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War Crimes Prosecution Watch Editor-in-Chief Taylor Frank FREDERICK K. COX Volume 13 - Issue 12 INTERNATIONAL LAW CENTER July 23, 2018 Technical Editor-in-Chief Ashley Mulryan Founder/Advisor Michael P. Scharf Managing Editors Sarah Lucey Lynsey Rosales

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 [email protected] 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

News24: CAR rejects Russia mediation bid with rebels Crux: Bishops of Central African Republic 'outraged' by threat against Muslim population The Catholic Spirit: Central African bishops distance themselves from group promising violence

Sudan & South Sudan

BBC News: South Sudan atrocities may constitute war crimes, UN says IOL: Sudan extends ceasefire in war zones until end of year Sudan Tribune: South Sudanese army abducts civilians in Unity region: rebels

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The East African: UN voices alarm at 'barbaric violence' in DR Congo's Ituri Reuters: Congo opposition leader Bemba nominated for presidential election U.S. News: Congo's Kabila Appoints Army Chief Under U.S., EU Sanctions for Alleged Violence Burundi WEST AFRICA

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

Mali

All Africa: UN Expert Urges Prompt Investigation of "Alarming" Rights Violations, As Humanitarian Crisis Deepens FDD's Long War Journal: Jihadist exploitation of communal violence in Mali News 24: UN 'deeply concerned' as communal violence surges in Mali EAST AFRICA

Uganda

Sudan summons EU envoy over criticism of Bashir visits (Yahoo News) International Criminal Court a vital global institution (Africanews)

Kenya

Kenya's high court to decide on safe abortion as teenager dies (Reuters) Kenya Power directors to be remanded at police station (Kenya Broadcasting Company) Rights Commission, Activists in Court Over Chapter Six Implementation (All Africa)

Rwanda (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda)

French appeals court upholds life sentence for two Genocide convicts (The New Times) Betraying Justice for Rwanda's Genocide Survivors (The New Yorker) RDF Is Trained To Fight Wars Not To Cause Them – Kagame (KT Press)

Somalia

Shabaab claims twin car blasts near Somali presidency (Daily Mail) UAE 'committed' to Somalia's stability (Middle East Monitor) NORTH AFRICA

Libya

International Criminal Court issues second arrest warrant of serial killer Al-Werfalli (The Libya Observer) Second attack on Libya's Man-made river kills two as two others abducted (The Libya Observer) Violent clashes rock Tripoli once again (The Libya Observer) Forces of Libya's warlord Haftar arrest fighers who lost limbs battling for them in Benghazi (The Libya Observer) LEAKED: ICC fugitive Al-Werfalli is carrying out military arrest operations (The Libya Observer) EUROPE

Court of Bosnia & Herzegovina, War Crimes Chamber

Bosnia Charges Serb with Bosniaks' Murders in Miska Glava (Balkan Insight) Eight Bosniaks Jailed for 60 Years for Prison Camp Abuses (Balkan Insight) Bosnian Serb Ex-Fighter Jailed for Rapes, Illegal Arrests (Balkan Insight) Bosnia Convicts Serb Military Policemen of Teslic Massacre (Balkan Insight) Bosnian Army Ex-Officer Jailed for Rape, Prisoner Abuse (Balkan Insight) Bosnian Serb Ex-Policeman Indicted for Persecuting Bosniaks (Balkan Insight)

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Srebrenica Suspects Find Safe Haven in Serbia (Balkan Insight) We must not forget Srebrenica (Open Democracy) Red Berets Fighter: Serbian Officials Ran Operation in Bosnia (Balkan Insight) Mutiny, Assassination And A Serbian Political Conspiracy (Balkan Insight)

Domestic Prosecutions In The Former Yugoslavia

Roma to Sue Serbia for 'Tolerating' War Crime (Balkan Insight) Croatian Supreme Court Reduces Captain Dragan's Sentence (Balkan Insight) Serbian Red Berets Fighter Accused of Lying to Court (Balkan Insights) Serbia Acquits State Security Officers of Armed Uprising (Balkan Insight) Kosovo Court Upholds Serb Reservist's Indictment (Balkan Insight)

MIDDLE EAST AND ASIA

Iraq

Iraq declares state of emergency amid ongoing violent protests (Kurdistan 24) ISIS is making a comeback in Iraq just months after Baghdad declared victory (Washington Post) Iraqi security arrest four Islamic State members in Mosul city (Iraqi News)

Syria

Syria war: Anti-IS strike 'kills many civilians' (BBC) Up to 22 killed, including 9 Iranians, in Syria strike blamed on Israel – report (Times of Israel) Syria rescue group says 10 killed in airstrike on shelter (ABC) UK 'complicit in killing civilians and risks being prosecuted over illegal drone operations', major report suggests (Independent)

Afghanistan

Australia, New Zealand look into war crimes allegations in Afghanistan (DAWN)

Yemen Suspected US drone strike kills 7 al-Qaida members in Yemen (Star Tribune) Officials say fighting along Yemen's west coast kills 165 (Star Tribune) Amnesty calls for probe of torture claims in Yemen prisons (Aljazeera) Saudi soldiers killed, tanks destroyed in Yemeni retaliatory attacks (PressTV) Houthi shelling leaves 3 civilians dead in Yemen's Taiz (Anadolu Agency) Officials Say Fighting in Yemen's Hodeida Kills 30 Civilians (Haaretz)

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

Special Tribunal for Lebanon

Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal

Verdict Today (New Age Bangladesh) Bangladesh sentences 4 to death over war crimes (Anadolu Agency) Four to die for war crimes (New Age Bangladesh)

War Crimes Investigations in Burma

What's the connection between Buddhism and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar? (Lion's Roar)

Israel and Palestine

Israel's Demolition Of Khan Al-Ahmar And Transfer Of Its Inhabitants Are War Crimes (Amnesty International) UN agency for Palestinians warns of cuts ahead (Times of Israel) Bulldozing Palestine, one village at a time (Aljazeera) Israeli air raids kill two Palestinian teens in Gaza (Aljazeera) Israel pounds Gaza in most violent daytime assault since 2014 (Aljazeera) Israeli bulldozers uproot 100 Palestinian olive trees in Salfit-area (Ma'an News Agency)

AMERICAS

South America

FARC recruited more than 5000 minors during Colombia’s war (Colombia Reports) Ex-Military Chief Submits To Special War Crimes Court (Telesur)

TOPICS

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Central African Republic: Truth and Reconciliation Commission is Pathway to Peace – UN (allAfrica) Human Rights Committee examines the State of civil and political rights in the Gambia in absence of report (ReliefWeb) Pakistan mourns Mastung victims (Arab News) Terrorism

Easier said than done – using the justice system to counter terrorism (ISS Today) Pakistan opens terrorism investigation against ex-PM's party 10 days before election (Reuters) Israel Secretly Releases Turkish Citizen Arrested on Terrorism Charges (Haaretz)

Piracy

Maritime Piracy - Is There Conspiracy Against Nigeria? (Vanguard) Countries resolve to revitalize war against piracy off Somalia Coast (Xinhua) Asian Piracy Incidents Drop to 10-Year Low (World Maritime News)

Gender-Based Violence

Roma to Sue Serbia for ‘Tolerating’ War Crime (Balkan Transitional Justice) AU and UN reiterate commitment to help Somalia tackle conflict-related sexual violence (ReliefWeb) South Sudan rights violations may constitute war crimes (Jurist) Combating the spread of wartime rape (SwissInfo) DRC's Bemba acquittal overturns important victory for sexual violence victim (News24)

Commentary and Perspectives

Will Guatemala Still Prosecute Suspected War Criminals Under New Attorney General? (International Justice Monitor) Disappearances and torture in southern Yemen detention facilities must be investigated as war crimes (Amnesty International) Why the ICC is worth defending (Al Jazeera)

WORTH READING

Rachel Killean, Amanda Kramer & Eithne Dowds: Soldiers as Victims at the ECCC: Exploring the Concept of ‘Civilian’ in Crimes Against Humanity NRebecca Crootof: Regulating New Weapons Technology

AFRICA

CENTRAL AFRICA

Central African Republic

Official Website of the International Criminal Court ICC Public Documents - Cases: Central African Republic

CAR rejects Russia mediation bid with rebels News24 By AFP July 13, 2018

The government of the Central African Republic has rejected an offer from Russia to mediate talks with armed rebels, a spokesperson told AFP on Thursday.

Moscow offered to hold a meeting with government and rebel representatives from the violence-wracked nation in Khartoum, but the official in Bangui said it was not accepted by President Faustin-Archange Touadera.

"The head of state believes that there is no room for other processes other than the ongoing African Union process," Albert Yaloke-Makpeme told AFP.

One of Africa's poorest countries, the CAR descended into violence in 2013 following the ouster of the majority-Christian country's president, Francois Bozize, by a coalition of Muslim-majority rebel groups called the Seleka.

In response, Christians, who account for about 80 percent of the population, organised vigilante units dubbed "anti-balaka".

France intervened militarily to help force out the Seleka before handing on to a UN peacekeeping mission.

However, the central government remains very weak, and violence has led to thousands of deaths. Nearly 700 000 people are displaced, 570 000 are refugees abroad and 2.5 million are in need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.

An African Union peace process, launched in July 2017, has largely failed to stem the violence. On Sunday the armed rebel FPRC group said in a statement that it was willing to enter into "preliminary discussions" with the authorities.

Russia has military advisers in the CAR to train army recruits and to bolster Touadera's personal security.

Bishops of Central African Republic 'outraged' by threat against Muslim population Crux July 16, 2018

Catholic leaders in the Central African Republic are "outraged" over the calls by a self-styled Church defense group for Christians to carry out revenge attacks on Muslims.

The spokesperson of the self-appointed League for the Defense of the Church, François Nzapakéyé, signed a communiqué July 7, calling on Christians to engage in revenge killing against Muslims.

"Since the beginning of the war, the Church has never stopped from being the target of attacks," the communiqué reads, and blasted the head of the Catholic Church in the country, Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga and the government for failing to address the continued killing of Church leaders in the conflict-ravaged nation.

"Priests and pastors are systematically assassinated," they said in the communiqué, and cited Father Paul Emile Nzalé, murdered during an attack by 200 armed men who struck the Notre Dame of Fatima Church on May 2.

"The priest was assassinated like a dog," the "league" statement said. The statement also mentioned several other Christian clergymen killed in the country over the past year.

"We, Christians of the Central African Republic want the national and international community to know that we will avenge the killings of the many Church leaders and men of God, killed in the exercise of their functions. Muslims or Christians, we shall see," the "league" threatened. The bishops responded by condemning the organization, and said they were involved with "anti-Christian activities."

They called on the faithful not to give into faith-based manipulation and incitement to hate. "The Bishops of the Central African Republic want Central Africans to be vigilant. There are always enemies of peace who want to create a conflict between Christians and Muslims to show that Christians and Muslims cannot live together in the Central Africa Republic," the bishops said.

"We believe in Jesus Christ, the face of the Father's mercy, who saves us from sin and its consequences…He came to unite men and women with God and bring them together in a big spiritual family. He distinguishes himself from over-zealous nationalists by preaching non-violence and love of the enemy," the bishops' statement continued.

Government institutions have also joined religious bodies in condemning the incitement to hate. On July 10, the Higher Communication Council of the Central African Republic brought together ecclesiastical authorities, the association of Central African bloggers, the collective of Central African Muslim organizations (COMUC) and many other structures to unanimously denounce that message of hate.

"We, leaders of the media and the civil society in the Central African Republic, insist that the statements of this so-called 'League for the Defense of the Church' which denounces what it considers the lethargy of Church leaders as well as national and international institutions in the face of the crimes committed in the Central African Republic are erroneous and unfounded, and are intended to sow trouble among the population, divide the people and stall the efforts made in the interest of peace and living together."

The country has experienced instability since 2013, when Seleka, a Muslim-majority militia movement, overthrew the government. The Christian-dominated Anti-Balaka militia then formed to fight the Seleka. French and African peacekeepers were deployed in January 2014 and drove the Seleka forces from the capital, Bangui.

With the government unable to exert authority beyond Bangui, armed groups and militias have taken control of more than 70 percent of the country.

The United Nations says the conflict has left at least 1.1 million people destitute and homeless, with about 2.5 million people — more than half of CAR's four million inhabitants — now in need of humanitarian assistance.

Pope Francis visited Bangui in 2015 and met with Muslim leaders, emphasizing the need for inter-religious peace and dialogue.

Christians make up about 80 percent of the population of the Central African Republic, and Muslims about 15 percent.

The Muslim population is concentrated in the north of the country that touches on the Sahel region of Africa, although there are many Muslim traders in the south.

The country's religious authorities have long sought to avoid painting the conflict as religion-based, and blamed external forces for trying to divide the country.

The country's bishops have emphasized the need to "correct the confusion propagated by some national and foreign media giving the impression that the conflict has to do with religion, whereas it is above all else, a political and military conflict."

Central African bishops distance themselves from group promising violence The Catholic Spirit By Fredrick Nzwili July 17, 2018

Catholic bishops in the Central African Republic have distanced themselves from a group that is promising to defend the church and avenge the deaths of priests.

The group calling itself the League of Defense of the Church alleged there was inaction by Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga of Bangui as the church faced attacks, with Christians and priests being killed.

But the bishops said the church did not recognize the organization and could not maintain any collaboration with such a group.

"We demand respect of the memory of priests, women and men killed in the exercise of their commitment to following Christ. They are worthy and faithful to our church and nation, which has always longed for peace," said Cardinal Nzapalainga, president of the Central African Republic bishops' conference.

In a statement in mid-July, the cardinal said the Catholic Church's commitment to justice and unity, in collaboration with other religious denominations, exposed the church to all kinds of threats and attacks.

The League of Defense of the Church said the government and the cardinal had failed to act, despite the continuing abuses on the church.

According to the group, the church was regularly attacked and desecrated, although the government maintains the conflict in the Central African Republic is not religious.

"Priests and pastors are routinely murdered in full view of everyone," Francois Nzapakeye, the group's spokesman, said in a statement that listed priests and pastors killed recently in the country. He noted that no imam has been killed in Bangui since the start of the violence. Fear was so present that Christians go to church under the protection of the military, said Nzapakeye, while Muslims went to mosque without hindrance.

"We will avenge the murders of many church leaders and men of God killed in the line of duty," he said.

In May, Catholic, Protestant and Muslim leaders in the country accused foreign power of orchestrating "a Machiavellian game plan by certain known, so-called friendly countries, with the connivance of certain compatriots."

"This is why we urge the general population, and particularly young people, wherever they find themselves, not to be dragged into hatred and violence, and appeal to all our nation's living forces, as well as political parties, for greater solidarity in overcoming this lasting crisis."

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Sudan & South Sudan

Official Website of the International Criminal Court ICC Public Documents - Situation in Darfur, Sudan

South Sudan atrocities may constitute war crimes, UN says BBC News July 10, 2018

Horrific accounts of gang rape, throats being slit and mass shootings in South Sudan are described in the latest United Nations report on the country

It blames the violence in Unity state on government and allied forces.

One woman, who said she lost everything told investigators that "it would have been better if they had killed me".

Leaders signed a ceasefire deal in June aimed at ending the five-year civil war. Millions have been forced to flee as a result of the fighting.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed.

The violence detailed in the report may amount to war crimes and those responsible should be brought to justice, the UN's human rights body says.

South Sudan's army has not yet received the report, and therefore could not comment, its spokesman told Reuters news agency.

The UN investigators focussed on a five-week period in April and May when government soldiers and their allies attacked opposition-controlled villages in the south of Unity state.

The violence followed clashes between government and rebel forces, the report says.

In all 232 civilians were killed with "some hung from trees and others burned alive in their homes", the report adds.

A 14-year-old girl was quoted in the report as saying she would never forget the atrocities she had witnessed.

"How can I forget the sight of an old man whose throat was slit with a knife before being set on fire?" she said.

"How can I forget the smell of those decomposed bodies of old men and children pecked and eaten by birds? Those women that were hanged and died up in the tree?" the girl added.

The investigators found that about 120 girls and women were raped or gang-raped, and the victims included women who had recently given birth. "I was still bleeding from labour, but one of the soldiers raped me. I kept quiet and did not resist as I saw other women being shot dead for refusing to have sex with the soldiers and youth," a 20-year-old woman said.

South Sudan became independent in 2011. It has been wracked by civil war, which has seen ethnic cleansing and numerous atrocities, since 2013.

It began when President Salva Kiir fired his deputy Riek Machar, accusing him of planning a coup — an allegation he denied.

Several attempts to find a peaceful solution have failed.

The latest agreement, signed in June in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, saw the two leaders agree to a ceasefire, but they have yet to agree on a full-blown peace deal.

Sudan extends ceasefire in war zones until end of year IOL By AFP July 12, 2018

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday extended until the end of this year a unilateral ceasefire in the regions of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan, his office said.

Since June 2016, Bashir has declared several ceasefires in the three conflict zones, where fighting between government forces and rebels has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

Bashir "issued a presidential decree extending the ceasefire in all areas of operations until December 31, 2018," the presidency said in a statement.

Sudanese officials say the conflict in Darfur — a region the size of France — has ended, but fresh fighting in the past few months has rocked South Darfur's mountainous Jebel Marra area, displacing thousands.

The insurgency in Darfur began in 2003, as rebels rose up against Bashir's government, accusing it of marginalisation.

Khartoum responded by using militias to crack down on the rebels and insurgent groups fragmented, with fighting punctuated by periods of relative calm.

The government restricts international media access to Darfur, so it is not possible to independently verify the details of fighting there.

The United Nations estimates the Darfur conflict has killed 300,000 people and displaced more than 2.5 million, with many setting up home in sprawling semi-permanent camps during the past 15 years.

Bashir is wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide related to the war in Darfur. He denies the charges.

South Sudanese army abducts civilians in Unity region: rebels Sudan Tribune July 14, 2018

An official from the main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO has accused the South Sudan army, SPLA, of abducting six civilians in southern Unity region, at Jaguar southwest of Leer areas on Friday evening.

Dhol Lingling Koryom, an opposition Secretary of Information and Communication for Lich State, told Sudan Tribune that the attack occurred in civilian held territories.

He accused the South Sudanese soldiers of violation of the permanent ceasefire signed in Khartoum on 27 June 2018, by the parties to the conflict.

However, Lingling, said targeting of civilians is unacceptable and called on the international community to condemn it in strongest term possible.

"It is unfortunate that the world engages in talks with the government of South Sudan while they keep civilians hostage," he said. The SPLM-IO local official further said the recent abduction of civilians indicates that the government is incapable to confront the armed opposition forces.

" You cannot target the civilians simply because they are vulnerable and humiliate them. This constitutes a war crime," he stressed.

The talks on the pending issues in the governance and security arrangements mediated by the Sudanese government, however, achieved some progress as the parties reached an agreement on the security issues and now debating on the power-sharing matters.

However, since the signing the rebels have several times claimed that the government attacked their positions in northern and southern parts of the troubled country.

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Democratic Republic of the Congo

Official Website of the International Criminal Court ICC Public Documents - Situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

UN voices alarm at 'barbaric violence' in DR Congo's Ituri The East African July 13, 2018

The UN voiced alarm Friday at accounts of "barbaric violence" in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, warning conditions for the 150,000 people returning to the area after fleeing the intercommunal strife are "grim".

The UN refugee agency said its staff had recently been able to access the Ituri region, following months of conflict between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups there.

"Conditions are grim," spokesman Charlie Yaxley told reporters in Geneva.

"Our team heard numerous, harrowing reports of barbaric violence, including armed groups attacking civilians with guns, arrows and machetes, entire villages razed, and farms and shops being looted and damaged beyond repair," he said.

A UN report last month estimated that more than 260 people had been killed in the recent intercommunal violence.

The troubled province is caught in a cycle of violence between the Hema and Lendu communities, cattle herders and farmers who for decades have long fought over land.

UNHCR said that in all, around 350,000 people are estimated to have fled the violence since the conflict intensified last December, but that since the violence died down, around 150,000 had returned to the area.

Many of those who have gone back so far have found their villages and homes "reduced to ash, making them displaced again," Yaxley said.

He said the humanitarian challenges in the area were "enormous", with hospitals, schools, and other key infrastructures destroyed.

The UN refugee agency voiced particular concern over the high numbers of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in the area.

Those returning are not the only ones facing huge challenges, Yaxley said, pointing to "desperate" conditions at many of the sites hosting those who remain displaced.

He said many of the sites have no clean water or access to healthcare or proper sanitation facilities, warning that in particular at the displacement site near the general hospital in Bunia there was a high risk of diseases spreading. UNHCR said its efforts to provide desperately needed aid in the area were being hampered by critical underfunding.

So far, only 17 percent of the $201 million UNHCR has requested for its DRC operations this year has materialised.

"With the humanitarian funding lacking these people are being forgotten and left to fend for themselves," Yaxley said.

He said some returnees are trying to make do with what they find amid the rubble of their homes, while others are opting to return to displacement sites.

"Neither in the areas of origin nor in the displacements sites are conditions near anything that could be approaching sustainable," he said.

Congo opposition leader Bemba nominated for presidential election Reuters July 13, 2018

Congolese politician Jean-Pierre Bemba, weeks after his conviction for war crimes was quashed at The Hague, was nominated by his party on Friday for December's presidential vote, in what could be the stiffest challenge to President Joseph Kabila's ruling coalition.

The election is due to choose a successor to Kabila, who is term-limited after having governed since 2001, and could herald Democratic Republic of Congo's first democratic transition after decades marked by repeated coups and prolonged civil war.

But Kabila has refused to commit to standing down, sparking protests in which dozens of people have died. Some of his allies are now publicly arguing that he has the right to run again.

After he was announced as the Movement for the Liberation of Congo's (MLC) presidential candidate at a party congress in Congo's capital, Kinshasa, Bemba briefly addressed his supporters over the phone.

He is currently free in Belgium awaiting sentencing by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on a witness tampering conviction.

"I thank all the participants. Thank you for your confidence," he said to cries of joy and dancing by MLC members. "I will return soon."

Bemba's candidacy would represent serious competition to either Kabila or his hand-picked successor. Bemba served as vice president to Kabila during a 2003-06 transitional government and is popular in western Congo, including Kinshasa.

He finished runner-up to Kabila in a 2006 election that touched off street battles in Kinshasa between militiamen loyal to him and state forces.

The ICC quashed his convictions in May related to murder, rape and pillage by fighters he sent to Central African Republic to back CAR's then-president Ange-Felix Patasse.

Bemba was one of only four people convicted by the permanent war crimes court in its 16 years of operation, and the highest ranking among them.

It is not clear, however, if he will be able to run in December as the sentencing process for the witness tampering conviction could drag on for weeks, or even months.

That could prevent him from returning to Congo before the Aug. 8 deadline to register his candidacy. Congolese officials have also offered mixed messages about whether he might face further criminal prosecution at home.

Several opposition leaders, including the exiled millionaire businessman Moise Katumbi, have been nominated by their parties to stand in the election. It was originally scheduled for November 2016 but has been repeatedly delayed.

The MLC and other opposition parties have endorsed the idea of presenting a single opposition candidacy but it is not clear they will be able to agree on who that should be.

Congo's Kabila Appoints Army Chief Under U.S., EU Sanctions for Alleged Violence U.S. News July 15, 2018 Congo's President Joseph Kabila has appointed a new army chief who is under international sanctions for the violent repression of dissent, raising fears of an imminent crackdown.

State television reported on Sunday that Kabila had appointed General John Numbi to the role of inspector general of the Congolese Armed Forces. Numbi has been placed under sanctions by the United States, European Union and Switzerland for alleged killings of scores of civilians by forces controlled by him over several years.

His promotion was part of a reshuffle which also saw General Gabriel Amisi, himself under sanctions for abuses and for selling weapons to rebel groups responsible for massacring civilians, promoted to army deputy chief of staff.

Another senior general, Celestin Mbala, was named army chief of staff, state TV reported.

The changes come as Congo eyes an election on Dec. 23, across a vast central African country convulsed by violent militia groups and riven by a dispute over Kabila's refusal to step aside when his mandate expired at the end of 2016.

The constitution in theory bars Kabila, in power since his father was assassinated in 2001, from running for a third elected term. But he has declined to commit to stepping aside, and security forces have killed scores of protesters for taking to the streets to insist that he does.

Some of his allies are now publicly arguing that he has the right to run again. Marches organized by the Catholic church earlier this year were met with teargas and gunfire.

Kabila removed Numbi as police chief in 2010, following an outcry over his alleged involvement in the killing in police custody of human rights activist Floribert Chebeya. But he has since been informally in control of several divisions of the security forces implicated in violence.

When the United States sanctioned him, they accused him of using "violent intimidation" to secure victories for pro-Kabila gubernatorial candidates in March 2016 provincial elections.

He has remained an influential advisor, and Kabila quietly restored him to an official post in the armed forces last year.

Amisi, known by his former radio call sign "Tango Four", was also suspended by Kabila from his position as commander of Congo's ground forces in November 2012 after U.N. experts accused him of supplying weapons to rebels and criminal gangs.

But he was reappointed to the military less than two years later, and units under his command have crushed demonstrations, including January 2015 protests in which at least 42 people were killed, the United States said when sanctioning him.

Congolese politician Jean-Pierre Bemba, weeks after his conviction for war crimes was quashed at The Hague, was nominated by his party on Friday for December's presidential vote, in what could be the stiffest challenge to Kabila's ruling coalition, although it is unclear if he will be able to run.

He finished runner-up to Kabila in a 2006 election that touched off street battles in Kinshasa between militiamen loyal to him and state forces.

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Burundi

Official Website of the International Criminal Court ICC Public Documents - Investigation: Burundi

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

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Mali

UN Expert Urges Prompt Investigation of "Alarming" Rights Violations, As Humanitarian Crisis Deepens All Africa July 5, 2018

The authorities in Mali must carry out prompt, detailed and independent investigations into an "alarming" increase in human rights violations, amid a humanitarian emergency to which the world must not close its eyes, says a UN human rights expert.

"I have received direct and indirect accounts of several attacks by community militias, often with the participation of armed groups, resulting in deaths, injuries, destruction or burning of property, and people being forced to leave their homes," said Alioune Tine, the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Mali.

"I am gravely concerned at the continuing deterioration of the security, human rights and humanitarian situation in the centre of the country, as well as in the region of Ménaka," Mr. Tine added.

"The Government has committed itself to opening criminal investigations, and I strongly recommend it takes concrete action to bring all the perpetrators to justice," said Mr. Tine.

During a field visit to Mopti, the UN expert heard members of civil society and community representatives describe indiscriminate attacks by extremist groups, including Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam Wa al-Muslmeen (JNIM).

"These attacks are carried out in places where there is a very limited State presence, with some areas in the centre having none at all. There is a lack of basic community services and insecurity caused by extremists, armed groups and organized crime, as well as anti-terrorist operations that do not respect international human rights standards," Mr. Tine said.

"In addition, extremists take advantage of the absence of the State to exploit communities and pit them against each other. It should also be noted that at the end of February 2018, more than 657 schools were forced to close in the central and northern regions, affecting more than 190,000 pupils," he added.

The Independent Expert was also concerned about serious human rights violations and abuses in Ménaka. Some of the attacks are attributed to armed groups, including the Azawad Salvation Movement (MSA), and the Touareg IMGHAD Self-Defense Group and Allies (GATIA).

Between 26 April and 18 May 2018, 123 people were allegedly murdered in the area, and Mr. Tine is urging the Malian authorities to open judicial investigations into the killings as soon as possible.

"I am also deeply concerned about the increasing number of allegations of serious human rights violations by the Malian armed forces, and I commend the Prime Minister for his statement in May reaffirming that the Government will not tolerate any wrongdoing against civilians," Mr. Tine added.

"The humanitarian situation in the region is getting worse. An estimated 4.1 million people are in need of food assistance. This year, across the country, the number of people suffering severe acute malnutrition is projected to increase from 162,913 to 274,145. It is also estimated that cases of moderate acute malnutrition will increase from 470,000 to 582,000.

"These figures include 11,232 children aged five and under, who are affected by severe acute malnutrition, and 489,238 children between five and six years old suffering from moderate acute malnutrition. In addition, 45,245 pregnant and breastfeeding women suffer from moderate acute malnutrition.

"This is an emergency to which we cannot close our eyes. Armed groups must respect humanitarian workers and the vital work they do to help those in need of assistance and protection," Mr. Tine emphasized.

"The forthcoming presidential election [due 29 July 2018] must be truly free, transparent and peaceful, and must meet international standards. The election comes at a turning point in the democratic life of the Malian people. I urge all engaged in politics to ban hate speech and calls to violence," said Mr. Tine.

The UN Expert placed particular emphasis on the need to respect freedom of peaceful assembly and association, as well as freedom of access to the media throughout the electoral process.

During his visit, Mr. Tine met members of the Government of Mali, representatives of civil society, including victims' associations, and religious and traditional leaders.

The Independent Expert will present his report to the Human Rights Council in March 2019.

Jihadist exploitation of communal violence in Mali FDD's Long War Journal By Caleb Weiss July 17, 2018

In a press briefing earlier today, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) detailed an alarming rise in communal violence among different ethnic groups in central Mali.

Quoting numbers from the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the OHCHR statement reported that the UN "has documented 99 incidents of intercommunal violence resulting in at least 289 civilian deaths." The UN office said that 76 of those incidents — some 77 percent of the total — have "occurred in the Mopti region alone, 49 of them since 1 May."

The UN office pinned the blame largely on communal violence between traditional hunters [referred to as Dozo] from Bambara communities, Dogon communities, and Fulani people. While the UN noted that conflict is nominally rooted in the name of counterterrorism against al Qaeda's Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), the excuse is just a cover being used for indiscriminate killings between the three communities.

Regardless, JNIM is firmly involved in the conflict.

The press briefing said that "Dogon and Bambara communities have themselves in turn been targeted by JNIM and Fulani (Peulh) militias." Within a span of three days this month, the UN documented five cases in which JNIM took part in communal violence against Bambara or Dogon people near Djenne or Koro in Mali's central Mopti region.

While JNIM has not claimed involvement in any communal clash this year, last year it took responsibility for clashing with Donzow [plural of Dozo] from Bambara communities in central Mali. The al Qaeda group claimed that the Bambaras were "backed by the Malian army" which was likely to justify its actions in the name of protecting the Fula and to downplay its role in the communal fighting

Parts of JNIM, specifically Katibat Macina (also known as the Macina Liberation Front), are comprised of ethnic Fulani jihadists. Malian authorities have accused Fulani jihadists of stoking tensions between the Fula and Bambara in central Mali. The UN has now accused JNIM of doing the same. Jihadist involvement in communal clashes in central Mali has also been widely reported by Human Rights Watch.

Surprisingly, the OHCHR also spoke highly of how Malian authorities have handled the situation. "We commend the Government of Mali for the efforts it has already taken to intervene in the cycle of violence in Mopti region," OHCHR's press release said.

However, Malian troops have been accused of committing extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests of people they suspect of militancy in central Mali.

Earlier this year, Malian troops were blamed for executing seven civilians in the central Segou region. This incident reportedly led to an internal investigation, but it is unknown if any action resulted from the investigation. Additionally, an alleged jailbreak in April resulted in 14 people being killed in central Mali. Crimes committed by Malian authorities only further the cycle of violence as public trust of the state wanes and civilians turn to jihadist forces for protection.

JNIM stands to gain from this as it can exploit these tensions, as well the cycle of violence, to build public support by positing itself as a local defense force. In a worsening security climate, the jihadists can build public support off of the fear of the central government or rival communities, which in turn helps recruit new soldiers and widen its support base across central Mali. That also allows for JNIM to utilize cross-border networks for attacks elsewhere, such as in Burkina Faso. In many respects, all of this is already occurring in both Mopti and Segou.

While not directly mentioned in the OHCHR release, there is also intense communal violence in Mali's northern Menaka region. Dozens of civilians from Tuareg, Arab, and Fulani communities have been killed while ongoing counterterrorism operations are being conducted against the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS). Since February, ISGS has been blamed for several massacres against Tuareg civilians in the border region between Mali and Niger, while two pro-Malian Tuareg militias have done the same to Fulani communities in the region.

As the Tuareg militias are nominally operating under a counterterrorism apparatus supported by Mali and France, little has been done to curtail its involvement in extrajudicial killings. By continuing to ally with and utilize the militias, Mali, France, and Niger stand to lose whatever legitimacy they had with the local populations. Jihadists can also exploit anti-government or anti-French sentiments which have been further exacerbated by the eye-for-an-eye killings which continue to take place in the Menaka region.

Worsening communal violence, as well as weak efforts to help stop the violence, only further serve the interests of jihadist groups operating throughout Mali. By openly taking sides in the violence, the central government in Bamako continues to lose legitimacy among the civilians of central Mali. This can be exploited by JNIM to further its cause. Additionally, a similar situation is taking place among local communities in the far north, where both ISGS and JNIM stand to gain so long as Mali and France continue to rely on pro-government militias.

UN 'deeply concerned' as communal violence surges in Mali News 24 July 18, 2018

The United Nations on Tuesday said it was "deeply concerned" about a surge in intercommunal violence in central Mali that has killed hundreds of people since the start of the year.

The UN peacekeeping mission in the country MINUSMA says at least 289 civilians have been killed in almost 100 documented incidents, the vast majority — some 77% — in the Mopti region.

The violence highlights the fragile security situation in the West African nation as it prepares to hold presidential elections on July 29.

"In recent weeks, the UN human rights staff in the country have documented an alarming trend of civilians being driven from their homes, either after being directly targeted themselves, because of the community they belong to, or after deadly attacks on members of their community in neighbouring villages," wrote the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in a statement.

Violence has increased over the past three years in central Mali between nomadic Fulani herders and Bambara and Dogon farmers, sparked by accusations of Fulani grazing cattle on Dogon land and disputes over access to land and water.

MINUSMA said it has recently documented an escalation of attacks allegedly carried out by armed Dozos hunters and militias, who are linked to the Dogon ethnic group, against Fulani herders.

"These attacks are said to be motivated by a desire to root out individuals linked to the violent extremist group... (JNIM)," the OHCHR said, adding: "In reality, they have increasingly been indiscriminately targeting members of the Fulani community".

JNIM, or Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa'al- Muslimin in Arabic, is a fusion of three Malian jihadist groups which were previously linked to Al-Qaeda.

The group, also known as the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), has been behind several high profile attacks against domestic and foreign forces since forming last year.

The Dogon and Bambara communities have also been targeted by JNIM and Fulani militias, said the OHCHR.

It urged the Mali government to take measures to "prevent further grave violations and abuses of human rights in the region, including those committed by government forces"

[back to contents] EAST AFRICA

Uganda

Official Website of the International Criminal Court ICC Public Documents - Situation in Uganda

Sudan summons EU envoy over criticism of Bashir visits (Yahoo News) July 11, 2018

Sudan summoned the European Union ambassador to its country on Wednesday to protest against an EU statement criticising Uganda and Djibouti for hosting its President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court.

The Hague-based ICC has issued arrest warrants against Bashir, accusing him of war crimes and genocide in the deadly conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur that erupted in 2003.

Sudan's foreign ministry said it rejects the EU's criticism that Djibouti and Uganda "did not surrender" Bashir during his recent visits there.

"The ministry of foreign affairs summoned today the EU ambassador to express Sudan's regret and rejection of EU's statement that puts pressure on African countries and calls on them to accept allegations of ICC about Sudan," the ministry said in a statement.

Bashir visited Uganda last week for a summit with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni and South Sudanese President Salva Kiir to negotiate a deal aimed at ending the war in South Sudan.

He also travelled to Djibouti to attend a ceremony marking the launch of the first phase of Africa's biggest free-trade zone.

Both Djibouti and Uganda are parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC and accordingly are obligated to arrest Bashir on their territory.

"President Bashir is doing his duty according to the mandate given by IGAD states to bring peace to South Sudan," the foreign ministry said, referring to Intergovernmental Authority on Development -- a regional trade block -- that is pushing a fresh bid to end the war in South Sudan.

Bashir is currently hosting talks in Khartoum between South Sudan's warring factions to end the war that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly four million since it broke out in December 2013.

Bashir faces charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the conflict in Darfur.

The war in Darfur broke out when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Bashir's Arab-dominated government, which launched a brutal counter-insurgency.

The UN Security Council asked the ICC in 2005 to investigate the crimes in Darfur, where the UN estimates at least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced.

Bashir denies the charges, and his visit to South Africa in 2015 triggered a major controversy.

Last year the ICC ruled that South Africa had failed in its duties to the court when it refused to arrest Bashir.

International Criminal Court a vital global institution (Africanews) By Abdur Rahman and Alfa Shaban July 18, 2018

Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated the importance of the International Criminal Court (ICC), stressing that his country will continue to cooperate with the body.

Buhari said the ICC was a key judicial organ that continued to play a vital role in addressing injustices visited on innocent people across the world.

In his initial comments to the ICC whiles delivering a speech on the 20th anniversary celebration of the court, Buhari stressed: "I am honoured to be with you here today to celebrate the anniversary of this vital global institution. I say "vital" because the world needs the ICC.

"As we know, the International Criminal Court was established twenty years ago as a global court, inspired by the Nuremberg trials of World War II war criminals, to hold people accountable for crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes of genocide and aggression.

"In addition to preventing impunity, promoting adherence and respect for the rule of law and fundamental freedoms worldwide and to punishing those in leadership positions responsible for the most appalling crimes and atrocities, the ICC has given hope for justice to so many, by demanding strict adherence to the rules of international humanitarian law."

The leader of Africa's most populous nation called on other nations that were not signatories to the Rome Statute to sign up in order to make the court one that had global reach. According to him, one of the ICC's challenges was its limited scope.

Challenges of the ICC

Touching on the subject of ICC's challenges, Buhari said the Hague-based outfit had excelled in the area of dealing with accusations of bias and political targeting but added that it had to do more to further cement its impartiality.

"The twenty years of the Court's existence have witnessed several challenges, some of which had threatened the very existence of the Court itself.

"Most notable were the withdrawals and threats of withdrawals of membership of the Court by some States, as well as accusations of bias in the exercise of the jurisdiction of the Court. Thankfully, the Court has addressed these challenges in a dignified and commendable way.

"Nonetheless, the Court needs to take on board all constructive criticisms and allay lingering fears and concern through targeted messaging, awareness raising and possible modification of some legal provisions.

"If properly articulated, communication and awareness raising would surely engender trust and encourage greater cooperation of Member States with the Court and even encourage non – Member States to decide to become Members. It must avoid even a hint of bias or political motivations," he said.

The Rome Statute

The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) was established by a Rome Statute adopted in 1998 to prosecute international crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed within the territory of signatories and nationals of signatory countries. It came into force on July 1, 2002.

It was ratified by 123 countries including a total of 34 African states out of the then 54 countries.

An African country – Senegal – was the first to ratify the Rome Statute on February 2, 1999, and an African country – Burundi – was the first in history to withdraw from the body.

In the 20-year history of the ICC, almost all of its cases under investigation or prosecution involve Africans, as many of them were referred to the court by signatory countries.

The Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda were the first countries to make referrals to the ICC for investigation and prosecution of war crimes.

[back to contents] Kenya

Official Website of the International Criminal Court ICC Public Documents - Situation in the Republic of Kenya

Kenya's high court to decide on safe abortion as teenager dies (Reuters) By Nita Bhalla July 12, 2018

Kenya's high court is to decide if the government is responsible for the death of a teenager from a botched backstreet abortion, campaigners said on Thursday, in a case which could see safer abortions for thousands of women in the east African nation.

The girl - known by her initials JMM to protect her identity - was raped in 2014 at the age of 15. On discovering she was pregnant, she had a backstreet abortion that left her with injuries which eventually led to her death last month.

JMM's mother, together with the Federation of Women Lawyers, filed a petition in 2015 claiming authorities failed to provide her daughter with proper post-abortion care, and called on the government to implement measures for access to safe abortions.

After a three-day hearing, which saw testimonies from ministry of health officials, Christian groups and women's rights organizations, the case has been adjourned until September 18 with a verdict expected by the end of the year.

"My daughter's horrific suffering and tragic death was entirely preventable. I watched her go through more pain than you can imagine, she did not have to die like this," JMM's mother said in a statement.

"If our country had any respect for her life and her rights, she would be here today. But how many more girls and women are going to suffer before something is done? Before they receive justice? Kenya has to make abortion safe and accessible."

Kenya's 2010 constitution broadened access to abortion, permitting it in cases when a woman's life is at risk and in cases of an emergency.

But campaigners say authorities - influenced by powerful Christian organizations - have instead made it harder for women to get safer access to abortions.

Since 2010, the ministry of health has withdrawn essential guidelines on conducting safe abortions and banned health workers from training on abortion.

The guidelines, amongst other things, provided clarity on who could perform abortions, safe-guarding against illegal practitioners. The ban on training has meant fewer health professionals available to perform the procedure or after care.

Evelyne Opondo, Africa director of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the petitioners in the court case, said JMM's post-abortion care was a direct consequence of Kenya's crackdown on safe abortion services.

Following her abortion, JMM developed an infection and was transferred between four hospitals as staff did not know how to treat her. She suffered kidney failure and was bedridden for months before her death on June 10.

"While JMM was entitled to quality post abortion care irrespective of whether it was within the law or otherwise, she did not receive it from the point of first contact with the health system," said Opondo.

"Instead there were several delays and missed opportunities to mitigate the adverse effect of the unsafe abortion on her health and life." The petitioners are seeking compensation from the government for JMM's family, as well as the reinstatement of the abortion guidelines and the scrapping of the ban on training.

Kenya Power directors to be remanded at police station (Kenya Broadcasting Company) By Ben Chumba July 16, 2018

The suspects who were arrested over the weekend by officers from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) have denied six corruption related charges including conspiracy to commit economic crimes, abuse of office and conspiracy to defeat justice in relation to the purchase of substandard transformers worth over 409 million shillings.

The suspects who are senior managers at the Power Company are facing six counts including, conspiracy to commit economic crimes, abuse of office, conspiracy to defeat justice, aiding commission of a felony, fraudulent acquisition of public property and failing to comply with the procurement law.

The prosecution alleged that the suspects in the course of employment at Kenya Power aided the directors of M/S Muwa Trading Company to fraudulently acquire public property worth 409 million shillings to supply substandard transformers.

Appearing before Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti, the suspects denied all the charges and pleaded to be released on bail pending the hearing and determination of their case.

However, the prosecution in its submissions opposed that their released on bail arguing that the suspects could interfere with the trial, intimidate witnesses and were a flight risk.

The court ordered the suspects be detained at the Gigiri Police Station until tomorrow when their bail application will be considered.

Rights Commission, Activists in Court Over Chapter Six Implementation (All Africa) By Jeremiah Wakaya July 17, 2018

The hearing of an application on the implementation of Chapter Six of the Constitution is set to continue at the Supreme Court on Tuesday with parties expected to make submissions.

The application which was lodged by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) ahead of the August 8 General Elections had stalled in court following objections over the court's jurisdiction on the matter.

The application was filed at a time of heightened campaign by civil society organizations under the National Integrity Alliance (NIA) who sought to have candidates deemed to have violated the provisions of Chapter Six of the Constitution on leadership and integrity barred from seeking elective posts.

In the application, KNCHR moved the court to determine whether Chapter Six outlined a proper test for leadership and whether it was an objective test and not subjective.

The commission also sought the court's interpretation on a person found to have misappropriated public funds by the Auditor General would have been deemed to have violated Chapter Six and as a consequence be disqualified from contesting elections.

NIA had decried the poor implementation of the constitutional provisions on leadership and integrity citing lack of uniformity in the application of the law.

Chapter Six requires State officers to exercise authority conferred on them in a manner consistent with the Constitution and promotes public confidence.

It requires State officials to make decisions impartially without improper motives or corrupt practices.

They are also required to offer selfless service based on public interest. In its submission on Monday, KNCHR submitted to the court that public officials were obligated under Chapter Six to adhere to and enforce guidelines on leadership and integrity arguing that those who fail to meet the threshold should be disqualified from holding public or State office.

"The Constitution has placed an irksome and onerous burden on those responsible for making public appointments by requiring that they make the appointments on the basis of a clear constitutional criterion of integrity and competence," the rights commission argued.

MPs to Police: Exercise restraint when arresting VIPs (The Standard) By Daniel Psirmoi [DATE (Month #, Year)]

The Police are yet again on the spot for arresting and detaining suspects including VIPs, on Fridays and weekends.

A section of lawmakers yesterday slammed the police and other law enforcing agents and accused them of abusing their powers as they clamp down on high profile corruption suspects.

MPs Nelson Koech(Belgut), Kipsengeret Koros (Soin Sigowet) and David Ole Sankok (nominated) said it is wrong for the security agents to dramatize the arrests under the guise of implementing the directive from the presidency of fighting corruption.

"The dramatic scenes of purported high-profile arrests we have been treated to in the recent times should come to an end. Everybody involved in the exercise must be reminded that we have a constitution which presumes once innocence until proven otherwise," said Koech.

Over the weekend, Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) arrested Kenya Power bosses at night following a directive by DPP Noordin Haji that they be prosecuted.

Yesterday Mr Koech who led his colleagues at a press briefing in parliament said the dramatic arrest on weekends are meant to harass and intimidate innocent Kenyans. He wondered why the officials don't choose any other day of the week to detain suspects.

"Why would a contingent of police travelling in 20 cars, all armed dramatize an arrest of a female parastatal employee who has shown no intention to resist arrest? Why are the arrests carried out on a Friday evening so that the suspects spend three nights in a cell?" posed the legislator.

"What we are doing is making civil servants live in fear of amorphous charges like neglect of duties among others. we are killing careers and reputations of men and women who have served the country with dedication for many years," he added.

Koros and Sankok said the law needs to be followed and condemned the manner in which some of the high- profile suspects have been handled by police and their counterparts from the DCI.

"As lawmakers from the Rift Valley we fully support the war against graft, but the intimidation we are seeing some suspects have been forced to go through should stop," explained Mr Koros.

"We should not have sacred cows in the fight against corruption. We want fairness in the process and it should not be politicized," said Mr Sankok.

[back to contents]

Rwanda (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda)

Official Website of the ICTR

French appeals court upholds life sentence for two Genocide convicts (The New Times) By James Karuhanga July 7, 2018

After two months of trial, a French Court on Friday upheld a life sentence for two Rwandans who were sentenced to life imprisonment two years ago after being found guilty of Genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

The verdict was given late Friday at the Paris Cour d'Assises in an appeal case of Octavian Ngenzi and Tito Barahira, successive Mayors (Bourgmestres) of the previously Kabarondo Commune, now part of the current Kayonza District, which started May 2.

On Friday night, the Collectif des Parties Civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR), a rights group which has for nearly two decades worked to bring Genocide suspects living in France to book, issued a statement welcoming the decision of the French justice as a just decision, "without hatred nor revenge" but also recalled that many other people suspected of crimes against humanity and Genocide continue to reside, with impunity, on French soil.

The two men are accused of participating in killings of Tutsi refugees at Kabarondo Catholic Church in April 1994 where more than 1,200 were killed.

Betraying Justice for Rwanda's Genocide Survivors (The New Yorker) By Jina Moore July 9, 2018

In July, 1993, an eleven-year-old named Damas Dukundane got a new pair of shoes. His mother bought them, unused, and paired them with a new blue suit. She was not terribly religious, and her son's baptism would be the only time in her life that she would enter the brick church in the unremarkable village of Kaduha, in rural Rwanda. What the rest of the family looked like on that day, in their nicest clothes, Damas does not remember. There are no surviving photographs, and no surviving witnesses, either.

One year later, his father was missing, and his mother, like so many mothers from the area, had fled to the church, with her five children. Outside, they huddled in a crowd of hundreds, praying for their lives. The village's men encircled them protectively, raising machetes and sticks, hoping to intimidate the interahamwe, the Hutu militias moving house to house and church to church in a national rush to exterminate the country's ethnic-minority Tutsi population.

"At first, we were stronger than them, because we were the ones with nowhere else to go," Damas recalled recently. "We were the ones who were fighting for our lives. Then the military came with guns, and that's when people realized—we can never win a fight with the military."

This is how the genocide in Rwanda unfolded. From hilltop to hilltop, across a country famous for its undulating landscape, interahamwe chased their neighbors with machetes and clubs. They were trained, dogged, and successful. But the most efficient, large-scale killing happened when soldiers arrived with automatic weapons and seemingly limitless ammunition. "When they started shooting into the crowd, the people ran. We realized this time there was no way they can fight," Damas said. "That is how the apocalypse of us happened."

The man who brought the military to Damas's church was Aloys Simba. In 1994, Simba was fifty-five years old, an ex-colonel celebrated for helping to bring Juvénal Habyarimana, then the President, to power in a coup in the nineteen-seventies. On the evening of April 6, 1994, for reasons that are still a matter of historical dispute, Habyarimana's plane was shot down. After the crash, the Tutsi became prey for legions of armed, agitated Hutu militiamen. Killings quickly began, and then spread. Virtually every hilltop became a death site that rainy season, as Hutu extremists killed an estimated eight hundred thousand of their neighbors in just a hundred days.

Simba armed the soldiers who attacked the Kaduha parish. He ordered them to chase every last Tutsi who might escape and kill any Hutu comrade who showed mercy. He forced the condemned to dig their own graves. In 2005, Simba was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity at an international war- crimes tribunal, in Arusha, Tanzania. Other places where he killed—Murambi, Kibeho—are, in today's Rwanda, touchstones of collective memory. His conviction was affirmed in 2007, after an appeal. Soon, if all goes as planned—and there is little reason to expect that it will not—Simba, a giant of genocide, will be a free man. He is expected to be paroled, along with Dominique Ntawukulilyayo, who, after promising twenty-five thousand Tutsis safety, lured them to a hilltop in Kabuye before having them slaughtered, and Hassan Ngeze, a journalist whose hateful propagandist newspaper, Kangura, many Rwandans still see as the real fuel of the genocide. The court regards Ngeze's conviction for inciting genocide as a "landmark" in international justice, though his life sentence was reduced to thirty-five years on appeal.

"We really thought someone like Ngeze, at least, who really incited the extremists to kill their neighbors, should stay in prison for life," Freddy Mutanguha, the vice-president of Ibuka, a national association of survivors of the 1994 genocide, said. "He made too many victims in this country. It's really very insulting." He called the court's practice of early release "a new form of impunity."

Whether to release the three men is up to one judge, Theodor Meron, the president of the Mechanism for the International Criminal Tribunals, whose decision cannot be appealed. Though thousands of procedural considerations went into setting up the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, twin courts tasked with trying the perpetrators of near-simultaneous genocides, the ad-hoc system nevertheless failed to establish clear standards for sentence reductions. Now, more than twenty years after the trials began, the guilty who have been imprisoned in seventeen countries around the world are asking to get out early. A study from 2014 found that nearly half of the convicts from both courts have been released, the vast majority of them before serving full sentences.

The first decisions in paroling genocidaires cited domestic parole regulations, which often grant eligibility after two-thirds of a sentence has been served; over time, as Meron has noted, the Tribunals have come to rely on two-thirds of time served as an eligibility standard. But critics question any parole system for the world's gravest crimes. Early release of rehabilitated criminals may make sense in states that are trying to reduce the costs of incarceration, and where authorities can monitor the activities of parolees. But the criminals convicted by international tribunals have perpetrated a scale and degree of harm that domestic regulations were not designed to account for; furthermore, they are not supervised after their release, and there are no legal grounds for detaining them should they once again begin stoking ethnic hatred or worse. In a letter to the court, the Rwandan government has adamantly protested the request, writing that the men's crimes "offend all standards of humanity, morality and decency" and continue to harm Rwanda and Rwandans a quarter-century later. Damas wholeheartedly agrees. "This may not be something the whole world is ready to understand—it's just my opinion—but, if we are going for justice, Simba cannot be let out," he told me. "It would be unfair for the small people who took those machetes, who came running after us, who had no idea of whatever was happening up the chain of command."

More than a million of those "small people," the petty genocidaires, were tried over nearly a decade in Rwanda's gacaca, or "grass courts," a system meant to insure that not a single Hutu crime went unpunished. Early releases came after both confession and contrition, which the accused often demonstrated by showing the community where he had left the bodies of those he killed. At gacaca, remorse, like innocence, required proof.

The system is different for those convicted in the U.N.-created Tribunals. In granting early release to the convicted, the Tribunals presume their rehabilitation—even when they demonstrate precisely the opposite. So far, we know very little about the remorse of the three men asking now for early release: a confidentiality rule protects the contents of their applications. Johnston Busingye, Rwanda's Minister of Justice, said that the government twice asked to see the applications prior to its response, but the court never replied. "This is not a deal with thought for the victims," he said. "This is a deal between the convicts and the court."

In fact, Busingye said, this is the first time since the early release of Rwandan genocidaires began in 2012 that the court has bothered to ask for the Rwandan government's input at all. The court is not required to consult with Rwandan officials before ruling on early-release applications, nor is it required to inform any of the eighteen hundred people who were offered witness-protection services in exchange for their testimony. In 2016, when Ferdinand Nahimana, who co-founded a hate radio station that broadcast the names and locations of surviving Tutsis, was released after serving two decades of his thirty-year sentence, the Rwandan government and its citizens, including those who testified against him, found out on the radio.

When the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda concluded its last trials, in 2012, its sixty-two convictions were hailed as a triumph of justice, both in the narrow criminal sense and, more broadly, as a method of historical documentation and a foundation for reconciliation. So far, nearly twenty per cent of its convicts have been released early. If the three pending requests succeed, the lawyers for the Rwandan government expect Théoneste Bagosora, who is regarded as the mastermind of the genocide, to file a similar request later this year.

Human-rights advocates say that paroling the perpetrators threatens the entire logic of international criminal law. "You convict people for genocide, they get relatively low sentences, and then they are eligible for early release—it completely undermines the process," Toby Cadman, a co-founder of Guernica 37, an international-justice law firm in London, told me.

Or, as Damas put it: "If Simba is let out, who is left in?"

More than hate, more than fear, more than machetes or machine guns, scale has always been the genocidaires' most powerful weapon. The world remembers mass murder, mass rape, mass crimes, and speaks with pathos of nameless, faceless victims—and the tribunals tell us, through millions of pages of testimony and other overwhelming proof, that those mass crimes were committed by these relatively few men. The perpetrators' ability to execute atrocity outstrips our capacity to imagine it. We cannot grasp it. The overwhelming proof overwhelms us. A countable collection of perpetrators has become as faceless, as abstract, as the thousands and thousands of people they've killed.

This is not, of course, how Damas feels about Aloys Simba. Damas, whom I first met in Rwanda nearly fifteen years ago, is now the father of three children, and an adopted member of my family. But, after the soldiers sent by Simba shot into the crowd at Kaduha parish, he never saw his own family again: his mother ran, with a newborn in her arms and Damas's siblings trailing behind, down a hill. Damas, at eleven, had refused to follow. He fled up the hill instead, and he was pushed by a stranger into the priests' living quarters. He hid under a bed there, as the massacre that began at dawn dragged into dusk. "There was screaming, screaming—there were so many people to kill—and more screaming, until it was the last voice," he said. "And then that was that."

This, Damas has learned, is the injustice of international justice: the killers, like their victims, become nameless, faceless statistics. And if we cannot name them, and we cannot imagine their crimes, we will hardly notice when they are let go.

RDF Is Trained To Fight Wars Not To Cause Them – Kagame (KT Press) By Dan Ngabonziza July 13, 2018

President Kagame has said that Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) is trained and prepared to fight wars but not to start or cause them.

Speaking on Friday after officiating the Officer Cadet Commissioning ceremony at the Rwanda Military Academy in Gako, Bugesera district, Kagame, said that despite not being trained to cause wars, RDF is always ready to help those causing wars to finish them.

"But if others make us their problem and choose to start a war with us, that is when we use judgment, determination and training to fight and finish it for them," Kagame told 180 new officers, their parents and participants.

The officers commissioned were given the rank of Second Lieutenant – becoming the third generation to graduate from Rwanda Military Academy in Gako.

The officers who were commissioned today include 153 who were trained for one year, 22 who conducted a six-months training and four who graduated from a military academy in Tanzania.

President Kagame congratulated the officers for choosing 'a great profession'.

"The profession you have chosen is a great one. One you should be proud of. You can build your country and yourself the way the country and you deserve," he said.

"You are given the training and knowledge to protect the sovereignty of our nation, to fight wars and keep Rwandans safe. It is an important responsibility," Kagame told the officers.

Kagame reminded the officers that there is huge task ahead including the unexpected ones.

"I congratulate all of you who successfully completed your training. All of those who join RDF are trained to face the challenges of the times we are in, including unexpected ones." During the awarding ceremony, 2nd Lt. Frank Kwizera was awarded a medal by President Kagame and Commander-in-Chief of Rwanda Defence Force as the overall best cadet officer.

Junior Nkuranga and Amon Muhairwe were also awarded second and third best performers respectively.

To complete the training was the hardest experience ever, the new officers testified.

"Personally, I struggled like never before. I used every pounce of strength I had in me to survive. It seemed like endurance would never end. A day felt like a month, it was all part of the training," said Annabelle Giramata – one of the commissioned female officers.

Most of the officers who graduated today had always embraced the bravery of their parents who joined the struggle to liberate Rwanda.

For Mereksedeck Imani, "Throughout my life, I have always admired the bravery of our soldiers during the liberation struggle and during the campaign to stop the genocide against Tutsi."

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Somalia

Shabaab claims twin car blasts near Somali presidency (Daily Mail) By AFP July 14, 2018

Three Shabaab gunmen were shot dead Saturday after exchanging fire with security forces outside the presidential palace in Mogadishu in an attack in which two car bombs were also detonated, an official said.

Abdulahi Ahmed, a security official said one vehicle loaded with explosives rammed into a security barrier, while another detonated near a separate checkpoint close to the main entrance of the presidential palace.

Gunmen then tried to force their way through the checkpoint.

"Three gunmen were killed and the two vehicles were detonated, there are no details yet," said Ahmed, adding that several civilians were wounded.

The Al-Qaeda linked Shabaab group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.

The attack comes a week after five civilians were killed when two blasts targeted Somalia's internal security ministry.

The Shabaab has been fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu for over a decade.

Despite losing towns and territory in recent years the group continues to carry out regular bombings and armed raids on government, security and civilian targets in the capital and elsewhere.

UAE 'committed' to Somalia's stability (Middle East Monitor) July 19, 2018

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) ambassador to the European Union and Luxembourg reiterated his commitment to unity, security and stability, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported today. The positive vibes comes after recent tensions over a tripartite port deal involving Ethiopia, Eritrea and the UAE's port company DP World.

"Over the recent years, the UAE has always been at the forefront of international efforts to support Somalia and restore peace and stability to its people. Towards this end, the UAE has provided humanitarian and developmental assistance, security training as well as financial and logistic support for its armed forces. We also supported efforts to combat maritime piracy off the coast of Somalia and contributed funds to regional development projects," said the UAE ambassador, addressing a diplomatic conference in Brussels for the Somalia Partnership Forum (SPF).

"The UAE is closely monitoring the encouraging progress made in discussions between the Federal Government of Somalia and the international financial institutions. We urge regional and global actors as well as the central government to distance themselves from strategies that seek to sow seeds of division and rivalry," he added.

The conference in Brussels was jointly set-up by Somalia and Sweden. Representative from 58 countries attended, and six international organisations between 16 and 17 July.

Pre-existing tensions

The federal government of Somalia rejected the UAE's logistic company's port deal, claiming that it undermines its unity, sovereignty and is a violation of its constitution. Somalia called out the tripartite agreements over Berbera port as "null and void".

Ethiopia holds 19 per cent of the Berbera port, in an agreement with Somaliland's Port Authority and UAE Company DP World. DP World remains the major share owner with a 51 per cent stake, while Somaliland holds 30 per cent. The Ethiopian government will invest in infrastructural development for the Berbera port. Somalia claims that they were not consulted, and directly undermined their constitution.

The UAE assisted with drafting the Joint Communique on international partnership to strengthen Somalia, which read: "We recognise that the meeting takes place in a context of recent positive and historic developments in the Horn of Africa and enhanced engagement between the leaders of the region, creating new opportunities for reconciliation, stability, regional cooperation and economic integration. This new momentum should be seized by all Somali actors and we call for all in the international community to cooperate towards that end."

Whether relations between Somalia and the UAE will pragmatically restore themselves is yet to be seen.

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NORTH AFRICA

Libya

Official Website of the International Criminal Court ICC Public Documents - Situation in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

International Criminal Court issues second arrest warrant of serial killer Al-Werfalli (The Libya Observer) By Abdulkader Assad July 5, 2018

The Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued on Wednesday a second warrant of arrest for the commander of Al-Saiqa Force's frontlines Mahmoud Al-Werfalli for war crimes in the context of the non-international armed conflict in Libya.

Al-Werfalli escaped hours before the warrant was issued from his detention in Rajma in eastern Libya and he arrived later in Benghazi escorted by his loyalists, who are mostly from the special forces' personnel, amid gunshots in the air to celebrate his comeback.

The ICC said it found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Al-Werfalli directly committed murder as a war crime in the context of an eighth incident which took place on 24 January 2018, when he allegedly shot dead 10 persons in front of the Biyaat Al-Radwan Mosque in Benghazi, Libya.

"The Chamber found the case against Al-Werfalli to be admissible before the Court, due to the lack of investigative activities in Libya." ICC said on its website.

The ICC added that the second warrant of arrest complements a first warrant of arrest issued by Pre-Trial Chamber I on August 15 2017 for Al-Werfalli's "alleged responsibility for directly committing and ordering the commission of murder as a war crime in the context of seven incidents, involving 33 persons, which took place from on or before 3 June 2016 until on or about 17 July 2017 in Benghazi or surrounding areas, in Libya."

Second attack on Libya's Man-made river kills two as two others abducted (The Libya Observer) By Abdulkader Assad July 7, 2018

An armed attack by "terrorist groups" targeted Tazirbou wells field on Saturday morning and left an engineer and a security guard killed, the administration said on Facebook.

It added that the armed groups kidnapped two of the security personnel and stole all of the vehicles in the area.

"We have instructed the departure of all families of workers from the site for their safety and asked the concerned authorities and the municipality of Tazirbou to take the needed measures and provide necessary assistance." The administration added.

According to local media outlets, the gunmen were about 20 and attacked the site using 5 cars and spent about 1.30 hours, saying it could be an attack by IS, whose militants are still active in southern Libya.

On Friday, an armed group abducted four foreign workers (three Filipino and one from South Korea) along with two Libyan nationals from Al-Hasawna area. The Libyans were later released.

The administration of the Man-made River warned of water cuts in western Libya, especially Tripoli, if attacks on its staffers continued, calling in a statement on the state authorities and elders of the southern region to interfere and release the foreign workers.

"The gunmen are entirely responsible for the safety of the abducted workers. They should release them immediately." The administration added.ed to keep looking for Al-Fakhri till doomsday, calling home a corrupted person and a thief.

Violent clashes rock Tripoli once again (The Libya Observer) By Abdulkader Assad July 7, 2018

Clashes between a notorious armed group led by Ghaniwa Al-Kikly and an armed group that defected from under his command took place on Saturday at Al-Hadba in Abu Salim, Tripoli.

The Al-Kikly-led group attacked the defectors led by Mahmoud Buazza, who was Al-Kikly's sidekick.

According to sources from the area of clashes, Buazza was killed in the fighting as he was hit in the head by gunfire, then died in the hospital.

The fighting was prompted by a previous dispute by Al-Kikly and Buazza as the former accused him of a coup attempt, knowing that Al-Kikly heads a security apparatus of the Interior Ministry and his armed group controls Abu Salim and Al-Hadba areas in Tripoli.

Several injuries were reported by eyewitnesses, let alone material damage as well as blockade of several roads in the capital, including Airport Road.

They added that fighting ceased after Al-Kikly's armed group controlled the positions of Buazza.

No official numbers of deaths or injuries were recorded in the capital. Forces of Libya's warlord Haftar arrest fighers who lost limbs battling for them in Benghazi (The Libya Observer) By Abdulkader Assad July 9, 2018

The general command of the self-proclaimed Libyan army in east of the country arrested Sunday several injured fighters who used to be on the frontline of Khalifa Haftar's forces in Benghazi and across the region.

The detention of the injured fighters came as they along with their fellow fighters, who are part of military formations under the command of Haftar, took to the Rajma town where the general command is located, wishing to have their complaints heard by whom they cherish as their top leader.

The inured fighters, some losing limbs, wanted to complain about the inaction of "Dignity Operation" regarding their healthcare and their general conditions, yet they took a beating and some were detained at the military police prison in Al-Marij.

Other injured fighters also went on a protest against the self-styled army in front of the Benghazi Municipal Council, holding slogans denouncing the mistreatment they are receiving by the authorities in there regarding their medical treatment.

They also called for the release of the amputated fighters whom Haftar's forces arrested, urging for an end of financial corruption inside the general command, requesting that the military governor of the eastern region Abdelrazik Al-Nathori should end "corruption in the general command."

Earlier this month, several injured fighters from the eastern forces led by warlord Haftar closed airport road in eastern Benghazi demanding real medical treatment and healthcare.

On Twitter, a loyalist to Haftar, Mahmoud Al-Misrati, revealed two days ago that there is a huge financial manipulation and corruption done by the Presidential Council's member Fathi Al-Mijibri regarding the medical treatment of Dignity Operation fighters in Tunisia.

LEAKED: ICC fugitive Al-Werfalli is carrying out military arrest operations (The Libya Observer) By Abdulkader Assad July 10, 2018

A leaked call from a handheld transceiver for the commander of frontlines at Saiqa Force of the self-styled army in east Libya, Mahmoud Al-Werfalli, was posted on social media on Tuesday in which he was vowing to apprehend the Chief of Military Investment Authority Al-Madani Al-Fakhri, whom he accused of embezzling public money.

"I am going after Al-Fakhri as he is someone like an IS money militant. I will keep looking for him till doomsday." Al-Werfalli said on the leaked walkie-talkie call.

Al-Werfalli said Al-Fakhri is accused and convicted of stealing public money and of corruption, demanding Al-Fakhri to tell who his supporters are.

Saiqa Force fighters, including Al-Werfalli who is wanted for two arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court over war crimes and crimes against humanity, stormed Monday the Military Investment Authority of the self-styled army led by Khalifa Haftar in Hadaeq area in Benghazi. They took some of the belongings of the authority on their way out of the storming operation, according to local media reports.

Al-Werfalli escaped detention in Marij town and arrived in Benghazi, yet a day later, the ICC issued a second arrest warrant for him, calling on authorities in Libya to hand him over to justice.

According to other reports, the storming of the authority was based on a personal rift between Al-Werfalli and Al-Falkhri, who has been chairing the authority since June 2017. He is, according to social media, accused of dismantling power towers and stealing other materials for personal benefits then shipping them out as scrap in cooperation with a Haftar's son-headed brigade.

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The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, War Crimes Chamber

Official Court Website [English translation]

Bosnia Charges Serb with Bosniaks' Murders in Miska Glava (Balkan Insight) By Denis Dzidic July 5, 2018

The Bosnian state prosecution on Thursday charged Milorad Obradovic, alias Stiven, with participating in a widespread and systematic attack on the Bosniak civilian population in the Prijedor area in July 1992, as well as the capture of around 120 Bosniak civilians in the village of Miska Glava, in collaboration with others.

According to the charges, the civilians were unlawfully detained, tortured and abused and later shot.

"The available evidence suggests that only three people managed to survive the shooting and run away from the location of the execution. At least 15 minors were among the people who were killed," the indictment alleges.

Obradovic has also been charged with personally killing three Bosniak civilians at the Rudar football stadium in Prijedor.

He was recently extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina from Germany.

The Bosnian state court is currently trying ten people for war crimes in Miska Glava.

Slobodan Taranjac, Slobodan Knezevic, Milodrag Glusac, Ranko Babic, Ranko Dosenovic and Rade Zekanovic are charged with with ordering or failing to stop or punish the detention of civilians who were held in inhumane conditions in the culture house in Miska Glava and tortured.

Zdravko Panic, Trivo Vukic, Milan Vukic and Marinko Prastalo are also charged with killing 11 men. Taranjac, Glusac, Babic and Dosenovic are accused of concealing the crime.

Taranjac was charged as president of the Crisis Committee in Ljubija and head of the local civil authorities, Glusac as deputy commander of the Sixth Ljubija Battalion of the Bosnian Serb Army's 43rd Brigade, Babic as first operative officer of the Sixth Ljubija Battalion, and Dosenovic as the battalion's assistant commander for security.

The others were charged as members of the Bosnian Serb Army's Misko Glava Company and the military and civil police.

The state prosecution has requested that Obradovic's case be joined to that of the others.

His indictment has been filed to the state court for confirmation.

Eight Bosniaks Jailed for 60 Years for Prison Camp Abuses (Balkan Insight) By Albina Sorguc July 5, 2018

The state court on Thursday sentenced Elvir Muminovic to six years in prison and Samir Kesmer and Mirsad Menzilovic to five years in prison each for raping a girl in Sarajevo's Velesici district in 1993. The court found that Muminovic, Kesmer and Menzilovic used force and threats to rape the girl, who testified at the trial under the codename 'A' to protect her identity.

The girl, a Serb who was under 18, was living in a part of Sarajevo which was under the control of the Bosniak-led Bosnian Army during the wartime siege of the city.

Presiding judge Zoran Bozic said that the court found that witness A was a civilian, under age, and not a party to the conflict. "The finding of guilt was based primarily on the testimony of witness A, who testified in detail and clearly described the act. Her testimony is also corroborated by other statements and material evidence," said Bozic.

The judge ordered the three defendants to pay 25,000 euros in damages to the victim. The verdict can be appealed.

Bosnian Serb Ex-Fighter Jailed for Rapes, Illegal Arrests (Balkan Insight) By Albina Sorguc July 5, 2018

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court in Sarajevo on Thursday upheld the conviction of Slobodan Karagic and confirmed his 12-year prison sentence.

Karagic was found guilty of raping two females who were minors at the time, and of participating in the unlawful arrests and detention of three Bosniak men, acting on his own or together with others.

The verdict said that in July and August 1992, Karagic and Predrag Kujundzic, who was found guilty in a separate verdict, took one of the minors from Radio Doboj to a house in the village of Bare, where they raped and tortured her, inserting various objects into her genitals.

It also said that Karagic raped the second victim at the Yugoslav People's Army Centre in Doboj. The victim told Karagic that she was 15, the court found.

Karagic committed the crimes as a member and commander of the Red Berets special unit and later as a member of the Bosnian Serb Army, according to the verdict.

The verdict is final and cannot be appealed.

Bosnia Convicts Serb Military Policemen of Teslic Massacre (Balkan Insight) By Lamija Grebo July 12, 2018

The Bosnian state court on Thursday convicted Dragan Marjanovic, Sasa Gavranovc, Vitomir Devic, Zoran Sljuka and Dragomir Kezunovic of taking 28 Bosniak civilians from the Teslic police station and Pribinic prison on the night between June 17 and 18, 1992 to Mount Borje, where they were all killed.

The court sentenced Marjanovic, Gavranovc, Devic and Sljuka to 17 years in prison each, and Kezunovic to 14 years in prison.

According to the charges, Marjanovic was the commander of a platoon of the Bosnian Serb Army Teslic Brigade's military police, while the other defendants were all members of the platoon.

They were all found guilty of crimes against humanity.

The court found that Marjanovic knew about the order from his superiors to kill the civilians, and had his military policemen commit the crime and participate in efforts to hide the bodies in a pre-prepared pit.

The ruling said that there was sufficient evidence to find that Gavranovic, Devic and Sljuka participated in the killings personally, but although it was unclear whether Kezunovic killed anyone, he "assisted the killings".

Presiding judge Vesna Jesenkovic said that the defendants did not orchestrate the crime, but without their assistance, it would not have been committed.

"If it were not for the defendants' participation, those who had come up with the plan to commit the killings would have been left alone in their intentions," said Jesenkovic.

The verdict can be appealed.

Bosnian Army Ex-Officer Jailed for Rape, Prisoner Abuse (Balkan Insight) By Admir Muslimovic July 13, 2018

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court on Friday found Nihad Bojadzic of committing rape together with another member of the Bosnian Army in Jablanica in 1993.

Bojadzic was also found guilty on nine counts of inhumane treatment, mistreatment and abuse of prisoners of war who were members of the Croatian Defence Council, the Bosnian Croat wartime force.

"The court finds that the defendant's guilt has been proved beyond reasonable doubt," said the appeals chamber's presiding judge, Redzib Begic.

Bojadzic was sentenced to five years' imprisonment and six years for the prisoner abuses, and the court ruled that he should serve a cumulative sentence of ten years in jail.

However he was also sentenced to 15 years in another case last year for committing crimes in the village of Trusina, near Konjic in 1993, and judge Begic said that he should serve a single sentence of 15 years for both the Jablanica and Trusina crimes.

The verdict can be appealed.

Bosnian Serb Ex-Policeman Indicted for Persecuting Bosniaks (Balkan Insight) By Ajla Gezo July 16, 2018

The Bosnian state court on Monday confirmed the charges against Milorad Obradovic, also known as Stiven, who is accused of taking part in the persecution of Bosniak civilians in late July 1992 as a member of the reserve police force in Ljubija near Prijedor.

According to previous statements from the Bosnian prosecution, Obradovic took part in the capture of 120 civilians in Miska Glava near Ljubija. The civilians were illegally detained, tortured, abused and finally killed.

"The available evidence suggests that only three people managed to survive the shooting and run away from the location of the execution. At least 15 minors were among the people who were killed," the indictment alleges.

Obradovic has also been charged with personally killing three Bosniak civilians at the Rudar football stadium in Prijedor.

He was recently extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina from Germany.

There is already an ongoing trial of eight other men accused of crimes in Miska Glava and Lljubija at the state court, and the prosecution has asked for Obradovic's case to be connected to the trial.

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International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Official Website of the ICTY

Srebrenica Suspects Find Safe Haven in Serbia (Balkan Insight) By Filip Rudic, Erna Mackic July 6, 2018

"They loaded us onto two buses, after tying our hands first. I saw that we arrived at some houses and that farm in Branjevo. There was the army, the killers, and you could hear gunshots. They took us out - you could see death with your own eyes... No more life."

This is the testimony of a protected witness codenamed Z2 before a Bosnian court in 2011, recalling being taken from Srebrenica by forces led by Ratko Mladic after the Bosnian Serb Army captured the town in July 1995.

At least 1,000 Bosniaks would end up being killed at Branjevo farm by members of the notorious 10th Sabotage Detachment of the Bosnian Serb Army, according to Bosnian court that sentenced five of the unit's members to a total of 122 years in prison.

The detachment's commander Milorad Pelemis, however, was not among them - he was in Serbia, out of the reach of Bosnian prosecution.

"The Bosnian prosecutor's office issued a warrant for [Pelemis], he is on an Interpol red notice, but he keeps appearing in Serbian media very often,"' Ivana Zanic, the legal team coordinator at the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre NGO, told BIRN.

Indeed, Pelemis has made many public appearances over the years, denying the accusations against him as well as insisting that other Srebrenica mass murders didn't happen.

In 2015, Pelemis told the trial of Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia that neither of them ordered the shootings at Branjevo.

"I did not participate in selecting the [fighters] and issuing them with the task," Pelemis told the court.

Like Pelemis, at least eight more Bosnian Serbs wanted or linked to the 1995 Srebrenica genocide have fled Bosnia and Herzegovina for Serbia, where the Belgrade-based war crimes prosecutor's office has charged only one of them, while the Serbian authorities ignore calls for action from Bosnia.

The Humanitarian Law Centre has filed criminal complaints to the Serbian war crimes prosecutor's office against Pelemis and 11 others which it accuses of involvement in the Srebrenica genocide.

The HLC has published a file on the 10th Sabotage Detachment alleging that its members killed 1,200 Srebrenica Bosniaks in Branjevo farm on the orders of Pelemis and Dragomir Pecanac, Ratko Mladic's personal adjutant.

It also accused Pelemis and Colonel Petar Salapura of ordering a mass execution in the village of Bisina on July 23, 1995, when members of the detachment allegedly killed at least 39 Bosniaks.

"To this day, we don't have information about whether the war crimes prosecutor is acting on our criminal complaint," Zanic said.

BIRN asked the Serbian war crimes prosecutor's office about this and other cases, but received no reply by the time of publication.

BIRN also tried to reach Pelemis for comment, but without success.

At least nine genocide suspects free in Serbia

Pelemis is only one of several Bosnian Serb fighters who are either wanted in Bosnia, but not being extradited, or against whom criminal complaints have been filed in Serbia that the authorities do not appear to be addressing.

The Bosnian prosecution warned in 2016 that Mladic's former adjutant Dragomir Pecanac was in Serbia, and another member of the 10th Sabotage Detachment, Zoran Obrenovic. "In the interests of justice, we call on the Serbian judiciary to either prosecute these suspects or extradite them to Bosnia," the prosecution said.

The president of Bosnia's Association of Victims and Witnesses of Genocide, Murat Tahirovic, believes that Serbia has shown no desire to cooperate with Bosnia on war crimes prosecutions, despite the fact that the two countries' prosecutions signed an agreement to do so back in 2013.

"The agreement signed between the prosecutors is just to satisfy... the European Union," Tahirovic told BIRN.

Even when prosecutions are launched, the suspects are not charged with genocide, as Serbia does not accept this definition of the Srebrenica massacres, he added.

Serbia also does not prosecute suspects for involvement in an international conflict, as Belgrade does not accept that it participated in the Bosnian war. According to the Belgrade authorities, the war in Bosnia was an internal conflict in which Serbia as a foreign state did not take part.

Ivana Zanic said that Pecanac and Obrenovic are among the ex-soldiers about whom the HLC filed a criminal complaint to the Serbian prosecution.

According to the HLC dossier on the 10th Reconnaissance Detachment, five of its former members who have not been prosecuted are living in Serbia.

The Bosnian prosecution believes that at least four more Bosnian Serb Army ex-servicemen wanted by Sarajevo on genocide charges are hiding in Serbia.

Among them are Borislav Stojsic and Rajko Drakulic, who were charged in January this year with assisting the imprisonment and execution of Bosniak men from Srebrenica and forcefully relocating women and children in July of 1995.

They were charged together with Mile Kosoric and Momcilo Tesic, whose trial in Sarajevo began in June.

The Bosnian war crimes prosecution also charged Svetozar Kosoric in 2016 for aiding the Srebrenica genocide by finding locations for the temporary imprisonment and execution of Bosniak men, then helping organise the transport of women and children.

Kosoric is a resident of Serbia although he is a Bosnian citizen, according to the Bosnian prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The wartime Interior Minister of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska, Tomislav Kovac, was also charged with genocide in 2017.

According to the indictment, police units under Kovac's command participated in the capture of Bosniak men and boys, their imprisonment, transport, and mass executions at several locations.

Kovac has not shown up for hearings, however, as he moved to Serbia, where he also holds citizenship.

Murat Tahirovic is not optimistic about the future, saying that cooperation between Sarajevo and Belgrade has visibly decreased in the past five or six years.

"You could say there is cooperation in the form of friendship between the prosecutors of Serbia and Bosnia, they sit down and drink coffee together, but there is no real cooperation," Tahirovic said.

BIRN contacted the Bosnian and Serbian prosecutors' offices for comment, but received no reply by the time of publication.

Justice in Serbia slow for Srebrenica victims

One member of the 10th Reconnaissance Detachment was convicted by a Serbian court – but it was the result of a plea bargain, and the light sentence left Bosnian prosecutors feeling bitter.

Ex-soldier Brano Gojkovic was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2016 after admitting he took part in executing 800 Bosniaks from Srebrenica, in an incident that the Bosnian war crimes prosecution called "one of the cruellest executions during the Srebrenica genocide". "We are especially unhappy that Gojkovic did not testify within his plea deal and that the plea agreement was made soon after Bosnia filed an extradition request. Families of Srebrenica victims have also said that they are unhappy with the sentence," the Bosnian prosecution said in a statement.

It added that prosecuting Gojkovic before a Bosnian court would have "contributed to justice", because other members of the 10th Detachment have been sentenced to several decades of prison in Bosnia.

Gojkovic is the only man to have been convicted of Srebrenica crimes by a Serbian court apart from four members of the Scorpions paramilitary unit - Slobodan Medic, Branislav Medic, Pero Petrasevic and Aleksandar Medic - who were jailed for shooting dead six Bosniaks, whose murders they also filmed.

Currently there is only one trial for Srebrenica-related crimes ongoing before the Serbian courts – the trial for the massacre in the village of Kravica, where over 1,300 Bosniaks were killed in an agricultural warehouse in July 1995.

Nedeljko Milidragovic, Aleksa Golijanin, Milivoje Batinica, Aleksandar Dacevic, Bora Miletic, Jovan Petrovic, Dragomir Parovic and Vidosav Vasic are accused of committing a war crime by killing Bosniak prisoners who were captured after Srebrenica fell to Bosnian Serb forces.

The Bosnian prosecution previously launched genocide indictments against Milidragovic and Golijanin, but couldn't arrest them because they have been living in Serbia since the war in Bosnia ended in 1995.

The families of victims coming to Serbia for the hearings feel let down by the process. A representative of the Mothers of Srebrenica association, Kada Hotic, called the trial at Belgrade Higher Court a "circus".

"This court does not want [the criminals] prosecuted, otherwise it would have returned them to Bosnia. But they found a safe haven in Serbia, which embraces and protects them," Hotic told BIRN.

Her husband, son, and two brothers perished in the Srebrenica genocide, along with many more members of her extended family.

Tahirovic was also critical of the Kravica trial, which opened in 2017 and has since suffered numerous delays, saying that the Serbian prosecution is handling the cases it has taken over from Bosnia in a "tragi- comic fashion".

"The Kravica case... is stalled in every way, just like they don't want to ever finish it," Tahirovic said.

We must not forget Srebrenica (Open Democracy) By Dunja Mijatović July 9, 2018

Every July 11 since 1995, hundreds of people gather in Potočari to commemorate the Srebrenica genocide, the most horrific crime committed in Europe since WWII.

Survivors and victims' families demand justice, recognition and respect.

In a few days of that July of twenty-three years ago, more than 8,000 boys and men were systematically and brutally executed, and 30,000 people violently displaced.

Since then, the relatives of the victims – and in particular mothers who have lost husbands, sons, brothers – have started a long, courageous walk to justice and recognition.

Along that way, they have found some measure of each. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has determined that genocide was committed in Srebrenica and convicted some of the war criminals that orchestrated and took part in it. And grass-root organisations are overcoming great obstacles to starting the difficult journey to reconciliation.

All this carries a strong significance, but remains little consolation for the survivors of the genocide and the victims' families.

They demand that their loved ones be found: but the slow identification process can only inflict additional suffering. They demand health care to treat their trauma, and they get substandard therapy. They demand accountability, but many war criminals still go free and unpunished. They demand recognition, but their suffering is ignored, vilified or denied.

The latter is certainly one of the most outrageous offenses that they have been obliged to endure during the post-genocide period. And yet, they have found the strength to continue their fight for truth and justice, despite the denial and minimisation of the genocide, which we see also happening in education.

Mono-ethnic schools and the "two-schools-under-one-roof" system still characterises education in Bosnia and Herzegovina.It is also characterised by the ignorance of the past and manipulation of the facts about the recent war.

Such a situation perpetuates the ethnic divisions which made current and past tensions possible and hinder reconciliation and peace. We must reverse this.

Civilian victims of the Srebrenica genocide must receive adequate social protection and improved legal assistance to assert their rights and obtain reparation.

Political and judicial authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Serbia must improve their cooperation to end impunity, by identifying and punishing war criminals. They should also invest more in identifying all genocide victims and clarify the fate of those who remain missing. They must step up the search for mass graves and ensure that witnesses who may disclose the information necessary to identify all the other places where corpses have been buried feel safe to do so.

Governments and decision makers must adopt farsighted policies that establish accountability and focus on education. This must become a shared responsibility, primarily for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, but also for other European countries, not only in the former Yugoslavia.

The education systems in the region must become more inclusive. They must lead the young generations out of the caves of prejudice in which manufactured realities blur the truth and spread the seed of hate. School books, not only in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but all over Europe, must include an objective testimony of the Srebrenica genocide, portraying it without political or ethnic connotations. They must educate about the past, educate to debunk myths, educate about justice and equality for all.

European countries should provide more support to grass-root initiatives for reconciliation. They should also put more pressure on politicians and other public figures in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to stop denying the past and to build more inclusive education systems and societies.

Like the Holocaust and the Rwanda genocide, the Srebrenica genocide was not an accident. It began well before it occurred.

It started when human beings were singled out because of their ethnicity. It grew with a public discourse, fomented by some media, which dehumanised them and marginalised critical voices. It took shape in the systematic and industrial extermination of a large group of people, under the eyes of a passive international community. And it continues today, with denial and impunity.

The Srebrenica genocide marked one of the darkest pages of European history. If we want to write a brighter future, we must remember what happened and treat all the victims as our victims, without political or ethnic connotations. We must acknowledge the suffering of the survivors and of the victims' families. We must make their struggle for justice our goal.

As Commissioner for Human Rights I will continue calling for justice for all the victims of the crimes that happened during the wars in the Balkans. Serving justice is the only way we can all confront the past and prevent it from repeating itself.

Red Berets Fighter: Serbian Officials Ran Operation in Bosnia (Balkan Insight) By Radosa Milutinovic July 10, 2018

Former Red Berets fighter Dejan Sliskovic told the retrial of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic at the Mechanism for International Tribunals in The Hague on Tuesday that the defendants commanded the forces of the Serbian State Security Service, SDB, which participated in the 'Pauk' ('Spider') operation in western Bosnia in 1994 and 1995. Testifying as a prosecution witness, Sliskovic said Stanisic and Simatovic commanded the operation, which was conducted in Cazinska Krajina in western Bosnia.

The security officials ran the operation from a command post in the village of Magarcevac in the wartime self-proclaimed Serb-led Republic of Serbian Krajina rebel statelet in Croatia, he alleged.

The witness said he was a member of the security team at the command building and pointed out what he said were Stanisic's and Simatovic's offices on a photograph.

He said it was "the first time I have seen Stanisic in uniform".

In Stanisic's office, he said he saw "a map showing 30 command posts which Stanisic had set up in western Bosnia".

Sliskovic also said that visitors for meetings with Stanisic and Simatovic included Milan Martic, the president of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, Ratko Mladic, the commander of the Bosnian Serb Army, Mladic's deputy Manojlo Milovanovic, and Milorad Ulemek, alias Legija, then a senior officer with the Serbian Voluntary Guard paramilitary group commanded by Zeljko Raznatovic, alias Arkan.

All these forces fought against the Fifth Corps of the Bosnian Army during the Pauk operation, said the witness, who participated in the operation as a member of the Anti-Terrorist Action Unit of the Serbian SDB.

Stanisic, the former chief of the Serbian SDB, and his former assistant Simatovic are charged with having been protagonists in a joint criminal enterprise led by then Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, aimed at permanently and forcibly removing Bosniaks and Croats from large parts of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to achieve Serb domination.

Although the indictment does not charge Stanisic and Simatovic with crimes committed in the Pauk operation, the prosecutors are presenting evidence about the operation in an attempt to show the defendants' pattern of behaviour as protagonists in the joint criminal enterprise.

Stanisic and Simatovic are charged with persecution, murders and deportations in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, according to the charges were committed by members of the Red Berets and other units controlled by the Serbian SDB.

Both pleaded not guilty in December 2015 after the appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia overturned their acquittal in their first trial.

The appeals chamber ruled that there were serious legal and factual errors when Stanisic and Simatovic were initially acquitted of war crimes in 2013, and ordered the case to be retried and all the evidence and witnesses reheard in full by new judges.

The trial continues on Wednesday.

Mutiny, Assassination And A Serbian Political Conspiracy (Balkan Insight) By Milos Ciric July 13, 2018

The Higher Court in Belgrade on Friday acquitted seven former members of the Serbian State Security Service's Special Operations Unit, JSO of staging an armed mutiny in November 2001.

The verdict all but puts an end to the already slim chances that the political backers of the mutiny – which was a prelude to the murder of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic two years later by the very same men who led the JSO's uprising – will ever be investigated for their role in both crimes.

Among the men acquitted were Milorad Ulemek, alias Legija, and Zvezdan Jovanovic, both former leaders of the JSO, who have already been sentenced to 40 years in prison for assassinating Djindjic.

Mutiny and capitulation

The JSO was officially established in 1996, but many of its members had been active since 1991, waging war in Bosnia and Croatia as part of groups that went by many different names, as well as serving in paramilitary units and becoming known for their sadistic acts of cruelty. JSO members were distinguishable from fighters from other Serb units by their characteristic headgear – a red beret – giving them the unofficial name under which they're best known among the wider public, the Red Berets.

The majority of these men were never tried for the crimes they allegedly committed in Bosnia, Croatia or Kosovo, where for the first time they fought as the JSO.

In June 2001, Djindjic's government extradited former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, and then in November introduced a criminal procedure code which allowed the extradition of Yugoslav citizens to the tribunal.

Djindjic's political opponents, most notably Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and his Democratic Party of Serbia, Vojislav Seselj and Aleksandar Vucic of the Serbian Radical Party, along with many others, opposed the legislation and led a toxic media campaign against Djindjic and cooperation with the ICTY, dubbing it, as Milosevic himself called it, an 'anti-Serb court'.

In November 2001, as soon as the legislation came into force, JSO members Predrag and Nenad Banovic were extradited to the ICTY. Predrag Banovic pleaded guilty to charges of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, and was ultimately jailed for eight years; Nenad Banovic however was released from ICTY custody in 2002 after the prosecution dropped the charges for the same war crimes.

Following the Banovic brothers' arrest and extradition, JSO members who feared further prosecutions at the ICTY organised an armed mutiny in Belgrade in collaboration with leaders of the biggest criminal gang at the time in Serbia, the Zemun Clan.

The JSO mutineers disobeyed their superiors, stopped taking orders and cut off contact with the government and the outside world from November 9 to November 17.

At one point, armed JSO members with 24 Hummer combat vehicles blocked part of the highway that runs through Belgrade.

Their demands were political. Threatening to use force, they said they would not participate in ICTY arrest operations without the passing of new legislation, and demanded the replacement of the interior minister along with head and deputy head of the State Security Service.

At the time, identical political demands were being put forward by then President Vojislav Kostunica and his Democratic Party of Serbia.

Kostunica, who was in charge of the armed forces and was therefore the only one who could have quashed the mutiny, publicly supported it instead of stopping it, comparing it to a "doctors' strike".

Lacking forces with which to fight back, Djindjic had no choice but to partially fulfill the JSO's and Kostunica's party's demands and put their allies in senior positions at state security agencies.

The JSO members called off their 'protest' as soon as people close to them, Andreja Savic and Milorad Bracanovic, were announced as the new leaders of the Serbian Security Information Agency.

Bracanovic had close connections with JSO leader Legija and the criminal Zemun Clan, whose membership overlapped with the JSO and other leftovers from Milosevic's apparatus of power.

Meanwhile Kostunica and his party used the JSO mutiny to amplify their own political agenda, as they wanted to achieve same political goals – which boiled down to stopping Djindjic from continuing with the reforms that his government had just started undertaking.

Politics and murder

With the aim of starting to combat organised crime, whose top figures were closely linked to the JSO, the Serbian government started preparing a set of laws in 2002 to establish a new Special Court, Special Prosecution and a legal framework for protected witnesses.

In January 2003, the government discovered that Zemun Clan members were getting classified information about its plans to combat organised crime due to constant leaks from the Security Information Agency. This caused Djindjic to replace the leaders of the security services that he was forced to appoint after the mutiny. At the same time, Djindjic also announced talks about the status of Kosovo, which caused his enemies to further portray him as a traitor, and Yugoslavia ceased to exist, becoming a state union of Serbia and Montenegro, leaving Kostunica without the Yugoslav presidency and his party without political power.

In March 2003, amid this vortex of political events, Djindjic was assassinated by members of Zemun clan and the JSO, who wanted – as the murderers later admitted – to provoke chaos in the country by killing the Prime Minister and installing 'patriotic forces' in power.

Immediately following Djindjic's assassination, his close associates declared a state of emergency, disbanded the unit and launched a police operation that partially cleansed Serbia of criminals and uncovered Djindjic's assassins and the network that plotted his murder.

During the years that followed, the assassins were tried and convicted. Members of the JSO were found to have conspired to commit the murder with the help of the Zemun Clan, and Milorad Ulemek, alias 'Legija', the former commander of the JSO, was found guilty of organising the group that conspired to kill Djindjic.

Zvezdan Jovanovic, who was in active service with the unit at the time of the assassination, was found guilty of firing the shots that killed the Serbian Prime Minister. Both Ulemek and Jovanovic are currently serving 40-year prison sentences.

However, despite its many successes, the operation couldn't prevent the inevitable – a number of Djindjic's successors, along with his political enemies, took over the most important political posts in the country soon after his death, turning back the clock and protecting those who supported his murderers.

Questions without answers

In the years following Djindjic's murder, his family, friends, some of his associates, the media and the EU have demanded an investigation into political background to the assassination.

The late Srdja Popovic, the legal representative of Djindjic's family during the trial of his assassins, put forward numerous proposals that would have shed light on this political background, and officially proposed an expansion of the indictment to investigate events surrounding the JSO's mutiny and those involved in it.

In 2010, Popovic filed a criminal complaint to the Special Prosecutor's Office against Kostunica and eight other alleged accomplices, accusing them of involvement in the JSO mutiny.

Popovic's proposals were never seriously considered, although an investigation was launched and resulted in the 2012 indictment for the JSO mutiny – which, however, only charged the same people who had already been tried for the assassination.

In 2014, a letter sent to a letter sent to the European Commission by MEPs Jelko Kacin, Arnaud Danjean, Maria Eleni Koppa and Marije Cornelissen said that Serbia should uncover the political links behind Djindjic's murder as a precondition for EU membership.

Later same year, the Commission responded by stating that revealing the background to the assassination would not be a direct condition for successful negotiations, but would help Serbia's progress towards membership.

However, no court has explored the link between the armed mutiny by JSO members in 2001 and Djindjic's assassination in 2003, despite the fact that both the mutiny and the assassination were conducted by the same people, and with the same political aims – to stop Djindjic's 'traitorous' government from cooperating with the ICTY, stop the fight against organised crime and return political power to ultranationalists who would, among other things, protect those accused of war crimes before the UN tribunal and domestic courts.

The seven JSO members may have been acquitted in the mutiny trial, but at least their guilt has already been established for assassinating Djindjic.

But those who inspired, supported and helped the murderers will remain safe in the shadows, and will probably never face justice for their support for the JSO's insurgency, which was a cornerstone of the conspiracy to kill Djindjic.

Although the prosecution can lodge an appeal against Friday's acquittal verdict, the court's ruling makes it almost certain that those who commissioned and supported Djindjic's killers and profited politically from his assassination will ever face justice.

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Domestic Prosecutions In The Former Yugoslavia

Roma to Sue Serbia for 'Tolerating' War Crime (Balkan Insight) July 5, 2018

Representatives of Serbia's Roma community said they plan to sue the state at the European Court of Human Rights after a Belgrade court acquitted members of paramilitary group of killing 27 Roma civilians in 1992.

The National Council of Roma, the constitutionally-endorsed body representing the country's Roma, and the Roma Centre for Strategy, Development and Democracy NGO said on Thursday that they will sue the Serbian state at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg over the recent verdict that acquitted six paramilitaries of killing 27 Roma in 1992.

They said that Serbia "tolerated a grave war crime by uniformed citizens by Serbia with arms given to them by the then JNA [Yugoslav People's Army], Army of Republika Srpska and the Serbian MUP [interior ministry]".

News agency Beta reported that they sent an open letter announcing the lawsuit to the Serbian president, prime minister and justice ministry, as well as to the OSCE and several other international organisations.

On June 25, Belgrade's Appeals Court confirmed the acquittal of the six former members of the Sima's Chetniks paramilitary unit, clearing them of killing 27 Roma civilians in the village of Skocic in Bosnia in July 1992.

However, three of the former paramilitaries - Zoran Alic, Zoran Djurdjevic and Tomislav Gavric - were convicted of inhumane treatment, violation of physical integrity, sexual humiliation and rape.

In the open letter, the National Council of Roma and the Roma Centre for Strategy, Development and Democracy said that the verdict was "scandalous and has humiliated all Roma, especially those who survived the massacre and came to testify".

They added that the verdict will have a significant influence on Roma people's attitude towards the state and increase tensions and distance between Serbs and Roma.

Croatian Supreme Court Reduces Captain Dragan's Sentence (Balkan Insight) By Sven Milekic July 6, 2018

Croatia's Supreme Court reduced the sentence handed down to former Serbian paramilitary commander Dragan Vasiljkovic, alias Captain Dragan, from 15 to 13- and-a-half years in prison for war crimes in Croatia in 1991.

Croatia's Supreme Court reduced the sentence handed down to former Serbian paramilitary commander Dragan Vasiljkovic, alias 'Captain Dragan', from 15 to 13-and-a-half years in prison for war crimes in Croatia in 1991.

The Supreme Court on Friday published the verdict passed on June 12 cutting the prison sentence given to former Serbian paramilitary commander Dragan Vasiljkovic.

In September last year, the county court in the Croatian coastal city of Split sentenced Vasijkovic to 15 years in prison for war crimes against Croatian civilians and prisoners of war in 1991. But the Supreme Court lowered his sentence to 13-and-a-half years as it partially accepted defence's pleas that the county court had issued sentences for on three counts in the indictment – giving five years in prison for the first and second count, and eight for the third – although Vasiljkovic was found guilty on only two counts.

Vasiljkovic was found guilty of committing the crimes at the fortress in Knin in June and July 1991, where imprisoned Croatian policemen and soldiers were abused, as well as during an attack on a police station in the town of Glina and surrounding villages in July 1991, which result in the killing of one civilian and a journalist.

He was acquitted of committing crimes in the village of Bruska, near the town of Benkovac, in February 1993, when two Croatian soldiers were killed.

Therefore the Supreme Court issued a seven-year prison sentence for the each of the counts on which Vasiljkovic, and a combined sentence of 13-and-a-half years.

All the defence's other complaints were dismissed.

Vasiljkovic will be eligible for early release because he has spent over 11-and-a-half years in custody – in remand prison in Croatia from July 2015, and in an extradition prison in Australia from January 2006, apart from the period between September 2009 and May 2010, when he was free.

According to Croatian law, all prisoners who have served two-thirds of their sentence are eligible for early release.

Vasiljkovic was extradited to Croatia in 2015 from Australia, where he had been working as a golf instructor under the name Daniel Snedden.

He had moved to Australia at the age of 14 but returned to Yugoslavia before the start of the 1990s conflicts and was then sent by the authorities in Belgrade to be the commander of a training centre for a Serb special paramilitary unit in Croatia in 1991.

He denied committing war crimes and pleaded not guilty at his trial.

Serbian Red Berets Fighter Accused of Lying to Court (Balkan Insights) By Radosa Milutinovic July 11, 2018

At the retrial of former Serbian State Security officials Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic at the Mechanism for International Tribunals in The Hague on Wednesday, Stanisic's lawyer claimed that Red Berets ex-fighter Dejan Sliskovic "made up" testimony allegedly incriminating the defendants.

Prosecution witness Sliskovic testified on Tuesday that Stanisic commanded the 'Pauk' ('Spider') operation in western Bosnia in 1994 and 1995.

Sliskovic, a former member of the Serbian State Security Service's Anti-Terrorist Actions Unit, JATD, said he participated in the Pauk operation alongside members of the Red Berets, the Serbian Volunteer Guard commanded by Zeljko Raznatovic, alias Arkan, the Scorpions unit and other Serb forces.

He said he was a member of the security team guarding Stanisic's command post in the wartime self- proclaimed Serb-led Republic of Serbian Krajina rebel statelet in Croatia.

During, cross-examination Stanisic's lawyer Wayne Jordash asked the witness who commanded the Pauk operation.

"Jovica Stanisic," Sliskovic answered, adding that Stanisic issued orders to his subordinate Simatovic.

But Jordash said that Stanisic's name was mentioned "only twice over the course of six months" in the official war diary of the Pauk operation.

The lawyer suggested that the witness had never heard Stanisic issue an order to Milorad Ulemek, alias Legija, who at the time was a senior officer with Arkan's Serbian Volunteer Guard. Jordash also asked the witness whether he personally saw Stanisic issue orders to Red Berets unit officer Radojica Bozovic. Sliskovic responded: "Not personally."

"You made it up that a large number of JATD members participated in combat activities in Velika Kladusa [in Bosnia]," Jordash insisted, suggesting that they were only involved in security and reconnaissance- related work.

"I am not making it up. I am under oath and I would not mess with that," Sliskovic responded.

Stanisic, the former chief of the Serbian State Security Service, and his former assistant Simatovic are charged with having been protagonists in a joint criminal enterprise led by then Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, aimed at permanently and forcibly removing Bosniaks and Croats from large parts of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to achieve Serb domination.

Although the indictment does not charge Stanisic and Simatovic with crimes committed in the Pauk operation, the prosecutors are presenting evidence about the operation in an attempt to show the defendants' pattern of behaviour as protagonists in the joint criminal enterprise.

Stanisic and Simatovic are charged with persecution, murders and deportations in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, according to the charges were committed by members of the Red Berets, the Serbian Volunteer Guard and other units controlled by the State Security Service.

Both pleaded not guilty in December 2015 after the appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia overturned their acquittal in their first trial.

The appeals chamber ruled that there were serious legal and factual errors when Stanisic and Simatovic were initially acquitted of war crimes in 2013, and ordered the case to be retried and all the evidence and witnesses reheard in full by new judges.

The trial continues on Thursday.

Serbia Acquits State Security Officers of Armed Uprising (Balkan Insight) By Filip Rudic July 13, 2018

Belgrade Higher Court acquitted seven members of the Serbian security service's now-disbanded Special Operations Unit of involvement in a rebellion against the government of Zoran Djindjic in 2001.

Belgrade Higher Court on Friday acquitted the Special Operations Unit, JSO's commander Milorad Ulemek, alias Legija, and his former colleagues of staging an uprising in 2001 against the newly-elected Serbian government, when armed members of the unit blocked roads and refused to obey orders.

Ulemek, who was also sentenced in 2009 to 40 years in prison for the 2003 murder of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, was not present at the sentencing.

The court also acquitted former JSO officers Zvezdan Jovanovic, Veselin Lecic, Dragoslav Krsmanovic, Dragisa Radic, Vladimir Pocic and Mica Petrakovic. The court had previously separated the proceedings against an eighth officer, Dusan Maricic, from the rest.

The policemen were accused of blocking a main street in the Serbian capital and the road to the town of Vrbas in November 2001, allegedly because the newly-installed democratic government had sent two JSO members, brothers Nenad and Predrag Banovic, to stand trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY.

Two years later, Djindjic was shot dead in front of the government building in Belgrade in an operation organised by the JSO and the 'Zemun Clan' organised crime gang.

In 2009, Ulemek was convicted of masterminding the assassination, while JSO member Zvezdan Jovanovic pulled the trigger.

Ulemek has also been convicted of the murder of 1980s Serbian President Ivan Stambolic, and the attempted murder of former opposition leader Vuk Draskovic. The verdict on Friday was also attended by the leader of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party, Vojislav Seselj, who recently pledged to seek a review of Ulemek's conviction for the 2003 murder of Djindjic.

The JSO was formed in the 1990s on President Slobodan Milosevic's orders and run by Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, who are currently being retried for war crimes in the Hague Tribunal after their initial acquittal in 2013.

The unit carried out secret operations for the state and allegedly committed mass murders during the conflicts in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. It was disbanded in 2003.

Kosovo Court Upholds Serb Reservist's Indictment (Balkan Insight) July 16, 2018

Kosovo's Appeals Court rejected an appeal from the defence of former reservist Darko Tasic, upholding his indictment for committing war crimes in the village of Krusha e Vogel/ Mala Krusa in March 1999.

Kosovo's Appeals Court on Monday confirmed the indictment of Serb ex-reservist Darko Tasic for allegedly committing war crimes in the village Krusha e Vogel/ Mala Krusha in March 1999.

The ruling came in response to an appeal by Tasic's defence to dismiss the indictment.

The Appeals Court's decision means the trial of Tasic will continue at the Basic Court of Prizren.

Kosovo's Special Prosecution claims Tasic, in his capacity as a member of the reserve forces of the Yugoslav police or paramilitary forces, in co-perpetration with others whose identity is not known, participated in the confiscation of property, robberies, and illegal and deliberate destruction of property which was not justified by military objectives.

The crimes, which included the burning of houses in the village, were committed between March 15 and 26, 1999, the prosecution claims.

Tasic is also accused of taking vehicles, agricultural machinery and other valuable items belonging to a man called Kasum Hajdari and other villagers.

He is further charged with participation in burning unidentified dead bodies and throwing them in the river.

The prosecution said that Tasic's actions constituted criminal offences of looting, illegal destruction and a serious and cruel attack on human dignity.

Tasic was arrested in November 2017 at the Brnjak border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia.

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MIDDLE EAST AND ASIA

Iraq

Grotian Moment: The International War Crimes Trial Blog

Iraq declares state of emergency amid ongoing violent protests (Kurdistan 24) By Baxtiyar Goran July 14, 2018

Despite measures by the Iraqi government, including shutting down all social media and most internet services, protests in southern Iraq continued for the sixth day.

Demonstrators demanded jobs and radically improved public services, while they denounced Iran's influence in their region.

The protests, led by local tribal leaders, began in Basra and then spread to five other southern provinces: Najaf, Karbala, Maysan, Babil, and Dhi Qar.

On Saturday, they entered their sixth consecutive day.

Violent clashes took place between demonstrators and anti-riot police in front of the residence of the Dhi Qar Governor.

The Iraqi government has taken measures to crack down on the demonstrations. It shut down access to social media throughout the country, including the Kurdistan Region, and ordered an internet blackout in most of Iraq.

Baghdad also mobilized security forces to quell the demonstrations, and fatalities ensued.

Two protesters died of their injuries after being attacked by Iraqi forces in the city of Ammara, in Maysan Province. In Najaf, another two protesters were killed by security forces, while seven were wounded.

Some reports suggest that elements within the army are siding with the demonstrators, and it is other forces that are primarily involved in suppressing the unrest. A split within the Iraqi security forces would be very significant.

In the city of Nasriyya (Dhi Qar Governorate), protestors chanted, "Iran, Iran, we don't want you anymore, Dhi Qar will not shut up anymore!"

In Najaf, thousands of protestors filled the streets, calling for the destruction of the local headquarters of the Dawa Party—the party of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

Security forces responded by imposing a curfew, while they cut the supply of electricity.

In Basra, protesters were dispersed as one militia—the Badr Brigade—used live ammunition against them, as they tried to storm the party's office.

The Badr Brigade is a major element within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), the Shi'a militias raised after 2014 to fight the Islamic State. Hadi al-Ameri heads the PMF and also leads the Badr Brigade, which was long-standing ties to Iran.

Despite the armed response of the Badr Brigade, protestors in Basra, nonetheless, managed to burn one of its offices there.

More Iraqi troops including an armored division and Counter-Terror forces, were deployed to the city to counter the protests.

Footage is also circulating on social media that shows demonstrators attacking and chasing a vehicle belonging to a delegation from Muqtada al Sadr, the mercurial cleric, who won the May 12 elections (Ameri came in second, just behind him.)

Sadr sent the delegation to try to negotiate with the protestors and restore calm, an informed source told Kurdistan 24. However, the effort failed.

Notably, every major Shi'a leader—Abadi, Ameri, and Sadr—has been rejected by the protestors, who, themselves, represent Iraq's Shi'a heartland.

ISIS is making a comeback in Iraq just months after Baghdad declared victory (Washington Post) By Liz Sly, Mustafa Salim July 17, 2018

The Islamic State is creeping back into parts of central Iraq just seven months after the government declared victory in the war against the group, embarking on a wave of kidnappings, assassinations and bombings that have raised fears that a new cycle of insurgency is starting again.

The small-scale attacks are taking place mostly in remote areas that have been neglected by the government and are chillingly reminiscent of the kind of tactics that characterized the Islamic State insurgency in the years before 2014, when the group captured a vast swath of territory across Iraq and Syria.

The militants have since been driven out of all but two small pockets in Syria near the Iraqi border, where they are surrounded by U.S.-backed or Syrian government forces. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared "final victory" over the Islamic State in December, and President Trump said in Helsinki on Monday that the battle is now "98 percent, 99 percent" complete.

The resurgence of violence, in a triangle of sparsely populated territory stretching across the provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk and Salahuddin, has prompted many Iraqis to question whether the victory declaration was premature.

Over the past two months, dozens of people, including local government officials, tribal elders and village chiefs, have been abducted and killed or ransomed by fighters claiming affiliation with the Islamic State. Electricity infrastructure and oil pipelines have been blown up. Armed men dressed as security forces and manning fake checkpoints have hijacked trucks and robbed travelers, rendering the main Baghdad-Kirkuk highway unsafe for a period of weeks.

In one of the most sinister attacks, six members of the Iraqi security forces were captured at one of the fake checkpoints and forced to appear in a somewhat wobbly video. Kneeling before the black-and-white Islamic State flag and flanked by two heavily bearded figures, the men took turns warning that they would be killed if the Iraqi government did not release Sunni women prisoners. Days later, the bullet-ridden bodies of the men were found dumped in the area.

The video jolted Iraqis, stirring memories of the worst of the Islamic State's excesses during the years that it ruled over its self-proclaimed "caliphate." Traffic on the Baghdad-Kirkuk highway thinned as nervous travelers refrained from driving and instead booked flights, which sold out weeks in advance.

"Of course people are nervous. People finally thought there was stability and that they can travel wherever they want, and then there are these attacks and this video and people are afraid again," said Imad Mahmoud, a member of the Diyala provincial council. "The terrorists are attacking from the empty desert and the mountains where there are still small cells. They are not large in number but they are launching surprise, fast attacks and they have people inside the towns who are helping them."

It was inevitable that the Islamic State would attempt a comeback after its crushing defeat, said Hisham al- Hashimi, an Iraqi counterterrorism expert based in Baghdad who advises the government. But, he said, "they are returning faster than I anticipated. That they have returned this fast is very dangerous."

He blames the government's failure to deliver aid and reconstruction to an area that was among the first to be freed from Islamic State control but has seen little in the way of assistance. "The Iraqi government did well on the military side but it didn't do well in bringing stability to those areas. It is to the advantage of ISIS that the government has not implemented any of its plans."

This latest iteration of the insurgency is a long way from being in a position to capture whole cities or control territory, analysts and military officials say. The Iraqi security forces have launched operations over the past two weeks aimed at rooting out the militants, and they have claimed some successes.

The government has declared that the Baghdad-Kirkuk road is now safe, and drivers and passengers who take the route say there are new checkpoints every kilometer. An operation this week by Iraqi and Kurdish security forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes, succeeded in eradicating an Islamic State safe haven that had emerged in mountains near the town of Makhmour, the U.S. military said Tuesday in a statement.

The Post's Tamer El-Ghobashy traveled to Qayyarah, Iraq, where fleeing Islamic State fighters set off oil wells that burned for months. Now, residents of the town are facing highly unusual medical conditions. (Tamer El-Ghobashy, Joyce Lee/The Washington Post) But attacks have persisted in areas away from security sweeps, and it is unclear whether the government is reversing the militants' momentum. Government attention is now being further diverted by a political crisis in Baghdad, where negotiations for the formation of a new government after fraud-tainted elections in May are being delayed by a recount of the ballots and by the eruption of widespread anti-government protests in the mostly Shiite provinces of the south. The Iraqi security forces are in better shape today to contain the violence than they were in 2014, when whole divisions fled the Islamic State advance, said Col. Sean Ryan, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. "They're just doing small-scale attacks because they don't have large-scale abilities any more," he said. "But what they do have is the ability to scare the population. The fight is not over, and if people are putting their guard down, it's a little too early."

Although the Islamic State doesn't control territory in the way it did before, it does appear to have freedom of movement across a large stretch of terrain and especially at night, said Michael Knights, a military analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The territory in question spans an area that was only briefly held by the Islamic State before forces mostly composed of Shiite militias swept through and drove the militants out in late 2014 and early 2015. The fighting displaced tens of thousands of people, most of whom have not returned, leaving scores of largely destroyed, depopulated villages scattered across inhospitable terrain.

These ghost towns offer a perfect environment for a guerrilla army to regroup, Knights said. The surrounding areas include mountains, densely vegetated palm forests and networks of irrigation canals that are unsuitable for the kind of heavy mechanized Iraqi army sweeps that serve, at best, to "mow the grass," he said.

"There's no real evidence that that's working, and there's a lot of evidence that ISIS is recovering," he said.

"It was very predictable that the ISIS guys would reboot the strongest in this area. These are the most difficult ungoverned spaces in Iraq for the Iraqi security forces to garrison, and it is also the place where ISIS has had the longest to regroup," Knights added. "They can't control territory, but they can control roads and they can move at night."

Some fighters involved in the recent attacks are believed to be remnants of the original force that took over the area four years ago and hid out in the nearby Hamreen mountains, which were never fully cleared, Hashimi said. Others are fighters who escaped the battles over the past year in western Iraq and Hawija outside Kirkuk. He estimates there could be as many as 2,000 fighters operating in small cells across the three provinces.

They appear to be acting in accordance with instructions issued in an April audiotape released by the Islamic State's current spokesman, Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, in which he urged surviving Islamic State fighters to conduct attacks targeting Iraq's economic infrastructure and Iraqi Sunnis who collaborate with the government.

"This is a model they've maintained in the past, and it seems they're moving ahead and gaining momentum" said Renad Mansour of the London-based Chatham House think tank. "There's a lot of frustration over why Abadi declared victory when it seems they are still there. It seems the insurgency is starting again."

Iraqi security arrest four Islamic State members in Mosul city (Iraqi News) By Mohammed Ebraheem July 18, 2018

The Iraqi Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that it arrested four dangerous Islamic State militants in the group's last stronghold of Mosul.

In remarks to the Iraqi Alghad Press website, spokesman for the Interior Ministry Maj. Gen. Saad Maan said, "The four terrorists were arrested in al-Zahraa and al-Qahira districts in Mosul's eastern side."

"One of the arrestees was working for the terrorist group's Iftaa (religious opinion) department," Maan pointed out.

Iraqi authorities regularly announce the capture of Islamic State extremists in different parts in the country since the collapse of the group's territorial influence in the country last year.

The exact number of detained militants is still unknown, however, it's estimated to be at thousands. Moreover, the Iraqi government did not provide estimates about number of the foreign detained militants or those who have Arab or Iraqi origins. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced last year the liberation of the second largest Iraqi city of Mosul from IS militants, who had captured it in 2014. More than 25,000 militants were killed throughout the campaign, which started in October 2016.

Despite the group's crushing defeat at its main havens across Iraq, Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks against troops with security reports warning that the militant group still poses a threat against stability in the country.

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Syria

Syria war: Anti-IS strike 'kills many civilians' (BBC) July 13, 2018

The US-led coalition says it "may have" carried out an air strike in an area of eastern Syria where scores of civilians were reportedly killed on Thursday.

Fifty-four people, including at least 28 civilians as well as Islamic State (IS) group militants, died in the strike on a village near the Iraqi border, a monitoring group says.

The raid hit a gathering at an ice factory near the village of al-Soussa.

Syria has blamed the US for the incident in Deir al-Zour province.

"The coalition or our partner forces may have conducted strikes in the vicinity of al-Soussa... yesterday," coalition spokesman US Army Col Sean Ryan told Reuters news agency.

The area around al-Soussa, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river, is still under the control of IS, which still retains pockets of territory near the border with Iraq.

IS militants in the area have come under attack from Syrian government forces backed by Russian air power from the west and US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) backed by US coalition air power from the east.

The nearby town of Albu Kamal, on the western bank of the Euphrates, was retaken by Syrian government forces in December.

Iraq, which has practically expelled IS from its territory, has also recently carried out air strikes on suspected IS militants near the border in Syria.

The jihadists seized control of large parts of northern and western Iraq and northern and eastern Syria in 2014 but has since lost nearly all that territory.

Up to 22 killed, including 9 Iranians, in Syria strike blamed on Israel – report (Times of Israel) July 16, 2018

Syrian rebel forces claimed that 22 people, including nine Iranians, were killed in an overnight strike in northern Syria blamed on Israel, the Qatar-based al-Jazeera network reported Monday.

The figure, which could not be confirmed, was much higher than an earlier report of nine deaths provided by a Syrian watchdog group.

The al-Jazeera report did not cite its sources or give any further details.

Syrian state media has accused Israel of carrying out the bombing of a military position in Aleppo province late Sunday, in what would be a rare Israeli attack so far north in the war-ravaged country. "The Israeli missiles targeted an Iranian Revolutionary Guard center, near the Neyrab military airport," said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.

He said those killed included at least six Syrians, but could not specify the nationalities of the remaining fighters.

The position is a logistics hub used to provide equipment and food to pro-regime forces fighting at nearby fronts, but it did not store weapons, Abdel Rahman said.

Earlier Monday, the country's official news agency SANA reported there was only damage to the site, identified as the Al-Nayrab airbase, adjacent to Aleppo's international airport.

"The Zionist enemy (Israel)… targeted with its missiles one of our military positions north of the Nayrab military airport, but the damage was only material," SANA said citing a military source.

Al-Nayrab has in the past been linked with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps militia.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside the country, said it had recorded a wave of blasts around Nayrab on Sunday night.

It said that a suspected Israeli missile strike had targeted "positions held by Syria's regime and its allies at the Nayrab airport" and its surroundings.

The base was reportedly previously struck by Israel on April 29 as part of a large raid that also targeted weapons depots near Hama.

There was no immediate comment from Israel, which rarely confirms such attacks.

Suspected Israeli airstrikes have hit Syrian army positions near Damascus and in the central provinces of Homs and Hama in the past. However, they rarely occur as far north as Aleppo.

The raid came hours before a high-stakes summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, where Syria and Iran are expected to be on the agenda.

Israel has been pushing Russia to remove Iranian-aligned militia fighters from Syria, and has vowed to stop them from getting a foothold anywhere in the country. Russia has reportedly only agreed to removing them from the Golan border region.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met with Putin in Moscow last week, said Sunday he had discussed the issue with Trump a day earlier.

Netanyahu reportedly told Putin during their Wednesday meeting that Israel would not challenge Assad's control of Syria, in exchange for freedom to act against Iran.

On July 8, Israel was accused of carrying out an airstrike on the T-4 military base near Homs, also thought to be used by IRGC fighters.

Syria rescue group says 10 killed in airstrike on shelter (ABC) By Sarah El Deeb July 17, 2018

Dozens of Syrians displaced by a government offensive marched toward the Israel- occupied Golan Heights in a rare peaceful protest on Tuesday, shortly after a suspected Russian airstrike hit a school serving as a shelter in southwestern Syria, killing at least 10 people, according to activists.

The marchers waved white flags at Israeli soldiers as they walked toward the frontier in the Golan Heights, demanding protection from the relentless airstrikes, before they turned back.

The brief protest came as Syrian and Russian airstrikes have intensified in the Quneitra countryside and the southwestern Daraa province.

Tuesday's airstrike hit in the village of Ain el-Tineh in Quneitra province, about 7 kilometers (4 miles) from the Israeli frontier, according to a Syrian search and rescue team. Khaled Solh of the Syrian Civil Defense group, also known as the White Helmets, said the building was being used to shelter families that were forced to flee their homes amid the fighting in southwestern Syria.

He blamed the airstrike on Russia, Syrian President Bashar Assad's top ally.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors Syria's civil war through a network of activists on the ground, put the death toll from the airstrike at 14, including four women and five children.

The Observatory said 180 civilians have been killed in fighting in the region since June 19.

Syrian government troops, backed by Russian forces, have stepped up their attacks on the remaining opposition pockets in the region, launching over 1,500 shells and airstrikes in the last two days alone, according to the Observatory.

In the border march, Moaz al-Assaad, a photographer in Quneitra, said by the time he made it to the frontier with Israel, the protesters had dispersed. Israeli media reported that Israeli soldiers shouted through loudspeakers, asking the crowd to turn back.

Earlier, al-Assaad also said that he counted at least 20 wounded at the scene of the airstrike, including children.

The International Rescue Committee said the government's advance in southwestern Syria has trapped tens of thousands of displaced Syrians along the frontier with the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in 1967. The aid group said there are urgent concerns for the safety of around 160,000 people who fled to the area earlier this month and are now caught between the frontier and the advancing Syrian army.

The IRC estimated that around 5 percent of the displaced people are living out in the open with only trees to provide shelter.

"There really is nowhere else for these people to go and seek safety," said the IRC's Mark Schnellbaecher. "They can hear the fighting getting closer and worry it's only a matter of time before the front line reaches them."

The United Nations said last week that over 230,000 people have been displaced since June 17 in southwestern Syria, which borders Jordan and the Golan Heights. Jordan has said it will not open its borders to the newly displaced Syrians.

Since June, Syrian troops and allied forces have seized control of most of the southwestern Daraa province, including the provincial capital of the same name. The city of Daraa was the cradle of the uprising against Assad seven years ago.

As Syrian forces advanced and the rebels were overpowered, they struck deals with the government under which hundreds of rebel fighters and their families were evacuated to northern Syria.

With the city of Daraa and most of the province under their control, government forces have turned their focus to the area near the frontier with Israel, to clear the last pockets of the opposition. Insurgents affiliated with the Islamic State group also hold a sliver of territory on the southern tip of the region.

UK 'complicit in killing civilians and risks being prosecuted over illegal drone operations', major report suggests (Independent) By Lizzie Dearden July 17, 2018

British military personnel could be prosecuted for killing civilians in drone strikes and risk becoming complicit in alleged war crimes committed by the US, an inquiry has found.

A two-year probe by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Drones revealed that the number of operations facilitated by the UK in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia has been growing without any public scrutiny.

As well as launching its own strikes, the Ministry of Defence is assisting operations by the US and other allies that could violate both national and international law, it said.

Professor Michael Clarke, chair of the parliamentary drones group, said the UK was working with countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar that "do not work on standard Nato rules".

"As the trend of British personnel being embedded with foreign forces increases there is a danger they will find themselves complicit in drone strikes that are not legal on our terms," he told The Independent.

"If we're prepared to be a bit lax, which we are, it will get considerably worse as the use of drones proliferates."

Professor Clarke, the former director-general of the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said any airstrike must be proportionate, with care taken to avoid civilian casualties.

"If civilians are going to get killed for a strike that 'might be helpful', that's not good enough," he added.

"Anecdotal evidence shows that operations that would previously not regarded as worth it are now, because drones are cheaper and lower the risk to the attacker."

The UK currently has a range of small unmanned surveillance aircraft flying alongside a fleet of 10 MQ-9 Reapers, which are set to be replaced in 2024 with more than 20 Protector drones.

Military leaders told MPs that drones have become "a normal part of the business of gathering intelligence and conducting precision strike operations" and their use will continue increasing.

The killing of British Isis militants Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin in 2015 marked a departure from Britain's previous practice, seeing the British jihadis droned in Syria without parliamentary approval.

They were followed by the British militant known as Jihadi John, who was killed in an American drone strike supported by UK intelligence, and several other jihadis whose deaths have been revealed by relatives or in domestic terror cases.

Professor Clarke said the government put forward "weak and inconsistent" legal arguments to justify the operations.

"'Arguably lawful' is just not good enough," he added. "No one objected because everyone was very glad to see the back of Jihadi John, but behind that the principles being compromised are very important."

The government says the targeted militants constituted a significant threat to the UK but has not presented any information that would allow MPs or parliamentary committees to make a judgement.

A now deleted line in the MoD's Joint Doctrine Publication on Unmanned Aircraft Systems stated that the UK had "a practice of targeting suspected terrorists outside of the armed conflict itself" and the defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, has stated his wish to "hunt down" suspected terrorists in "Iraq and Syria and other areas".

The drones group found growing evidence that Britain is taking on military commitments to assist allies without parliament's authorisation.

"The current government does not consider parliamentary approval necessary when providing assistance to allies," it concluded.

"As cooperation is likely to increase in the future, this approach leaves an expanding oversight and accountability gap. Moreover, it leaves UK personnel and ministers vulnerable to criminal liability in allies' unlawful strikes."

Because the use of force outside conflicts Britain is directly involved with is not protected by combatant immunity, British servicemen and women can be prosecuted for murder.

"There is growing concern that the UK is likely supporting a drone programme where the US commits unlawful acts," the report said. "This Inquiry has found that the support provided by the UK constitutes the provision of material assistance to a state that appears to be violating international law."

American forces operate four bases in the UK, while Britain operates and flies military drones from partner bases around the world.

Britain both shares personnel and intelligence with allies that can be used in the commission of strikes, and its personnel pilot American drones.

The report said the situation was "deeply problematic" because of the lack of oversight, while almost every request for information is "categorically dismissed".

The government has refused to detail its policy on targeting or the process of launching drone strikes to parliament – or what is defined as a "combatant".

While American forces have confirmed the death of more than 900 civilians in airstrikes on Isis strongholds in Iraq and Syria since 2014, the UK puts its own total at one after more than 1,700 strikes in those countries, and claimed a single operation caused civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

Professor Clarke called the British government's claims "ridiculous", adding: "They don't look for evidence and they don't try to look for evidence."

The parliamentary group called for proper mechanisms to identify civilian casualties, which are frequently reported in Isis territory and other areas where no British forces are present on the ground.

It warned that drone strikes can be used as propaganda by terrorist groups, while local residents experience psychological trauma and economic loss that continues to drive the cycle of violence.

MPs were also concerned about a shift in legal interpretation on a country's right to defend itself against "imminent" attack, which the US has applied broadly to suspected terrorists worldwide.

In January last year, the attorney general suggested Britain had adopted America's "dangerously expansive" interpretation of the right to self-defence.

Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas, who sits on the drones group, said the government has "adopted a 'kill policy' in secret, and without parliamentary debate or the prospect of proper independent scrutiny".

Labour MP Clive Lewis said: "Parliament is mandated to hold military policy and practice to account, but that role is slowly being hollowed out. When it comes to scrutinising Britain's drone warfare, we're kept in the dark."

Adam Holloway, a Conservative MP and co-chair of the group said: "Taking back control means nothing if parliament has no mechanism to scrutinise the big questions of war," he added. "There is an opportunity to set an example to the world through our drones policies: the government should seize it."

Baroness Vivien Stern, a crossbench peer and co-chair of the drones group, said: "When Britain shares its bases, intelligence and personnel with drone partners, we risk acting unlawfully. We need know that the right safeguards in place."

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Afghanistan

Australia, New Zealand look into war crimes allegations in Afghanistan (DAWN) By A. Odysseus Patrick July 16, 2018

Australian and New Zealand officials are examining allegations that members of their countries' Special Forces units committed crimes in Afghanistan, including possibly carrying out executions of unarmed prisoners.

A senior Australian judge and a former New Zealand prime minister are conducting inquiries into separate but remarkably similar incidents during the war, which will soon enter its 18th year.

Australian media outlets, citing anonymous complaints by serving and retired soldiers, have reported that members of Australia's Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) may have killed prisoners while hunting for a soldier from the Afghan National Army who deserted after killing three Australian soldiers on a military base in southern Afghanistan in 2012.

Two years earlier, a unit of the New Zealand SAS — the British and Commonwealth equivalent of Navy Seals or the US Army's Delta Force — led a raid on a village north of Kabul the SAS suspected was home to fighters responsible for a roadside bomb that had killed a New Zealand soldier.

Six civilians were killed and 15 injured in the raid, most of them women and children, according to a book by two New Zealand journalists, Hit & Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the Meaning of Honour. No enemy fighters were found, they wrote, contradicting the official account.

The US military has been accused of numerous crimes against civilians in modern times, dating to the 1968 My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War. Such allegations have been rare for Australia and New Zealand, which were drawn into the Afghan war through their military alliance with the United States.

Although Australia withdrew combat forces from Afghanistan in 2013, at one point it was the largest contributor outside Nato to the US-led mission. New Zealand's force was much smaller, although it sent its most prestigious military unit, the SAS.

In Australia, a judge and a former head of the domestic intelligence service are conducting separate but related investigations into Australian soldiers' behaviour in Afghanistan and the changes made to improve the culture of the Army's Special Forces.

The New Zealand government and military have taken similar steps, under the pressure of media coverage. This year, a former top judge and prime minister were asked to investigate the 2010 incident. The defence forces are also conducting a legal review of a battle six years earlier involving New Zealand's most decorated soldier.

In one of the incidents under investigation in Australia, a SAS soldier is alleged to have been coerced by his fellow soldiers into executing an elderly Afghan prisoner as part of an initiation ritual, TheSun-Herald and The Sunday Age newspapers have reported. Members of the unit also allegedly used another dead Afghan's prosthetic leg as a beer tankard.

Australian military officials have said they are responding to complaints from their own soldiers. "They are serious allegations and, as Australians would expect, they must be thoroughly examined independently from the chain of command," the then chief of the country's defence force, Mark Binskin, said in a written statement last month.

A separate official inquiry two years ago reported some members of Australia's Special Forces had described a "complete lack of accountability" in their units as well as "unsanctioned and illegal application of violence on operations".

Some of the Australian soldiers have told journalists that repeated combat tours undermined respect for the rules of armed conflict and consideration for Afghan civilians.

"There is a view among many former operators that we were there too long and they deployed too often," said Chris Masters, the author of No Front Line: Australia's Special Forces at War in Afghanistan, in an interview. "Desensitisation set in."

The Australian military has published ads in Afghan newspapers promising anonymity to anyone who wants to complain about Australian soldiers' conduct. Critics say the ads are an invitation to the Taliban and other hostile groups to force Australian soldiers to respond to untrue allegations.

"How many false claims will come up?" said Kevin Bailey, a former SAS soldier who is now a conservative political candidate. "How much propaganda will the enemy get? Imagine fighting the Nazis in the Second World War and saying to the German people: 'Our people are doing terrible things. Please comment.'"

One sensitive aspect of the allegations in both countries is a connection to soldiers awarded the Victoria Cross, the Commonwealth equivalent of the US Medal of Honor.

In 2004, a New Zealand SAS unit was ambushed in a pre-dawn attack in southern Afghanistan by about 20 fighters, according to an official account. A corporal carried a severely injured colleague nearly 80 yards to safety while being shot at. He then returned to the fight and helped defeat the attackers.

The soldier, Willie Apiata, was awarded the Victoria Cross, the first New Zealander to be so honoured since World War II. He became a national hero.

Last year, an online documentary suggested there was more to the battle than revealed in Apiata's short, official citation for valour.

Based on interviews with Afghan villagers, it reported that the New Zealand SAS soldiers may have provoked the fight by roughing up nearby villagers beforehand. The next day, after the firefight, the soldiers dumped the bodies of the dead Afghan fighters back at the village, where they kicked in doors and restrained 15 or 16 residents with plastic handcuffs, according to the documentary makers, who did not suggest Apiata had not behaved bravely.

Now, New Zealand defence officials are re-examining the case. "All of those allegations made in the documentary series are being looked at to see if they meet the threshold of well-founded allegation," the chief of New Zealand's defence force, Tim Keating, said last month, two weeks before he retired.

Several Australian media organisations including The Age newspaper reported recently that questions have been raised about the conduct in Afghanistan of an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, Ben Roberts- Smith, along with that of other soldiers.

The corporal served with the elite force in Afghanistan during six deployments between 2006 and 2012. He now helps manage a television network.

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Yemen

Suspected US drone strike kills 7 al-Qaida members in Yemen (Star Tribune) By Ahmed Al-Haj July 6, 2018

Yemeni tribal leaders say a suspected U.S. drone strike has killed seven alleged al- Qaida militants as they were driving along a road in the country's south.

The tribal leaders said on Friday that the operatives were killed when an unmanned aircraft targeted their vehicle in the southern province of Shabwa. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemeni affiliate is known, has long been considered the global network's most dangerous branch and has attempted to carry out attacks on the U.S. mainland.

Yemen was plunged into civil war more than three years ago. Al-Qaida and an Islamic State affiliate have exploited the chaos to expand their presence in the country.

Officials say fighting along Yemen's west coast kills 165 (Star Tribune) By Ahmed Al-Haj July 7, 2018

Heavy fighting between the Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Shiite rebels along the country's west coast has killed more than 165 people from both sides, Yemeni officials said on Saturday, amid efforts by the U.N. special envoy to restart peace talks between the warring parties.

The security officials said the battles have been concentrated over the past two days in al-Tuhytat district, south of the key port city of Hodeida. It comes as Yemenis continue to flee the west coast seeking shelter in safer areas. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Yemeni government forces, backed by air cover from the Saudi-led coalition, are seeking to expand their control along the west coast and especially in Hodeida, a vital lifeline for Yemen's import-dependent population. The coalition had in June launched an offensive to retake the city from the rebels, known as Houthis, but paused it last week in support of the U.N. peace efforts.

The government of self-exiled Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi called for rebels' "unconditional withdrawal" from the city. The Houthis have long refused handing over Hodeida but recently offered to submit the port to U.N. control as part of a cease-fire in the city.

U.N. Special Envoy Martin Griffiths has held talks with both sides in recent weeks in the hopes of preventing a full-scale coalition assault on Hodeida. He expressed optimism after his latest meeting with top Houthi leaders. The officials added that Griffiths is expected to hold another meeting with Hadi on Monday.

Impoverished Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since March 2015 as the Saudi-led coalition aims to restore Hadi's government to power.

Amnesty calls for probe of torture claims in Yemen prisons (Aljazeera) July 12, 2018

An international rights group is calling for an investigation into alleged disappearances, torture and likely deaths in prisons and "network of secret detention facilities" run by the United Arab Emirates and allied militias in southern Yemen.

Amnesty International said in a report on Thursday that it has documented "systemic enforced disappearance and torture and other ill-treatment, amounting to war crimes" in the facilities.

The report said "some (detainees are) feared to have died in custody".

Based on more than 70 interviews, the authors said "cruel and unlawful" practices were being committed in those prisons.

Amnesty called on the UAE government to immediately stop the torture, and to release detainees.

In the meantime, it said the US should suspend intelligence gathering cooperation with the UAE, and stop supplying it with weapons.

Amnesty said that the 51 cases of enforced disappearance took place between March 2016 and May 2018.

Nineteen of the men remain missing, it said.

Amnesty said it had collected testimonies from released detainees and relatives of the missing across Yemen.

"We've done this through interviews with families, government officials, current and former detainess," Tirana Hasson, director for crisis response at Amnesty, said in an interview with Al Jazeera.

"We've also been on the ground in Aden ... and all fingers point to really alarming patterns of abuse that have been ongoing now for well over a year, and they have been taking place within a culture of impunity."

The "most egregious violations" were committed in the "network of secret detention facilities" maintained by the UAE, Tirana said.

One former detainee told Amnesty that "UAE soldiers at a coalition base in Aden repeatedly inserted an object into his anus until he bled" and that he was "kept in a hole in the ground with only his head above the surface and left to defecate and urinate on himself in that position".

Last year, the Associated Press news agency reported that the UAE and its allied militias were running a network of secret detention facilities, beyond the control of the Yemeni government.

'Advancing their own interests'

Andreas Krieg, assistant professor at the defence studies department of King's College London, told Al Jazeera that the UAE's presence in Yemen was aimed at furthering the country's interests in the region. "They [UAE] have been sucked into the Yemen war at the invitation of Saudi Arabia but there has been an agreement with Saudi Arabia that if the UAE got involved in Yemen, they do so to advance their own national interests, which are not necessarily the same as Saudi interests because Yemen really never posed a direct threat to the UAE [and] neither did the Houthis," Krieg said.

"For the Emiratis, Yemen is an access point to the Indian Ocean and the horn of Africa and if you see the string of pearls that is emerging, Yemen is in many ways the crown jewel in this string of pearls that the UAE have lined up across the horn of Africa."

Asked whether the UAE was planning to make its presence in Yemen permanent, Krieg said that Abu Dhabi had "dug in deeply," having built sustainable relations with local surrogates who have been involved in the detention camps.

In June, the AP revealed that hundreds of detainees had been subjected to sexual abuse and torture.

On Wednesday, Yemen called on the UAE to close the informal prisons.

The UAE has denied involvement in prisons across southern Yemen.

On Monday, Reem al-Hashimi, the UAE minister for international cooperation, met Yemen's President Abd- Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Interior Minister Ahmed al-Maysari, who "insisted on the need to close the prisons and place them under judicial control", according to Yemeni state media.

The Gulf state has played a key role in a Saudi-led military operation since 2015 to bolster Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi against armed Houthi rebels.

The war has killed an estimated 10,000 people, 2,200 of them children, and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

Saudi soldiers killed, tanks destroyed in Yemeni retaliatory attacks (PressTV) July 14, 2018

At least four Saudi soldiers have been killed and several tanks destroyed in retaliatory attacks by Yemeni armed forces in the kingdom's southern Najran region.

The Doha-based Al Jazeera broadcaster reported that the casualties occurred on Friday night after the Yemeni army's missile and artillery units targeted a convoy of Saudi tanks near the al-Sadis military base.

Also, the Arabic-language al-Masirah television network affiliated to the Houthi Ansarullah movement quoted a military source as saying that the Yemeni attacks had precisely hit the target and left several Saudi mercenaries dead and injured.

Separately, al-Masirah reported that fighters from Yemeni Popular Committees and the Houthi Ansarullah movement had fired a Zelzal 2-type missile at a camp of Saudi soldiers in the kingdom's southwestern Asir region.

Yemeni forces regularly target positions inside Saudi Arabia in retaliatory attacks against the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war on Yemen in March 2015 in support of Yemen's former Riyadh- friendly government and against the Houthi fighters.

Saudi Arabia has also imposed a blockade on Yemen, which has smothered humanitarian deliveries of food and medicine to the import-dependent impoverished state.

The Saudi-led offensive has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, according to the latest figures released by the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights.

Several Western countries, the US and the UK in particular, have been supplying Saudi Arabia with advanced weapons and military equipment.

Saudi king pardons soldiers fighting in Yemen

Earlier this week, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud issued a controversial royal decree, which exonerated all troops operating in Yemen from any accountability issues they may face over their conduct in the war.

The decree carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said the royal pardon extends to "all military men who have taken part in the Operation Restoring Hope," referring to the Riyadh-led invasion of Yemen by its official name.

The decree did not mention which crimes the Saudi soldiers were pardoned for, but exonerated all troops from "their respective military and disciplinary penalties, in regard of some rules and disciplines."

Houthi shelling leaves 3 civilians dead in Yemen's Taiz (Anadolu Agency) By Murad al-Arifi July 17, 2018

At least three civilians were killed on Tuesday when a mortar shell fired by Houthi rebels struck a residential part of Yemen's southwestern city of Taiz, according to a local military source.

The source, who spoke to Anadolu Agency anonymously due to restrictions on speaking to media, said the shell had killed three people -- and injured six more -- in the city's Saina district.

According to the same source, the attack ended a days-long period of relative calm in Taiz between Yemen's warring rivals.

Anadolu Agency was unable to obtain immediate comment from Houthi spokesmen regarding the military source's assertions.

While most of Taiz remains under the control of Yemeni government forces, the Houthis have maintained a siege on the city for the last three years.

In mid-2016, government forces briefly managed to break the siege by capturing the city's southwestern Al- Dabab district.

Impoverished Yemen has remained wracked by violence since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at shoring up the country's pro-Saudi government.

The following year, UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait failed to end the destructive conflict.

The violence has devastated Yemen's infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as "one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times".

Officials Say Fighting in Yemen's Hodeida Kills 30 Civilians (Haaretz) July 17, 2018

Yemeni officials and witnesses say heavy fighting between pro-government forces and Shiite rebels has killed more than 30 civilians, including women and children, in the last two weeks.

Government forces have been trying to seize rebel-held areas along the western coast, while an allied Saudi- led coalition has been targeting the rebels, known as Houthis, with airstrikes.

Yemeni officials say fighting in the al-Tuhyta district, south of the key port city of Hodeida, has left 57 civilians wounded since the beginning of July. Many of them were wounded by land mines, they said.

The officials spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Witnesses spoke anonymously for fear of reprisals.

The coalition has been battling the Iran-allied Houthis since March 2015.

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Official Website of the Extraordinary Chambers Official Website of the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT) Cambodia Tribunal Monitor

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Special Tribunal for Lebanon

Official Website of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon In Focus: Special Tribunal for Lebanon (UN)

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Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal

Verdict Today (New Age Bangladesh) By Tapos Kanti Das July 17, 2018

The three-judge International Crimes Tribunal-1 delivers today its verdict in the Moulvibazar war crimes case against four suspects from Rajanagar.

'Judgement tomorrow,' announced presiding judge, Justice Md Shahinur Islam, at the outset of Monday's full court hearing.

Justice Amir Hossain and Justice Md Abu Ahmed Jamadar were present.

The tribunal directed the jail authorities to produce Md Akmal Ali Talukder, 73, of Pachgaon, Rajnagar, Moulavibazar, in the court by 10AM today.

Accused Abdun Nur Talukder alias Lal Miah, 63, of Jalalpur and Md Anis Miah, 76, and Md Abdul Mosabbir Miah, 64, of Paschimbagh, Rajanagar were tried in absentia as they are absconding.

All the four suspects were tried on two counts of crimes against humanity they allegedly committed at different places under the then Rajanagar thana.

They were tried on the first count allegedly for looting 132 houses and setting them on fire, murdering 59 villagers and raping six women of the village Panchgaon under Rajnagar thana on May 7 and May 8, 1971.

They were tried on the second charge of allegedly looting four houses and setting them ablaze, and abducting and murdering two villagers of Pashimbhag on November 24 and November 25, 1971.

Akmal, a local Muslim Leaguer, became a member of Pachgaon Union Peace Committee and joined the local Razakar force during the Liberation War, according to the prosecution. Nur too was a local Muslim Leaguer and joined the Razakar force in 1971, it says.

Anis and Mosabbir also joined the Razakar force in 1971, but their political identities were not given by the prosecution.

On completion of the trial on March 27, the ICT-1 announced that the verdict would be delivered later.

This would be the 33rd verdict in as many war crimes cases in Bangladesh.

For the ICT-1 it would be the 22nd verdict.

On May 30, 2016, the charges were pressed against the four war crimes suspects.

On May 7, 2017, they were indicted and their trial began on July 4, 2017.

During the trial, 13 prosecution witnesses were examined, but no defence witnesses were produced.

Until now, 68 war criminals have been convicted, 42 of them to death and 26 others were jailed.

Bangladesh sentences 4 to death over war crimes (Anadolu Agency) By SM Najmus Sakib July 17, 2018

A Bangladeshi court on Tuesday sentenced four people to death for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 war, which marked the country's secession from Pakistan.

"…They were convicted and condemned to the sentence of death and they will be hanged by the neck till they are dead," said Justice Shahinur Islam, chairman of the three-member tribunal, state-run news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) reported.

The convicts, Akmal Ali Talukder, 79, Abdun Nur Talukder, 66, Anis Miah, 80, and Abdul Mosabbir Miah, 67 committed genocide, murder, abduction and torture from May 7-Nov. 24, 1971 in Panchgaon and Paschimbhag villages of Moulvipazar district, the International Crime Tribunal (ICT) said.

Only Talukder was present at the hearing.

The court instructed authorities to arrest the absconding convicts.

The ICT is a domestic war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh set up in 2009 in order to investigate and prosecute suspects for war crimes in 1971 allegedly by the Pakistani military and their local collaborators in Bangladesh.

Four to die for war crimes (New Age Bangladesh) By Tapos Kanti Das July 18, 2018

The three-judge International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Tuesday sentenced four war criminals of the then Moulvibazar sub-division to death finding them guilty of committing genocide and crimes against humanity at different places of the then Rajanagar thana during the Liberation War.

The convicts are Md Akmal Ali Talukder, 73, of Pachgaon, Abdun Nur Talukder alias Lal Miah, 63, of Jalalpur and Md Anis Miah, 76, and Md Abdul Mosabbir Miah, 64, of Paschimbagh, Rajanagar, Moulvibazar.

Justice Md Shahinur Islam, the presiding judge, pronounced the operative part of the unanimous verdict while Justice Amir Hossain and Justice Md Abu Ahmed Jamadar read out the verdict's summery.

Seated on a chair in the dock, Akmal, the lone accused now in jail custody, looked sad as he heard the verdict.

Three other accused, Nur, Anis and Mosabbir were tried in absentia as they are absconding.

The tribunal found the evidence that all the four 'had acted as the members of an "auxiliary force" under control of Pakistani occupation army for their operational and other purposes.'

In 1971, Akmal, a local Muslim Leaguer, became a member of Pachgaon Union Peace Committee and joined the local Razakar force.

The three other convicts were associated with Jamaat-e-Islami and members of the Razakar force, the tribunal found during cross-examinations prosecution witnesses.

The war criminals were found guilty of both the charges for which they were indicted on May 7, 2017.

The tribunal handed death sentence to all the four finding them guilty of committing genocide of 59 Hindu villagers, raping six Hindu women, looting 132 houses and setting them on fire in the village Panchgaon under Rajnagar thana on May 7 and May 8, 1971.

The four were jailed life until death for looting four houses and setting them ablaze, and abducting and murdering two villagers of Pashimbhag, Rajanagar on November 24 and November 25, 1971.

The sentences would get merged in the death penalty once they are executed, said the verdict.

The tribunal directed the home secretary and the inspector general of police to initiate 'effective and appropriate measure' to get the three absconding convicts arrested.

'Justice has been done, ' senior prosecutor Syed Haider Ali told reporters.

Chief war crimes prosecutor Golam Arief Tipoo and the other war crimes prosecutors were present outside the courtroom.

Defence lawyer Md Abul Hasan told reporters that his clients did not get justice.

He also said he had the confidence that if the absconding convicts surrender and appeal to the Appellate Division, they would get justice.'

Their trial began on July 4, 2017 and ended on March 27, 2018.

This was the 33rd verdict in the country's as many war crimes cases.

For the ICT-1, it was the 22nd verdict.

During the trial, 13 prosecution witnesses were examined, but the defence produced no witnesses.

Until now, 73 war criminals were convicted, 47 of them to death while 26 others were jailed.

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War Crimes Investigation in Burma

What's the connection between Buddhism and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar? (Lion's Roar) By Randy Rosenthal July 17, 2018

Understanding the Crisis in Myanmar

The scriptures of Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam condone, justify, and even sometimes encourage the use of violence. In Buddhist texts, it's just the opposite. Chapter ten of the Dhammapada, an anthology of verses attributed to the Buddha, reads: "All tremble before violence. All fear death. Having done the same yourself, you should neither harm nor kill." Another verse reads: "In this world hostilities are never appeased by hostility. But by the absence of hostility are they appeased. This is an interminable truth." A line from the Metta Sutta reads: "Toward the whole world one should develop loving-kindness, a state of mind without boundaries—above, below, and across—unconfined, without enmity, without adversaries." This principle of non-violence, consistent throughout the Pali Canon — the collection of early Buddhist teachings — is partly why many Buddhists are deeply troubled by the current situation in Myanmar — a majority-Buddhist country — where, particularly in Rakhine State, massive human rights violations are systematically being committed against the Muslim Rohingya people.

Hugging the Bay of Bengal on Myanmar's western coast, and separated from central Myanmar by the Arakan Mountains, Rakhine State is home to over a million Muslims, most belonging to the Rohingya ethnic group, and over two million Buddhists of the Rakhine ethnic group, who are ethnically distinct from the country's Bamar majority. The state's capital is Sittwe, where communal violence erupted in 2012, and relations between Rakhine and Muslims were severed. Things have gotten exponentially worse since then; recent articles published in The New York Times and Al Jazeera exposed mass graves of Rohingya massacred by Burmese troops in September 2017, with acid apparently used to disfigure the bodies beyond recognition. In December 2017, Doctors Without Borders estimated that over 10,000 Rohingya had been killed in the most recent upsurge of violence, and that about 700,000 are living in exile in neighboring Bangladesh and India, causing the UN Human Rights chief to state the situation was "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing."

There is not enough evidence to declare genocide is occurring, but there is evidence of systematic rape, forced labor, restrictions of movement, restrictions on marriage and reproduction, and prevention from access to medicine and food rations. International observers say the situation will soon come to genocide if the international community does not immediately intervene. As the Holocaust demonstrated, ethnic cleansing can swiftly become genocide. Prior to 1941, the Nazi effort to expel all Jews from the Reich qualified as ethnic cleansing. The subsequent concentrating and then exterminating of Jews that began in earnest after the US entered the war was clearly genocide. As Penny Green, Director of the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) at London's Queen Mary University, states, "Genocide can begin many years before actual extermination." In April 2018, Green and the ISCI released a report arguing that the Myanmar government is "guilty of genocidal intent toward the Rohingya."

Whether ethnic cleansing or genocide, it is clear that human rights violations against the Rohingya are occurring in Myanmar, which is enough to invoke the Responsibility to Protect principle, in accordance with Chapters VI, VII, and VIII of the United Nations Charter, authorizing the international community to intervene in Myanmar's national sovereignty. For those of us observing from afar, the crisis forces us to ask questions about the role of Buddhism in world politics.

In The New York Times article "Why Are We Surprised When Buddhists Are Violent?," Dan Arnold and Alicia Turner write, "How, many wonder, could a Buddhist society—especially Buddhist monks!—have anything to do with something so monstrously violent as the ethnic cleansing now being perpetrated on Myanmar's long-beleaguered Rohingya minority? Aren't Buddhists supposed to be compassionate and pacifist?"

To understand the issue more fully, we must first start with the narrative of Buddhist nationalism — the driving ideological force behind the Islamophobia fueling the violence against the Rohingya. From the perspective of a Buddhist nationalist, the story goes like this: Over the course of decades, Muslim Rohingya slipped over the border from Bangladesh at the point where it meets Rakhine State, and settled on Rakhine land. They grew in number and diluted the Buddhist population, forming the vanguard of a crusade to turn Myanmar into a Muslim country. Therefore, unlike other Muslims in Myanmar, such as the Kaman people, the Rohingya have never been Burmese citizens and do not deserve citizenship status.

This narrative is known as "the Muslim problem." To cement the view that the Rohingya are not Burmese citizens, the Rohingya are referred to as "Chittagong Bengalis."

There's no escaping the fact that men wearing the robes of Buddhist monks are promoting this narrative. The most infamous of these is Ashin Wirathu, the 49-year-old Burmese monk who was on the cover of TIME magazine in 2013 and was the subject of the 2017 documentary film The Venerable W. by French filmmaker Barbet Schroder. As the film shows, Wirathu has led hundreds of thousands of followers in a hate-fueled, violent campaign of ethnic cleansing by claiming that the Rohingya are "a Saudi-backed Bangladeshi insurgency whose purpose is to infiltrate the country, destroy Myanmar's traditional Buddhism and establish a caliphate." Wirathu is a leader of the Organization for the Protection of Race and Religion, commonly known by its Burmese acronym, Ma Ba Tha. This group was founded in June 2013, and quickly found the support of millions. Ma Ba Tha and other Buddhist nationalist groups—not only Myanmar but also in Sri Lanka—describe their purpose as the protection and promotion of Buddhism through preaching about the importance of Buddhist values, history, education, sacred sites, and ceremonies. Yet accompanying this benign rhetoric is their insistence on neutralizing threats to Buddhism, which they claim come from Muslims.

In the 2016 book Myanmar's Enemy Within, author Francis Wade talks with a lay member of this group, who shares the narrative fueling the group's thinking. "If the Buddhist cultures vanish," the member said, "Yangon will become like Saudi and Mecca … It can be the fall of Yangon. It can be the fall of Buddhism. And our race will be eliminated." Though Buddhism is not a race, Ma Ba Tha often conflates race and religion, demonstrating that the group's deeper concern is one of ethnicity.

Those who believe this narrative see verification of it in the history of other formerly Buddhist nations — like Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan — having been "overrun" by Muslims. Myanmar remains 90% Buddhist, with no evidence of that changing. So where did the idea that Buddhism will vanish originate?

The Rise of Burmese Nationalism

Buddhism has been used to consolidate the national identity in Burma for centuries. In the twelfth century, King Anawratha used Buddhist scriptures to unite the disparate people of the Ayeyarwady Valley and form the Bagan Empire. From the nation's start, Burma was a Buddhist and Bamar-ethnic majority. From then on, kings would support the order of monks—the sangha—and in return the monks endowed the monarchy with legitimacy. The monks encouraged loyalty to the nation, but they also served as the conscience of the government, making sure that it ruled in accordance with Buddhist ethical principles. When it did not, the monks revolted.

An example of this was seen in the Saffron Revolution of September 2007. When the government allowed gas subsidies to expire, the price of goods rose 500%, and citizens protested. When the protesters were violently suppressed, the monks joined the protest by overturning their begging bowls on their alms round, disallowing government officials from earning merit by giving alms. The protest was a seriously embarrassing gesture, and the military government violently cracked down on the protests, beating and arresting thousands of monks.

The 800-year connection between the monarchy and the sangha was severed in 1885, when the British invaded Upper Burma and incorporated it into its Indian colony. Dissolving the border between the countries, Indian Hindus and Muslims moved en masse — voluntarily or forcefully — into Burma, permanently altering the demographics of Rangoon in particular, where many found success in trade. With the loss of a Buddhist king and the loss of favor of the Buddhist education system, due to the British promotion of Christianity, 1885 saw the emergence of the first Buddhist nationalist movements.

The modern movement of Vipassana meditation arose out of this anti-colonial movement, with monk Ledi Sayadaw spreading the idea that it was the duty of every Buddhist to protect and preserve Buddhism by meditating and studying Buddhist scripture, both of which were previously only practiced by a small portion of monastics. Ledi Sayadaw's movement was pacifist, but monks also led armed rebels to attack British troops in upper Myanmar during the British invasion. Nationalistic independence movements rose over the following decades, and in the 1920s and 30s a popular anti-colonial rallying cry was "Amyo, Batha, Thathana!" — which roughly translates to "Race, language, and religion!" The Ma Ba Tha organization derived its name from this slogan, of which it is an acronym.

This narrative — that the Burmese people need to protect Buddhism from enemy foreign invaders — has persisted for over a century, though the perceived enemy has changed from British to Muslim. The first instance of this shift can be seen in a rally of 10,000 Burmese at Rangoon's Shwedagon Pagoda, in 1938, to protest the writing of Muslim intellectuals who were accused of insulting Buddhism. The protests resulted in attacks on Muslim communities across the city. In addition to anti-Muslim movements, the 1930s and 1940s also saw the rise of anti-Christian and anti-Hindu sentiments, the latter culminating in a series of anti- Indian riots. All of these incidences arose as part of anti-colonial movements and strengthened the idea that one must be Buddhist in order to be truly Burmese.

An important contributing factor to the current crisis in Rakhine occurred during WWII. Under Japanese occupation, Buddhists in Rakhine (then called Arakan) were recruited to fight as proxies for the Japanese. Local Muslims, in contrast, were armed and mobilized by the British as independent militias who performed guerilla-attacks on Japanese forces. This meant that Buddhists and Muslims were fighting against each other, which resulted in the groups becoming geographically separated and "ghettoized," with Muslims fleeing north to avoid the anti-Muslim violence of the Japanese offensives, and Buddhists fleeing south to avoid the anti-Buddhist violence of the guerilla counter-offensives. After the war, waves of government violence against Rohingya occurred in 1954, 1962 (during the military takeover), 1977-78 (when the military forced the Rohingya to carry Foreign Registration Cards, and over 200,000 were driven into Bangladesh), 1992, 2001 (in response to the Taliban's destruction of Buddhist statues in Bamiyan), and 2003.

We can trace the history of the current crisis in Rakhine State to the military takeover of the country in 1962. Burma achieved independence in 1948, but after fourteen years of constitutional rule, the military junta took over in 1962. The junta systematically stoked fears of the demise of Buddhism and the break-up of the nation to cultivate loyalty among a resentful population. But they also held a monopoly on violence and prevented citizens and monks like Wirathu from encouraging social disturbance. (In 2003, Wirathu was arrested along with forty-four other monks for using hate-speech to promote attacks on Muslims and a mosque, and spent eight years in prison.) Ironically, it was only with the ostensible transition to democracy that began in 2011 that public religious tension between Buddhists and Muslims surfaced again. As Francis Wade writes, the idea was that "the stirrings of democratic change in Myanmar might level the playing field, allowing communities who felt long disenfranchised by the military to assert great claims to the nation." It was feared that Muslims in particular would take advantage of democratic freedom, and if they did, Buddhists would suffer.

A crucial moment came in 1982 with the Citizenship Law, when the government issued an official list of 135 ethnic groups, or "national races" that held Myanmar citizenship. The list excluded the Rohingya, cementing their stateless status. A census in 2014 was then designed to exclude "alien" minorities from voting, and the 2015 elections resulted in Aung San Suu Kyi becoming State Councilor, with great gains for her National League for Democracy (NLD) — and also in the total absence of Muslims from Myanmar's parliament for the first time since independence.

Suu Kyi has received widespread criticism for her silence on the Rohingya issue — especially in light of her earlier writing and speeches. In a 1989 open letter to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, for example, Suu Kyi wrote, "The chief aim of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and other organizations working for the establishment of a democratic government in Burma is to bring about social and political changes which will guarantee a peaceful, stable and progressive society where human rights, as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are protected by rule of law." Then, in a speech she gave in Kachin State on April 27, 1989, Suu Kyi declared, "If we divide ourselves ethnically, we shall not achieve democracy for a long time." Despite the apparent achievement of democracy in Myanmar, violent ethnic divisions continue to occur under Suu Kyi and the NLD's leadership.

The latest upsurges of violence are also aided by globalization. With the internet, Islamaphobic fanatics can connect the old Burmese narratives about Islam with the contemporary narrative of global jihad. In The Venerable W. —shot before the 2016 election — Wirathu says, "In the USA, if the people want to maintain peace and security, they have to choose Donald Trump." Through such comments, and his aggressive use of social media and DVD propaganda, Wirathu demonstrates his awareness of rising xenophobic nationalism around the world. He's aware of 9/11; the attacks in Paris, Berlin, Nice, and Brussels; Brexit; Marine Le Penn in France; neo-Nazis in Germany; and the right-wing nationalist governments ruling in Hungary, Poland, and elsewhere in Europe. He knows he is tapping into a larger global vilification of Islam — a world vs. Muslim jihadist narrative. This framing is made possible by the internet, which only became widely available in Myanmar in 2011. Wirathu seems to be committed to connecting his regional crusade to a broader global movement. In 2014, he traveled to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, to sign a memorandum of understanding between Sri Lanka's own Islamophobic monk group, Bodu Bala Sena (Army of Buddhist Power), and 969 (the precursor to Ma Ba Tha).

All of these conditions — the colonial history, the emergence of the internet, the global anti-Islamic narrative — provide a ripe ground for violence and persecution. The question that remains: are the crimes against humanity in Myanmar a tragic byproduct of random circumstances unabated by the peaceful doctrines of Buddhism, or is the violence part of some concerted effort by an as-of-yet unnamed actor, Buddhist or otherwise?

Behind the Current Crisis

The current crisis started in 2012. Here's a brief timeline of events:

May 28, 2012

Twenty-six-year-old Rakhine woman Ma Thida Htwe was gang-raped and murdered by three men the state media identified as "Bengali Muslim" or "Islam Followers." These men were promptly arrested. June 3, 2012

A few days later, three hundred Rakhine men attacked a bus carrying Muslims in the town of Taungup, beating ten passengers to death. These Muslims were not Rohingya, but missionaries from northern areas not in Rakhine State.

June 9, 2012

Mobs of Rohingya retaliated by attacking Rakhine properties in Maungdaw, torching houses. Mobs of Rakhine in turn burned Sittwe's Muslim quarter of Nasi to the ground, chasing tens of thousands of the Rohingya inhabitants out of Rakhine and into camps or exile in Bangladesh (some estimate up to 120,000). These mobs were reportedly bussed in from elsewhere in Rakhine State. They were reported to be drunk and/or high on drugs.

October 2012

A second wave of violence occurred, with apparently organized mob attacks on Muslim communities in nine townships across Rakhine State.

There were close-quarter machete attacks and torching of houses on both sides, but only Rohingya violence was "constructed as terrorism," and ascribed to "jihad." In this way, these small, local disturbances—of inter-community slaughter, not uncommon in South Asia—suddenly became part of a global crisis.

Wirathu and other monks from his 969 group organized a complete Muslim boycott, prohibiting Buddhists from having any interaction with Muslims whatsoever. Any Muslim "sympathizer" would also be persecuted, and one Buddhist who continued to do business with Muslims was beaten to death. The monks' ban of Muslims set the precedent for an Islamophobia that went beyond the Rohingya to include officially recognized citizens of Myanmar.

March 2013

Extreme violence erupted in the central Myanmar town of Meikhtila—where both Muslim and Buddhist communities are largely Bamar—after a Buddhist couple claimed a Muslim jewelry store owner sold them a fake golden hairpin and a brawl started between them. While police watched, Muslim-owned shops were burned and Muslims were attacked; later, a group of Muslims knocked a Buddhist monk off of his bike, beating him as he lay on the ground, and then set his body on fire. This led to outright carnage, with outside groups again bused in to lead a full pogrom against Muslims in the town, resulting in a death toll of forty- three people, mostly killed by sticks and knives, and 830 buildings destroyed. (Again, the men making up the mobs were reported to be drunk and/or high on drugs.)

June 2013

After the report of a rape of a Buddhist woman by Kaman Muslim men in Thandwe, violence erupted again, not just against Kaman but also against Rohingya far away from the incident.

August 2017

Armed Rohingya rebels—of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA)—launched a coordinated attack on thirty border police posts, killing a dozen security forces. This caused the Burmese army to retaliate against the Rohingya throughout Rakhine State with a "scorched earth campaign."

March 2018

By March, more than 6,000 Rohingya had been killed and more than 655,000 had fled to Bangladesh. Over fifty-five villages had been completely bulldozed, removing traces of buildings, wells, and even vegetation. Here we can see the Myanmar army has learned from the Israeli Army, which many Myanmar officials admire; when asked how to respond to the Rohingya, Dr. Aye Maung, head of Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, said, "We need to be like Israel."

Today

Amnesty International says those Rohingya who remain in their villages and camps are being systematically starved, to force them to flee the country. It is a situation ripe for genocide. In all cases of violence against Muslims, reports of police participation in the attacks raised suspicions of a link between the mobs and the government. In Azeem Ibrahim's 2016 book The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar's Hidden Genocide, Ibrahim says that the violence in Myanmar is closely related to inter-ethnic tension in Sri Lanka and Thailand. The key difference in Myanmar, he writes, is that several prominent Buddhist groups are actively driving the anti-Muslim violence, such as Ma Ba Tha. Then Ibrahim makes the shocking assertion that "there is growing evidence that the Ma Ba Tha Buddhist extremist organization was set up by the military as an alternative power base." He suggests the group is a "front organization" for the military. He continues, "In effect, the military is directly backing two different groups in contemporary Myanmar," the USDP (their political party) and "its own organization of Buddhist extremists who both offer the means to channel electoral support to the USDP and to create violence that can later be used to justify a military intervention."

Ibrahim explores the origin of the connection between the government and the Ma Ba Tha. The organization did not exist before the opening up of the country in 2011. Ibrahim writes that the monks who were arrested during the Saffron Revolution in 2007 were later offered money and state patronage to join the Ma Ba Tha and promote its core message of hatred of all Muslims. These revelatory claims are based on an article by Emanuel Stoakes, "Monks, Powerpoint Presentations and Ethnic Cleanings," published in Foreign Policy on October 26, 2015.

In his article, Stoakes interviews an anonymous monk who claims that after his release from prison, he had a meeting with three government officials and was offered money to join Ma Ba Tha and preach anti-Muslim rhetoric. He is one of four monk leaders of the Saffron Revolution who claim the government made similar offers to them. Stoakes also produced an investigative documentary with Al Jazeera, "Genocide Agenda," which aired in October 2015. In the film, one anonymous monk leader explains the situation bluntly: "Gradually, monks from the Saffron Revolution ended up in Ma Ba Tha." He further clarifies exactly what anyone trying to understand the situation needs to know: "Ma Ba Tha is controlled by the military. When it wants to start a problem at any time, it's like turning on a tap. They will turn it on or turn it off when they want."

The Al Jazeera documentary presents other monk leaders of the Saffron Revolution who claim Wirathu works for the government. These monks specify that Wirathu called them at their monasteries after they were released from prison in 2011, and invited them to come see him. When they went, they say he attempted to recruit them to join his anti-Muslim crusade with the offer of an office, complete with an Internet-connected laptop, a telephone, and a payment of $1,000 (in a country with a per capita income of $1,195). The film also shows a secretly taped mobile phone recording of a meeting between government officials and Ma Ba Tha clerics. Then, an anonymous acquaintance of Wirathu claims that Yangon's Special Branch agency (undercover police) works closely with Wirathu, saying he has seen its members at Wirathu's monastery in Mandalay. Further evidence is seen in a Powerpoint presentation used by members of the military at a training session in 2012 in the capital city of Naypyidaw, titled "Fear of Losing One's Race," a presentation in which the very same anti-Muslim language used by Ma Ba Tha is found, including the conspiracy of a Muslim plot to make Buddhism and Buddhists extinct. Other documents circulated among government officials and obtained by Al Jazeera warn of Muslim plots to rape Buddhist women, start riots, and carry out terrorist acts, including intentions to "cut off the heads of departmental staff members."

The main point of the documentary is that, despite the apparent movement toward democracy, ethnic violence is engineered by the government in an attempt to keep its grip on power. Based on the evidence presented, it appears that the eruptions of violence against the Rohingya and other Muslim groups across Myanmar were organized and planned, not spontaneous, communal, or unintended consequences of democratization. While the government has dismissed any allegations of its links to the violence as "nonsense," Stoakes writes, "Evidence obtained by Al Jazeera shows conclusively that the recent surge of anti-Muslim hatred has been anything but random. In fact, it's the product of a concerted government campaign clearly aimed at promoting instability and undermining the opposition by stirring up the forces of militant nationalism."

Stoakes responsibly notes that none of this evidence is clear proof of the connection between the government and Ma Ba Tha, but it is nevertheless illuminating. If the government has been corrupting men wearing the robes of a monk, then Buddhism is not being used as a rallying cry of hatred and exclusion, but merely as a veil for it.

In this crisis, the term "Buddhist" is used to designate cultural identity, not a religious belief or practice. Someone who identifies as a Buddhist doesn't necessarily follow the teachings of the Buddha. Even back in the Buddha's time, there were "bogus monks" who tried to join the sangha. These were not true monks but merely "men in yellow robes," and were ejected from sangha gatherings. We should understand the situation in Myanmar as a cultural conflict rather than a religious conflict. As Azeem Ibrahim wrote, it is the exclusive nature of the Theravada tradition that often leads to "violent inter-ethnic tension in Sri Lanka and Thailand, as well as Myanmar," not Buddhism itself.

The military government of Myanmar is cynically using Buddhism to manipulate people to behave with violence and hatred, rather than compassion and generosity. In my experience, conversations about Myanmar tends to get mired in debate about whether Buddhism is a non-violent religion. Perhaps we should leave Buddhism out of the conversation. In order to focus on addressing the actual situation more effectively and responsibly, it's important to understand the complex political and ethnic issues more deeply. With a deeper understanding, we might be able to engage with the situation more effectively.

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Israel and Palestine

Israel's Demolition Of Khan Al-Ahmar And Transfer Of Its Inhabitants Are War Crimes (Amnesty International) July 5, 2018

Israel's forcible transfer of Palestinians from their homes and settling of Israeli civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and are war crimes, Amnesty International said as it continues to monitor the fast- changing situation on the ground in the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar.

This morning Israeli security forces closed off the areas surrounding the Khan al-Ahmar community in preparation for the demolition of the entire village, including schools, farmland, a mosque and the homes of all families living in the village.

"Going ahead with the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar is not only profoundly cruel; it would also amount to forcible transfer, which is a war crime. Israel must be held to account for such grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which is a standard it has set for itself and demanded of other nations. The international community also has a responsibility to ensure respect for the Geneva Conventions. The demolition of Khan al-Ahmar must be stopped," said Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International

"Israeli forces have declared Khan al-Ahmar a closed military zone, and blocked all entry into the village, even issuing fines to people who attempted to stop their cars nearby or park there. We have received reports of violent assaults against protesters and the clearing of roads to allow access for bulldozers. Local and international activists have been injured and arrested by security forces, with some briefly detained. Scores of men, women and children face the trauma of displacement and having their homes destroyed by occupying forces."

Khan al-Ahmar is inhabited by about 180 residents from the Jahalin Bedouin tribe. Several illegal Israeli settlements surround the village located east of Jerusalem. Its destruction will make way for the expansion and connection of large settlement blocs, ultimately surrounding the entire area of East Jerusalem with illegal Israeli settlements and further restricting access to the city for Palestinians.

On May 24, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that Israel can destroy the entire village of Khan al-Ahmar, including its school which is constructed from rubber tires and provides education for some 170 children from five different Bedouin communities.

On July 4, Israeli forces stormed the nearby Bedouin village of Abu al-Nuwwar in the early morning, demolishing 10 Palestinian homes and structures used for the upkeep of livestock.

UN agency for Palestinians warns of cuts ahead (Times of Israel) July 9, 2018

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has warned that cuts to key programs in the Gaza Strip and West Bank are planned over the coming weeks, if a US funding freeze cannot be overcome.

Figures were not yet available on the cuts being planned if the major gap in financing is not resolved, but a letter sent to agency staff over the weekend and seen by AFP today highlights areas targeted.

A source familiar with the plans describes the areas expected to be affected in further detail, saying they include employment programs, housing assistance, and mental health support, among others.

Most of the cuts are expected in the West Bank. Some programs were due to run out of funds by the end of July, according to the source.

The letter says the agency, known as UNRWA, will work to maintain vital food assistance programs, particularly for the impoverished Gaza Strip.

But the source says those too could face reductions in the coming months if additional financing was not found.

UNRWA head Pierre Krahenbuhl says in the letter to staff that he has called on donors who had already helped out with pledges to assist further so the agency could "overcome the rest of the shortfall," currently at $217 million.

"I said to them and I say to you now with great honesty: a shortfall of $217 million is still far higher than any UNRWA has ever faced in its history," the letter said.

"As the agency's commissioner-general, I cannot hide the dramatic risks that we face to our services if we do not receive additional funding very rapidly."

The agency will decide in the first half of August whether it will open the schools it operates on time, following the summer break, Krahenbuhl says in the letter.

Bulldozing Palestine, one village at a time (Aljazeera) By Mariam Barghouti July 10, 2018

It was a bit ironic to see a small group of Israeli settlers enter the large solidarity tent stationed at the entrance of Khan al-Ahmar last Wednesday. They had come, they said, to show "solidarity" with the Palestinian Bedouins protesting a demolition order.

Since 2017, the whole Bedouin village has been threatened with demolition by the Israeli authorities. Earlier that day, Israeli soldiers attacked villagers and activists who had staged a protest, injuring 35.

Khan al-Ahmar, a village of 180 people, is about 15km northeast of Jerusalem and falls within what is known as Area C of the occupied West Bank, as defined by the Oslo Accords. The area has been inundated with more than 300,000 Israelis living in 125 illegal settlements and is under Israeli administrative control. Under the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authorities was supposed to take over administering the area, but, of course, Israel never let that happen.

As a result, it is now the Israeli state that controls the land in Area C and that decides on building permits. Khan al-Ahmar existed before the state of Israel was created in 1948. In the 1950s, Palestinian Bedouins expelled from the Negev desert by the Israeli army moved to the West Bank and settled in the village, expanding it.

The Israeli state has now decided that all its buildings are illegal and have to be demolished. Khan al-Ahmar is located between two expanding illegal Israeli settlements - Kfar Adumim (founded in 1979) and Maale Adumim (founded in 1975) - and on the so-called "E1 corridor" between East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which the Israeli state would like to control in order to cut off Palestinian access to the city.

It was settlers from these two settlements that showed up at Khan al-Ahmar on Wednesday to show "support" for the protest, as if their existence has nothing to do with the problem the Palestinian village residents were facing.

The prospect of displacement and misery has made the people of Khan al-Ahmar accept help from whoever offers it. If anyone can stop the Israeli bulldozers from razing their homes, then let them come.

Their village is essentially a collection of houses spread over a few hills surrounding a highway connecting East Jerusalem with Israeli settlements in the West Bank. It has no paved roads, no sewage system, no electricity and until recently had no school. Some years back, the local community with international support built a school out of mud and tires.

To the east and south of Khan al-Ahmar, are the two Israeli settlements that look nothing like it. Israeli settlers have reaped the fruits of occupation, erecting prosperous settlements supplied with all utilities and comforts. They look like cities, always well-lit and clean, with well-functioning sewage and running water; they have several schools, clinics and of course security provided by the Israeli army.

The residents of Khan al-Ahmar have been denied access to any of the services their Israeli neighbours enjoy. Their children can't go to their schools, and before the construction of the mud school, they had to walk several kilometres to get an education.

Since the village started resisting attempts by the Israeli state to push them out of their land, it has become a heavily policed community.

On Wednesday it was both men and women who were beaten by Israeli soldiers in front of their children.

Twelve-year-old Jibril Jahalin tried to recount the violence, his voice cracking behind a laughter that was more forced than genuine. "They kept hitting everyone," he told me. Later that night, his cousin - Mohammad Jahalin, 14, stayed up making tea for the activists who had come to support the community and were staying overnight.

As he was boiling the water he said to me, "You know, I try not to be afraid, but I don't know what will happen to us. Where will we go, what will we do? I am afraid". And like Jibril, he, too, tried to laugh off his fear.

Khan al-Ahmar is not the only Bedouin community that is facing decimation by the Israeli state. The Bedouin way of life and traditions are under grave threat. After the colonisation and militarisation of Palestinian lands, which put an end to freedom of movement for Bedouins and Palestinians in general, Palestinian Bedouin communities were forced to settle down and today, they face a systematic campaign of expulsion.

Between 2008 and 2014, some 6,000 Bedouins were forcefully displaced in Area C after the Israeli state razed their homes. Just last year, the Bedouin village of al-Araqib was destroyed for the 119th time by Israeli forces even though its residents carry Israeli citizenship.

After the raid on Khan al-Ahmar by the Israeli military last week, an Israeli court placed a temporary freeze on the demolition order to "investigate" the ownership of the land. But Israeli courts have proved many times in the last decades that they work to preserve the Israeli colonial project.

The story of Khan al-Ahmar is just one example of the systemic and illegal forced displacement and replacement of Palestinians with Israelis across Palestine. Palestinians are being displaced by a variety of calculated Israeli policies.

In Jerusalem, residents face the revocation of their Jerusalem IDs and residency if they are found to be "disloyal" to the state of Israel. In the West Bank, in 2016 alone, Israel utilised discriminatory practices to displace 1,283 Palestinians from their homes.

In Gaza, the Israeli 11-year-old siege has made many Palestinians want to seek a better life outside the strip - some hopping on boats with Syrian refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe.

Since Trump took office, an emboldened Israel has approved more than 14,000 additional settlement units in the West Bank.

Just hours after the violence on Wednesday, 12-year-old Jibril held on tight to his Palestinian flag and told me, "We are strong. We will fight [the Israeli forces]." He then looked at the ground and added, "but really, I just want to play."

Palestinians have the right to live in dignity and justice. Palestinian children have the right to a normal childhood. And we will continue to struggle so that perhaps the next generation of Palestinian children do not have to worry about losing their homes and having no education, so they do not have to wave flags at protests, inhale gas, be beaten and imprisoned under a merciless occupation.

We will continue to stand with the residents of Khan al-Ahmar because their resistance is part of the greater struggle against the entire framework of Israel's brutal settler-colonialism.

Israeli air raids kill two Palestinian teens in Gaza (Aljazeera) July 15, 2018

At least two teenagers in the Gaza Strip have been killed by Israeli air raids, according to Palestinian health officials, as Israel carried out the largest daylight attack on the besieged enclave since the 2014 war.

Amir al-Nimra, 15, and Luay Kaheel, 16, died of their wounds on Saturday shortly after an air strike targeted al-Kateeba, an area in western Gaza, the health ministry said.

Twelve others were wounded by the attack.

The al-Kateeba square is adjacent to a park frequently visited by families over the weekend, especially during the summer months, witnesses told Al Jazeera.

"That's why so many civilians have been hurt in the latest strike," Maram Humaid, a journalist in Gaza, said.

In a Twitter post, the Israeli military confirmed it targeted a "high-rise building" and said it had "warned" residents to evacuate prior to the attack.

Witnesses told Al Jazeera that the two teenagers who lost their lives were playing on the roof of the semi- abandoned building and described a scene where "there was glass everywhere".

At least 30 people have been wounded in the raids, which targeted several neighbourhoods in Gaza.

Following the attack on al-Kateeba, a ceasefire agreement was reached through international and regional mediation efforts, Palestinian officials said on Saturday.

In a Twitter post, Hamas, the group governing the Gaza Strip, said the efforts of "several parties" including neighbouring Egypt succeeded in implementing a lasting ceasefire.

There has been no immediate confirmation from the Israeli side.

Earlier in the day, it said it attacked several Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip, as dozens rockets and mortars were fired towards Israel from the besieged enclave.

"The Israeli army says over 90 mortars and rockets have been fired over the last 24 hours, most of them causing no damage. Some rockets hit a synagogue, also a car and we understand four Israelis were lightly injured," said Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Jerusalem.

"This does show you how severe this escalation has been, certainly the most severe since 2014."

The Israeli army said its fighter jets targeted "complexes used to prepare arson terror attacks and a Hamas terror training facility". It also said it struck two Hamas tunnels, one in southern Gaza and one in the north, as well as other infrastructure across the besieged coastal territory.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the group was responsible for the mortar fire on Israel and that they were carried out "in response to the Israeli air strikes".

"The protection and the defence of our people is a national duty and a strategic choice," Barhoum said.

Incendiary kites from Gaza that have burned large tracts of farmland in Israeli border areas have increased public pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a stronger armed response. Great March of Return

The escalation came just hours after a 15-year-old Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces at protests in the Gaza Strip near the fence with Israel and scores were wounded.

A 20-year-old died on Saturday of gunshot wounds.

Hundreds of protesters had amassed near the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Friday to commemorate more than 100 days since the start of the Great March of Return mass rallies.

Since the protests began on March 30, at least 138 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and more than 160,000 have been wounded.

Its main message is to call for the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants who were violently expelled from their homes in the territories taken over by Israel during the 1948 war, known to Arabs as the Nakba.

'Open-air prison'

The Gaza Strip is but one of the focal points in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

More than two million Palestinians are packed into the Gaza Strip, a territory the size of the US city of Detroit - about 360sq km - which has been described as "the world's largest open-air prison".

Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but, citing security concerns, maintains tight control of its land and sea borders, which has reduced its economy to a state of collapse.

Egypt also restricts movement in and out of Gaza on its border.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled since 2014 and Israeli settlements have expanded in occupied territory Palestinians intended to become part of their eventual state.

Gaza experienced its most significant conflict in 2014, when at least 2,251 Palestinians, most of whom were civilians, were killed. At least 66 Israeli soldiers and six civilians were also killed.

Israel pounds Gaza in most violent daytime assault since 2014 (Aljazeera) July 15, 2018

At least two teenagers in the Gaza Strip have been killed and more than 30 other people have been injured by Israeli air raids, according to Palestinian health officials, as Israel carried out the largest daylight attack on the besieged enclave since the 2014 war.

Amir al-Nimri, 15, and Luay Kaheel, 16, died of their wounds on Saturday shortly after an air raid targeted al-Kateeba, an area in western Gaza, the health ministry said.

According to witnesses, the two teenagers who lost their lives were playing on the roof of a semi-abandoned building.

The Israeli army said it attacked several Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip, as dozens of rockets and mortars were fired towards Israel from the enclave.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the group was responsible for the mortar fire on Israel and that they were carried out "in response to the Israeli air strikes".

Israel reportedly accepted an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Hamas following the bombing campaign.

Israeli bulldozers uproot 100 Palestinian olive trees in Salfit-area (Ma'an News Agency) July 18, 2018

Israeli bulldozers uprooted more than 100 Palestinian-owned olive trees from the Deir Ballut village in the northern occupied West Bank district of Salfit on Tuesday.

A resident of the village, Abdullah Idris told Ma'an that Israeli bulldozers entered the eastern part of Deir Ballut and uprooted olive trees near his home.

Idris added that Israeli bulldozers uprooted more than 100 olive trees out of 224 olive and almond trees; the trees were all between five and six years old.

Idris pointed out that Israeli forces uprooted the trees in order to expand the illegal Israeli settlement of Lishim, that is built on the lands of Palestinian residents of Deir Ballut.

According to Palestinians and rights groups, Israel's main goal, both in its policies in Area C, in which more than 60% of Palestinian land is under full Israeli control, and Israel's illegal settlement enterprise, is to depopulate the land of its Palestinian residents and to replace them with Jewish Israeli communities, in order to manipulate population demographics in all of historic Palestine.

The mayor of Deir Ballut, Yahiya Mustafa, told Ma'an that Israel continues to raze and level lands of Deir Ballut.

Mustafa added that the Israeli authorities handed Deir Ballut resident, Jbara Mirshed, a stop-construction order to stop construction in his land, where he intended to build a house.

The Israeli authorities also delivered a demolition notice to resident Taysir Abdullah, who owns a steel structure of a total space of 2 dunams (0.50 acres) that he uses for sheep and cows.

The movement of Israeli settlers taking over Palestinian land, and further displacing the local Palestinian population has been a "stable" Israeli policy since the takeover of the West Bank and Jerusalem in 1967, B'Tselem said, underscoring that all "Israeli legislative, legal, planning, funding, and defense bodies" have played an active role in the dispossession of Palestinians from their lands.

B'Tselem also argued that under the guise of a "temporary military occupation," Israel has been "using the land as its own: robbing land, exploiting the area's natural resources for its own benefit and establishing permanent settlements," estimating that Israel had dispossessed Palestinians from some 200,000 hectares (494,211 acres) of lands in the occupied Palestinian territory over the years.

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AMERICAS

South America

FARC recruited more than 5000 minors during Colombia’s war (Colombia Reports) By Adriaan Alsema July 17, 2018

Colombia’s demobilized FARC rebels recruited more than 5,000 minors during its 52- year war with the state, according to the prosecution.

The country’s war crimes tribunal received a report from the Prosecutor General’s Office in which it said to have evidence of the recruitment of 5,252 children and minors.

Less than 20% of the minors that were forcibly recruited by the FARC were under 15, according to the prosecution statistics surrendered to the press.

The International Criminal Court, which is overseeing Colombia’s transitional justice system, has indicated that the recruitment of minors of 14 and younger is a war crime. Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years or using them to participate actively in hostilities is a war crime, in both international and non-international armed conflicts. International Criminal Court

This would mean that the FARC will have to respond for the recruitment of 910 children of 14 and younger.

According to a prosecution press release, the FARC either violently recruited the children or used the minors’ vulnerable situation to convince them to join the guerrilla group.

“The demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia used physical violence and threats against children and their families. In other cases, they took advantage of the immaturity of the children and the difficult socioeconomic and family conditions they were going through, using persuasive strategies and deceptions to achieve their incorporation.” -Prosecutor General’s Office

The child soldiers, like their adult counterparts, risked execution if they tried deserting their guerrilla unit, the prosecution said.

“The “involvement” of minors was a violent act that always came with the latent threat of execution for those who considered deserting.” -Prosecutor General’s Office

The vast majority of minors recruited by the FARC were from southern Colombia where the group traditionally exercised most control during the armed conflict that lasted between 1964 and 2016.

Whether the numbers surrendered by the prosecution are accurate is doubtful, considering the office’s decades-long negligence in filing reports on war crimes, especially in FARC-controlled territory.

Victims of war crimes will be allowed to file charges against the FARC and the military for the use of child soldiers, making it possible that the total number of charges for the illegal recruitment of child soldiers grows.

Ex-Military Chief Submits To Special War Crimes Court (Telesur) July 18, 2018

Mario Montoya will become the second retired general to present himself before Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) on charges of crimes against humanity.

Mario Montoya, a former Colombian military commander and close ally of former President Alvaro Uribe, has agreed to submit himself to the South American country's war tribunal July 22, accused of having ties to paramilitary groups and the mass execution of civilians.

The International Criminal Court has recommended that Montoya, along with 23 generals and six corporals, be prosecuted on charges of crimes against humanity, according to Colombia Reports.

Montoya, who also served as a diplomat, will become the second retired general to present himself before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). The common justice system was already investigating Montoya, who faces decades in prison if convicted.

However, if Montoya's testimony about the so-called 'false-positives' scandal is accepted by the JEP, he may yet escape prison time.

The 'false-positives' was a scandal in which the military executed approximately 10,000 civilians between 2002 and 2010 and falsely presented their bodies to the public as guerrillas who had been killed in combat.

Author and former police officer Omar Rojas Bolaños described the events as "cold-blooded murders," meticulously planned and carried out by all ranks. They included the murder of boys with disabilities and several military personnel suspected of whistleblowing, The Guardian reports.

Prosecution statistics reveal the majority of executions initially occurred in Antioquia department, where Montoya headed the 4th Brigade. The murders expanded nationwide after he was named national army commander.

According to Colonel Robinson Gonzalez, Montoya was quoted as saying: "I don't want trails of blood. I want rivers of blood. I want results." [back to contents]

TOPICS

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Central African Republic: Truth and Reconciliation Commission is Pathway to Peace – UN (allAfrica) By Lisa Schlein July 5, 2018

A U.N. human rights official is urging the government of the Central African Republic to establish, without delay, a truth and reconciliation commission as a pathway to peace.

Marie-Therese Keita-Bocoum welcomes progress made in institutional reforms this year. But, she says authorities in the Central African Republic have to do much, much more to repair the country's chronically troubled security and political situation.

Speaking Wednesday to the U.N. Human Rights Council, she said escalating attacks by armed groups are traumatizing the population, which is losing trust in the ability of the government to protect it. She deplores the hate speech employed by several factions, which, in many cases has a dangerous religious component.

Keita-Bocoum condemns the growing number of what she calls odious attacks against aid workers and U.N. peacekeepers. She says it is vital to bolster protection for human rights in the country, in particular, economic and social rights.

She says the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is an important element in this mix. She speaks through an interpreter.

“The government shared with me its determination to develop a transitional justice strategy, which would consist of dealing with the mass atrocities committed in the past, establishing culpability, guaranteeing non- repetition of conflict, and restoring trust and national social cohesion. It includes judicial and non-judicial mechanisms including the truth commission, institutional reform and reparation,” she said.

Keita-Bocoum says the willingness on the part of the government deserves stepped-up support from the international community.

“The situation in the C.A.R. is becoming unbearable. It reveals more than ever the urgent need to simultaneously bolster protection of civilians, humanitarian aid, combating impunity, and peace initiatives and development,” she said.

The C.A.R. ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Leopold Samba, agrees with the independent expert’s assessment of the situation and is appealing for greater international support.

He calls the displacement of 600,000 people and the deaths and injuries of some 4,000 people in the C.A.R.'s long-running civil war unacceptable. Samba says additional measures are needed to restore peace throughout his country’s battered national territory.

Human Rights Committee examines the State of civil and political rights in the Gambia in absence of report (ReliefWeb) By UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights July 6, 2018

The Human Rights Committee this morning concluded the review of the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in the Gambia, in the absence of a report, and with the delegation present.

In his address to the Committee, Cherno Marenah, Solicitor General and Legal Secretary, Ministry of Justice of the Gambia, explained that the country was in transition following a prolonged period of autocratic rule. The Gambia had long been the heart of human rights in Africa, and it was here that the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights was based. Since taking office 18 months ago, the new Government had adopted a series of reforms to protect and promote human rights. It had set up the Constitutional Reform Commission was given two years to submit a draft of a new constitution to the Gambian people; its members had been sworn in on 5 July 2018. A Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission had been created to shed light on the serious human rights violations committed during the troubled two past decades, and for the first time in history, an independent national human rights institution was set up. The Gambia also embarked on a major reform of the judiciary to restore its strength and independence, and would soon embark on the security sector reform to ensure the respect for human rights in the country.

The Committee Experts commended the Gambia for its openness and honesty about the governmental transition and commended the State’s many efforts to place human rights at the core of the country. They urged the Government to ensure that the language of the Covenant was considered in the new Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Experts inquired about accountability for past human rights violations, including the prosecution of the former president, as well as members of the security and intelligence communities. Continued practice of torture and ill-treatment by the police and security officers, arbitrary arrests and detention, extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances, together with the continued use of the death penalty and harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, were among the Experts’ greatest concerns. They also cited the prohibition of abortion, discrimination against women under the Sharia law, and the continued practice of female genital mutilation and child marriage, despite the laws that prohibited them.

The delegation of the Gambia consisted of representatives from the Ministry of Justice, Office of the President, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, and the Women’s Bureau.

All the documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage. The webcast of the Committee’s public meetings is available via the following link: http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events/.

The Committee will resume at 3 p.m. today, 6 July, to continue its discussion of the draft General Comment No. 36 on article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the right to life.

The Committee has before it the List of issues in the absence of the second periodic report of the Gambia (CCPR/C/GMB/Q/2), and the State party’s replies to the list of issues (CCPR/C/GMB/Q/2/Add.1).

CHERNO MARENAH, Solicitor General and Legal Secretary, Ministry of Justice of the Gambia, explained that the country was in transition following a prolonged period of autocratic rule. Human rights, said the head of the delegation, were at the heart of the new Government and the Gambia had long been the heart of human rights in Africa. It was in the Gambia that, since December 2016, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights was based. Since taking office 18 months ago, the new Government had adopted a series of reforms to protect and promote human rights and had set up the Constitutional Reform Commission whose members had been sworn in on 5 July 2018. The Commission was given two years to submit a draft of a new constitution to the Gambian people, which will serve as a blueprint for the promotion and protection of human rights and the rule of law in the Gambia.

The Gambia, continued Mr. Marenah, went through an extensive era of human rights violations and abuses in the previous two decades. A Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission had therefore been created to shed light on the serious human rights violations committed during that troubled period, and should begin its work concretely in the coming months. In addition, for the first time in the history of the Gambia, an autonomous national human rights institution, the Human Rights Commission, was being set up, with the mandate to promote and protect human rights of the country’s citizens and residents. The Commission would be operational before the end of this year, said the head of the delegation, reiterating the commitment to obtaining A status in compliance with the Paris Principles.

The Government also embarked on a major reform of the judiciary in order to restore its strength and independence, and hoped to complete those reforms quickly. The security sector reform would soon follow, to ensure the respect for human rights in the course of their duty. Already, standard operational procedures of security services were being realigned with international standard, with the support of the United Nations and the African Union. Finally, there was a renewed commitment in the Gambia to human rights obligations: the National Assembly had approved the accession to various international treaties whose instruments of ratification should be deposited quickly, and there was a permanent inter-ministerial task force for treaty body reporting obligations, the head of the delegation concluded.

Opening the interactive dialogue with the delegation of the Gambia, a Committee Expert took note of the transitional period in the country and recognized a number of human rights measures of the new Government, which included the release of political prisoners.

Incorporating the Covenant rights in the domestic legal system and the Constitution was critical, the Experts said, asking whether the language of the Covenant would be considered in the Bill of Rights, and what would be the status of the Covenant in the Gambia, under the new Constitution.

The delegation was asked about the prosecution for past human rights violations of the former president and intelligence officers, and whether there would be criminal proceedings against former security services. What course of action would the Government take to address the issues of mass burial sites linked to executions and enforced disappearances, including referring the cases to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission? What steps were being taken to address the poor conditions in prisons?

Same-sex relationships were still criminalized, and the State had declared that it would not prosecute those in same-sex relationships. Was this still the case?

The Committee commended and welcomed the establishment of the national human rights institution and asked about its relationship with the judiciary, and its funding, and requested an explanation of how the permanent inter-ministerial task force for treaty body reporting obligations functioned.

The Experts took positive note of the efforts to improve the legal and institutional framework to protect women against discrimination, noting for example the establishment of the National Women’s Council and the National Women’s Bureau in 1980 to advise the Government on all matters affecting development and welfare of women. How did such measures and in particular the activity of the National Women’s Council had a positive impact on the participation and representation of women in political, social and economic life? In the National Assembly, there were only five women and only one speaker was a woman, Experts remarked, and asked about other measures taken to improve the lives of the women in the Gambia; the percentage of women employed in decision-making positions in both the private and public sector; and specific steps to eliminate patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes regarding the role and responsibilities of women and men.

An Expert asked the delegation to explain its provisions on access to justice, protection against violence, equal protection before law, the right to healthcare and rights of women in rural communities.

Concerning girls’ school enrolment, the delegation was asked about the School Improvement Grant aimed at making basic education free in all Government and grant-aided school, and about the bursary scheme for girls to cover the costs of basic expenses for girls attending schools in rural areas.

The Committee was concerned about discrimination against women by the Sharia law, particularly in their access to land. The Sharia law regulated marriage, divorce and inheritance for Muslims who made up more than 90 percent of the population. It allowed women access to land only through marriage, and defined that widows only borrowed - not inherited - land from their husbands. These and other discriminatory rules were codified in the Women’s Act of 2010, Experts noted and asked about other provisions in the Act which had a substantial impact on the condition women vis-à-vis men in the Gambia. Had any initiatives been taken to repeal discriminatory provisions of the Women’s Act and ensure that the principle of equality between men and women set out in the Constitution was applied and strictly enforced?

A great concern was voiced for impunity of security forces for human rights violations, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions in particular. Major reforms must take place immediately, Experts stressed, and asked about reparations for victims of enforced disappearances and their families, and about concrete steps to tackle enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions and bring their perpetrators to justice.

The Committee took positive note of the two laws from 2013 which protected women from domestic violence, and raised the issue of lack of data on violence against women including sexual violence, and the lack of complaints for violence against women despite the existence of the phenomenon. Girls were still exposed to the harmful practice of female genital mutilation, Experts noted, and asked whether it was performed on infants and what steps were being taken to combat this practice.

The deteriorating health system in the country, particularly primary health care, had a particularly detrimental impact on infant and maternal mortality, and Expert noted with concern. What were the factors that explained the rapid rise in maternal mortality rates since 2010 and what steps were being taken to reverse the trend?

The Gambian law was one of the most restrictive in Africa. It was based on an 1861 colonial law and criminalized all types of abortions except if the mother’s life was in danger. Could a women have an abortion of pregnancy arising from rape or incest?

The fact that early and child marriage remained in widespread practice in the Gambia worried the Experts, despite the various campaigns and legislative initiatives to eliminate it. The Committee recognized in particular the initiative by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare called End Child Marriage Campaign and the 2016 Children’s Act which defined child as any person under the age of 18 and criminalized child marriage. How many early marriages had been celebrated over the past five years, and what other measures had been taken to combat this practice, and polygamy? How many prosecutions had been initiated for the violations of the Children’s Act and what were their outcomes?

In response to Experts’ questions and comments, the delegation stressed that the issue of the death penalty was a constitutional matter, noting that the President’s political committed to the abolition would most likely find its way in the new Constitution, probably as an entrenched clause that could only be changed by a referendum. The ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant was being prepared for the President’s signature, and this too tied in well with the current constitutional review.

The international law was not recognized as domestic law, the delegation went on, and explained that the matter of direct application of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights would be discussed in the process of drafting the new Constitution.

The former president was in exile and his prosecution at this stage was not a priority for the Government which was undergoing a fragile transition process. Also, it would not be wise to bring him back to the country where he still enjoyed pockets of independent support.

The issue of burial sites was a sensitive one, particularly for the families of potential victims, the delegation said. The Gambia was cooperating with international partners who provided forensic capacity and support and which had allowed the Government to identify the remains exhumed last year. The absolute importance was the identification of victims prior to handing over the remains to families, and this explained why the process had been slow to date.

Turning to questions raised about the national human rights institution, the delegation said that vacancies for the roles had been publicized and a number of applications had been received from citizens who deserved to sit as Commissioners. The vetting and interviewing process was scheduled to take place in the next couple of months and the Gambia was confident that by the third quarter of 2018, the Commissioners would be appointed. In line with the Paris Principles, and as prescribed by the law, the Human Rights Commission enjoyed full financial independence, with budgets coming from the National Assembly appropriation and not through a ministry. The delegation explained that the inter-ministerial task force was not a standing autonomous force; it was made up of Government officials and human rights non- governmental organizations’ representatives.

Several laws had been enacted in 2016 to protect women and girls such as the Sexual Offences Act and Women’s Act, as well as the Children’s Act which prohibited child marriage.

The issue of child marriage was a challenge in the Gambia because under the Sharia law, a person was deemed ready for marriage after puberty, which could happen before the age of 18. The enforcement of the Children’s Act therefore was a challenge, and required considerable awareness and education. Most children who were attending school would not be subjected to child marriage, a delegate said, thus increasing the school enrolment rates of girls would decrease the prevalence of child marriage. There were no reported cases of child marriage at the moment in Gambia, claimed a delegate.

In a similar vein, female genital mutilation was criminalized, but there was a significant reluctance to report perpetrators of this deep-rooted cultural practice who were usually close family members. The practice among the educated, the delegation noted, was almost non-existent, supporting the idea that as the population became more educated, including on the practice itself, the prevalence of female genital mutilation would decrease. The State was using the theory of change in combatting this practice, and was working with law enforcement, women’s groups, civil society organizations, lawyers, health workers and magistrates in an advocacy effort.

The last quinquennial survey on infant, child and maternal mortality had taken place in 2013. The data for the next one were being currently collected, and the report would be released later this year. Acknowledging the increasing rates of maternal mortality since 2010, the delegation said that it might be due to the limited public budget for maternal and reproductive health, and a heavy dependence on donors, particularly the United Nations Population Fund. Lack of resources affected the purchasing of medical equipment as well, including those needed in obstetric emergencies.

The State law criminalized abortion, said the delegation, and noting the clandestine nature of abortion that women and girls resorted to, said that data were hard to gather. Abortion rates were high among adolescents because of the high fertility rate. If a clandestine abortion resulted in a woman’s death, the authorities would be notified; otherwise, it was up to the family to notify the authorities.

The delegation reiterated the State’s commitment to providing quality education for sustainable development and ensuring that no one was left behind, and explained that the School Improvement Grant removed fees for public education, and as such, had a significant positive impact on school enrolment rates. A delegate explained that the figures related to this programme were not being used to determine literacy levels but as a proxy educational indicator.

Girls represented half of the student body, noted the delegate, adding that textbooks were being revised to ensure they were gender sensitive, and teachers were being trained. Even though there had been a significant increase in girls’ school enrolment of girls, cultural and religious beliefs which prevented girls from going to school still remained.

The discussion continued with the delegation answering Experts’ questions on the condition of prisons. The prison population had decreased by fifty percent and political prisoners had been released, the delegation stated. The Prison Council reviewed the situation of detention in prisons and was also charged with revising the outdated Prisons Act. A modern prison was being built in line with international standards.

As far as discrimination against women under the Sharia law was concerned, the delegation explained that the only instance in which it happened was in the matters of inheritance, whereby men and women were not treated equally, and women often received half of the men’s part. It was hard to change the conceptions among Muslims who wanted to be governed solely by the Sharia. Muslims who wished to opt out of the Sharia, could do so, and their personal affairs would be then governed by the civil law.

In the next round of questions, Committee Experts recalled the Gambia’s commitment to criminalize torture as part of the criminal justice reform, and asked about the status of this process, and the situation concerning the ratification to the Convention against Torture. Experts were concerned that even if the Constitution and the law prohibited such practices, there were reports of widespread torture, beatings and ill-treatment, especially by security forces against individuals in custody. The 2014 findings by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture had shown that the National Intelligence Agency and the Gambian police consistently practiced torture on detainees, using methods such as severe beatings, electric shocks, asphyxiation and burning, rape, water boarding, and simulated burial.

Could the delegation provide information on specific measures taken to prevent and punish those persistent acts of torture in places of detention, establish legal responsibility and accountability for past conducts and the alleged acts of torture by the police, and also provide data on the number of prosecutions for acts of torture and ill-treatment had been carried out in the past five years? Committee Experts remarked that, according to information the Committee had received, such prosecutions seemed rare; the President had the authority to exclude members of security forces from the prosecution for acts committed during a state of emergency or an unlawful assembly.

The inefficiency in the justice system often resulted in excessively lengthy pre-trial detention; there were cases in which individuals spent several years in detention awaiting trial, and approximately 30 per cent of the inmates in the prison system were in pre-trial detention. What measures and initiatives had been taken to reduce the length of pre-trial detention and speed up trials, the delegation was asked, and was also requested to inform on training programmes to prevent acts of torture in places of detention. Was such training mandatory for police and prison officers before they started exercising their functions?

A Committee Expert welcomed the declaration by the State Party that all political prisoners had been released in the Gambia since January 2017, and asked for data and statistics on those individuals.

The Constitution and the legislation prohibited arbitrary arrest and detention, the Experts acknowledged, limiting the detention to a maximum 72 hours before formal charges had to be brought. However, in many instances, police and other security forces arbitrarily arrested and detained persons for longer than 72 hours without formally charging them, or informing them of the charges until much later. Could the delegation comment and describe measures taken to ensure that any arrestee was promptly informed of the charges against them?

Other Committee concerns related to the gaps and shortcomings of the bail system. Prosecutors often opposed bail even for detainees charged with small crimes or misdemeanours, while judges and magistrates frequently set bail at unreasonably high amounts. Had any measures been taken to regulate the bail system and make it more effective and respectful of the rights of the individual in matters of arrest and detention?

Experts expressed continued concern about harsh and life-threatening prison conditions such as food shortages, gross overcrowding, physical abuse, lack of adequate medical care and inadequate sanitary conditions. There were reports of prisoners dying simply due to neglect or lack of access to healthcare, and the prisoners’ mortality rate was very high. Were there institutions charged with the monitoring of prison conditions, which could receive and investigate credible allegations of inhuman conditions, the Experts asked, and also inquired about the functions of the Prison Visiting Committee and whether the Office of the Ombudsman had a role in this regard. Experts commended the Gambia for allowing access to prisons for international monitoring institutions and asked what were the future intentions in this context.

Turning to the situation of refugees and asylum seekers, the Committee commended the State party for the support provided to refugees who had fled the conflict in the province of Casamance in Senegal, particularly in view of the financial and logistical constraints cited by the State Party. An Expert asked how and where refugees were received and processed before their resettling in communities, the proportion of the public budget spent on the refugees, and what steps were being taken to support host communities.

The Committee welcomed information regarding the overhauling of the judiciary system, particularly the abolition of the system of contract judges and the reconstitution of the Judicial Service Commission. An Expert asked the delegation to clarify its stance on guaranteeing judicial independence, the checks and balances in the judicial appointment process to ensure that only capable and properly vetted candidates were selected, and how the judiciary was financed. The Committee welcomed the request for technical assistance in the judicial sector that the Gambia had submitted to the Commonwealth Secretariat, and asked the delegation to explain the initiative in detail.

How was the Judicial Ethics Committee constituted and what systems were in place to guarantee its independence and effectiveness? The Judges Remuneration Allowances and Other Benefits Bill was a very critical piece of the law in the process of reconstituting a sound judicial system, Experts remarked and inquired about the timetable for its enactment into law.

Concerning measures for the protection of minors, a Committee Expert expressed concern about children in rural areas and those born out of wedlock. The Expert noted that while the registration was free of charge, there was a penalty for late registration. What were the obstacles in birth registration of children born out of wedlock and the birth of children in remote areas?

Experts urged the Gambia decriminalize homosexuality and adopt a comprehensive equality and non- discrimination law to include sexual orientation and gender identity as prohibited grounds. How many people were prosecuted and convicted for different sexual orientation and gender identity?

The delegation said that the Government of the Gambia took torture very seriously, as demonstrated by the recent ratification of the Convention of Torture. At the same time, the inclusion of the crime of torture in the legislation was a priority the ongoing criminal justice reform process. The lack of adequate laws to prohibit torture was sorely felt during the Gambia’s previous government, the delegation said, and it also inhibited the prosecution of perpetrators in the present. The State was committed to training security personnel; training for law enforcement officers on the Convention against Torture was scheduled in October 2018. There were plans to repeal the Indemnity Act, which provided immunity for law enforcement officers who committed acts of torture.

An inter-ministerial task force had been established to provide details on pre-trial detainees, whose results would inform recommendations to the Chief Justice and help support the decision on whether those cases should be expedited. The police was aware of the 72-hours rule as far as arrest and detention were concerned, said the delegation, and added that arbitrary arrest had become a practice of the past. There were still rogue law enforcement officers, he said, but civil and citizen education and awareness of their rights would help change the behaviour of police officers.

The National Agency against Trafficking in Persons was very active and was rated as a tier two agency, which was positive considering the problems in the country. The Agency had conducted raids and made arrests for human trafficking, and had also been very active in combatting sex trafficking within the tourism industry. There was a fine line between people trafficking and smuggling, a delegate stressed, and in the Gambian context, the cases were mostly related to the smuggling of migrants.

The judiciary prepared its own budget which was then charged to the National Assembly. Efforts were being made to decentralize the justice system and there were magistrates who travelled to hard to reach districts at scheduled times. A Freedom of Information Bill was being drafted which would allow media freedom, information, and access to information for the public.

There had not been any prosecutions or convictions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, the delegation confirmed, and explained that this community was not at risk in the Gambia. The law against homosexuality was still in place, but the Government had committed to not using it to prosecute. People had to have a say in the repeal of this law, the delegate said; it was a delicate process that had to be carefully managed as the State wished to avoid any harm to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community. There were religious and cultural aspects in the Gambia that made decriminalization of homosexuality a difficult issue.

All children, from birth up to the age of five, had the right to free birth registration, irrespective of where they are located; late registrations were charged a 25 USD cents fine. Children born out of wedlock had the right to their birth certificate too, which would only carry the mother’s name; a person could register as a father of the child at a later date.

There was a zero tolerance policy when it came to corporal punishment. The Government ensured that knowledge on the issue was disseminated in schools and other sectors and that teachers and parents were aware of the State’s position.

The Gambia was a haven for refugees from bordering countries, the delegation said. Most came from the southern border with Senegal. There were refugee centres but refugees were free to choose to settle in communities, or with the family in the country. The delegation praised the support provided to the State on this issue by the United Nations Refugee Agency.

CHERNO MARENAH, Solicitor General and Legal Secretary, Ministry of Justice of the Gambia, in his concluding remarks assured the Committee that the Gambia took its human rights obligations very seriously. The Gambia remained committed to the ideals of the Covenant and its implementation in the State’s new Constitution and criminal justice system.

YUVAL SHANY, Committee Chairperson, concluded by commending the Gambia for the commitment to ratifying the Second Optional Protocol and integrating international human rights standards into its new Constitution.

Pakistan mourns Mastung victims (Arab News) By Naimat Khan July 15, 2018

Pakistan mourned on Sunday the victims of recent terror attacks in the country. Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk announced Sunday as a mourning day across the country to pay respect to lives lost in the Bannu and Mastung attacks.

The Balochistan government also announced two-day mourning in the province following Mastung deadly attack. Meanwhile, the funeral prayers on Nawab Siraj Raisani was offered in Quetta’s General Musa Stadium on Saturday, attended by several senior political and military leaders.

Raisani, who was running for the provincial assembly on the Balochistan Awami Party’s ticket, was killed, along with at least 127 others, in a suicide attack that targeted his election meeting in the town of Mastung on Friday.

The funeral was delayed to ensure the attendance of family members traveling there from abroad. Speaking to the media in Quetta, the slain BAP leader’s brother, Nawab Lashkari Raisani, demanded a truth and reconciliation commission. “All decisions and policies of the state, starting from General Ziaul Haq’s time, should be probed by the commission,” he said, adding that those who made these policies should be held accountable.

About 131 people were killed and more than 150 injured in Friday’s Mastung blast, a health official told Arab News on Saturday.

However, residents of the area where the incident took place say many of those who died on the spot were not even mentioned in the official figures since they were not picked up by rescue workers.

Dr. Waseem Baig, a spokesperson of Civil Hospital Quetta, said that 131 people brought to the three health facilities of the city had either died on their way to hospitals or during their treatment.

“Presently, we have 77 wounded individuals and two of them are in a critical state,” he said.

However, locals contradict the reported figures. Ataullah Baloch, a Mastung-based journalist who reached the site a few minutes after the explosion, claimed the death toll was much higher than reported.

“Since there was a limited number of ambulances, rescue workers only picked up the wounded. Official figures only include those who succumbed to their injuries on their way to hospitals or during their treatment at different health facilities,” said Baloch, adding that all those who died on the spot were taken by their families directly.

Jibran Nasir, a social activist and candidate from NA-247, who flew to Quetta to assess the situation, said there were families who lost up to 12 members in the blast.

“The government should take care of those who need better treatment. It should also provide compensation to the poor since they had gathered to participate in the democratic process,” he added.

“This is a major conspiracy, not just against Balochistan Awami Party but also the whole country,” Saeed Hashmi, central leader of Siraj Raisani’s party, told Arab News.

He said the political leadership of Balochistan had decided that the Mastung incident would not be allowed to postpone the election process.

“The best way to pay tribute to Siraj Raisani is to continue our election campaign with the same passion,” he noted.”The people of Balochistan want to avenge the Mastung killings, and the best way to do it is to come out in large numbers and vote,” Hashmi continued.

He admitted that the massacre in Mastung would affect voter turnout in the election, though he pointed out that “security institutions have already taken steps to restore people’s confidence in the election process.”

“After the Mastung carnage, there is fear among political workers and they are likely to hold small corner meetings. The situation suits the Baloch separatists, and it almost looks like the repeat of the 2013 elections,” Saeed Sarbazi, a senior Baloch analyst, told Arab News.

“In the tribal society of Balochistan, Siraj Raisani was a major anti-separatist figure. With this massive attack and his tragic death, people’s election enthusiasm will come to an end,” he said.

Abbas Nasir, former editor of Dawn, says the blast in Mastung may affect it in the nearby districts but it will not cut turnout which has traditionally been low because of other reasons.

“In Balochistan constituencies, the voters have to make a distance of up to 40 kilometers to poll their votes as the constituencies are spread over a large area. The turnout in Balochistan can never be similar to that in the rest of Pakistan.” Meanwhile, the military’s spokesperson said, while quoting the army chief in his tweet, that “attempts of inimical forces to derail important democratic activity shall not succeed.”

Pakistanis, he added, were united, and they were going to defeat terrorists.

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Terrorism

Easier said than done – using the justice system to counter terrorism (ISS Today) By Romi Sigsworth

Global policy says states should deal with terrorism in their own courts, through fair criminal justice processes. In practice however, military and security strategies have been the norm worldwide over the past two decades. The challenge of making criminal justice responses a reality is evident in the case of West Africa.

The United Nations (UN) Security Council agreed in 2001 that terrorist acts should be classified as serious criminal offences in domestic law so that perpetrators could be brought to justice. The UN’s 2006 Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy prioritises the rule of law and human rights in responding to terrorism.

The most practical way to implement these UN tenets is using principles embedded in the criminal justice system: equality, accountability and fairness in applying the law. West African countries have taken the right steps to achieve this, even if implementation lags behind policy.

West Africa has been targeted by a complex range of terrorist groups over the past decade, some with links to international terrorism. Driven by multiple socio-economic and political grievances as well as extremist ideologies, the devastation wreaked by these groups has placed enormous pressure on states and regional institutions to respond quickly and effectively.

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has developed a counter-terrorism strategy and implementation plan that focuses on the rule of law and protection of human rights. Initiatives are also in place to strengthen criminal justice sector cooperation between Ecowas states in responding to terrorism.

Countries in West Africa most affected by terrorism – Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Nigeria – have signed and ratified the relevant international conventions on terrorism. They have also instituted various criminal justice approaches, including enacting domestic laws and establishing specialised judicial measures for terror-related offences.

Despite these advances, security approaches still dominate in West Africa, with military operations leading counter-terrorism efforts. This stems from several interrelated factors: the “war on terror” that led global responses post-9/11; external funding and support for individual and multi-country military interventions; and the urgency to stabilise areas overwhelmed by violence.

While sometimes necessary to contain genuine national emergencies, security based counter-terrorism operations create significant risks in the long term, because they exacerbate cycles of grievance and violence that drive extremism. Recent research confirms that aggressive counter-terrorism responses resulting in the death, injury or unlawful arrest of loved ones are key “tipping points” for extremist recruitment in Africa.

The human cost of the use of force is often unavoidable and always high. In West Africa, organisations have documented a range of human rights violations taking place during counter-terrorism operations.

These include granting extraordinary powers to law enforcement agencies, extrajudicial killings, wrongful arrests, torture and enforced disappearances. Due process for terror suspects is also lacking, including indefinite detention without charge, lengthy pre-trial detention and denying suspects access to lawyers. Impunity for violators is often widespread.

There are many barriers to using justice approaches to counter-terrorism in West Africa. The security context is complex, with disastrous implications for human security. The range of actors involved in the conflict and in trying to restore peace makes consensus and coordination difficult. Weak criminal justice systems struggle to investigate and prosecute terrorist acts, and there are systemic problems of limited resources and capacity, corruption, impunity and political interference.

Long-term approaches based on specific local contexts are crucial. In the short term, a concerted effort is needed to ensure that human rights are protected in counter-terrorism responses. The focus should be on investigating and bringing to justice alleged perpetrators of human rights violations – whether from terrorist groups or security forces – and addressing the needs of victims.

In Nigeria, demands for accountability and justice from communities show that perceptions of impunity need to be addressed. The establishment of a judicial panel to investigate the military’s human rights record and mass trials of Boko Haram suspects will help achieve this.

Civilian oversight bodies must be strengthened and empowered to hold to account government agencies conducting counter-terrorism operations. The 2016 appointment of a civilian governor for Niger’s Diffa region – where a state of emergency was declared in 2015 following repeated terror attacks – shows the government is committed to civilian oversight in that region.

In the medium term, special criminal justice agencies must be trained and equipped to investigate, prosecute and adjudicate complex terrorism crimes. Given the large number of terror suspects and returnees, additional capacity may be needed to process terror-related cases.

Governments can also authorise and equip traditional or restorative justice mechanisms to process certain crimes, within carefully monitored rule of law parameters.

Niger recently processed 230 terrorism-related cases in two months – the result of concerted action by Niger’s judiciary and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. This shows what is possible.

In the quest to rapidly handle cases however, it’s important that justice is seen to be served and that victims are given a chance to participate in the criminal justice process – both of which are essential parts of healing.

Criminal justice system reform programmes in West Africa – which are vital to sustainable peace and development – must be adapted to absorb the added pressures and complexities of terror crimes. This includes equipping “ordinary” police, prosecutors and courts to handle terrorism cases within rule of law and human rights frameworks.

Pakistan opens terrorism investigation against ex-PM's party 10 days before election (Reuters) By Mubasher Bukhari and Kay Johnson July 15, 2018

Pakistani authorities have opened a criminal investigation into leaders of jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's political party under an anti-terrorism law, 10 days before a hotly contested general election, according to police documents.

The case relates to a march staged by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on July 13, when Sharif returned to Pakistan, which defied a ban on holding public rallies on a Friday. The former premier was arrested minutes after landing in the country after being sentenced in absentia by an anti-corruption court on July 6.

Copies of two separate First Information Reports (FIR), which mark the formal opening of a criminal investigation, named PML-N leader Shehbaz Sharif, who is Nawaz Sharif's brother, and a number of other key figures. They include former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who replaced Sharif last year and served until June, when the caretaker government took over.

The FIRs cite section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which has broad provisions defining terrorism to include creating public fear, and lists 10 alleged violations of ordinary criminal law including unlawful assembly.

"We are taking action against PML-N leaders," the caretaker home minister of Punjab, Shaukat Javed, told Reuters on Sunday. "But no one will be arrested before the elections."

He said that including the terrorism charges was a "mistake" that would be corrected later. Shehbaz Sharif led Friday's march across the city of Lahore, in which tens of thousands of people took part, intending to send a message to rivals that the popular vote is still with the PML-N ahead of the July 25 election.

National polls indicate a close race between the ruling PML-N and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI, or Pakistan Justice Movement) led by former cricket star Imran Khan, with the Pakistan Peoples Party in third place.

Sharif, who was removed from office by the Supreme Court last year and sentenced this month to 10 years in prison for corruption, alleges the military is aiding a "judicial witch-hunt" to prevent the PML-N from winning a second term.

The party's past five years in government have been characterized by discord with the military, which has ruled Pakistan for nearly half its 71-year history.

The Sharifs' return could shake up an election riven by accusations the military is working behind the scenes to skew the contest in favor of Khan, who describes Sharif as a "criminal" deserving no support.

Musadik Malik, a senior PML-N official and member of the Senate, said the FIRs were part of a pattern that included pressuring candidates to change to PTI and corruption cases against other party leaders.

"This FIR is just another attempt of intimidation and political victimization," Malik said.

Malik said the PML-N rally was overwhelmingly peaceful and any ban on gatherings so close to the election was unfair.

Israel Secretly Releases Turkish Citizen Arrested on Terrorism Charges (Haaretz) By Yotam Berger, Josh Breiner and Noa Landau July 16, 2018

A Turkish citizen who was jailed in early June in Israel and was facing terrorism charges was released in recent days and has been sent home, Haaretz has learned. Her lawyers say that they have reached a deal with the prosecution that proceedings against her would be suspended on the grounds that she could "not be located."

Ebru Özkan, 27, was arrested at Ben-Gurion International airport last month on suspicions of being a danger to state security and conspiring with terror organizations. She was indicted by the military prosecution last week with attempting to transfer money and other objects to Hamas representatives.

Özkan's lawyers say that Israel had offered to release her after the charges were filed in exchange for a confession, an offer she refused. Ultimately, they say, the state and lawyers agreed on her release and return to Turkey, while proceedings in Israel would be suspended.

Her lawyer, Ramzi Katilat, confirmed to Ha turkish aretz that Özkan arrived in Turkey. He said that Özkan refused to confess and that her intention to see the evidence against her "apparently created pressure among the decision-makers" in Israel.

He said that the solution they reached was in effect to void the order preventing her from leaving Israel: she got her passport back, and left legally. "She naturally wouldn't stay a minute longer (in Israel)," he said, adding that the military prosecution had made the arrangement conditional on classifying it under "inability to locate" her and the case would effectively be over.

The Shin Bet security service confirmed she was "released with restrictive terms and then it was decided to order her to leave Israel immediately."

Ibrahim Kalin, an associate of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, tweeted that the president welcomed her back. Turkish media quoted Özkan thanking Erdogan for caring.

Özkan was arrested on June 11, on her way back home. Since then she has not been allowed to talk to her family. She could not meet a lawyer for the first two weeks and classified information about her was not given to the defense.

The first charge says that on a different trip to Israel, in 2016, on her way to Israel, Özkan received five bottles of perfume at the Istanbul airport. She was asked to take them to Israel. She is charged with bringing them in and giving them to an unidentified contact person, even though she was told it would be used for Hamas money laundering.

Another charge is that she received a charger for a mobile phone from one of her colleagues at her job at a research institute in which Hamas members are also reportedly employed. She was asked to take the charger to someone in the West Bank, and tell him this was “chocolate from a friend whom you gave money to.” She is charged with taking it to Israel, although she never met this person or gave him the charger.

The third charge is that in 2017 she received $500 from the same colleague before coming to Israel. She also received $100 for herself and $1,000 for covering her expenses in Israel. She is accused of realizing that her colleague was connected to Hamas. He is said to have told her the money was from a foreign source. She is accused of taking the money to Israel through her sister and another friend.

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Piracy

Maritime Piracy - Is There Conspiracy Against Nigeria? (Vanguard) By Godwin Oritse and Godfrey Bivbere July 11, 2018

There are indications that the upcoming security report on Nigeria's marine space may worsen with operators accusing international interest groups of mischief over the report.

But Nigerian maritime industry stakeholders also indicated that despite the controversial nature of the figures on piracy attacks the number of incidences would certainly increase and Nigeria would maintain lead on the global piracy ranking in the second quarter, 2018.

The International Maritime Bureau, IMB, in its first quarter 2018, Q1'18, reports, noted that Nigeria currently leads in global pirates attacks against vessels.

In the IMB report, Nigeria alone recorded a total of 22 of the 45 as against Indonesia that recorded nine attacks and Venezuela has five attacks in the first three months of the year.

Global pirate attacks while four other countries namely Venezuela, Indonesia, Republic of Benin and Bangladesh recorded a total of 23 attacks.

A breakdown of the report showed that Bangladesh recorded four and Republic of Benin had five while.

Although, maritime security experts have contested the figure of the IMB, saying that number of attacks recorded in Nigeria during the quarter is likely to be lower, some foreign shipping firms confided in Vanguard Maritime Report that Nigeria do not have credible data as information on attacks go straight to the foreign ship owners who in turn report to the international organisation (IMB) rather than Nigerian authorities.

Some Nigerian operators have played down the figures, attributing it to plans by the developed countries to paint developing countries such as Nigeria, in security bad light, leading to increase in freight rates and marine insurance. Speaking with Vanguard Maritime Report, President of the Ship-owners Association of Nigeria, SOAN, and Managing Director/CEO of Starzs Marine and Engineering Limited, Greg Ogbeifun, said the report should not be taken serious as it is only meant to promote the interest of international operators.

According to him, "Personally I am not too bordered about piracy or whatever, they are always working to paint Nigeria black. I am not moved by their comments and that is the truth. They are the ones that are encouraging all these strives and unrest in all the developing countries and then they will also turn around to begin to complain.

"I said there wouldn't have been piracy in this country if there were no international connection to illegal bunkering. Those people are the ones behind all these problems we talk about. So they should stop stoking all these improprieties against developing countries, they should stop encouraging it. "All the piracy money, all the kidnapping money that they are collecting, who is collecting it, are they paying the money into Nigerian banks? They are not paying the money into Nigerian backs; they are paying it into foreign countries.

"They are the ones encouraging it, some I do not think that we should be overly blaming ourselves or feeling bad because some foreign body says that Nigeria has now become a hub for piracy."

On whether members of SOAN has not been affected he responded, "Am not aware of any of my members who have been affected, most of the piracy attacks take place far away from the coast of Nigeria, it is not necessarily in-country attack. There was a time we use to have such attacks but for sometimes now we have not had in-country piracy attacks."

Similarly, the Chairman of the Port Facility Security Officers, PFSO Forum, Dr. Ignatius Uche, agreed with school of thought that there could be a conspiracy against Nigeria in this regard.

He said that the issue of pirate attacks on vessels at the terminal has put virtually every government agency operating at the ports on their toes as the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, has approved money for the purchase of patrol boats to checkmate the activities of these criminals.

Uche described the situation as very embarrassing adding that the trend was beginning to put Nigeria on the spot in the international maritime comity.

He said that figures being bandied by the IMB are not the same with what is recorded by the Nigerian authorities.

According to him the official Nigerian figure should be around 13 attacks in Q1'18.

But going by this figure Nigerian would remain the global leader in piracy as the second highest number of attack recorded by IMB is Indonesia with 9 attacks.

However, Uche said "the more these criminals are allowed to operate, the more money and credibility the country is losing.

An official of International Ship and Port Facility Security, ISPS Code Unit of NIMASA who spoke to Vanguard Maritime Report on the condition of anonymity said that the issue of pirate attacks on vessels was an international conspiracy by the international shipping community. The officer said that Nigeria get reports of these attacks from the international maritime organisations as crewmen make these report directly to the principal abroad.

The official explained that when these attacks take place, it places high freight premium on Nigerian bound cargoes which attracts more freight payments and marine insurance premium.

Former Senior Special Adviser to Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Leke Oyewole, told Vanguard Maritime Report that "as long as that security gap remains, that there is no proper patrol around the ports and the anchorage, this trend will continue.

"For the second quarter 2018 report the figure is likely to increase if nothing is done to stem the tide of pirate attacks on vessels."

The fear of increase in pirates attack is coming against the cancellation of a maritime security contract by President Muhammedu Buhari due to the protest by a section of maritime stakeholders against what they saw as unwholesome interest in the deal.

The cancellation of the contract was commended by maritime security experts saying that it was absurd for the nation's Navy to work under a foreign private security firm as provided in the contract terms.

The Nigerian piracy headaches had come a long way prompting the former management of NIMASA to structure an international security contract with Global West Specialist Vessels to address the problem.

Under the arrangement NIMASA and Nigerian government was not going to pay any contract sum for the security, rather the contractor would be expected to beef up security to enable NIMASA make money from the ships. In turn the contractor would earn a percentage of the extra revenue.

But this arrangement was cancelled by the current administration on grounds that the contract was a conduit pipe to siphon monies from the agency.

However, a new security contract was initiated by the present administration where Nigeria would pay USD195 million (about N60billion) to a private security firm for beefing up security at the territorial and coastal waters.

But the contract amount raised so much dust that the National Assembly was forced to invite the Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaech, who refused to appear before its committees set up to look into the contract.

Eventually President Mohammadu Buhari was forced to cancel the contract and ordered that the USD50 million upfront payment be recovered by the way of getting the foreign contractor to supply items equivalent to the amount.

The contract, signed off by the Federal Executive Council in December 2017, would have seen the contractor, HSLi, an Israeli security firm, rake in $195 million in exchange for an undisclosed number of special mission aircraft, special mission helicopters and 12 fast intervention vessels for the Nigerian Navy.

Reacting to the cancellation of the contract Amaechi, Oyewole, while commending President Buhari for cancelling the contract, said that if that contract had been allowed to work, it would have been worse than the Global West contract. He said that the Nigerian Navy is the authority with legal powers to monitor and protect the nation's maritime domain adding that the Navy should be funded and provided with patrol boats.

"I fully support the cancellation of that contract simply because it would have been worse than the Global West contract because the Navy cannot be subjected to work under a foreign private company.

"It is odd for the Nigerian Navy to work under it. It is an absurdity that is inconsiderable. To that extent I support the cancellation of that contract.

"In the time of Global West, though it was not security firm, the whole of Nigeria cried foul.

"The Navy is the only authority that has the mandate to secure the nation's maritime space. The Navy should be properly funded and patrol boats should be provided for them.

"During the Jonathan era, Global West contract with NIMASA worked out perfectly. What they (NIMASA) did was to sign an MOU with the Navy and gladly enough, Navy came on board to subdue piracy in Lagos and other maritime space across the Nigerian waters which continue until 2015.

"As soon as the NIMASA-Global West was pulled down, there was space for the rascals to operate again.

"They started by operating off-shore, now they have developed the effrontery to operate even at the ports which is very bad for Nigeria because the freight of goods coming to Nigeria will increase.

"This development is not telling any good story about Nigeria."

Oyewole suggested that the NPA, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the NIMASA should form a synergy to provide a security platform, where NNPC can provide fuel and NPA and NIMASA can provide money to buy the boats for Navy to operate so as to build a sustainable arrangement to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria.

He suggested that there is a need for the country to have a robust surveillance system adding that all processes of ship operations and payments are integrated with the surveillance system.

Oyewole said that there must be electronics platform to report any infractions by vessels anywhere in the country.

"A special maritime force should be created and sustainable funding mechanism and the Automated Identification System, AIS, be replaced with a better technology.

The AIS should be improved upon and make our waters safe so that the payment of high freight rate and marine insurance premium which has been the target of the foreign shipping firms be stopped," he stated.

Countries resolve to revitalize war against piracy off Somalia Coast (Xinhua) July 13, 2018 The 21st Plenary Session of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPS) ended in Nairobi on Friday with delegates from 68 nations endorsing a communiqué to chart a new roadmap to eradicate the menace in the Horn of African nation.

Kenya and its multilateral partners hosted the three-day high-level forum to discuss new strategies to contain the menace of piracy along Somalia and Western Indian Ocean coastlines that was attended by ministers, diplomats and security experts.

The delegates in their joint communiqué acknowledged that piracy remains a huge maritime threat that has undermined economic growth, peace and stability in Somalia.

"We welcome continued efforts by the international community to combat and deter piracy off the coast of Somalia while acknowledging the threat though suppressed has not been eradicated," said the delegates.

The Nairobi summit in its final communiqué proposed a raft of measures geared towards eradicating maritime security threats in Somalia.

Among the resolutions that were endorsed include robust engagement of state and non-state actors like industry and civil society at regional and global levels to contain piracy in Somalia waters.

Likewise, delegates pledged support for a UN-funded counter piracy initiatives that provide technical assistance to countries in the eastern African region to enhance arrest and prosecution of culprits.

"The plenary reiterated its support to the UN Trust Fund to support initiatives of states countering piracy off the coast of Somalia and called for its continuation," said the communiqué.

Delegates rallied behind other innovative measures like economic empowerment of coastal communities as well as improved governance and investment in surveillance infrastructure to defeat the menace of piracy in the Somalia coastline.

"Continued international naval presence as well as action on illegal fishing and other maritime crimes should inform counter-piracy activities in Somalia and Western Indian ocean coastlines," said the Communiqué.

Vishnu Lutchmeenaraidoo, the Mauritius minister for foreign affairs and chair of Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, said the Nairobi summit endorsed an enlarged mandate for the international community to hasten the momentum towards a piracy free Somalia.

"We agreed that a long-term solution to the piracy menace in Somalia is needed and realization of that goal will be hinged on enhanced collaboration alongside provision of alternative livelihood for vulnerable youth," Vishnu said.

He stressed that investments in the blue economy that guarantees shared prosperity will boost response to maritime threats facing Somalia and neighboring countries.

Asian Piracy Incidents Drop to 10-Year Low (World Maritime News) July 18, 2018

A total of 40 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships were reported in Asia during January-June 2018, the regional piracy watchdog ReCAAP ISC said in a report.

Comprising 29 actual incidents and 11 attempted incidents, the number was 15% lower compared to 47 incidents (40 actual and seven attempted incidents) reported in the same period in 2017.

Of these, three were incidents of piracy and 37 were incidents of armed robbery against ships. ReCAAP ISC said that this was the lowest number of incidents reported among the 10-year reporting period of January- June of 2009-2018.

“There were improvements at ports and anchorages in Asia during January-June 2018 compared to the same period of 2017. The improvement was most apparent in Bangladesh and Philippines.”

Several arrests of perpetrators and recovery of stolen items were reported in the Bangladeshi Chittagong Port, the Philippines’ South Harbour, and Indian Gujarat region. There was no actual incident of abduction of crew in the Sulu-Celebes Seas during the first half of the year.

Furthermore, there were no successful oil cargo thefts during the same period. A number of perpetrators were arrested for attempted oil cargo theft from tanker Lee Bo on June 1, 2018.

However, ReCAAP raised concerns due to the increase in incidents on board ships while underway in the Straits of Malacca & Singapore (SOMS) and at Vietnam ports/anchorages during January-June 2018 compared to the same period in 2017.

Of the 40 incidents reported during January-June 2018, 31 incidents occurred on board ships while at anchor/berth, and nine incidents on board ships while underway.

All of the incidents in Bangladesh and Indonesia occurred on board ships at anchor/berth while all incidents in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore occurred on board ships while underway.

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Gender-Based Violence

Roma to Sue Serbia for ‘Tolerating’ War Crime (Balkan Transitional Justice) July 5, 2018

The National Council of Roma, the constitutionally-endorsed body representing the country’s Roma, and the Roma Centre for Strategy, Development and Democracy NGO said on Thursday that they will sue the Serbian state at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg over the recent verdict that acquitted six paramilitaries of killing 27 Roma in 1992.

They said that Serbia “tolerated a grave war crime by uniformed citizens by Serbia with arms given to them by the then JNA [Yugoslav People's Army], Army of Republika Srpska and the Serbian MUP [interior ministry]”.

News agency Beta reported that they sent an open letter announcing the lawsuit to the Serbian president, prime minister and justice ministry, as well as to the OSCE and several other international organisations.

On June 25, Belgrade’s Appeals Court confirmed the acquittal of the six former members of the Sima’s Chetniks paramilitary unit, clearing them of killing 27 Roma civilians in the village of Skocic in Bosnia in July 1992.

However, three of the former paramilitaries - Zoran Alic, Zoran Djurdjevic and Tomislav Gavric - were convicted of inhumane treatment, violation of physical integrity, sexual humiliation and rape.

In the open letter, the National Council of Roma and the Roma Centre for Strategy, Development and Democracy said that the verdict was “scandalous and has humiliated all Roma, especially those who survived the massacre and came to testify”.

They added that the verdict will have a significant influence on Roma people’s attitude towards the state and increase tensions and distance between Serbs and Roma.

AU and UN reiterate commitment to help Somalia tackle conflict-related sexual violence (ReliefWeb) July 10, 2018

The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the United Nations have reiterated their commitment to help develop capacity of the Somali national security forces to address all forms of human rights violations.

The two organizations promised to continue mobilizing resources and providing specialized training to the Somali national security forces, during the transition period, to prepare the officers for the handover of security responsibility as per the UN Security Council resolution (2372) adopted last year. The commitment was made, on Monday, at a joint AMISOM-UN trainer of trainers (TOT) workshop on the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence for the Somali national security forces (SNSF), which is being attended by participants from both federal and state governments.

Speaking during the opening ceremony of the four-day workshop, the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia, Ambassador Francisco Madeira, described sexual violence as a weapon of war, reiterating the urgent need to build the capacity of the security forces, both at the federal and regional states level, to tackle the vice.

“AMISOM is happy to support the Somali national security forces, the regional states and the Federal Government of Somalia to ensure the elimination of all forms of violence against women and children including conflict-related sexual violence,” Ambassador Madeira noted.

AMISOM, the SRCC added, has taken concrete steps to end sexual and gender-based violence in Somalia by working to prevent its occurrence, facilitating response to incidents and advocating for the availability of resources to meet the needs of survivors.

“The deployment of Women Protection and Child Protection officers to AMISOM is a significant step to ensuring that the security forces and the government of Somalia are supported accordingly,” Ambassador Madeira said.

Describing sexual violence as a crime against humanity and violation of women and children’s rights, the SRCC noted that Somalia has not been spared the brunt of conflict-related sexual violence, adding that the training must focus on the nature of the vice and how to respond to it.

His remarks were echoed by the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (DSRSG), Peter de Clercq, who described conflict-related sexual violence as a critical protection concern in Somalia, which needs to be tackled decisively.

“As part of the transition plan, Somali security forces need to be ready and able to address all security issues including human security, hence, understanding how to address conflict-related sexual violence is vitally important,” Mr. de Clercq noted.

The DSRSG said the workshop reaffirmed the commitment of the Federal Government of Somalia to curb sexual violence and also contribute to the development of acceptable and accountable security institutions.

“This is particularly important in the context of the transition of security responsibilities between AMISOM and Somali security institutions,” he observed.

The DSRSG noted that the training is part of the measures to guard against violations, in line with the UN Human Rights Due Diligence Policy.

The training is aimed at enhancing the skills and knowledge of participants on human rights crimes to enable them roll-out the same trainings to their colleagues in their respective regions.

During the training, the participants will be taken through a number of topics, among others, an introduction to human rights, definitions and characteristics of human rights; the national legal framework for protection of human rights; human rights in Islam; the changing nature of armed conflicts and grave violations; children and armed conflicts and the child protection legal framework.

South Sudan rights violations may constitute war crimes (Jurist) By Jacqueline Buffa July 11, 2018

Violence by government and aligned forces in South Sudan may constitute war crimes [press release], according to a UN report published Tuesday.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website] released the report [text, PDF], which details the atrocities occurring in the former State of Unity. This area has had a high military presence since 2014, resulting in opposition forces targeting civilians and leading to tens of thousands of deaths.

The report speaks of the latest incident, taking place from April 2018 to May 2018, where more than 120 women and children were the victims of sexually violent war crimes. During this time, approximately 31,000 people had been displaced due to the violence. In such instances, International Humanitarian Law is intended to protect innocent civilians.

Under this legal framework and in particular Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, SPLA and armed opposition groups are bound to distinguish at all times between civilians, including humanitarian relief personnel, and combatants and treat humanely persons taking no active part in hostilities. Shelling of civilians, unlawful killing, torture, cruel or inhuman treatment and outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape and other forms of sexual violence, destruction of property, pillage, enforced disappearance, arbitrary deprivation of liberty and forced displacement are prohibited.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein is demanding that the South Sudan government take action, and hold the three suspects described in the report accountable for the violations.

Combating the spread of wartime rape (SwissInfo) By Frédéric Burnand July 12, 2018

The Swiss non-governmental organisation Trial International, supported by Swiss diplomatic efforts, is campaigning to put an end to rape as a weapon of war, and the impunity which protects the perpetrators.

“Today there is not a single conflict in the world where rape is not used. As a weapon of war it is extremely effective, with multiple repercussions which affect the victims, their families and their communities. And it is used all the more because impunity is the rule for the perpetrators of these atrocities.“ This is the summing-up of the situation from Céline Bardet, founder of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) “We are not weapons of war”.

Along with about fifty other activists, Bardet was attending a meeting organised by TRIAL International on June 18 and 19 in Geneva to mark the 15th anniversary of the Swiss NGO. Susannah Sirkin, of the NGO Physicians for Human Rights, takes a similar view: “The first thing needed is prevention. One of the things to do is to put an end to the impunity of those who commit these crimes and those who organise these campaigns of sexual violence. If impunity is total, as in Syria and Burma, it encourages the perpetrators, even in other countries at war.”

While those attending the Geneva meeting were in agreement that sexual violence is becoming routine in warfare, there is no international study providing an exact measure of this scourge. It is thought that more than 20,000 women were raped during the wars in the former Yugoslavia (1992-1995). Over a million women have suffered the same fate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since the mid-1990s, during the repeated outbreaks of hostilities in numerous regions of that vast country. In 2017 alone, the ONU recorded 5,783 cases there; the actual figures are likely much higher.

Rapes committed against men

Libya currently presents the worst situation. “What is exceptional in Libya is that rape has been used systematically at different times: during the Gaddafi regime, during the revolution, and now, when rape is used systematically in prisons. It has become a means of retaliation used by all parties and which is mainly directed against men”, notes Bardet.

What is known of the motivations of those who perpetrate these crimes? “The numerous reports we know of emphasise the threats made by the perpetrators, whether leaders of militias or armed forces. What emerges is the urge to destroy a group by changing the identity of the next generation”, points out Sirkin. In Northern Iraq, victims belonging to the Yazidi minority have reported that during their period of slavery, the Daech (Islamic State) fighters told them that they were going to give them a Daech baby to put an end to their community,which illustrates the genocidal intention of these rapes.

In Bosnia too, Serbian torturers told Bosnian women that they were going to give them a Serbian baby. This approach of transforming a human group by forced pregnancies is also well documented in the Sudan, in the Darfour region. “Yet in the majority of cases that we know of rape is just used to terrorise a whole population and put them to flight. It is part of an operation of ethnic cleansing”, notes Sirkin.

Awareness of these particular atrocities is only beginning. “Until 1945, rapes in time of war were regarded as collateral damage rather than crimes”, says Lucie Canal, legal adviser on sexual violence with TRIAL International.

Too few trials

The first explicit mention of rape is found in the 4th Geneva Convention (1949), without it being considered as a serious war crime. The international courts dealing with the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda brought about a more precise definition of these crimes under international law. With the Statute of Rome (1998) defining the role of the International Criminal Court, a definition emerged of the elements constituting the crime of rape and sexual violence in time of war or repression. It includes forced prostitution, forced pregnancy and sexual enslavement.

Whereas the international tribunals set up for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda convicted war criminals for systematic rapes, the International Criminal Court has not yet convicted anyone for such crimes. The first case under this jurisdiction with charges of rape against former Congolese warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba was overturned on appeal earlier this month.

There is still the possibility of recourse to national courts that invoke universal jurisdiction. But cases actually taken remain few and far between. This is one reason why TRIAL International wants to develop ideas and hold further meetings based on what has been initiated in Geneva, so to be better able to protect and help victims of sexual violence to find treatment and to get justice.

DRC's Bemba acquittal overturns important victory for sexual violence victim (News24) By Kerstin Carlson July 16, 2018

In early June the International Criminal Court appeals chamber acquitted Jean- Pierre Bemba in a 3-2 ruling. Two years ago Bemba was sentenced to 18 years’ for his role, as military commander, for atrocities committed in Central African Republic (CAR).

The decision astounded observers. The unexpected, narrowly decided acquittal, brought scads of criticism. This was because Bemba’s 2016 conviction was considered hugely significant. It assigned criminal responsibility to a senior military official physically removed from the violence. It also made sexual violence a centrepiece of the charges.

Sexual violence, a staple of war, has long been absent from international criminal law’s charge sheets. By assigning Bemba responsibility for the rapes committed by fighters under his command, the 2016 judgment was seen as an important doctrinal advance for international criminal law.

Bemba’s acquittal has wide implications. This is true both for Bemba as well as the ICC and international criminal law. Bemba, who will shortly be released, is rumoured to be returning to Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to pursue political goals. There are reports that his party, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, known as the MLC, has nominated him as its candidate for the presidential race.

Novel interpretations

In acquitting Bemba, the Appeals Chamber made three novel judicial interpretations.

First, the Bemba majority found that the ICC prosecution didn’t sufficiently specify the charges against Bemba. International criminal courts have traditionally employed relatively lenient standards of precision in pre-trial indictments and charge sheets. And they’ve permitted the prosecutor relatively wide latitude in amending the charges, including during trial.

But the Appeals Chamber found that alerting Bemba to the categories of charges he faced (rape, murder, pillage) was not sufficient to later bring precise instances not named prior to trial.

Second, the Bemba majority addressed the question of the appropriate standard of review for appellate bodies. Appellate courts rule on questions of how the law is interpreted and applied, turning to questions of fact only when such facts cannot, as a matter of law, stand as interpreted by the trial court.

The typical appellate standard is therefore one of deference. But the Bemba majority held when the Appeals Chamber is able to identify findings [of fact] that can reasonably be called into doubt, it must overturn them.

This would seem to invite appeals courts to re-litigate cases heard by trial courts.

Anticipating this objection, the Appellate Chamber emphasised:

This is not a matter of the Appeals Chamber substituting its own factual findings for those of the trial chamber. It is merely an application of the standard of proof [beyond a reasonable doubt.]

This line of argument is not, so far, convincing many observers. The international law scholar Leila Sadat, for example, notes that it is inappropriate for the appeals court to substitute its judgment for a court which worked four-and-a-half years, hearing the testimony of 77 witnesses and producing a nearly 400 page decision.

In addition, some note that the decision directly rewards Bemba’s witness interference. This was because witness tampering – for which Bemba and some of his cohorts were convicted – arguably had a direct impact on some of the testimony that the Appeals Chamber found to be “in doubt.”

The judgment made no mention of how Bemba’s conviction for obstruction of justice might have altered the evidence it was assessing.

Finally, the appellate majority reconsidered Bemba’s conviction under command responsibility. It found that the Trial Chamber improperly determined that Bemba did not take “all necessary and reasonable” measures when it convicted him. Specifically, the majority took issue with what it found were unsubstantiated interpretations regarding Bemba’s intent, as well as the Trial Chamber’s use of a standard regarding what Bemba should have done (and the fact that Bemba was never informed of this standard). This may have substantial implications for the possibility of winning convictions under command responsibility.

What the judgment means

Bemba arguably signals a change in direction for the ICC. Other cases have recognised evidentiary ambiguities and inconsistencies.

The Kenyatta & Ruto cases were dismissed when evidence dissolved: witnesses changed their stories, disappeared, or died. Some were murdered.

In the ICC’s first judgment, Lubanga, all witness testimony was ultimately found to have been tainted and thrown out. Lubanga was still convicted, but given a relatively light sentence.

What’s different about the Bemba case is that it’s the first one in which, after years of effort, evidentiary inconsistencies resulted in acquittal.

More significantly, the Bemba majority’s language, arguing against international criminal law as a form of “strict liability,” signals the possibility of a change of direction in terms of how legal doctrine is applied and interpreted. This new direction has great positive potential.

Rights advocates and victims lament that substantive justice is not served when defendants are acquitted on procedural grounds. But the language of Van den Wyngaert and Morrison’s concurrence in the judgment is instructive and correct. They argue that though acquittals like this are “regrettable”, they in fact constitute the price that must be paid in order to uphold fundamental principles of fairness and the integrity of the judicial process.

But with its narrow majority and its bombshell reception, it’s not clear this new focus on procedural legitimacy will hold.

Regarding the problem of witness tampering, the Bemba Appeals Judgment is more ambiguous. Witnesses and their testimony constitute huge, unresolved problems for international criminal trials. US law professor Nancy Combs’ fascinating Factfinding Without Facts follows the problems of evidence gathering and presentation before the ICC. Small and mobile, ICC operatives and investigators can never hope to attain local expertise, and are thus eternally at the mercy of local operators and their interests. This makes the information they collect particularly subjective.

On the other side, the ICC has had trouble protecting witnesses, either from coaching or threat or both. In response to these challenges, the ICC appears to be “getting tougher” through, for example, its prosecution of Bemba and several others for obstruction of justice in his case. On the other hand, Bemba’s acquittal on evidentiary grounds that do not themselves reference or consider the problem of witness coaching and tampering, works against any tough line on witness tampering.

Finally, it’s not clear what Bemba’s acquittal means for the recognition and prosecution of sexual violence crimes. Sexual violence, although pervasive in war, has faced slow doctrinal development under international criminal law. The 2016 Bemba trial judgment’s focus on sex crimes was significant, particularly its doctrinal findings about how sexual violence is articulated under international humanitarian law, and this doctrine is unaffected by the acquittal since it was not addressed.

On the other hand, heightened scrutiny for evidentiary matters is arguably a challenge to future prosecutions for sexual violence. Victims of sexual violence are often slow to come forward, or slow to report sex crimes as part of the litany of what they have suffered. In addition to being very personal (and thus inappropriate to discuss with strangers taking a witness statement), sexual violence often carries deep and pervasive stigma against victims.

The 2016 Bemba judgment was seen as a victory for substantive justice, an important step in carrying us towards the “more just world” the ICC pursues. In the 2018 Bemba acquittal, the majority issued an important challenge about the necessary balance between procedural and substantive justice.

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Commentary and Perspectives

Will Guatemala Still Prosecute Suspected War Criminals Under New Attorney General? (International Justice Monitor) By Eric Witte and Jo-Marie Burt July 10, 2018

On May 3, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced his selection of María Consuelo Porras to serve as attorney general, succeeding Thelma Aldana. Porras took office on May 16. Morales made the appointment from a list of six finalists put forward by a Nominating Commission whose membership was at least partially determined through political manipulation and whose procedures faced criticism for such things as a lack of transparency in applying decision-making criteria and a failure to vet the candidates’ finances. Morales’s decision also came as outgoing Attorney General Aldana levied new accusations of campaign finance violations against him, in addition to those she announced in August 2017.

Under Aldana and her predecessor, Claudia Paz y Paz, Guatemala has pursued domestic prosecutions for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed during the 36-year armed conflict that ended in 1996. The effort has made Guatemala a world leader in domestic accountability for grave crimes. Porras’ views on these trials is unknown but will have enormous implications for ongoing and future grave crimes proceedings.

The Attorney General’s Office will play an important role in the appeals stage of the Molina Theissen case, following the May 23 conviction of four former senior military officials for crimes against humanity, aggravated sexual violence, and enforced disappearance.

Porras’ office inherits the stalled CREOMPAZ case, which her predecessor Thelma Aldana described as one of the largest cases of enforced disappearance in Latin America’s history. In June 2016, a judge ruled that there is enough evidence to proceed to trial with charges against eight former military officials. Those charged include former Army Chief of Staff Benedicto Lucas García, who was among those convicted in the Molina Theissen case.

Trial judges acquitted former military intelligence chief Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez when he was tried together with former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt on charges of genocide in 2013. A controversial Constitutional Court ruling vacated the guilty verdict against Ríos Montt and required new proceedings against both men. While the case against Ríos Montt was closed following his death this April, the retrial of Rodríguez Sánchez is nearing completion, with a verdict expected in August. Porras’ office will have the task of handling any appeal.

Built around a leaked military death-squad logbook, the case relates to the enforced disappearance and murder of 183 members of the political opposition during the mid-1980s. The families of 26 of those victims brought the case before the Inter-American Court for Human Rights, which in 2012 ruled in their favor, ordering Guatemala to investigate, prosecute, and punish those responsible. The case has been under investigation by the Attorney General’s Office, but it has yet to formulate indictments or arrest any suspects in the case.

As reported in IJ Monitor, in 2016, the pre-trial judge sequestered key military documents in relation to the case.

The UN Historical Clarification Commission concluded that Guatemalan soldiers systematically attacked Maya Achi communities in the municipality of Rabinal in Baja Verapaz, following local resistance to the construction of a major hydroelectric project in 1978. The Commission found that these attacks, which killed 20 percent of the population and destroyed entire hamlets, constituted acts of genocide. In May, six suspected direct perpetrators were arrested and charged with sexual violence and crimes against humanity against the Maya Achí.

The intermediate phase of the proceedings, in which a preliminary judge reviews the evidence to determine whether the case should proceed to trial, is scheduled to commence on August 24, 2018. Several arrest warrants remain pending. The intellectual authors of the attacks have yet to face arrest.

The case relates to killings perpetrated by Army Special Forces, known as Kaibiles, in earl December 1982, at Dos Erres in Petén. According to the Historical Clarification Commission, soldiers raped women and girls and killed men, women, and children. They then killed other villagers over a three-day period leaving in total more than 200 people dead.

In August 2016, Santos López Alonzo, a former Kaibil accused of participating in the massacre and illegally appropriating Ramiro Osorio Cristales, who was five years old at the time his family was killed at Dos Erres, was deported to Guatemala from the United States. López Alonzo’s trial is scheduled to begin on August 20, 2018.

There have been several convictions in relation to this case already. In 2011, a Guatemala court sentenced four soldiers to 6,026 years for their responsibility in the Dos Erres massacre; another soldier was convicted in relation to the case in Guatemala in 2012. Two retired military officials accused in the case were convicted in U.S. courts for violations of immigration law; when they complete their ten-year sentences, they will be removed to Guatemala, where they may face further charges. In March 2017, a court ruled that there was sufficient evidence to proceed with a trial against Ríos Montt in the Dos Erres massacre case, but with his death, the case against him has been closed.

In addition to these cases, the Attorney General’s Office under Porras will face decisions on whether and how to initiate other grave crimes trials.

Some observers, citing distortions in the nominating process, view Porras as a loyalist to President Morales. There is great anticipation for how she will handle issues of organized crime and corruption. Insight Crime described three criteria by which to judge Porras’ professionalism and independence in this regard: how she handles prominent corruption cases, especially President Morales’s alleged campaign finance violations; how she handles the relationship to the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), following Morales’s failed attempt to declare Commissioner Iván Velásquez persona non grata; and how she treats offices within the Attorney General’s Office that have played a key role in the most politically charged cases. Will Porras vigorously pursue high-level corruption cases and cooperate with CICIG in advancing new investigations and prosecutions? Will she support an extension of CICIG’s mandate, currently scheduled to end in September 2019?

When Thelma Aldana became attorney general in 2014, many observers had similar doubts about her willingness to assert prosecutorial independence in light of flaws in the nomination process. Aldana famously ended up working alongside CICIG to bring corruption charges against Otto Pérez Molina, the president who appointed her. Could Porras follow a similar path? In one early decision, she retained the experienced head of the special prosecution unit against impunity (FECI), which works closely with CICIG. With regard to grave crimes cases, Porras’ intentions are not yet clear. Key indications of her intentions include the following:

Will she leave the dedicated Human Rights Unit responsible for prosecuting grave crimes cases intact and ensure that it receives adequate funding?

Will she leave in place the Unit’s seasoned prosecutors, including: the Unit’s current chief, Hilda Pineda, who played a leading role in the Rios Montt and Sepur Zarco cases, and prosecutor Erick de León, who also played a key role in the Rios Montt case and has served as lead prosecutor in the Molina Theissen case, the Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez retrial, and the CREOMPAZ case?

Will Porras make public statements about the importance of the grave crimes trials and her intentions regarding current and potential future cases?

Under Porras, will there be new indictments and arrests? Because investigations are so far advanced, her action or inaction in the Diario Militar case will provide one important test of intent.

Disappearances and torture in southern Yemen detention facilities must be investigated as war crimes (Amnesty International) July 12, 2018

Justice remains elusive a year after a network of secret prisons was first exposed in southern Yemen, Amnesty International said in a new report today that documents egregious violations going unchecked, including systemic enforced disappearance and torture and other ill-treatment amounting to war crimes.

“God only knows if he’s alive” details how scores of men have been subjected to enforced disappearance after being arbitrarily arrested and detained by United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemeni forces operating outside the command of their own government. Many have been tortured, with some feared to have died in custody.

“The families of these detainees find themselves in an endless nightmare where their loved ones have been forcibly disappeared by UAE-backed forces. When they demand to know where their loved ones are held, or if they are even still alive, their requests are met with silence or intimidation,” said Tirana Hassan, Crisis Response Director at Amnesty International.

“Scores of detainees have been released in recent weeks, including a few of the disappeared. But this comes after extended periods of being held without charges, in some cases up to two years, highlighting the need for holding perpetrators to account and ensuring remedy for the victims.

Since joining the conflict in March 2015, the UAE has created, trained, equipped and financed various local security forces known as the Security Belt and Elite Forces. It has also built alliances with Yemeni security officials, bypassing their leadership in the Yemeni government.

Amnesty International investigated the cases of 51 men detained by these forces between March 2016 and May 2018 in Aden, Lahj, Abyan, Hadramawt, and Shabwa governorates. Most of the cases involved enforced disappearance, and 19 of these men remain missing. The organization interviewed 75 people, including former detainees, relatives of those still missing, activists, and government officials.

Families of the detainees told Amnesty International about their desperate search for information. Mothers, wives, and sisters of those forcibly disappeared have been holding protests for nearly two years now, making the rounds between government and prosecution offices, security departments, prisons, coalition bases, and various entities handling human rights complaints.

The sister of a 44-year-old man who was arrested in Aden in late 2016 told Amnesty International:

“We have no idea where he is, God only knows if he’s alive. Our father died of a broken heart a month ago. He died not knowing where his son is.

“We just want to know our brother’s fate. We just want to hear his voice and know where he is. If he’s done something, aren’t there courts to try them? At least put them on trial, let us visit them. What is the point of courts? Why disappear them like this?” Some families said they were approached by individuals who told them their relatives had died in custody, only for this to be denied when they checked with the leadership of the UAE-backed Yemeni forces.

“If they would just confirm to us that my brother is alive, if they would just let us see him, that’s all we want. But we can’t get anyone to give us any confirmation. My mother dies a hundred times every day. They don’t know what that is like,” said the sister of a detainee who was forcibly disappeared after his arrest in September 2016 and who is widely rumoured to be among those who died in custody.

Amnesty International’s report documents the widespread use of torture and other ill-treatment in Yemeni and Emirati facilities.

Current and former detainees and families gave horrific accounts of abuse including beatings, use of electric shocks and sexual violence. One said he saw a fellow detainee being carried away in a body bag after being repeatedly tortured.

“I saw things I do not want to see again. In that place, you do not even see the sun,” said a former detainee who was held at Waddah Hall, a notorious informal detention facility in Aden operated by a local counter- terrorism unit. “They were making all sorts of accusations [against me]. They started beating me… Then one day, they released me at night, they said they had me confused with someone else … ‘It was a mistaken identity, sorry.’ It was as if they had done nothing after all the suffering I endured from electric shocks.”

Another former detainee said UAE soldiers at a coalition base in Aden repeatedly inserted an object into his anus until he bled. He said he was also kept in a hole in the ground with only his head above the surface and left to defecate and urinate on himself in that position.

“We used to hear about torture and say, ‘There is no way this stuff happens,’ until I actually experienced it,” he said.

Amnesty International also documented the case of a man who was arrested from his house by the UAE- backed Shabwani Elite Forces and then dumped next to his family’s house a few hours later, in a critical condition and with visible marks of torture. He died shortly after being taken to hospital.

“The UAE, operating in shadowy conditions in southern Yemen, appears to have created a parallel security structure outside the law, where egregious violations continue to go unchecked,” said Tirana Hassan.

“This vacuum of accountability makes it even harder for families to challenge the lawfulness of detentions. Even after Yemeni prosecutors have tried to assert their control over some prisons, UAE forces have ignored or severely delayed their release orders on several occasions.”

The UAE is a key member in the Saudi Arabia-led coalition that has been involved in Yemen’s armed conflict since March 2015.

Its involvement with the Security Belt and Elite Forces has the ostensible aim of combating ‘terrorism’, including by rounding up members of al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS).

However, critics say many arrests are based on unfounded suspicions and personal vendettas.

Critics of the coalition and the practices of UAE-backed security forces have been among those rounded up, including community figures, activists and journalists, as well as sympathizers and members of the al-Islah Party, Yemen’s Muslim Brotherhood branch.

Relatives of suspected AQAP and IS members, as well as men who initially helped the coalition fight the Huthis but are now seen as a threat, have also been targeted.

Witnesses described how detainees were dragged from workplaces or the street, in some cases being beaten to the point of losing consciousness. Others were seized in terrifying late-night raids on their homes by balaclava-clad, gun-toting security forces referred to as “the masked ones”.

The authorities intimidated and even attacked female relatives of detainees and the disappeared who have been holding protests in Aden and al-Mukalla for the past two years.

The UAE has repeatedly denied it is involved in unlawful detention practices in Yemen, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Meanwhile the Yemeni government has stated to a UN panel of experts that it does not have control over the security forces trained and backed by the UAE.

“Ultimately these violations, which are taking place in the context of Yemen’s armed conflict, should be investigated as war crimes. Both the Yemeni and UAE governments should take immediate steps to end them and provide answers to the families whose husbands, fathers, brothers and sons are missing,” said Tirana Hassan.

“The UAE’s counter-terrorism partners, including the USA, must also take a stand against allegations of torture, including by investigating the role of US personnel in detention-related abuses in Yemen, and by refusing to use information that was likely obtained through torture or other ill-treatment.”

Why the ICC is worth defending (Al Jazeera) By Aurelia Frick July 17, 2018

Twenty years ago today, the international community achieved what had seemed impossible. Following negotiations over seemingly endless days and nights in Rome, governments from all around the world agreed to create the International Criminal Court (ICC): a permanent court to prosecute those most responsible for the worst crimes. Following decades of Cold War inaction, the UN secretary-general announced the end of the era of impunity. Victims of atrocities finally had an institution to turn to, and even the most powerful were to be accountable to the law.

Today, the ICC is no longer simply an ideal we are striving towards. It is a functional body and active in more than 20 states in all regions. Unlike a domestic court, where success can be measured by the number of prosecutions, trials and convictions, the ICC's impact is more complex. The court only steps in if the national judiciaries are unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute. Its watchdog role has helped pressure governments to take steps to bring those responsible for atrocities to account and to deter crimes in the first place. The court has broken new ground in establishing sexual violence as a weapon of war, helped trigger the release of many child soldiers, and made clear that destroying cultural heritage will be prosecuted as a war crime. Last December, States Parties to the Rome Statute demonstrated their confidence in the ICC by activating its jurisdiction over the crime of aggression: for the first time since the trials in Nuremberg and Tokyo, the leaders of states can be held to account for the illegal use of force in an international court.

Nevertheless, serious challenges remain. Even where the ICC has issued arrest warrants, states have been reluctant to carry them out, regardless of their legal obligation to do so. The court's Achilles' heel remains the lack of enforcement of the court's orders. The outstanding arrest warrant against President Omar al- Bashir of Sudan, issued in 2008, is the prime example.

The court has also been criticised for its alleged Africa bias. Such criticism conveniently overlooks that, in most cases, African governments had requested the court's help. ICC judges are on the brink of deciding whether to open investigations into crimes in Afghanistan, and the ICC prosecutor is looking into events in Palestine and Ukraine. As it furthers its reach, it should not be at all surprising if the attacks on the ICC become more frequent and forceful.

Calls are mounting on the UN Security Council to refer horrific violations outside the ICC's jurisdiction to the court, such as in Myanmar and Syria. But some permanent council members simply do not want to mandate the court to investigate other situations, as accountability is not high on their agenda - sometimes due to their own national interests. All of this affects the credibility of the international legal order at a time when international organisations are under attack from populists, nationalists and those who want to roll back the achievements of multilateralism.

The creation of the ICC and its broad membership - there are 123 countries at present - is the most tangible contribution to a law-based world order over the last few decades. At a time when impunity for atrocity crimes continues unabated in many situations and respect for the most basic rules of warfare is being undermined, support for the court is more important than ever. History has taught us many terrible lessons about what happens when our international legal order does not hold up.

The ICC is the embodiment of a world in which I want to live and serve. Twenty years after its creation, it is our collective responsibility to protect and strengthen the ICC and fight for victims against those who would rather leave justice behind because it can become politically inconvenient. We cannot take the existence of the ICC for granted today, and I, for one, do not want to imagine a tomorrow without it. For this reason, I implore leaders from all countries of the globe to cooperate with, support, and, when necessary, defend the ICC.

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WORTH READING

Soldiers as Victims at the ECCC: Exploring the Concept of ‘Civilian’ in Crimes Against Humanity By Rachel Killean, Amanda Kramer & Eithne Dowds Leiden Journal of International Law, Forthcoming June 21, 2018

The inspiration for this article came from a call for amicus curiae briefs issued in April 2016 by the Office of the Co-Investigating Judges in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

The call sought guidance on: whether, under customary international law applicable between 1975 and 1979, an attack by a state or organization against members of its own armed forces may amount to an attack directed against a civilian population for the purpose of constituting a crime against humanity under Article 5 of the ECCC Law. We argue that customary international law at the applicable time justifies the ECCC finding that an attack on members of the armed forces can constitute crimes against humanity. In particular, the article focuses on the importance placed on the persecution element of crimes against humanity in the post-Second World War jurisprudence, and the broad interpretation of the term ‘civilian’. The article also examines the jurisprudence of contemporary international courts, finding that in some cases the courts have interpreted the term ‘civilian’ as incorporating hors de combat. However, the ICTY and ICC have moved towards a more restrictive interpretation of the term 'civilian', potentially excluding members of the armed forces. We argue that this move is regressive, and against the spirit in which the offence of crimes against humanity was created. The ECCC has an opportunity to counter this restrictive approach, thereby narrowing the protective gap which crimes against humanity was initially created to close.

Regulating New Weapons Technology By Rebecca Crootof New Technologies and the Law of Armed Conflict (Eric Talbot Jensen, ed.) (2018 Forthcoming) July 2, 2018

When confronted with a new weapons technology, international law scholars, military lawyers, and civil society activists regularly ask two questions: Are new regulations needed?

And are they needed now? This paper reviews the main categories of technology-fostered legal disruption; tackles the question of whether a given technology will require new law; and weighs the respective benefits of precautionary bans, a wait-and-see approach, and proactive regulation.

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War Crimes Prosecution Watch Staff

Founder/Advisor Dean Michael P. Scharf

Editor-in-Chief Taylor Frank

Managing Editors Sarah Lucey Lynsey Rosales

Technical Editor-in-Chief Ashley Mulryan

Senior Technical Editors Lysette Roman Jaclyn Cole

Associate Technical Editors Demari Muff Kurt Harris

Emerging Issues Advisor Judge Rosemelle Mutoka Contact: [email protected]

Africa

Central African Republic Amy Kochert, Senior Editor Megan Maccallum, Associate Editor

Sudan & South Sudan Amy Kochert, Senior Editor Vito Giannola, Associate Editor

Burundi Alexandra Hassan, Senior Editor Regen Weber, Associate Editor

Democratic Republic of the Congo Amy Kochert, Senior Editor Elizabeth Connors, Associate Editor

Kenya Stephen Keller, Senior Editor Aji Drameh, Senior Associate Editor Alexandria Serdaru, Associate Editor

Libya Alex Lilly, Senior Editor Jessica Sayre Smith, Associate Editor

Rwanda (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda) Stephen Keller, Senior Editor Aaron Childs, Senior Associate Editor Lauren Garretson, Associate Editor

Mali Alexandra Hassan, Senior Editor Alayna Bridgett, Associate Editor Lake Chad Region Taylor Frank, Senior Editor Alexandra Hassan, Associate Editor

Somalia Stephen Keller, Senior Editor Angela Kengara, Associate Editor

Uganda Stephen Keller, Senior Editor John Dagon, Senior Associate Editor Logan O'Connor, Associate Editor

Europe

Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, War Crimes Section Mary Preston, Senior Editor Mark Antiporda, Senior Associate Editor Julia Ozello, Associate Editor

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Mary Preston, Senior Editor Benjamin Boggs, Associate Editor

Domestic Prosecutions in the Former Yugoslavia Mary Preston, Senior Editor Andreana Paz, Associate Editor

Middle East and Asia

Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia Morgan Austin, Senior Editor Ariana Pike, Associate Editor

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Mary Preston, Senior Editor Mark Antiporda, Senior Associate Editor Mary Preston, Associate Editor

Iraq Alex Lilly, Senior Editor Gloria Neilson, Associate Editor

Afghanistan Morgan Austin, Senior Editor Ariana Pike, Associate Editor

Syria Alex Lily, Senior Editor Elen Yeranosyan, Associate Editor

Bangladesh Estefanía Sixto Seijas, Special Senior Editor Chris Lauer, Associate Editor Sofia Panero, Associate Editor

War Crimes Investigations in Burma Estefanía Sixto Seijas, Special Senior Editor Nicolette Creegan, Senior Associate Editor Yemen Morgan Austin, Senior Editor James Nichols, Senior Associate Editor

Israel/Palestine Morgan Austin, Senior Editor Arne Bussare, Senior Associate Editor Teresa Azzam, Associate Editor

Americas

North and Central America Morgan Austin, Senior Editor Julie Menke, Associate Editor

South America Amy Kochert, Senior Editor Shelby Wade, Senior Associate Editor

Topics

Terrorism Richard Urban, Senior Editor Jordan Dinsmore, Associate Editor

Piracy Richard Urban, Senior Editor Fritz Darnell, Senior Associate Editor

Gender-Based Violence Estefanía Sixto Seijas, Special Senior Editor Rachel Adelman, Associate Editor

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

Richard Urban, Senior Editor

Commentary and Perspectives

Richard Urban, Senior Editor Tia Garcia, Associate Editor

Worth Reading

Taylor Frank Andrew Schiefer, Associate Editor

War Crimes Prosecution Watch is prepared by the International Justice Practice of the Public International Law & Policy Group and the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center of Case Western Reserve University School of Law and is made possible by grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Open Society Institute. Grotian Moment: The International War Crimes Trial Blog: http://law.case.edu/grotian-moment-blog/

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Cox Center War Crimes Research Portal: http://law.case.edu/war-crimes-research-portal/

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