Top Rwandan Rebels Arrested in Germany

By Jonathan Ambaye
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk

BERLIN, Germany-Today, two leaders of a Rwandan Hutu rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), were arrested in Germany on suspicion of human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Ignace Murwanashyaka, the leader of FDLR, and Straton Musoni, his aide, were accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their involvement as leaders with the “terrorist” group.

The United Nations has been pressuring Germany for years to arrest Murwanashyaka and Musoni. Murwanashyaka has served as the leader of the FDLR since 2001 according to prosecutors.

The FDLR was founded in the Congolese town of Lumumbashi in 2000, and is a Hutu extremist group comprised of Hutu refugees from Rwanda who fled across the border in Congo after the 1994 genocide, where close to 800,00 ethnic Tutsis were killed in Rwanda.

“As part of this armed conflict, the FDLR militias are believed to have killed several hundred civilians, raped numerous women, plundered and burned countless villages, forcing villagers from their homes and recruiting numerous children as soldiers,” the statement said.  One veteran UN official, Gregory Alex, spoke on how the arrest is important because of Murwanashyaka’s importance to FDLR as the highest-ranking leader of the group.  Julien Paluku, the governor of North Kivu, a province in eastern Congo said, “I think the arrest of Murwanashyaka will have a psychological impact on the morale of FDLR’s militiamen who could be discouraged by this arrest.”

Murwanashyaka has lived in Germany since before the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. He has since maintained that his men, which are believed to include over 5,000 Hutu refugees, were involved in the genocide, and says they are currently fighting to bring democracy to Rwanda.

For more information please see:

AFP – Hutu Extremist Leaders Arrested In Germany – 17 November 2009

AP – Hutu Extremist Group Leaders Arrested In Germany – 17 November 2009

BBC – Germany Arrests Top Rwanda Rebels – 17 November 2009

Tamils Expected to Disembark Ending Three-Week Long Impasse

By Eileen Gould
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

CANBERRA, Australia – Almost a month after first being taken in by an Australian navy boat, Indonesia has agreed to detain the seventy-eight Sri Lankan asylum seekers and hold them in an immigration facility in Tanjung Pinang, Riau.

The detention center in Riau will hold the asylum seekers for up to six months, with Australia covering the costs.  The deal provides that those found to be refugees will be guaranteed resettlement within four weeks.  Others will await processing to determine whether they are “genuine refugees”, and if found to be the case, they will be resettled within twelve weeks.

Asylum seekers, already housed in the facility, have been waiting for as long as seven months, and question the preferential treatment that the Rudd government is extending to these Tamils.

The border protection committee, which is chaired by Immigration Minister Chris Evans and includes staff members on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s administration, devised the deal.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith claimed that this situation was “a special, almost unique, circumstance of a search and rescue in Indonesian waters”, while the Prime Minister maintains that they have not been treated any differently.

Parliament questioned Rudd yesterday over his role in the deal that prompted the asylum seekers to agree to leave the boat.

Rudd claimed that he knew negotiations were taking place but claims he had no prior knowledge of the arrangements.

The Riau immigration facility, which has a maximum capacity of 400 occupants, currently holds approximately seventy-seven asylum seekers, who traveled from Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran with hopes of entering Australia.

The asylum seekers have been on board an Australian patrol vessel, the Oceanic Viking, near the Riau Islands since October 26th, when navy boats found them in international waters within Indonesia’s search and rescue zone.

2009.11.17 Photo of Tamils Waiting Turn to Disembark Oceanic Viking
Photo: Asylum seekers wait to be removed to detention facility in Riau, Courtesy of Reuters.

Twenty-two Sri Lankans arrived at the detention center last Friday, November 13th and the remaining fifty-six are expected to arrive today.

Meanwhile, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono trip to meet with the Prime Minister this week has delayed his trip.

The opposition to the current administration characterized Yudhoyono’s postponement as an “extraordinary slap in the face”, blaming the Prime Minister for tense relations between the two nations.

News that the Tamils had ended the standoff broke, just as the Australian navy intercepted two more boats, one containing forty-one asylum seekers, and brought them to the detention facility on Christmas Island.

For more information, please see:
The Australian – Boat saga test ties to Jakarta – 18 November 2009

New Zealand Herald – Rudd in doldrums as challenges mount – 18 November 2009

The Jakarta Post – RI agrees to detain 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers – 17 November 2009

Sydney Morning Herald – Tamils set for mixed welcome to detention – 18 November 2009

Radio Australia News – Australian navy stops another boat carrying asylum seekers – 17 November 2009

WA Today – Asylum seeker stand-off ‘nearly over’ – 17 November 2009

Sydney Morning Herald – Our newest Australians leave the boat – 13 November 2009

Judges Hear Cases Against Guantanamo Detainees

17 November 2009

Judges Hear Cases Against Guantanamo Detainees

By Stephen Kopko

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – Since the United States Supreme Court decisions in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, fifteen Federal District Court Judges have heard and assessed habeas corpus petitions filed by Guantanamo Prison Facility detainees. These hearings continue as President Obama announced that ten detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be prosecuted in the U.S. in either federal court or by military commission. The judges have ordered the release of thirty Guantanamo prisoners since the hearings began.

The judges hearing the prisoners cases cited many reasons in granting their release, the main rationale being that there was a lack of evidentiary material to support a conviction. Judge Gladys Kessler wrote in granting the release of one prisoner that much of the government’s evidence was suspect because it contained second- and third-hand hearsay statements that were obtained by way of torture. Also, some of the statements and documents offered by the government could not be authenticated.

An example of a detainee that was released was a prisoner name Janko. Before being captured by the U.S. military, Janko was tortured by Al-Qaida for three months and was forced to falsely confess that he was an American spy. He was then imprisoned by the Taliban for a year and a half. Despite this evidence, the government argued that Janko had ties to al-Qaida. In ordering his release, Judge Richard Leon wrote that “surely this extreme treatment of that nature evinces a total evisceration of whatever relationship might have existed” between Janko and the terrorist organization.

Not all of the detainees who have had their cases heard have been released. For example, Judge James Robinson wrote that Adham Mohammed Ali Awad was a part of Al-Qaida despite questionable evidence that indicated otherwise.

The habeas corpus hearings last approximately one to two days. The prisoners are allowed to present testimony in their own defense. They participate in their hearings by a secure video link. Those detainees that have been granted release have either been repatriated to their original country or have been released to other countries. Those prisoners that have had their habeas petitions denied await their trial in either a federal district court or by military commission.

For more information, please see:

MSNBC – Gitmo Detainees Finally Get Day in Court – 16 November 2009

AP – Excerpts From Rulings in Guantanamo Bay Cases – 15 November 2009

NYTIMES – Uighurs Leave Guantanamo for Palau – 31 October 2009

Iraq Investigates Bribery Charges Against Blackwater

By Bobby Rajabi
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – Senior Blackwater executives approved the payment of over one million dollars to Iraqi officials. A report by the New York Times alleges that these payments came after the company’s guards killed seventeen Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007. The goal of the alleged bribery was to “silence (the) criticism” against the US security firm coming from Iraqi officials.

The shootings that forced the alleged bribery took place in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square. According to the report, Blackwater’s President at the time, Gary Jackson, approved of the payments. The money given to the Iraqi officials went through Jordan before getting to the company’s top manager in Baghdad. Executives made reference to in the Times’ report did not know if the payments were actually delivered.

One Blackwater employee pleaded guilty in United States court to a manslaughter charge over the 2007 attack. Five other company guards pleaded not guilty in January to charges against them. Blackwater has denied any wrongdoing for the shootings.

Cofer Black, a former Blackwater official and veteran of the CIA, issued a statement saying that he was “unaware of any plot or guidance for Blackwater to bribe Iraqi officials.” Additionally, Blackwater’s company spokesman, Stacy DeLuke, dismissed the allegations of bribery as “baseless” and said that the company refused to comment on their former employees. Despite this, Iraqi officials plan on determining the validity of the claims made against the US security firm.

Iraq’s Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, in an interview with CNN, said that he had ordered the investigation into whether the top officials at Blackwater had approved the bribes alleged in the New York Times report. Bolani said that he is still in the process of gathering information regarding the allegations and explained that he hopes that individuals with information will come forward and help with the investigation.

Blackwater has been a topic of much controversy in Iraq even before the 2007 shootings. This comes from the company’s size and aggressive nature in the country. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the 2007 incident a massacre and was unhappy that their contract was renewed. The US Government has asked Blackwater to provide security services to US diplomats in Iraq until the newly hired firm is ready to take over.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Iraq Probes ‘Blackwater Bribes’ – 12 November 2009

AFP – U.S. Firm Blackwater in Iraq Bribery Scandal: Report – 11 November 2009

New York Times – Charges Prompt Iraqis to Look Into Blackwater – 11 November 2009

Reuters – Blackwater Approved Payments in Iraqi Shooting – NYT – 10 November 2009

Former Nazi Charged For WWII Massacre Of Jewish Laborers

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BERLIN, Germany – A 90 year-old German has been charged with the World War II killings of 58 Jews in March of 1945.

According to German prosecutors, Adolf Storms was a squad leader within the 5th SS Panzer Division operating in Duisburg, Austria.  He took part of the murder of 57 Jewish forced laborers.  The remains of the massacre were found in 1995.

With the war winding down, Storm allegedly devised the plan to kill the prisoners he was guarding.  He escorted the Jewish laborers into a wooded area, where he proceeded to execute each one.

Storms participation in this massacre was discovered last year by an 28-year old University of Vienna student, Andreas Forster, while researching the massacre.  After looking up Storms in the telephone book Forster informed his professor, Walter Manoschek, of his discovery.  Manoschek went to Storms home in Duisburg, Germany and interviewed him regarding his activities in WWII.  Forster turned over the information to German state prosecutors.  In December of 2008 local authorities raided Storms’ home.

Storms told Manoschek that he does not remember the killings in question.  After the war Storms was detained in a US prisoner of war camp, but was released.  It has been reported that Storms changed the spelling of his name after the war, which may explain why he has gone undiscovered for so long.

While charges have been filed against Storms, the investigation by state prosecutors continues.  Prosecutor Andreas Brendel has stated that he has gathered testimony from three former Hitler Youth members who can offer eye witness testimony that will be used against Storms.

Whether the age of Storms will influence the prosecutor’s final decision to move forward with the investigation has not been decided.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Former SS member, 90, charged over Nazi massacre – 17 November 2009

AP – 90-year-old charged in Germany for Nazi-era crimes – 17 November 2009

CNN – 90-year-old man charged over Nazi massacre – 17 November 2009

DW-WORLD – Court charges former Nazi for murdering Jewish laborers – 17 November 2009

THE GUARDIAN – Former Nazi SS member charged with killing Jewish labourers – 17 November 2009

REUTERS – German Prosecutors Charge 90 – Year – Old Former SS Man – 17 November 2009