HRC Report: Countering Sexual Violence in Kenya
Colombian Rebel Group Releases 10 After Over A Decade In Captivity
By Paula Buzzi
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
VILLAVICENCIO, Colombia – 10 hostages, including six police officers and four soldiers, were freed this week after being held in captivity for over a decade in the Colombian jungle by the leftists Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Their release comes after numerous failed peace negotiations with the Colombian government and the FARC’s announcement on February 26 that it would halt ransom kidnappings.
The freed hostages were picked up in a secret jungle rendezvous point in Villavicencio by a loaned Brazilian air force helicopter, and were taken to Bogota to be reunited with their family and friends. Some of the hostages were unable to walk on their own and had to be accompanied by nurses.
Olivia Solarte, the mother of 41-year-old former hostage and police officer, “Trujillo,” was overjoyed when she found out her son had been freed after being held captive since 1999. “I shouted! I jumped up and down!,” she told reporters. Solarte was among many relatives waiting at the airport for the arrival of the freed hostages.
The FARC is Colombia’s oldest and most powerful guerilla, and has been at war with the Colombian government since it first took up arms in 1964. The FARC has become notorious for kidnapping government forces and civilians and holding them ransom in exchange for money and other demands. The Colombian government has had at least two serious peace negotiations with the FARC over the past three decades but both negotiations ended unsuccessfully.
Due to military setbacks, such as changes in top command officers, the FARC has become noticeably weaker in the past recent years. On February 26, FARC leaders announced that they would release hostages and stop the kidnappings — a move some people see as a genuine step towards peace. “I don’t know if that brings Colombia closer to peace, I don’t know if things will end well or not, but do I know [the hostages’ release] proves the Farc wants to negotiate,” says Ariel Avila, from Corporacion Nuevo Arcoiris.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is weary about the FARC’s new commitment to peace, emphasizing that hundreds of civilians are still believed to be held captive by the FARC. “Make no mistake: this government has a policy, which consists in facing the violent groups with all its might,” he said.
The citizens’ watchdog group Fundacion Pais Libre says that at least 400 people have been kidnapped since 1996 that have yet to be freed. Fundacion Pais Libre maintains the list of people kidnapped and does not expunge a name from its records until the person is released or until their body has been found.
For further information, please see:
BBC News – Colombian Hostages’ Long Wait For Freedom – 04 April 2011
CNN – Freed Colombian Hostages Carry Pets Tamed In The Jungle – 04 April 2012
Fox News – Colombia Rebel Group Frees Captives Held For 12 Years – 03 April 2012
The New York Times – Colombian Rebels Free 10, Raising Hopes of Peace Talks With Government – 02 April 2012
Liberian Gays Targeted on Hit List
By Tamara Alfred
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
An anti-gay group in Liberia released a “hit list” on April 3 of people they believe should be punished for their participation in the gay rights movement.
Movement Against Gays in Liberia (MOGAL) distributed fliers over the weekend in parts of Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, threatening to take out the individuals one by one. The fliers allege that gays and lesbians want to destroy Liberia and do not have the nation’s best interests at heart. MOGAL said those involved in promoting gay rights “should not be given space to get a gulp of air.”
“Having conducted a comprehensive investigation, we are convinced that the below listed individuals are gays or supporters of the club who don’t mean well for our country,” the fliers read. “Therefore, we have agreed to go after them using all means in life.”
While no individual MOGAL members signed the fliers, Moses Tapleh, a 28-year-old affiliated with the group, stressed that its threats should be taken seriously. “We will get them one by one,” he said. “They want to spoil our country.”
When asked what action might be taken against those on the list, Tapleh said they could be subjected to “dangerous punishments” including “flogging and death.”
The flier warned that MOGAL would begin taking action soon. “Let these individuals be aware that we are coming after them soon,” the flier reads. “We urge them to also begin saying their Lord’s prayers.”
One of the persons whose name appeared on the list already reported receiving threatening phone calls.
The fliers are yet another example of the growing hostility towards gays and lesbians on the west coast of Africa. Liberian law currently does not explicitly address homosexuality. “Voluntary sodomy” is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf last month vowed to preserve this law, prompting a statement of concern from the U.S. State Department.
Additionally, last February, two proposals were introduced in the legislature making homosexuality punishable by prison terms. One of the proposed bills would make same-sex sexual practice a second-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. The other bill would make same-sex marriage a first-degree felony, with sentences ranging up to 10 years in prison.
Graeme Reid, director of the LGBT Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, said the emergence of the “hit list” should put pressure on President Sirleaf to take a stance in support of gay rights. Simply refusing to sign the new anti-gay laws was insufficient, according to Reid.
“She cannot sit on the fence when there’s this kind of provocation taking place,” said Reid. “She needs to take a clear and unequivocal stance on this issue.”
Homophobia is widespread in Africa. Last year, Nigeria voted in favor of a bill that would criminalize gay marriage, gay advocacy groups and same-sex public displays of affection. In 2009, Uganda introduced a bill that would impose the death penalty for some gays and lesbians. Even in South Africa, the only African nation to recognize gay marriage, so-called “corrective” rapes have been carried out on lesbians.
For more information, please see:
Africa Review – Anti-gay hit-list in circulation in Liberia – 4 April 2012
Scrimac.com – Liberian Gays Threatened With Death on Hit List Fliers – 3 April 2012
The Washington Post – Anti-gay group in Liberia issues hit list, threatens to ‘get to them one by one’ – 3 April 2012
The Mess In Mali
By Dr. J. Peter Pham
Originally published through New Atlanticist
April 2, 2012
In less than two weeks, the West African nation of Mali has gone from being a rare oasis of democracy and stability to a near failed state whose troubles threaten to ripple across the Sahel where the security situation, always delicate even in the best of times, is especially stressed in the wake of the flow of refugees, fighters, and arms from the Libyan conflict last year. Moreover, the coup d’état by junior army officers not only overthrew an elected government but also threatened to undo a decade’s worth of patient effort by the United States and its European allies while creating a significant opening for al-Qaeda’s regional affiliate and other extremists.
Ironically, the president toppled by the coup which took place overnight between March 21 and March 22, Amadou Toumani Touré, popularly known as “ATT,” himself first came to power at the point of a gun when, in 1991, the then-paratroop commander tossed out longtime dictator Moussa Traoré after the latter’s security forces opened fire on pro-democracy demonstrators, killing more than one hundred. However, ATT did not hold on to power. Instead, he convened a national conference to write a democratic constitution, organized elections, and turned over the government of the country to the man elected the following year, Alpha Oumar Konaré, who later went on to serve as the first chairperson of the African Union Commission. Having earned himself the sobriquet “the Soldier of Democracy,” ATT went back to the barracks, finished his military service, and retired to an elder statesman’s role—among other accomplishments, he established a children’s foundation, campaigned to wipe out Guinea worm, and mediated an end to a rebellion in the Central African Republic. When Konaré left office in 2002 after serving the constitutional limit of two terms, ATT was elected president. He was subsequently reelected with an even larger majority in 2007.
The president’s second term was perhaps not as happy as his first. The vibrant media that is one of the hallmarks of the Malian democracy he helped to foster—the population of 14.5 million, less than half of whom are literate, supports remarkable dozen-and-a-half French-language newspapers, a half-dozen or so indigenous-language news publications, three television and two national radio networks, and around 150 privately-owned community radio stations—has hounded the administration with allegations of corruption or at least questionable business deals involving presidential associates. Journalists and civil society activists also criticized the government for costly renovations carried out on the presidential palace even as the country consistently ranked near the bottom of the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index (Mali placed 175th out of the 187 countries and territories surveyed in 2011). In recent months, ATT appeared visibly tired and, by most accounts, was eagerly awaiting the election of his successor, scheduled for April 29, to quit office.
Another reason that ATT might have been eager to shed the burdens of the presidency was that since last summer, the country has faced a rebellion by Tuareg nomads who seek to create their own state, which they dub “Azawad,” with Mali’s three northernmost provinces—Kidal, Gao, and Timbuktu—as well as slices carved from the territories of neighboring countries. The rebels’ Mouvement National pour la Libération de l’Azawad (MNLA) is composed of longtime Tuareg dissidents reinforced by battle-hardened ethnic kin who returned last year from Libya, bringing with them heavy armaments looted from the late Muammar Gaddafi’s arsenals. In fact, the MNLA’s military commander, Muhammad ag Najim, was a colonel in the Libyan army who had served Gaddafi since the 1980s in various nefarious enterprises across the Sahel. As a result of the fighting, almost 200,000 people have fled their homes in northern Mali since the beginning of the year.
Meanwhile, the 7,000-strong Malian army has been faring poorly against the rebels, sparking complaints from soldiers that the government was sending them into battle in the harsh Saharan regions without adequate weapons and supplies. The press took up the criticism—editorials in several newspapers even called for the use of nuclear weapons against the rebels—and stirred up demonstrations, some violent, in the streets of Bamako against what was alleged to be the government’s ineffective response. While the president rejected the MNLA’s demand for independence, he was open to negotiating some sort of a compromise with Tuareg leaders—a reasonable enough stance, albeit one that provoked widespread resentment among the Bambara and other Mande groups who make up the majority of the Malian population.
The coup apparently began when the new defense minister tried to calm down restive troops at the Kati barracks outside Bamako. By all accounts, the lecture went rather badly: voices were raised, stones thrown, and shots were fired into the air. Before long, the defense minister and his entourage were in full flight back to the capital with angry troops in pursuit. What began as frustration turned into a farce, which then quickly degenerated into a full-fledged mutiny; in less than twenty-four hours, Mali’s hard-won democratic credentials were in tatters as ATT was chased out Bamako (he is rumored to be hiding out with loyalists at the camp of his old paratroop battalion, the 33rd) and many of his ministers under arrest. A hitherto unknown captain, Amadou Haya Sanogo, who had previously benefited from US-sponsored training as part of America’s efforts to build up the capacity of local militaries to counter the terrorist threat in the region, installed himself as head of junta that promised to “restore power to a democratically elected president as soon as national unity and the integrity of our territory is re-established.”
The international community’s reaction to the putsch was swift and, for once, unequivocal. The UN Security Council “strongly condemn[ed] the forcible seizure of power” and demanded “the restoration of constitutional order and the holding of elections as previously scheduled.” The African Union likewise condemned the coup and, lamenting the “significant setback for Mali,” suspended the country from membership in the organization. Mali’s biggest aid donors—the United States, France, and the European Union—suspended all but humanitarian assistance to the country. The World Bank and other multilateral institutions likewise halted their programs. Perhaps moving with the most alacrity was the subregional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which set last night as the deadline for its members to close their borders with Mali, the regional central bank to freeze the country’s accounts, and its standby forces to be put on alert for possible intervention. ECOWAS heads of state and other leaders are expected to confer today in Dakar on the margins of the inauguration of Senegal’s President Macky Sall; tellingly, General Carter Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) is included as member of the official U.S. diplomatic delegation to the event.
Meanwhile, the MNLA rebels took advantage of the situation in southern Mali to score impressive gains. Last Friday, after forty-eight hours of intense fighting, MNLA forces took control of Kidal, the capital of the eponymous northeastern region. The following day, MNLA—ominously joined by fighters from Ansar e-Dine (“Defenders of the Faith”), a local Islamist militant group with links to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) led by Iyad ag Ghaly, a Tuareg chieftain whose principal objective is the imposition of shari’a, rather than self-determination—took Gao, capital of the neighboring region and site of the Malian army’s chief garrison in the north. Completing the trifecta on Sunday, Tuareg and Islamist fighters took the historic desert town of Timbuktu after Malian forces apparently abandoned their positions. In effect, Mali has been cut into two parts. And while the MNLA denies that it has connections to any Islamist movements, a number of reports indicate that not only Ansar e-Dine fighters, but also militants from the AQIM splinter group Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa. Reuters reports that the black flags of the extremist groups are now flying in Kidal and Gao and that music and Western clothes are already being banned in those towns, while the Associated Press reports that the same dark banners were raised over fabled Timbuktu early Monday morning.
All of this leaves Mali’s international partners, both in Africa and beyond, in a bit of a quandary. On the one hand, irrespective of the frustrations keenly felt by many Malians, both civilians and military, over the government’s handling of the growing rebellion in the north, the overthrow of constitutional order—and just six weeks before elections at that—is a terrible precedent that, quite correctly, has to be condemned and the putschist regime shunned. On the other hand, unless decisive action is undertaken quickly to dislodge them, the Tuareg rebels and their Islamists allies are likely to consolidate their hold on the north—and, in the process, create a safe haven for terrorists, extremists, criminals, and other agents of destabilization. During a visit to the Atlantic Council last November, Malian Foreign Minister Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga—who is currently being held prisoner by the junta—expressed concern that the spillover effects of the Libyan crisis, by sending an increased flow of arms and fighters across borders and heightening security risks across a region already threatened by terrorist groups as well as plagued by trafficking flows would undo not only the decade-long effort by the U.S. and European governments to strengthen the governance capacities of the Sahelian states, but undermine their very foundations. In short, the international community will need to carefully balance its principled refusal to accept the unconstitutional seizure of power with its interests in maintaining the territorial integrity of Mali and securing the strategically vital bridge between North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa against the forces of extremism.
J. Peter Pham is director of the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center.
International Criminal Justice News Roundup March 2012
30 March
Cambodia must provide full cooperation to new judges at genocide court, Ban stresses (Source: UN News Centre) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has decided to initiate a selection process for new international judges for the United Nations-backed Cambodia genocide tribunal, and stressed that the Government must provide full cooperation so they can carry out their duties. Recent months have witnessed the resignations of the international co-investigating judge, Siegfried Blunk, and the reserve international co-investigating judge, Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, from the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)…
France ‘to allow first genocide extradition to Rwanda’ (Source: BBC News) A French court has for the first time approved the extradition of a suspect to Rwanda on charges over the country’s 1994 genocide, local media reports say. A court in the town of Rouen decided that French-Rwandan dual national Claude Muhayimana, 51, could be sent back to Rwanda, AFP reports. However, the French government still has to approve the extradition…
NH woman accused of Rwanda war crimes to get new trial after jury failed to reach verdict (Source: Washington Post) The New Hampshire woman prosecutors say lied about her role in the Rwanda genocide to obtain citizenship will get a second trial after a jury failed to reach a verdict in her case earlier this month. Lawyers for 42-year-old Beatrice Munyenyezi say she has been in custody since her indictment in June 2010 on two charges of lying on immigration and naturalization papers. Prosecutors say she commanded extremist Hutu militia and ordered the rapes and killings of Tutsis in Butare in 1994…
29 March
Ingabire trial: genocide ideology laws face revision (Source: Radio Netherlands) It was a trial within a trial last Tuesday at the Supreme Court of Rwanda, as Victoire Ingabire and her lawyers challenged the constitutionality of the genocide ideology laws. Ingabire, the president of the opposition party Unified Democratic Forces (UDF), has been charged with complicity to terrorism and ideology of genocide…
28 March
Italy seize 1.1 bln euros of Gaddafi family assets (Source: Reuters Africa) Italian tax police have seized 1.1 billion euros of assets belonging to members of the Gaddafi family, including stakes in top Italian companies, bank deposits and a Harley Davidson, at the request of the International Criminal Court…He said the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague had ordered the seizure of assets worldwide in view of possible compensation claims by victims of Muammar Gaddafi’s rule in Libya following his overthrow last year…
High Court [Australia] urged to approve Charles Zentai extradition to Hungary (Source: The Australian) The final chapter in the long-running legal battle to extradite 90-year-old Charles Zentai to Hungary for his alleged involvement in war crimes has begun in the High Court. Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs is appealing a ruling of the Full Bench of the Federal Court, which last year found it was not open to the government to make an order to extradite Mr Zentai because the offence “war crime” did not exist in Hungarian law in November 1944…
27 March
US envoy sees likely Syria ‘crimes against humanity’ (Source: AFP) Syria’s regime is committing human rights atrocities, including torture of men arbitrarily detained by security forces, that could amount to “crimes against humanity,” US envoy Robert Ford said Tuesday. Ford also told a US congressional hearing that President Bashar al-Assad showed “little interest in human rights” but argued against further militarization of the conflict, saying diplomatic pressure should prevail on Assad to give up power…
26 March
UN tribunal refers case of fugitive genocide suspect to Rwanda court (Source: UN News Centre) The United Nations tribunal trying key suspects implicated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda today ordered the case of an indicted suspect who remains at large be referred to the Rwandan High Court for trial…The referral chamber expressed its hope that Rwanda, in accepting referrals from the ICTR, will put into practice commitments it has made about its good faith, capacity and willingness to enforce the highest standards of international justice in the referred cases…
23 March
UN resolution urging investigation into possible war crimes draws mixed reaction in Sri Lanka (Source: Washington Post) Nationalist Sri Lankan groups are calling for a boycott of American goods to punish the U.S. for backing a U.N. resolution urging the country to investigate possible war crimes during its civil war. But human rights groups and ethnic Tamil politicians have hailed the U.N. move as an opportunity for the country to build peace after a quarter-century of violence…
Impunity at KRouge court won’t be tolerated: UN (Source: Bangkok Post) The United Nations said Thursday it would not tolerate impunity at Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge war crimes court in a worsening row with Phnom Penh about whether to pursue more suspects… “The United Nations, in its dealings with the (court), remains committed to ensuring that impunity for the crimes committed during the period of the Democratic Kampuchea is not tolerated,” UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman Martin Nesirky said in an email to AFP…
21 March
Libya Resists International Court’s Claim on War Crimes Case (Source: New York Times) Libya’s interim authorities escalated their face-off against the ICC on Wednesday over custody of the most significant confidants to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi taken prisoner since his ouster and death: his son Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi and his brother-in-law Abdullah Senussi. The battle over the men’s fate is an early test of the former rebels’ commitment to the rule of the law…
Switzerland judge resigns from Cambodia genocide tribunal (Source: Jurist) …International Co-Investigating Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet said that he faced ongoing resistance from National Co-Investigating Judge You Bunleng concerning investigations relating to ECCC Khmer Rouge cases 003 and 004 and that the dispute had created a “dysfunctional situation” at the court. Kasper-Ansermet, who will step down on May 4, is the second judge to resign from the UN-supported war crimes tribunal…
After ICTY, trials before domestic courts (Source: EMportal) Council of Europe (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg has said in an interview with Tanjug that after the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is closed, it is of vital importance to ensure competent trials at the national level so that all crimes in the wars of the 1990’s could be punished and justice met…
16 March
Central Africa: Crimes of Sexual Violence and the Lubanga Case (Source: allAfrica) Interview with Patricia Viseur Sellers, international criminal lawyer, former Legal Advisor for Gender and a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Despite the evidence pointing to wide spread rape and other forms of sexual violence against in particular girl child soldiers, why was it that crimes of sexual violence were not taken into account in this case?
15 March
ICC prosecutor to seek maximum sentence for Congo military leader (Source: Jurist) (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Thursday that he would seek the maximum sentence for recently convicted Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) militia leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo…Ocampo said that if the prosecution seeks one year per child the total will be well beyond the maximum 30 years provided for under article 77(1) of the Rome Statute, which also allows life sentences for particularly heinous crimes…
Sri Lanka denies new war crimes claims (Source: AFP) Sri Lanka Thursday rejected as “baseless and unacceptable” a new documentary by Britain’s Channel 4 suggesting the army executed the 12-year-old son of a guerrilla leader after he surrendered…”Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished” also claimed it had “damning new evidence” of abuses against civilians…Human rights organisations have said that up to 40,000 civilians perished in the final months of fighting in 2009 during which the Sri Lankan army is accused of shelling populated areas as well as hospitals and refugee camps…
George Clooney urges lawmakers to act to resolve violence in Sudan (Source: Washington Post) Actor George Clooney brought his star power to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to call for stepped-up action to resolve ongoing violence in Sudan and stop a potential humanitarian disaster…“It is absolutely without question a war crime that we saw firsthand,” he said in an interview before testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee…
14 March
Historic verdict condemns warlord, but Hague court limited (Source: Reuters) The war crimes court at The Hague found Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo guilty on Wednesday in its first ever ruling after a decade of work limited largely to Africa while major cases elsewhere remain beyond its reach. The ICC convicted the little known militia leader of using child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But critics noted that deadlock among world powers means the ICC is not even investigating daily tales of atrocity emanating from the Syria of President Bashar al-Assad…
Int’l Criminal Court investigators find possible mass graves on Ivory Coast massacre site (Source: Washington Post) Investigators with the International Criminal Court may have found mass graves in a western Ivory Coast town, a court official said Wednesday, where rights groups say fighters loyal to the president killed hundreds of people amid postelection violence last year. “We have confirmed some locations in which we think … there are mass graves,” said Amady Ba, who said a crime-scene expert and medical-legal photographer came to the West African nation to investigate the area around the town of Duekoue…
Ten years, $900m, one verdict: Does the ICC cost too much? (Source: BBC News) The ICC has delivered its first judgement, after a decade in existence, and spending nearly $1bn. Critics say it costs too much, but is this fair? The International Criminal Court (ICC) currently has an annual budget of over $140m (£90m) and 766 staff. Since its inception, its estimated expenditure has been around $900m (£600m). With only one completed trial to show for a decade of effort and expenditure, the ICC has faced regular criticism that it sucks in investment with few results to show for it…
13 March
Life for Comrade Duch, a milestone for international justice (Source: The Guardian) As many eyes in the world are turned towards the crisis in Syria, without much notice, Cambodia’s UN-backed war crimes tribunal ended its first major trial, issuing a life sentence to 69-year-old Kain Guek Eav, or “Comrade Duch”, a former Khmer Rouge’s prison chief, for ordering and supervising the torture and murder of over 12,000 men, women and children at the regime’s now-infamous Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison. And while the case has not made too many headlines, it serves as a reminder that war crimes trials are not just a fixture in Europe and Africa – but part of the legal landscape in Asia as well…
Guatemalan ex-soldier jailed for 6,060 years over Dos Erres massacre (Source: The Guardian) A former Guatemalan special forces soldier has been sentenced to 6,060 years in prison for his role in the killings of 201 people in a 1982 massacre…The sentence handed down by a three-judge panel is largely symbolic since under Guatemalan law the maximum time a prisoner can serve is 50 years. It specified 30 years for each of the 201 deaths, plus 30 years for crimes against humanity…
12 March
Hague Court to Decide Where Former Dictator of Chad Will Be Tried (Source: New York Times) International judges in The Hague are hearing a complex case this week that boils down to a single and unusual question: which country has the right to try Hissène Habré, the former president of Chad, who has been indicted in two nations in connection with political killings, torture and a host of other brutalities… Mr. Habré turned that arsenal against his own people. The Chad Truth Commission said in 1992 that his government had killed up to 40,000 opponents and tortured many others…
10 March
ICC rejects Kenyans’ request to appeal trial decision (Source: AFP) The International Criminal Court turned down on Friday a request by four prominent Kenyans including two presidential hopefuls to appeal its decision to try them over post-election killings…
Hague Court to Decide Where Former Dictator of Chad Will Be Tried (Source: New York Times) International judges in The Hague are hearing a complex case this week that boils down to a single and unusual question: which country has the right to try Hissène Habré, the former president of Chad, who has been indicted in two nations in connection with political killings, torture and a host of other brutalities… Mr. Habré turned that arsenal against his own people. The Chad Truth Commission said in 1992 that his government had killed up to 40,000 opponents and tortured many others…
9 March
Rwanda: Archives for UN Genocide Tribunal to Remain in Arusha (Source: AllAfrica) The United Nations Security Council voted to retain the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania…”The UN Security Council resolved that the archives of the court will be handled by the residual mechanism. However, Rwandans should know that all unsealed information will still remain accessible on the website of ICTR,” said Amoussouga…
Five new judges of International Criminal Court sworn in (Source: UN News Centre) …Judges Howard Morrison of United Kingdom, Anthony T. Carmona of Trinidad and Tobago, Olga Herrera Carbuccia of Dominican Republic, Robert Fremr of Czech Republic and Chile Eboe-Osuji of Nigeria will serve nine-year terms in the court, which is based in The Hague…
7 March
Prosecutor seeks 28-year jail term for Vojislav Seselj (Source: BBC News) Prosecutors in the war crimes trial of Serb nationalist Vojislav Seselj at The Hague have called for him to be jailed for 28 years. Mr Seselj, 57, faces nine charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Balkan wars of the 1990s…
Rwanda: Archives for UN Genocide Tribunal to Remain in Arusha (Source: AllAfrica) The United Nations Security Council voted to retain the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania…”The UN Security Council resolved that the archives of the court will be handled by the residual mechanism. However, Rwandans should know that all unsealed information will still remain accessible on the website of ICTR,” said Amoussouga…
Five new judges of International Criminal Court sworn in (Source: UN News Centre) …Judges Howard Morrison of United Kingdom, Anthony T. Carmona of Trinidad and Tobago, Olga Herrera Carbuccia of Dominican Republic, Robert Fremr of Czech Republic and Chile Eboe-Osuji of Nigeria will serve nine-year terms in the court, which is based in The Hague…
5 March
Sudan: ICC prosecutor urges world to do more to end impunity in Darfur (Source: UN News Centre) The Prosecutor of the ICC today urged the international community to find “the final solution” for the problem of impunity in Sudan’s conflict-affected region of Darfur, where he said war crimes have continued despite warrants of arrest against several senior officials, including the president. “I think we did something complicated – we investigated the crime, we collected the evidence, we clarified the responsibilities. But our effort is not enough if the crime is not stopped,” Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters at UN Headquarters…
Rwanda: Archives for UN Genocide Tribunal to Remain in Arusha (Source: AllAfrica) The United Nations Security Council voted to retain the archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania…”The UN Security Council resolved that the archives of the court will be handled by the residual mechanism. However, Rwandans should know that all unsealed information will still remain accessible on the website of ICTR,” said Amoussouga…
Five new judges of International Criminal Court sworn in (Source: UN News Centre) …Judges Howard Morrison of United Kingdom, Anthony T. Carmona of Trinidad and Tobago, Olga Herrera Carbuccia of Dominican Republic, Robert Fremr of Czech Republic and Chile Eboe-Osuji of Nigeria will serve nine-year terms in the court, which is based in The Hague…
2 March
UN expert panel concludes Gadhafi forces, rebels committed war crimes in Libya (Source: Washington Post) …The U.N.-appointed Commission of Inquiry on Libya concluded that “international crimes, specifically crimes against humanity and war crimes, were committed by Gadhafi forces.” “Acts of murder, enforced disappearance, and torture were perpetrated within the context of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population,” it said…
Transfers and delays: How fit are Rwanda’s courts? (Source: Radio Netherlands) How fit are Rwanda’s courts to try the country’s worst crimes? That’s the question the legal community is asking – even before the ICTR’s first to-be-transferred suspect is outside the prison gates. ICTR judges are keeping Jean Uwikindi in Arusha until they consider his appeal against extradition to Kigali – and are assured he can get a fair trial at home…
1 March
ICC issues Sudan defence minister warrant over Darfur (Source: BBC News) The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein for alleged crimes in Darfur. The court said there were sufficient grounds to hold him responsible for 20 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes…
UN-backed court says it will deliver verdicts next month in Charles Taylor war crimes trial (Source: Washington Post) U.N-backed war crimes court said Thursday it will issues the decision in the trial of the former Liberian President Charles Taylor next month. Taylor is the first former African head of state to be prosecuted at an international tribunal and faces a maximum life sentence if convicted…