Africa

Burundi

The New Times (Kigali) OPINION March 7, 2005 When Genocide Suspects Exploit 'Legal Ambiguity' By Victor Mugarura Kigali Eleven years down the road, the world still has to contend with a seemingly dangerous downside regarding the 1994 genocide, especially on the need for several nations to extradite those suspected of participating in the massacres of over a million people. Several countries, including neighbouring Burundi, still have drawbacks in their legal systems that do not recognize Genocide as a crime against humanity, despite the government's willingness to cooperate with Rwanda on the extradition of suspects. The problem is further drawn back by Burundi's constitution that allows dual citizenship, meaning that Rwandan genocide suspects who sought Burundian citizenship may not be extradited to Rwanda lawfully, without the suspects seeking legal redress to enable them jump the rope. Due respect is indeed paid to the goodwill gesture from Burundian legal authorities who were in Butare province recently to chart a way forward with their Rwanda counterparts. It is recognition on either part that such loopholes in the national legal frameworks may not only appear diversionary joint efforts to curb regional insecurity, but directly allow genocide suspects to gain undeserved sanctuary and escape legal prosecution. It must be recalled that all UN member nations are still bound by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crime of Genocide, 1948 (CPPCG), which takes precedence over national legal systems that may not be clear on how to handle suspects of international crimes. Such legal instruments must be reviewed to conform to international standards of universality, or have the suspects extradited or prosecuted by the relevant courts as required by the UN Convention. This move would set a precedence to help follow up suspects of similar incidents like those of the Gatumba massacres where over 160 Banyamurenge Congolese were massacred in a Burundi refugee camp. With all the legal problems involved in the extradition, both Burundi and Rwanda are duty bound by their extradition treaty to capture and have genocide suspects extradited or prosecuted to answer charges. This includes Burundians who could have committed crimes in Rwanda during the Genocide but are covered by provisions in Burundi's penal code against extradition of nationals. A similar case involves Burundian refugees now camped around Butare province and have reportedly acquired Rwandan irangamuntu (national ID), enabling them to hide under the dual citizenship clause. The way forward can be to compile incriminating evidence on these suspects and eventually charge them for double crimes. It is time to put in place legal mechanisms that make it possible to disown any foreigner who may seek sanctuary in another country and obtain citizenship illegally after they committed crimes especially before and during the 1994 massacres. The dilemma can only be put on hold by the willingness of nations to cooperate and the need to respect treaties for the extradition of genocide suspects. This is directly tied to provisions of other international legal instruments ratified to support criminal investigations against people suspected of committing international crimes like genocide.

UN News Service 11 Mar 2005 Over 800 Burundians Flee to Rwanda Fearing New Violence, UN Agency Reports UN News Service (New York) More than 800 Burundians, mainly ethnic Tutsis, have fled to neighbouring Rwanda in the last two weeks, citing threats and fears of violence surrounding a recent referendum in the central African country that has been plagued by ethnic massacres for decades, the United Nations refugee agency reported today. "Better they die from hunger in an unknown country than die under machetes," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) quoted one mother's explanation for sending her children into exile from Burundi, which is attempting to cement a fragile peace accord. A 15-year-old refugee told the agency a neighbour's child had said anyone who did not flee would be killed. Both Burundi and Rwanda have long suffered from waves of ethnic violence between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, most notably in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, when Hutu extremists killed up to 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates. "UNHCR is concerned that the worsening food shortage and reported rise in tensions in northern Burundi may negatively affect the return home of many Burundians," agency spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva of the new refugees, made up of some 600 Tutsis and a group of Batwa pygmy people. He noted that UNHCR repatriated more than 90,000 exiles last year to Burundi, where a UN mission is helping to consolidate a power sharing accord, and expects to help 150,000 more return home from Tanzania this year. There are at least 400,000 Burundian refugees in Tanzania, 250,000 of them in camps. The new arrivals fled Ngozi, Kirundo and Muyinga provinces in northern Burundi, a region suffering from severe food shortage due to lack of rain and a poor harvest. A number were in very poor health and severely malnourished, but they said they did not flee from hunger but out of fear after hearing rumours of violence over last month's referendum on a constitution, which gives Hutus 60 per cent and Tutsis 40 per cent of seats in the national assembly and paves the way for general elections later this year.

Cameroon

The Post (Buea) NEWS March 11, 2005 SCNC Wants UN Peace-Keeping Force By Kini Nsom The Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, has called on the United Nations to send a peacekeeping force to the English-speaking Provinces of Cameroon, Southern Cameroons. "The time is now for a United Nations peacekeeping mission to be put in the Southern Cameroons, if a cataclysm of uncontrollable proportions is to be averted between La Republique du Cameroun and the Southern Cameroons," Vincent N. Feko stated in a letter to the UN scribe last week. The letter was SCNC's reaction to the arrest and detention of its officials including Chief Ayamba, Chairman, and his Deputy, Nfor Ngala Nfor and four others in Menji, Lebialem Division last February 24. Security forces reportedly swooped on the SCNC officials when they were on a tour of Southern Cameroons. In the raid, the forces, on February 25, picked up one Christopher Nji, mistaking him for one of the SCNC activists. According to the SCNC scribe, such a move represents La Republique du Cameroun's 21st century barbarism, which is reminiscent only of the dark and middle ages. He said the SCNC delegation was on a tour to inform the population of the progress in the struggle for self-determination. They were also expected to brief their people on the recent move in which Southern Cameroons was admitted into the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation, UNPO. The SCNC officials wanted to tell the people that their case at the African Commission is making progress. Feko quoted several instances in which the brutal forces of La Republique du Cameroun have arrested SCNC officials and detained them on trumped-up charges. "We read daily, between the lines, a Rwanda type genocide in the offing as the weight of provocation in our people becomes progressively insupportable," Feko stated. "By this medium, sir," Feko continued, "with what is left of our humility and patience after the outrage, we come pleading that in the exercise of your good office, you may wish to give serious consideration to the question of immediate and unconditional release of Chief Ayamba and members of his delegation," he prayed Annan.

DR Congo

BBC 3 Mar 2005 UN denies killing Congo civilians Nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed in an ambush A United Nations commander has denied claims that civilians were killed in an offensive by peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He said his men were careful to avoid harming villagers when more than 50 militiamen were killed in a gun battle in the north-eastern region of Ituri. An ethnic Lendu militia group in the region has been blamed for an ambush last week in which nine UN troops died. A local Lendu leader has accused the UN of wreaking indiscriminate revenge. Rescue "We say Monuc [the UN mission in DR Congo] is looking for vengeance, and they are seeking it against the Lendus without even verifying exactly who it was who carried out the massacre of the Bangladeshis," Larry Batsi Thewi told Reuters news agency. QUICK GUIDE The war in DR Congo Tuesday's clash took place near where the Bangladeshi troops were ambushed last week, outside Loga, 30 km (19 miles) north of Bunia, Ituri's provincial capital. "We only engage people who have weapons and who are firing at us," General Patrick Cammaert told AFP news agency. "The unit was extremely careful during the house-to-house search. Do peacekeepers have a right to fight? UN takes fight to militias "They rescued a number of civilians, elderly people who could not move and even a woman who had just give birth to a baby was pulled out of her burning house." Helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles were used in the operation against the militia, who are believed to be from the ethnic Lendu Nationalist and Integrationist Front (FNI). FNI leader Floribert Ndjabu has been arrested following the killing of the Bangladeshi peacekeepers. The UN Security Council has stood by its peacekeepers' strong action to flush out the militias. 'Know how to fight' Monuc head, General Jean-François Collot d'Escury, accused the militia groups of terrorising the local population and said an aggressive operation was under way to dismantle their camps. Thousands of people have fled ethnic violence in Ituri He said his message to the gunmen was straightforward: the UN peacekeepers know how to fight. The UN force in DR Congo is one of the world's largest, at more than 13,000. As part of the peace deal, which ended DR Congo's five-year war, former rebel fighters are being integrated into the army. But ethnic militias in Ituri have so far refused to disarm and have continued to fight for control over the region's rich natural resources. On Thursday, the international medical organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said at least 30 women are raped a week in Ituri. More than 2,500 rape victims, aged between four months and 80 years, were treated in its hospital in Bunia since June 2003, MSF said. Aid agencies have suspended help to displaced people in some areas following the recent violence. Some 50,000 people will be without food, water or medical help, and aid workers are now worried about the possibility of epidemics breaking out.

AP 6 Mar 2005 Children among militia in Congo: UN Children as young as eight and women are among the militia who have attacked several villages in Congo's violent Ituri province, killing dozens and forcing more than 70,000 from their homes, a UN spokesman said. Militias suspected of killing nine UN peacekeepers in north-eastern Congo have also taken thousands of people hostage to use as sex slaves and to ferry gold and other minerals, said UN spokesman Kemal Saiki. UN peacekeepers negotiated the release of more than 1,500 hostages early last month, and assisted another 3,700 who were kidnapped and later released by ethnic Lendu militia, said Major Aamer Zahid, spokesman for UN troops in Congo. It is unclear how many hostages are still being held by the militia, he said. UN peacekeepers killed as many as 60 militia fighters last week after being fired upon near the village of Loga, 30 km north of Bunia, the UN said. It is the largest number of militants killed by UN Congo peacekeepers during their six-year mission. For years, Lendu militia in the region have targeted members of their rival Hema tribe. Fighting between Lendu and Hema militia has killed more than 50,000 people since 1999, UN officials and aid groups say. Dozens have died in raids since December, prompting the UN to send peacekeepers to several areas in the region to provide security. More than 70,000 people are now living in temporary camps in the area, the UN said. Villagers in the village of Che - 60 km north of Bunia - said children and women were among their attackers in a raid last month, where 18 people were killed and hundreds of homes burned. "Men, women and even small children, from as young as 8 years, had weapons and were fighting," said Augusta Ngone, who now lives in a swarming camp for the displaced, with 15,000 other residents who fled attacks in the area. Saiki said it was customary for entire Lendu villages to attack their rivals, usually under the cover of early-morning darkness. Many survivors of Lendu raids have also said the attacks began with the blow of a bull horn. Lendu women are usually among those pulling the trigger, or looting after the killing is done, said Saiki. "During the day these women could be at home grinding manioc, and two hours later have a machete or AK-47 blowing you away," said Saiki. "In the Lendu community, everyone is a fighter." A human rights group in the capital, Kinshasa, is investigating claims by residents in Loga that women and children were among those killed last week by UN peacekeepers. The UN insists that peacekeepers fired only on combatants who were shooting at them. "The UN is not trigger-happy," said Saiki. The Ituri conflict is a bloody sideshow to Congo's five-year, six-nation war that killed nearly 4 million people, according to aid groups. The war ended in 2002, with the formation of a transitional government a year later. However that has struggled to extend its authority to the long-ungoverned east.

Reuters 10 Mar 2005 Poll: Congo War Is World's Top 'Forgotten' Crisis By REUTERS Filed at 5:22 a.m. ET LONDON (Reuters) - Brutal conflicts in Congo, Uganda and Sudan are the world's three biggest ``forgotten emergencies,'' each dwarfing the toll of the Asian tsunami but attracting scant media interest, a Reuters poll of experts showed on Thursday. War in Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed at least 10 times as many lives as the December tsunami yet remains almost unheard of outside of Africa, key players in the aid world said. ``It's the worst humanitarian tragedy since the Holocaust,'' said John O'Shea, chief executive of Irish relief agency GOAL. ``The greatest example on the planet of man's inhumanity to man.'' Reuters AlertNet, a humanitarian news Web Site run by Reuters Foundation, asked more than 100 humanitarian professionals, media personalities, academics and activists which ``forgotten'' crises the media should focus on in 2005. After Congo, they chose northern Uganda, west and south Sudan, West Africa, Colombia, Chechnya, Nepal and Haiti as the most neglected humanitarian hotspots. They also highlighted the global AIDS pandemic and other infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis as ``silent tsunamis'' that kill millions every year. ``Africa experiences the devastating effect of two tsunamis every month,'' said Amy Slorach, appeal coordinator for British relief organization Tearfund. Many experts accused the Western media of routinely ignoring emergencies in countries of little geopolitical significance for big powers despite the enormous scale of suffering. ``One television news producer we met in the U.S. summed up the situation since spring 2003 this way: 'Look, we've got three foreign news priorities these days: Iraq, Iraq, Iraq,''' said Gareth Evans, head of the International Crisis Group think tank. ``And Iraq is not simply an American obsession. We've heard a similar refrain from news producers and newspaper editors again and again throughout Europe and elsewhere.'' KILLING IN AFRICA Almost half of those polled -- including U.N. relief coordinator Jan Egeland and U.S. leftwing intellectual Noam Chomsky -- nominated Congo, citing the brutality of an ugly, tangled war that has killed nearly 4 million people since 1998. Congo's war officially ended in 2003 but fighting still rages in parts of the east and the United Nations estimates that 3 million people are cut off from desperately needed aid. ``The human suffering is mind-boggling,'' said Lindsey Hilsum, international editor for Britain's Channel 4 News. ``The wickedness and cruelty of the armed men who kill and maim and rape defies belief.'' The details of northern Uganda's 18-year war, ranked second in the AlertNet poll, are just as shocking. More than 20,000 children have been abducted by a cult-like rebel group and forced to serve as soldiers and sex slaves, while most of the population in the conflict zone have been forced from their homes into squalid camps, say aid agencies. ``Like many people, I didn't have any idea of the scale of this conflict,'' said British Hollywod star Helen Mirren, who traveled to Uganda with relief agency Oxfam. ``Nearly two million people have been made homeless and hundreds of thousands more have been killed.'' OFF THE FRONT PAGES The experts' third most neglected emergency was Sudan, where Africa's longest-running civil war has raged for two decades in the south and almost two years of atrocities in the western Darfur region have raised the spectre of genocide. ``Darfur has slipped from the front pages, but the situation there is again going from terrible to being absolutely horrendous,'' U.N. relief coordinator Jan Egeland said. The poll also highlighted misery in West Africa after bloodletting in Liberia, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone, along with suffering in conflict-riven Chechnya, Nepal and Haiti. Experts urged the media not to ignore the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic sweeping sub-Saharan Africa and threatening to explode in India and China, the world's most populous countries. They also drew attention to lesser-known AIDS threats in Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Papua New Guinea, along with other infectious diseases. Malaria kills an African child every 30 seconds, while tuberculosis kills about 2 million a year worldwide.

Reuters 3 Mar 2005 UN says no civilians killed in eastern Congo clash 03 Mar 2005 17:44:23 GMT Source: Reuters By David Lewis KINSHASA, March 3 (Reuters) - There were no civilians among 50 people killed by U.N. troops during a gunbattle with militia fighters in northeastern Congo, the U.N. mission said on Thursday, denying reports that bystanders were also killed. The battle on Tuesday at a militia camp near Bunia in the lawless Ituri district was the deadliest involving U.N. troops deployed in Congo and came five days after nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed in the same area. The U.N. said around 50 militiamen were killed in the fighting between armed men from the Lendu ethnic group and U.N. troops hunting militiamen suspected of murdering civilians. An ethnic Lendu community leader in Bunia had said 25 people, including women and children, were killed. "There were no civilians amongst the victims. We killed 50 militiamen - this means people with arms who opened fire on us," U.N. spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Dominique Demange said. "Of course after an operation like this, there will be an inquiry to find out more," he told Reuters in Kinshasa. He said the inquiry would be jointly run by the U.N. peace mission and Congo's government but gave no further details. U.N. officials have accused the militias of using civilians as human shields during Tuesday's fighting. Ethnic warfare, mainly between ethnic Lendu and rival Hema factions, has killed 50,000 people in Ituri since 1999. The conflict is rooted in land and commercial rivalries in a region rich in gold, diamonds and timber. The fighting has endangered Congo's efforts to draw a line under a wider war which ended in 2003 and which killed nearly 4 million people, mainly from hunger and disease. Some Congolese in Bunia, Ituri's main city, reacted angrily to the U.N. action, seeing it as misplaced revenge for the peacekeepers' deaths. The slaying of the Bangladeshis was the worst single loss suffered by the U.N. mission in Democratic Republic of Congo. U.N. forces have previously been criticised for failing to crack down on Ituri's militias as they attack civilians. The head of the U.N. mission, William Lacy Swing, said on Wednesday the U.N. would act more robustly in future to protect civilians, and had the firepower and flexibility to get tough. Fighting this year between the militia foes in Ituri has forced 70,000 people to flee their homes. On Thursday, aid agency Medecins sans Frontieres said women and children were being gang raped in the region in what amounted to crimes against humanity. MSF called for all forces in Ituri to protect the tens of thousands of Congolese civilians fleeing the violence.

HRW 7 Mar 2005 D.R. Congo: Tens of Thousands Raped, Few Prosecuted Judicial Reforms Needed to Ensure Justice for Victims of Sexual Violence (Kinshasa, March 7, 2005) -- In eastern Congo’s conflict, government troops and rebel fighters have raped tens of thousands of women and girls, but fewer than a dozen perpetrators have been prosecuted by a judicial system in dire need of reform, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on the eve of International Women’s Day. The 52-page report, “Seeking Justice: Prosecution of Sexual Violence in the Congo War,” documents how the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken insufficient steps to prosecute those responsible for wartime rape. Human Rights Watch called on the Congolese government and international donors, including the European Union, to take urgent steps to reform Congo’s justice system. Despite the peace agreement and broad-based transition process in the D.R. Congo, which began in 2003, soldiers of the national army and armed groups continue to perpetrate sexual violence in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Orientale. In 1998, armed conflict broke out among the Congolese government, several neighboring countries and various rebel factions. Since then, combatants on all sides have subjected tens of thousands of women and girls—as well as a far smaller number of men and boys—to sexual violence. “Sexual violence has shattered tens of thousands of lives in Congo, but fewer than a dozen victims have seen their assailants prosecuted,” said Alison Des Forges, senior advisor to Human Rights Watch’s Africa division. “The Congolese government must reform its justice system to prosecute wartime rape effectively.” An increasing number of victims of sexual violence are demanding justice. “My husband does not want to live with me any more because I was raped by the Mai-Mai,” said one woman who, along with 11 others in Shabunda, South Kivu, was gang-raped by combatants belonging to the Mai-Mai, a local Congolese armed group opposed to foreign occupation. “The perpetrators must be punished,” she said. The International Criminal Court may prosecute a small number of cases of sexual violence. At the same time, the vast majority of such crimes will have to be tried in Congolese courts. However, the Congolese judicial system is in disarray. Judges and prosecutors generally fail to treat sexual violence as a serious offense. Superior military officers are not held accountable for crimes committed by combatants under their command. The handful of rape trials that have taken place have frequently resulted in violations of the rights of the accused and the victims. In one case in Bukavu, the defendant was not given an opportunity to choose his own legal representatives. Of his two lawyers, he met one the day before the trial, the other the day of the trial itself. Support for victims is virtually non-existent: While publicly testifying against a soldier who had raped her, an eight-year-old girl was retraumatized by the proceedings. Little preparation time, guidance or psychological support was given in the face of significant pressures. In addition, victims who bring charges receive no special protection from police or judicial authorities. “The Congolese government must make judicial reform a priority,” said Des Forges, “Support from international donors such as the European Union is essential for this effort.” Current national laws on rape and war crimes are inadequate and inconsistent with the requirements of international humanitarian and human rights law. The Transitional Parliament is considering a new law on crimes of sexual violence. A ministerial committee is also considering a law on Congolese cooperation with the International Criminal Court. Human Rights Watch called for measures that would assist victims of sexual violence in Congo. Women and girls who have suffered crimes of sexual violence must have their medical and psychological needs met. The report looks at the medical emergency surrounding widespread rape and calls for improved health services for victims, including those infected with HIV/AIDS. A woman told a Human Rights Watch researcher how, in May 2004, she watched her 13-year-old niece being raped by dissident combatants from the RCD-Goma (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie, or Congolese Rally for Democracy–Goma) under Laurent Nkunda. “Four men raped her. They had spread her arms and legs and held her down,” the woman said. “I had been with her but hid in a banana tree and watched what happened. Afterward she started to vomit blood, we brought her to Kirotshe hospital, and she died two days later."

The Nation (Nairobi) ANALYSIS 7 Mar 2005 The Congo Was Not Always a Region of Death By Henry Owuor, Foreign Editor Nairobi A culture of non-violence, and is this with regard to the Democratic Republic of the Congo? Is this not the leading killing field in Africa, the same place where in any week, reports of massacres give the impression that there is some kind of race, reminiscent of the battle between the former Soviet Union and the US in the amassing of weapons of mass destruction? The irony is that this was not always the case. Since gaining independence in 1960, the Democratic Republic of the Congo's opposition rarely resorted to forceful means and that is why dictator Mobutu Sese Seko was able to rule Zaire for a cool 30 years until his flight in the face of advancing rebel forces in 1997. Among the main turning points in events that have shaped what is today's Democratic Republic of the Congo was the sad events in the east of the country that began with the assassination of the country's first Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in the early 1960s, attempts at secession by rebels in the east of the country from as early as 1964 and finally the Rwanda genocide of 1994. The Rwanda massacre and the war waged by rebels led by Paul Kagame, leader of the Rwanda Patriotic Front, put in the spark that lit up eastern Congo as the defeated government army and their Hutu supporters, numbering close to a million fled into the Congo, upsetting the ethnic balance in the Kivus. Having fled into the Congo, the defeated Rwanda army decided to settle scores with Congolese Tutsis, the Banyamulenge, who had poor ties with the Mobutu regime. Amid the tension in the Congo, by 1996, Kagame decided to intervene to protect the Tutsis. At the same time, Uganda, which had been claiming that its rebels, the Lord's Resistance Army, the West Nile Bank Front and the Allied Democratic Forces had bases in the Congo, joined the battle. The anti-Mobutu war needed a Congolese ally. Exiles were the best bet. There already existed an alliance of Congolese parties in exile known as AFDL: Alliance des Forces Democratiques pour la Liberation du Congo, comprising four parties. Only one of the four leaders had some revolutionary clout. He was Laurent Desire' Kabila. The Rwanda, Uganda, Banyamulenge invasion was soon joined by Angola. There was also support from Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Muammar Gaddafi in Libya and Omar el-Bashir in Sudan. The first Congo war was one with immediate needs but its impact lingers on. It took the combined force just seven months to march thousands of kilometres to the capital Kinshasa. By May 1997, Mobutu was on the plane fleeing into exile. However, by July 1998, relations between Kabila and the Rwandans had reached a boiling point and the Rwanda diplomatic mission in Kinshasa was ordered closed and all Rwandan military officers expelled. Joined by Uganda, Rwandan forces backed a rebellion by disgruntled elements in eastern Congo against the Kabila regime. But Kabila still had the support of Zimbabwe, Namibia, Libya and Sudan. The rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda advanced on Kinshasa, seizing the city's main hydro-electric plant. Kabila was saved by Angolan forces, which attacked the invaders as they advanced on Kinshasa. In the east, with key towns under the Rwandan and Ugandan invaders, a group of Congolese politicians came together in Goma and formed a grouping known as RCD: Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie. With none of the sides able to win the war, the country was split and it took the efforts of regional leaders among them Nelson Mandela who was then South African President for a meeting to be arranged in Lusaka in 1999. The Lusaka accord said all foreign forces should withdraw from the Congo. Another pillar of the Lusaka accord was its call for Congolese dialogue. This led to talks between the main protagonists in Congo. The main fighting groups were the FAC, or Forces Armies Congolaise, the government army, the MLC of Jean Pierre Bemba, RCD Goma of Azerias Ruberwa and the Mai Mai, a generic term of what were actually tribal militias. Other forces in the Congo and who the Lusaka accord wanted out were the former Armed Forces of Rwanda also known as the Interahamwe. There were also Burundian opposition forces - the FDD of Pierre Nkurunziza and a couple of anti-Museveni groups. Of the anti-Museveni groups, there were doubts over the existence of one of one - the People's Redemption Army (PRA) linked to exiled opposition leader Kizza Besigye. It was claimed that it did not exist and was just a creation of the Ugandan intelligence. In January 2001, Laurent Kabila was assassinated and his son Joseph took over. The arrival of the younger Kabila gave a boost to the Inter-Congolese dialogue. With the boost from the young Kabila, Congolese parties struck a deal and signed the Pretoria accord Pretoria on July 30, 2002. The accord provided for power-sharing under one President and four Vice-Presidents, the so-called one plus four system. With 62 ministers and assistant ministers, the Congo transition government is seriously segmented and does not work properly leading to clashes among armies that form the government as happened in Kivu at the end of last year. The key security apparatus of the government is the Maison Militaire that controls military and intelligence around Kinshasa without reference to the normal military command structure. The government has failed to deliver many of its goals among them the enactment of a new constitution. Among laws passed is one on a new army that includes the former rebels and one on the electoral commission. The government's two-year term ends in June this year. Any announcement of a delay in elections is likely to be met with protests. Says Mr Jim Terrie, a Senior Analyst with the International Crisis Group: "Having these elections and the extent that the majority of Congolese accept the results and there is legitimate democracy to lead the country, that is when work really starts." Mr Terrie adds that key elements of the transition government need to accept the results. Also watching are the political opposition, among them veteran politician Etienne Tshisekedi and the Lumumbaist PALU party from Kasai. He says: "Kabila surely does not want to lose elections and so do his Katangaise allies."

Ethiopia

Reuters 24 Mar 2005 Oromo: Ethiopia Clashes Kill Six in Dispute over Boundary At least six people were killed in a conflict sparked by disagreements over a referendum held to apportion areas contested by Ethiopia's Oromo and Somali ethnic groups, a U.N. aid agency said on Wednesday. The vote was held in a disputed area on the border between two of Ethiopia's nine federal states earlier this year, aiming to settle long-standing disagreements between Oromos and Somalis over where the boundary lies. "Six persons were killed and many others were injured in conflict between the Oromo and Somali ethnic group at Miesso, in the Oromia region of Western Haraghe on 15 February, 2005," the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement released in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The United Nations said British charity CARE UK had distributed food and other items to more than 2,557 people in the eastern region who had been forced to flee as a result of the conflict. The two ethnic group were still unable to reach any consensus over their differences over the contested areas, it added. Analysts said the clashes, coming ahead of parliamentary elections in May, underlined the volatile situation in parts of Ethiopia, which has an enormous range of ethnic and linguistic diversity in its population of almost 70 million.

The East African Standard (Nairobi) 26 Mar 2005 Wagalla Massacre: Families Demand Payment By Standard Reporter Nairobi Families of over 365 Kenyans of Somali origin, who were killed at Wagalla in 1984, yesterday jammed the High Court to demand compensation from the State. In a representative suit filed by a lobby group, Truth Be Told Network, the families want the High Court to declare that they are entitled to compensation from the Government. They also want the court to order an inquest into the killings, which took place in Wajir District. The families want the perpetrators of the massacre criminally held liable for their conduct. According to the suit papers, Kenyan security forces under the control and direction of then Northern Eastern Provincial Commissioner, Mr Benson Kaaria, rounded up about 5,000 men of the Degodia clan and forced them into Wagalla airstrip. The Degodia clan were systematically slaughtered in what was allegedly a well planned and orchestrated operation aimed at ethnic cleansing. The dead and injured were allegedly collected and put into lorries and then scattered in an area covering the entire northern districts. The lobby group claims it has over the years collected names of those who perished and to date 400 men have been identified.

Liberia

VOA 3 Mar 2005 War Crimes Prosecutor: Former Liberian President Taylor Still a Threat By Gabi Menezes Abidjan The outgoing lead prosecutor for Sierra Leone's war crimes tribunal says former Liberian President Charles Taylor remains a threat to the stability of West Africa. Prosecutor David Crane wants Charles Taylor, who was indicted two years ago on 17 counts of crimes against humanity, to be brought before the war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone as soon as possible. "Charles Taylor hangs like a dark cloud over Liberia, and he needs to be turned over to the special court for Sierra Leone. He continues to meddle, not only in Liberia, but other countries within the region," he said. Human rights groups have called on Nigeria, where Charles Taylor now lives, to hand him to the special court. But Nigeria has said that it will not do so, unless Liberia makes the request. Mr. Crane says the former Liberian president is in contact with the current Liberian government, and, if Liberia holds elections, there is a danger that Mr. Taylor's party could win. Charles Taylor is accused of backing rebel movements in Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war, which left 50,000 dead. Critics of Sierra Leone's special court say that its authority has been undermined by its failure to try the former Liberian president. Mr. Crane, who will be leaving his post in July, says that he is proud of the accomplishments of the special court, where he has served for three years. He says Nigeria's decision to give asylum to Charles Taylor in 2003, when rebels besieged the Liberian capital, must be seen in context. "This was a political arrangement to get Charles Taylor out of Liberia, to ensure that peace could start," he said. "That is something I called for during my press conference, when I unsealed the indictment against him. And again, this is all part of a process. The peace has begun in Liberia, but now it's time for justice." A researcher for the Washington-based monitoring group, Human Rights Watch, Corinne Dufka, says it should have been made clear from the start that Mr. Taylor's Nigerian asylum was temporary. However, Ms. Dufka commends the general success of the war crimes tribunal, which she says has renewed Sierra Leoneans' faith in justice. She says that, for the first time, with the special court, you have people who are government ministers and people who have wielded a tremendous amount of power who are being brought to justice for their crimes. Human rights groups want the United Nations to put more pressure on West African countries to hand over Mr. Taylor to the court. Thousands of rebels and militia fighters have been disarmed in Sierra Leone, which has become one of the United Nations' biggest peacekeeping successes in Africa.

Namibia

New Era (Windhoek) 10 Mar 2005 Murders Not Racial - Nau By Surihe Gaomas Windhoek Protect Your Children - Magistrate FARMERS' unions in Namibia have strongly condemned the rising incidents of farm murders and farm attacks in the country. The unions have also called for a national debate on the problem. This follows the recent gruesome murders of eight people at Kareeboomkolk farm south of Rehoboth. Two suspects aged 22 and 23 were arrested on Sunday by the police and charged with the massacre of six farm labourers and the fatal shooting of the owner and his wife, Rassie Erasmus and Elizabeth Maria Erasmus. One of the farm labourers is said to have been pregnant at the time of the murder. The unions believe that there have been rising incidents of murder and attacks over the past years on farms. Both the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) and the Namibia National Farmers Union (NNFU) have expressed grave concern over the repeated murder of farmers and farm workers in Namibia. According to the latest statistics from the Namibia Agricultural Union, 10 cases of farm attacks and killings occurred on commercial farms in the country since December 2000. Last year, four such incidents were recorded in just two months alone. On August 1, 2004, farm owner, Tick Knouwds and his wife Eve were attacked on their farm near Stampriet. The next day, another farmer, Friedel Blume was shot at his farm near Grootfontein. According to the union report, there were more murders in September last year when Jan Dorfling and his wife Christie were attacked on their farm in the Summerdown vicinity on September 21. Not long thereafter, on September 28, Frikkie Theron was murdered on his farm Eldorado. Just before the grisly attack at Kareeboomkolk 65 kilometers from Windhoek, another farm owner near Tsumeb, Andries van Coller, was also killed. A farm worker Josef Naseb is currently in police custody in connection with this incident. Before independence, the commercial farming sector was mainly the domain of white farmers. However, soon after independence, this scenario changed as more black farmers acquired commercial farms. By the look of things, most of these attacks are primarily aimed at white commercial farm owners and their spouses, except for the latest incident where black farm labourers were brutally killed together with their employers at Kareeboomkolk. NAU executive manager, Sakkie Coetzee is adamant that the farm murders are not racially motivated. "All these murders have nothing to do with racism or what some people might see as poor working relations between farm owners and workers. This is just pure murder and theft, it has nothing to do with the relationship between the owner and its workers. Such deaths are unacceptable!" explained Coetzee. He added that ascribing these incidents to land evictions and poor labour relations is tantamount to taking the issue out of context. Referring to the latest massacre of eight people, Coetzee said this was just a revengeful attack by the suspects who had a grudge with the farm owner. "Mr Erasmus responded to a phone call where one of the workers needed to be taken to hospital. Unfortunately, when he came, this was where he met his death. As a farm owner, he was only responding to the needs of his workers," added Coetzee. Airing its condemnation of the latest attack, the Namibia National Farmers Union (NNFU) agreed that incidents of this nature were on the increase and called for urgent debate or dialogue at all levels of society. In a press statement, the union stated that race was not the motivating factor. Circumstances surrounding many of the farm murders vary significantly in terms of causes and the potential impact they have on individuals. "Especially in light of the latest incident, the reason is far from being racially motivated. If it was purely on racial grounds, then why kill the innocent black farm workers? It appears that the killing stems from a theft case involving murder suspects and this could be interpreted as a potential cause. In that respect, the Erasmus family as law abiding citizens have become double victims through the hands of the same criminals," stated the NNFU.

Rwanda

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 9 Mar 2005 Rwanda Counts Down to Historic Genocide Trials Kigali With less than 24 hours left before the start of the first proper trials in Rwanda's semi-traditional genocide courts known as Gacaca, organizers of the courts across the country were on Wednesday reporting full readiness for the trials in their communities. "All is now in place for us to begin trials tomorrow morning. People are ready to wake up early and head to the assembly points", said Jean Claude Gakumba, coordinator of Gacaca activities in the south Rwanda province of Butare. Butare, Rwanda's "intellectual capital" had the biggest total of victims during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. An estimated one million ethnic Tutsis and Hutus opposed to the genocide were killed across Rwanda in 1994. Since their start over three years ago, Gacaca courts have been in a pre-trial phase. They were established to speed up genocide trials and foster reconciliation. Over 10,000 courts are scheduled to be operating by early next year. Over 90% of the courts only began their pre-trial phase earlier this year. It is the 118 sector level courts, which began their work over three years ago, that will begin trial hearings on Thursday. "Most people will have been waiting for that day", says Alphonsine Mukakalisa, a Gacaca judge in the capital city Kigali. "Now that all preparations have been completed, let us pray that things go well from tomorrow onwards". The pre-trial phase has been received with different levels of enthusiasm across the country. "Nothing will stop us from commencing with trials tomorrow", says the coordinator of Gacaca courts in the west Rwanda province of Kibuye. But, he adds, "People here were quite mean with the truth during the pre-trials. People here are so quiet about what happened. Kibuye is difficult". Kibuye had one of the highest concentrations of ethnic Tutsis prior to the 1994 genocide. It also registered some of the highest numbers of victims. There is a different picture in the central Rwanda province of Kigali-Rural. "Overall, I think people here are looking forward to tomorrow. We received good turn-up and participation in the pre-trials", says Gacaca coordinator for Kigali-Rural province, Patrick Rwinkoko.

AFP10 Mar 2005 Confessions abound as first village genocide trials open in Rwandaby Helen Vesperini MAYANGE, Rwanda, March 10 (AFP) - In a spartan office in this rural town in central Rwanda, 33-year-old Jean-Damascene Habimana on Thursday became one of the first of hundreds of thousands of Rwandans accused in the country's 1994 genocide to stand trial before grass-roots courts. A crowd of several hundred watched as the confessed killer of three took the stand before a village tribunal to admit his role in the organized slaughter mainly by radical ethnic majority Hutus of minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus more than a decade ago. "I ask for forgiveness from all Rwandans, there are things in my heart that you cannot see," Habimana said, right hand raised after one of the nine judges hearing the case read his confession aloud and asked if he had anything to add. "I will even kneel, I won't change anything in my confession," he said. "In my heart, there is nothing I forgot, nothing to hide, but after ten years in prison it is possible that I forgot certain things." Immediately one of the villagers in the crowd stood up to protest. "He lied, he forgot something," the man said, accusing Habimana of taking 10,000 Rwandan francs to protect two children whom he later killed despite the payment. Scene similar to those here, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of the country's capital, played out across Rwanda on Thursday as genocide trials opened nationwide in so-called gacaca (pronounced "gachacha") courts. Based on the concept of a traditional tribal council, officials hope Rwanda's 12,000 gacaca courts will be able to clear a crippling backlog of genocide-related cases in Rwanda's more orthodox judiciary, which has to date managed to try fewer than 10,000 suspects. Some 800,000 Rwandans, about 10 percent of the population and a number equal to those killed in the 100-day genocide between April and July 1994, are to appear before the tribunals, which will try those who carried out the murders and hand down sentences ranging from community service to life in prison. Those accused of leadership roles in the killings are being tried by the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which sits in Arusha, Tanzania, or through the formal Rwandan court system. Some human rights organizations have criticized the use of gacacas, saying they deny the accused fundamental rights of due process. Those on trial must represent themselves and are not allowed access to attorneys, while the competence of judges -- panels selected by villagers for their supposedly good moral standing -- is far from assured, they say. Yet other groups have welcomed any measures that can reduce the number of prisoners in Rwanda's desperately overcrowded jails which currently house some 85,000 detainees, most of whom are genocide suspects. The apparently repentent Habimana benefitted from attempts to reduce the prison population, winning a temporary parole from jail in early 2003 pending his trial here by confessing to killing three people. Here and elsewhere in Rwanda, handfuls of other suspects with backgrounds similar to Habimana, some still in orange prison uniforms, waited their turn to testify as the first cases were called. The exectutive secretary of the gacaca process, Domitille Mukanaganzwa, has said the first priority of the tribunals is to deal with those genocide suspected who have already confessed. "If they were sincere in their confessions and those confessions are accepted by the jury, they will not return to prison but do community service," Mukanaganzwa said on the eve of the trials' opening. Under the gacaca rules, suspects who admit their crimes receive reduced sentences and those on provisional parole are eligible to have their terms reduced to time already served in prison. However, there is some concern that the arrangement may be prone to abuse from some suspects who make partial confessions in order to gain their release from overcrowded prisons.

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 14 mar 2005 Over 80 People Flee Rwanda as Gacaca Trials Begin Kigali Eighty three people are reported to have fled the Rwandan boarder province of Gisenyi (West) for fear of being indicted by community genocide courts, the Executive Secretary of the National Service for Gacaca Jurisdictions (NSGJ) told parliament on Monday. "Information we have indicates that people fearing indictment have been fleeing boarder areas", said Domitilla Mukantaganzwa. "We have been told of 83 in Gisenyi province. We haven't yet received figures for Ruhengeri (North), Cyangugu (South West), Butare (South) and Kibungo" (East), she added. The first trials began last week. Thirty four people have so far been judged by the courts. Gisenyi boarders the Democratic Republic of Congo. "There are also more people that are moving from their provinces to other parts of the country where no body knows them. Others have been disappearing from their houses only to return late in the night", she said. Mukantaganzwa said leaders were being asked to inform their communities that genocide fugitives would be apprehended from any where. Gacaca courts were set up over three years ago to speed up genocide trials and reconciliation.

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 15 Mar 2005 Gacaca Courts Might Indict Three Sitting Members of Parliament Kigali Rwanda's semi-traditional Gacaca courts might indict three seating members of parliament on genocide charges, a senior official told parliament on Monday. "We have reports of three members of parliament that have persistently evaded their communities where Gacaca courts want them to answer some questions on their role during the genocide", the executive Secretary of the National Jurisdiction of Gacaca Courts (NJGC), Domitilla Mukantaganzwa said. "They are (Etienne) Magali, Elysee (Bisengimana) and (Jean Baptiste) Butare", she added. "They should muster the courage to go to their communities and explain the allegations", Mukantaganzwa told a joint parliamentary session. "It is possible that these are just allegations. But it also wouldn't be a surprise that a member of parliament, a minister or another important person participated in the genocide", she added. Gacaca courts were set up three years ago to speed up genocide trials. The courts are presided over by persons of "impeccable integrity" elected by communities. The first trials began last week. "People are complaining that leaders are not being held accountable. That Gacaca is only targeting regular people", said Mukantagazwa. Two of the members of parliament mentioned (Bisengimana and Butare) represent the ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), whereas Magali is from the Liberal Party (PL). Magali refuted allegations that he had refused to respond to calls from his community to answer allegations of genocide. "I attended Gacaca at Remera primary school. I met the leaders and told them that I was available whenever they need me", he said. Gacaca Executive Secretary Mukantaganzwa also warned leaders that "are trying to influence the courts to cover up for their crimes or those committed by other people". She said pilot courts (about 8% of total courts) have so far indicted 668 seating leaders ranging from the lowest administrative levels to "top end leaders". Mukantaganzwa was addressing Rwandan legislators on the state of Gacaca courts.

The New Times (Kigali) 14 Mar 2005 Gacaca Official Sacked By Dan Mugenza Kigali The Gacaca coordinator for Iyabarayi sector, Kabuga district, has been sacked for participating in the 1994 killings and threatening Genocide survivors. Ephraim Muhayimana was sacked by a recent meeting of 50 Gacaca judges who allege that Muhayimana mistreated Genocide survivors and forged documents to flee Genocide suspects. He is also accused of collaborating with Genocide suspects and forging statements incriminating innocent people with accusations of participating in the Genocide, according to one official who preferred to remain anonymous. The committee also accused two other sector Gacaca officials of collaborating with Muhayimana, a former soldier during the Habyarimana regime. Reports from witnesses say Muhayimana still hides fire arms and grenades he possessed in 1994, but never handed over to the authorities after the genocide. Another Gacaca meeting was scheduled to seat Thursday and determine whether to remand Muhayimana as more investigations are carried out.

The New Times (Kigali) 14 Mar 2005 'Ex-FAR, Interahamwe Sabotage Gacaca'- Official By Collins Muhozi Gisenyi There is increasing concern that ex-FAR and interahamwe militias infiltrate in the province from the DR Congo to discourage Gisenyi residents from participating in Gacaca. Francois Habimpfura Mugisha, the Provincial Gacaca Coordinator in the province said the militias penetrate the province from the Democratic Republic of Congo where they are based. They spread messages calling on the people to boycott the Gacaca courts saying that the courts will instead send people to prison instead of rendering justice. The messages they call on the masses to join militias to fight the Kigali Government rather participating in Gacaca. "Visits to some people, and using mail are among the methods that the militias use to reach their target audience," says Mugisha. He added that this has slowed down the information gathering phase of Gacaca. Mugisha explains that it is not only the interahamwe threatening Gacaca, but also local leaders both at the grassroots and at provincial level. Those involved are suspected to be accomplices to the militias. Some suspects have been arrested they include two mayor that were recently arrested. "You can't stop people to go because we don't even know the time they leave," said Mugisha, adding that so far 436 people suspected of Genocide crimes have been identified, and the number keeps on increasing as the Gacaca phases go on. According to the mayor of Nyamyumba Ms Sada Nikuze, more effort is needed to mobilize the residents about Gacaca in the district. According to the figures obtained from Gisenyi main prison, among 2377 prisoners, 1320 are accused of Genocide related crimes. Among them, 823 who were released following presidential decree, 33 were rearrested after it was discovered that they were trying to spread the Genocide ideology and calling on people to boycott Gacaca. The provincial chief prosecutor Damascene Habineza told The New Times that other people said to be boycotting Gacaca and all those suspected to be collaborating with the be militias. In an exclusive interview, the residents of Kanama district told this reporter that security is good, but people have refused to come clean of crimes related to Genocide. "Some leaders and residents hide the facts, we even fear to live with those that seem to frustrate Gacaca progress," says Jean Bosco Ntibarikure, a genocide survivor, who said they are still harassed and tortured, but thanked the police for intervening to curb the situation.

Guardian UK 15 Mar 2005 761,000 accused in Rwanda Associated Press in Kigali Tuesday March 15, 2005 The Guardian The secretary general of the Rwandan justice ministry said yesterday that at least 761,000 people should stand trial for their role in the country's 1994 genocide. General Johnston Busingye claimed that nearly a 10th of the 8.2 million population had been identified as having a role in the 100 days of violence in which more than 500,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates died. Some 63,000 genocide suspects are being held after an inquiry by community-based courts in which people identified victims of the genocide in their districts and named those suspected of involvement. Three MPs and at least 50 local government officials resigned after they were charged at the traditional courts, which began hearing cases last week in an effort to speed up a 10-year-old judicial inquiry.

Sierra Leone see Liberia

BBC 1 Mar 2005 Sierra Leone prosecutor resigns Mr Crane promises justice will be done The chief prosecutor of Sierra Leone's war crimes tribunal is to step down. David Crane told the BBC that he had promised his wife he would only do the job for three years, which end in July. Nine people are currently on trial, accused of bearing the greatest responsibility for the killing, maiming and rape of thousands of people. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor has been indicted for his alleged role in the war and is fighting attempts to extradite him from Nigeria. The rebel RUF's campaign of violence included hacking off the limbs of civilians as a trademark act of terror. 'Off the streets' "I can assure you that justice will be done," Mr Crane told the BBC's Network Africa programme. Justice on trial Catalogue of horrors awaited He said that those who bore the greatest responsibility had been "taken off the streets". Apart from those on trial, other suspects have died. Mr Crane said he was still working to have Mr Taylor put on trial. He is accused of being the RUF paymaster. He resigned last year as part of a deal to end fighting in Liberia. Unlike the war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone is based where the alleged crimes occurred and draws on both national and international law. Special Court for Sierra Leone www.sc-sl.org

IRIN 7 Mar 2005 Third war crimes trial starts, AFRC leaders in dock 07 Mar 2005 18:01:14 GMT Source: IRIN FREETOWN, 7 March (IRIN) - Three leaders from a military junta accused of causing "pain and agony beyond human description" during Sierra Leone's civil war, stood in the dock on Monday as the country's third and final war crimes trial got underway. Prosecutors said the three defendants -- Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu -- were all part of the governing body of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) which overthrew elected president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in 1997 midway through the war and ruled for just 10 months. During their reign and after their fall from power, the AFRC group of disgruntled soldiers joined forces with the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The alliance culminated in "Operation No Living Thing", a devastating attack on the capital in 1999 which turned the city into an "oozing grave". "(They) swept down from the hills around Freetown and in a few weeks showed the world what this sad conflict really had degenerated into -- the rape, mutilation, maiming and murder of innocent civilians; the burning of their homes; the enslavement of the weak, women and children mostly," David Crane, the chief prosecutor, told the court in his opening statement. "The targets of these attacks were civilians and (they) were conducted to terrorise that population but also used to punish the population for failing to provide sufficient support to the AFRC/RUF or for allegedly providing support to the government or pro-government forces," Crane added. The AFRC trial is the last to open at Sierra Leone's Special Court, which is the first international tribunal to sit UN-appointed foreign judges alongside local ones in the country where the atrocities took place. The court aims to punish those bearing the "greatest responsibility" for the brutal war crimes, but some of the top suspects have managed to escape its clutches. These include Johnny Paul Koroma, the AFRC leader who went into hiding two years ago as well as the two men at the top of the RUF, Foday Sankoh and Sam Bockarie, who are now dead. Former Liberian president Charles Taylor, indicted for war crimes in Sierra Leone, is living in exile in Nigeria and has yet to be handed over. For some Sierra Leoneans, these high-profile absences have diminished the relevance of the trials. Others want justice, even if it is not perfect. On Monday as proceedings began in the court's second chamber, the prosecution promised to provide a wave of witnesses who would testify to atrocities committed or ordered directly by the three AFRC defendants. One young man would tell about being captured and taken to a rebel base at a primary school, Crane said. "One by one they were ordered to extend their hands and one by one their hands were severed with an axe.... The cuts were not clean, he will testify, and it took four blows before his hand fell to the ground, four long blows," he told the panel of three judges, headed by Teresa Doherty of Northern Ireland. Women would describe horrific gang rape, with sticks being inserted into their vaginas until they bled and bayonets being stabbed into their buttocks. Children would recount how the initials AFRC were carved onto their chests with a razor blade, Crane said. The three defendants from the military junta, who have spent more than a year in detention, have been charged with 14 counts of crimes against humanity. They deny the charges. Analysts expect the AFRC trial to wrap up later this year, but the two trials taking place in the Special Court's first chamber are expected to continue into 2006. The first trial against the leaders of the pro-government Civil Defence Force (CDF), including former interior minister Sam Hinga Norman, began last June. The second trial against the RUF hierarchy opened in July.

South Africa

The Daily News (Harare) 2 Mar 2005 Ex-UN Commander Calls for Intervention Johannesburg A commander of a United Nations (UN) peace-keeping force during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda has warned there is urgent need for regional and international intervention to prevent Zimbabwe's political crisis from further deteriorating. Lt-Gen Romeo Dallaire, a Canadian who commanded the UN force during one of the worst genocides in human history, said lack of regional and international action on Zimbabwe was a perfect example of a lack of political will to prevent crises from developing. Lt -Gen Dallaire drew parallels between the strife in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan, where there is international inaction, and Zimbabwe which the SADC region and South Africa, in particular, have largely remained silent on. He issued the warning during his address at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria on Friday. Lt-Gen Dallaire lectures widely around the world on peacekeeping, providing an insight into his bitter experiences in Rwanda where about one million Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed between April and May 1994. He has also written a book on the genocide entitled Shake Hands with the Devil. "South Africa should not feel held back by its apartheid past from playing a far greater leadership role in the region," he said. "Lack of regional and international action on Darfur and Zimbabwe are perfect examples of a lack of political will to prevent crises developing." During the build up to the Rwandan genocide, Lt-Gen Dallaire repeatedly warned the UN Security Council and the United States government that there was an urgent need to intervene to help the tiny central African country from sliding into chaos. His fears were ignored. Instead, the UN Security Council and the United States reduced the number of the UN peace keeping mission in Rwanda that time preferring to boost its presence in Kosovo. This proved disastrous as Lt-Gen Dallaire's peace keeping mission could not help but just watch as Hutu extremists in Rwanda went on a killing spree of Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus. Both the UN and the United States have publicly apologised for failing to react to Lt-Gen Dallaire's repeated warnings. Although the political situation in Zimbabwe could not be as tense as it was in Rwanda during the build-up to the massacres, observers fear the political situation could deteriorate if there is no immediate regional or international intervention. President Mugabe's Zanu PF government is blamed for using violence and intimidation to cow supporters of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Journalists from the independent media and foreign correspondents have also been targeted by President Mugabe's government in its quest to silence any form of criticism to its maladministration and poor human rights record. Reports of violence and intimidation targeted at supporters of the MDC and journalists from the independent press and foreign correspondents are said to be on the increase ahead of the crucial March 31 election. Analysts have warned of disastrous consequences if the elections are held in an environment deemed to be heavily tilted in favour of the ruling party. During his brief stay in South Africa, Lt-Gen Dallaire met South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and senior defence force members.

Sudan

NYT 2 Mar 2005 OP-ED COLUMNIST The American Witness By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF American soldiers are trained to shoot at the enemy. They're prepared to be shot at. But what young men like Brian Steidle are not equipped for is witnessing a genocide but being unable to protect the civilians pleading for help. If President Bush wants to figure out whether the U.S. should stand more firmly against the genocide in Darfur, I suggest that he invite Mr. Steidle to the White House to give a briefing. Mr. Steidle, a 28-year-old former Marine captain, was one of just three American military advisers for the African Union monitoring team in Darfur - and he is bursting with frustration. "Every single day you go out to see another burned village, and more dead bodies," he said. "And the children - you see 6-month-old babies that have been shot, and 3-year-old kids with their faces smashed in with rifle butts. And you just have to stand there and write your reports." While journalists and aid workers are sharply limited in their movements in Darfur, Mr. Steidle and the monitors traveled around by truck and helicopter to investigate massacres by the Sudanese government and the janjaweed militia it sponsors. They have sometimes been shot at, and once his group was held hostage, but they have persisted and become witnesses to systematic crimes against humanity. So is it really genocide? "I have no doubt about that," Mr. Steidle said. "It's a systematic cleansing of peoples by the Arab chiefs there. And when you talk to them, that's what they tell you. They're very blunt about it. One day we met a janjaweed leader and he said, 'Unless you get back four camels that were stolen in 2003, then we're going to go to these four villages and burn the villages, rape the women, kill everyone.' And they did." The African Union doesn't have the troops, firepower or mandate to actually stop the slaughter, just to monitor it. Mr. Steidle said his single most frustrating moment came in December when the Sudanese government and the janjaweed attacked the village of Labado, which had 25,000 inhabitants. Mr. Steidle and his unit flew to the area in helicopters, but a Sudanese general refused to let them enter the village - and also refused to stop the attack. "It was extremely frustrating - seeing the village burn, hearing gunshots, not being able to do anything," Mr. Steidle said. "The entire village is now gone. It's a big black spot on the earth." When Sudan's government is preparing to send bombers or helicopter gunships to attack an African village, it shuts down the cellphone system so no one can send out warnings. Thus the international monitors know when a massacre is about to unfold. But there's usually nothing they can do. The West, led by the Bush administration, is providing food and medical care that is keeping hundreds of thousands of people alive. But we're managing the genocide, not halting it. "The world is failing Darfur," said Jan Egeland, the U.N. under secretary general for humanitarian affairs. "We're only playing the humanitarian card, and we're just witnessing the massacres." President Bush is pushing for sanctions, but European countries like France are disgracefully cool to the idea - and China is downright hostile, playing the same supportive role for the Darfur genocide that it did for the Khmer Rouge genocide. Mr. Steidle has just quit his job with the African Union, but he plans to continue working in Darfur to do his part to stand up to the killers. Most of us don't have to go to that extreme of risking our lives in Darfur - we just need to get off the fence and push our government off, too. At one level, I blame President Bush - and, even more, the leaders of European, Arab and African nations - for their passivity. But if our leaders are acquiescing in genocide, that's because we citizens are passive, too. If American voters cared about Darfur's genocide as much as about, say, the Michael Jackson trial, then our political system would respond. One useful step would be the passage of the Darfur Accountability Act, to be introduced today by Senators Jon Corzine and Sam Brownback. The legislation calls for such desperately needed actions as expanding the African Union force and establishing a military no-fly zone to stop Sudan from bombing civilians. As Martin Luther King Jr. put it: "Man's inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who are bad. It is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good."

HRW 2 mar 2005 Darfur: Militia Leader Implicates Khartoum Janjaweed Chief Says Sudan Government Backed Attacks (New York, March 2, 2005) — A top Janjaweed leader says the Sudan government backed and directed militia activities in northern Darfur, according to a videotape released by Human Rights Watch today. Widely regarded as the top Janjaweed leader in Darfur, Musa Hilal was interviewed over the course of several hours by Human Rights Watch researchers in Khartoum in September 2004. Since then, he has largely stopped giving interviews to the media and other foreign visitors. Hilal states that the government of Sudan directed all military activities of the militia forces he had recruited. “All of the people in the field are led by top army commanders,” he told Human Rights Watch on videotape. “…These people get their orders from the Western command center, and from Khartoum.” “Musa Hilal squarely contradicts the government’s claim that it has ‘no relationship’ with local militias,” said Peter Takirambudde, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Africa division. The Sudan government has said that any atrocities in Darfur are the fault of Janjaweed “bandits” and are the result of recurring ethnic clashes in Darfur in which the government is “neutral.” “We now see that the two parties responsible for crimes against humanity in Darfur are pointing the finger at each other,” said Takirambudde. “Musa Hilal is a dangerous man for the Sudanese government. His testimony could be very interesting to the International Criminal Court.” Although many eyewitnesses have named Musa Hilal as a leader of militia forces responsible for some of the most brutal attacks in Darfur, in the videotape he denies any leadership role and says his followers have not committed atrocities. However, several eyewitnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch described how Musa Hilal came to the central market in Kebkabiya in North Darfur twice in January 2004 with his forces, and addressed the crowds about his militia forces’ great ‘victories’ in outlying areas against the rebel forces. The eyewitnesses said that Musa Hilal was not only uniformed and armed, but also claimed to have led his followers to these military victories. Musa Hilal’s forces were initially recruited from among his tribesmen in North Darfur, and have been active for several years around the Kebkabiya area, where Human Rights Watch conducted research in October 2004. Many witnesses in Kebkabiya told Human Rights Watch about the location and activities of Musa Hilal’s forces. They reported that Misteriya town is the location of Hilal’s militia camp near Kebkabiya, where he and Hassim Mangari of the Sudan army are commanders. Musa Hilal is known for taking women prisoners and holding them at Jebel Jur (meaning “hunger mountain”) west of Misteriya. Many of the women have not returned to date. Some witnesses spoke of militia members who committed atrocities in the name of Musa Hilal. Others said that their former Arab neighbors and Janjaweed militia prevented them from returning to their fertile farming land outside Kebkabiya: one group of women trying to return in Merguba, outside of Kebkabiya and two and a half hours from Misteriya by donkey, were told by their former Arab neighbors, ‘This [Merguba] is the land of Musa Hilal. You must not go and take anything from there.’ Darfur government documents in the possession of Human Rights Watch refer to official Sudanese government support for Musa Hilal. In a memo dated February 13, 2004 from the office of a sub-locality in North Darfur, the authorities urge all “security units in the locality” to “allow the activities of the mujahedeen and the volunteers under the command of Sheikh Musa Hilal to proceed in the areas of [North Darfur] and to secure their vital needs.” The memo continues, “We also highlight the importance of non-interference so as not to question their authorities and to overlook minor offences by the mujahedeen against civilians who are suspected members of the rebellion….” Human Rights Watch researchers conducted the video interview with Musa Hilal on September 27, 2004 in Khartoum. Since then, he has largely refrained from giving interviews to the media. Click here for the transcript of the Human Rights Watch interview with Musa Hilal. Click here for the exact English translation of excerpts from Human Rights Watch’s interview with Musa Hilal.

washingtonpost.com 6 Mar 2005 Crime of Crimes Does It Have to Be Genocide for the World to Act? By David Bosco Sunday, March 6, 2005; Page B01 On Feb. 1, the United Nations issued a finding that sounded like hopeful news about one of Africa's worst conflicts. "UN report clears Sudan government of genocide in Darfur," reported Agence France-Presse. "UN Panel Sees No Genocide in Darfur," a St. Petersburg Times headline on a Reuters wire story said the next day. "Report on Darfur Says Genocide Did Not Occur," read another in the New York Sun. The headlines said more about the mindset of the people reading the report than they did about the long-awaited investigation by the U.N. commission of inquiry on the conflict in western Sudan. The 176-page document provided a litany of misery and blamed the government in Khartoum. But to many readers, it appeared to have let Sudan's leaders off the hook by not branding their actions as genocide, as the Bush administration and U.S. Congress had already done. It's not as though the report gave Sudan a seal of approval. It detailed extensive atrocities authorized by the Sudanese government and carried out by Janjaweed militias. Its authors concluded that the government and militias conducted "indiscriminate attacks, including killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement throughout Darfur." They added that the government's brutal campaign had displaced more than 1.5 million people. But for many news editors and readers, one conclusion overshadowed all the rest: There was no genocide in Darfur, after all. In considering whether and where to intervene, one question has assumed talismanic significance: Is it genocide? In the words of judges on the international tribunal for Rwanda, genocide is the "crime of crimes." Such a finding has become a signal for the world to act. But as the Darfur report shows, genocide is an unreliable trigger. For all its moral power, genocide is both hard to document and linked to questions of race, ethnicity and religion in a way that excludes other -- similarly heinous -- crimes. Intended as a clarion call, the term itself has become too much of a focal point, muddling the necessity for action almost as often as clarifying it. Few issues have been more important in the last decade than reacting to the bloody civil conflicts that still haunt many parts of the globe. The current film "Hotel Rwanda" hammers audiences with the tale of the world's shameful failure to stop the 1994 Rwandan massacres. Looking to the genocide label to motivate international intervention in places like Rwanda, however, overlooks two sad truths: Widespread slaughter can demand intervention even if it falls outside of the genocide standard. And the world is quite capable of standing by and watching even when a genocide is acknowledged. To a remarkable extent, the term genocide was the product of one man's work. As Samantha Power recounts in her recent book " 'A Problem From Hell': America and the Age of Genocide," Raphael Lemkin placed the term into public discourse and international law through sheer willpower. A Polish Jew who narrowly escaped the Nazis, Lemkin was instrumental in drafting and winning support for the 1948 Convention on the Prevention of Genocide. He wanted a law that captured the unique horror of a concerted campaign to deny a specific group's right to exist, and that is what he got. In international law, genocide is a crime of specific intent -- it requires that the guilty parties intended to destroy all or part of an ethnic, racial, national or religious community. Identifying that intent can be a difficult struggle. In 1995, Bosnian Serb forces killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the besieged town of Srebrenica. It was Europe's worst massacre since World War II. But when the U.N. tribunal finally got hold of one of the Bosnian Serb generals who had been at Srebrenica, it found him guilty only of aiding and abetting genocide -- not actually committing it. "Convictions for genocide," that court said, "can be entered only where intent has been unequivocally established." Try as they might, the prosecutors in that case could not document the Serb officer's intent. If getting inside the mind of the killers is one complication, identifying and classifying the victims is another. The commission investigating Darfur, for example, immersed itself in the details of local tribal structures as it tried to puzzle out whether the victims of that conflict fit under the definition of genocide. "The various tribes that have been the subject of attacks and killings," the report conceded, "do not appear to make up ethnic groups distinct from the ethnic group to which persons or militias that attack them belong." Only after lengthy analysis did the authors conclude that the victimized population in Darfur was a different tribe and therefore a "protected group." But they were still unable to identify the intent needed to show genocide. Documenting genocidal intent and determining whether the victims are part of a protected group eats up time when time is of the essence; a few weeks of concentrated violence killed more than 800,000 people in Rwanda. Waiting for the lawyers to decide is perilous, as became apparent once again when the Sudan commission released its report. To many observers, it appeared that the U.N. experts were downgrading the Darfur crisis when it was really struggling -- in good lawyerly fashion -- to meet a high evidentiary burden. Perversely, the intense focus on genocide has allowed a U.N. report that documents widespread atrocities to serve as moral cover for continued official lethargy. The United States has been the leading player in diplomatic efforts in the Sudan, but has not pushed as aggressively as it could for sanctions. Europe -- and France, in particular -- has talked a good game but done little. Russia and China, both U.N. Security Council members, have made only the weakest gestures of concern. And so staunching the bloodshed in Darfur has been left to a small, ill-equipped force from the African Union (A.U.), a regional economic and security organization. There is an alternative to this intense focus on genocide. The category of "crimes against humanity" -- first used to describe the massacres of Armenians after World War I and then codified at the Nuremberg trials -- is simpler and broader but still morally powerful. It encompasses large-scale efforts to kill, abuse or displace populations. It avoids messy determinations of whether the victims fit into the right legal box and whether the killers had a sufficiently evil mindset. Do we really care, after all, whether the victims of atrocities are members of a distinct tribe or simply political opponents of the regime? Moving beyond what has by now become a warped diplomatic parlor game (who will say the G-word first?) would have the added benefit of shifting the debate from the abstract to the practical. The word genocide may be too powerful for its own good. It conjures up images of a relentless and irrational evil that must be confronted massively. It is almost paralyzing. We are used to fighting crime; genocide seems to require a crusade. There are small but concrete steps that the United States could take to fight the mass killings and crimes in Darfur, without sending a U.S. combat force. The most critical step would be to bolster the African Union force there now. For almost a decade, the United States has sought to strengthen Africa's ability to tend to its own crises. That effort -- and tens of thousands of lives -- are on the line in Sudan. The A.U. has promised a force of almost 3,500 troops, but only about half of them have arrived. Getting those soldiers to Darfur fast may require airlift capacity that is a U.S. specialty. And the fragile A.U., which is struggling to bear the costs of the Sudan operation, needs immediate cash infusions. Both the United States and Europe have pledged funds, but they have been slow in coming. The Darfur Accountability Act, introduced in the U.S. Senate last week, calls for increased aid to the A.U. force, as well as a military no-fly zone and a tight arms embargo. It's a start. If the government in Khartoum gets in the way, the Security Council should impose tough and targeted sanctions. And if China and Russia get in the way of the Council, the United States and Europe should act without it. The United States and Britain (which has gone furthest in discussing a deployment) should send their own small tripwire force to accompany the African monitors. Some of these measures may require a U.S. policy that borders on unilateralism. But this administration has not shown undue patience with or deference to the often dysfunctional and amoral U.N. Security Council -- and there's no reason to start now. As Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld put it in another context, "the mission defines the coalition." And the mission of fighting crimes against humanity must be a central one, as it was in Bosnia and Kosovo and should have been in Rwanda and at an earlier stage in Sierra Leone. Realities, not labels, should define our response. The word genocide, rightly, has a unique moral impact. But the concept -- and the interminable debate about its boundaries -- must not become the issue. When the world chooses to immerse itself in terminology rather than take action, it does today's very real victims no good at all. Author's e-mail: dbosco@carnegieendowment.org David Bosco is a senior editor at Foreign Policy magazine.

HRW 7 Mar 2005 U.N.: U.S. Seeks to Delay Justice for Darfur Annan Convenes Security Council; ICC Referral Needed Now (New York, March 7, 2005) – After its meeting today with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Security Council should take urgent steps to protect civilians in Darfur and refer the situation to the International Criminal Court, Human Rights Watch said. Meanwhile, the United States has proposed a 45-day delay in taking a decision on justice for Darfur’s victims. Today at 10 a.m., Annan will convene a meeting with the Security Council to discuss options for more decisive action to stop ongoing killing and rape in Darfur. Twelve of the Security Council’s 15 members are on record in support of referring Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC) as part of a Sudan resolution that is currently under negotiation. However, the Bush administration opposes an ICC referral because of its ideological aversion to the court. The United States has instead proposed creating a new ad hoc tribunal for Sudan that has serious flaws, Human Rights Watch said. In the face of no support for this proposal, the United States is now seeking a 45-day delay to make a decision on accountability. Human Rights Watch would oppose any attempts to split the Sudan resolution in order to defer justice for later consideration. “As killing and rape continue in Darfur, the United States now proposes further delay,” said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. “The Bush administration’s rearguard campaign to avert an ICC referral is putting innocent civilians at risk in Darfur.” Eyewitnesses in South Darfur recently told Human Rights Watch about how government-backed Janjaweed militia attacked villages in the Labado area in December and January, and singled out young women and girls for rape. Male relatives who protested were beaten, stripped naked, tied to trees, and forced to watch the rape of the women and girls. On January 25, 2005, a U.N. Commission of Inquiry for Darfur strongly recommended that the Security Council refer the situation to the ICC to hold accountable those most responsible for atrocities in Darfur. Although the U.S. government has publicly called the crimes in Darfur “genocide” and indeed sponsored the resolution that created the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, it has ignored the commission’s findings that the ICC is the “single best mechanism” and “only credible way” to ensure justice is done. “Twelve of the Security Council’s 15 members want the ICC to start investigating crimes in Darfur,” said Dicker. “Washington’s proposed delay would send the message that the council is unable to call to account those most responsible for committing atrocities in Darfur.” Human Rights Watch has prepared a backgrounder detailing why the U.S. proposal for a Sudan Tribunal would fail to effectively handle the challenges of ensuring justice for atrocities committed in Darfur. Excerpts from the U.N. Commission of Inquiry’s report also discuss why mechanisms other than the ICC are not advisable.

Tanzania - ICTR

Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne) 9 Mar 2005 The Issue of Ethnicity `Never Arose' At Road Blocks, Alleges Witness Arusha The thirteenth witness in defence of the former Rwandan minister of Family and Women Affairs, Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, denied that road blocks mounted across Butare prefecture (South Rwanda) during the 1994 massacres were meant to check ethnicity of the citizens. Nyiramasuhuko is on trial for genocide, with five other persons from her native prefecture of Butare at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). "In all the road blocks, the issue of ethnicity never arose," the witness, known as WKNNC1 to protect his identity, told Trial Chamber Two. The witness was responding to the President of the Chamber, Judge William Hussein Sekule of Tanzania. The Judge asked if such an issue was never raised as he was going back home from Butare town to his native Gikongoro prefecture in April 1994. The prosecution holds that during the massacres, road blocks were mounted throughout the country by Rwandan armed forces and the Interahamwe militia to net Tutsis and moderate Hutus who were the target of the massacres. WKNNC1 elaborated that when one came across a road block soldiers would take your identity card and check if the picture corresponded with the actual face of the owner, cross check the region where you came from and where you were heading for. Earlier during the examination in chief by Nicole Bergevin, Canadian lead counsel for the accused Nyiramasuhuko, the witness denied that he heard the accused ordering abductions and rapes of Tutsi women in Butare. Last week another defence witness who preceded this witness, code-named WKNKI, gave a similar denial when asked about the orders. WKNC1 said that he was in Butare town between April 16 and 26, 1994 but denied seeing Nyiramasuhuko and her son and co-accused, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali. The trial continues Wednesday. Other defendants in this trial are two former prefects of Butare, Sylvain Nsabimana and Alphonse Nteziryayo and two former mayors, Joseph Kanyabashi and Elie Ndayambaje. They all pleaded not guilty on all charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. The trial commenced on June 12, 2001. The case is before Trial Chamber Two presided over by Judge William Hussein Sekule (Tanzania) . He is assisted by Judge Arlette Ramaroson (Madagascar) and Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda.

AP 15 Mar 2005 6 YEARS FOR GENOCIDE ROLE A United Nations tribunal sentenced a 60-year-old former local government official to six years in prison, its lightest sentence so far, after he pleaded guilty to committing crimes against humanity and apologized for his role in the 1994 genocide. He was just the fourth person to plead guilty and was accused of directing Hutus to kill thousands of Tutsis who had sought refuge in a church in western Kibuye Province. The court has convicted 21 people and acquitted 3 since it was set up in November. Currently, 25 people are on trial with 18 others waiting.

Zimbabwe see South Africa

Americas

Argentina

March 8, 2005 O.A.S. to Reopen Inquiry Into Massacre in El Salvador in 1981 By IAN URBINA ASHINGTON, March 7 - The Organization of American States will reopen an investigation this week into the massacre of hundreds of peasants in 1981 at El Mozote, El Salvador, based on new forensic evidence found by anthropologists at the site, according to lawyers involved in the case. More than 800 unarmed peasants were killed in December 1981 by soldiers from the Salvadoran Armed Forces at El Mozote, a village in the mountains of the Morazán region, near the country's southern border. The soldiers, from a battalion trained and equipped by the United States, accused the peasants of sympathizing with guerrillas. The O.A.S. is looking into whether the Salvadoran government approved the killings. The decision to revisit one of the most gruesome events of the country's 12-year conflict will come as unwelcome news to the Salvadoran government, which has never conducted an independent and impartial investigation of its own. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a division of the O.A.S., is conducting the investigation. Recent efforts by lawyers in El Salvador to reopen the case, which was shelved in 2000, had repeatedly failed, even after a court ruling that year stripped protection under the national amnesty law from suspects in the most egregious human rights violations. "They say that we should put this behind us," said Rufina Amaya, the only resident of El Mazote known to have survived. "But we cannot forget what happened." The evidence in the case comes from the work of an Argentine team of forensic anthropologists that completed its work in 2003. "What we found proved to be highly consistent with witness testimony of the incident," said Mercedes Doretti, a member of the forensic team. She said 811 people were killed at El Mozote and surrounding hamlets. Most of the 271 bodies that the group exhumed were shot multiple times at close range, and 195 of them were children younger than 12, she said. "The families of the dead have struggled for years to get justice," said Alejandra Nuño, a lawyer from the Center for Justice and International Law, an organization based in Washington that is representing many of the families of the dead. "This case may finally provide us what we've been unable to get from our own government." The reopening of the case could hurt the candidacy of Francisco Flores, president of El Salvador from 1999 to 2004, for secretary general of the O.A.S. Mr. Flores is running against José Miguel Insulza, Chile's interior minister, and Luis Ernesto Dérbez, Mexico's foreign minister. The election will be held by the end of March. If the Commission on Human Rights finds enough evidence tying the Salvadoran government to the killings, the case will go to the Inter-American Court. Though it is unlikely that the court's decision would result in jail time for those involved, the court could demand that the government conduct an investigation of the incident and require payment of reparations to the families of those who died or disappeared. At the time, Salvadoran officials denied reports of the massacre, first published in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Hoping to avoid a Congressional halt to aid to the Salvadoran military, officials of the Reagan administration also dismissed the reports. Families seeking justice in American courts for atrocities during the war have met with limited results in recent years. On Monday, a State Department spokeswoman said she could not comment on the reopening of the investigation into El Mozote until it was officially announced.

BBC 7 Mar 2005 Spain seeks 9,138-year jail term - Scilingo's trial is the first for crimes against humanity in another country Spanish prosecutors have requested a prison sentence of 9,138 years for an Argentine ex-naval officer accused of crimes against humanity. Adolfo Scilingo, whose trial started in mid-January, faces 30 counts of genocide, 30 of murder, 93 of physical injury and 255 of terrorism. The crimes were allegedly committed in the "Dirty War" of the 1970s/80s when Argentina was under military rule. This is Spain's first trial involving human rights crimes committed abroad. "The government seeks a guilty verdict as it believes that charges have been duly backed up at the trial," said prosecutor Dolores Delgado in the closing arguments at the National Court in Madrid. Mr Scilingo, 58, now denies the charges. But in 1997 he went to Spain voluntarily and testified before Judge Baltasar Garzon, who was investigating crimes committed during Argentina's and Chile's military dictatorships. 'Subversive mentality' In a taped confession, Mr Scilingo spoke of the so-called "death flights", in which dissidents were stripped naked and thrown alive into the ocean from military planes. He admitted taking part in two flights and spoke of other tortures committed at the Buenos Aires Navy School of Mechanics, which was used as a torture centre at that time. Mr Scilingo later retracted his confession, saying his testimony was fabricated in order to prompt an investigation into the atrocities committed under the regime. But Ms Delgado said the descriptions of tortures and torture centres, with their "infernal sounds" and "nauseating smell" made by victims, coincided fully with those made by the former officer. "Scilingo had a need to talk and be judged, and that has been proved in the trial," she said. Mr Scilingo also described how the children of pregnant detainees were taken away for adoption to prevent them from "falling into the subversive mentality of their parents". According to human rights groups, up to 30,000 political opponents were kidnapped, detained and later executed between 1976 and 1983. Under Spanish law, prison terms cannot exceed 40 years, but for convicted members of Basque separatist group Eta it is not uncommon to be handed down sentences of hundreds or even thousands of years.

Edmonton Journal 5 Mar 2005 www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal Massacre changes political tone Deaths of RCMP officers fuel tough talk against crime, overwhelm other issues Graham Thomson The Edmonton Journal Saturday, March 05, 2005 More Columns By This Writer :: Lots of blame for ambulance fiasco :: Dinning pops up at premier occasions :: Throne speech overtaken by events :: Klein Air: Catering to ministers on a mission or flights of fancy? :: Goodale took politically-efficient road :: Only public inquiry will lift pall It might yet become a huge political issue in the spring session of the Alberta Legislature, but nobody is willing to talk about it -- yet. The murder of four RCMP officers in Mayerthorpe is still too fresh, too confusing, too horrific. But the Alberta Liberals have already subtly suggested they're waiting to pounce on the government. On Thursday, when word first reached the floor of the Assembly about an "incident" involving the RCMP and gunfire near Mayerthorpe, Liberal Bruce Miller expressed his respect and concern for the police. Then added: "Now is not the time to talk about issues that we must face in the future, like the underfunding of our police service in Alberta and dealing with gangs." Was underfunding an issue in this shooting? Or gangs? Everybody has a theory. Almost nobody has the facts. Grief is clouding the air. Put them all together and you get the makings of an uneven political debate. That can be a dangerous thing. Emotionally driven debate is the political equivalent of running with scissors. About all we know for sure as I write this is that four officers were slaughtered. One police officer murdered is a tragedy. Four is a calamity. Something, somewhere in the system failed. And that makes it political. Already politicians at the provincial and federal levels are talking about getting tougher on crime. "I am more committed than ever towards the dismantling of organized crime in every region of this province. In the immediate future I will be presenting a strategy to my government colleagues that will address this issue," said Alberta Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko, a former police officer himself who looks and sounds like he hasn't slept a wink since he got word of the shootings. Some politicians are calling for tougher laws on guns or marijuana. But was a marijuana grow op the catalyst here? How do you stop criminal cop-haters from getting guns? Federal Liberals gathered in Ottawa for their first policy convention in five years heatedly debated the government's marijuana decriminalization legislation. At the same time, some politicians are wondering if legalizing marijuana would be a way to put the grow ops out of business. Everything seemed much simpler and more innocent just a few days ago when the big issues were the use of government aircraft, more money for post-secondary education and the grizzly bear hunt. As recently as Wednesday morning, we all thought the United States border would be reopening to live Canadian cattle this coming Monday. Premier Ralph Klein was planning to attend an "Open the Border Celebration" today in Cochrane. On Wednesday afternoon, a U.S. judge bolted the border shut before it even had a chance to open. Klein complained about the politically driven unfairness of it all. Of course, we have our man in Washington, former energy minister Murray Smith, who is referred to now as our "envoy" to the U.S. capital. But what he is doing, or what he can do, is still a bit of a mystery. What isn't a mystery is the level of animosity developing in the legislature between the government Conservatives and the lone Alliance MLA, Paul Hinman. On Thursday, the Conservatives refused to give Hinman unanimous consent to respond to Klein's ministerial statement on the border closure to Canadian beef. In the past the Conservatives have allowed opposition MLAs without official party status to respond to ministerial statements as a courtesy. But Hinman is neither well liked nor well respected by many government members. Some accuse him of showboating and want him taken down a peg. Others are still upset he defeated Broyce Jacobs, an MLA popular in the Tory caucus. They are not sympathetic to Hinman's fight for more time in question period. Hinman will be lucky to get one question a week because he's deemed to be a simple MLA with no party status. Hinman wants one question a day. The opposition Liberals and New Democrats would be happy to see Hinman get more floor time because the right-wing Alliance is more a threat to the government than it is to the centre-left parties. Interestingly, there was a simmering debate among Tory MLAs earlier this week whether it's better for them to keep Hinman on a short leash or give him enough rope in question period to hang himself with his right-wing views. That debate seems like something out of a different era -- a time when the $7-billion BSE crisis seemed to be coming to an end and four RCMP officers had yet to pay a visit to what seemed to be a quiet farm near Mayerthorpe.

Chile

IPS 10 Mar 2005 Bank to compensate victims Inter Press Service. Mar 10, 2005 Activists and relatives of the victims of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-90) praised the accord reached in late February between the Riggs National Bank, based in Washington DC, and Spanish lawyer Joan Garcés, in the framework of the legal process Spain is carrying out against the former dictator for genocide, terrorism, torture, robbery of goods and money laundering. Garcés, lawyers for plaintiffs in the cases against Riggs Bank and Pinochet in Spain agreed with the financial entity to hand over "background documents of the movements of the accounts of the accused Augusto Pinochet" to Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, who is hearing the case against him. "We believe that the accord is very important, above all because Riggs Bank pledged to hand over all the information that it possesses on Pinochet's accounts," said Viviana Díaz, secretary general of the Grouping of Families of Detained Disappeared, which Garcés represents in Spain. Riggs also pledged to donate US$9 million to the President Salvador Allende Foundation, based in Spain, which will be distributed to among the victims. In return, Garcés withdrew the criminal lawsuit against the bank's owners and other officials who appear as co-signers of the former dictator's accounts. In July last year, a Senate report revealed that between 1996 and 2002 Pinochet held between $4 million and $8 million (LP, Aug. 25, 2004) in the bank. On Jan. 27 Riggs acknowledged its responsibility in having hidden Pinochet's accounts.

Deutsche Welle 11 Mar 2005 www.dw-world.de Former Nazi Pedophile Nabbed in Argentina Old and wheelchair-bound but glaringly guilty -- Paul Schäfer German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Friday hailed the arrest of former Nazi Paul Schaefer in Argentina and said he hoped it would shed light on alleged child sex abuse at a shady sect he led in Chile. Paul Schäfer, 83, was arrested in the community of Tortuguitas, a town 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of Buenos Aires along with six people described as his security team, Argentine police said. Schäfer was the charismatic leader of a notorious German enclave in southern Chile called "Colonia Dignidad." He has been hiding since a warrant for his arrest on multiple counts of pedophilia was issued in August 1996. Schäfer was convicted of the charges in November 2004 along with 22 other Dignidad members. "The arrest of Paul Schaefer is good news," Fischer said. "His arrest will allow a comprehensive investigation all the criminal activities in the former Colonia Dignidad to be carried out and punishments to be handed down." Argentine Police Commissioner Alejandro Dinisio told AFP that Schäfer carried no identification documents and refused to speak at the time of his arrest. He added that police had been on his trail for six months. Television reporters mobbed Schäfer as an agent pushed the elderly suspect on his wheelchair into a provincial police station. Schäfer was shown on television handcuffed and smiling, and holding a bottle of soda. Officials said he could be transferred to Buenos Aires as early as Friday. Child abuse and cultic practices A former corporal and medic in Hitler's Nazi army, Schäfer fled Germany to Chile in 1961 to avoid child sexual abuse charges. He established the self-sufficient Colonia Dignidad, also called "Villa Baviera," in the mountains near the city of Parral, some 350 kilometers (218 miles) south of Santiago along with other German immigrants. Surrounded by barbed wire and electric fences and protected by barricades, the community, populated largely by Germans, adhered to a strict discipline and remained cut off from the rest of Chile. A mixture of cultic practices such as exorcising devils and psychological terror were said to rampant in the sect. In 1996 a number of former residents testified that Schäfer systematically abused the colony's young children, many of whom were taken from the parents at birth. Accusations of forced labor and other forms of maltreatment also surfaced at the time. A torture center and school Chilean officials also want Schäfer in connection with torture during the 1973-1990 Pinochet dictatorship. The colony apparently served as a torture center for the Chilean secret service as well as a torture school where former Gestapo and Nazi officers gave lessons. Investigators say that political prisoners, including former leftist leader Alvaro Vallejos Villagran -- arrested by Pinochet agents in May 1974 -- vanished after being sent to Colonia Dignidad. A former member of Pinochet's secret police gave testimony stating that he knew Vallejos Villagran was taken alive to Dignidad. Schäfer and the colony are believed to have enjoyed Pinochet's protection right until the end of his dictatorship in 1990. Disappearance of professor Police also want to question Schäfer about the 1985 disappearance of Boris Weisfeiler, an American Jewish mathematics professor of Russian origin. Investigators believe Weisfeiler was picked up by a military border patrol while he was backpacking in the region on suspicion of being a spy and dropped off at Dignidad. Weisfeiler's sister Olga said there were reports by Dignidad residents of seeing him alive up to two years later. Schäfer's arrest on Thursday sparked relief among the present residents of the colony. About 300 people, mainly Germans, still live there. "I believe, we're all happy here today. I definitely am -- we had to suffer too much," one of them told Chilean television. To accelerate Schäfer's departure, the Chilean interior minister asked his Argentine counterpart to kick him out of Argentina and avoid going to court to ask for an extradition, which could delay the case with appeals. Officials praised the joint action on Thursday by Argentine and Chilean police which led to Schäfer's arrest. "We are proud of this arrest," said a justice spokesman in Santiago de Chile. "We expect that Paul Schäfer will have to face two charges as soon as possible: one for sodomy against a child and the other for the disappearance of Alvaro Vallejos Villagran."

Colombia

AP 3 Ma4 2005 UN calls for full probe of massacre in Colombia BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A United Nations official has demanded a full investigation of the massacre of eight civilians amid accusations Colombian soldiers carried out the brutal killings, in which the victims were hacked to pieces with machetes. The massacre was one of the most horrific in Colombia's brutal war. The eight victims, including three young children and a teenage girl, were buried on a farm in northwest Colombia. A former mayor and a priest have blamed government troops for the massacre. "The authorities have the great challenge of finding out what happened,'' Amerigo Incalcaterra, a top member of the United Nations human rights office in Colombia, said Thursday in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. "Those who are responsible must be brought before the courts, no matter who they are.'' Incalcaterra, an Italian, visited the region where the massacre occurred and said members of a "peace community'' - whose leader Luis Eduardo Guerra was one of those killed in the Feb. 21 massacre - are terrified that more bloodshed will occur. Hours after the U.N. official visited the community on Wednesday near the town of Apartado, a convoy of Colombian prosecutors protected by police came under gunfire on the same road, killing one of the policemen and critically wounding another. Incalcaterra said that attack must also be investigated, adding that the situation "is very delicate.'' In the interview, he drew no conclusions about who may have been behind the massacre and the attack on the convoy, saying it was up to prosecutors. "There is a sickness about the people who carried out this horrific crime,'' Incalcaterra said. "There is no justification for it.'' Colombian Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe earlier denied that army troops carried out the massacre, saying no soldiers were in the area at the time. The area is controlled by the army's 17th Brigade. Last month, 19 members of the 17th Brigade were killed in a rebel ambush. A cleric who has been close with residents of the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado said Thursday that they believe the army carried out the massacre in retaliation for the rebel ambush, suspecting that the guerrillas had infiltrated the community. The cleric, interviewed by the AP, did not want to be identified by name for security reasons. The archbishop of Apartado, German Garcia Isaza, condemned the massacre and in a statement called for a rigorous investigation, saying "this blood that has been spilled screams for justice.'' Also killed in the massacre were Guerra's wife, his son and five other residents of the peace community, which tries to isolate itself from Colombia's 40-year-old conflict by barring armed groups from entering. Colombia's war pits the U.S.-backed government forces against two leftist rebel groups. Outlawed right-wing paramilitary forces have also been battling the rebels. Gloria Cuartas, the former mayor of Apartado, located 280 miles (450 kilometers) northwest of the capital Bogota, and Jesuit priest Javier Giraldo have accused army troops of carrying out the massacre. Cuartas said she does not trust local authorities enough to file a complaint with them. She said other killings have been carried out with impunity because of the failure of prosecutors to bring the perpetrators to justice, and that the army is often involved. Apartado is located in Uraba, a sweltering banana-growing region near the Panamanian border that is a strategic corridor for running drugs and guns to Central America. "The army in Uraba has no moral authority to defend and protect the population,'' Cuartas told the AP in a telephone interview. Incalcaterra said prosecutors from the capital, who would be more independent, should carry out the investigations.

IPS 7 Mar 2005 Tension Over Massacre Mounts Constanza Vieira BOGOTA, Mar 7 (IPS) - The tension between the Colombian government and the small San José de Apartadó Peace Community, in that country's northwestern banana-producing region, continues to mount. The people of the peace community say army troops were staked out in their village last week after killing eight local residents, including three children and two women, on Feb. 21. But the villagers have refused to give their testimony on the massacre to prosecutors, because they do not trust the justice system. More than 146 members of the peace community have been slain since 1997, and not a single case has ever been clarified. In addition, many witnesses who testified in the past have been killed. "We have a right not to live with the victimisers. We need the army to leave San José. Now they are around our houses, our schools, our children," says a communique released Friday by the community, which is home to around 1,300 campesinos (peasant farmers). The peace community, created by 350 campesinos in March 1997 with the backing of the Catholic Church, declares itself neutral in Colombia's armed conflict, and bars the presence of any armed factions or weapons. The community accuses the army of the Feb. 21 massacre in which eight people were killed, one of whom was the leader of San José de Apartadó. "We are urging the Colombian state to maintain no armed presence in our settlements and our places of work. This situation puts us at extreme risk because it turns us into military targets," adds the statement. The community asks the same of the other factions -- the right-wing Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary umbrella and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) -- fighting for control over the conflict-torn region of Urabá, which borders Panama. The community added that if the Colombian state persists in its harassment, the residents would be forced to flee, joining the roughly three million Colombians who have been forcibly displaced by the country's four-decade armed conflict. On Feb. 21, the community's 35-year-old leader Luis Eduardo Guerra was tortured and killed, along with his young wife and his 11-year-old-son. Another family was also killed, including the two children, aged five years and 18 months. A campesino who happened to be passing by was shot and killed as well. Several of the bodies had been hacked to pieces with a machete. Guerra represented the peace community in contacts with the government and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which in October 2000 ordered that precautionary measures be taken to protect the community. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which also forms part of the Organisation of American States (OAS) system, had also called for precautionary measures, in December 1997. Guerra had met three times with Vice-President Francisco Santos, who personally promised to ensure that measures were taken to guarantee the security of the peace community. In a hearing before the Inter-American Court, to take place Mar. 14 in the capital of Costa Rica, the Colombian government will be asked to demonstrate what actions it has taken to ensure the safety and lives of the residents of San José de Apartadó. The report produced by a fact-finding commission consisting of 100 villagers, which was set up by the peace community to investigate the Feb. 21 massacre, blamed the killings on the army's 17th Brigade. Several officials have denied that the army was involved, or that it was even present in the area. Others have said they will await the results of the legal inquiry. But the state prosecutors sent in to investigate the murders came up against two walls. One was built by the local residents, brick by brick, and bears the names of each of the 146 villagers killed since March 1997, when the area was declared neutral in the civil war. The other was a wall of silence. The community is standing by a position it took publicly last year -- to break off all ties with the legal system, since none of the 146 murders have been clarified, and no one has been brought to justice. When the prosecutors demanded their testimony, the campesinos responded that they would only speak before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The community condemned an attack last week on the investigators and prosecutors, apparently carried out by FARC, along the road that links the village of San José and the town of Apartadó, 12 km away. One of the police officers guarding the convoy was killed in the ambush. "The human rights prosecutor in Bogotá called me and told me I should be in his office right now. I told him no, that I am conscientiously objecting and will not go," said Gloria Cuartas, who was mayor of Apartadó at the time the peace community was created. "The community of San José has already said it will not testify anymore in a country where testimony is manipulated, witnesses are bought, people are paid to talk about others, and evidence is obstructed," she told IPS. After Cuartas accompanied the community's fact-finding commission to the areas where the bodies were found, she received death threats by telephone. A driver who agreed to transport the bodies on Feb. 26 from the Apartadó cemetery to San José, where a wake was held, was also threatened. Summoned to testify by the public prosecutor's offices of Apartadó and Medellín (the capital of Antioquia, the province where the peace community is located), Cuartas responded: "I will not give any statement to any member of this country's legal system." "Experience has shown that during eight years of denunciations, the testimony of the victims was always sought, but not that of the victimisers. And in all of the legal complaints we filed, those who did testify were threatened or killed," she said. "On Mar. 9, 2004, after we provided 220 pieces of evidence and testimony implicating General Rito Alejo del Río (former commander of the 17th Brigade), the investigation was brought to a halt. Many of the people who spoke out against the general were killed," said Cuartas. The villagers met last Wednesday with a United Nations delegation that visited the site of the murders, which included the head of the Colombian office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Roberto Meier, and Amérigo Incalcaterra, assistant director of the local office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. With the help of Catholic priests, the peace community has documented in detail and publicly denounced all human rights violations of which its members have been the targets. The community pointed to that thick file in response to the accusation, made by President Alvaro Uribe himself in May 2004, that it was "obstructing justice". "Uribe is present in the origins of the history of the peace community," Jesuit priest Javier Giraldo, who was assigned by his order to work closely with the people of San José de Apartadó, told IPS. The right-wing Uribe, in office since August 2002, served as governor of Antioquia from 1995 to 1997. "When people began talking about resisting and creating neutral communities, Uribe suddenly showed up at a me