War Crimes

An opposition leader with Kenya’s Orange Democratic Movement, David Kimutai Too, was killed in what police officials described as a “crime of passion.”  ODM leader Raila Odinga called the killing an execution targeting ODM members. “David Kimutai Too was killed by a policeman. I condemn this second execution of an ODM member of parliament. The purpose of this killing is to reduce the ODM majority,” he said.

This is the second suspected assassination this week.  Melitus Were, a legislator with the ODM, was shot to death outside his Nairobi home in an event that opposition leaders describe as a “political assassination.”   Were’s death sparked rioting and ethnic killings in the streets, with various reports citing villagers hacked to death, stoned and poisoned in the street.  Conversely, the BBC Monday showed video depicting a police officer shooting a protester dead in the street when he taunted the officers.

The ethnic rivalry between Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe and Odinga’s Luos, Luhyas and Kalenjins supporters erupted following a disputed presidential election Dec. 27.  Human Rights Watch issued a report alleging opposition members ordered the attacks against Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe, who in turn launched retaliatory attacks against Odinga’s supporters.  Many observers describe the violence since Dec. 27 that resulted in 850 deaths as an ethnic cleansing campaign.

Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is in the region and Wednesday, both parties met for discussions on the way forward.  The U.S. envoy to Africa, Jendayi Frazer, said Wednesday that the region would spiral into further ethnic conflict unless the rival leaders could agree on “some kind of power-sharing and some kind of coalition government.”

The beginnings of this conflict invoke images of Rwanda.  The death of regional leaders in a plane crash removed the central authorities that united ethnic rivals under a tense peace resulting in one of worst genocides in the modern era.  Kenya once served as a model for democracy and a hub of African tourism for Westerners.  On Wednesday, many of the wire services ran stories about a German tourist hacked to death in a Kenyan resort.  The situation is quickly spiraling out of control.  Frazer, the U.S. envoy, said Wednesday that she hoped to see a power-sharing arrangement develop in the next four weeks.  In states where an unstable sub-national power structure is abruptly left without a strong supporting central government, the struggle to fill the power vacuum quickly escalates to violent atrocities.  Waiting four weeks to start over may not be soon enough for Kenya.

Reuters

A federal judge in Miami sentenced the alleged Islamic terrorist, Jose Padilla, to 17 years and four months for conspiring with terrorist cells around the world.  Padilla and two others received convictions in August for conspiracy to kidnap and kill citizens abroad and two lesser charges of material support.  Judge Marcia Cooke of the Federal District Court in Miami sentenced Padilla and his alleged co-conspirators Tuesday, imposing far less stringent sentences than the life terms sought by the federal government.

“There is no evidence that these defendants personally, killed maimed or kidnapped” anyone, Cook said before unveiling her decision.

Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft said Padilla was part of an “unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive dirty bomb” intended to cause “mass death and injury” in April 2002.  The U.S. government detained Padilla in solitary confinement for three and a half years at a naval brig in South Carolina.  Authorities transferred him to civilian custody in Miami in 2006, adding his case to the pending conspiracy charges filed against his alleged co-conspirators.  The Padilla case runs counter to the claims by Bush administration officials who said only military detention and trial by military commissions, such as in the tribunal established at Guantanamo Bay, could handle cases of suspected terrorists.

This is one of many recent cases in which the civilian court systems proved an adequate venue for alleged terrorists.  The legal precedent says the civilian court systems should be used so long as they are open and functional.  This case, among others, testifies to that status quo doctrine.  What’s even more astounding is that Padilla was arrested on U.S. soil and is himself a U.S. citizen.  A New York court recently sentenced a Canadian born suspect to similar charges, but he was not transferred to military custody either. I’ve made the argument here before suggesting U.S. law is not up to speed with cases in the new seemingly trans-national face of modern warfare, but in this case, and the others that precede it, the long standing and evolving face of jurisprudence proved its durability once again.

The Sudanese government appointed an alleged Janjaweed militia leader to a cabinet post.  Human rights officials and observers in Washington accuse the appointee, Musa Hilal, with coordinating the Janjaweed militia during Darfur’s bloody campaign.  Human Rights Watch called on the U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, to urge the Sudanese president to revoke the appointment.  Hilal denies the allegations, saying he led his fellow tribesman in a operation of “popular defense” at the behest of the central government in Khartoum.

Human Rights watched called Hilal the “poster child” for atrocities in the region and said his appointment was a “slap in the face to Darfur victims and to the U.N. Security Council.”

Other observers suspect Hilal may be charged for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.  The international court already issued arrest warrants for Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kushayb for war crimes in Darfur.  Haroun, ironically, is the humanitarian affairs minister for the Sudanese government.

Supporters of the move, however, say the appointment is worth the risk as Hilal’s reputation as a tribal elder makes him an ideal candidate for a position in the central government.

“The transfer of a tribal leader to a political post is a good step which will open the door to more settlements (of disputes),” said one supporter.

When is the international community going to step in here?  Either we move on and say that’s that, the Darfur atrocity is a thing of the past, let’s see what we can do with Khartoum, or we need to get it in gear and seek some reconciliation here.  All these cries of “never again” after Rwanda smack of empty rhetoric.  It’s almost embarrassing to still be writing about the horrors of Darfur.  I mean, what, 2.something-million people died during this conflict? Is it oil?  Is it Iraq?  This is ridiculous and, frankly, getting a bit boring talking about this condemnation from this group and that condemnation from that group when nobody really seems to be doing much more than talking big talk.  What happened to Big Stick diplomacy, I want to know?  Get it together people.  Either we do something at this point, or we don’t.  Enough is enough.

The U.S. District Court in New York sentenced a 25-year-old Canadian of Kuwaiti descent to life in prison for plotting in 2001 a bombing of the U.S. embassies in Manila and Singapore.  The FBI in May 2002 arrested Mohammed Mansour Jabarah at a FBI-run safe-house in Oman for alleged al-Qaida suspects fleeing Afghanistan following the U.S.-led invasion in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.  Officials deported him to Canada and later to the United States where he cooperated with federal officials until he learned of a friends’ death in the U.S.-led international counterterrorism effort. 

Prosecutors allege Jabarah met with al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in 2001 and trained at al-Qaida camps under Sept. 11-mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed.  Federal officials say Jabarah served as the al-Qaida liaison to Jemaah Islamiyah in Southeast Asia to develop bomb plots against U.S. interests in the area.  Jabarah pleaded guilty to the charges, but later revoked the claims saying he was a “naive, young and brainwashed 20-year-old.”  He later protested that he does not “believe in terrorism, violence and killing.”

The U.S. District Court sentenced Jabarah without a trial due to his initial guilty plea and secret documents.

The first question that comes to mind here is why this guy is going through the civilian court system and not the war crimes tribunal system established at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  When the United States Supreme Court compelled the U.S. Congress to rewrite the definitions of war crimes as defined by U.S. law, they included conspiracy to commit actions harming U.S. interests among crimes considered violations of the laws of war.  Furthermore, the Authorization of the use of Military Force enacted in response to the Sept. 11 attacks says the U.S. president is authorized to “use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.” 

Certainly the Jabarah case falls both within the congressionally declared definitions of a war crime and under the AUMF.  You could look at this as saying, because the FBI caught the guy at a U.S.-run safe-house in Oman, that it was a criminal investigation from the get-go, but “they” caught Khalid Sheik Mohammed at his house, stowed him away in European black sites, most likely treated him in less-than humane ways, and now he’s among the “high-profile” suspects held at Guantanamo Bay.  Precedence says the U.S. court system should be used as long as it is open and functional.  In the Jabarah case, obviously the court system was functioning (and obviously open).  This case, it seems, adds weight to the case for vetting most of the Guantanamo detainees through the civilian courts.  It also diminishes the very justification for the war crimes tribunal and the very existence of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

Officials and judges from the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal for former members of the Khmer Rouge traveled to one of the disposed regime’s villages to hold a town hall meeting for local residents. Five senior members of the Khmer Rouge were arrested in 2007 and charged with a variety of atrocities, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. It’s estimated than nearly 2 million people died in a quasi-eugenics campaign backed by the Khmer Regime to form an ultra-communist agrarian utopia through forced labor camps.

The senior members included 66-year old “Duch”, 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.

“Justice is not only for the victims, but also for those who have been charged. For truth to be found, your participation is needed,” said Cambodian tribunal judge, You Bunleng.

Villagers sat on a tile floor thumbing through a brochure titled “An Introduction to the Trial of Khmer Rouge Leaders” whose cover depicted villagers in the 1980s discovering the skulls of victims.

“I can’t read,” said one 50-year-old woman. “But this picture shows the killing during the Khmer Rouge era.”

The audience also watched a 25-minute film explaining how the tribunal process works.

Several members of the audience expressed outrage of the alleged unbalanced portrayal of the Khmer Rouge as the sole party responsible for the millions of deaths in Cambodia. The United States heavily bombarded Cambodia during the Vietnam War and the Vietnamese occupied Cambodia after toppling the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979.

“The Khmer Rouge is the victim,” one man declared to thunderous applause.

You know what? Good for him! Last year, this tribunal was on the verge of collapse. I remember studying this one in grad school and there was a boat load of criticism heaped on the tribunal’s hybrid system of justice for allowing undue Khmer Rouge sympathy to influence the legislative outlines of the tribunal. It’s refreshing to see such a transparent, grass-roots system emerging out of this one. It’s frustrating to see the opaque trials, such as the Iraqi Tribunal and some of the more sterile prosecutions, like the Yugoslavian examinations, take place without this sort of community town-hall effort. The tribunal examining Liberian President Charles Taylor is okay at this too. In that system, the heavy-hitters are being prosecuted in a hybrid system seated at the Hague because the domestic systems simply can’t handle that level of examination for several reasons. I’m a big fan of this bubble-up type of system … it seems to be helping things along in Iraq for whatever that’s worth. It’s striking how many lessons the Big Bad West can learn from countries typically seen as bass-ackwards. Let’s hope the Khmer Rouge system keeps this momentum up, albeit 30 some years after the atrocities were committed.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said Monday he wanted to see the detention facility at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, closed because it damaged American’s international reputation. “I’d like to see it shut down,” Mullen said. “I believe that from the standpoint of how it reflects on us that it’s been pretty damaging.” Mullen said that legal and diplomatic hurdles prevented major problems in closing the facility, adding the legal issues “are way out of my purview” (meaning he hasn’t a clue).

Many close U.S. allies and human rights groups criticized Washington for maintaining the facility, which some say operates in stark violation to international law. The facility took in its first prisoners six years ago and so far has convicted only one – Australian native David Hicks whose life sentence was reduced to 9-months on a plea bargain (GO PENTAGON RAH RAH RAH).

U.S. officials say legal and repatriation issues handicap the facility’s closure, but Mullen said that some of the high value targets, such as Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, are “really, really bad people.”

But Ramzi Yousef and the five other bombers of the World Trade Center in 1993 – are “really, really bad people” currently rotting away in supermax facilities in the United States. Yousef is KSM’s nephew, launched an early plot to assassinate former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and helped coordinate the oplan bojinka plot – which KSM dreamed up as a simultaneous multi-plane detonation (which has been attempted at least twice now, see Richard Reid and ask someone why you can’t take a bottle of water on a plane any more). Why is he sitting in a civilian prison while the rest of the hooligans are getting the proverbial shaft (if you know what I mean) down in ol’ GITMO?

Now maybe we’ve arrived at some sort of turning point in the development of international codes of justice. Last year, I was harping about the Blackwater USA guys in, where was it, Ramadi? Anyhow, it seems the legal system hasn’t caught up to the 21^st century yet. I wrote last week that the U.S. judicial system must be employed as long as the civilian courts are open and functioning. Is that the answer here with these GITMO guys, or do we stuff the KSMs away in perpetuity in hopes of drawing out all their dirty little secrets with a bucket of water and a nice, soft cotton towel stuffed in their mouth? Veritas, or better yet, in vino veritas (literally, in wine, truth). Maybe that’s the key, eh?

Officials in the Rwandan capital of Kigali decided to hold a civilian trial examining the role of former Sen. Anastase Nzirasanaho in the 1994 genocide there. Nzirasanaho is classified in the “first category” of alleged planners of the genocide in Rwanda. He is also accused in the April 1994 murder of Theoneste Gafaranga, a leader of the rival Social Democratic Party.

Rwanda established its Gacaca (ga-cha-cha) courts as a system of community and grassroots legislative bodies that typically deal with village and familial disputes. The courts are presided over by community leaders and elders using traditional tribal customs and other forms of judicial authority. The Rwandan Gacaca has four categories for alleged perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide; planners, organizers and leaders; accomplices of voluntary homicide, perpetrators of bodily harm and perpetrators of crimes resulting in property damage. The Rwandan Gacaca heard its first case in March 2005.

This is very interesting. There was some commentary during Sen. John Kerry’s presidential bid on how to deal with al Qaida suspects and others accused of plotting against the national interests of the United States. Kerry brought up the point that prior to Sept. 11, the civilian courts displayed the ability to prosecute suspected terrorists and the federal government was perfectly willing to use them. I think it was Ex parte Merryman, which dealt with the suspension of habeas during the Civil War, that referenced early uses of extra-judicial authority. In the early Supreme Court examinations of the Guantanamo detainee cases, the Justices emphasized that the history of U.S. constitutional law repeatedly forbade the use of extra-judicial processes to examine crimes so long as the civilian courts were open and functioning. The planners of the first WTC bombing, for example, were tried and sentenced by a civilian court and are biding their time in prison now, so why not use that system for the GITMO cases? I would speculate that the Bush administration will do that as his mea culpa evolves throughout the rest of 2008. How ironic it would be to base the judicial examination of suspected terrorists on a grassroots system in Rwanda.

The war crimes tribunal for former Liberian president Charles Taylor proceeded for its third straight day at the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone seated at The Hague, Netherlands. The court heard Wednesday details from one of Taylor’s associates in the Special Security Service who said he had direct evidence suggesting Taylor financed and armed Revolutionary United Front rebels operating in Sierra Leone.

Varmuyan Sherif told the court Taylor ordered him to accompany RUF leader Sam “Mosquito” Bockarie on a trip to Liberia in the late 1990’s. Sherif recounted that Bockarie told him Taylor had financed his operations and provided him with a satellite phone with which to communicate with Taylor directly. Sherif said that Taylor told him to bring “whatever arms and ammunition” he ferried into the Liberian capital, Monrovia, directly to Bockarie and provide rebels with safe passage from Sierra Leone into Liberia.

Sheif said that during one trip with Bockarie, the rebel leader had a “mayonnaise bottle” on him filled with diamonds.

Just the other day, I was commentating that the Taylor trial should move beyond the horrible stories of dismemberment and child soldiers strung out on heroin and move to directly implicating this guy in the civil conflict there. Let’s hope testimony like this continues, especially if the prosecution hopes to wrap this one up by 2009. I wonder what they’re going to do with Taylor when and if they find him guilty anyhow? Let him spend his final days in his “prison” cell equipped with a private kitchen and conjugal visits? Not too bad for the overseer of some of the worst war crimes in the modern era. Hmmm … maybe he’s onto something.

The war crimes trial for former Liberian President Charles Taylor resumed its second day of testimony Tuesday. The hybrid Special Court for Sierra Leone seated at The Hague, Netherlands, heard testimony from a pastor who witnessed some of the atrocities that occurred during Taylor’s tenure as president during the 1991-2002 civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone. Taylor allied with the leader of the Revolutionary United Front, Foday Sankoh, operating in Sierra Leone to hijack the regions lucrative diamond fields.

RUF rebels conscripted child soldiers, often employing harsh narcotics to condition adolescents into service, to wage gruesome war on its villages and communities.  The pastor, Alex Tamba Teh, told the court Tuesday he witnessed one RUF commander named “Rocky” fire on 100 civilians and only spared his life because he was a clergy member.  

“After he killed the civilians… he gave the instruction that they should be decapitated. Rocky gave the order to the small boy units,” Tamba Teh said.

Tamba Teh recounted horrific details of how rebels carved RUF initials into its kidnapped victims. He said the “boy units” rounded up another boy, chopped his hands off, then chopped off his arms and feet before tossing him, screaming, into a sewage pit.

Now here’s the twist. Taylor’s defense team do not deny these horrific events took place, but they do dispute the level of his involvement.  They said bringing Taylor to The Hague smacks of a show trial to add a certain level of horror to the charges.  I tend to agree (just hold on before you start flaming me).  I’m no legal expert by any means, but it seems that conspiracy seems to be the charges that pertain to Taylor at this point of the trial.  It will be interesting to see how the testimony moves beyond these horrible accounts of child soldiers and so on.  I want to see if Taylor ordered these atrocities.  He certainly knew about it and obviously did nothing to stop it, but I would wonder what the relative level of acceptability is present on the ground in Africa.  It reminds me of a story Tom Friedman relays in his book on Beirut.  He tells the story of a guy whose chickens are stolen.  He complains to his sons that they need to find the perpetrators and his sons blow him off.  The next day, thieves steal the guys bike or something like that.  He tells his sons they need to find who stole the chickens and his sons blow him off again.  The next day, his daughter is raped.  The father says if they would have exacted revenge against those who stole the chickens, the daughter would not have been raped.  Friedman calls it “Hama rules” and I wonder if that’s the face of justice on the ground in Africa.

Let’s hope the Taylor trial moves beyond these horrific accounts and toward a strong case implicating Taylor’s oversight of this gruesome tale.  If the prosecution hopes to get this wrapped up by 2009 by blowing through nearly 150 witnesses, presumably with the majority of those witnesses like Tamba Teh, it needs to vet out the gory details and get to the heart of the matter; a national leader reigned over an 11-year civil war that resulted in the deaths of a quarter million people. The world has gone to war for much much less.

The war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor resumed at the international court in The Hague, Netherlands Monday. The trial is the first such case involving charges brought against a then-acting head of an African government.  Taylor is charged with 11 counts of crimes against humanity, war crimes, conscripting child soldiers and sexual slavery  Taylor allegedly backed the Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone with “blood diamonds” in an effort to control the regions lucrative diamond trade.

Prosecutors brought in a Canadian witness, Ian Smillie, who is an expert on conflict diamonds.  Smillie testified he met with Taylor as part of a U.N. investigation in 2000.  He said Taylor told him it was “highly probable” that RUF-smuggled diamonds passed through Liberia, but denied any involvement in the trafficking.

Prosecutors expect to pull in over 100 witnesses such as Smillie along with scores of others who make up a generation of amputees who survived the 1991-2002 conflict in the region.  The international system in this case is a joint collaboration between the International Criminal Court and the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. Officials decided to handle high profile cases such as Taylor’s at The Hague rather than at the SCSL’s seat in Freetown, Sierra Leone out of judicial and security concerns.

Prosecutors said they hoped the court would reach a judgment by 2009, but note the appeals process could last into 2010. I’ve been watching some of these trials for over a year now. The Iraqi’s waste no time stringing their officials up and take great glee in “leaking” executions over the internet (as the shameful shameful Saddam Hussein execution indicated.)  Last time we did this at an internationally sanctioned system (note Iraq is not included in that), the lead guy, Slobodan Milosevic, died in custody.  There are reports out that good ol’ Charles Taylor has himself a nice little kitchen and all sorts of perks at his “prison” cell at The Haque.  And I won’t even mention how much it costs to put this guy up everyday.  Meanwhile, the boys at Gitmo … 

Let’s hope that this time, this time, the international community can conduct a fair, impartial, speedy trial for one of the worst perpetrators of mass atrocities in the modern era.  With the former poster-child of African development, Kenya, descending into case, the African continent could certainly use a degree of reconciliation.