Case Western Reserve University School of Law War Crimes Prosecution Watch

Case Western Reserve University School of Law War Crimes Prosecution Watch

Case Western Reserve University School of Law War Crimes Prosecution Watch

War Crimes Prosecution Watch is prepared by the International Justice Practice of the Public International Law & Policy Group and the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center of Case Western Reserve University School of Law.


Volume 4, Issue 12 – September 14, 2009


On Wednesday, September 9, 2009, the Case Western Reserve University School of Law honored the memory of professor and former Nuremberg prosecutor Henry T. King, Jr. (1919-2009).

Please visit http://law.case.edu/lectures/index.asp?lec_id=214 to learn about Professor King and to view the webcast of the memorial honoring his legacy and achievements.

AFRICA

International Criminal Court

  • Central African Republic & Uganda
  • Darfur, Sudan
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo (ICC)

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

Special Court for Sierra Leone

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia

Uganda (Truth & Reconciliation & Domestic Prosecutions / Non-ICC)

EUROPE

Court of Bosnia & Herzegovina, War Crimes Chamber

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

MIDDLE EAST AND ASIA

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

Iraqi High Tribunal

Special Tribunal for Lebanon

NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA

United States

REPORTS

UN Reports

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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.  If you do not want to receive future issues of War Crimes Prosecution Watch, please email warcrimeswatch@pilpg.org and type “unsubscribe” in the subject line.

Israel Prime Minister Rejects Settlement Freeze

By Meredith Lee-Clark

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 

JERUSALEM, Israel/West Bank – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government has no plans to completely freeze Jewish settlements in the occupied territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

 

On September 14, Netanyahu told the Israeli Knesset that settlement construction in East Jerusalem will “go on as planned.” Netanyahu added that Israel had several different interests to balance in implementing its settlement policies.

 

“There has to be a balance between the desire to make progress in political negotiations and the need to allow inhabitants of Judea and Samaria to continue to lead normal lives,” said Netanyahu, referring to the Israeli names for region also known as the occupied West Bank.

 

Netanyahu’s statements came while U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell was in the region to move both the Israelis and the Palestinians toward restarting peace negotiations. For weeks, the U.S. and the Palestinians have urged the Israeli government to agree to a freeze on settlement development as a precondition to any peace talks.

 

Mitchell arrived in Israel on September 12 ahead of the United Nations General Assembly taking place during the week of September 21. Many observers speculate Mitchell is in the region to prepare Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

 

President Obama has requested that Israelis completely halt any new construction on existing settlements, following the requirements of the Roadmap, the agreement created during the Bush Administration’s peace efforts in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

 

The areas in dispute came under Israeli control after the 1967 Mideast War. Since 1967, both Israelis and Palestinians have claimed the area, which stretches from the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. Palestinians argue that Israeli settlements defeat the Palestinian goal of establishing a viable, independent state. Palestinian officials maintain their goal has remained unchanged, even in light of Netanyahu’s statements.

 

“Israel has to stop stalling and focus on creating the atmosphere for a resumption of the peace process. Its sole track should lead to the establishment of the Palestinian state,” said Sabri Seidam, an aide to President Abbas.

 

For more information, please see:

 

Al-Jazeera – Funeral Delays Netanyahu-US Talks – 14 September 2009

 

Associated Press – Netanyahu: No Complete West Bank Building Freeze – 14 September 2009

 

Christian Science Monitor – Netanyahu Defiant on Israeli Settlements Ahead of Mitchell Meeting – 14 September 2009

 

Ma’an News Agency – Netanyahu: East Jerusalem Settlements Not Up For Discussion – 14 September 2009

 

Voice of America – Israeli PM Rejects Halting Settlement Construction – 14 September 2009

 

12-Year-Old Yemeni Bride Dies Giving Birth

By Ahmad Shihadah

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

AL-ZAHRA, Yemen – Twelve-year-old Yemeni girl, Fawziya Abdullah Youssef died after struggling for three days in labor. Youssef died of severe bleeding while giving birth to a stillborn in the al-Zahra district hospital in the Hodeida province 140 miles west of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.

Youssef was 11-years-old when her father married her to a 24-year-old man working in Saudi Arabia as a farmer. According to Ahmed Al-Quraishi, the chairman of Siyaj human rights organization, “this is one of many cases that exist in Yemen, the reason behind it is the lack of education and awareness, forcing many girls into marriage in this very young age.”

Despite its proximity to oil rich Saudi Arabia, Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world. Tribal customs dominate and more than a quarter of the country’s females marry before the age of 15, according to a recent report by the Social Affairs Ministry. This issue vaulted into the international spotlight after the case of Nujood[VAC1] Mohammad Ali, an 8-year old girl whose unemployed father arranged a marriage with a man 20-years her senior. Ali was granted a divorce by a Yemeni court, in explaining his actions the father cited fears that she may have been kidnapped by her would be spouse had he not arranged the marriage.

Ali’s lawyer Shada Nasser [VAC2] has been a vocal advocate for the child brides. She places the blame on the government for not adopting laws which would enact a minimum age for marriage. Nasser has said the government “should launch awareness campaigns in rural areas and prevent clerics from concluding marriage contracts for girls under the age of 17.”

For more information, please see:

UN News Centre – Yemen: Unicef Chief Deplores Death of 12 -Year-Old Bride – 15 – September 2009

Arab News – 12-Year-old Yemen Bride Dies in Labor – 14 – September – 2009

Chronicle – Yemeni 12-year-old dies in labor – 12 – September – 2009

Middle East Online – Tragedy In Yemen: 12-year-old bride dies giving birth – 13 – September – 2009

Chinese Dissidents Detained Ahead of Obama’s Visit

By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia      

BEIJING, China– China has detained numerous dissidents and campaigners ahead of President Barack Obama’s anticipated first visit to the country, their relatives and close contacts told the Associated Foreign Press Saturday.

In Beijing, a group of dissidents tried to apply for a demonstration last Friday, to protest the President’s visit.  The dissidents hoped it would attract attention to the Chinese regime’s human rights violations.  But officials rejected their application.

On Sunday Obama arrives in Shanghai before moving on to Beijing the next day for a four-day presidential trip.  As the visit has drew closer, Zhao Lianhai, the head of an activist group for parents of children who were sickened by tainted milk was detained, said his wife.  In a text Li Xuemei said, “Zhao Lianhai was criminally detained for ‘provoking an incident’.”

Zhao was handcuffed and taken away Friday night by officers who searched his house and took items such as computers, a video recorder, a camera and an address book according to activist group Human Right in China.  The group also stated that upon refusing to go with them, since the summons did not state a cause, the police filled in “provoking an incident” in the summons.  Beijing police would not comment on the case.

Qi Zhiyong, a survivor of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, says the President’s upcoming visit is already affecting him, “[Obama’s] visit to China only involves discussions on climate change, or economic issues. We hope that he will bring up the issue of human rights, and truly improve  China’s human rights.  In fact, his [upcoming] visit has indirectly caused our rights as well as our living spaces to be trampled on.  Because of his visit people like me and other dissidents are being affected.  I have been subjected to a formless oppression, whether it’s house arrest, or being taken away from Beijing.”  Many dissidents have received warning from police not to go to Beijing during Obama’s visit.

Qi also applied to police to protest the Obama’s visit to press him on human rights in China and was detained trying to organize a human rights seminar on November 9 in a Beijing park. Qi said he was being held in the suburbs and had been charged with unlawful assembly and disturbing the social order.

Obama is headed to China to discuss climate change.

For more information, please see:

AFP – China Dissidents ‘Detained Ahead of Obama Visit’ – 14 November 2009

New Tang Dynasty Television – Dissidents Protest Obama’s Upcoming Visit to China – 10 November 2009

AP – Chinese Activist Risks Jail With Letter to Obama – 5 November 2009

Al-Qaeda Militant Killed in Air-Strike

By Jennifer M. Haralambides
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – One of Somalia’s most wanted al-Qaeda militants was killed today when foreign special forces in helicopters attacked a car.

The wanted man is Kenya-born Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who is 28 years-old.  He was wanted for the alleged building of the truck bomb that killed 15 people at a Kenyan hotel and for an attempted missile attack on an Israeli airline as it was leaving Kenya’s Mombasa airport in 2002.

A Somali government sources said the militant was in the car with other foreign insurgents from the al Shabaab rebel group when they were hit in the Barawe District, which is 150 miles south of the capital city, Mogadishu.  Washington says that the al Shabaab group is an al-Qaeda’s faction in Somalia.

It is still unclear exactly who is responsible for this attack.  Foreign nations have conducted air-strikes in the past to capture or kill suspected militants. A United States official claimed that the U.S. special forces carried out this attack early in the morning on Washington time, and that they believed the operation was a success.  The U.S. is not new to air-strikes as U.S. missiles killed reputed al-Qaeda commander Aden Hashi Ayro last year.

Earlier reports said troops wore uniforms with French insignia and that the helicopters took off from a nearby warship flying a French flag, although a French military spokesman denied his country’s forces were in any way involved.

“There was no French operation,” said spokesman for the armed forces’ general staff, Admiral Christophe Prazuck.

Witness said that solders dragged away two men, and two bodies were left in the road after the attack.

Although Nabhan has long been on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Most Wanted list, the Pentagon has declined to comment on “any alleged operation in Somalia.”

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – ‘Foreign Troops’ Strike Shabab Car – 14 September 2009

AP – Witnesses: Foreign Troops Kill 2 in Somali Town – 14 September 2009

BBC – Foreign Troops Launch Somali Raid – 14 September 2009

Reuters – Helicopter Raid Kills Wanted Militant in Somalia – 14 September 2009