IJCentral: International Justice Central

LAMU, Kenya — The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is seeking to indict several high-ranking Kenyan politicians, including the finance minister and a former national police chief, for crimes against humanity in what he calls an orchestrated campaign to displace, torture, persecute and kill civilians during Kenya’s election crisis in 2007 and early 2008.

These are the first serious charges sought against Kenya’s political elite for the violence, and are intended to address one of Africa’s glaring weak spots — disputed elections — which have led to turmoil in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Nigeria and, most recently, Ivory Coast.

“This is a different kind of case,” Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the court’s chief prosecutor, said of the accusations, which are scheduled to be announced Wednesday. “This isn’t about militias. It’s about politicians and political parties. It’s about investigating leadership.”

And, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo added, “this isn’t just about justice. For Kenya, this is survival.”

Among the top six politicians named are Uhuru Kenyatta, finance minister and son of Kenya’s founding leader, Jomo Kenyatta; Mohammed Hussein Ali, the former police chief, who stands accused of unleashing police officers to shoot unarmed demonstrators; and William Ruto, arguably Kenya’s most divisive political figure, widely accused of instigating violence but revered as a hero within his ethnic community, the Kalenjin. Some of the worst episodes of violence, including the burning of a church with dozens of women and children inside, occurred in predominantly Kalenjin areas.

The case follows an international effort to help pull Kenya back from the brink of chaos after the disputed election in December 2007 set off widespread protests and ethnically fueled fighting, which swept the country and killed more than 1,000 people.

“Finally, we have our day,” said Maina Kiai, a former Kenyan human rights official. “This is the first time we have high-ranking people facing the law where they have no control and they can’t bribe their way out of it.”

Mr. Kiai and many others say Kenya has had a dangerous habit of whitewashing sensitive investigations, often setting up high-level commissions but never punishing the culprits. This record of impunity has led to mass killings around previous elections as well, and many Kenyans fear that the next election, in 2012, could be worse if the ringleaders of 2007 go free. Others worry that prosecutions will inflame tensions instead.

The case brings the court into some uncharted territory. All of its previous cases have focused on militias and war zones, and this is the first time that Mr. Moreno-Ocampo has stepped in on his own initiative, without a request from the home country or by the United Nations Security Council.

Mr. Moreno-Ocampo has been criticized for solely prosecuting Africans and for being overzealous, particularly in his dogged pursuit of genocide charges against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan. The effort to arrest Mr. Bashir has proved very difficult and alienated some African countries.

This time, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo plans to ask the judges at The Hague to issue a summons, not an arrest warrant. That would allow the accused to turn themselves in and spare Kenya, at least initially, the awkwardness of having to hand over its political elite. Mr. Moreno-Ocampo has also implicated leaders from both sides, the government and the opposition, a decision many Kenyan observers say could be crucial in influencing what happens next — peace or more bloodshed.

“If the I.C.C. is seen as having done a balanced job,” said John Githongo, a former anticorruption official who was forced into exile and recently returned to Kenya, “then it will be more difficult for the elite to mobilize people violently against it.”

But, Mr. Githongo added, “Kenya is now a volatile country. The politics are bubbling. A lot of change is happening at the same time. Anything is possible.”

In recent days, Kenyan police commanders have put their forces on high alert in anticipation of Mr. Moreno-Ocampo’s announcement. But officers were given explicit orders to use restraint, especially with live bullets. Many Kenyans expect Mr. Ruto’s supporters in the turbulent Rift Valley to be the most upset.

The case is expected to face legal hurdles as well. The prosecutor is seeking to charge all six men with crimes against humanity. But several international-law experts and a judge at the court have questioned whether the violence of 2007, while serious, fits that definition.

“The question is not whether the crimes have happened,” wrote Judge Hans-Peter Kaul, one of three judges who reviewed the prosecutor’s investigation. “The issue is whether the I.C.C. is the right forum before which to investigate and prosecute these crimes.”

It was not, Judge Kaul concluded. The two other judges disagreed, allowing the investigation to proceed. But experts said the question of the court’s jurisdiction would linger.

After the disputed election, Kenya’s leaders vowed to pass a new constitution; set up a local tribunal to prosecute the election killings; and undertake land reform, police reform and a number of other ambitious reforms whose urgency was exposed by the election turmoil.

Kenya’s political class accomplished some of these tasks, including the peaceful passage of a new constitution in August that devolves power and establishes a bill of rights. But efforts to set up a local tribunal were typically blocked by the very politicians who were implicated. Now some Kenyan politicians, including several of those named in the charges, are trying to resuscitate the idea.

According to Mr. Moreno-Ocampo, the evidence predates the disputed election in December 2007, in which Kenya’s incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, was declared the winner, despite mounting evidence that the real winner was Raila Odinga, an opposition politician who is now prime minister.

Mr. Moreno-Ocampo says Mr. Ruto (who used to be a minister but was suspended recently because of corruption accusations); Henry Kosgey, the minister of industrialization; and Joshua arap Sang, a radio broadcaster — all well-known opposition figures — began planning a year before the election to attack supporters of the governing party. After Mr. Kibaki was declared the winner, prosecutors say, the network they cultivated burned homes, killed civilians who had supported Mr. Kibaki and systematically drove people off their land.

In response, prosecutors say, Mr. Kenyatta, Mr. Ali and Francis Muthaura, the head of the civil service, “developed and executed a plan” for “suppressing and crushing” opposition protests and keeping the governing party in power.

The police were sent to opposition strongholds “where they used excessive force against civilian protesters,” and Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Muthaura deputized one of Kenya’s most brutal street gangs, the Mungiki, to “organize retaliatory attacks against civilian” opposition supporters, the prosecutor contends.

But many observers say evidence from the earliest days of the crisis implied that some of the killings were spontaneous expressions of rage, not centrally organized, and that the organized violence was planned at local levels, by chiefs and elders, not necessarily by top politicians.

The suspects have denied any wrongdoing. Mr. Ruto has called the evidence “cooked up.” He has said that witnesses have been bribed and that the case “will in the end amount to fraud.”

Mr. Kenyatta said in October that he was “not concerned personally by the I.C.C. warrants” and that “once due process has taken place, the truth eventually will come through.”

Neither of the two political protagonists whose rivalry set off the violence, the president and the prime minister, are implicated in the case. Many experts believe this is one reason that Kenya will ultimately cooperate.

“The Kenyan government is not Zimbabwe,” said Mr. Kiai, the former human rights official, referring to Zimbabwe’s antagonistic relations with the United Nations and the West. “International acceptance is important to Kenya.”

Jeffrey Gettleman reported from Lamu, and Marlise Simons from Paris.

source: The New York Times

Mr Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the International Criminal Court prosecutor, will ask judges to be allowed to present his case in open court, meaning that chaos suspects and the case against them could be unmasked before year-end.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo is expected to go before judges on December 15 to ask them to indict prominent personalities for their alleged role in the post - poll violence.

Before that, a meeting of ICC member countries ICC is to be held in Nairobi next week as The Hague’s investigations draw to a close.

Another high-profile meeting led by chief mediator Kofi Annan will be held in the city as well, as the ICC begins the process of deciding whether to try post-election violence suspects.

He had wanted to present the case in private to avoid hurting the individuals whom he wanted indicted.

However, given the circumstances surrounding witnesses and leakage of a confidential letter from the ICC, it is understood he will go for open submissions so that individuals accused of involvement are known.

This, said sources familiar with ICC work, was to ensure the public and civil society put pressure on the government to hand over the suspects once the arrest warrants are issued.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo secured the court’s decision to start investigations in the Kenya case after Parliament failed to vote for setting up of a local tribunal to try the suspects.

He has said he would present two cases against “four to six” suspects. Though his office has not confirmed the dates, most court watchers believe it will be in mid-December.

The State Parties grouping is the ICC’s top decision making organ and brings together all the 114 nations which have signed the Rome treaty.

Its meeting next Wednesday will discuss ICC’s role and the need for countries that have ratified it to cooperate. A day after, the Panel of Eminent African Personalities chaired by Mr Annan, a former UN secretary-general, will sit for two days assessing the coalition government’s record nearly three years after it was formed to end the blood-letting that followed the disputed December 2007 presidential election results.

Last year, the ICC was represented at the first assessment meeting in Geneva, Switzerland by Ms Beatrice Le Fraper du Hellen, then head of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division.

Sources said one of the issues that will be handled by both meetings would the progress in the investigations of the politicians, civil servants and businesspeople suspected of planning and financing the chaos and the need to have them take responsibility for their roles.

Last week, via a video recording, Mr Moreno-Ocampo said he was tying up two cases of suspects who will be drawn from both the Party of National Unity (PNU) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). The prosecution of the cases, he said, will ensure that poll-related violence will not occur again in future.

“We’ll prove that some leaders from both parties, both sides, were abusing the loyalty of their communities to attack others,” he said.

In the video shot on Monday and played to journalists attending a two week course on covering the ICC yesterday, Mr Moreno-Ocampo said he has a case against six individuals, two of whom are said to be senior civil servants, considered as the most responsible individuals from both sides of the coalition government for the post-election violence.

“For the last months we were collecting evidence to present the case before the judges who will review our application and decide,” he said.

“The crimes committed were serious,” the prosecutor said. “They were not just crimes against one community or Kenya; but crimes against humanity and justice has to be done.”

Before coming to demonstrate to the government and the public the international expectations that the suspects must be punished, the ICC team will head to New York this week to meet UN officials and to explain the next steps they will take regarding the Kenyan case, sources said.

The ICC and Mr Annan have voiced concern at the way the investigations have been handled especially intimidation and witness bribery claims.

source: Daily Nation

Despite his detention at the ICC, indictee’s hold over western DRC remains strong.

With the war crimes trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba due to start in the Hague next week, it seems unlikely that he will run in the 2011 elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC - but the former vice-president continues to exert a large amount of political influence in the country.

Bemba, who remains the leader of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, MLC, was arrested by Belgium authorities in 2008 and transferred to the International Criminal Court, ICC. He faces two counts of war crimes and three counts of crimes against humanity relating to atrocities he allegedly committed in the Central African Republic, CAR.

In the 2006 election, Bemba won a significant 42 per cent of the total votes cast, while incumbent president Joseph Kabila secured 58 per cent, according to the country’s independent electoral commission. The outcome of the ballot was broadly accepted by international observers.

Most of Bemba’s support comes from the west of the country, including the area around the capital Kinshasa, where many of his supporters remain critical of Bemba’s detention, viewing it largely as an attempt by Kabila to get rid of a formidable adversary.

“Many people in the west [of DRC] feel that he was unfairly imprisoned,” Jason Stearns, an expert on the DRC conflict and creator of the popular blog Congo Siasa, said. “Congo is full of warlords and criminals… [people think that] the fact that one would exclusively pursue Bemba is unfair and biased against Bemba.”

It is not difficult to find people in the west of the country who are outraged by Bemba’s arrest and detention.

“Bemba should be freed before the election so that he can come and end the suffering of the Congolese,” Kalala Jean-Marie, who lives in Limete, an area of Kinshasa, said. “All the Congolese are counting on him, after being so disappointed by Kabila, and so he must be returned home. Bemba is innocent and [ICC prosecutor] Luis Moreno-Ocampo has not gathered sufficient evidence to prove his involvement in war crimes.”

Emmanuel Malonga, also from Kinshasa, says that Bemba’s continued detention at the ICC is unjust.

“The Congolese authorities have used the ICC to get rid of Bemba ahead of the 2011 elections,” he said. “But the MLC has a great vision for this country, and any candidate that stands against Kabila will be voted in.”

ALTERNATIVE TO BEMBA

One of the problems for the MLC at the moment is that there is no strong alternative to Bemba, who continues to command strong support in key areas.

As a wealthy businessman, Bemba is also thought to have sufficient funds to be a powerful challenger in the 2011 election, although many of his personal assets have now been frozen. This is so that, in the event that the ICC hands down a guilty verdict, compensation can be paid to his victims.

“It is very difficult for us to go forward if Bemba doesn’t come back to Kinshasa and lead our party,” Germain Kabinga, an MLC spokesman, said. “We are sure that, with Bemba in Kinshasa, we can win the election in 2011. Without him, winning the election will be very difficult.”

Like many in the MLC, Kabinga claims that the influence Bemba continues to wield makes him a political target for Kabila’s ruling party.

“We think that some people are working in the shadows to make certain that Bemba is out of Kinshasa when the elections are held in 2011,” he said. “This is why we say that this is a political trial.”

But Felix Tambwe, a member of the People’s Party for Reconstruction and Development in Lubumbashi, which is allied with Kabila, told IWPR, “We have no interest in meddling in this case because the crimes have been committed outside of the DRC. What power do we have to influence the ICC? With Bemba as candidate, we are not afraid to go to the election because our candidate [Kabila] won in 2006. We just want justice to be done without bias. Only the ICC has the power or mandate [over whether to convict him or not]. This is nothing to do with the Congolese government.”

Georgette Seya, a member of the Alliance of the Presidential Majority, a political grouping formed by allies of Kabila, added, “No one is above the law and Bemba must answer for his actions. If he is innocent, he will be released, but the important thing is to make sure the law is applied in full, to deter other criminals to come.”

It is conceivable that Bemba could run in the DRC elections - which according to the constitution need to be held by next September at the latest - even though he is being detained by the ICC, since he has not been formally convicted.

There is a precedent for detainees being permitted to contest general elections. In 2007, the International Tribunal for Yugoslavia, ICTY, granted Ramush Haradinaj, a former Kosovo Liberation Army commander, permission to stand in the country’s elections whilst still on trial.

It looks unlikely, however, that the same scenario would happen in Bemba’s case.

Guillame Lacaille, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, says that the MLC’s top leaders were already in agreement as early as November last year that if Bemba was not out of jail and able to campaign before the start of the electoral campaign, then another candidate would be chosen.

But Kabinga says that no decision has yet been reached.

“Certainly, one of the hypothesis is that [Bemba could still run], and we are working on this hypothesis,” he said. “But we want to see whether, at the time of the election, Bemba is still being held by the ICC. Then we will decide what to do.”

The question remains: if not Bemba, then who will lead the MLC into the next election?

Kabinga dismisses the question of a replacement for Bemba with a laugh, saying that he still holds out hope that the wealthy businessman can lead the party to triumph.

“The truth is that the only one who can represent our party in this election is Bemba,” he said. “If the time comes and Bemba isn’t available, then I’m sure that Bemba himself will tell us what to do. And it will certainly be in the right way to help our people to be free, to have a real leadership that can take us and our country forwards.”

The question of who Bemba will endorse in his absence remains a crucial one, given his strength in the country. But some question his apparent popularity.

“It’s not clear whether his popularity in the west [of the country] is due to the mobilisation of the party or the cult of personality… and the fact that he’s from the west,” Stearns said.

In the build-up to the elections in 2006, Bemba did not poll very strongly. It was only nearer to the elections that his support really started to grow, largely because rival Étienne Tshiksekedi fell out of favour with the electorate, according to Stearns.

In fact, the western Congo region may be more united in its hatred for Kabila than its allegiance to Bemba.

Filip Reyjentns, law professor at the University of Antwerp, said that the support Bemba has built up in the west was stemmed from trying to “beat Kabila by voting for someone else”.

Over the last four years, both Bemba and Kabila have faced weakening support from people in their respective strongholds in the west and east.

Bemba’s rebel group was based in Equateur, a western province. Now that he no longer has a military presence there, some think that he may not be able to count on the same level of backing from the region.

Meanwhile, Kabila’s presidency is under fire for not delivering on its four-year reconstruction programme, aimed at improving unemployment, infrastructure and education.

“He knows now that he has no popular base, except maybe in Katanga, as a tribal reflex,” said Lacaille, referring to Kabila’s home state. “His strategy is therefore to make sure that no serious candidate challenges him in 2011.”

A CROSS-REGIONAL ALLIANCE

Both Bemba and Kabila’s parties need to build key cross-regional alliances with strong local parties to stand a chance to gain an electoral majority.

In the east, Bemba never had much popularity and his troops are suspected of committing atrocities in the north-east. In the west, there is vitriolic hatred for Kabila.

Bemba’s defence lawyer Aime Akilolo Musamba says that he has “never heard about Bemba endorsing another candidate”. However, there are rumours of a possible alliance with Vital Kamerhe, speaker of the national assembly, who has a strong following in the east.

“The alliance with Kamerhe could be a winning ticket,” Lacaille said. “That will be huge and it is a likely scenario.”

An alliance with the MLC would give Kamerhe a party from which he could launch a bid for the presidency. But more importantly, it would give him the support that he needs in the west.

“If Kamerhe tries to build up an alliance with Bemba, it is with Bemba not with the MLC,” Lacaille said. “The structure of the MLC may be… useful, but what will be more useful for Kamerhe is the benefit from the popularity of Bemba in the west.”

Other smaller contenders include Tshiksekedi and Kengo wa Dondo, a former prime minister under Mobutu.

Tshiksekedi is an elderly, veteran politician who formed the first strong opposition movement to former president Mobutu Sese Seko. While he has the backing of a local party structure, most of his support is in the centre of the country, in the Kasai provinces and in Kinshasa.

Stearns says Tshiksekedi could extend his influence to urban centres outside Lubumbashi and Katanga, where intellectuals support his political stance.

But beyond that, in the rural areas, he could be weakened trying to build alliances with local political leader driven by ethnic rivalry. It’s uncertain how much support he would have outside of Kinshasa.

Although he is generally lauded as a politician with principles, Tshiksekedi – who boycotted the last election which he decried as skewed and biased - will find it hard to counter his image as a withdrawn recluse, whose stubbornness and old age are working against him.

On the other hand, Dondo is the current president of the senate and is well-recognised, although his domestic popularity is weak and he may also be criticised for being too old. However, because he is respected and experienced, he may have the backing of Angola, who favour an economic alliance with DRC, which would allow him to build a larger campaign.

In any case, the elections come at a time of deep disillusionment with the political leadership.

In 2006, there was a high turn out for the first free elections, with hopes raised of a new leadership, new country and a new constitution. The enthusiasm slowly died as stagnation settled in and much remained the same year after year.

This report was produced by Anjana Sundaram and Blake Evans-Pritchard in The Hague, Heritier Maila in Lubumbashi and François Kadima in Kinshasa.

source: IWPR

Evidently we are happy to work with Sudan’s Islamist regime as long as it restricts itself to killing its own people

It is hardly news when the red carpet is rolled out for an African trade delegation visiting London. But it is unprecedented when the delegation is led by officials whose president is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide against his own citizens.

Since a coup brought him to power in 1989, Sudan’s President, Omar Bashir, has been ethnically cleansing Africa’s largest country of those who disagree with his Islamist ideology. Now Bashir’s regime wants closer economic ties with Britain. It is also pressuring Washington to drop economic sanctions and remove Sudan from the list of states sponsoring terror. And it wants its debt cancelled.

Why are the UK and US governments even considering the wish list of a man indicted for genocide? Because Bashir’s good behaviour is required as Sudan goes through momentous changes. Next January a controversial referendum is likely to split Sudan in two, giving the country’s main economic asset, its oil, to the new South Sudan.

As the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office prioritise trade above all else, apparently there is no longer room for the protection of human rights. More than trade is at stake, however. The CIA looks to Sudan for intelligence on terrorist safe havens in nearby Somalia and Yemen, ignoring the inconvenient fact that Bashir’s regime shares a core philosophy with the Islamist militias it is supposed to be monitoring.

Many Sudanese are risking their lives to create a pluralist society, but the international community is sanctioning the actions of Bashir’s genocidal government. The UK must use its influence to hold Khartoum to the many yet-to-be enforced human rights measures in the peace deals and international conventions to which the regime is committed. Sudan’s version of political Islam despises free speech, independent thought, Jews, women, gays and, of course, moderate Islam. But evidently we are happy to work with Islamists if they restrict themselves to killing their own people.

Rebecca Tinsley is chair of Waging Peace.

source: The Independent

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan arrived in Kenya on Friday to participate in a ceremony inaugurating the country’s newly minted constitution, flouting international demands for his arrest on genocide charges.

Mr. Bashir faces two arrest warrants: one issued in July by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on three counts of genocide and one from March 2009 for war crimes and crime against humanity. In theory the warrants could be enforced by any of the court’s member countries, which include Kenya.

The charges relate to the conflict in the western Darfur region of Sudan, where an estimated 300,000 people have died and more than two million have been uprooted by almost a decade of fighting between the government and rebels. Mr. Bashir denies the charges.

News reports said Mr. Bashir was escorted into Uhuru Park in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, by the minister of tourism, Najib Balala, to attend the ceremony marking the adoption of the new constitution, supposed to hasten democratic reform in Kenya, a nation generally depicted as pro-Western.

The role of the international court is particularly sensitive in Kenya because last April its judges authorized formal criminal investigations of the political leaders who organized the violence that convulsed the country after its disputed election in 2007.

Kenya’s political leaders had earlier refused to set up a special tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the killings, saying Kenya’s existing courts could handle the cases.

Under the Rome Statute establishing the court in 2002, which Kenya has ratified, member states are supposed to cooperate with the court, which has no means of enforcing its warrants. Nonetheless, Mr. Bashir traveled last month to Chad — also a member state of the international court — without being arrested.

The African Union, the continent’s main representative group, has criticized the warrant and urged that it be suspended.

The readiness of President Mwai Kibaki to receive Mr. Bashir drew strong criticism from Human Rights Watch, a rights advocacy group based in New York.

“Kenya will forever tarnish the celebration of its long-awaited constitution if it welcomes an international fugitive to the festivities,” said Elise Keppler, senior counsel in the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch in a statement on Thursday. “Even worse, hosting al-Bashir would throw into question Kenya’s commitment to cooperate with the I.C.C. in its Kenyan investigation.”

“Whether Kenya allows a suspected war criminal into Kenya is a test of the government’s commitment to a new chapter in ensuring justice for atrocities,” Ms. Keppler said. “The Kenyan government should stand with victims, not those accused of horrible crimes, by barring al-Bashir from Kenya or arresting him.”

The international warrants for his arrest have largely restricted Mr. Bashir’s travels to friendly countries in Africa and the Middle East that have resisted Western pressure to do the court’s bidding.

The celebration of Kenya’s new constitution, written to alleviate longstanding problems hindering good government for years, came after voters approved the document with overwhelming enthusiasm in a referendum earlier this month. It has been billed a potential turning point Kenya’s postcolonial history, addressing issues that have haunted the country since independence from Britain in 1963.

The constitution was drawn up after disputed elections in 2007 led to ethnically driven clashes that killed more than 1,000 people.

source: New York Times

KHARTOUM — Darfur’s rebel Justice and Equality Movement said Tuesday it was locked in fresh fighting with Sudan’s army, a day after the International Criminal Court charged President Omar al-Beshir with genocide.

“Early this morning… 60 four-wheel drive vehicles of Sudan’s army and militia obstructed JEM patrols near Kuma, North Darfur, JEM spokesman Ali Alwafi told AFP.

“The genocidal forces lost the battle and fled to Kuma. Our forces pursued them into the town and destroyed their military camp and captured 34 well-equipped vehicles,” he said.

The United Nations and African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, or UNAMID, said it was aware of reports that clashes had broken out between JEM and the Sudanese army.

“UNAMID has received as-yet unconfirmed reports of clashes between government forces and the Justice and Equality Movement in North Darfur. Verification missions are planned to confirm these reports,” it said.

The Sudanese army could not be reached to confirm or deny the reports.

On Monday, the army reported clashes involving JEM, one of the most militarised groups in Darfur, and its soldiers in the strategic Adula region between South Darfur, North Darfur and nearby North Kordofan province.

The fighting came as the International Criminal Court announced it has decided to add genocide to the charges against Beshir, who is already wanted since March 2009 for war crimes and crimes against humanity over his role in Darfur’s war.

Darfur, an arid desert region the size of France, has been gripped by a civil war since 2003 that has killed 300,000 people and displaced another 2.7 million, according to UN figures. Khartoum says 10,000 people have died.

source: AFP

March 17, 2010 (JUBA) – The Ugandan rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) are planning to carry out attacks in Southern Sudan during the April elections, says the spokesman of the Southern Sudan army.

Maj. Gen. Kuol Deim Kuol said the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) has confirmed that LRA has planned for massive attacks in Western Equatoria state and Greater Bahr el Ghazal region to coincide with the elections in the region.

Speaking to the UN-sponsored Miraya FM radio based in Juba, Kuol accused the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) of supporting the LRA to destabilize Southern Sudan.

He said the SPLA forces are ready to repel such attacks and provide security to the people during the elections.

Kuol also echoed the recent statement by the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni that LRA forces are based in Darfur region.

He added that LRA forces have already been spotted in areas of Western Bahr el Ghazal state in their preparation for the attacks.

Earlier Sudan Armed Forces denied the claim that the LRA forces are based in Darfur, describing it as “baseless.”

LRA’s leader, Joseph Kony, had been supported by SAF during the war time and his forces were established or roaming in the three states of Eastern, Central and Western Equatoria before the signing of the CPA that ended the North-South civil war in 2005.

In 2006, the Government of Southern Sudan and Uganda agreed on the initiative to talk peace with the rebels in an effort to end the more than twenty years of conflict which began in 1986.

After two years of successful Southern Sudan-mediated talks in Juba that resulted to relative peace in northern Uganda, nearly two million people displaced by the conflict in northern Uganda were able to leave IDP camps and returned to their villages.

However, after concluding the talks by signing several protocols between Uganda government and the rebels including the timetable for implementation of the agreement, Joseph Kony in the last minute refused to sign the compiled Final Peace Agreement document with President Museveni, citing ICC’s arrest warrant for his indictment as an obstacle.

Southern Sudan’s Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar, who was the Chief Mediator in the negotiations between the two parties had to shuttle between Juba and Sudan-DR Congo border looking for Joseph Kony in the wild jungles of thick forests in that region to find him for face-to-face talks in order to convince him to sign, but to no avail.

Kony has since then instead continued with the cross-border international rebellion which affects Southern Sudan, DR Congo, Central Africa Republic and the native country, Uganda.

source: Sudan Tribune

The US has imposed a travel ban on a senior Kenyan government official for obstructing efforts to rid the country of corruption.

Johnnie Carson, the US state department Africa chief, said he was considering bans on three other officials - but declined to release any names.

Kenya agreed to carry through reforms after 1,300 people died in post-election violence last year.

But the US believes some officials have deliberately been blocking the reforms.

The BBC’s Will Ross, in Nairobi, says the US has to perform a balancing act when it comes to dealing with Kenya.

On the one hand Washington wants to exert pressure and help sideline some of Kenya’s more unsavoury politicians.

But the country is a vital ally in the region which the US relies on to help to dowse the flames of Islamist militancy in neighbouring Somalia, our correspondent says.

Sealed envelope

Mr Carson told reporters in Nairobi: “The US government has taken the decision to revoke the visa of a senior Kenyan government official.”

Without revealing names, he described the politician as a “senior government official of influence”.

He said the individual had “obstructed the reform process, failed to end the cycle of impunity and has been an obstacle in the fight against corruption”.

Last month Mr Carson sent a letter to 15 officials warning them they faced travel bans if they failed to support the “reform agenda”.

He urged Kenya to strengthen its institutions and eradicate corruption to avoid more violence after the next election in 2012.

A power-sharing government was eventually set up after weeks of violence following the December 2007 election, but it has struggled to restore stability.

Rights groups blamed the police for many of the deaths in the riots.

International mediators have pressed the government to set up a tribunal to investigate the killings, but officials continue to miss every deadline they are set.

In July, former UN chief Kofi Annan passed the names of those accused of orchestrating the violence to the International Criminal Court in a sealed envelope.

The list, drawn up by a Kenyan judicial commission, has not been made public.

from BBC News

Western Equatoria, Sudan – “Tell them about our suffering here,” said the Bishop of Yambio of the Sudanese Episcopal Church. “The LRA is killing, raping and looting in our communities and the world does not know about it,” he added.

Bishop Peter’s words came at the end of a meeting I had with Episcopalian pastors from various Western Equatorian districts in South Sudan. Packed in the All Saints Church in Yambio, the capital of Western Equatoria State, or WES, I heard many hours-worth of testimony from people who had been victims of the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, most of them in the past two months.

The village of Yubu, for instance, which is 4 km away from Yambio, was attacked at the end of September. Many people were abducted, some were released but at least six were killed. The remnants of their bodies were collected only a few days before my visit. These events have become common in WES. A report by the U.N. coordination agency estimated 202 LRA related deaths and 131 abductions in September alone.

LRA attacks on the civilian population have been particularly brutal and frequent in and around Ezo, a town close to Sudan’s border with Congo, where the LRA attackers are coming from. As a result, many people have been internally displaced, moving to areas as far as Yambio – a 7 to 10 day trek on foot – trying to escape the LRA.

The displaced people I spoke to in Yambio described how the LRA had destroyed most of their villages around Ezo in search of food. Stories of killings, rape, and looting are again, all too common. There are at least 1,500 displaced people around Yambio living in squalid conditions without much help. An estimated 25,000 people in WES are displaced and most are thought to have fled LRA attacks.

The number of refugees from Congo and Central African Republic are also on the rise. The refugee camp of Makpandu, 45 km northeast of Yambio town, currently houses over 2,500 refugees, and at least 50 people arrive each week, according to the U.N. refugee agency. At least 3,000 refugees are stuck in Ezo town where food distribution is rare due to LRA attacks, but relocation of these refugees to the Makpandu site is on hold until the security situation improves.

In the meantime, LRA attacks in Western Equatoria continue. On October 7, the LRA attacked the village of Nimba near Yambio town. Two women were mutilated and killed.

The attacks have prompted more displacement, misery, and hunger. Food supplies for the local population and the displaced are dwindling because of the looting and destruction. On Wednesday, Governor Jemma Nunu Kumba of Western Equatoria appealed on Radio Miraya FM for swift humanitarian aid to the people of WES. The governor’s plea echoed the words of the director of the Sudanese Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Committee in our meeting: “We had never had people dying of starvation in Western Equatoria until the LRA came.”

From Enough Project

On Thursday, the Great Lakes Policy Forum hosted a talk, “The ICC in Africa: Impartial Judge or Neo-Colonial Project?” featuring speakers Ruth Wedgwood, Director of the International Law and Organizations Program at Johns Hopkins University, Suliman Baldo, Africa Director of the International Center for Transitional Justice, and Charles Villa-Vicencio, Ph.D., former Executive Director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. Discussion focused on why frustrations towards the ICC have emerged, what the appropriate role for the organization is, and whether its involvement as an outsider can truly provide the reconciliation needed at the local level.

According to its founding treaty, the ICC would only get involved in cases when states are unwilling or genuinely unable to carry out their own investigations and prosecutions. Wedgwood noted that the language, particularly the use of “genuinely,” was prone to subjectivity and led to unprecedented actions, such as the warrant issued for Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.

The African Union has been a vocal opponent of the ICC’s move to issue an arrest warrant for al-Bashir,.Villa-Vicencio said he sees this reaction as part of a growing antagonism in Africa towards international institutions. In this particular case, the AU had requested from both the ICC and the United Nations Security Council for more time to act before the warrant was issued. Despite these overtures, the ICC went ahead with the warrant, which, according to Villa-Vicencio, undermined the AU’s efforts in Darfur and role in the region’s peace process. Baldo, who spoke at length about the growing frustrations in the Democratic Republic of Congo towards the ICC’s prosecutions in the Ituri region, said that the AU rejection of al-Bashir’ indictment was not a dismissal of the war crimes committed, but an assertion that the AU should be at the center of the region’s security and peace efforts.

Not all of the ICC’s efforts were criticized. The panel agreed that the ICC indictment of Joseph Kony and top commanders of the Lord’s Resistance Army was essential for bringing the rebel group to the negotiating table. Baldo added that the international pressure led Ugandan civil society leaders to create their own set of ideas for seeking reconciliation and accountability—ideas that were incorporated in the Juba Agreement.

Villa-Vicencio suggested that in order for the ICC to achieve both justice and peace, it must increase dialogue with the AU and redirect its focus to building local and regional structures that can do the work of reconciliation themselves. Without local engagement, the ICC risks disconnecting from the very population for whom it seeks justice. He said, “Is there justice when the ICC comes in and local people do not understand, see, or feel the justice?”

As the event’s title suggests, the ICC often evokes impassioned debates, and Thursday’s event was no exception. To read more about the Court, check out Enough’s special page.

originally posted @ Enough Project

An estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people died under his brutal reign of terror. Justice was never served. 80,000 of the country’s minority, named “bloodsuckers” by the tyrant, were expelled with 90 days to flee their property and possessions. Justice was never served. No, this is not al-Bashir’s Sudan. This is Uganda, and at the helm of hell was military dictator and President Idi Amin, who died in exile on Saudi Arabian soil in 2003. Following his 8 years as ruler of Uganda in the 1970s, Idi Amin spent 24 years unpunished, living seaside in the Kingdom. The rivers of justice ran dry as the former President soaked up the sun for more than two decades.

Back then, a system of justice that was unrestrained by geographical borders was merely an armchair exercise in intellectual idealism. Today, that very system is now permanent, global, and on the front lines of the justice business, gradually giving a resounding voice to the victims of the world’s gravest crimes. Much of the conversation surrounding international criminal justice focuses on the capacity, credibility, and complexity of the International Criminal Court (ICC). However, the system of international criminal justice depends on a much larger framework of international institutions, nation states, non-governmental organizations, regional courts, international law enforcement bodies, and new entities working toward the control of violence, the promotion of lasting security, and the manifestation of justice for the world’s gravest crimes.

We simply cannot let this newly minted system of accountability slip through the cracks of politics as usual or skepticism and doubt. If we do, the moral stride of humanity will have taken one step back, rather than two steps forward. And while this new global system of justice cannot call Idi Amin to account for the litany of crimes he committed, including the expulsion of my mother and father from Uganda in 1972, the mere presence and pursuit of this international structure is touching the lives of many millions of people around the world affected by those engaged in truly heinous crimes.

The Consultative Conference on International Criminal Justice could not come at a more critical moment on the continuum of ending impunity and global cooperation in addressing mass atrocities. Convened by the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University and sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, members of the Steering Committee also include the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor, the Coalition for the International Criminal Court and the International Center for Transitional Justice. The 3-day conference hosted at the United Nations Headquarters September 9-11 is bringing together 150 high-level participants including the world’s international justice experts, diplomats, scholars, jurists, and civil society actors to openly consult and better align strategies for the next three years. Landmark in nature, this is the first effort of its kind to strengthen the global system of international criminal justice.

Currently, there are four active investigations before the ICC, each with outstanding arrest warrants: Uganda; the Democratic Republic of Congo; Darfur, Sudan; and the Central African Republic. In addition, the Court also has several situations under analysis, including Colombia, Afghanistan, Georgia, Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire. Entrenched within these investigations, discussions and debates run the threads of local justice versus international justice, enforcement politics and State obligations, perceived biases towards the African continent, and last but not least, the complex relationship between the humanitarian community and the International Criminal Court.

With a number of outstanding arrest warrants and many more countries on the cusp of becoming active ICC investigations, the system of international criminal justice is at a crossroads and in need of stronger alignment amongst its actors. The time is now to understand and continue building a synergistic system that guides the agendas of many towards common goals.

At this defining moment, The Consultative Conference on International Criminal Justice aims to address these issues from the multitude of angles through which international criminal justice is perceived, strengthened, and dependent upon. Presenters include the Prosecutor, Registrar, and President of the International Criminal Court; Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (‘94-‘96); Ambassadors of Mexico, Kenya and Tanzania to the United Nations; Commissioners of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights; Executive Director of Human Rights Watch; President and CEO of Save the Children; President of the Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia; and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Minister of Justice, among many others.

Crediting Canada with saving their lives, my parents had faith that such forced resettlement from Uganda would ultimately bear its fruit one day. “This was a blessing in disguise,” my father said, examining the last 37 years. Others were not so lucky.

Back then, we could rationalize injustice and inaction by the international community because we lacked a common framework, permanent global institutions, and other enabling tools to save the world’s most vulnerable populations. Today, these ideas are being put into practice, testing the will of humanity to fight for justice. Let us not fail this test, for if we fail, this article will be reprinted with only a handful of words changed—the main one, of course, would be replacing the name of President Idi Amin with President Omar al-Bashir. With the Arab League in support of the Sudanese president, not even the exile haven of choice would change.

originally from the Huffington Post

Two weeks ago at El Fasher airport in Darfur, I watched Sudanese soldiers load up an Antonov bomber, in full view of the U.N. plane I was seated inside. The recent headline-making comments of the outgoing U.N.-African Union force commander, Gen. Martin Luther Agwai, that the war in Darfur is “over,” therefore strike me as overly optimistic. They bring to mind George W. Bush’s similarly premature message of “mission accomplished” in Iraq, which was displayed on a banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003 behind the president’s podium. As with Iraq, there is a long way to go before anyone involved in Darfur should be congratulating themselves.

Deaths from direct violence in Darfur have decreased significantly from what they were at the height of the conflict in 2003 and 2004, and most aid workers on the ground describe the fighting as having stagnated. But the comments of General Agwai are still misleading. There is no compelling reason to believe that the present situation constitutes a permanent cessation of the war, as opposed to a temporary lull in fighting.

In general, a war is declared over when one side has defeated the other, or if warring parties agree to a peace. Neither scenario exists in Darfur. Although the rebel groups are fractured to the point that almost none of them are likely to threaten the government in the short term (the Justice and Equality Movement being the exception), they have not given up. And the so-called Darfur Peace Agreement, signed by the government and just one of the rebel groups back in 2006, has still not been implemented.

The current “calm but tense” situation may be the byproduct of factors that are fluid, rather than a reflection of any fundamental shift in the situation. Right now it is the rainy season, which makes it difficult for any group to attack by land because Darfur’s dirt roads turn to mud. The Sudanese government is also trying to put on its best face while it waits for the outcome of the Obama administration’s policy review, which is expected in a few weeks, in the hope that the dovish approach of the U.S. envoy, Scott Gration, will win the day. As these and other factors change, we may still see the resumption of hostilities.

Put these considerations together and the foundations of General Agwai’s claim look precarious at best. Moreover, even if the passage of time shows the commander’s assessment to be correct, his comments are small comfort to the 2.7 million Darfuris who remain stranded in displaced-persons camps because it is too dangerous for them to return home. Imagine if, after Hurricane Katrina, U.S. officials issued press statements saying, “The hurricane is over.” They would have been correct, but they would have been missed the point. In the wake of Katrina, New Orleans’ communities were destroyed, the social fabric was ruptured, the city faced a collapse of medical services, and there was breakdown of law and order. In addition, everyone inside the city knew that unless the levees were rebuilt, a new hurricane could wreck the exact same havoc. So too in the case of Darfur.

Many critical humanitarian services that Darfuri civilians relied on have been cut back or halted since the Sudanese government expelled key aid agencies after the president was indicted by the International Criminal Court in March this year. For women and girls, the situation is particularly dire. The organizations expelled were the ones that provided medical care, and psychosocial and legal services to women and girls who had been raped-something that happens with depressing regularity whenever they try to leave the outskirts of the camps.

The men in refugee camps who have visited their villages report that not only does the situation remain insecure, but oftentimes their lands have been occupied by Arab groups from Mali, Niger, and Chad. In short, even when the war ends, much remains to be done before there is peace and security in Darfur

The U.N.-AU force was not deployed to stop a war. However, a large part of its mandate is to protect civilians. With the collapse of law and order, and pervasive insecurity from armed militias throughout Sudan’s western region, those civilians are stuck in camps, bereft of the dignity their self-sufficiency once brought them. They live daily with the knowledge that should those with guns and bombers decide to resume hostilities again, there is very little to stop them. Mission accomplished? Not yet.

Hamilton is the author of the forthcoming book The Promise of Engagement, an investigation into the impact of citizen advocacy on Darfur policy and the situation on the ground in Sudan. She is an Open Society fellow and a visiting fellow at the National Security Archives.

It was day one of the defense’s case.  I was in Chicago.  I had planned to wake up at 2:30 AM and watch over the Internet as Charles Taylor’s defense team laid out their case in The Hague at the Special Court for Sierra Leone.  But I had overslept.

When I woke up around 9:00 AM I ran to my computer, but the lawyer had wrapped up for the day.  I read some news articles online and learned the basics: Defense would argue over the next months that Taylor, the former president of Liberia, was a peacemaker for Sierra Leone, and that the prosecution had not proved his criminal responsibility for aiding Sierra Leonean rebel groups that committed war crimes and violated international law.

But I wanted more.  How, exactly, would the defense argue Taylor was a peacemaker?  What did the defense see as the principal weaknesses in the prosecution’s case?  I checked the Special Court website, but I knew the day’s transcript would not be up for at least a week.

So I did what hundreds of people around the world did that day: I went to The Trial of Charles Taylor blog.  The site, run by the Open Society Justice Initiative, provides detailed daily summaries of trial testimony.  A few hours later the summary was up.  I learned that the defense would argue the prosecution had corrupted witnesses with excessive compensation for testifying.  They would argue that Taylor was too busy fending off domestic attacks to spend time micromanaging a war in Sierra Leone.  I learned that before the judges entered the courtroom, Taylor’s lead lawyer had held up a sign to the gallery that said “Charles Taylor is innocent.”

The Open Society Justice Initiative is significantly enhancing the Special Court’s outreach on the Taylor trial.  What are the implications of a non-governmental organization performing such a crucial function for this hybrid international-domestic court?

Addressing outreach challenges

Tracey Gurd, legal officer with the International Justice program at the Open Society Institute, sees two challenges that international courts and hybrid courts (such as the Special Court) face that domestic courts do not.  First, trials often do not take place in the country where crimes were committed.  Second, ensuring that the court’s work is locally owned can be difficult.

The Trial blog addresses both of these issues.  Alpha Sesay, a Sierra Leonean lawyer, is the trial observer and blog coordinator.  He said he creates the daily summaries by listening for testimony that touches on the charges in the indictment. The summaries reflect a comprehensive understanding of modern West African history, and the main actors in Sierra Leone’s war.  Sesay said the fact that he is Sierra Leonean, “brings more legitimacy” to his summaries.

Dialogue platform and tool for reporters

The Trial blog began as a tool to bring, “timely, accurate, and independent information about the trial from The Hague into the hands of regional journalists,” Gurd said.  Summaries become the basis of news reports and radio discussions.  But to Gurd’s pleasant surprise, the site has evolved beyond this initial goal.  It has become a platform for lively opinion exchange.

It is not uncommon for a daily summary to get more than forty comments.  Debates have centered on the viability of evidence and witness motivations.  Commenters ask why Taylor, and not others, is being charged.  Periodically Gurd addresses these issues in posts to the blog.  She thinks the diverse opinions are what make the blog so lively.  “There are those who support Charles Taylor and think he has been unfairly singled out for trials, through to those who are convinced he should be convicted even before the defense has finished its case,” Gurd said.

The Special Court agrees that the site has been enormously valuable.  “This has been one of the most reliable sources for independent information about the trial for Liberian and Sierra Leonean journalists,” said Solomon Moriba, an outreach and press officer with the Special Court, noting that most West African media institutions cannot afford to assign a reporter to The Hague. “If you read some of the papers in Sierra Leone and Liberia, they have mostly published what is available from the [Trial blog],” he said.

Too successful?

I asked Sesay and Gurd if there was a danger in Open Society’s success.  What if future international courts decide not to budget sufficient funds for outreach on the assumption that NGOs will fill the gap?  Both gave similar answers: there is need for complementary outreach through courts and civil society.  Gurd notes, though, that there is a danger international courts will undervalue the need for outreach, whether or not NGOs are doing outreach work.  She said the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, set up to prosecute leaders of the Khmer Rouge, today relies almost entirely on NGOs for outreach.  “This is not sustainable,” Gurd said.

The day Taylor began testifying in his own defense I woke up with my alarm at 2:30 AM and watched him take the stand from my dark living room in Chicago.  This strategy also was not sustainable, as waking up that early proved terribly painful.  Along with Sierra Leoneans, Liberians, and others around the world, I have come to rely on The Trial of Charles Taylor blog to highlight important testimony.

“It is not enough to just put someone on trial and expect that justice has been served,” Sesay said.  “The people affected by the crimes must feel engaged and must feel part of the justice system.”

Shelby Grossman recently worked for one year with a human rights organization in Liberia. She has written articles as a freelance reporter from Turkey, Uganda, and The Hague, where she wrote about apathy toward the Taylor trial. Currently, she is a first-year graduate student in the Department of Government at Harvard University. She can be reached at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

orginally posted at The Hauser Center