War Crimes

Two U.S. soldiers were charged with premeditated murder in two separate incidents.  On Saturday, the U.S. military cited Staff Sergeant  Michael Hensley and Specialist Jorge Sandoval  were charged with murder and wrongfully placing weapons with the remains of the deceased.  Hensley is charged with three counts of murder, while Sandoval faces one conviction.  The charges were brought after fellow soldiers reported the crimes, which took place sometime between April and June 2007.   The two are being held in military custody in Kuwait.

In related incidents, Iraqi police and hospital officials are claiming the U.S. military employed wanton force during a raid in Sadr City, which resulted in the deaths of 8 Iraqi civilians, with more than 20 wounded.   The U.S. military claims they were tracking Iranian agents and militants in the volatile neighbor and that “Everyone who got shot was shooting at U.S. troops at the time.”  Witnesses, however, state that U.S. troops entered the city in a pre-dawn raid and opened fire without warning.  Military spokesmen have stated that U.S. personnel had engaged civilians appropriately.

AP

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court said on Friday it would hear appeals by Guantanamo prisoners on their right to challenge their confinement before federal judges, a test of President George W. Bush’s powers in the war on terrorism.

The court in April had denied the same appeals by the prisoners, but the justices in a brief order changed their minds and said they would hear and decide the two cases during the court’s term that starts in October.

An independent commission has reached an official death toll from the Bosnian war in the 1990’s.  The study from the Norwegian Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo - called the “The Bosnian Book of the Dead”  - has reached a figure of 97, 207, far less than United Nations estimates.  UN estimates cite a figure of 110,000.  Spokesmen from the group say the figure could raise as much as 10,000 due to ongoing research.  65% of those killed were Bosnian Muslims, 25% were Serbian, and roughly 10% were Croatian.  The worst of those investigated was the massacre at Srebrenica - the UN safe zone - where some 8,000 Bosnian men and boys were murdered in July 1995.

BBC

The tribunal established to investigate allegations of war crimes for members of Saddam Hussein’s former regime has stated it will begin prosecuting individuals accused of launching a campaign against a Shi’ite uprising following the liberation of Kuwait in 1991.  Following the defeat of Iraq in the first Gulf War, Shi’ites in southern Iraq and Kurds from the north seized control of 14 of the 18 Iraqi provinces.  The U.S. established an autonomous region in the 3 northern Kurdish provinces, however, Iraqi troops under Saddam’s command launched a campaign to quell the uprising, killing tens of thousands of Shi’ites.

AP

The chief war crimes prosecutor for the United Nations, Carla del Ponte, said that the European Union should not proceed on negotiations with Serbia until all war crimes suspects have been arrested.  Del Ponte has stated that, despite positive assessments by the EU, Serbia should not be perceived as meeting its full obligations to join the European community.  Despite recent arrests of key suspects accused of war crimes during the 1992-95 conflict there, there are still several fugitives suspected of being harbored by sympathizers.  Among the remaining fugitives are Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, key architects of the massacre in Srebrenica, where over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in 1995.  “We don’t have Karadzic and Mladic in custody — that is a failure. If they are not arrested and tried by the tribunal that will be the biggest failure … of the international community,” Del Ponte said.  Those watching this case suspect the two suspects will be handed over to the Hague this summer.

AP

Five weeks into his presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy - the new French premier - hosted an international conference on Darfur in Paris.  Among those in attendance was U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleeeza Rice, who spoke of the need for a renewed effort at the crisis in the troubled region in Sudan and its regional effects.  The meeting in Paris, however, was not met with universal appeal, as representatives from the African Union peacekeeping regiment did not attend.  Representatives from Sudan and neighboring Chad were invited to attend.

The meeting was intended to increase international support for collective action to stop the humanitarian disaster.

BBC/Reuters

Charles Taylor once again boycotted his trial at The Hague today.  He is claiming that he is not given fair representation for his trial after sacking his legal consul, claiming he was ‘outgunned’ by the prosecution.  He is charged with 11 counts of war crimes for atrocities committed during the civil conflict in Sierra Leone sparked from a struggle over the countries diamond trade.

Reuters

Alan Johnston, BBC’s Gaza correspondent, appears in a new video wearing a ’suicide vest.’  In the new video, Mr. Johnston claims his captors will detonate the vest if attempts are made to liberate him by force.  After capturing the Gaza Strip, Hamas officials have issued statements for the release of Mr. Johnston, stating “We will not allow the continuation of the abduction of the British journalist.”
BBC

I am on deadline for the next week or so and will return to my in depth analysis soon.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein’s cousin, known as “Chemical Ali”, was sentenced to death by hanging on Sunday for masterminding genocide against Iraq’s Kurds in the 1980s, an Iraqi court said.

Isaac Kamali, a former senior member of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND) in Rwanda, was arrested trying to enter the United States. Kamali, who was detained in Philadelphia, is suspected of participating in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda where roughly a half-million Tutsi minorities were slaughtered. Interpol had issued a Red Notice for Kamali and appears on Rwanda’s most wanted list it had supplied to the international police organization.

Kamali was working in southern France was traveling on a French passport. Rwandan officials have accused France of harboring masterminds of the 100 day genocide in Rwanda. He is alleged to have moved to France in 1997. Rwandan officials have stated their desire to see Kamali extradited to Rwanda or to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The United States and Rwanda do not have an extradition treaty, however, the nature of Kamali’s alleged crimes fall under international obligations.

Kamali is indicted on several counts of murder, extermination, and inciting genocide. He is accused of actively participating and orchestrating the initial onslaught against the Tutsi minority following the assassination of the Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana. The assassination was seen as a catalyst for Hutu militias to begin a systematic cleansing campaign lasting roughly 100 days and resulting in nearly a half-million dead.

Reuters/The New Times of Rwanda

The United Nations Security Council approved an international independent investigation into the assassination of Walid Eido, an anti-Syrian lawmaker, in Lebanon.  Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora requested the UN’s International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) to assist Lebanese officials into the investigation of Eido’s murder.  Security Council President, Ambassador Johan C. Verbeke of Belgium, stated in a letter to Council members that the UNIIIC would “extend appropriate technical assistance to the Lebanese authorities in the investigation.”

The UNIIIC was established in April 2005 to investigate the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik al-Hariri.  Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General, Ban ki-Moon, announced procedures had begun to initiate a special tribunal to try suspects in al-Hariri’s assassination.  Mr. Eido, who was killed along with his son, two bodyguards, and six bysanders, was a close friend of al-Hariri.

A UN team was sent to Lebanon last week to investigate the bomb site left from Eido’s assassination.  The UNIIIC chief investigator, Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz, has been in Lebanon examining the details of al-Hariri’s murder and providing technical assistance to authorities in 16 other cases, including the assassination of Lebanese Cabinet minister, Pierre Gemayel.

Mr. Brammertz recently resigned his post as deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.  He was widely expected to succeed Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunal for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.  Mr. Ban’s recent extension of the UNIIIC and the term of Mr. Brammertz presumably excludes that appointment, however.

The special tribunal to investigate the al-Hariri assassination was enacted on June 10th pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1757.  

Reuters/AP/UN News Agency