By Tara Pistorese
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KAMPALA, Uganda—The United Nations (UN) and the U.S. Foreign Affairs Committee have endorsed plans to propel the hunt for Joseph Kony and neutralize the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

For twenty-six years, northern Uganda was victimized by atrocities at the hand of Kony and his army. After years of massacres, mutilations, and child abductions, resulting in female children becoming sex slaves and males becoming child soldiers, the United States designated the LRA a terrorist organization in 2001. Kony is currently wanted by the International Criminal Court for these human rights violations.

After 2004, most of the LRA combatants were driven out of Uganda; however, remnants of the guerilla group continued to attack Ugandan citizens and neighboring countries, including the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In March, Invisible Children, a human rights group based in San Diego, California, released “Kony 2012,” an Internet video bringing Kony and the LRA brutalities into the public eye. The organization received credit from diplomats and activists, such as Human Rights Watch, for keeping pressure on the initiative to find and prosecute Kony.

Francisco Madeira, a representative of the African Union (AU), praised Invisible Children, saying the organization “has been able to make the world know there is a tyrant in Africa who is maiming, raping, and destroying the lives of young, young Africans.”

Although one senior LRA commander was recently captured, Kony’s forces remain extremely dangerous and capable of inflicting considerable damage and suffering on the civil population, according to Abou Moussa, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of United Nations Regional Office for Central America (UNOCA).

The recently approved UN Security Council plan focuses on five key strategic objectives, including, but not limited to: promoting further protection of civilians; expanding current disarmament, demobilization, expatriation, resettlement, and reintegration activities; and, coordinating a humanitarian and child protection response in the affected areas. The UN plan also aims to implement 5,000 AU soldiers in the impacted areas by next year.

Similarly, the United States House Panel approved legislation last week expanding State Department awards for the justice program, which targets the world’s most serious human rights abusers.

Currently, locating Kony, one of the program’s highest priority targets, warrants a reward of anywhere between $1-25 million. The newly approved program and legislation received bipartisan support.

But some question the delayed international response. “On the one side, we are so grateful there is this new regional program,” said Jan Egeland, deputy executive director of Human Rights Watch. “On the other side, we are now in the 26th year of the problem.”

For further information, please see:

Boston Herald—Staying Focused on the Hunt for Kony—1 July 2012

All Africa—Central Africa: Security Council Endorses UN Regional Strategy to Combat LRA Threat—29 June 2012

The Sacramento Bee—U.N. Endorses AU Force to Hunt Kony—29 June 2012

The Philadelphia Inquirer—Lawmakers Back Funding of Human-Rights Rewards—28 June 2012

By Jessica Ties
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone – A Sierra Leone man, Eric Koi Senessie, has been found guilty on eight out of nine contempt of court charges following a trial that began on June 11 at the Special Court in Freetown.

The charges arose from allegations that he tried to persuade prosecution witnesses to recant their testimony in the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Four of the counts accused Mr. Senessie of offering bribes to witnesses and the other five counts alleged that he attempted to influence witnesses.

According to prosecutors, Mr. Senessie repeatedly harassed at least three of the prosecution’s witnesses at their homes and offered to pay them in exchange for recanting their testimony against Charles Taylor.

The prosecution called witnesses who had testified at Taylor’s trial and reported harassment by Mr. Senessie to testify against him at trial. Mr. Senessie testified on his own behalf and called five  additional witnesses to testify in his favor.

After hearing testimony, Justice Teresa Doherty found that Mr. Senessie had “…knowingly and willfully interfered with the administration of justice…” and convicted him on all counts except for one count of attempting to influence a witness.

The maximum penalty for a contempt conviction is seven years imprisonment, a fine of twenty million leones which equates to approximately $4,600 in American currency, or both. The actual sentence will be determined after the prosecution and the defense submit recommendations on sentencing.

Mr. Senessie was once a member of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a rebel group that was supported by Charles Taylor during civil war in Sierra Leone. Taylor aided the RUF by abetting in terrorism, murder, rape, conscription of child soldiers and pillage in exchange for diamonds.

Charles Taylor was convicted of eleven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity last month and given a sentence of fifty years in prison.

For further information, please see:

Sierra Express Media – Eric Koi Senessie Convicted of Contempt of Court for Witness Tampering – 23 June 2012

Jurist – Sierra Leone War Crimes Court Convicts Former RUF Member of Witness Tampering – 22 June 2012

Voice of America – In Taylor Trial, Tampering Conviction for Ex-Rebel – 22 June 2012

Modern Ghana – Contempt Trial of Eric Koi Senessie Opens at the Special Court for Sierra Leone – 8 June 2012

By: Ryan Aliman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KHARTOUM, Sudan – Supporters of the Khartoum government have burned down student dormitories in Khartoum University last Monday.

Composed of students and security agents, these pro-government forces also set ablaze different offices in the University while they attacked and detained student demonstrators.
These assaults were part of a crackdown on the protests that started on June 16 at Khartoum University. Various student groups and youth movements gathered to clamor against President Omar Al Bashir’s announcement that the national government shall raise taxes and prices and cut fuel subsidies. These austerity measures are an attempt to recover from the country’s US$ 2.4 billion deficit which was exacerbated by the split between Sudan and South Sudan in July last year. In a span of 10 days, the protests grew and spilled over to other parts of the country.

The Sudanese police and security authorities responded to these demonstrations with severe force. Reports show that government forces, joined by pro-government students, have fired tear gas and live ammunition injuring the protesters. They have also held several students in custody. Once detained, these students were reportedly blindfolded and beaten. They were also forced to sign a promissory note that they will no longer participate in any protest once they are released. Some of the detainees, meanwhile, have been sentenced to lashings for violating South Sudan’s public order laws. The authorities also conducted widespread raids across the country and arrested relatives of the protesters and members of the opposition party.

When asked to comment on the demonstrations, President Al-Bashir dismissed these as insignificant. He referred to his dissenters as “foreign -backed aliens and bubbles”. He also endorsed the “forceful and immediate” suppression of the protests and threatened to deploy “real jihadists” or “Muhajhdeen” once the demonstrations escalate further.

On June 27, Human Rights Watch released a report urging Sudan to rein in security forces and to release or charge the detainees. Human Rights Watch Africa director Daniel Bekele suggested that Sudan might be using the protests as “an excuse to use violence and intimidation to silence dissenters”. “Authorities should call off their security forces and vigilantes, end the violence immediately, and respect the right of the people to protest peacefully”, he pleaded.

According to the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, security forces shall employ nonviolent means as far as possible before resorting to the use force. Authorities shall exercise restraint and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offense if the lawful use of force is unavoidable.

For further information, please see:

Sudan Tribune – Sudan Protest: UN Urges Restraint and Respect for Human Rights – 28 June 2012

Sudan Tribune – HRW Urges Sudan to Rein in Security Forces, Release or Charge Detainees – 27 June 2012

Bikyamasr – Sudanese Call for Friday Mass Demonstration Against Bashir – 27 June 2012

Albawada – Sudan Day of Rage: June 29 – 27 June 2012

Radio Dabanga – Dormitories of Protesting Students set Ablaze by Sudan Security Agents – 26 June 2012

By Ryan Aliman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Gambian lawyer, Fatou Bensouda, was sworn in as the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) replacing Argentinian Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

Fatou Bensouda was born in Banjul, Gambia to a civil servant and a housewife.  After graduating with a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Ife in Nigeria, she went on to pursue her Barrister at Law at the Nigeria Law School in Lagos.  She later acquired a Master of Laws from the International Maritime Law Institute in Malta making her Gambia’s first expert in international maritime law and the Law of the Seas.

In 1987, she returned to Gambia to begin her career as a public prosecutor.   Ten years later, she was appointed as Gambia’s justice minister and attorney-general.

As a Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) prosecutor’s office, she handled cases on the 1994 Rwandan genocide wherein approximately 800,000 people were killed.  She later rose to the position of Senior Legal Advisor and Head of The Legal Advisory Unit.

By virtue of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute (ASP), the ICC’s founding document, Fatou Bensouda was elected ICC prosecutor in December 2011 by the 121 state signatories.  Judge Sang-Hyun Song, president of the ICC, vouched for her competence saying, “I am confident that her strong independent voice, legal expertise and genuine concern for human rights issues will contribute greatly to the continuous fight against impunity.”

Bensouda’s inauguration was also hailed by non-governmental groups. “Fatou Bensouda is extremely qualified to lead the office of the prosecutor,” said Willam Pace, the head of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, a body which monitors the work of the tribunal.

Bensouda, who took the oath of office last week, specifically stated that she shall be carrying on with the seven situations, 14 cases (two of which are Kenya’s post election violence cases), and a further seven preliminary investigations that Ocampo had initiated.

However, Bensouda’s election was not devoid of criticisms.  The African Union was concerned that the prosecutor might have a tendency to single out African cases.  Bensouda countered that she will not target any particular state.  Guided by the ASP, she promised to be even-handed in dealing with all the 121 state parties.

“I am humbled by the privileged responsibility that the state parties have bestowed on me.  I am also thankful to the African Union for supporting my candidature which shows that they are committed to fighting impunity,” she said during the brief ceremony inside the chamber.  “The Office of the Prosecutor,” she added, “will continue to work with other partners namely other offices of ICC, rights groups and the state parties.”

For further information, please see:

New Europe World — Second ICC Prosecutor Formally Takes Office – 15 June 2012

The Star — Bensouda Assumes ICC Prosecutor Post – 15 June 2012

Star Africa — Gambian Woman Takes Over as ICC Chief Prosecutor – 15 June 2012

Capital FM News — New ICC Prosecutor Bensouda Reaches Pinnacle – 14 June 2012