By Tamara Alfred
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

On Friday, July 8, the United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, put out an urgent plea for $136 million in international donations to help deal with the approximately 10 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya who are at risk of starvation as the region faces the worst drought in 60 years.

Two consecutive poor rainy seasons over the past year have dried up pastoral areas in the Horn of Africa, where the drought is exacerbated by already sky-high food prices, restricted humanitarian access and conflict.  Food is so scarce in Somalia that many will endure several weeks-long journeys through the desert just for the hope of nourishment at overcrowded Kenyan camps.  During the journey, many have to brave often fatal attacks by packs of hyenas and armed bandits, said Alun McDonald, an Oxfam representative in Kenya.

“2011 has been the year of all crises, but I think that in Somalia we can find the worst humanitarian disaster of the year,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement.  “I have never seen…people coming in such desperate conditions.”

Somalis are pouring into the already full Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya.  According to Bettina Schulte, Dadaab spokeswoman of the UNHCR, approximately 400,000 people are living in the camp, originally constructed to hold 90,000 people.  In June alone, 55,000 Somalis entered Kenya and Ethiopia, with about 1,700 arriving each day.  The flood of refugees still coming means that more than 60,000 Somalis are camped outside the actual refugee camp.  According to Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the UNHCR, about 80% of the people are women and children.

A new refugee camp in Kobe, Ethiopia, opened just weeks ago to help address the growing number of refugees.  Already it is nearing its 20,000 person capacity.

The UN refugee agency said the flood of Somalis could overwhelm the ability of humanitarian agencies to help them:  “Humanitarian efforts to help newly arriving Somali refugees in southeast Ethiopia are at risk of being overwhelmed without a more rapid and robust international response to the drought and displacement crisis in the Horn of Africa,” said Fleming.

“Refugee children are dying and their mothers, reduced to walking skeletons, face the unbearable choice of which child to save first,” Guterres said.

The World Food Programme estimates that more than 10 million people are already in need of humanitarian aid, with the UN Children’s Fund estimating at least two million children are suffering from malnourishment.

For more information, please see:

Time – World’s Greatest Ongoing Humanitarian Disaster Reaches a Crisis Point – 13 July 2011

AllAfrica.com – Somalia: UN – Situation is ‘Worse Humanitarian Disaster’ – 11 July 2011

CNN – Refugee chief: ‘Heart is broken’ by hungry refugees fleeing Somalia – 8 July 2011

By Carolyn Abdenour
Impunity Watch, Africa

ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire — Côte d’Ivoire’s state prosecutor has issued an international arrest warrant for Charles Ble Goude, the country’s youth militia leader under ex-President Laurent Gbagbo.  Ble Goude was named Youth Minister when Gbagbo refused to leave office after the United Nations (“UN”)-certified Alassane Outtara the winner of the election in November 2010.  Gbagbo’s actions triggered four months of violence throughout the country.  Ble Goude has escaped from Côte d’Ivoire, and officials report spotting him in Benin and Ghana.

The violence killed approximately 3,000 people.  Several of Ble Goude’s Young Patriots engaged in the violence with weapons, brandishing machetes, clubs, and AK-47s.  The Young Patriots countered the insurgency by establishing roadblocks throughout Côte d’Ivoire and attacking French and UN Peacekeeping troops.  The Youth Patriots also killed many Ouattara supporters and foreign West African nationals by burning them to death.

Ble Goude mobilized thousands of men at the conclusion of the violence to join the army.  Human rights groups report Ble Goude fervently called Côte d’Ivoirians at rallies to defend the country against “foreigners”.  After these gatherings, militia killings often occurred against Ouattara’s northern Dioula tribe members.

State prosecutor Simplice Kouadio Koffi said the state has issued arrest warrants against “suspects on the run”.  Côte d’Ivoire issued arrest warrants for Gbagbo’s inner circle including Ahoua Don Mello (Gbagbo’s government spokesman during the violence), Philippe Attey (ex-industry minister), and Raymond Koudou Kessie (Gbagbo’s ambassador to Israel).  These men, and 21 others in detention, face charges that include xenophobia, infractions against the security and authority of the state, tribalism, forming of armed gangs, abuse of office, and rebellion.  Koffi stated “for many weeks, [these] people incited hatred and xenophobia and committed all kinds of atrocities”.

Ouattara captured Gbagbo in April 2010.  Detained in the northern part of the country, Côte d’Ivoirian courts will try Gbagbo for war crimes, corruption, embezzlement, and economic crimes.

Presently, a delegation of the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) is in Côte d’Ivoire to investigate the possibility of prosecuting the war crimes and crimes against humanity that occurred during the post-election violence.

BBC reports the Ouattara government has promised the people an end to the impunity.  However, only Gbagbo supporters are being arrested and detained even though the UN Human Rights Council believes both Gbagbo and Ouattara committed war crimes during the post-election violence.  Human Rights Watch commented “there is a growing divide between the Ouattara government’s rhetoric that no one is above the law and the reality that justice appears one-sided”.

For more information, please see:
CBS – Ivory Coast issues warrant for Gbagbo youth leader – 2 July 2011
BBC – Ivory Coast warrant for Gbagbo ally Ble Goude – 1 July 2011
Reuters – Ivory Coast issues warrant for Gbagbo youth leader – 1 July 2011
The West Australian – I. Coast issues arrest warrant for Gbagbo allies – 1 July 2011

By Tamara Alfred
Impunity Watch Reporter

The only woman to ever be indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, Rwanda’s former minister of family and women affairs, was sentenced to life imprisonment on June 24 for genocide and rape, among other crimes.

Nyiramasuhuko, 65, her son Arsene Shalom Ntahobali and the former mayor, Elie Ndayambaje, were all given life sentences.  Each had been convicted of extermination, rape and persecution as crimes against humanity during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.  Over 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis, were murdered during the conflict.

“Hoping to find safety and security, they [ethnic Tutsis seeking refuge in the local government] instead found themselves subject to abductions, rapes, and murder,” said Presiding Judge William Sekule.  “The evidence…paints a clear picture of unfathomable depravity and sadism.”

The judgment comes 10 years after the trial started and 16 years since the first arrest.  The case is considered the longest, largest and probably the most expensive in the history of international justice trials.  A total of 189 witnesses were presented and approximately 13,000 pages submitted into evidence, creating more than 125,000 pages of transcript.

Nyiramasuhuko, Ntahobali and Ndayambaje were convicted alongside three other accused, Sylvain Nsabimana and Alphonse Nteziryayo, both former governors of Butare prefecture, and Joseph Kanyabashi, the ex-Mayor of Ngoma Commune.

Nsabimana was sentenced to 25 years for failing to discharge his legal duty.  Nteziryayo was sentenced to 30 years for direct and public incitement to commit genocide during two speeches he delivered.  Kanyabashi was sentenced to 35 years for genocide.

While Nyiramasuhuko is the only woman to have been convicted by the ICTR, other women have been convicted by other courts in connection with the genocide.  A Roman Catholic nun was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a tradition Rwandan court and two other Catholic nuns were convicted by a Belgian court.

Between April and mid-June 1994, hundreds of Tutsis were rounded up by militia members in Butare.  Many were victims of assault and rape.  The genocide was triggered by the April 6, 1994 shooting down of a plane carrying Rwanda’s Hutu president.

In a statement, the United States hailed the judgments:  “This ruling is an important step in providing justice and accountability for the Rwandan people and the international community,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.  “This conviction is a significant milestone because it demonstrates that rape is a crime of violence and it can be used as a tool of war by both men and women.”

For more information, please see:

AFP – US hails Rwanda genocide verdict – 26 June 2011

All Africa – Rwanda: Woman Sentenced to Life for Genocide – 24 June 2011

BBC News – Profile: Female Rwandan killer Pauline Nyiramasuhuko – 24 June 2011

CNN – Ex-Rwanda minister jailed for life on genocide and rape counts – 24 June 2011

By Carolyn Abdenour
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe – On Sunday, June 26, 2010, the Harare High Court in Zimbabwe ordered the release of government minister Jameson Timba from prison.  Timba was arrested and detained the previous Friday after South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper reported he called President Robert Mugabe a liar.

Zimbabwean security law dictates that it is a criminal offense to insult the president.  Timba was jailed for his statement  that he believed President Mugabe lied about the South Africa Development Community’s (“SADC”) outcome from their meeting last month. At the SADC meeting, DA Parliamentary leader Athol Trollip said the SADC addressed “Mugabe’s attempts to undermine political progress in Zimbabwe.  The community extended the moratorium for the SADC tribunal to take new cases, a decision made due to Zimbabwe’s political instability.  This tribunal tries cases between citizens and governments of SADC countries after citizens exhaust local legal avenues.

Timba is an aide to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and a current cabinet minister in Mugabe’s administration.  Along with Tsvangirai Timba is a member of the MDC party while Mugabe is a member of the opposing ZANU-PF Party.  The two parties share power in Zimbabwe under a coalition-style administration called the Government of National Unity (“GNU”).

Upon Timba’s release, Judge Joseph Musakwa stated “there was a violation of human rights…He was not informed of the charges he was facing.”  The High Court went further, calling Timba’s arrest unconstitutional.  Timba’s lawyers noted that while he was in prison, Timba was denied access to food and his legal team.

In response to Timba’s arrest, Trollip said “these are not the actions of a regime that is keen to embrace democratic reform, nor is it the behavior of a state that is ready to hold free and fair elections,” adding the incident “was an illustration of Mugabe’s determination to entrench ‘repressive, tyrannical rule’ in Zimbabwe”.

Besides Timba, other MDC officials face accusations.  Energy Minister Elton Mangoma is being tried for abusing his position during negotiations on a fuel purchase contract, but the MDC believes that Mongoma’s charges are politically motivated.  Additionally, ZANUF-PF is pressuring Finance Minister Tendai Biti to resign due to pay cuts for public workers.

On Sunday, June 26, Tsvangirai told MDC supporters that their party would not leave the campaign despite political harassment from the ZANU-PF.  News Day reports Tsvangiari said to a group of thousands of supporters “he would rather rot in jail than pull his party out of the inclusive government and play into the hands of ZANU-PF.”

For more information, please see;
IOL News – DA calls for tougher stance in Zim – 27 June 2011
News Day – Let me rot in jail – Tsvangirai – 27 June 2011
VOA News – Zimbabwe PM Tsvangirai Vows to Remain in Unity Gov’t Despite ‘Provisions’ – 27 June 2011
BBC – Jameson Timba, Zimbabwe minister, ordered free by court – 26 June 2011

By Reta Raymond
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KAMPALA, Uganda – In the wake of the much publicized death of Col. Edison Muzoora, several Forum for Democratic Change (“FDC”) party officials have been arrested, some of them by the Ugandan military, the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (“UPDF”). Seven suspects have been detained for nearly two weeks, and on 27 June five were charged with treason, a civil offense under Section 23 of the Ugandan Penal Code Act.  FDC Secretary of Defence and Security Maj. (rtd) John Kazoora believes that “the government is becoming paranoid and they want to silence the opposition using these arrests. .. If [the detainees] have a case to answer [for] they should be produced in court.”

FDC Bushenyi District Chairperson William Mukaira, 83 was arrested on 19 June by the UPDF, but has not yet been charged. Mukaira was last reported to be at Mulago Hospital in Kampala where he is recovering from undisclosed health deterioration after being detained at an UPDF military detention facility.

Dr. Aggrey Byamaka, a pharmacist and FDC officer from Mbarara Municipality, was also arrested by the UPDF on 16 June, and was taken to the Second Division Army Barracks in Mbarara.  Byamaka’s wife, Doreen, asked the UPDF forces why he was arrested and where they were taking him. The officers told her to follow them in her car but she was turned away at the UPDF headquarters gate. Nine days later, Mrs. Byamaka still had not been able to find her husband. She told reporters, “I can’t rest, I can’t settle. Wherever he is rumored to be detained, I try to connect there, but I have not succeeded. We don’t know if he is dead or alive.”

Byamaka has not been charged yet, despite a court order issued Friday for the government to produce him on Monday, 27 June with the other suspects. Upon failing to produce Byamaka, State Attorney Susan Odongo reported to the court that “the Director of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence has filed a return this morning stating that the applicant is in the custody of the police. We have been trying to receive instructions from the IGP and the director CID, but they were engaged in a meeting.”

Col. Muzoora deserted the UPDF in 2003, and fled to Rwanda where he served as an operations and field commander of the rebel group the People’s Redemption Army. On 27 May Muzoora’s body was left outside his Bushenyi home in Uganda, wrapped in white sheets, having been preserved for several weeks. “Our preliminary investigations reveal that Col Muzoora sneaked into Uganda on May 5, 2011 from a neigbouring country… After he entered the country, he went directly to the home of William Mukaira in Bushenyi,” stated Internal affairs minister, Hilary Onek. The prosecution believes that those charged were conspiring with Muzoora, among others to overthrow the government with a force of arms.

Daily Monitor – State slaps treason case on six suspects – 28 June, 2011.

Daily Monitor – Muzoora’s death puts two on the spot – 25 June, 2011.

All Africa – Uganda: Army, police deny they have Byamaka – 22 June, 2011.

The Observer – Government explains Col. Muzoora’s death – 22 June, 2011.

Daily Monitor – Tension as FDC officials are arrested by military – 19 June, 2011.