War Crimes

The Defense Department has granted suspected terrorists held at the U.S. naval facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba the right to request legal representation.

Defense Department officials gave 14 high-value detainees, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, “Legal Representation Request” forms. 

The form allows them to state their desire “to have a civilian lawyer represent me and assist me with filing a petition to challenge the CSRT [Combatant Status Review Tribunal] determination that I am an Enemy Combatant.”

The form also allows detainees to ask the American Bar Association to “find a lawyer who will represent my best interests, without charge”, the Washington Post reported.

William H. Neukom of the ABA told federal officials yesterday that the Association did not want to “lend support and credibility to such an inadequate review scheme.”

Detainees were previously defended by military “personal representatives” to assist in the review process.  The civilian lawyers, who will undergo thorough background checks, will make their appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

This will be the first contact the 14 high-value targets will have with anyone besides their captors or Red Cross representatives.

Washington Post

Skirmishes erupted on Monday between the Congolese army and rebel fighters loyal to warlord Laurent Nkunda, shattering a three-week ceasefire in the region. The fighting, which has been ongoing for the past year, has resulted in the forced displacement of more than 300,000 people, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The UNHCR notes that refugees are fleeing the region at an increasing pace and blame Nkunda’s rebel forces for forcibly recruiting child soldiers.

U.N. officials are supporting Congolese army claims they were responding to initial attacks from troops of Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP).   CNDP leaders, however, contest this allegation; “The army started this war.  We were attacked by the president of the republic.  He thinks that since he was elected he can impose war,” CNDP spokesmen, Rene Abandi, said.  U.N. officials note that “Nkunda is waging a huge campaign in the media that he is being attacked” by the Congolese army.  The recent attacks, however, seem to be isolated and U.N. officials are downplaying the significance of the surge of fighting.

U.N. officials note that since December, the number of displaced persons has increased from an estimated 180,000 to over 300,000.  The conflict in Congo is a result of the spill-over from neighboring Rwanda and Uganda, which have been destabilized for years.

The Congolese civil war formally ended in 2002 and citizens elected Joseph Kabila last year.  Kabila visited with peacekeepers and humanitarian agencies last week to discuss possibilities to improve security in the region.

The CNDP was formed by Nkunda who claimed he was protecting the minority Tutsi ethnic group in the Congo from Hutu refugees in the region.  U.N. officials have stated they have evidence Nikunda is recruiting child soldiers in violation of humanitarian and international law.  International arrest warrants have been issued for Nkunda for war crimes.

AP/Reuters/HRW

A U.S. military appeals court reinstated terrorism charges against Omar Khadr for murder, conspiracy, spying and supporting terrorism.  Khadr, 21, has been held at the U.S. detention facility at a naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for the past five years.  He was detained in Afghanistan for allegedly killing Sgt. Christopher Speer, an Army special forces soldier, and wounding another with a grenade.  Khadr, who has been detained at Gauntanamo Bay since he was 15, has been treated as an adult since his capture.

On June 4, the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review under Army Col. Peter Brownback dismissed charges against Khadr and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who was Osama bin Laden’s personal driver.  Brownback dismissed the charges because prosecutors had designated the two detainees as “enemy combatants.”  The tribunal established to handle Gauntanamo Bay cases was set up to try “unlawful enemy combatants”, and Brownback contested that international law requires a different legal process for “legal enemy combatants.”  No consideration was made concerning Khadr’s age at the time of his capture.

The charges were reinstated after a U.S. military appeals court established solely to examine the designation of detainees.  The appeals court ruled that Brownback “erred in ruling he lacked authority … to determine whether Mr. Khadr is an ‘unlawful enemy combatant’.”

According to a report by Amnesty International, Khadr was routinely subjected to stress positions and isolation during his detention, both in Afghanistan, and at Guantanamo Bay.

War crimes tribunals were established for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay after the Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that U.S. President George W. Bush had violated the constitution when he ordered commissions to try suspected terrorists.  The U.S. constitution grants Congress the sole authority to make laws concerning legal proceedings.

Only one person, Australian David Hicks, has been convicted of a crime since the detention facility opened in 2002.

AP/Reuters

Witnesses in the trial of Saddam Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, testified that he had ordered the execution of 200 people during a Shi’ite uprising in southern Iraq in 1991. One unnamed Shia witness testified from behind a curtain that al-Majid, also known as “Chemical Ali”, personally oversaw the execution of the first 25 people. The witness testified that al-Majid ordered the execution of the prisoners “… in batches - 25 at a time.” Al-Majid made repeated claims he was not present in the area during the time of the executions and also made several attempts to halt the proceedings, noting that defense lawyers were afraid to attend the trials.

Al-Majid is facing prosecution for alleged atrocities committed in response to a Shi’ite rebellion following the U.S. led liberation of Kuwait in 1991. The Shaaban Intifada began after U.S. - led forces forced Iraqi troops from Kuwait. The rebellion was successful in seizing control of several cities and brought rebels within 60-miles of the capital, Baghdad. U.S. President George H. W. Bush encouraged Iraqis to “take matters into their own hands” and “force Saddam Hussein to step aside” following the Iraqi defeat in the first Gulf War. Shi’ite’s claim they had expected U.S. support for the rebellion, but U.S. forces withdrew leaving Saddam Hussein to put down the uprising. It is estimated that tens of thousands were killed suppressing the uprising and buried in mass graves.

Al-Majid, and 14 other defendants, face the death penalty for their charges of crimes against humanity. Al-Majid was sentenced to death on September 4 for orchestrating the Halabja massacre in March 1998, where an estimated 5,000 people were killed by chemical gas attack, earning al-Majid his nickname of “Chemical Ali.” Iraqi law states that death sentences be carried out within 30 days of the ruling.

BBC/Reuters

A recent book by Florence Hartmann, a former spokeswoman for the U.N. war crimes division, alleged that the United States and Russia intervened in Serbian affairs regarding the fugitive Radovan Karadzic.  Hartmann claims that the two countries made a secret deal with Karadzic to not detain him in exchange for his disappearance.  Rasim Llajic, a Serbian government official in charge of that countries relationship with the war crimes tribunal, stated that Hartmann’s allegations appear accurate.  Karadzic vanished in 1998 after stepping down from his official government duties.  He, as well as Ratko Mladic, are on the run for allegations regarding the massacre at Srebrenica, in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in 1995.

Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy to the region and the architect of the Dayton peace accords settling the Bosnian conflict, denied the allegations of aiding Karadzic.  “What a surprise”, Holbrooke said in an interview with the Associated Press, “This is old-style Soviet disinformation.”  Holbrooke claims that Karadzic himself had started the rumors of U.S. and Soviet cooperation in order to “save face.”   The U.S. has a $5-million bounty for information leading to the capture of Karadzic.

Cheif U.N. war crimes prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Carla Del Ponte, has made repeated statements claiming E.U. and NATO members lack the political will to apprehend the remaining fugitives, including Karadzic and Mladic.  Del Ponte was in the region last week and Hartmann’s allegations are sure to be on the table in discussions with Serbian leaders.

Del Ponte’s term expires in December.  She is expected to be replaced by Serge Brammertz, who is currently the chief investigator in the U.N. tribunal examining the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri.   The entire senior law staff at The Hague, however, has threatened to resign if Brammertz is appointed.  The lawyers are advocating for the appointment of Del Ponte’s deputy, David Tolbert, who has more than nine years experience.

UPI/AP

Nuon Chea, the right-hand man to Cambodian President Pol Pot, was formally charged with war crimes and for crimes against humanity by the U.N. backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.  Nuon Chea, known as “Brother Number Two”, was detained and arrested Wednesday in connection with the deaths of nearly 1.7 million people during the Khmer Rouge’s reign from 1975 - 79.  Nuoan Chea was the Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (Cambodia), which held responsibility over party and state security.  He is 81.

According to the detention order,  Nuon Chea was complicit in “murder, torture, imprisonment, persecution, extermination, deportation, forcible transfer, enslavement and other inhumane acts.”  The charges allege that Nuon Chea was responsible for laying out the “master plan” of the Khmer Rouge that called for aggressions against ethnic Vietnamese and other elites deemed unfavorable by the extremist Beijing-backed Communist faction.  The detention order notes Nuon Chea’s counter to the charges, stating that he had no direct authority over military commanders and bears no responsibility for their action.

Nuon Chea did, however, hold authority of state security matters, including the notorious S-21 detention center.  Centered at the Tuol Sleng high school, the S-21 detention center was used to “re-educate” prisoners to the Khmer Rouge ideology of creating a “new people” in a classless agrarian utopia.  More than 14,000 people were killed in the detention center - 10 people survived their internment.  Kaing Guek Eav, known as “Duch”, headed the detention center and was charged with war crimes on July 31.  In an interview from 1999, Duch claims Nuon Chea ordered the execution of 300 soldiers in a party purge, stating “He called to meet me and said, ‘Don’t bother to interrogate them - just kill them.”

Nuon Chea faces life imprisonment of convicted of all charges.  As is consistent with the majority of modern society, Cambodia does not use capital punishment.

Reuters/AP

France circulated a new Chapter 7 draft resolution at the United Nations calling for a European Union force and U.N. police deployment to Chad and the Central Africa Republic. A Chapter 7 resolution allows the use of military force in order to protect civilians, provide general security, and establish a humanitarian aid corridor. Idriss Deby, the president of Chad, approved of the resolution after meeting with French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, in June. The draft calls for a deployment of a 3,000 strong E.U. peacekeeping force, as well as a 300 police, and 50 military liaison officers. The U.N. contingent would provide international police officers and experts on humanitarian law and the laws of war.

The French ambassador to the U.N., Jean-Maurice Ripert, reported that there were some 400,000 displaced refugees in Chad and more than 200,000 in the Central African Republic. Members of the Security Council had visited the region last year and have been discussing troop deployment to the area since then. The escalation of violence in Chad and the Central African Republic is a result of spill-over from the four-year civil conflict in Darfur, which has resulted in an estimated 200,000 casualties with more than 2.5 million displaced persons.

In related news, al-Qa’ida’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, called on Sudanese rebels to fight African Union and U.N. peacekeeping forces deployed in Darfur. Sudanese President, Omar Hussan al-Bashir, recently accepted a U.N. resolution for the establishment of a 26,000 strong hybrid A.U. and U.N. peacekeeping force in Sudan. Zawahri accused al-Bashir of allying with the United States and abandoning Muslims and called for jihad, stating;

“I address the nation of Muslim mujahadeen in Sudan and remind it that today’s is a great test and the free majuhadeen sons of Sudan must organize jihad against the forces invading Darfur as their brothers organized the jihadi resistance in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia”

Sudan hosted al-Qa’ida leader, Usamma bin Laden, in the 1990’s. The U.S. has considered Sudan a state sponsor to terrorist groups since 1993.

The conflict in Darfur escalated as ethnic African’s accused the predominately Arab government of Sudan of neglect. The government responded by deploying the paramilitary Janjaweed militia against the Africans centered in Darfur.

AP/Reuters

Nuon Chea, “Brother Number Two” of the Khmer Rouge regime, was arrested yesterday in his home in northeastern Cambodia.  Cambodian special forces officers surrounded the 82-year old’s home and served him with arrest warrants before he was taken to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia - the headquarters of the special tribunal there to examine alleged war crimes of the Khmer Rouge.  It is estimated that 1.7 million people had died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge during an extreme Marxist restructuring campaign in the late 1970’s.

The Khmer Rouge, led by its president Pol Pot, led Cambodia from 1975 - 1979 following the conflict spiral from U.S. operations in neighboring Vietnam.  They sought to establish a “new people” through isolation and the creation of a classless agrarian utopia.  Khmer Rouge leaders developed “killing fields” where the ultra-communist regime practiced a quasi-eugenics campaign through forced labor and extermination of Cambodian elites.

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal was introduced through a 1999 bill sponsored by the U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan.  The tribunal is a hybrid system where Cambodian judges hold the majority say in major developments and operates according to the Cambodian system of justice.  Cambodian judges, however, need one consenting vote from foreign participants for most decisions to hold.  The tribunal nearly dissolved recently as the independence and aptitude of Cambodian legal professions was questioned.

Nuon Chea, who was considered Pol Pot’s right-hand man, has denied responsibility for the atrocities in Cambodia.  He said in a an interview with the Associated Press recently that he would be ready to face questioning, stating; “I was president of the National Assembly and had nothing to do with the operation of the government.”

Prosecutors for the tribunal have indicated several top Khmer Rouge leaders are under investigation.  Though the court has not officially released their names, it is believed that they are the former President, Khieu Samphan,  former  Foreign Minister  leng Sary, and Meas Muth, the son in-law of a major military chief.  The chief executioner for the Khmer Rouge, Kang Kek Ieu, a/k/a “Duch”, was arrested earlier this year.  Pol Pot and other major Khmer Rouge leaders died before the tribunal was fully developed.

AP/Reuters

The Iraqi government said it would revoke the business license of the security firm, Blackwater USA, after a shotting incident following an attack on a U.S. State Department convoy.  The Interior Ministry of Iraq alleges 11 people were killed “when Blackwater contractors opened fire at random after mortar rounds landed near the convoy”, a spokesman said.  Blackwater said it had acted “lawfully and appropriately” to the attack on the convoy.  No State Department officials were wounded in the attack, though one vehicle was disabled and towed from the area.  U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, telephoned the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to express regret over civilian casualties. Iraqi officials said it would review the status of security firms operated by foreign powers.  Al-Maliki commented that the shooting was a “crime.”

Blackwater USA is contracted to protect key personnel in Iraq.  The company was founded by former Navy SEAL, Eric Prince, and is comprised mostly of former U.S. Special Forces personnel.  J. Cofer Black, the former head of the CIA’s counterterrorism division, is also a vice president of the company. (more…)

The United Nation Security Council voted to extend the term of Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor for Yugoslavian war crimes, until the end of the year. Russia had opposed the move, as they have strong cultural and diplomatic ties to Serbia, where many of the alleged criminals have originated. U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, requested the Security Council to extend del Ponte’s term until the end of the year in order to provide a smooth transition to her successor. It is widely speculated that Serge Brammertz, the Belgian prosecutor overseeing the tribunal examining the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, will be named to succeed del Ponte in 2008.

The resolution regarding del Ponte’s term extension was passed on a 14 - 0 vote, with Russia abstaining. The Russian envoy to the U.N. explained the abstention, accusing del Ponte “of being some kind of quasi political player” rather than a pragmatic jurisprudent. Ilya Rogachev, the Russian envoy, continued; “In our eyes, the tribunal has increasingly assumed features of a non-transparent, biased, and costly organ of international justice.” French and British ambassadors countered Russian criticism, noting del Ponte’s ability to bring high profile figures in former Yugoslavia to justice. Britain answered that Russia’s objections was “undermining the work” of the tribunal.

In related news, Belgrade officials released the son of war crimes suspect, Radovan Karadzic, after detaining him for suspicious identification papers. Belgrade officials did, however, issue Sasa Karadzic with a yearlong entry ban to Serbia and ordered to leave the country in three days. It is not clear whether he was questioned regarding the whereabouts of his father, who is wanted for his role in the Srebrenica massacre, or alleged co-conspirator, Ratko Mladic. It is estimated that nearly 8,000 Muslim men were killed by paramilitary forces under the command of Karadzic and Mladic in 1995.

AP/AP