Atrocity Alert, No. 5 No Images? Click here
Atrocity Alert is a weekly publication by the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect highlighting and updating situations where populations are at risk of, or are enduring, mass atrocity crimes.
UNHCR Photos
Iraq
On 17 May the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) killed at least 77 people in three suicide bombings in Baghdad. This follows several bombings by ISIL in the Iraqi capital last week, killing at least 100 people around mainly Shia areas of the city, making these the deadliest series of sectarian attacks this year. The attacks are intensifying tensions, including among rival Shia armed groups, putting civilians at a greater risk of mass atrocities.
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
Amidst reports of violent repression of opposition supporters, the constitutional court in the DRC ruled on 11 May that President Joseph Kabila may stay in office beyond the end of his term in December if the country is unable to hold elections this year. As political tensions in Kinshasa grow, armed groups in the eastern DRC continue to perpetrate atrocities against populations. Allegations have emerged that officers within the Congolese army aided and/or abetted in massacres committed by the Allied Democratic Forces and other armed groups in Beni, North Kivu.
UN Photo/Clara Padovan
UN Photos
Nigeria
On 17 May in Nigeria’s Sambisa Forest a vigilante group – the Civilian Joint Task Force – reportedly rescued one of the more than 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram from a school in Chibok more than two years ago. This was the first Chibok girl to be rescued, but hundreds of other children abducted by Boko Haram from schools in Chibok, Damasak and other areas remain missing and the government has been unable to liberate them. Last month UNICEF reported that one in five suicide bombers used by Boko Haram is a child, including girls abducted by the group. It is imperative that the government strengthen efforts to rescue remaining abductees.
In case you missed it:
On 15 May the Global Centre published Issue 27 of R2P Monitor, featuring the crises in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Burma/Myanmar, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Burundi, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Central African Republic and South Sudan.
Special Features
War Crimes Prosecution Watch Volume 11, Issue 5 – May 16, 2016
FREDERICK K. COX
INTERNATIONAL LAW CENTERFounder/Advisor
Michael P. ScharfWar Crimes Prosecution Watch Volume 11 – Issue 5
May 16, 2016
Editor-in-Chief
Kevin J. VogelTechnical Editor-in-Chief
Jeradon Z. MuraManaging Editors
Dustin Narcisse
Victoria SarantWar 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.
Opinions expressed in the articles herein represent the views of their authors and are not necessarily those of the War Crimes Prosecution Watch staff, the Case Western Reserve University School of Law or Public International Law & Policy Group.
CENTRAL AFRICA
- Radio Tamazuj: Security council: grenade attack on UN Bentiu base may be war crime
- ENCA: Armed tribesmen kill 6 civilians in Sudan’s Darfur: UN
Democratic Republic of the Congo
- International Criminal Court: Closing oral statements in Bemba, Kilolo et al. trial to start on 31 May 2016: Practical information
- International Justice Monitor: National Prosecution of Katanga Can Proceed, Says ICC Presidency
- International Justice Monitor: Bishop, Trauma Expert, and Two Victims to Testify at Bemba’s Sentencing Hearing
WEST AFRICA
- Time: The U.N. Is Ending Its Arms Embargo on the Ivory Coast and Planning a Withdrawal
- Amensty International: Ivory Coast should hand former first lady over to International Criminal Court
- Daily Mail: I.Coast’s former first lady to go on trial May 31
- News 24: Ivory Coast says ex first lady Gbagbo getting ‘fair trial’
Lake Chad Region — Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon
- IB Times: Nigeria: Pro-Biafran protesters ‘not even born’ during civil war, chides President Buhari
- Naiji: Full-Scale war imminent in Nigeria- APC Chief
- Newsweek: Nigeria Must Close Boko Haram Barracks Where Babies Are Dying: Amnesty International
- Reuters:: Mali says Islamist militant arms supplier arrested
- AP: GROUP: 13 PEUHLS KILLED IN LATEST ATTACKS IN MALI
- The New York Times: Confronting Mali’s New Jihadist Threat
EAST AFRICA
- CNN: Uganda’s Museveni extends 30-Year Grip on Power
- U.S. News: Uganda’s Main Opposition Figure Has Been Arrested Ahead of the Inauguration Thursday of the Country’s Long-Time President
EUROPE
Court of Bosnia & Herzegovina, War Crimes Chamber
- Balkan Insight: Croatia Convicts Five Rebel Serb Policemen
- Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Željko Stanarević sentenced to 13 years in prison
- Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Custody of Darko Mrđa and Radenko Marinović terminated and prohibiting measures ordered
- Balkan Insight: Bosnian Serb Acquitted of Crimes against Humanity
- Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Indictment confirmed in the Edin Sakoč case
- Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Zoran Bjelica acquitted, Novica Tripković sentenced to 8 years in prison
MIDDLE EAST AND ASIA
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
- Anadolu Agency : Spain Condemns Syrian Hospital Bombings As ‘War Crimes’: Deliberate Attacks On Hospitals Or Medical Personnel Constitute A War Crime, Says Spanish Foreign Ministry
- The United Nations: Security Council Adopts Resolution 2286 (2016), Strongly Condemning Attacks against Medical Facilities, Personnel in Conflict Situations
- Business Insider: Syria Denies Committing A ‘Deliberate War Crime’ By Bombing Refugee Camp
- The Daily Star: Lengthy cross-examination crawls on at the STL
- The Daily Star: Technical evidence a hurdle for STL judges
Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal
- ABC News: Bangladesh War Crimes Court Sentences 4 to Death
- bdnews24.com: Probe starts against BNP’s Osman Farooq over 1971 war crimes charges
- The Daily Star: Allegations of war crimes against 11 ex-agri univ teachers being probed
- bdnews24.com: Tribunal indicts Brahmanbaria’s Hossain, Kishoreganj’s Moslem for 1971 war crimes
- Al Jazeera: Bangladesh executes Motiur Rahman Nizami for war crimes
AMERICAS
- Expatica: Spain seeks extradition of 4 ex-soldiers from El Salvador
- Inquisitr: On This Day: Former Leader of Guatemala Found Guilty of Genocide
- The Washington Post: Pentagon: 2015 strike on Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan was not a war crime
- The Columbian: U.N.: Attacking hospitals still war crime
- UN News Centre: UN human rights panel condemns civilian attacks in Syria; calls for accountability
- The New York Times: Lack of Plan for ISIS Detainees Raises Human Rights Concerns
- The Guardian: Abu Ghraib prisoners deserve, finally, their day in court
TOPICS
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION
- CBC News: Canada removing objector status to UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
- República: Conflict victims hold sit-in near PM’s residence against 9-pt deal
- philly.com: Tribal leaders implore Army: Bring our children home
- New York Times: Suicide Bombing Near Historic Mosque in Turkey Wounds 13
- France 24: Salah Abdeslam will break silence over role in Paris attacks ‘at a later date’
- The Guardian: Isis members can now be stripped of Australian citizenship
- The Guardian: France to set up a dozen deradicalisation centres
- International Business Times: Islamic State Terrorism Has Cost Iraq Billions In Damages As ISIS Has Taken More Control
- Reuters: Dozens of terrorism suspects among refugees who entered Germany
- BBC News: Northern Ireland terror threat level raised in Great Britain
- Reuters: Turkey digs in heels over terrorism law, to EU’s chagrin
- The Washington Post: Falling oil prices spark a rise in kidnappings by West African pirates
- Hellenic Shipping News: Nigeria spends $370m to combat piracy
- The Strait Times: Indonesia frees vessel captured by pirates
- AsiaOne: Piracy in SE Asian waters rises; attacks off Somalia fall sharply
- News Ghana: Ghanaians Advised To Report Gender-based Violence
- All Africa: Namibia: Gender-Based Violence Experience Drove Youth to Initiate Organisation
- Vox: The Obama administration is honoring Henry Kissinger today. It shouldn’t be.
- Las Cruces Sun-News: Desert Sage: Have we lost our conscience on war crimes?
- Foreign Policy: Hiroshima, My Father, and the Lie of U.S. Innocence: Why Washington hid Japan’s crimes, and its own, in the reckoning of justice after World War II
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect: R2P Monitor, Issue 27, 15 May 2016
|
||||||
|
European Union – EEAS (European External Action Service): Statement by the Spokesperson on Uganda and the International Criminal Court
Committed to preventing crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, and to avoiding impunity for the perpetrators of such crimes, the EU confirms its continuing support for the ICC and its work.
Full cooperation with the ICC is a prerequisite for the Court’s effective functioning.
In accordance with established approach of the EU and its Member States, the EU regrets that Uganda, a State Party of the Court, did not fulfil this week its legal obligation, in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 1593, to execute the arrest warrant against any ICC indictee present in the country.