South African Students and Police Clash

By Samantha Netzband 

Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa Desk 

CAPE TOWN, South Africa–Protests continue across South Africa as students act out against rising tuition costs.  Protests have been widespread and happening at many universities across South Africa.  Protests are becoming violent as police seek to put an end to the protests to allow universities to hold classes.  Many universities classes have been suspended in the mist of the protests.

The Associated Press

Police use stun grenades and rubber bullets to break up protests at the University of the Witwatersrand. (Photo Courtesy of US News)

University of Witswaterand students led a march to the Chamber of Mines on Wednesday September 28 in order to give a memorandum that called for officials to get behind the idea of free education. Students would like the Chamber of Mines to help lobby the government on their free education stance.  University of Wiswaterand, known as Wits, have been engaging in protests for over a week, in some cases vandalizing property.  In one incident a fire extinguisher was used in a campus building and a cleaner died as a result.  University officials have blamed students for the death.

Meanwhile on Wednesday September 28th at Rhodes University in Grahamstown 10 students were arrested as a result of the protests.  Rhodes like Wits has been shut down since the previous week, and both students and professors alike are growing concerned that classes may not start up again.  Professors and students alike are growing increasingly concerned that the rest of the term will need to be cancelled, especially after the University of Cape Town was forced to cancel its graduation.

While students are mainly protesting for free education, they are also calling for the removal of Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande who called for the raise in tuition for the next year.  Protests started peacefully, but were met with police force late last week.  Police began firing rubber bullets and using stun grenades to stop the protests.  As of Friday September 30th protests were still continuing.

For more information, please see:

Citizen – Live Report: Wits Students March to the Chamber of Mines – 28 September 2016.

Daily Maverick – Student Protests Spread, While Wits Marks a Worker’s Death – 27 September 2016.

Fox News – South African Police Clash with Student Protesters – 28 September 2016.

Marxist – South Africa: Rising Anger as Mass Student Protests Return – 28 September 2016.

US News – Shuttered South African Universities Seek End to Protests – 27 September 2016.

War Crimes Prosecution Watch: Volume 11, Issue 15 – October 2, 2016

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Founder/Advisor
Michael P. Scharf
 
War Crimes Prosecution Watch
Volume 11 – Issue 15
October 2, 2016
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Editor-in-Chief
Kevin J. Vogel
Managing Editors
Dustin Narcisse
Victoria Sarant
War Crimes Prosecution Watch is a bi-weekly e-newsletter that compiles official documents and articles from major news sources detailing and analyzing salient issues pertaining to the investigation and prosecution of war crimes throughout the world. To subscribe, please email warcrimeswatch@pilpg.org and type “subscribe” in the subject line.
Opinions expressed in the articles herein represent the views of their authors and are not necessarily those of the War Crimes Prosecution Watch staff, the Case Western Reserve University School of Law or Public International Law & Policy Group.

Contents

NPR: Nuremberg Prosecutor Makes The Case For Trying Assad

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Each week,Weekend Edition Sundaybrings listeners an unexpected side of the news by talking with someone personally affected by the stories making headlines.

When he was just 27 years old, Benjamin Ferencz helped prosecute Nazi leaders in the Nuremburg war crimes trial after World War II. In the years since, the Harvard-educated lawyer has continued to focus on issues of international criminal justice.

As he considers the possibility the U.S. might launch strikes on Syria, Ferencz raises the idea of using the International Criminal Court to try Syrian President Bashar Assad for the alleged use of chemical weapons.

But, he tells NPR’s Rachel Martin, “the United States has been opposed, unfortunately … to using that court because we value our sovereignty and we want to decide for ourselves when we go to war and when we don’t. A very, very dangerous practice, as we’re now discovering.”

Using the ICC to bring someone to justice can take years, something Ferencz admits he’s not comfortable with. “I wish we could go into court and have a trial over in three days as I did in Nuremberg,” he says.

“But the fact we are not comfortable is not the test. The test is whether it’s just or not. Is it just for an individual in any country to conclude that some individual in another country is guilty of supreme crimes and therefore he should be punished, without a trial of any kind? Is that just?”

Join Our Sunday Conversation

Should the Syrian regime face international justice instead of U.S. military strikes? Tell us on Weekend Edition’s Facebook page or in the comment section below.

Military Police Acquitted in Brazil

By Cintia Garcia

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BRASILIA, BRAZIL—On September 27, a court in Brazil acquitted 74 police officers in the massacre of 111 prisoners during the prison riot of 1992 in Carandiru Jail located in Sao Paulo. Two members of the court of appeals ruled there was insufficient evidence against the officers but affirmed excess force had been committed. One member of the court declared the officers not guilty.

Inmates within their Carandirú prison cells. (Photo Courtesy of Human Rights Watch)

The trials took place in 2013 and 2014, more than twenty years after the riot took place. The officers were convicted of executing the prisoners and received sentences ranging from 48 to 624 years in prison. None of the officers convicted served their sentence. One of the commanders, Colonel Ubiratan Guimaraes, was sentenced to 624 years in prison in 2001 but was acquitted on appeal in 2006. The defense on appeal argued that the police officers fought back during the violent uprising as self-defense. The prosecutors presented evidence showing the police officers shot prisoners and later destroyed evidence making it difficult to determine who was responsible for the killings.

The massacre took place on October 2, 1992 when a riot broke out in the over crowded Carandiru Jail. The police sought to negotiate with the prisoners but a few hours later, in riot gear, stormed into Wing Nine of the prison and began to shoot the prisoners. According to Human Rights Watch, some of the inmates killed were found naked, on their knees, and with their hands up. Many present during the riot claimed that they were forced to remove bodies and alter the crime scene. Amnesty International Director of Brazil, Atila Roque, stated that, “the fact that 111 prisoners can be killed without anybody being held responsible after 24 years is not only shocking, but sends a terrifying message about the state of human rights in Brazil.

Prosecutors will appeal decision.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International—Brazil Declares Trial on Carandiru Massacres Null in Shocking Blow for Justice—28 September 2016.

BBC—Appeal Begins in Brazil Against Acquittal—29 September 2016.

Human Rights Watch—A Major Setback for Justice in Brazil—28 September 2016.

International Business Times—Relatives of Prisoner who Died in 1992 Brazilian Jail Riot Start Appealing After Court Acquits 74 Police Officers –29 September 2016.