
Violence against women and girls, including rape, marital rape, domestic violence, forced and early marriages, remained widespread in most parts of the country. Violence against women and girls was virtually never treated as a criminal offence. A number of proposed laws to address some forms of violence against women and girls remained pending. These included bills on Domestic Violence, Domestic Relations, Sexual Violence, and Trafficking in Persons.
Discrimination - lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
There were continuing attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and on human rights defenders working on LGBT rights.
In October, a government minister publicly labelled homosexuality and lesbianism a disease and declared that Uganda would seek to widen the scope of its legislation criminalizing homosexuality. In the month following the declaration, a number of LGBT activists and individuals were arrested and faced torture, including sexual assault, and other ill-treatment by police and security personnel while in detention.
In June, three LGBT human rights defenders were arbitrarily arrested and detained by police after distributing a press release to people attending a conference about HIV/AIDS policy implementation held in Kampala. They were charged with criminal trespass. The press release outlined the rights of LGBT people to treatment and prevention measures for HIV/AIDS.
Death penalty
Civilian courts continued to impose the death penalty but there were no executions. Military courts continued to hand down death sentences and order executions of soldiers in Uganda's armed forces; it was not clear whether there were any executions.
In December Uganda voted against a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions.
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, War Crimes Chamber
Novak Đukić Sentenced to 25 Years of Long-Term Imprisonment
State Court of BiH
June 12, 2009
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday pronounced the first-instance Verdict in the Novak Đukić case, by which Accused Đukić was found guilty of the criminal offence of War Crimes against Civilians. In that regard the Court sentenced him to 25 years of long-term imprisonment.
The operative part of the Verdict inter alia included that Accused Đukić during the state of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in his capacity as the Commander of the Ozren Tactical Group of the Army of Republika Srpska, on 25 May 1995, ordered his unit, located in the Panjik village on the Ozren Mountain, to fire an artillery projectile at a location in the immediate centre of Tuzla known as Kapija. As a result of the projectile explosion, 71 persons were killed and approximately 130 sustained injuries. Tuzla was declared a safe area by the Resolution 824 of the United Nations Security Council of 6 May 1993. The first instance trial panel concluded that this action was a direct and indiscriminate attack on civilians in violation of international law.
The Court acquitted Novak Đukić of the charges that he on 28 May 1995 ordered the artillery platoon to shell Tuzla with 9 artillery projectiles due to insufficient evidence.
The Court rendered the Decision to extend pre-trial custody of accused Đukić, which can last until the accused is committed to serve the sentence, however no longer than the term of the pronounced sentence.
Bosnian Judiciary Still Needs International Staff
BIRN Justice Report
June 15, 2009
Addressing a meeting in Sarajevo, the Hague Tribunal President says that maintaining international judges and prosecutors in Bosnian institutions is a key factor for the protection of the integrity of the Bosnian judiciary.
Patrick Robinson, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, considers that international judges and prosecutors are still needed in the judicial institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, adding that he will do his best to have their mandates extended.
Robinson made his statement in an introductory speech at the regional conference on promotion of the ICTY legacy, which is taking place in Sarajevo on June 15 and 16.
At this conference a Manual on Developed Court Practices of the ICTY was presented. Robinson described the Manual as one of "the key tools" which will help preserve the Tribunal's legacy. However, he said that continuation of war-crimes processing by local courts in the region is another important element of maintaining this legacy.
"The basic legacy of the ICTY is providing support to courts by securing local judicial capacities. I am concerned by the failure of the Council of Ministers to secure resources for implementation of the war-crimes processing strategy," Robinson said.
The Tribunal President expressed concern that the Council of Ministers has not extended the mandate of international judges and prosecutors, who, he said, are "still of key importance" in protecting the integrity of the judicial institutions.
"An urgent reaction is needed in this case. It is clear that the war-crimes section will be composed of local staff only at some stage, but international judges are still needed. All reports imply that this section needs the balanced influence of international judges. During my stay in Sarajevo, I will strongly lobby with the relevant institutions, which may contribute to a positive solution to this problem," Robinson said.
Under the agreed exit strategy, the mandate of international judges and prosecutors is due to expire in December 2009. Early this year, however, the Council of Ministers rejected a proposal to extend the mandate of international staff members of the Court and Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Ministry of Justice, which made the proposal, said it would seek to bring the same proposal before the Council once more.
Robinson cited the "physical archives" of the Tribunal as one of the legacies of this institution, noting that the UN Security Council is expected to render a decision on the future of the archives by the end of this year.
The ICTY produced the Manual on Developed Court Practices in cooperation with the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, UNICRI. It contains written practices of the Tribunal, covering its 16 years of work.
"This is the first time the Tribunal has written about itself in this way. The Manual comprises two phases of the process - from investigation to final verdict. The purpose of this conference is to examine the usefulness and usability of the Manual," said Sandro Calvani, UNICRI Director.
Calvani said the Manual was designed to help judicial staff in the region familiarize themselves with the work and practices of the ICTY in order to transfer knowledge and continue contributing to justice even after the closure of the Tribunal.
Officially the Tribunal is expected to close in 2010. However, in his recent address to the Security Council, Tribunal President Robinson asked for an extension of the mandate of judges for another two years. It is estimated that the last trial may be completed in 2012, while the Appellate Chamber may work until 2015.
"This is the first publication providing detailed explanation of daily ICTY practices. It offers testimony on the past and lessons for the future," said ICTY Judge Fausto Pocar. Milorad Barasin, Chief Prosecutor of the Bosnian State Prosecution, said the Manual should serve as "a framework and correctional tool" for the Prosecution and State Court in their future work on war-crimes cases.
Agreement on Cooperation Between Two Prosecutors' Offices
BIRN Justice Report
June 15, 2009
Representatives of the Prosecutors' Offices of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina reach agreement on improving cooperation in war-crimes cases.
Milorad Barasin, Chief Prosecutor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Vladimir Vukcevic, Prosecutor with the Special Prosecution for War Crimes of Serbia, meeting in Dubrovnik, have reached an agreement on a platform for basic cooperation principles.
The aim of this document is to avoid conducting parallel war-crimes investigations in the two countries.
"The two parties stressed the need to sign an agreement on the establishment of joint teams, which would help increase the efficiency and cost-efficiency of proceedings in some case, as well as help avoid conducting parallel investigations in the future," states one of the conclusions in the Platform released by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The two Prosecutors agreed that "all open questions on mutual cooperation should be sorted out, in order to contribute to the reconciliation process, fulfill justice for victims" and improve cooperation between the two countries.
The Prosecutors said the improvement of cooperation would prevent "impunity for war-crimes perpetrators", adding that local laws would be used in those proceedings.
At the meeting in Dubrovnik on June 12 the Prosecutors agreed to continue to exchange information and improve their cooperation on war-crimes cases by reaching an agreement on cooperation.
The Sarajevo and Belgrade Prosecutions are currently conducting two parallel investigations. One concerns crimes committed against the Yugoslav National Army, JNA, convoy in Tuzla in May 1992 while the other concerns the attack on a group of JNA soldiers in Sarajevo in May 1992.
The Belgrade Prosecution filed an indictment against Ilija Jurisic, whose trial is underway, for his alleged co-participation in the crime committed in Tuzla. Later, it requested the filing of an international warrant against 13 individuals who are associated with the incident that took place in Sarajevo in May 1992. Both of these initiatives were widely criticized in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Balkan Prosecutors Act to Ease Dual Citizenship Dilemma
BIRN Justice Report
By Erna Mackic
June 15, 2009
The lack of any regional agreement on the extradition of suspects, indictees and convicts is a major problem for judicial institutions there. An initiative was launched recently to at least partially resolve this issue, but as yet no final solution is in sight.
The existing initiative, which may soon result in the signing of an agreement, proposes that anyone sentenced before a court in one of the countries, and who resides on the territory of another country, can serve their sentences in that other country as well.
A delegation of the Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina has entered into negotiations with competent authorities in Croatia and Serbia concerning the proposed changes. The negotiations are in their final stage.
The issue of suspects, indictees and convicts sentenced by first-instance verdicts, however, still remains unresolved.
Moreover, some legal experts claim the current initiative is not to be recommended.
“The fact that a convict can serve his sentence in our country does not mean anything to us,” Kasim Trnka, constitutional law expert from Sarajevo, says.
“In that way we become a service provider, while our prison capacities are full anyway,” she adds.
“What we need is to enable our judicial organs to say that a person is a criminal because he committed crimes on the territory of our state.
“An agreement on the eventual extradition of citizens suspected, indicted or sentenced by first-instance verdicts would have more benefits to us.”
But Trnka says although many discussions continue on such an agreement, “there are still no indications that it may be signed in the near future”.
The justice ministry of Bosnia claims that there are many obstacles to such an agreement. Croatia would have to change its constitution, for example, while Serbia and Bosnia would have to amend their criminal codes.
“We are considering the legal aspects of this type of agreement [but] to conclude it, we would need to have confidence in judicial systems of the other countries”, source from Bosnia’s Ministry of Security said.
Prior to reaching a political decision, the Western Balkan prosecutions need to reach an
agreement on some form of a regional approach to the issue of dual citizenships.
Flight from justice:
Many people suspected or indicted over crimes committed in Bosnia currently reside in Serbia and Croatia because they hold dual citizenship.
This places them out of the reach of the prosecution institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the same time they cannot be tried, because, under Bosnian law, trials may not be conducted “in absentia”.
For example, the Bosnian State Prosecution believes that Milislav Gavric, indicted for crimes against humanity in Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia, is now in Serbia. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed the indictment against him on June 12, 2008.
Another example concerns Ivan Hrkac, charged as member of the Convicts Battalion with the Croatian Defense Council, HVO, with having participated in the abuse of members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina and prisoners detained in a school in Dobrokovici, near Siroki Brijeg, between May and July 1993.
On January 10, 2008 the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed an indictment against him. However, he failed to appear at the plea hearing and his defense attorney said he was “undergoing medical treatment in Croatia”.
Marinko Maric, charged with the murder and torture of detainees in the Gabela detention camp in Herzegovina, is also out of the country.
Damir Lipovac, charged with war crimes against civilians in Derventa municipality in 1992 is also unavailable to the Bosnian courts. Data available to the State Prosecution suggest Lipovac has obtained Croatian citizenship and, as of 1994, “occasionally lives and works in The Netherlands”.
The case of Radovan Stankovic, sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for war crimes committed in the Foca area, shows that it is not only suspects and indictees who seek shelter in other countries.
On May 25, 2007 Stankovic escaped from prison in Foca and is suspected of living in Serbia. Interpol issued an arrest warrant, but he has not been arrested even though two years have passed since his flight.
Another, different, case centers on Branimir Glavas, who fled from Croatia to Bosnia following the pronouncement of a first instance verdict against him in Croatia.
He obtained Bosnian citizenship during the course of the process conducted against him in Croatia and is currently at liberty.
“It is not possible to extradite a Bosnian citizen to any other country. says Barisa Colak, Bosnian Justice minister.
“We need political will to change the existing laws in order to make it possible for a person holding dual citizenship to be extradited to some other country. After that we would need to conclude bilateral agreements.”
If a regional agreement on the execution of court decisions were reached, Stankovic might serve his sentence in Serbia, having obtained its citizenship. But this of course would depend on the willingness of Serbian authorities to arrest him.
A provision in the current agreement between Serbia and Bosnia stipulates that a country can only execute criminal penalties against its citizens if “the convict agrees with such an action”.
If signed, the new agreement would not require the consent of the convicted person to serve his sentence in the country in which he currently lives.
Besides Serbia and Croatia, people holding dual citizenships have moved to Montenegro as well.
One is Veselin Vlahovic, known as Batko, who is suspected of committing war crimes in the Grbavica area in Sarajevo. As per a request by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a warrant was issued against him in October 2008.
It was earlier believed that Batko lived in Montenegro having obtained citizenship there. However, the Montenegro authorities deny this. They say they have issued a warrant against him following his flight from the prison in which he was serving a sentence for banditry.
Trials ‘in absentia’ – a temporary solution?
Trnka considers that, prior to reaching an extradition agreement, the possibility of conducting trials “in absentia” should be considered, despite questions over whether this procedure can be reconciled with the democratic and human rights of the indictee in question.
He notes that many countries conduct trials in the absence of indictees. “Given that we need to solve war crimes cases, this would be a significant thing to implement until an extradition agreement has been reached,” Trnka says.
He supports the initiative of Western Balkan prosecutors to reach agreements pertaining to extraditions in various stages of the proceedings, starting with the filing of criminal reports, the filing of indictments, confirming indictments, conducting trials and the execution of criminal penalties.
Marko Sjekavica, who monitors war crime trials conducted in Croatia on behalf of the Citizens’ Board for Human Rights, hopes the political will exists in Croatia and Bosnia to sign an agreement on the mutual extradition of citizens, charged with all types of crimes.
“It’s an important issue for both countries,” Sjekavica said. He said the Hague Tribunal and international community would support this development: “It is in their interest to have those people tried and punished.”
Sjekavica notes that Croatia has wasted large sums of money on processing war crimes after the convicts fled to another country.
Stjepan Mesic, Croatian President, has thrown his own weight behind the demand for reform of the dual citizenship anomaly.
Commented on Glavas’s move to Bosnia, this spring he said for media in Croatia: “The issue of non-extradition of citizens should be solved by reaching a bilateral agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“These issues can be solved if we reach a bilateral agreement, stipulating that all those sentenced for major crimes should be extradited to neighboring countries,” Mesic added.
But Trnka insists negotiations on such an agreement “will not be easy” would depend on the extent to which nationalist political parties remained attached to such people, and “whether they still praise them as national heroes or consider them war criminals.
“In any case, a model needs to be designed in line with those existing in the European Union,” he continued.
Trnka explained that European law did not recognize bans on extradition among its members, adding that, prior to joining the European Union, all member countries had to change “their constitutional or legal provisions”.
Croatian Attorney Domagoj Rupcic thinks that an extradition agreement should be possible. Ivan Jovanovic, legal advisor on war crime issues with the OSCE Office in Serbia, also considers that the negotiations on the extradition of Serbian citizens to the neighboring countries may succeed.
“The political environment in Serbia towards Bosnia and Herzegovina is not bad, because international judges and prosecutors work with the Bosnian State Court,” Jovanovic told Justice Report.
If an extradition agreement were to be made with Serbia, experts consider that, bearing in mind the large number of suspects or indictees, each extradition would have to be considered a separate case.
However, until legal and constitutional obstacles for reaching an extradition agreement have been removed, the international community and representatives of judicial institutions see an agreement between Western Balkan prosecutors as a temporary solution to this issue.
Sources close to Bosnia’s judicial institutions say prosecutors may soon reach an agreement on mechanisms for referring cases to the indictee’s country of origin, which would temporarily solve the issue of dual citizenship.
Negotiations between representatives of the various judicial institutions constitute one segment of the State War Crimes Processing Strategy, in the section referring to regional cooperation.
In 2005 the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina signed an agreement with the prosecutions of Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro on cooperation and exchange of information pertaining to war crime cases.
However, in 2006, Bosnia and refused to sign an agreement signed by Serbia and Croatia, transferring authority for processing war criminals to neighboring countries.
According to the agreement signed between Serbia and Croatia, perpetrators of war crimes might be tried in the country in which they currently live.
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
Bosnian TV Airs Video of Fugitive War Crimes Suspect
Voice of America
June 11, 2009
Bosnian television has aired video of fugitive war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic moving about freely with family members.
The video was first broadcast Wednesday on Bosnian Federal Television (FTV).The network said it has about one hour of video mostly shot after Mladic was indicted by war crimes prosecutors in 1995.A report accompanying the video said some of the footage was shot as recently as last year. But Serbian official Rasim Ljajic insisted the images are all at least eight year old.
Serbian authorities, who say they do not know Mladic's whereabouts, also say the broadcast video is part of materials confiscated last year from Mladic's relatives and turned over to war crime prosecutors in The Hague.
A former Mladic bodyguard told a Belgrade court Tuesday the former commander of Serb forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina moved around freely in Serbia under army protection until 2002.
Branislav Puhalo said about 50 heavily armed men guarded Mladic as he visited restaurants, the Interior Ministry and attended football matches. Puhalo testified at the trial of a group charged with sheltering Mladic and helping him avoid arrest.
The witness said the late Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic had authorized the unit in 1997 to protect Mladic from what were termed "criminals and bounty hunters."
Lord Owen ‘Reluctant to Testify for the Prosecution
SENSE Tribunal: ICTY
June 11, 2009
The prosecution has requested that the judges call Lord David Owen to give evidence as a court witness in the case of Radovan Karadzic. Lord Owen is reluctant to testify as a prosecution witness in order not to "jeopardize the future independence and impartiality" of international negotiators.
As in the Slobodan Milosevic case, Lord David Owen is reluctant to respond to the prosecution’s summons to testify at the trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. The prosecution has therefore asked the judges to call former British foreign minister and European peace negotiator in the former Yugoslavia to testify as a court witness.
The motion filed by the prosecution on 18 May 2009 was unsealed yesterday at Karadzic’s request. The prosecution indicates that when it called Lord Owen to testify at the Milosevic trial, he ‘took the position that future independence and impartiality of international negotiators may be jeopardized if they were called upon to testify in cases involving parties to a dispute they were charged with mediating’. For that reason, Lord Owen doesn’t wish to be associated "too closely" with the prosecution to ‘avoid the impression that he was taking sides in the trial’, the motion contends.
The prosecution has proposed to the judges to call Lord Owen under the same conditions as the Trial Chamber did in the Milosevic case. The prosecution maintains that Lord Owen’s initial statement, the transcripts of his evidence and other exhibits admitted at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic should be admitted now. All other documents considered relevant for the evidence of Lord Owen by either the prosecution or the defense should be submitted to the Trial Chamber 14 days prior to his testimony.
Lord Owen, the prosecution goes on to say, has ‘in depth knowledge’ of the events in the field, the result of his mediation from 27 August 1992 to 31 May 1995. Lord Owen met with the leaders from the Balkans to ‘discuss peace plans and ceasefires in order to ease the suffering of the civilian population’ and has written about his experience in a book Balkan Odyssey published in 1995, the prosecution notes.
According to the prosecution, Lord Owen’s meetings with the accused Karadzic and their telephone conversations are particularly relevant. Judging by the book and his evidence in the Slobodan Milosevic trial, Lord Owen will be focusing on the crimes the Serbian forces committed in BH in 1992, the siege of Sarajevo and encirclement of Srebrenica, the positions of the parties in the various negotiations, including the Vance-Owen plan, the hostage crisis, the hierarchy of power with the Bosnian Serb leadership and the objectives of the Bosnian Serb leadership.
Stanisic Trial Restarts Without Him
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
By Simon Jennings
June 12, 2009
The delayed trial of two former members of the Serbian state security service, DB, began this week in the absence of the main accused Jovica Stanisic – who said he was too ill to follow proceedings.
Prosecutors told judges at the Hague tribunal that Stanisic and his co-accused Franko Simatovic were behind several special units which committed crimes against non-Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia during the Nineties war in the former Yugoslavia.
Between 1991 and 1995, the two provided support to well-trained and well-equipped Serb units that had a “licence to clear lands and a licence to murder”, alleged the prosecution in court this week.
“This case, in its simplest terms, is an examination of the conduct and responsibility of two people for funding, equipping, [and] training members of the Serbian DB to commit grievous crimes on the territory of Croatia and Bosnia,” prosecutor Dermot Groome told judges.
According to the indictment, Stanisic and Simatovic are accused of committing atrocities between 1991 and 1995 that caused “the forcible and permanent removal of the majority of non-Serbs, principally Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats, from large areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina”. They are both charged with responsibility for crimes of persecution, murder, deportation and other inhumane acts.
The indictment says that Stanisic was head of Serbian state security between December 1991 and October 1998, while Simatovic was in charge of its special operations unit during the period relevant to the charges.
Prosecutors allege that the two defendants provided logistical support for Serb paramilitary units – including Arkan’s Tigers, the Red Berets, the Scorpions and Martic’s militia – which committed crimes against non-Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia.
Delivering the prosecution’s opening statement before judges this week, Groome explained that the official authority invested in Stanisic and his “his most trusted subordinate” Simatovic, during the war, was to gather information relating to the safety and security of Serbian citizens.
However, according to the prosecution’s case, the defendants took it upon themselves – through the use of special paramilitary units – to provide support for perpetrating some of the “most grievous crimes” administered by the government of Serbia.
While they were responsible for monitoring any perceived threats to Serbia from outside its borders their mandate did not “provide for any forcible intervention outside the country”, said Groome.
“The laws of Serbia prevented them from deploying their personnel outside Serbia’s borders in Croatia and Bosnia,” he said.
“How did it happen that a group of armed and dangerous men dared to shape the destiny of an entire nation?”
He went on to explain how Stanisic and Simatovic were part of a joint plan, “a collective criminal effort,” as he put it, headed by the late Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, to remove non-Serbs from large swathes of Bosnia and Croatia.
Milosevic himself faced trial in The Hague for war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, but he died in his cell in 2006 before the completion of his case.
“Stanisic and Simatovic were willing members in a core group of persons who shared the intent to remove large populations of non-Serbs, mostly Muslims and Croats, from their homes and land by force, doing this by perpetrating the crimes of murder and persecution,” said Groome.
“The genesis of the special units was the day Slobodan Milosevic charged Stanisic with establishing a covert fighting force, not bound by the law but by the dictates of Milosevic,” added Groome, pointing to an unspecified day in the spring of 1991.
Groome explained that areas of Bosnia and Croatia were targeted either because they were where Serbs comprised a majority of the overall population or where the land was necessary in order to bridge together two separate Serb populations.
The prosecutor quoted a speech made by Milosevic to a private meeting of his deputies following a period of increased tension in the region in March 1991.
“The government has been tasked with creating suitable units that will make us safe at all times, that is capable of defending the interests of our republic and also the interests of Serbs outside Serbia,” Groome quoted the late president as saying.
Stanisic established these units in the state security department and set up 26 training camps in Bosnia and Croatia to train a covert fighting force, and then passed the day-to-day running of the operation to Simatovic, alleged Groome.
“In this break-up [of the former Yugoslavia, the defendants] would ensure that Serbs came out on top, regardless of which republic those Serbs were [in] and regardless of the cost or harm to other ethnic populations in Yugoslavia,” said Groome.
Groome also emphasised the covert nature of the alleged joint criminal plan. He demonstrated Stanisic’s “ever-present concern for secrecy” by playing recordings of alleged intercepted conversations in which he asked his political colleagues not to identify him.
Comrades within the DB units only knew each other by nicknames and were forbidden to ask one another’s name in order to create confusion about who was behind the unit, said Groome.
Secrecy was also maintained because members of the core group knew that their work in Croatia and Bosnia was going to be criminal, he said.
“They realised at the outset what the world would come to understand as the tragedy unfolded: you cannot forcibly remove large civilian populations from their homes without committing grave crimes against them,” Groome told judges.
Prosecutors went on to present evidence of specific crimes committed by the units from the summer of 1991in what became Serbian autonomous regions, such as the Krajina in Croatia. In September 1991, Serb forces backed by the defendants took control of several villages in the region, burning the houses of the Croat inhabitants and using them as human shields against the Croatian armed forces who were forced to withdraw, prosecutor Doris Brebmeier-Metz told judges.
She also described how “Croat civilians were deliberately and intentionally murdered”, pointing to a specific incident in which Croats, including women and elderly, were dragged from their homes and shot.
“[Serb forces] lined them up against a wall and simply shot them. Another man who was too ill to leave the house was shot by Serb forces while still in bed,” she told the court.
The prosecutor described acts of looting household goods and cattle as well as the burning of houses in the town of Saborsko where 20 Croat men were also executed. Croats were later forcibly taken from the town by bus and released in Croatian territory, she said.
The prosecution’s opening statement went ahead this week despite a request from Stanisic’s lawyers to adjourn the hearing until next week.
Due to his continued ill health, Stanisic has failed to attend court or follow proceedings via a video link that has been set up for him at the United Nations prison where he is in custody.
In spite of this, judges ruled this week that there were “no objective medical reasons” preventing the accused from following the trial via the video link.
Following their decision to proceed with the opening statement this week, judges offered Stanisic a second chance to use the video link, but the defendant declined and waived his right to follow proceedings.
Stanisic’s poor health has caused the trial to be repeatedly delayed since it first began over a year ago.
Prosecutors gave an opening statement in April last year only for the trial to be adjourned two weeks later, on May 16, due to Stanisic’s various ailments, which included kidney stones, osteoporosis and severe depression.
While his medical condition has improved and the doctor at the UN prison has declared him fit to face trial, there is still concern about his mental condition and his complaints about back pain which he said prevents him sitting up for more than ten minutes at a time.
According to the reporting medical officer at the UN prison, Dr Michael Eekhof, Stanisic said this week that he was too ill to watch the proceedings via the video link because he could not walk from his cell to the video conference room to view the trial.
Eekhof, who spoke to the parties via the same video link, said he could not see any changes in Stanisic’s condition from which he had previously concluded that he was fit to stand trial.
However, he had to give Stanisic’s latest complaints “the benefit of the doubt” pending further assessment, he said.
Judge Orie asked Eekhof how Stanisic was able to get to the smoking room in the UN detention unit but not the video conference room. Eekhof said he was not aware of this but noted that the defendant has the use of a wheelchair.
Judges denied the defence’s request to adjourn proceedings, but requested that the accused be examined by a psychiatrist and the resulting report be sent to them.
Prosecutors are expected to call their first witness on June 29.
Yugoslov War Crimes Court Chief Visits Region
EasyBourse
June 12, 2009
The president of the U.N.'s Yugoslav war crimes court began a visit to Croatia, Bosnia and Slovenia Friday to discuss ongoing warcrimes cases, the court said.
The visit, Patrick Robinson's first since his appointment in November last year, would include meetings with government officials, representatives of the judiciary, and victims' associations, said a court statement.
"Matters to be discussed include the region's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, as well as issues related to the tribunal's legacy and strengthening the capacity of the local judiciaries to handle war crimes cases."
Robinson would meet Croatia's Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and Supreme Court president Branko Horvatin in Zagreb Friday, before delivering a speech in Dubrovnik to a conference about the tribunal's impact on states of the former Yugoslavia.
He would be in Sarajevo from Sunday to Tuesday, meeting members of the presidency, before travelling to Ljubljana to meet Slovenia's President Danilo Turk and Foreign Minister Samuel Zbogar.
"The president is also expected to visit Serbia in the coming months," said the statement.
In an address to the U.N. Security Council last week, Robinson expressed concern over the "continued flight from justice" of former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic and Croatian Serb wartime leader Goran Hadzic.
Mladic has been indicted by the tribunal on 15 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and Hadzic on 14 of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the wars that tore Yugoslavia apart in the 1990s.
Former Tribunal Spokeswoman is Now on Trial Herself
NRC Handelsblad
By Cees Banning
June 15, 2009
Florence Hartmann is charged with contempt of court for having quoted from confidential documents in the Milosevic trial.
Photo AFP Florence Hartmann worked for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, but now the former prosecution spokeswoman's case file is the same as that of the tribunal's most infamous suspect: the late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.
From 2000 until 2006, Hartmann (France, 1963) was the spokesperson for chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte. She has since been charged with two counts of contempt of court in a trial that started on Monday.
Hartmann is accused of having quoted confidential court documents or revealing their existence, a charge that carries a potential seven years prison sentence or a 100.000 euro fine. The Hartmann case, according to the tribunal's website, is "part of Slobodan Milosevic IT-02-54". Milosevic's trial ended in 2006 without a verdict after the former Balkan strongman died of a heart attack in his jail cell.
During the pre-trial hearings last month, Hartmann refused to sit in the same chair where Milosevic and other Yugoslav war criminals sat. "She is not on trial for war crimes," her lawyer said, asking if Hartmann could sit next to him instead. Judge Carmel Agius from Malta allowed it. Hartmann declined to enter a plea, so the court entered not guilty pleas on her behalf on both counts.
Hartmann is on trial for revelations she published in her 2007 book Paix et Châtiment (Peace and Punishment) and repeated in the 2008 article Vital genocide documents concealed on the web site of the Bosnian Institute.
In her writing, Hartmann disclosed information about two confidential decisions of the Appeals Chamber in the Milosevic case dated September 20, 2005 and April 6, 2006. Hartmann - who also wrote a book about Milosevic when she was Belgrade correspondent for the French newspaper Le Monde in 1999 - argues that she is innocent because the information was already in the public domain before either her book or article were published.
In those decisions the tribunal judges declared important parts of the minutes of the Serbian defence staff confidential, based on rules 54 bis and 70 of the ICTY. The rules state that documents can be kept confidential if releasing them is a threat to national security. Serbia and Montenegro - the name for the rump Yugoslavia that existed from 2003-2006 - had asked for the confidentiality clause to be applied.
The minutes dealt with information about Serbia's military command structure. The judges in the Milosevic case had read the minutes and concluded from them that Milosevic was without any doubt a member of a criminal organisation with the intent to destroy Bosnian Muslims as a group, not just in Srebrenica but also in Brcko, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Bijeljina and Bosanski Novi. They also concluded that Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian-Serb military leader, did not just receive men and weapons from Belgrade, but his orders as well.
Hartmann accused the judges that by keeping these "essential documents" confidential, they were shielding Serbia in another trial, the one of Bosnia-Herzegovina v Serbia before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), or World Court, also in The Hague. Unlike the ICTY, which is a criminal court, the ICJ, the UN's highest judicial body, deals with conflicts between nations.
In February 2007, the ICJ ruled that no genocide had taken place in Bosnia-Herzegovina, except in Srebrenica in July 1995, and Serbia was held only indirectly responsible for what happened there. The court did state that Serbia had violated the obligation to prevent genocide in Srebrenica. But the fact that Serbia was supporting Mladic with men and weapons was not in itself enough to hold Serbia legally responsible, the court found, nor was there enough evidence to prove Serbian complicity with, or incitement or conspiracy to commit genocide in Srebrenica.
Hartmann claims that by keeping certain documents confidential the judges undermined the case of Bosnia v Serbia. She says that if the ICJ had had access to certain document it would probably have sentenced Serbia to billions of euros in damages to Bosnia.
Monday' case is the first in which a (former) collaborator of the tribunal is on trial. It could set an important precedent because a number of tribunal employees have written about the workings of the court. Investigations against several former collaborators are already under way and more could follow with the publication of a number of new books as the ICTY winds up its activities next year.
Carla delPonte's own book, Madame Prosecutor, has not yet led to a charge of contempt of court, but it has already become a factor in several trials. The Serbian ultra-nationalist Vojislav Seselj, who is locked up in The Hague, has discovered a "confidential passage" in the book from which he concludes that his indictment was political. Seselj has filed a motion with the court.
The Hartmann case has already thrown a scare into other former collaborators of the court; several of them have withdrawn from book projects pending the outcome of the Hartmann case.
Gotovina Calls Former RSK Army Chief to Testify
B92
June 17, 2009
Ante Gotovina has called on the former commander of the Republic of Srpska Krajina
The former Croatian general is accused of deporting Serbs from the Knin Krajina in 1995.
Mrkšić was sentenced to 20 years by the Tribunal as an accomplice in the murder of Croatian prisoners in Vukovar in 1991 and is expected to testify today.
According to Judge Alphons Orie (presiding), Mrkšić initially refused to testify as a defense witness in the Gotovina case, but was then subpoenaed by the court.
He then responded that he was not ready to testify and that he was not feeling well, adding that he had not talked things over with his lawyer yet.
Therefore, said Orie, it was not certain whether Mrkšić would be appearing in court today, even though the Tribunal has organized his transportation to the Tribunal building from the prison detention center in Sheveningen.
If he refuses to testify, Mrkšić could be charged with contempt of court.
General Mrkšić, who has been at the Tribunal since May 2002 after turning himself in, is expected to be transferred to another European country to serve the rest of his sentence.
Gotovina, along with fellow Croatian Generals Ivan Čermak and Mladen Markač, is accused of persecution, forced relocation and deportation of Serb civilians, stealing public and private property, murder and inhumane acts, and cruel treatment of Serb civilians in August and September 1995.
Gotovina commanded Operation Storm on August 4-5, 1995; Čermak was the military commander in Knin after the offensive; while Markač was in command of special police units.
The case for the defense began in early June. Five witnesses have taken the stand thus far.
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)
Official Website of the Extraordinary Chambers
Official Website of the Khmer Rouge Trial Task Force
Official Website of the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT)
Khmer Rouge Jailer Says Ordered Killing of Children
Reuters
By Ek Madra
June 8, 2009
Pol Pot's chief jailer told Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal on Monday that children of inmates at the regime's S-21 prison were murdered to keep them from seeking revenge later in life.
Duch, the first of five senior cadres to face trial for the 1975-79 reign of terror in which 1.7 million Cambodians died, said he accepted responsibility for the children's deaths but was following orders.
"When children arrived at the center I gave the order to kill them because we were afraid those children would take revenge," the 66-year-old told the court.
"I had to implement the policy of the Communist party," said the former chief of the S-21 interrogation center where more than 14,000 men, women and children were killed.
Only a handful of inmates, some of them children, survived the prison. Most victims were tortured before they were taken outside the capital Phnom Penh and clubbed to death in the Cheoung Ek "Killing Fields."
During Monday's hearing, the Cambodian prosecutor asked Duch who ordered guards to kill babies by smashing them against trees.
"I did not order that crime, but I believe my comrades did that," said Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav.
With no death penalty in Cambodia, Duch faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted by the joint U.N.-Cambodian tribunal on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and homicide.
He is expected to be a key witness in the future trials of those also deemed "most responsible" by the tribunal for one of the darkest chapters in the 20th century.
The other four -- "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, the regime's ex-president Khieu Samphan, and Ieng Sary, its foreign minister, and his wife -- have denied knowledge of any atrocities.
If convicted, the five face a minimum of five years and a maximum of life in prison.
Duch Discusses Killings of Vietnamese
VOA Khmer
By Chun Sakada
June 10, 2009
At least 345 Vietnamese “soldiers, spies and simple citizens” were killed in the Tuol Sleng torture center under the Khmer Rouge, the prison’s administrator told tribunal judges Wednesday.
The Vietnamese prisoners were arrested between 1976 and 1977 when Khmer Rouge fighters began making cross-border incursions into southern Vietnam.
Duch, 66, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, is undergoing an atrocity crimes trial at the UN-backed tribunal. He has been charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and murder, but not genocide.
Around a third of the Vietnamese prisoners were military personnel, but nearly half were spies, Duch said. A quarter of them were civilians.
The Khmer Rouge leaders used recorded confessions of Vietnamese prisoners as part of its propaganda, Duch said.
All confessions of Vietnamese prisoners were sent to Nuon Chea, Pol Pot’s lieutenant, who is now in tribunal detention awaiting trial.
Duch gave an example of three Vietnamese “spies” captured in February 1976 half a kilometer inside Cambodia. They confessed to removing boundary markers and planning an offensive into eastern provinces.
“In principle, they were the enemy,” Duch said. “The Cambodian communist party recognized all three Vietnamese spies as enemies. So they were killed.”
Nationality and the Jarvis Debate
Phnom Penh Post
By Robbie Corey-Boulet
June 12, 2009
Does the Khmer Rouge tribunal need a Victims' Unit chief who was born in Cambodia?
During a press conference Wednesday that touched on concerns prompted by the appointment of Helen Jarvis as head of the Khmer Rouge tribunal's Victims' Unit, court officials did not address one question that has recently been raised by several observers: Does it make sense to appoint as head of the unit someone who was not born in Cambodia?
While most criticism of the appointment, which became official June 1, has centred on Jarvis's political leanings or alleged conflicts of interest, several observers have emphasised that they believe an ethnic Cambodian would be better suited for the role.
"I myself - and I am a victim - I would want a Cambodian person to represent me," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam). He added that he believed other Cambodians who lost family members during the Khmer Rouge years or were otherwise victimised by the regime felt the same way.
Ou Virak, executive director of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, said he viewed having a Cambodian in the position as "desirable but not necessary", though he said he doubted that Jarvis, who is from Australia, would be able to effectively reach out to Cambodian victims.
"The victims themselves need to be comfortable," he said. "There's nothing hidden about the fact that Cambodians tend to look up to the West and tend to feel inferior. I'm not sure that having a Western person there would help encourage Cambodians to participate."
But others said Jarvis's ethnicity would have little bearing on her job performance, with some describing suggestions that it might as inherently discriminatory.
Court spokesman Reach Sambath said he believed the concerns were unfounded.
"I think it's an unfair criticism," he said. "I think it's racist. It's discrimination."
He noted that Jarvis holds dual Australian-Cambodian citizenship, having obtained Cambodian citizenship three years ago, and added that she speaks fluent Khmer.
Carla Ferstman, director of Redress, a London-based organisation that helps victims of torture and related crimes "obtain justice", said the question of ethnicity was less relevant than Jarvis's ability to serve as "an effective interlocutor" between victims and the court.
"I would say it's not here nor there, necessarily, whether she was born in Australia," Ferstman said. "What's important is whether victims see her as someone who can serve their interests."
Some defence lawyers who criticised Jarvis' appointment on other grounds said they viewed the ethnicity argument as something of a distraction.
Michael Karnavas, international co-lawyer for Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary, said via email: "I would not place too much emphasis on having a Cambodian at the head of the Victims' Unit. I would insist on having an experienced and qualified individual."
Andrew Ianuzzi, a legal consultant for the defence team of former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea, which has argued that Jarvis's political leanings could compromise her work at the court, said he didn't "see a problem" with the fact that she was not originally from Cambodia.
"If the person is qualified and is able to do the job, we don't care about nationality," he said.
For her part, Jarvis, when asked to respond to Youk Chhang's stated concerns, said Thursday, "I would say that many Cambodians hold nationalities in other countries, and I would hope that they would be given full rights in those countries."
The work of the unit
The tribunal Web site states that the Victims' Unit is responsible for informing victims "about their rights relating to participation and reparations, and enables them to file complaints and civil party applications to the [court] if they wish to do so". Its duties include helping victims obtain legal assistance, updating victims on the status of their complaints and civil party applications and ensuring "that the role of the unit and the rights of Victims are explained in outreach events throughout Cambodia".
Jarvis, who said an "overwhelming" majority of the unit's 35 to 40 staffers would be Cambodian, said she expected to have a hand in every aspect of the unit's work.
Youk Chhang expressed concern about the communication duties central to the unit's charge, saying Cambodian victims would be less likely to take seriously their interactions with the unit if they saw that it was run by someone who did not look Cambodian.
"Cambodians generally and culturally are not familiar with the difference between nationality and ethnicity," he said, responding to the argument that Jarvis holds dual citizenship.
Norman Pentelovitch, a legal associate for DC-Cam, seconded this point, saying via email: "I find it hard to believe that many Cambodians are aware of the fact she holds Cambodian citizenship, so to the extent her Cambodian citizenship is not widely known, I would say that most Cambodians ... will be unaware of her status."
Youk Chhang said a broader issue raised by the appointment was whether it would detract from Cambodia's sense of ownership of the court.
Pentelovitch, who emphasized that his concerns with the appointment had more to do with Jarvis's past work at the tribunal than with her ethnicity, nonetheless said it was "vitally important" for a Cambodian to be "at a minimum the co-director" of the unit.
But Reach Sambath described Jarvis as the "perfect candidate" for the job.
"She enjoys working with the people of Cambodia and she likes them and she has been involved in the issue for years, since before the beginning," he said. "She has so many ideas about what to do for the Khmer Rouge victims."
Khmer Rouge Defendant Says Own Staff Also Killed
Associated Press
By Sopheng Cheang
June 14, 2009
The man accused of running a torture center for the Khmer Rouge testified Monday that its own guards and interrogators were among those executed, sometimes for making minor mistakes.
Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch (pronounced Doik), commanded Phnom Penh's S-21 prison, where as many as 16,000 men, women and children were tortured before being sent to their deaths when the communist group held power in 1975-79.
Duch, 66, is being tried by a U.N.-assisted tribunal for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture. About 1.7 million Cambodians died from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions under the ultra-communist regime.
He said Monday that more than 100 personnel from S-21 and the Prey Sar prison — a reeducation center on the outskirts of Phnom Penh — were arrested, tortured and executed, in some cases for simple irregularities and mishaps in carrying out their duties.
Duch said he was the one who reported such incidents to his superiors.
He identified one of those killed as an S-21 staffer named Huy, who was in charge of radio communications but was arrested and killed because he allowed one of the prison's radio operators to run away.
The arrests of staffers were approved by two of the regime's senior leaders, Nuon Chea — who is also in the tribunal's custody — and Son Sen, the group's defense minister, who was killed during a power struggle in 1997, Duch said.
Those killed included torturers, security guards and interrogators. Their wives and children were also arrested and executed because they were considered the regime's enemies, he said.
While Duch was testifying Monday, another defendant at the tribunal, former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, 77, was taken to the hospital for a medical checkup, said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.
Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Senior leaders Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith are likely to face trial in the next year or two.
Cambodia War Crime Court Rules Duch's Rights Violated
Australia Network News
By Karen Percy
June 15, 2009
Judges in Cambodia have ruled former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Geuk Eav has been detained unlawfully for the past decade.
Kaing Geuk Eav, also known as Comrade Duch was arrested by the Cambodian military in 1999.
In a 15 page ruling, the five trial chamber judges of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, have determined that Comrade Duch was imprisoned contrary to Cambodian law.
Comrade Duch was the supervisor of the infamous Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh during the 1970s where more than 12,000 people were sent to their deaths in the "killing fields".
The ruling means that if he's found guilty the time he's been detained so far will probably be cut from any sentence.
If he's acquitted Comrade Duch will be able to claim compensation.
The judges refused a request to release Comrade Duch saying he remained a flight risk and say he must remain in detention for his own security and to ensure public order.
During his trial so far Comrade Duch has apologised to his victims.
He's also providing evidence that could prove to be crucial in the cases against four other defendants, who were senior Khmer Rogue members.
Duch Confesses to Experiments on Inmates
VOA Khmer
By Pich Samnang
June 16, 2009
While many prisoners of Tuol Sleng were simply tortured and executed under the Khmer Rouge, the administrator of the prison told tribunal judges Tuesday he had conducted experiments on some of them.
“First, live prisoners were used for surgical study and training; second, blood drawing was also done,” said Duch, who is undergoing the UN-backed court’s first atrocity crimes trial.
Duch said he forced some prisoners to eat medicine tablets.
“I did it myself,” he said.
Prosecutors charge that Duch, 66, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, oversaw the deaths of 12,380 people while he was head of Tuol Sleng and the nearby “killing fields” of Choeung Ek, on the outskirts of the city.
Duch has denied killings by his own hand and has sought to portray himself as a loyal revolutionary caught up in a killing machine.
Tuol Sleng, known to the Khmer Rouge as S-21, was the main torture center for the regime, and became the depository for assumed traitors and spies.
Duch said Tuesday the medical experimentation was another type of crime committed under his purview.
In Focus: Special Tribunal for Lebanon (UN)
Vincent Signs Agreement with Najjar, Expects Tribunal Trials
to Start Next Year
Naharnet Newsdesk
June 18, 2009
Special Tribunal for Lebanon Registrar Robin Vincent and Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar signed an agreement to set up a bureau that represents the court in Lebanon.
Vincent, who resigned his post on April 21, said Wednesday that the office will be "the link between the tribunal and Lebanon because the court's headquarters is not in Lebanon."
"We need a presence in Beirut and an office that provides services five or six days a week. The staff will take charge of continuously providing the press with information," he told reporters and representatives of non-governmental organizations at Phoenicia hotel.
Vincent said the staff will enjoy diplomatic immunity but the court will guarantee that the employees do not misuse their immunity.
He said the court's budget for 2010 reached $65 million, a $14 million increase from the current year's budget. He also told reporters that he met with the representatives of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council in New York asking them for more funding.
"There is a possibility they could increase their contributions," Vincent said, adding that the Lebanese government and people are interested in the contributions of other countries no matter how limited the amount was.
He also unveiled that trials are expected to start next year although he said he wasn't aware of investigation into ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination.
The justice ministry's press office said in a statement that Vincent's follower will be appointed in the next few days and will assume his duties on July.
Robin Vincent Emphasizes Securing Financial Support for the Special Tribunal
for Lebanon in 2010
ILoubnan
June 18, 2009
BEIRUT – Robin Vincent, Rapporteur of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that is looking over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, said during a farewell visit to Beirut that there is no financial problem to the work of the court which will secure its funding until 2010, the date likely of the Tribunal’s launching.
Vincent, who resigned from the court, said that “there is no financial problem to hinder the work of the court in the next two years,” adding that “the available funds exceed the need.”
He said that “the year of 2010 is likely when the court would actually kick off its activities and expenses would increase to 14 million dollars.” He pointed out that the cost of processing the courtroom, which is now a sports stadium, would reach eight million dollars.
Vincent said that a memorandum of understanding with the Lebanese Ministry of Justice has been reached, "to organize and legitimize the existence of the field office of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in Beirut," adding that the staff of the Office "will enjoy a diplomatic immunity in order to facilitate their work."
He explained that the "memorandum of understanding is related to the administrative headquarters of the Bureau and its employees’ work and their relationship is to the Lebanese authority and the procedures to protect them."
Vincent met in Beirut Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar, Army Commander Jean Qahwaji and the Director-General of Public Security, Ashraf Rifi. However he declined to comment on the reasons for his resignation. It is expected that the appointment of a successor to Vincent in the next few days.
Report: Riashi Leaves for The Hague as STL Judge
Naharnet Newsdesk
June 16, 2009
Judge Ralph Riyashi has moved to The Hague permanently to assume his duties as one of the magistrates in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, al-Mustaqbal website reported Tuesday quoting sources from the justice ministry.
As an international judge, Riashi was removed from the government's payroll starting May 1, the sources said.
At The Hague, Riashi will review case files submitted by the international investigation commission in charge of probing the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri, they added.
Tribunal Refuses to Respond to Criticism Over Procedural Changes
The Daily Star
By Patrick Galey
June 16, 2009
The United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) on Monday did not respond to remarks made in a Lebanese newspaper, criticizing recent changes to its operating mandate.
On Monday, Al-Akhbar newspaper suggested that amendments to the 14 Rules of Procedure and Evidence (RPE), adopted unanimously by STL judges, could "blow the transparency of the tribunal."
In particular, the revision related to rule 96 - on exposing the court to skepticism - could allow the STL to "hide information" up to a non-specific date "if it needed to protect any person," it said.
A spokesperson for STL told The Daily Star: "For us it's just another article. Our policy is not to react to what the press says on its own interpretation of current developments."
"We don't react publicly to these sorts of things. The RPE are a matter for the judges. They are the ones who adopt them or refuse them. It's their prerogative," Radhia Ashouri said.
The STL was set up to try those allegedly responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed along with 22 others by a massive car bomb in Beirut's Ain al-Mraisseh on February 14, 2005. It has been plagued by controversy since its inception in 2007.
Al-Akhbar's report comes six weeks after the STL ordered the release of four Lebanese generals held without charge since 2005 on suspicion of involvement in Hariri's assassination.
The verdict was based on prosecutor Daniel Bellemare's report stating there was insufficient evidence to hold the men any longer.
Bellemare cited additional reasons for the men's release, including the fact that "a key witness expressly retracted his original statement which incriminated the persons detained."
The four, who headed Lebanon's pro-Syrian security institutions when Hariri was killed, had been incarcerated since August 2005 on the recommendation of former UN investigator Detlev Mehlis. None were ever formally charged.
Hariri's murder has been widely blamed on Damascus and prompted the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon after 30 years involvement in the country's political affairs.
Last month, the German publication Der Spiegel alleged that Hizbullah, not Syria, was behind Hariri's assassination, an allegation vigorously denied by the Shiite group.
The magazine claimed to have "learned from sources close to the tribunal and verified by examining internal documents" that the Hizbullah special forces "planned and executed [Hariri's assassination]."
A Hizbullah statement dismissed the accusations as "nothing but police-like fabrications."
Special Tribunal for Lebanon Amends Some Rules of Procedure and Evidence
Naharnet Newsdesk
June 11, 2009
The international tribunal's judges have unanimously adopted amendments to fourteen rules in the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon announced Wednesday.
It said in a statement that the court's president proposed these amendments in view of the first procedural steps taken by the tribunal, and following consultations with the office of the prosecutor, the office of the defense and the registrar.
The amendments are designed to further enhance and facilitate proceedings before the court that will try ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's suspected assassins, the statement said.
"The amendments relate to the investigation stage of the proceedings (rules 16, 18, 77 and 96); the effect of non compliance by states with tribunal requests and orders (rules 20, 21); the senior management board and the functions of the registrar (rule 38 and 48); service of judicial documents (rule 75bis); warrants of arrest (rule 79); detention on remand (rule 101); and disclosure of confidential information (rule 117-119)," according to the statement.
"The judges adopted these rules pursuant to rule 5(F) of the rules of procedure and evidence – this procedure allows amendments to be adopted other than at plenary sessions, provided they are unanimously approved by the judges," the statement added.
New Turn in the Fujimori Case
fujimoriontrial.org
June 13, 2009
A new turn has stalled the recusation process that Alberto Fujimori’s lawyer initiated in attempts to remove the justices of the Supreme Court’s Special Criminal Division from Fujimori’s case due to their supposed partiality. In the coming weeks, proceedings against the former president will begin for allegedly paying Montesinos US$15 million in the year 2000.
The recusal has been resolved by a Supreme Tribunal, which decided that justice Hugo Príncipe will not participate in the trial. The Tribunal ruled that Príncipe’s impartiality in Fujimori’s case may be compromised since he already ruled on a trial against ex-ministers of state regarding this same case.
The Tribunal also resolved that the justices César san Martín and Víctor Prado were perfectly able to try the former head of state in the new trial.
In order to start next trial, another judge would need to be chosen to replace Príncipe.
This process has been stalled, however, since Fujimori’s attorney appealed the Tribunal’s decision, arguing that all three justices should be removed rather than just Príncipe.
The Supreme Peruvian Public Prosecutor also appealed the Tribunal’s decision, arguing that Príncipe should not be replaced in the coming trial against Fujimori.
Now, the Supreme Court’s First Transient Criminal Court will hold an extraordinary hearing, known as the “causation hearing,” where both the Public Prosecutor and Fujimori’s defense attorney will argue their sides.
After this hearing the Court will have to make a final decision. The Court could confirm the decision to remove only Príncipe from Fujimori’s new trial, reject this decision or even rule that all three justices be removed from the trial. For this reason the Court’s decision will be extremely important in the coming weeks.
If the Court decides to remove all the justices, it will likely imply that these justices were biased in the first trial against Fujimori for human rights violations, in which he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Murder and Corruption?
fujimoriontrial.org
June 15, 2009
With the 16-month trial against former president Alberto Fujimori for human rights in its appeal stages, Peru has now shifted its attention to the issue of the next trial: corruption.
Peruvian journalist Gustavo Gorriti recently wrote in local magazine Caretas that if a dictator does public works, people can forgive him for murder or corruption — but not both. “Either killing or stealing and they’ll tolerate you, but both of these together, that won’t do,” he wrote.
Indeed, when news was released that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet had millions locked away in US bank accounts, his reputation among Chileans suffered greatly. Christian Labbe, former army colonel and advisor to Pinochet told the Washington Post in 2005 that the revelation of this corruption scandal was a blow to supporters who felt that human rights violations were justified as part of combating communism in the 1970s. For there to be corruption to boot, however, was harder to justify.
In Peru, Fujimori is about to face his third trial since his extradition from Chile in 2007. He has already been convicted in his first trial for abuse of power and sentenced to six years. His second trial for human rights violations resulted in a 25-year prison sentence along with the payment of reparations to victims. Now, he will face corruption charges for allegedly giving US $15 million severance pay to his former advisor, Vladimiro Montesinos, in the year 2000 for services rendered.
“Up to now,” says Gorriti, “Fujimori has insisted in saying that he didn’t steal, that if anyone did, it was Montesinos.” But some local media have recently written articles to remind Peruvians of some past scandals.
For example, from May 18 to May 24, the daily newspaper La República featured reports on the suspicious origin of the funds used to cover the university studies of Fujimori’s children during his term in office. The reports were directed at Fujimori’s daughter, Keiko Fujimori, currently a member of Peruvian Congress and the top ranking candidate for the 2011 presidential elections, according to polls.
Fujimori’s supporters, known as the fujimoristas, have claimed that this is a politically motivated “media campaign” against Keiko. Fujimorista Congressman Rolando Sousa declared that “a series of false publications” were in response to her recent “rise in polls.” The congresswoman has reportedly filed a defamation claim against La República.
But the corruption question doesn’t stop at the issue of funds for college. When Fujimori left Peru and resigned from the presidency in the year 2000, advisor Vladimiro Montesinos remained behind bars in Peru after his own attempts to flee the country. At that time, Montesinos faced questioning and later trials.
Gorriti reported in Caretas that in April 2002, before a Congressional Commission Montesinos declared: “Every month I gave [Fujimori] a good amount of money… in cash, an average of one million, half a million, 800,000. The amounts varied…”
Gorriti wrote that this statement was confirmed by various other people, including Matilde Pinche — Montesinos’ trusted secretary — who declared that “this money was given when [Alberto Fujimori’s] sister Rosa Fujimori arrived from Japan or when he went abroad. Also on various occasions [Rosa Fujimori] went to the [National Intelligence Service building] to pick up money that was delivered by Vladimiro Montesinos Torres […] and also when his brother-in-law Víctor Aritomi came to or left the country…
Newspaper El Comercio reported that an anti-corruption court in Lima recently renewed national and international arrest warrant for three of Fujimori’s brothers — Rosa, Juana and Pedro Fujimori — for the irregular management of US $20 million in Apenkai, a non-governmental organization. These siblings currently reside in Japan.
Will charges for corruption weaken support for former president Fujimori and his political party, now headed by daughter Keiko? What strategy will the prosecution and defense take in this upcoming trial?
The Court Heard Fujimori’s Defense
fujimoriontrial.org
June 18, 2009
Justices have 15 Days to Resolve the Recusal of the Members of the Special Criminal Court
Justice Hugo Príncipe will not join the group that will try the ex-president
César Nakasaki, Alberto Fujimori’s attorney, argued that justices César San Martín y Víctor Prado are biased against Fujimori this Wednesday in a public hearing in the Supreme Court’s Transient Criminal Court. He argued that because of this bias, they should not be part of the court that will soon be starting a new criminal proceeding against the ex-president for giving $15 million to Vlaimiro Montesinos in 2000.
Nakasaki reiterated that he was recusing these justices because they have shown that they are only interested in looking for a legal way in which to condemn Fujimori and they will not perform their job as impartial arbitrators. This is the same argument that Nakasaki used three weeks ago before another court that reviewed the first recusal against San Martin, Prado y Hugo Príncipe. During this prior recusal, the court ruled in favor of Nakasaki and consequently Príncipe was removed from Fujimori’s trial. Nevertheless, not satisfied with this judicial decision, Nakasaki appealed and therefore the Transient Criminal Court will decide whether San Martin and Prado will follow in Príncipe’s footsteps.
During the public hearing, which was held in the Peruvian Justice Palace, the justices of the Transient Criminal court also heard the Public Prosecutor’s (Avelino Guillén’s) arguments - who corrected his original position on the issue. Earlier, he had indicated in his opinion that the three justices being recused by Nakasaki should try Fujimori and that there was no reason they should be removed from the case.
Now, following the decision of a prosecutor with a higher rank, Guillén revealed that the Public Prosecutor is in agreement that Príncipe should be removed from the case and insistes that San Martín and Prado try the ex-chief of state. Consequently, Príncipe will not serve on Fujimori’s new criminal trial.
The Transient Criminal Court has 15 days to resolve the controversy between the Fujimori’s defense and the Public Prosecutor. If the court accepts Nakasaki’s position, then the judiciary will have to select three other justices to serve on Fujimori’s new trial. If it supports the Public Prosecutor’s position, then the judiciary would have to select a new justice to replace Hugo Príncipe.
Either way, the ex-president’s new trial will begin in the first half of June.
First Guantanamo Inmate Transferred to U.S. for Trial
The Los Angeles Times
By Mark Silva
June 9, 2009
The first detainee from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to arrive in the United States has been moved to New York City to face criminal charges in connection with the bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, according to the Justice Department.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian national held at Guantanamo since September 2006, arrived at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, which has housed several suspected terrorists during their prosecutions in the federal court for the Southern District of New York, the department said. He was due to appear in federal court today.
President Obama has pledged to close the Guantanamo prison
within a year, while authorities attempt to secure alternative places for the
inmates. This has sparked a political debate within the United States, with
Republican congressional leaders warning that Americans don't want suspected
terrorists at prisons near them and the Obama administration maintaining that
federal facilities are secure.
Ghailani is charged with murder in the deaths of each
of the 224 people killed in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Dar
es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. His March 2001
indictment also accuses him of conspiring with Osama bin Laden and other
members of Al Qaeda to kill Americans anywhere in the world, according to the
Justice Department.
An inter-agency Guantanamo Review Task Force has referred Ghailani
for criminal prosecution. The Defense Department turned him over to the U.S.
Marshals Service, which was holding him at the Metropolitan Correctional
Center.
"With his appearance in federal court today, Ahmed
Ghailani is being held accountable for his alleged role in
the bombing of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and the murder of 224
people," Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said in statement this morning.
"The Justice Department has a long history of securely detaining and
successfully prosecuting terror suspects through the criminal justice system,
and we will bring that experience to bear in seeking justice in this
case."
If convicted, Ghailani could face life imprisonment
or the death penalty on many of the charges against him, according to the
Justice Department.
Six Detainees are Freed as Questions Linger
The New York Times
By William Glaberson
June 11, 2009
The Obama administration released six Guantánamo detainees to other countries on Thursday, including four Chinese Muslims whose cases drew wide attention as the president has struggled to meet his goal of closing the prison by January.
Prime Minister Ewart F. Brown of Bermuda spoke in Hamilton on Thursday. Britain, which controls Bermuda’s foreign policy, criticized it for accepting detainees without alerting London.
The day’s events were the biggest steps the administration has taken toward that goal. But the moves did not address central questions, including whether political pressure had made the administration back away from meeting the demand of some countries that the United States accept some prisoners for resettlement to gain their cooperation in accepting others.
The Chinese prisoners, from the largely Muslim Uighur region of western China, arrived in Bermuda early in the day and expressed relief at their first taste of freedom in more than seven years.
“Today you have let freedom ring,” one of the Uighur men, Abdul Nasser, said in a statement thanking the Bermudans. In a long legal fight, a federal appeals court had ridiculed as inadequate the government’s evidence against one of the men and the Bush administration had conceded that none of the 17 Uighurs held at Guantánamo were enemy combatants.
Two other detainees, an Iraqi and a Chadian, were released Thursday to their countries. There were indications that the United States was close to releasing a few other detainees as well.
On top of Thursday’s departures there were numerous other signs of the aggressive diplomacy on Guantánamo that has taken place largely out of public view since President Obama was inaugurated.
European countries moved Thursday toward cooperating with one another to work with the Obama administration in evaluating other detainees for possible resettlement there. There have also been recent signs that the administration is increasingly hopeful of persuading Saudi Arabia to accept some of the 96 Yemeni detainees who remain at the prison camp.
Earlier this week the Pacific nation of Palau said it, too, would accept some of the Uighur prisoners, though it was not clear if it would take all of the 13 remaining men.
The developments amounted to more movement than there had been in a long time on closing the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a seemingly intractable issue for two administrations, said Ken Gude, a specialist on detention issues at the Center for American Progress in Washington.
“This is ‘closing Guantánamo.’ This is what it looks like,” Mr. Gude said.
President George W. Bush long said he wanted to close the prison but could not overcome the considerable difficulties of where to send the men and how to assure American security.
On his second day in office, Mr. Obama committed to closing the prison within a year. After the releases on Thursday, there were 232 detainees.
But the recent events also underscored the challenges that remain.
After the departures from Guantánamo became public on Thursday, American critics of the administration accused the president of releasing terrorists.
In addition, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of China, which has long demanded the return of the Uighurs, called the four men in Bermuda terrorist suspects and asserted that the United States was ignoring international law by failing to turn them over to China. American officials have said for years that they could not return the Uighurs to China for fear of persecution or execution.
Bermuda’s acceptance of the men even brought unusual turbulence between it, a British territory, and Britain itself. The British government, which has control over Bermuda’s foreign policy, issued a terse statement indicating that Bermuda’s premier, Ewart F. Brown, did not advise it that Bermuda was planning to take the detainees.
The British statement said it would “carry out a security assessment of the men.” The statement added, “We have underlined to the Bermuda government that it should have consulted the U.K.”
Lawyers for the Iraqi who was released, Jawad Jabbar Sadkhan al- Sahlani, said he was an innocent man caught in the net of Guantánamo, an assertion that focused attention on disputes over the isolated prison that the Obama administration is trying to push into the past.
The criticism from at home and the intensity of the reactions abroad illustrate the challenges the Obama administration faces in closing Guantánamo, detention policy experts said.
They said the recent moves raised new questions about the administration’s strategy for closing the prison. Indications that the administration had negotiated with other countries to accept perhaps all of the 17 Uighurs made it appear that it had backed down in the face of intense political pressure in Congress and around the country from what had seemed to be its plan to resettle some of the Uighurs in the United States, the experts said.
Sarah E. Mendelson, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said that there had been an understanding across the political spectrum that the Uighurs, enemies of China whose terrorism ties were sharply disputed, were the least controversial detainees to bring into the United States for potential release.
If the Obama administration has no plans to accept any detainees, Ms. Mendelson said, other countries are likely to ask, “Why are you asking us to do this if you are not willing to?”
Yemen Denies Guantanamo Inmates Heading to Saudi Arabia
The Associated Press
By Ahmed Al-Haj
June 14, 2009
Yemen on Sunday denied reports that it has agreed to a U.S. proposal to transfer almost 100 Yemeni inmates at Guantanamo Bay prison to terrorist rehabilitation centers in Saudi Arabia.
The statement comes days after U.S. officials said they were close to a deal with the two countries. The Yemenis make up the largest national group among the remaining Guantanamo detainees, and determining their fate is key to President Barack Obama's plan to close the prison.
Yemen's Foreign Ministry said the country was still discussing with the U.S. the possibility of transferring the detainees back home. It issued a statement saying the country "denies media reports about the transfer of Yemeni detainees from the prison at Guantanamo to rehabilitation centers in Saudi Arabia."
A Saudi official declined comment Sunday, saying the issue concerns Yemen only.
The U.S. has been hesitant to send the detainees home because of Yemen's history of either releasing extremists or allowing them to escape from prison. U.S. officials have made a strong push for Yemen to endorse the Saudi plan because the kingdom has one of the most successful militant rehabilitation programs.
Negotiations over the fate of the Yemeni inmates have been under way for months, stalled over a Saudi demand that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh publicly endorse the proposal, U.S. officials have said. Saleh has refused to do so fearing a backlash among his people, the officials said, and, as of late last month, he preferred for Yemen to set up its own rehabilitation centers.
Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo, a Navy detention center that houses suspected terrorists, by early next year. U.S. officials have been searching for places to resettle detainees, lobbying hard with foreign governments. The pace of those efforts picked up last month after Congress said it would prevent detainees, even those cleared of wrongdoing, from being brought to the U.S.
Over the last week alone, the Obama administration transferred 10 detainees out of Guantanamo. Two were sent to Chad and Iraq, one was brought to New York to stand trial in civilian court, four were sent to Bermuda and three to Saudi Arabia.
A deal in principle has been reached with the Pacific island nation of Palau to accept some Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs. That leaves 229 detainees still at the U.S. military detention center in Cuba.
Hundreds of extremists, including Guantanamo detainees, have gone through the Saudi rehabilitation program, receiving job training, psychological therapy and religious re-education before being sent back to society. The vast majority have not rejoined the fight, according to Saudi officials and terrorism experts.
Yet some have. In February, Saudi Arabia said that 11 former Guantanamo detainees who went through the rehab program were on its government's most wanted terrorist list for their connections to al-Qaida.
Among them was Said Ali al-Shihri, who emerged as a leader of Yemen's branch of al-Qaida after being released from the Saudi program last year.
EU Agrees to take Guantanamo Detainees
The Associated Press
By Robert Wielaard
June 15, 2009
The European Union agreed on Monday to help the administration of President Barack Obama "turn the page" on Guantanamo, saying individual EU nations will take detainees from the American prison in Cuba.
The EU and the U.S. issued a joint statement saying some EU nations are ready "to assist with the reception of certain former Guantanamo detainees, on a case-by-case basis."
It did not name the countries or how many detainees would be resettled across the 27-nation bloc, but that Washington was ready pay toward the costs of their resettlement.
The United States seeks a home for those cleared for release from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility without trial but who cannot go to their own country for fear of ill-treatment.
About 50 of the 240 or so detainees left on Guantanamo fall in that category. At one point there were 778 detainees at Guantanamo. The first arrived in early 2002 as the United States widened its global war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against New York and Washington.
Some EU nations have already accepted their own nationals from Guantanamo, while Albania, France, Sweden and Britain have also accepted non-citizens.
Germany is assessing a request to accept two after having refused at least nine. It will only accept people who pose no security risk and have some "connection" with Germany, German officials said. Berlin also wants Washington to say why they cannot be resettled in the United States.
The EU-U.S. declaration states "the primary responsibility" for closing Guantanamo and resettling detainees rests with Washington and that accepting ex-detainees and resolving their legal status is up to EU governments.
It commits EU governments to share any data on incoming detainees with other EU governments and forces Washington to share "confidential and other intelligence and information."
Referring to Obama's bid to develop "a new, more sustainable approach" to security issues, the joint statement said "the EU and its member states wish to help the U.S. turn the page" on an issue that has caused deep trans-Atlantic divisions.
EU official Jonathan Faull said he saw it as "a new beginning" in EU-U.S. relations with "a resounding commitment on both sides to the rule of law and the respect for fundamental rights in the fight against international terrorism."
Last week, Thomas Hammarberg — Europe's top human rights official at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France — urged European governments to take in ex-Guantanamo detainees.
He said there were 50 or so — from Algeria, China, Libya, the Palestinian territories, Russia, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Uzbekistan — who cannot go home for fear of ill-treatment there.
CIA Mistaken on 'High-Value' Detainee, Document Shows
The Washington Post
By Peter Finn and Julie Tate
June 16, 2009
An al-Qaeda associate captured by the CIA and subjected to harsh interrogation techniques said his jailers later told him they had mistakenly thought he was the No. 3 man in the organization's hierarchy and a partner of Osama bin Laden, according to newly released excerpts from a 2007 hearing.
"They told me, 'Sorry, we discover that you are not Number 3, not a partner, not even a fighter,' " said Abu Zubaida, speaking in broken English, according to the new transcript of a Combatant Status Review Tribunal held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
President George W. Bush described Abu Zubaida in 2002 as "al-Qaeda's chief of operations."
Intelligence, military and law enforcement sources told The Washington Post this year that officials later concluded he was a Pakistan-based "fixer" for radical Islamist ideologues, but not a formal member of al-Qaeda, much less one of its leaders.
Abu Zubaida, a nom de guerre for Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, told the 2007 panel of military officers at the detention facility in Cuba that "doctors told me that I nearly died four times" and that he endured "months of suffering and torture" on the false premise that he was an al-Qaeda leader.
Abu Zubaida, 38, was subjected 83 times to waterboarding, a technique that leads victims to believe they are drowning and that has been widely condemned as torture. The Palestinian was held at a secret CIA facility after his capture in Pakistan in March 2002.
The Abu Zubaida transcript, and those of five other "high-value detainees," including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. Versions of the transcripts were released by the Pentagon in 2007.
Abu Zubaida, Mohammed and 12 other high-value detainees were transferred to Guantanamo in September 2006 and continue to be held there at Camp 7, a secret facility at the naval base, part of a total population of 229 detainees.
After a meeting yesterday with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, President Obama announced that Italy has agreed to resettle three detainees.
The United States and the 27-nation European Union also issued a joint statement yesterday noting that "certain Member States of the European Union have expressed their readiness to assist with the reception of certain former Guantanamo detainees, on a case-by-case basis."
The statement said the United States "will consider contributing to the costs" of resettling detainees in Europe.
Although little new information was released in the hearing transcript for Majid Khan, an alleged associate of Mohammed and a former resident of Baltimore, the extent of the redactions is more apparent in the latest document. When referring to his treatment at CIA "black site" prisons, the Pakistani's transcript is blacked out for eight consecutive pages. In the version released earlier, this entire section was marked by a single word: "REDACTED."
Similar redactions appear in other transcripts released yesterday. The ACLU said the continued level of redaction was unacceptable and vowed to return to court to press for unexpurgated transcripts.
"The only conceivable basis for suppressing this testimony is not to protect the American people but to protect the CIA from legal accountability," said Ben Wizner, a staff attorney for the ACLU. "There is no reason to continue to censor detainee abuse allegations."
George Little, a CIA spokesman, said, "The CIA plainly has a very different take on its past interrogation practices -- what they were and what they weren't -- and on the need to protect properly classified national security information."
The new transcripts provide some limited new insight into the interaction between the CIA and its prisoners.
Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times, appears to have invoked the U.S. Constitution to protest his treatment.
He described the response he received: "You are not American, and you are not on American soil. So you cannot ask about the Constitution."
Mohammed also said he lied in response to questions about bin Laden's location.
"Where is he? I don't know," Mohammed said. "Then he torture me. Then I said yes, he is in this area."
US Official in Spain for Guantanamo Talks
The Associated Press
By Paul Haven
June 17, 2009
The U.S. government's point man for closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison was in Spain for talks Wednesday, part of a behind-the-scenes European tour as the Obama administration ramps up efforts to transfer detainees.
Special envoy Daniel Fried was meeting with officials of Spain's foreign, interior and justice ministries to discuss procedures under which Spain might accept Guantanamo prisoners, the U.S. embassy said in a statement.
Spanish officials had no immediate comment on the meetings, except to say that they were procedural. Fried was not expected to speak publicly.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos has said his country is open "in principle" to accepting prisoners, but has stressed that it depends on the legal status of the detainees.
Reprieve, a British non-governmental organization that represents many Guantanamo detainees, has said there are about five men from Tunisia and Algeria held at the U.S. facility who wish to be taken in by Spain.
Fried's European travels come just two days after the European Union agreed to help "turn the page" on Guantanamo by allowing individual nations to take in some of the 240 or so detainees held there. An aide to Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said later that Italy is open to taking at least three detainees from Guantanamo.
Last week, the Obama administration sent four Chinese Uighurs held at Guantanamo to Bermuda. The Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to take in 13 other Uighurs still being held. The men, members of a Muslim minority in China, have long since been cleared by U.S. officials, but have not been returned to China for fear of persecution there.
Fried also plans to visit Portugal and Hungary, a State Department official in Washington said on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the negotiations.
Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo Bay by early next year.
Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Truth Forum Has Cost $3M Before It Starts
The Canadian Press
June 10, 2009
A revamped reconciliation forum on native residential schools has cost about $3 million — and it hasn’t started yet.
The Harper government is set to relaunch the flawed Truth and Reconciliation Commission with a new three-member panel.
It’s expected that Manitoba Judge Murray Sinclair will lead the forum to hear stories ranging from good experiences to horrific abuse.
Sources say he will work with Marie Wilson, a former CBC North executive and Wilton Littlechild, a vice-chief for the Assembly of First Nations.
Ontario Justice Harry LaForme quit as head commissioner last October after a power struggle with two co-commissioners who later resigned.
The $60-million forum will hold seven national events and has so far cost about $3 million for salaries and office expenses.
Campbell Urges Province to Reflect on Reconciliation with First Nations in Canada
The Westerly News
By Sarah Douziech
June 11, 2009
Premier Gordon Campbell urged British Columbians to consider the part reconciliation with First Nations peoples can play in developing positive future relationships, to mark the federal government's historic apology to residential school survivors made a year ago today.
Campbell said the apology made last year by Prime Minister Stephen Harper was a beginning, not an end to the reconciliation process.
"In B.C., we are building on our new relationship with Aboriginal people. This relationship was founded on mutual respect, recognition and reconciliation," Campbell said in an issued statement. Through the new relationship Campbell said B.C. is working to close economic and social gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.
Many ceremonies are taking place across the country today to commemorate the apology and continue the process of healing. On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood in the House of Commons and offered an apology to survivors of the Indian residential school system and all Aboriginal people in Canada for the country's role in what he called "a sad chapter" in its history.
"There is no place in Canada for the attitudes that inspired the Indian residential schools system to ever again prevail," Harper said. "The government sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the Aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly."
Harper said part of the reconciliation process included a settlement agreement that included the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The commission offers former students and others affected by the residential school legacy a chance to tell their story, to be shared with all Canadians. Its work in creating an historic account of experiences began in June 2008 and is meant to complete its work by 2013, with a budget of $60 million.
After commission members resigned in Oct. 2008 over concerns of lack of progress and political interference, the commission was stalled. It was officially restarted June 10, 2009 with three newly appointed panel members.
Manitoba Judge to Head Probe of Residential Schools
The Winnipeg Free Press
By Larry Kusch
June 11, 2009
The Manitoba judge named Wednesday to head the commission charged with shedding light on Canada's former Indian residential schools says the panel will reach out to survivors in a way that will make them feel comfortable telling their stories.
"I'd like to get out into the communities and sit down with the people in their environment to listen to them without unnecessarily being dominated by lawyers," Justice Murray Sinclair said in an interview. "I think people need an opportunity to be able to speak in a frank and informal way."
Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl confirmed Wednesday that Sinclair, a Court of Queen's Bench judge, would take over as chairman of a revamped Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) one year into its original five-year mandate. Also appointed to the three-person panel were educator and journalist Marie Wilson and Wilton (Willie) Littlechild, Assembly of First Nations vice-chief for Alberta.
The commission was in its first months of operation last October when it was thrown into chaos. Justice Harry LaForme of Ontario's appeal court suddenly quit as its head, accusing his two co-commissioners of undermining his authority. They, too, later resigned.
In an interview late Wednesday, Sinclair said the commission's task was daunting.
"It's a scary project because there's so much work to do. There are so many survivors out there who have so many things that they need to share," he said.
Sinclair, raised on the St. Peter's reserve, was the first aboriginal judge to be appointed in Manitoba. He also co-chaired the landmark aboriginal justice inquiry in 1988-1991.
He said it's unclear whether the commission will need to seek an extension of its mandate beyond June 1, 2013, adding that some work has been done by the TRC's staff during the past year.
But it may be hard for the commission to hold seven national gatherings by June 1, 2010 as originally planned, he said. "We may have to re-examine the timeline given the fact that none of those events have occurred yet."
The commission's task is to "document the past, determine the truth and put together a reconciliation plan," Sinclair said.
Indian residential schools date back to the 1870s. There were more than 130 across the country, with the last one closing in 1996.
More than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were taken from their families and placed in the schools. The policy behind the government- funded, church-run schools was to "kill the Indian in the child."
Yellowknifer Appointed to Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The Slave River Journal
By Samantha Stokell
June 16, 2009
One year after Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for residential schools on behalf of the Canadian government, a new Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been selected, including one Northerner.
Marie Wilson, from Yellowknife, joins Wilton Littlechild from Alberta as the two commissioners working with Chair of the commission Justice Murray Sinclair. All three previous people holding those positions resigned after one year of service. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) aims to acknowledge and document the stories of survivors from residential schools. Wilson thinks education can help to make sure people remember what happened in the schools.
“We can educate and communicate the experience with major events,” she said.
“One of the things we can make sure of is that it’s a part of Canadian history,
though very dark.”
More than 150,000 Inuit, First Nation and Metis
children attended the government funded and church-run schools, which had the
policy to ‘kill the Indian in the child.’ The schools date back to the
1870s, and the last closed in 1996. Over 73,000 survivors
live across Canada and the commission is now charged with creating a public
record of the events, no easy task, said Wilson
“Even those at the schools didn’t know what went on in their midst,” she said. “Even between generations, people didn’t know what happened with their family. We have to make sure it’s never forgotten.”
Wilson has lived and worked in the North for a long time and worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for 25 years. During that time she saw first hand how residential schools affected students. Her personal life also showed her the effects the schools had on survivors.
“My husband is a residential school survivor and we’ve gone
through many of the things as a survivor family,” she said. “I know the
consequences of the schools.”
Wilson has worked in every province and territory in Canada and speaks fluent
French and English and thinks she has a good sense of the kind of nation Canada
is today. Combined with her skills gained as a journalist, she can fulfill her
role as a commissioner.
“In journalism, there’s a tremendous amount of listening and questioning,” she said. “I hope my skills add up to a valuable contribution, and a deep care for the cause, as well as leadership.”
The commission is not designated by region and so it has no specific agenda for survivors of schools located in the North. Wilson said they don’t yet know how they will deal with the North.
“We do know there are a significant number of survivors of
the North,” she said.
The first item on the agenda for the commission is a meeting in the next week
or so. Members of the commission still work at their current jobs and need to
tie up loose ends before they can dedicate their time to the commission.
“We feel a pressing need to meet and get started,” Wilson said. “We want to work on our interrelationships and make sure we can work together.”
UN chief urges war crimes probe in Sri Lanka
Associated Press
By John Heilprin
June 6, 2009
The U.N. chief lent credence Friday to the possibility of war crimes in Sri Lanka, saying an international investigation is needed to examine the military actions of the government and defeated Tamil Tiger rebels during the civil war.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, at a closed-door briefing for Security Council members, called for a credible inquiry to be undertaken with international backing and full support from Sri Lanka's government.
He declined to elaborate on exactly how the inquiry should be done, but he urged an examination of what he said were serious allegations of violations of international humanitarian laws, according to diplomats and U.N. officials who attended.
"Any inquiry, to be meaningful, should be supported by the members of the United Nations, and also should be very impartial and objective," Ban told reporters Friday at U.N. headquarters.
"I would like to ask the Sri Lankan government to recognize the international call for accountability and full transparency," he said. "And whenever and wherever there are credible allegations of violations of humanitarian law, there should be a proper investigation."
Sri Lanka has rejected either an international or joint investigation, saying civil war is a domestic issue.
The country's human rights minister said a domestic fact-finding process would be held as part of reconciliation efforts with ethnic minority Tamils, but he said he doubted the U.N. secretary-general actually meant to call for an international investigation.
"He is not talking about an international probe at all," Mahinda Samarasinghe said.
Samarasinghe noted that 29 members of the U.N.'s human rights council had rejected such an investigation last month. "This is an indication of the feeling of the international community. Members of the U.N. are the members of the human rights council as well."
The U.N. Security Council met informally Friday rather than in its usual chambers to allow Sri Lanka's U.N. Ambassador Hewa M.G.S. Palihakkara to attend without requiring a formal agenda item.
Ban said he also told the council that Sri Lanka must refrain from any victory dance after routing the Tamil rebels last month and ending a quarter century of civil war.
"It is very important at this time to unite and heal the wounds, rather than enjoy all this triumphalism in the wake of the end of conflict," he said.
What options the United Nations has for ensuring a credible investigation remains unclear. U.N. officials say at least 7,000 civilians died in the war's final stages and put the number of deaths since the war began in 1983 at 80,000 to 100,000.
Sri Lanka's government has not released estimates of civilian deaths. It originally said no noncombatants died in the army's final push against the trapped rebels, but recently said any civilian deaths were the result of insurgent firing.
Some 300,000 Tamils are in displacement camps, and aid groups have been seeking access to them.
UN's Gaza war crimes investigation faces obstacles
Associated Press
By Ben Hubbard
June 9 2009
A veteran U.N. war crimes investigator acknowledged his probe of possible war crimes by Israel and Hamas — which included interviewing dozens of victims and poring through the files of human rights groups — is unlikely to lead to prosecutions.
Israel has refused to cooperate, depriving his team access to military sources and victims of Hamas rockets. And Hamas security often accompanied his team during their five-day trip to Gaza last week, raising questions about the ability of witnesses to freely describe the militant group's actions.
But the chief barrier remains the lack of a court with clear jurisdiction to hear any resulting cases stemming from the investigation into Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza which ended in January and was designed to stop years of Hamas rocket fire into southern Israel.
"From a practical political point of view, I wish I could be optimistic," Judge Richard Goldstone said, citing the legal and political barriers to war crimes trials.
Still, Goldstone hopes his group's report — due in September — will spur action by other U.N. bodies and foreign governments.
Goldstone, a South African judge who prosecuted war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, refused to comment on the investigation's content. But AP interviews with more than a dozen Gazans who spoke to the team reveal a wide-ranging investigation into the war's most prominent allegations.
In Gaza, Goldstone's 15-member team met with Hamas and U.N. officials, collected reports from Palestinian human rights groups and interviewed dozens of survivors.
Among them was a Bedouin man who told the investigators how he watched Israeli soldiers shoot his mother and sister dead as they fled their home waving white flags. But he, too, doubted he would see justice.
"The committee was just like all the others who have come," said 46-year-old Majed Hajjaj. "There are lots of reports written, but they're nothing more than ink on paper."
The U.N. team also stepped through the shrapnel-peppered doorway of a mosque where an Israeli missile strike killed 16 people, witnesses said. During the war, Israel accused Hamas of hiding weapons in mosques. Witnesses said no weapons or militants were present.
They inspected holes in the street near a U.N. school where Israeli artillery killed 42 people, and visited the charred skeleton of a hospital torched by Israeli shells. In both cases, the army said militants had fired from nearby, and witnesses said some had been near the school.
And they visited the Samouni family, whose members say they took refuge on soldiers' orders in a house that was then shelled, killing 21 people.
Israel denies the account, but says the house may have been hit in crossfire with militants.
Israel launched the offensive to stop eight years of Hamas rocket attacks. Palestinian human rights groups say more than 1,400 Gazans were killed, most of them civilians. Israel says around 1,100 Gazans were killed and that most were militants, but — unlike the Palestinian researchers — did not publish the names of the dead. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, three of them civilians.
Human rights groups called for war crimes investigations soon after the war's end, accusing Israel of disproportionate force and failing to protect civilians. Some groups and the Israeli army said Hamas fought from civilian areas and used human shields — all of which can be war crimes.
Israel's refusal to cooperate meant that Goldstone — a Jew with close ties to the Jewish state — had to enter Gaza via Egypt.
Speaking to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel had made a "clear decision" not to cooperate, alleging anti-Israeli bias by the probe's sponsor, the U.N. Human Rights Council.
The council has a record of criticizing Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.
Lieberman also mentioned that Goldstone team member Christine Chinkin, a law professor at the London School of Economics, signed an editorial published in the Sunday Times in January calling the Israeli offensive a war crime. This showed she could not be objective in her findings, Lieberman said. More than 20 scholars and jurists signed the letter.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said investigators could not reach an "unbiased conclusion" since they couldn't question those who fired rockets at Israel.
When asked if the team met with Hamas fighters, team member Hina Jilani declined to comment, but said Hamas had been "very cooperative."
A Hamas official, Ahmed Yousef, said he hoped the group's report would be "like ammunition in the hands of the people who are willing to sue Israeli war criminals."
Some survivors said the team pressed them on Israel's assertion that it made warning phone calls before airstrikes and whether militants fought or fired rockets from their neighborhoods.
"They asked for all the details. Were there rockets fired from the area, why did they target this area specifically, stuff like that," said Ziad Deeb, 22, who told the team how he lost 11 relatives and both his legs when an artillery shell exploded on his doorstep.
Alex Whiting, a professor at Harvard law school, called Goldstone "supremely qualified" for such an investigation, but said such cases are hard to investigate, especially without military records. He also said there are few mechanisms for prosecution if crimes are uncovered.
But even without prosecution, Whiting said, inquiries can spur countries to investigate themselves or affect future wartime conduct.
"Many times, the immediate result is a disappointment for the victims and survivors, but the hope is for the future," he said.
UN says War Crimes Committed Daily in Somalia Fighting
Voice of America
By Derek Kilner
June 9 2009
As an international meeting on Somalia gets under way in Rome, U.N. agencies say that war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed on a daily basis in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. For the past month, Islamist insurgents have been battling pro-government forces in the heaviest fighting the capital has seen in years.
According to the U.N. children's and refugee agencies, all sides in the fighting have flaunted humanitarian principles by ignoring the safety of civilians. Fighters have shelled civilian areas, forcibly recruited children to join militias, and raped women.
The U.N. refugee agency says 117,000 civilians have been displaced since early May, when the latest round of clashes began.
UNICEF's acting representative for Somalia, Hannan Suleiman, says this is the most concentrated displacement of civilians the city has seen in years.
"It is certainly the highest we have seen in Somalia for many, many years,"Suleiman said. "We have not seen this number of people in such a short period of time being displaced."
The latest fighting pits Islamist insurgents from the al- Shabab and Hizbul Islam militias against government soldiers and pro-government militias. Insurgents have also targeted the roughly 4,000 African Union peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi who are deployed in Mogadishu. More than 200 people have been killed in the past month, according to most estimates.
Suleiman says women and children have been particularly affected by the conflict. She says there are reports that boys as young as nine-years old have been recruited to join militias.
"And they are being used on the front line,"Suleiman said. "This is in direct contravention of the child-rights convention, and with the laws governing combat, which state that the use of children under 15 years old in combat is a war crime with legal consequences. And we do have reports that children under 15 are being recruited by all sides in the conflict."
UNICEF says at least 34 schools in the city have been occupied by fighters at some point since the start of the year, and many families have been separated. There are reports of rape and other sexual violence against women who have been displaced.
The insurgents are seeking to overthrow the fragile internationally-backed government led by President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. President Ahmed is a moderate Islamist and a former insurgent leader, but his opponents say he is not committed to Islam and is too close to the United States and Ethiopia.
The government, as well as international diplomats, have accused Eritrea of backing the insurgents.
An international meeting to discuss the conflict is underway in Rome. The two-day meeting features representatives from more than 35 countries and international organizations. The meeting will discuss the security situation, as well as the problem of piracy off the coast.
UN war crimes probe still hopes for Israel access
Taiwan News
June 15, 2009
Members of a U.N. mission investigating alleged war crimes in the Gaza conflict earlier this year say they are still hopeful they will be allowed to visit southern Israel.
But Martin Uhomoibhi, president of the U.N. Human Rights Council, says the probe led by veteran war crimes investigator Richard Goldstone has yet to receive a formal response to its request from Israel.
Israel has repeatedly stated its opposition to the mission because it was mandated by the Geneva-based rights council that has a history of criticizing the Jewish state for its treatment of Palestinians.
Uhomoibhi told a meeting of the 47-member council Monday that the mission will hold public hearings with Palestinian and Israeli victims in Gaza and Geneva starting late June.
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