War Crimes

The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, issued an appeal to U.S. President George W. Bush requesting U.S. officials hand over Ali Hassan al-Majid – “Chemical Ali” – and two other former Iraqi officials sentenced to hang for war crimes.  U.S. officials have been reluctant to hand the three officials over to the Iraqi’s citing a potential for a Sunni uprising.  U.S. officials also said that a row between al-Maliki and the Sunni vice president Tariq al-Hashemi influenced the decision to retain custody.  The row centers on the fate of former defense minister Ahmed Hashim al-Taie, viewed as a respected officer coerced to cooperate in atrocities under Saddam Hussein’s orders. (more…)

The chief investigator for the U.N. commission investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said the inquiry is developing new leads and “persons of interest.” Serge Brammertz, the Belgian prosecutor charged with investigating the assassination, issued his final report to the U.N. Security Council stating the investigation has produced new information.

“The commission has also deepened and broadened its understanding of the possible involvement of a number of persons of interest, including persons who have recently been identified by the commission, who may have been involved in some aspects of the preparation and commission of the crime or who may have known that a plan to carry out the crime was being prepared,” Brammertz said. (more…)

The Israeli Simon Wiesenthal Center embarked on a last ditch effort to hunt down surviving Nazis in South America.  “The passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the perpetrators,” the center’s director, Efraim Zuroff, said.  The group put out a $460,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of Dr. Aribert Heim, who the group alleges injected phenol into Jewish and other prisoners at three concentration camps. 

The South American effort is part of “Operation: LAST CHANCE” first launched in 2002 to target Nazis in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.  The Wiesenthal Center’s 2007 annual report claims there are 1,018 war crimes investigations in 14 countries involving former Nazi officers.  Italian officials handed down 21 convictions in 2006-07, which Zuroff says is “considerably higher than in past years.”

Erich Priebke, a former Nazi captain, was extradited from Argentina to Rome in 1995 and is currently serving a life term for a 1944 incident involving the deaths of 334 Italian civilians.  SS Col. Adolf Eichmann, a key player in Hitler’s “final solution” to the answer to the so-called Jewish question, was captured in Buenos Aires in 1960.  Eichman was hanged in Israel in 1962.

AP 

A Sudanese minister said the government there launched legal challenge against a French charity accused of flying over a hundred children from Chad to families in Europe. Interior Minister Zubair Bashir Taha said Sudan planned to sue Zoe’s Ark charitable organization for violating international laws by allegedly abducting children from villages and refugee camps in Chad and the Darfur region of Sudan.

“This is not abduction or the luring of children but a war crime,” the minister said. He also said Sudan planned to sue representatives in Chad for allowing Zoe’s Ark to use its airport to shuttle the children out of the country. Six people affiliated with Zoe’s Ark are being held in Chad for trying to solicit children to host families in Europe on the premise they were orphans from the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan. The Zoe’s Ark personnel face 20 years in prison with hard labor if convicted.

Officials believe most of the children involved are not orphaned and have immediate family in the region. Representatives from Zoe’s Ark said its mission was humanitarian.

AP

The attempts by the U.S. military to bring charges against an Associated Press photographer is bringing condemnation from the press group.  The U.S. military detained Bilal Hussein in Ramadi in April, 2006, alleging he had links to terrorist groups in Iraq.  Hussein, a 36-year-old native of Fallujah, has been held in custody since then without formal charges announced.

“In the 19 months since he was picked up, Bilal has not been charged with any crime, although the military has sent out a flurry of ever-changing claims. Every claim we’ve checked out has proved to be false, overblown or microscopic in significance,” said AP President and CEO Tom Curley.

U.S. officials say Hussein gave false identification papers to a sniper who was trying to escape capture by U.S.-led forces, that he was in possession of materials used to manufacture bombs, and that his photographs were synchronized with bombs targeting coalition forces. An investigation by the AP found no evidence to support these claims.

Curley says his detention is a mockery of the democratic ideals lauded by the United States as the panacea for the Middle East. “This is a poor example — and not the first of its kind — of the way our government honors the democratic principles and values it says it wants to share with the Iraqi people,” Curley wrote in The Washington Post. “This affair makes a mockery of the democratic principles of justice and the rule of law that the United States says it is trying to help Iraq establish,” Curley wrote.

AP 

Peacekeeping troops with the European Union and NATO searched the homes of relatives of Radovan Karadzic Friday looking for indications of his whereabouts. Karadzic vanished in 1998 after stepping down from his official government duties.  He, as well as Gen. 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. Serbia’s National Security Council said it is offering a $1.4 million reward for information leading to the capture of Mladic. The U.S. already has a $5 million reward available for information leading to the arrest of Karadzic. Karadzic has eluded capture for over a decade with no hint emerging to his location. Mladic is suspected of hiding in Serbia.

Troops from NATO and the European Union Force, EUFOR, raided the homes of Karadzic’s immediate family beginning early Friday morning local time. “The aim is to find material or information relevant to the network of Radovan Karadzic,” said EUFOR spokesmen Maj. David Fielder. Investigators uncovered “paper-based” documents they said may be useful in locating Karadzic.

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

In September, Belgrade officials released Karadzic’s son, Alexander “Sashsa,” from police custody following his detention on illegal identification papers. It was unclear whether police questioned him the location of his father at the time.

AP

Kaing Guek Eav, known as “Duch,” walked into a courtroom to face charges for the deaths of 1.7 million people nearly 30 years after the atrocities in Cambodia came to an end. Duch, 66, is a former math teacher who lead the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, or S-21, where more than 14,000 people were tortured under his strict authority. Few survived the detention.

“Under his authority, countless abuses were committed, including mass murder, arbitrary detention and torture,” the presiding judge said. A former guard at the facility said Duch never directly participated in an execution, but was known to visit the Choeung Ek killing field to observe the executions.

The hearing Tuesday follows the arrest of the last of the former Khmer Rouge leaders, former president Kheiu Samphan. Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister, and his wife were arrested Nov. 12. Nuan Chea, the Khmer Rouge’s chief ideologist was arrested earlier this year. All face war crimes charges for atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge regime.

The Khmer Rouge were an ultra-communist regime who ruled Cambodia from 1975-79 with the goal of creating a classless, utopian society based on an agrarian economy. The starvation, forced labor, and death camps allegedly resulted in the death of nearly 2 million people. The leader of the regime, Pol Pot, died in 1998 and his military advisor, Ta Mok, died in custody in 2006.

NYT

Investigators found Blackwater security personnel fired indiscriminately in 14 of the 17 shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians on Sept. 16.  The FBI said the contractors violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors, suggesting the contractors acted recklessly. Officials familiar with the case say they are cynical about the ability to prosecute individuals in the case because the legal framework outlining government contractors is ambigious and inadequate.

Security contractors fired in response to alleged hostile fire during the Sept. 16 escort of a State Department official, killing 17 Iraqis. Security contractors do not fall within current military codes, but Rep. David E. Prince, D-N.C., said he would propose legislation to extend the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act to civilian contractors.

“Just because there are deficiencies in the law, and there certainly are,” Mr. Price said, “that can’t serve as an excuse for criminal actions like this to be unpunished.

However, the use of ex post facto law – law defining a crime after the crime occurred – is typically considered unethical.  Lawmakers expressed the need for the new U.S. attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, to tackle the thorny issue, but he may be forced to turn away any prosecution citing a lack of legal framework.

FBI investigators concluded at least five Blackwater contractors fired on Iraqi civilians with automatic weapons. A contractor identified as “turret gunner No. 3″ fired most of the rounds, resulting in several fatalities. Investigators concluded the convoy escorted by Blackwater contractors were not fired upon, but instead were responding to their others in the same united. One officials familiar with the investigation said, “I wouldn’t call it a massacre, but to say it was unwarranted is an understatement.”

NYT 

Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese rebel leader accused of conscripting child soldiers, will face the International Criminal Court in March 2008, the ICC announced today. Lubanga, was arrested in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, during a crackdown following the murder and mutilation of nine U.N. peacekeepers. He allegedly forced children to undergo training for the armed wing of the Union of Congolese Patriots in order to kill members of rival tribes. His will be the first trail before the ICC.

Lubanga, 46, conscripted children to fight against the Lendu ethnic group under his Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) – now registered as a political party. The UPC engaged in ethnic conflict with the Lendu ethnic group struggling for control of tax revenues and mines in the region.  The Democratic Republic of Congo has been embroiled in civil and regional conflicts since the massive influx of refugees fleeing the atrocities in Darfur in 1994.

International humanitarian law forbids the conscription of people under the age of 15 into military service. The ICC said in January it had enough evidence to try Lubanga for crimes against humanity. In September, the ICC was considering holding the trial in the Congo with the aim of “bringing justice closer to the victims.” 

The trial is scheduled for March 31, 2006 at The Hague, Netherlands. The court ruled that all evidence shall be submitted to the court by Dec. 14. 

Lubanga’s trial will be the first ever for the permanent international war crimes court. The ICC was established in 2002 and is backed by 104 nations.

Reuters

Cambodian police officials arrested the former foreign minister of the Khmer Rouge along with his wife Monday and brought before the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Officials detained Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, at the tribunal headquarters in Phnom Pehn at dawn. A filing by the prosecutor at the tribunal said Ieng Sary “promoted, instigated, facilitated, encouraged and/or condoned the perpetration of the crimes” during the Khmer Rouge reign including “policies of forcible transfer, forced labor and unlawful killings.”

The Khmer Rouge were an ultra-communist regime who ruled Cambodia from 1975-79 with the goal of creating a classless, utopian society based on an agrarian economy. The starvation, forced labor, and death camps allegedly resulted in the death of nearly 2 million people. The leader of the regime, Pol Pot, died in 1998 and his military advisor, Ta Mok, died in custody in 2006. Kaing Guek Eav, known as “Duch,” and Nuan Chea, a Khmer Rouge ideologists, were arrested earlier this year on war crimes charges. “Duch” was the chief overseer of operations at the notorious S-21 detention camp. (more…)