How Will Syria’s Assad Be Held Accountable For Crimes Against Humanity?
Every week, The WorldPost asks an expert to shed light on a topic driving headlines around the world. Today, we speak with David Crane, a Syracuse University professor involved in the impartial effort to catalog Syrian war crimes.
The conflict in Syria has entered its fifth year. The death toll tops 220,000 and the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. In addition to fighting among rebel groups, Islamic State militants and government forces, there is proof of systemic killing of detainees by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The most tangible and shocking evidence of mass murder was presented last year in a report that included thousands of photographs smuggled out of Syria by a former military policeman who has been dubbed “Caesar.” A report on these photos by top international lawyers and forensic scientists verified his account, and said there had been “industrial-scale” killing.
One of the authors of the Caesar report was David Crane, who acted as chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone that indicted Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president now imprisoned for war crimes. Crane is now a professor at Syracuse University, where he is involved in the Syrian Accountability Project, an impartial body documenting crimes in the Syrian war. The WorldPost spoke with Crane about his work and the future of efforts to hold those responsible accountable.
Can you speak to the scope of the crimes and the evidence that you’ve witnessed?
The international crimes, which are still going on, are war crimes and crimes against humanity. We see no evidence of genocide, which is a specific-intent-crime, and you literally have to have a smoking gun to prove that. But war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed across the board by all parties.
When I co-authored the Caesar report, we highlighted to the world that the Assad regime has been conducting a long-term industrialized killing of their own citizens for decades. The pictures coming out from Caesar — that he smuggled out in his shoe — these are high-definition, forensic photos that he took as a military forensic photographer of the deceased. The good thing about the photos is that they’re all numbered and verifiable, and we have the very person who took the photos able to verify them.
War crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed across the board by all parties.
We have Caesar safely ensconced in a country that is protecting him. We were able this time last year to capture as much as 50 percent of the original photos and put them in an evidence locker. In addition, we have a chain of custody, so we can establish legally the verifiable aspects of all these horrific photos.
Something that was mentioned in your report was an estimate of 11,000 detainees that were killed.
That’s correct. How we established that was we had a great team of very experienced individuals: two former chief prosecutors, the lead prosecutor for the [Slobodan] Milosevic case, chief forensic pathologist, forensic anthropologist and a photograph expert. We were able to determine scientifically that these 54,000 photographs probably showed about 11,000 deceased.
The scariest part about this was that this was only from three detention facilities in and around Damascus, but the Syrian Accountability Project has found as many as 52 detention facilities. So what we may be looking at is the tip of a horrific iceberg.
We have no idea how bad this is and I suspect that it’s going to be far worse than imagined.
We have no idea how bad this is and I suspect that it’s going to be far worse than imagined.
How does the Syrian Accountability Project get its evidence?
We get our data from many sources. Open-source information gives us a sense of what’s happening, and then we also have agents in place on scene, including human rights and victims groups that are reporting directly to us.
Our crime base matrix is now over 2,100 pages of Excel spreadsheet. The way we organize it is by listing the time, date, incident and alleged perpetrator. We also list specific violations of the Geneva Convention and specific violations of the Rome Statute. In addition, we translated the Syrian criminal code into English and list specific violations of Syrian law as well. This allows a future local or international prosecutor to take this and review which crimes they may charge or investigate.
It’s fascinating, 10 years ago we didn’t have any of this concept of social media. We used to have to go out and get all our evidence the old-fashioned way. Now it’s gone completely in reverse, and there is so much information that it’s a tsunami. In most cases, it’s important information, but useless in court due to legal issues such as verification and chain of custody. Our challenge now is building a case against all these parties, and we’re very careful about not putting anything on the crime base matrix unless it’s verifiable two or three times over.
Is there a precedent for how social media might be used in court?
The information that’s coming on social media is just information, it’s not evidence yet. It becomes evidence when it’s verifiable. We’re confronted with a new phenomenon, and the legal rules of evidence require us to do certain things to verify it. It can be done, but it’s just a function of having to go back to the source — just because it’s on YouTube means nothing to a court of law. It has to be authenticated.
Just because it’s on YouTube means nothing to a court of law, it has to be authenticated.
A lot of the data that is useless in a court of law is still important historically and for truth-telling, of course. It’s just not usable. As much as 98 to 99 percent of all the data coming out of Syria has no legal significance.
What are the step-by-step processes of bringing accountability to these crimes when the conflict in Syria finally ends?
Once the geopolitical aspect of this is solved, if it ever is, we can prosecute heads of state and henchmen for what they’ve done. We’ve done it before in the Charles Taylor case. It will be an international court — probably not the International Criminal Court because of likely Russian and Chinese objections — but we can create a hybrid international court like the special court I helped found in 2002. You may also see an internationalized Syrian domestic court or even just a Syrian domestic court. We’ve been building this trial package with the anticipation of any of that happening.
I’ll leave you with this: 10 years ago, President Charles Taylor of Liberia was the most dangerous warlord in Africa and never thought he’d be held accountable. Ten years later, he has been convicted in an open court. His appeals have been run and now he’s spending the rest of his life in her majesty’s maximum-security prison in the northeast of England.
It may seem that justice is slow, but justice is justice. The people of West Africa can look at this monster that destroyed over 1.2 million of them having been held accountable and serving the rest of his life in jail. Patience is important, and we need to keep moving forward.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Violence in Guatemala Linked to a ‘Green’ Dam
By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
GUATEMALA CITY- Guatemala – A planned mega-dam in Guatemala has been linked to grave human rights abuses, including the killing of six indigenous people, two of them children. The dam’s carbon credits will be tradable under the European Union’s trading system. Several European banks and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation have provided funds for the $250 million Santa Rita dam.
The Mayan community stated that they were never consulted about the hydro project, as it is reported to forcibly displace thousands of people in order to generate 25MW of energy, which will me mostly exported to neighboring countries. The issue has caused the indigenous protest in Guatemala. The People’s Council of Tezulutlan wrote a letter to the UNFCCC’sCDM executive board, which outlined human rights abuses that have occurred in the region attributable to the planned dam. The abuses included kidnappings, evictions, house burnings, physical attacks, and the arrest of community leaders.
The situation started to deteriorate last August, when 1,500 people were sent into Q’eqchi’ communities of Coban, Chisec, and Raxruha, to evince residents for dam construction. Citizens said that the police fired tear-gas at villagers who has set up a blockade, and proceeded to occupy the area. It is alleged that the officers pillaged the community, stealing animals, food, property and money, forcing families to take refuge in the mountains.
The annual report of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights implicitly blamed the approval of the dam for the outbreak in violence. A member of the European Parliament’s development committee said, “These allegations are well-documents and it is outrageous that the UN’s CDM can register such projects that are clearly violating the human rights of indigenous peoples.”
A spokesman for the IFC told the Guardian that the project has only been given the green light for funding on the understanding that it would increase access to local, affordable electricity. “The project is on hold, as the fund manager discuses further with the local communities,” the spokesman said.
Fore more information, please see the following:
ECO NEWS TODAY – ‘Green’ dam linked to killings of six indigenous people in Guatemala – 26 March 2015.
THE GUARDIAN – ‘ Green’ dam linked to killings of six indigenous people in Guatemala – 26 March 2015.
National Security Agency May Be Forced to Stop Mass Data Collection
By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – Unless Congress extends a law authorizing bulk collection of data on calls by U.S. telephone subscribers, U.S. intelligence agencies will be forced to stop the practice in June. A spokesman for President Barack Obama’s National Security Council said that abandoning the practice of mass collection of domestic telephone data would deprive the country of a “critical national security tool.” The law, set to expire on June 1, allows the NSA to collect data on numbers called and time and length of the calls, but not their content.
The revelation by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that the National Security Agency was collecting this data was one of the most controversial revelations in recent history. The public is split on views regarding bulk collection, some see it as violating individual freedoms, while others consider it a vital tool for preventing terrorist attacks. Some legal experts have suggested that even if Congress does not extend the law, the President’s administration may be able to convince the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to authorize collection under other authorities.
However, National Security Council spokesman, Ned Price, has told the media that the administration intends to enact the legislation that would allow the collection to continue. A Senate Intelligence Committee spokeswoman said a panel is developing legislation. However, it seems as though any NSA reform bill is unlikely and efforts by Congress to extend the law so far have proved fruitless.
For more information, please see the following:
CNBC – US To Stop Collecting Bulk Phone Data If Law Expires – 23 March 2015.
THE GUARDIAN – US To Stop Collecting Bulk Phone Data If Congress Lets Law Expire -23 March 2015.
REUTERS – U.S. To Stop Collecting Bulk Phone Data If Spying Law Expires – 23 March 2015.
Excide Plant Closed after Decades of Polluting in Low Income California Community
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor
WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America – Excide Technologies immediately began shutting down its battery recycling plant in Vernon California after reaching an agreement allowing the company to avoid facing criminal prosecution for decades of pollution in a lower income community just five miles southeast of the city of Los Angeles. Under the deal struck by federal officials and the company, Exide acknowledges criminal conduct, including the illegal storage and transportation of hazardous waste products. Company officials will avoid criminal charges in exchange for shutting down, demolishing and cleaning the 15-acre battery recycling plant.
Over decades of operation, the Excide recycling facility has polluted soil beneath the plant with high levels of lead, arsenic, cadmium and other deadly toxic metals, according to state environmental records. Pollutants from the plant have also contaminated groundwater and released battery acid onto roads. The plant also contaminated homes and yards in surrounding low-income Hispanic communities with lead emissions. Following the announcement of the closure Msgr. John Moretta, of Resurrection Catholic Church in Boyle Heights, whose parishioners had raised health concerns about the plant and have argued for its closure for several years, said “our long nightmare is over. He continued; “we now look forward to a thorough and just cleanup of our homes and neighborhoods.”
Roberto Cabrales, a community organizer with the organizations, Communities for a Better Environment, said news of the plant closure was “a shocker.” His organization and others fought for years to see the plant closed and had expected that state officials would allow Exide, which has been operating on a temporary license, to remain open. “We’re concerned that they will not be pursued for criminal prosecution,” Cabrales said. “But if that means that Exide will stay closed, then that’s in itself a victory for the community.”
State Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Huntington Park), who wrote legislation requiring the state agency to issue Exide a permit or shut it down by the end of 2015, said the plant’s closure will bring relief to the residents of the community neighboring the plant. “But the legacy of impacts of this facility will not go away overnight,” he said in a statement. “To truly understand the magnitude of this issue, we need a comprehensive review of soil contamination and better data on the health impacts to people who continue to be exposed to unhealthy levels of lead and arsenic.”
Federal officials have insisted the agreement would require Exide International to pay the cost of the entire cleanup, even if the costs exceed $50 million. “They’re on the hook with this agreement to pay whatever it takes to clean that site up,” said Joseph Johns, assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the environmental crimes section. Johns said he would have liked to secure a conviction and penalties against the company but argued that prosecuting the corporation would have resulted in the liquidation of the company which would have left taxpayers with the bill for the cost of the cleanup. “We decided that the balance of justice required us to think out of the box,” Johns said. “We struggled with this, and we decided that the right thing to do was not worry about sending one or two people to jail for a year or two, but rather, to prevent another 50-to-100-year sentence for the 110,000 people, the children and grandchildren that live in the communities.”
For more information please see:
The Lost Angeles Times – Exide faces a long, costly cleanup of closed Vernon plant – 21 March 2015
The Natural Resources Defense Council – Exide’s L.A. Lead Battery Facility to Close — Next Up, Clean Up – 16 March 2015
The Los Angeles Times – Q&A: Exide closure a long-sought win for working-class neighborhood – 12 March 2015
Reuters – UPDATE 2-Exide to close California battery recycling plant to avoid prosecution – 12 March 2015