War Crimes

The U.N.-backed court examining atrocities committed during the 1991-2002 civil war in Sierra Leone handed down two sentences to former militia leaders Tuesday. Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa received sentences of six and eight years respectively for murder, cruel treatment, pillage, and issuing collective punishment. Kondewa received additional penalties for his role in conscripting child soldiers. Both were members of the Civil Defense Forces that used roving bands of tribal hunters to combat various rebel groups. Critics accuse the CDF of torturing and mutilating civilians to achieve its goals, while others praise the group as patriots who established law and order.

Judge Benjamin Itoe, a Cameroonian judge on the The Special Court for Sierra Leone, recounted that the nature of atrocities committed by the CDF including impaling womens genitalia and marking roadways with the entrails of their victims. Stephen Rapp, chief prosecutor for the SCSL, said he would appeal the lighter sentences handed down by the court. The prosecution originally asked for 30-year sentences in the case, consistent with previous convictions of 45 and 50 year sentences for war crimes. Rapp noted that the perceived acceptance of atrocities symbolized by the light sentences against Fofana and Kondewa sent a message to other conflict zones that such behavior was acceptable. “The innocent in war must always be protected and must know they are safe from being targeted by any side in the conflict,” Rapp said. (more…)

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill that would brand the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide.  President Bush opposes the bill, however, the Democratic control over the House may produce enough votes to pass both the Foreign Affairs Committee and the full House.   Turkey’s state-run news agency, Anatolian, quotes Turkish officials as stating the bill’s passage would harm strategic relations with the U.S., however, the bill’s passage would have no impact on U.S. foreign policy.

Armenians claim more than 1.5 million people were killed during the decline of the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire.  Turkish officials, however,  claim that the death of Armenians was part of the larger chaos accompanying the birth of modern Turkey and cite the deaths of several Muslim Turks as evidence.

It is a crime in Turkey to refer to the deaths of the Armenians as genocide.  The Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk was persecuted for the reference, and a Turkish-American editor was killed by an ultra-nationalist for calling for Turkish responsibility of the alleged atrocities.

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The presiding officer in the investigation into the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha concluded the cases lacked sufficient evidence to proceed with murder charges. Investigators recommended charging Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich with negligent homicide rather than murder because of the nature of the investigation. Murder charges against Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt were thrown out and it is expected that generals overseeing the case will follow suit for charges pending against Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum.

Sharratt was charged with the execution style murder of three Iraqi men, but later had the charges dismissed. Tatum faced an Article 32 investigation for the negligent homicide of two men, a woman and a child, as well as assault on two children injured by a grenade. Wuterich was charged with 18-counts of murder during a “clearing operation” following in IED - improvised explosive device - on a military convoy of the U.S. Marine’s Kilo Company in the town of Haditha.

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The former foreign minister for the Khmer Rouge, leng Sary, declared his innocence on Sunday. The former minister was in Thailand over the weekend on declining health issues. His comments reflect rumors regarding the U.N. war crimes tribunal examining the role of the Khmer Rouge in the deaths of some 1.7 million people when they ruled Cambodia during the late 1970’s. He claims he had done nothing wrong.

Leng Sary, 77, was in the Thai capital, Bangkok, over the weekend for a regular checkup for a health condition. He arrived being assisted in a wheel chair by his aide. He claimed to have heard about his possible role at the U.N. war crimes tribunal on the radio when he left Cambodia for Thailand.

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 tribunal has recommended prosecution for five former members of the Khmer Rouge. Only two, Nuan Chea - considered Pol Pot’s right-hand man, and Kaing Guek Eav, (”Duch”), who was the head of security at the notorious S-21 detention center - have been named by tribunal officials. The other suspects have not been identified, though it is believed leng Sary is among the unidentified suspects.

A previous tribunal set up in Cambodia in 1979 found Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader, and leng Sary guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. That tribunal, however, lacked the judicial strength to prosecute its conviction.

AP

The New York Times revealed Thursday the U.S. Justice Department issued a secret finding endorsing extraordinary interrogation tactics, such as water-boarding and stress positions. The Bush administration waded into the legal fray regarding permissable interrogation tactics in 2002. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, it began to hold prisoners in secret facilities outside the access to the International Red Cross, employing a combination of head slapping, extreme cold, sleep deprivation, simulated drowning, and other tactics. Increased awareness of the techniques resulted in the Bush administration making certain legislative statements called torture “abhorrent both to American law and values and to international norms.”

But in 2002, the Office of Legal Counsel had its now famous “torture memo” released to public scrutiny. John Yoo, known as Dr. Yes by then attorney general John Ashcroft, wrote the brief, stating that interrogation tactics would not be considered legal so long as they did not cause pain equivalent to organ failure or “even death.” (more…)

Lam Akol, the Sudanese foreign minister, announced in a press statement this past weekend that Ali Mohamed Abdel-Rahman, known as Ali Kushayb, was released from detention due to lack of evidence.  Sudanese officials detained him in November for “suspicion of violation Sudanese laws.”  Kushayb was the subject of the first ever arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.  Sudan, however, is not a party to the ICC and arrested him of their own volition.

The ICC issued its arrest warrant for Kushayb on April 27 for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in 2003 and 2004.  As the former minister of the interior, the ICC claims that Mr. Haroun was responsible for organizing and funding the Janjaweed paramilitary force, the principle actors in the atrocities in Darfur.  Kushayb supplied arms to the janjaweed and was seen to be “involved in the execution of prisoners [and] in the rape of women.” Kushayb earned the nickname The Butcher of Darfur by refugees from the region.  (more…)

Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian general who led a U.N. peacekeeping mission during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, testified in Canadian court Tuesday for the war crimes trial of Desire Munyaneza.  Munyaneza is charged with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in relation to attacks at the National University of Rwanda against the Tutsi ethnic minority.  Witnesses have testified that Munyaneza, 40, was a role player in the Interhamwe militia that raped and murdered scores of civilians.  He is the first person, and only person thus far, to be charged under Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act permitting the prosecution of suspects for crimes committed in other countries.  The law went into force in 2000.

Dallaire, now a Canadian senator, did not testify specifically to Munyaneza’s actions, but did highlight actions committed by the Interhamwe and other militias.  Dallaire testified how the genocide began after a April 6, 1994, plane crash killed the Rwandan president, Juvenal Habrarimana.  Dallaire said he had tried to mediate the ensuing ethnic conflict targeting Tutsi and moderate Hutus.  In the days following the April 6 crash, militiamen circulated with lists of who to target.  “There were no prisoners. They were killed on the spot,” Canada’s National Post said.

Dallaire also described how peacekeeping forces were ill equipped as the conflict spiraled out of control.  Belgian troops were overrun in the initial phases of the conflict, and others arrived without equipment.  As the conflict gained momentum, U.N. peacekeeping forces ran out of ammunition.  Belgian troops were later withdrawn after several of its members were killed by roving militias.

In 100 days, it is estimated that 800,000 people had been slaughtered by the Hutu government in Rwanda.

AP

On Oct. 2, 1992, riot police from the Brazilian police force forcibly put down a riot in the Carandiru Detention Center, killing 111 in Brazil’s worst prison massacre.  In cell block 9, a fight broke out between two prisoners from rival gangs over exercise space.  The fight resulted in the hospitalization of one prisoner following a blow to the head with a wooden club. In response to the conflict, prisoners broke into the exercise yard and a riot ensued. By 2 pm, the prisoner’s controlled the area, though no hostages were taken and no escape attempts were made.

Prison officials notified the Commander of the Metropolitan Sao Paulo Police, Col. Ubiratan Guimaraes, of the situation. Col. Guimaraes called for reinforcements from the Brazilian police force and by roughly 3 pm, prison officials handed control of the situation over to the Brazilian police force. Police officers were stationed outside the prison walls by 3:30 pm.

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Prosecutors from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are pursuing possible war crimes charges against U.S. Marines for actions in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004.

The charges allege that Marines from Camp Pendleton killed several detained insurgents.

Jose Nazario Jr., 27, faces voluntary manslaughter charges in civilian court and several other Marines are under investigation.

The investigation ensued after Ryan Weemer, a 24-year-old rifleman for the Marine’s Kilo Company, mentioned the incident during a polygraph examination for employment with the Secret Service. Weemer described the killings when asked about possible participation in a wrongful death.

The Marines entered a house under insurgent fire and took several captive. Nazario inquired to Weemer if the captives were dead. After responding in the negative, Nazario allegedly stated, “make it happen,” the Associated Press quotes.

Kilo Company members face prosecution over similar incidents in Haditha, Iraq, in which Marines allegedly killed several Iraqi civilians.

One other former Marine, Steven Green, faces rape and murder charges in civilian court for a separate incident.

AP