By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya – The Kenyan government has said that it will cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its probe of abuses during the post-election violence.  While the names have not yet been published, it is believed that it includes ministers and prominent businessmen.

The ICC announced on Wednesday that it would pursue trials against the suspects because Kenya failed to meet its September 30 deadline to set up its own tribunals.

The violence following the December 2007 elections was among the worst in decades.  Fighting was triggered by accusations that the presidential election was rigged.  Ethnic clashes ended when a unity accord was agreed to.  About 1,500 people were killed and 300,000 were displaced during the two months.

Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo welcomed the ICC decision.

“It was a statement by the top organ of the country that the government will cooperate with the ICC,” he said.  “The ICC can sit in Kenya and we do not have to surrender anyone we just need to arrest them, put them in cells and take them before the court when that time comes.   Unless Parliament repeals the International Crimes Act or Kenya withdraws from the Rome treaty, there is really no choice but to help Mr. Ocampo in his work.”

“But the government has no intention of repealing the law or quitting the treaty since it is in the process of reforming the country into an icon of governance,” he added.

Earlier this year the Kenya government declined to accept a bill that would have set up tribunals.  Parliament believed that it would amount to political interference.

Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, handed over the names of the top suspects to the ICC in July.  He was responsible for mediating the talks that led to the unity government between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said he will prosecute those “most responsible” for the violence and leave Kenya to investigate any others.

For more information, please see:

Daily Nation – Ocampo’s Secret Evidence on Kenya – 03 October 2009

AFP – Kenya to Cooperate With ICC on Unrest Trials – 02 October 2009

BBC – Kenya Backs Poll Violence Trials – 02 October 2009

AllAfrica – Kenya: Govt to Hand Over Ministers to Hague – 01 October 2009

Bloomberg – Annan Will Visit Kenya Next Week to Review Political Changes – 01 October 2009

By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Three aid workers from Action Against Hunger (ACF), a french aid group, were released Saturday.  The three men were from Pakistan, the United States, and Zimbabwe.

They were being held in Somalia since July, according to humanitarian agents and Somali sources.  The men will be reunited with friends and family once they have received medical checks, although they are said to be in good health.

The three men who were captured were headed to Nairobi via the southern town of Luq.  They were kidnapped on July 17 boarding a plane in Mandera, Kenya and taken into nearby Somalia.  It is reported that ten gunmen facilitated the kidnapping.

Rebel Islamist movement Hezb al-Islam official Sheikh Ali Hussein said that the organization facilitated the aid workers’ return but had nothing to do with their kidnapping.

“A small plane flew the hostages out of the airport at Luq after they were freed by their kidnappers,” he said.

Somalia’s radical Shebab movement also denies having a hand in the kidnappings.

According to Hussein, a ransom was paid for the workers.  A local elder has reported that the aid workers were returned for a sum of 2.5 million dollars.

The kidnapping of foreigners in Somalia is rampant and cross-border raids are common in the area.  Because the Kenyan security forces are so poorly funded there is little that they can do to police the vast area.

Kidnappings for ransom have risen in the past few years.  Journalists and aid workers are most often targeted as they are the most vulnerable.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Three Foreign Aid Workers Held in Somalia Since July Freed – 03 October 2009

AP – Militant: 3 Aid Workers Freed in Somalia – 03 October 2009

BBC – Aid Workers Released in Somalia – 03 October 2009

Reuters – Somali Gunmen Release 3 Foreign Aid Workers – 03 October 2009

Xinhua – Aid Workers Released in Somalia: Islamist Faction – 03 October 2009

By Jared Kleinman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

The HAGUE, Netherlands– Charles Taylor called prosecution allegations that he was involved in ritual sacrifice and cannibalism “racist” in Thursday’s testimony. The accused former Liberian president also dismissed his trial as an extension of regime change policies of the United States and the United Kingdom. In Taylor’s second day responding to the testimony of prosecution witness and former member of Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) Joseph Marzah, Taylor denied allegations that he buried a pregnant woman at the back of his house as a ritual sacrifice to obtain power in Liberia. Witness Marzah also testified that he feasted on human beings together with Taylor while Taylor served as Chief of Operations for the NPFL. Taylor dismissed the allegations against him as being “racist.” “It is not true. But you know, there is something deeper to this whole thing. I don’t care what the prosecution says but this is racist, it is as racist as it ever gets,” Taylor said in an angry voice.

Taylor expressed to judges that his trial is part of a wave of regime change policies by western powers especially the United States and Great Britain. “I did know that certain countries like the United States and United Kingdom were against me and were seeking regime change in Liberia. I am brought here by Britain and America,” Taylor said.  “At this particular time in the world when there was Iraq and regime change, it was good to go into Africa, snatch one little leader from a small country, let’s set an example of him to show there is no impunity.” “Listen, there is nothing that is just about this, I have no control over it, I am going through it, and I will go through it. There is nothing legal about this,” Taylor said. “Until I go to my grave, there is nothing just about this. The big powers have executed their powers, they have brought me here.”

Witness Marzah had also testified that Taylor gave orders for the execution of Superman, a Liberian commander of Sierra Leone’s rebel group Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Witness Marzah said Taylor gave orders to have Superman’s hand cut off and his heart removed. Witness Marzah and Taylor then feasted on Superman’s heart, Witness Marzah said in his testimony. Denying Witness Marzah’s allegations, Taylor said that “there was no hand, no nothing taken to my house. I am not aware of how Superman was killed, when or how. It is not true.” Taylor called Witness Marzah’s entire testimony a “complete set-up and it is as programmed as this.”

The Special Court for Sierra Leone is currently on recess. When court resumes on October 26 2009, Taylor will continue with his direct testimony.

For more information, please see:

All Africa – Taylor Calls Prosecution Allegations Against Him Racist; Says His Trial Is Part Of a Western Regime Change Policy– October 1st

Impunity Watch – Taylor Continues to Deny – 01 October 2009

All Africa – Taylor Says He Did Not Order Rebel Attack on Freetown; Calls Zig Zag Marzah A ?Liar?– September 29th

Impunity Watch – Taylor Denied More Allegations in Court – 27 September 2009

By Jonathan Ambaye
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

The HAGUE, Netherlands – Today, Charles Taylor again denied additional claims made by witnesses regarding his involvement in the atrocities that took place across West Africa during his time as the President of Liberia.  In his testimony on September 29, 2009 he denies claims by a witness that he ordered rebel attacks against Guinea, Sierra Leone, and The Ivory Coast all during his tenure as President of Liberia. The witness a former member of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a Sierra Leonean rebel group, claims Taylor supplied the group with the resources and instruction to carry out their attacks.

In his testimony the witness told prosecutors that the former interim leader of the RUF Sam Bockarie, rather than discuss decisions with his own members, would seek advice from Taylor. It is during his discussions with Taylor that the witness claims Bockarie was encouraged by Taylor to attack Freetown and free RUF leader FODAY Sankoh who had been imprisoned.

In response to these allegations, Taylor said to the judge, “I sure did not plan it. I don’t know if Sankoh did, but I did not. I did not plan any invasion of Freetown, never.” Taylor went on to deny having any knowledge of shipments of weapons used in the Freetown attacks into Liberia, and that he had no idea what the witness was talking about in general.

The Special Court’s Prosecution team is alleging Charles Taylor supplied the RUF with weapons in return for diamonds, further perpetuating the severe conflict taking place in the country at the time. They also allege he was controlling the RUF and planning attacks in not just Sierra Leone but also surrounding countries such as Guinea and the Ivory Coast, in hopes to further his own political agenda.

Taylor vehemently denies all of these claims. In response to the claims that he had RUF rebels attack Guinea, he claims if it was in his best interest to attack Guinea why he wouldn’t use the Liberian’s he had at his disposal to do so. It was a question he posed during his testimony in an attempt to dismiss the witness’s claims as illogical. Taylor’s testimony will continue this week regarding additional witness testimony.

For more information please see:

All Africa – Taylor Did Not Know of Sierra Leone Attack Plans, Nor Order A Rebel
Attack OnGuinea, He Says – 29 September 2009

CharlesTaylorTrial.org – Taylor Says He Didn’t Order Rebel Attack on Freetown – 29 September 2009

Impunity Watch – Taylor Denied More Allegations in Court – 27 September 2009

All Africa – I Was Not Aware of RUF’s Operation No Living Thing – 8 September 2009