Sexual violence reaching “pandemic proportions.”
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
The U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the occurrence of sexual violence against woman has reached “hideous and pandemic proportions.” Speaking at an open meeting discussing the implementation of a security council resolution passed in 2000 dealing with sexual violence, Ban said “violence against women has reached hideous and pandemic proportions in some societies attempting to recover from conflict.” The security council resolution called for the implementation of increased measures targeting the use of sexual violence as a weapon.
Sexual violence is including among the definitions of the violations of the laws of war and crimes against humanity. It has a lingering social effect of degradation on women in African cultures. Victims describe gang rapes and public rapes in the presence of family members. Young girls abducted or conscripted by rebel groups are often repeatedly raped as part of their programming. Many of the victimized women contract HIV, leaving them stigmatized in their communities.
An independent investigator on human rights for the United Nations expressed grave concern regarding the detention of “unlawful enemy combatants” at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Martin Scheinin’s report to the United Nations called on the United States to release the detainees or try them in civilian courts in a move aimed at closing the detention facility and ending the military commissions there.
The chief prosecutor in the Iraqi High Tribunal examining the death of 180,000 in Iraqi Kurdistan from chemical weapons attacks said the death sentences against three former ministers should proceed. Munqith al-Faroon rejected the arguments that one minister, Sultan Hashim al-Tai, should be pardoned because he was only following orders.
The death sentences against Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” and three others, including Ahmad al-Tai, who negotiated the cease-fire ending the 1991 Gulf War, are in legal limbo amid fears the executions could spark further sectarian violence and hamper efforts at reconstruction. The Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced the men to hang for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their role in “Operation ANFAL,” a chemical weapons attack in northern Iraqi Kurdistan. The issue stems from the apprehension of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, to sign off on the penalties as mandated by the constitution. The Iraqi constitution mandates that a three man presidential council sign off on death sentences, though it is unclear if that rule applies to the special tribunal. The men are in the custody of the United States at Camp Cropper and will be handed over to Iraqi custody after their fate is determined. 
Serbia’s minister for the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said Serbian officials had obstructed the investigation. Rasim Ljajic said that Serbia had in the past denied the existence of evidentiary documents, though they later surfaced and were handed over to officials at The Hague. On Monday, chief prosecutor to the tribunal Carla del Ponte told European Union officials that she felt Serbia was still unwilling to cooperate regarding the four remaining war crimes suspects.
U.S. immigration officials are holding a former military officer of Sierra Leone’s government on war crimes charges for cooperating in the deaths of 29 dissenters there. Samuel Komba Kamba, 39, was detained following a green card interview in Texas that he attended with his wife. Kambo was twice released on bond for similar charges and a judge ruled that there is not sufficient evidence to deport Kambo back to Sierra Leone. The government of Sierra Leone claims they have no interest in his deportation. The nature of his charges, however, do not afford Kambo the right to legal counsel and he remains in jail today.
An Argentinian Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to life imprisonment for being a “co-participant” in seven killings, 31 torture cases, and 42 kidnappings during the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla from 1976 - 1983. Christian von Wernich, 69, was the former police chaplain to the Buenos Aires police force who participated in the “disappearances” of at least 13,000 people in a campaign against dissenters to the regime. The Argentine “dirty war” was primarily a campaign meant to deter opposition forces and communist influence in the form of trade-unions and student activists. Human rights lawyers said von Wernich participated in withdrawing information from torture victims at secret detention centers.
Serbia’s National Security Council said it is offering a $1.4 million reward for information leading to the capture of wanted war crimes suspect Gen. Ratko Mladic. Rasim Ljajic, who heads the council, said there is also a $355,000 reward for Goran Hadzic, a former rebel leader, and Stojan Zupljanin, a Bosnian Serb police officer. The three fugitives are believed to be hiding in Serbia.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) issued a report Thursday calling for the United States government to prosecute private security contractors accused of killing civilians, stating that indiscriminate civilian killings amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity. An uproar of criticism surrounds two high-profile incidents in which scores of Iraqi civilians were shot by private contractors acting on diplomatic security detail. In one case, the Australian firm, Unity Resources Group, was tied to the deaths of two Iraqi women who approached a USAID convoy. Another case involved the deaths of 17 Iraqi’s following an IED attack near a State Department convoy escorted by the security firm, Blackwater USA.