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

AFRICA

CENTRAL AFRICA

Central African Republic

• United States Mission to the United Nations: Statement on the Conviction by the ICC of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity
• New York Times: Congolese Politician, Jean-Pierre Bemba, Is Convicted of War Crimes

Darfur, Sudan

• South Sudan News Agency: UN Forms a “Three-Person Commission” to Investigate South Sudan’s War Crimes

Democratic Republic of the Congo

• Reuters: Congolese is Highest-Ranking Politician Set for Hague Court Verdict
• International Criminal Court: ICC Trial Chamber III Declares Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo Guilty of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity
• The Economist: The International Criminal Court Recognises Rape as a War Crime
• By Jason Burke: Child Soldier to War Criminal: the Trial of Dominic Ongwen

WEST AFRICA

Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

• Reuters: Former first leady Simone Gbagbo to face trial in Ivory Coast in April
• Daily Mail: I. Coast 2010 poll violence victims still awaiting justice: HRW
• Mail and Guardian Africa: Ivory Coast’s solid response to the Bassam attacks shows African answers to terrorism can be credible

Mali

• Jurist: ICC orders trial for Malian Jihadist over Timbuktu world heritage site attack

Lake Chad Region — Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon

• Telegraph: The Mass Boko Haram Kidnapping Nigeria Covered Up

EAST AFRICA

Uganda

• Newsweek: Ugandan Supreme Court Dismisses Mbabazi Election Appeal
• UN News Centre: Security Council Calls for Regional Solutions to Challenges Facing Africa’s Great Lakes Nations

Kenya

• StarAfrica: Kenya: ICC to Issue Ruling on Fate of Deputy President Case on April 5
• Standard Media: Kenya Rejects ICC Proposal to Have One Judge Conduct Ruto, Sang Trial
• The Star: Ruto Won’t Be at the Hague for ICC Ruling

Libya

• Newsweek: ISIS Releases Photos of Executions and Flogging’s in Libya’s Sirte

Rwanda (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda)

• News24: Rwanda Jails Top Military Figures

EUROPE

Court of Bosnia & Herzegovina, War Crimes Chamber

• BIRN: Soldier’s 12-Year Trial ‘Costing Bosnia €1.5 Million’
• Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Ljubiša Vranješ sentenced to 7 years in prison
• Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Trial Verdict to be handed down in Nihad Bojadžić case
• Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Indictment confirmed in the case v. Izet Arifović

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

• The Guardian: Radovan Karadžić’s lawyer expects guilty verdict over war crimes
• International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: Tribunal convicts Radovan Karadžić for crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Jurist: International war crimes court jails journalist for contempt

Domestic Prosecutions In The Former Yugoslavia

• Balkan Insight: Kosovo War Witnesses ‘Intimidated into Changing Stories’

MIDDLE EAST AND ASIA

Special Report

• U.S. Department of State: Atrocities Prevention Report

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

• Voice of America: Cambodia: Coming Face to Face With The Nuon Chea at The Khmer Rouge Tribunal

Iraq

Syria

• Jurist: Turkish President Calls For ICC Prosecution Of Syria President Assad
• WAER: Rapes and War Crimes Committed in Syria by Govt Troops Says Report Out of SU Law School
• The New York Times : ISIS Fighters Laid Mines Around Palmyra’s Ancient Ruins Before Retreating, Syrians Say

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

• The Guardian: Isis Claims Dozens of Iraqi Troops Killed by British Suicide Bomber
• BBC News: Iraq Violence: ‘IS Suicide Attack’ Kills 29 in Football Match<
• CBS News: ISIS Attacks Iraqi Base Housing U.S. Military Personnel
• The Daily Mail: ISIS Fighter Beheads Three Peshmerga Prisoners on The Streets in Iraq After Jihadi Group Suffer Heavy Losses Against Kurdish Forces in Northern Syria
• The Guardian: Iraq Militants Claim to Put ISIS Fighter’s Fate to Vote on Instagram

Special Tribunal for Lebanon

• Special Tribunal for Lebanon: STL Judges amend the Rules of Procedure and Evidence

Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal

• DB News 24: Bangladesh Ministers Qamrul, Mozammel Fined Tk 50,000 Each for Disrespecting Supreme Court
• Shanghai Daily: Bangladesh Islamist Party Chief Appeals Against Death Penalty for 1971 War Crimes
• News Next BD: Two Mymensingh Suspects Charged for War Crimes

War Crimes Investigations in Burma

• The Irrawaddy: UWSA to Host Ethnic Armed Groups at War with Govt
• Mizzima: Myanmar Lifts State of Emergency in Troubled Rakhine State
• Al Jazeera: Displaced by Continued Fighting in Myanmar’s Shan State

AMERICAS

North & Central America

• Counter Punch: Witness to a War Crimes Trial: My Heart is Sepur Zarco
• The Japan Times: Bush and Blair should be tried for war crimes

South America

• Reuters: Obama’s Argentina trip raises questions about Macri rights record
• The Wall Street Journal: Obama Declassifies Documents Related to Argentina’s Dirty War
• Huffington Post: Colombia: Ethnocide and Political Violence on the Rise
• The Guardian: Colombia arrests army general decade after killing of civilians
• The Washington Post: Colombia to hold peace talks with 2nd-largest rebel group
• The Wall Street Journal: Venezuela’s Opposition-Controlled Congress Passes Amnesty Law

TOPICS

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

• The Kathmandu Post: TRC Says It Will Collaborate With Victims’ Platform
• Times Live: SAHRC Drops Investigation on Athol Trollip Family
• The Himalayan Times: Ex-Maoist Fighter’s Presence in TRC Body Draws Flak
• Republica: TRC Chief Wants Act Amended for Int’l Acceptance
• Independent Online: Trial 33 Years After MK Fighter Vanished
• The Kathmandu Post: Govt Asked to Provide Necessary Resources Pronto
• The Colombo Gazette: Laws to Create Office on Missing Persons by May – June

TERRORISM

• Washington Post: Islamic State Claims Responsibility for the Brussels Attacks
• The Guardian: Belgian Police Use DNA to Try to Determine Role of Fayçal Cheffou
• USA Today: FBI Hacks Into Terrorist’s iPhone Without Apple
• CBS News: After Brussels Attacks, Leaders Tackle Threat of Nuclear Terrorism
• USA Today: France Abandons Plan to Revoke Terrorists’ Citizenship
• CBS News: Paris Prosecutor: Frenchman Charged for Plotting “Imminent Attack”

PIRACY

• MarineLink: Piracy Drives Toward Southeast Asia
• Global Trade: Piracy and Armed Robbery Situation Against Ships in Asia is Improving
• Tanker: Piracy Threat Has Not Diminished Says MAST
• AllAfrica: Somalia: Somali Pirates Face Trial in France in Fourth Such Case
• New York Times: Indonesian Sailors Kidnapped by Pirates in Philippines
• The Maritime Executive: Four Kidnapped Crewmembers Released in Nigeria

GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

• Daily Times: Australia Helping Efforts to End Gender-Based Violence
• Medecins Sans Frontiers: Bangladesh: Treating Survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Dhaka
• Inter Aksyon (Philippines): Gender-based Violence Continues in Disaster-Stricken Areas
• Graphic Online: Ghana Lauds UK’s Financial Support to Deal with Sexual, Gender-Based Violence

COMMENTARY AND PERSPECTIVES

• CNN: ISIS committed genocide: Are the gloves off?
• teleSUR: NATO War Crimes in Afghanistan: A Never Ending Story
• Business Day: Wartime rape not a neat, single narrative
• The New York Times: A Case of Deadly Delusions