Africa

UN Looking Into Guinea Violence

By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

CONAKRY, Guinea – United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has launched an international inquiry into the violence against Guinean protestors last month.

On September 28, gunmen opened fire on a stadium full of anti-government protestors killing 157 and wounding more than a thousand others.

Earlier this week the UN Security Council condemned the violence because Russia was opposed and Moscow was uncomfortable getting involved with the domestic politics of an individual country.  According to the UN, the inquiry will “investigate those incidents with a view to determining the accountability of those involved.”

Algerian diplomat and jurist Mohamed Bedjaoui will chair the inquiry.  Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, leader of Guinea’s military government, has said that he will cooperate with the UN’s efforts.

The inquiry team will be filled out with Burundi’s Francoise Ngendahyo Kayirwamirwa and Mauritius’ Pramila Patten.  Kayirwamirwa has previously served on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and Patten is a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

Prior to traveling to Geneva and Guinea, the commission members will travel to New York City to meet with the Secretary General, said spokeswoman Michele Montas.

Guinea’s military junta warned that any sanctions imposed on the country might cause chaos in the country, warning that the international community was pushing the country into a situation “that could degenerate.”

The African Union, the United States, and the European Union have joined in imposing fresh sanctions on the junta.  The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is attempting to mediate the situation and Guinean leadership has agreed to give ECOWAS priority.  Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore will be the mediator.

“The president (Dadis Camara) has said that he is putting the fate of Guinea in the hands of mediator Compaore,” said his spokesman.

International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has said that he is also investigating.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Guinea Junta Warns Sanctions May Cause Chaos – 30 October 2009

Al Jazeera – AU Imposes Sanctions on Guinea – 30 October 2009

All Africa – Ban Announces Members of Commission to Look Into Bloody Guinean Crackdown – 30 October 2009

AP – Guinea Protestors Freed After Being Forced to Eat – 30 October 2009

UN News Centre – UN Chief Ban Launches Inquiry Into Guinea Violence – 30 October 2009

Xinhua – UN Announces Establishment of Int’l Commission to Probe Guinea Incidents – 30 October 2009

UN Deploys 26,000 Troops to Darfur

By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

NYALA, Sudan — Twenty six thousand troops have been deployed to Sudan in a bid to restore order to the crisis-ridden country and aid in the integration of African states through conflict-resolution.

This number is reported to be the largest single ever deployed by the United Nations. Chairman of the African Union and the President of the Pan-African Parliament, Mr. Jean Ping, said this Monday while addressing the press after the First Ordinary Sessions of the African Parliament in Midrand, South Africa. According to Ping, the decision to position the huge number of troops was informed by the desire to prevent the killings, and keep the peace objectives, which he said have almost been achieved.

The force, known as the UN African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), will be largely composed of Africans and will consist of nearly 20,000 military personnel and 6,000 police officers. For the first 12 months, the UN force will incorporate the AU troops into their mission. UNAMID is tasked with acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to support the “early and effective implementation” of last year’s Darfur Peace Agreement between the Government and the rebels, and it is also mandated to protect civilians, prevent armed attacks and ensure the security of aid workers and its own personnel and facilities.

When the United Nations Security Council made the decision in 2007 to deploy troops to Sudan, the conflict had already amassed more than 200,000 deaths and dislocated more than 2.5 million people. Currently, Sudan has more displaced people than any other country in the world. A 2008 report released by the Norwegian Refugee Council stated that the country had 4.9 million displaced people, or about one in eight of the population, more than half of them in Darfur.

“We have a minimum of 160 deaths every month and 56 women raped this month of April. This month also we have 136 people detained by the security forces,” said spokesperson of Darfur Hussein Abu Sharati in May 2008. The spokesperson further said they collected their information from all the IDPs (Internally Displaced People) camps.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the mission “historic and unprecedented.” It will come after months of Sudanese resistance and will cost about $2 billion in its first year, reports The New York Times. “You are sending a clear and powerful signal of your commitment to improve the lives of the people of the region and close this tragic chapter in Sudan’s history,” Ban told the Security Council.

For more information, please see:

All Africa – 26,000 Troops Deployed to Sudan – 28 October 2009

Institute for War & Peace Reporting – Darfur Rebel Questions Neutrality of Peacekeeping Base – 27 October 2009

Sudan Tribune –  Darfur Displaced Dismiss UN-AU Monthly Death Figures – 4 May 2009

The Christian Science Monitor – Sudan Agrees to 26,000 UN Troops in Darfur – 2 August 2007

Taylor Denies Ordering Bockarie Execution

By Jonathan Ambaye
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

THE HAGUE, Netherlands-After a three week judicial break, Charles Taylor took to the stand again on October 26, 2009. On this day Charles Taylor found himself denying allegations that he ordered the execution of a key Sierra Leonean rebel commander, Sam Bockarie, during Sierra Leone’s civil war. In response to the allegations, Taylor said, “The last person on this planet that I wanted killed was Sam Bockarie. I did not order him, killed.”

This statement came after  one of the prosecution’s witnesses testified in September 2008 that commander Sam Bockarie, also known as “Mosquito”, was executed as a result of an order by Taylor. Taylor denied these claims. Continuing his testimony regarding the allegations Taylor said, “I never wanted him dead. I liked him as a son. I never gave such an order that Bockarie should be killed.”

Taylor later gave an explanation of how Bockarie was actually killed. He claims Bockarie was killed in a cross-fire with Liberian government troops who were trying to prevent him from entering Liberia with armed men from the Ivory Coast.  Taylor also had to respond to the 2008 testimony of a former Sierra Leonean member of Taylor’s Anti-terrorist Unit (ATu), Jabati Jaward. Jaward testified that he was one of many others sent by Taylor to the Ivory Coast under the command of Bockarie.  Taylor denied this claim saying that members of the ATU disbanded and traveled on their own to different places, leaving some to go to the Ivory Coast.

Taylor made additional statements in regards to Bockarie’s death to further discount the allegations that he was involved in his death. Taylor said in court, “I was very hurt when Vice Presiden Blach, told me that Bockaries was killed. I sent Blah there because I did not want that boy killed,” Taylor said. Taylor would later also say, “Blah lied here, to say that he was just in the area when Bockarie was killed. I sent him there.”

For more information please see:

All Africa – Taylor Says He Did Not Order the Execution of Sierra Leonean Rebel Commander Mosquito – 26 October 2009

Charles Taylor Trial,org – Taylor Says He Did Not Order the Execution of Sierra Leonean Rebel Commander “Mosquito”– 26 October 2009

Impunity Watch – Taylor Continues to Deny Allegations – 1 October 2009

IDP Bill Will Fill Void in Humanitarian Law, But Implementation May Be the Real Issue

By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KAMPALA, Uganda—17 African countries have adopted and signed the first ever convention on the protection and assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) during the AU Special Summit on Refugees, Returnees and IDP’s in Africa that concluded over the weekend in Kampala, Uganda. The African Union Convention was signed by five AU Heads of State, five Vice Presidents and Prime Ministers as well as by Foreign Affairs Ministers and other Heads of Delegations who attended the historic event.

The African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa is a comprehensive document that will, if ratified, fill a void in international humanitarian law, say experts. Whereas the rights of people who flee across national boundaries are protected under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and a similar instrument introduced 18 years later by the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union), there has been no international legislation catering specifically for people displaced within their own country (IDPs).

IDPs vastly outnumber refugees in Africa. In just 10 of the 18 countries in east and central Africa, there are more than 10 million IDPs, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), with Sudan (four million), the Democratic Republic of Congo (2.12 million) and Somalia (1.55 million) heading the list.

This latest instrument, also known as the Kampala Convention because it was signed in the Ugandan capital, “obliges governments to recognize that IDPs have specific vulnerabilities and must be supported”, said Walter Kaelin, Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. “It covers all causes of displacement, is forceful in terms of responsibility and goes beyond addressing the roles of states to those of others like the AU and non-state actors.” “I truly welcome the adoption of the African Union Convention of the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa”, said Kaelin. “This is tremendous achievement and a beacon of hope for the over 12 million people in Africa displaced by conflict and the many more who are internally displaced by natural disasters or other causes.”

“The crucial challenge now is the same one facing international humanitarian law in general – ensuring that once the convention is signed and ratified by as many states as possible, it is actually implemented and respected,” ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger said. “States must now take concrete steps to implement the convention into their own national legislation and regulation systems, and develop plans of action to address issues of displacement.

“There is some question regarding the extent to which non-state actors and armed groups called upon by the convention to protect IDPs can be bound by its provisions. Nevertheless, the convention, which has benefited from the input of international experts, is considered to be generally consistent with international standards such as the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.”

AU officials in Kampala were cautiously upbeat, urging member states to remain engaged. “It is the responsibility of member states that the convention becomes a binding instrument,” Jean Ping, AU Commission President, said. “At this point, it is an achievement, but not an end in itself.”
“It is one thing to have a good convention and another to implement it,” Dismas Nkunda of the New York-based International Refugee Rights Initiative told IRIN.

In 2007, the AU adopted the African Charter on democracy, elections and governance, but it has so far been ratified by only two member states. Until African countries learn to respect the law, participants said, the continent would “remain at rock bottom” in its attempts to address the problems of the displaced.

For more information, please see:

All Africa – IDP Convention Fills a Void in Humanitarian Law – 27 October 2009

The New Times – AU Commits to Protect IDPs – 27 October 2009

United Nations Human Rights Council – AU Convention on Internally Displaced: “A beacon of hope for 12 million Africans,” say UN Representative – 26 October 2009

The East African – Hometruths for EA Summit on IDPs, Refugees – 26 October 2009

EU Imposes Sanctions on Guinea

By Jonathan Ambaye
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

BRUSSELS, Belgium-Today, the European Union (EU) imposed a sanction on Guinea. The sanctions include an arms embargo, and a visa-ban restricting travel into Europe by members of the Guinean military junta.  These restrictive measures come in response to a massacre of Guinean demonstrators that took place on September 28.

Roughly 160 people were killed, and another few hundred were either wounded or raped resulting from a military response to a September 28 demonstration. Witnesses said, “Soldiers opened fire on demonstrators, stabbed people with bayonets, and gang raped women and little girls.” The demonstrators gathered because they were angered by news that Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara planned to stand for President next year.

Camara was just an unknown captain prior to the military coup that took place last year.  At that time the country was going through difficult times after the death of their long time leader Lasana Conte.  Camara promised genuine democracy along with a safe transition period, and most importantly that he would not only conduct presidential elections but he would not stand in them.

Camara gained popularity early as a result of his unorthodox style of rule which included, forcing national guard soldiers to apologize publicly for roughing up a general, and cracking down on drug trafficking. However, over the course of the past year it has been clear that he does not plan on honoring his promise of a genuine democracy. It is rumored that he plans on doing whatever he can to hold on to his power. News of his plans leaked to the public, which resulted in the demonstration.

The EU is not the only group that has sanctioned Guinea. The West African regional group ECOWAS had already imposed an arms embargo on Guinea who is the largest exporter of raw materials used to make aluminum.

One Guinean official has said that the EU’s decision to sanction Guinea may have been counter-productive at a time where the military junta is seeking to end the crisis. He further said, “ at a time when the two parties are moving slowly but surely towards a resolution of this crisis through AU-backed mediation, we think the EU should have aided us in this direction.” He also said, “much as the imposition of these sanctions by the EU is understandable, this is not however the solution to the crisis in Guinea.”

For more information please see:

All Africa – Europe Imposes Sanctions on Junta – 27 October 2009

AP – EU Imposes Sanctions on Guinea’s Leaders – 27 October 2009

BBC – Guineas Erratic Military Ruler – 27 October 2009

BBC – EU Imposes Arms Embargo On Guinea – 27 October 2009

Reuters – EU Agrees Sanctions On Guinea Over Crackdown – 27 October 2009