IJCentral: International Justice Central

Ensuring that the victims of the 2007 post election violence get justice is one of the biggest challenges facing the country at the moment. Should the masterminds of the post election violence be tried locally or at the International Criminal Court in The Hague? Or should we forget either option and instead opt for truth and reconciliation? Peter Opondo has been speaking with the victims and opinion leaders in the North Rift, including the outspoken Jackson Kibor who says he is ready to face the international criminal judges in The Hague, in a bid to clear his name after being adversely mentioned in various reports.

SUDAN, a conflict-driving energy by Mario Sanna After the arrest warrant for crimes against humanity issued by the International Criminal Court in the Hague against president Omar al Bashir, Islamic Sudan had been added to the list of “states at risk” by the west. Moreover,the country will hold general elections in April, and also a referendum on the separation of Sudan’s southern region, next year. A country that, with its crisis, can inflame the entire area, taking also into account the presence of raw materials, such as oil. We went to have a look

H.E. Omer M.A. Siddi, the Sudanese ambassador to the UK, speaks following the International Criminal Court’s decision to prosecute Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

Sara Pantuliano, Research Fellow and Programme Leader at the Overseas Development institute, discusses the International Criminal Court’s decision to prosecute Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

The Prosecutor of The International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo says he will not publish the names of the suspects of the post election violence. Ocampo says however that he will forward those names to the pre-trial chamber tomorrow. He told citizen TV on phone from The Hague in the Netherlands that this was confidential information that even the judges looking into his request to begin investigations could not reveal just yet. Alex Chamwada reports.

Radovan Karadzic was back in court Monday, four months after judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia suspended his trial. The former Bosnian-Serb leader is defending himself against war crimes and two counts of genocide stemming from the Balkans wars of the 1990s. VOA’s Robert Raffaele has more.

The prosecutor of the international criminal court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has confirmed that the names of the post election violence suspects he will hand over to the judges are already identified in the report of the commission of inquiry into the post election violence that was chaired by appellate judge Philip Waki. Ocampo says he is all set to present the necessary evidence that they were linked to the violence as required by the ICC judges as they consider his request to begin investigations. Speaking to Citizen Television this afternoon Ocampo said he believes that he has a strong case. Meanwhile experts are divided on the implication of the judges demand for more information from Ocampo at the very initial step in the process.

The Rageh Omaar Report is a new series of one-hour, monthly investigative documentaries in which award-winning correspondent Rageh Omaar reports on the world’s most important current affairs stories. The first edition of the programme, The Secret Life of Radovan Karadzic, airs ahead of the imminent resumption of Karadzic’s trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Rageh Omaar travels to Serbia and Bosnia to investigate the decade-long period the former president of the Republika Srpska spent in hiding and examines his legacy in present-day Bosnia and beyond.

Since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant of arrest against Sudan’s president Omar Al-Bashir in connection with atrocities committed in the country, and the recent move by ICC in which the president is also likely to face genocide charges, serious concerns have been raised over the future of the country and especially at a time when a referendum on South secession from North is awaited. On one hand, the UN is opposed to the independence saying it could stir secessionist sentiments across Africa and reignite civil war in the country itself. The African Union implementation Panel for Sudan however prefers a hybrid court to handle the atrocities committed in Darfur. The hybrid court could inspire confidence among Sudanese people according to the panel, former South African president Thabo Mbeki, who heads the panel has so far met president Mwai Kibaki and his predecessor Moi over Sudan since Kenya played a key role in brokering a peace deal for the country in 2005. The implementation of the Sudan’s peace agreement has been slow, but the panel is seeking support from countries neighboring Sudan in the realization of its stability.

A very interesting show that uses a slightly different approach to teach people about issues concerning the world:

Pinky calls up international law expert Peter Weiss (Center for Constitutional Rights) and asks him “What is a Crime Against Humanity?”. Other points of discussion include how a crime against humanity is different from a war crime; the ‘superior orders’ defense; torture; the International Criminal Court (ICC); the importance of ordinary people taking a stand on matters of international law.