Africa

Algeria

BBC 4 Jan 2001 Algerian violence flares Soldiers have been battling rebels for several years Up to 15 people are reported killed in the latest two attacks blamed on Islamic rebels in Algeria, according to local press reports - the latest casualties in a wave of violence lasting several weeks. The reports say 11 soldiers were killed in an ambush on a military convoy, in the Batna region 435km (270 miles) east of Algiers on Wednesday Four members of the same family had their throats cut in the second reported attack, which occurred in Laghouat, 400km (250 miles) south of Algiers. Neither attack has been officially confirmed. If all media reports are correct, then 23 people have now died in sectarian violence in Algeria since the beginning of the new year. Fierce fighting The latest reports come amid fierce fighting between government soldiers and Islamic militants, in two areas known as rebel strongholds. The daily paper El Watan reported that crack troops who have been employed against the militants had killed 30 of the rebels over the last three weeks. The newspaper reported no casualties on the government side, but said the campaign against the rebels was continuing. Violence during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan - which ended on 27 December - left more than 300 people dead, most of them civilians.

BBC 19 Jan 2001 Algerian attack leaves 23 dead - President Bouteflika's attempts to end the violence have failed By Caroline Hawley in Cairo Twenty-three people are reported to have been killed in a new massacre in Algeria. Residents of the north-western area of Chlef told the French news agency that the killings took place in an isolated hamlet on Thursday night. Those killed were part of a community of farmers and herders. People in the area say 17 people were killed when a group of armed men attacked their village. They say the bodies of six others who had been kidnapped were found later. The massacre followed an attack on Tuesday in which 12 people died. Armed men shot at their vehicles at a roadblock. Residents say the victims were also attacked with knives and that some were set on fire. Reconciliation failed A string of recent massacres in Algeria has left President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's efforts to end the violence in shreds. In 1999, he offered a conditional amnesty to armed Islamists as part of a much touted civil reconciliation programme. That expired almost exactly a year ago. It was followed by a lull in the violence that lasted several months and ended in the summer. The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when the extremists traditionally step up their struggle, brought a brutal new upsurge in December, and it is still going on. At least a 100 Algerians have been killed already this month

BBC 20 Jan 2001 Algerian president under pressure - Bouteflika offered amnesty to some Islamic militants By Middle East analyst Roger Hardy Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is coming under increasing attack for what many see as the failure of his policy of national reconciliation. More than 100 people have been killed so far this year in Algeria in a wave of violence that seems to doom President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's efforts to promote national reconciliation. At least 23 people were killed in a massacre on Saturday in an isolated hamlet of farmers and herders in the north-western Algeria, according to residents. For a decade, the country has been wracked by a violent conflict between the security forces and armed Islamic groups, but when Mr Bouteflika came to power in 1999, he promised to end the violence and usher in a new era of national harmony. New era promised During his first months in power, President Bouteflika enjoyed a remarkable honeymoon. Security forces have been fighting Islamic militants since 1992 He offered an amnesty to some of the Islamic militants who'd been fighting the army since 1992 -- and more than 5,000 militants laid down their arms. Algerians badly wanted to believe this was a turning point in a conflict which had claimed 100,000 lives. Abroad, too, the president - a former foreign minister - launched a charm offensive, improving Algeria's relations with the West and even with its former colonial master, France. Media criticism But the violence has gone on, even though nowadays the Western media seldom report it - and Mr Bouteflika has recently come under a barrage of media criticism for the failure of his much-trumpeted policy of national reconciliation. In a move which has provoked much speculation, one of his predecessors, Chadli Benjedid, has broken a long silence and given interviews justifying his actions in the run-up to what's widely known as the "coup" of 1992 - when the military pushed President Chadli aside and cancelled elections the main Islamist party was poised to win. Some see Chadli's rehabilitation as a warning to Mr Bouteflika from the country's powerful generals that they, and they alone, can make or break an Algerian president. Whispering campaign The generals gave the green light for Mr Bouteflika to become president in 1999. But now it seems some of them - irritated by his tendency to pursue his own agenda rather than theirs - may be orchestrating a whispering campaign against him. As the political manoeuvring continues in the opaque world of Algerian politics, most Algerians look on with a feeling of alienation and helplessness.

BBC 28 Jan 2001 Algerian militants kill 25 More than 100,000 have been killed since 1992 Algerian rebels have reportedly killed 25 villagers, including 16 children and four women, in the country's worst massacre this year. They cut the throats of 25 people from two extended families Hospital doctor The killings are said to have taken place on Saturday night at El Guetaibia village, in the province of Chlef, 135 miles (220 km) west of Algiers. "They cut the throats of 25 people from two extended families," a doctor at a hospital in the area told Reuters news agency. The doctor and other officials at the hospital quoted relatives of the dead as saying the radical Islamic Armed Group (GIA) carried out the attack. He added that a 20-year-old woman had been abducted. The massacre brought the number of killings in Algeria this month to more than 90. More than 100,000 people have died since 1992, when the GIA began an armed insurgency following the cancellation of a general election in which radical Islamists had taken a commanding lead. Renewed attacks A BBC correspondent says that after a lull last year, village massacres and attacks against travellers on country roads have returned to terrify the residents of western and central areas of Algeria. Much of the violence against civilians is blamed on the GIA, a network of militants which operates out of the mountains in the western provinces. Hundreds of GIA members surrendered more than a year ago to take advantage of an amnesty offered by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The president had launched what he called a civil concord initiative, which now seems to be in tatters. In recent weeks, Mr Bouteflika has been facing a fierce campaign of criticism in the press and even by parties in the government coalition. Critics allege that his amnesty has encouraged the armed militants to increase their attacks without fear of punishment. Atmosphere of crisis However, observers say the real reason for the criticism is that relations are tense between Mr Bouteflika and the powerful army officers who put him in his position. The president has been trying to increase his influence by appointing those loyal to him in key positions. The mounting violence and the rumours of disputes at the top are now creating an atmosphere of crisis, something which Algerians thought they had left behind when Mr Bouteflika came to power.

Burundi

BBC 29 Dec 2000 Burundi massacre blamed on Hutu rebels The army in Burundi has accused Hutu rebels of killing at least twenty civilians in an attack on a bus and another vehicle near the capital, Bujumbura. At least twenty other people were injured in the attack on Thursday, in which the two vehicles were stopped at a barricade and then attacked with machine-gun fire. The bus was on its way from Kigali in Rwanda to Bujumbura. A Burundi military spokesman Colonel Longin Minani said the Hutu rebels were deliberately attacking civilian targets rather than taking on the army.

BBC 3 January, 2001 Mother calls for massacre inquiry The mother of a Briton killed near the Burundian capital Bujumbura has called for the UK Foreign Office to treat it as a war crime and ensure a proper investigation is held. Charlotte Wilson, 27, and her Burundian fiancé were "executed" along with 19 fellow passengers when their bus was ambushed near Kilima, 18 miles north west of the capital. Margot Wilson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This was a political crime. If you're just stealing from people you don't then systematically shoot them all." Ms Wilson called for tighter controls over the supply of arms to the region "to make sure guns don't get into these extremely ruthless and undemocratic killers' hands". British people and the British Government have been doing some work out there that we can all be extremely proud Charlotte's brother, Richard Wilson "The gun that killed her could have come from Britain because we are a major supplier of arms," she said Charlotte's brother, Richard, added: "If there are people out there wondering if there is anything they can do, the first thing you can do is find out as much as you can about Rwanda and the region in general. "British people and the British Government have been doing some work out there that we can all be extremely proud of and it is important that we are all aware of it." A Foreign Office spokesman condemned the attack and reiterated its advice that British nationals should not travel to Burundi. Charlotte had been working with the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) as a science teacher at Shyogwe secondary school in neighbouring Rwanda since September 1999. She was due to complete her placement in June. A further 20 people were injured in the attack. Most of the victims, including several women and children, were in their late 20s or early 30s from Rwanda and Burundi making what was seen as a routine journey south across the border from the capital Kigali. A Rwandan woman who escaped the massacre said the bus overturned before being surrounded by a gang of armed men. I began begging them to spare my life and my child's Survivor The woman said: "We were asked to lie down on the concrete road. "When they voiced their intention to kill us, I began begging them to spare my life and my child's." The Burundi Government has blamed Hutu guerrillas for the shootings. Minister of Interior, Asension Twagi Ramungu, said the ambush was a tragedy for Rwanda and Burundi and called for stronger international action against the Hutu rebels. Ms Wilson is the latest in a line of Britons to lose their life because of conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in east Africa. Four Britons were among eight tourists who were murdered with machetes and hammers, shot and raped by Rwandan Hutu rebels in Uganda's Impenetrable Forest in March 1999.

DR Congo

BBC 5 Jan 2001 Congo's forgotten war Lendu villagers use bows and arrows in self-defence By Chris Simpson from eastern DR Congo The hospital at Rethy in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo takes in a steady flow of war-wounded civilians. "They come from a radius of 150km," explains the head of nursing. "There will be people who have been shot, others who have been stabbed in the throat or the abdomen. I can say that from over 1,000 people we have treated here, over 45% will have died". In a nearby building, local officials show off shells, mortars and other war debris, all collected during the past year's fighting. The war in the north-eastern region of Ituri has claimed thousands of lives, but has gone largely unreported. Vicious conflict The main combatants are not regular armies, but rival militias, supposedly representing the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups. The conflict has been marked by vicious massacres and pogroms on both sides. Whole villages have been burned to the ground. Communities which once lived side by side are now fiercely polarised. Humanitarian agencies estimate that over 200,000 people have been displaced inside Ituri, with thousands crammed into ad hoc camps and settlements, facing hunger and disease. Conflict origins The origins of the war are heavily disputed. Patients travel as far as 150km to reach Rethy hospital According to Hema spokesman André Muhito Kasongo, the Hema have been fighting against "a campaign of extermination" led by Lendu extremists. He says that Hema cattle-grazers and land-owners have become a source of envy and resentment for rival Lendu farmers, who tend to be small-scale cultivators. Mr Kasongo says the Hema have fought a war of self-defence. "The only thing we could do when we were attacked was to flee." But Lendu community representatives say the conflict has been stoked by an unscrupulous Hema elite, intent on appropriating vast swathes of lucrative farmland. The Lendu maintain they have long been victims of discrimination, defined as second-class citizens under the Belgian colonial regime and mistreated by successive Congolese administrations. While there had been sporadic outbreaks of violence in the past, the current conflict began in June 1999 and appears to be strongly linked to problems within the Congolese rebellion. Ugandans blamed Ituri is nominally controlled by one of the Congolese rebel factions, the Congolese Rally for Democracy - Liberation Movement (RCD-ML). About 200,000 are thought to have been displaced Led by veteran academic, Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, the RCD-ML is an offshoot of the main, Rwandan-backed RCD. Having moved from Goma to Kisangani, RCD-ML is now based in Bunia, close by the border with Uganda. But the rebel movement's authority has been undermined by splits and faction-fighting and it appears to have little real power. Wamba dia Wamba has faced two coup attempts from his deputies and has accused Ugandan military commanders of plotting his downfall. Anyone who has any ounce of responsibility has to do everything they can to ensure the worst doesn't happen RCD-ML official Jacques Depelchin Congolese critics say sections of the Ugandan military have played a key-role in fuelling ethnic tensions in Ituri, forming tactical alliances with Hema politicians, supplying soldiers to fight against the Lendu and looking for a large stake in the local economy, buying up gold and timber concessions. Uganda denies the accusations. According to a senior Ugandan commander in Bunia, "our soldiers are here to protect Uganda's own security interests and keep the peace". Tension The RCD-ML has attempted to heal the Hema-Lendu rift, establishing peace commissions and encouraging dialogue. The area offers gold and timber concessions But rebel official Jacques Depelchin warns the war may not yet have run its course. "Anyone who has any ounce of responsibility has to do everything they can to ensure the worst doesn't happen". While tentative grassroots peace initiatives are under way again, tensions remain high. At villages near Rethy, Lendu residents produce bows-and-arrows. "We normally use these for hunting, now we use them for self-defence," a man explains. Lendu villagers now regard Hema villages just a few kilometres away as "no-go" zones. What we are doing at the moment is simply a drop in a bucket Oxfam's Anneke Woudenberg In Bunia, Hema victims of the war explain why they cannot return to their burned-out homes. They complain bitterly about the lack of security. The prevailing insecurity in Ituri has forced several relief organisations to leave the province. Oxfam's Programme Representative for Congo, Annke Van Woudenberg, says Ituri's problems are particularly severe given the scale of the fighting and the disruption it has brought. But she stresses they are part of a more generalised breakdown in Congo which the international community has failed to address. "The whole of Congo in terms of humanitarian issues has become what we call a forgotten emergency. There is so little money going to what is fast becoming one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in the world. What we are doing at the moment is simply a drop in a bucket".

AFP 12 Jan 2001 Thousands flee ethnic clashes in eastern DR Congo By Anna Borzello RWEBISHENGO, Uganda, Jan 12 (AFP) - Some 5,000 civilians fleeing bloody ethnic clashes in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC) have arrived in western Uganda, with harrowing stories to tell. The refugees are from the pastoralist Hema tribe, whose members have been fighting the agriculturalist Lendu tribe over land disputes since 1998. The recent clashes in DRC's Ituri province broke out on Sunday. Although their disputes are longstanding, the ethnic conflict has intensified during the country's two-and-a-half year civil war, which has provided a steady flow of weapons into the region, and further ravaged a poor local economy. Thousands of people have died and more than 100,000 have been displaced, according to the United Nations. The Hema who arrived this week in Uganda also drove some 15,000 long-horned cattle into the plains of Rwebishengo in Uganda's Bundibugyo district, officials there told AFP. Many of the refugees fled fighting in the DRC border village of Ngabu, which was attacked early Wednesday by a group of men armed with spears, arrows and guns, they said. The recent fighting, which has killed an unknown number of people, continued until Thursday. Some of the injured who crossed into Uganda were being treated in local clinics. At one such clinic in Rwebishengo, a 12-year-old boy lay on a pillow soaked with blood from a machete wound on his head. In the next room, an injured woman lay still after having lost four children and her husband in the attack on Ngabu village. One man described how a woman had a child strapped to her back snatched and chopped with a machete. Another man said he had seen two corpses on the ground with arrows sticking out of them. "The injured were hit with pangas (machetes) and arrows. There are six injured here " said one of the clinic staff, Kwizera Wilberforce, producing two arrows that had been pulled from the bodies of the wounded. At the town's trading centre, Congolese customs officials stood around pick-up trucks which carried goods from across the border, which is marked by the shallow, fast-flowing River Semilike. "We ran away because of the war between the Balega (also known as the Lendu) and the Hema," said Patrick Mbuyi, who works at the Buguma Immigration Post. "The raiders came from the mountain. First they went to Nyankunde, then Bugoro, then Kapuru, and then Buguma. We saw them advancing. They were men and were in civilian clothes and had arrows and bows. They killed very many people," Mbuyi said. The Ugandan army crossed into Ngabu on Wednesday to quash the violence and remained stationed inside the DRC, officials on the Ugandan side of the border said. Ngabu village was now calm, the added. But the deep hatred between the ethnic groups remains. "The Lendu do not like the Hema because we have the cows and the Lendu are farmers and they are poor," a refugee whose two wives and four children were killed at Ngabu told AFP. Another refugee said: "Whenever the Lendu see that the Hema have produced too many children they kill us to reduce our numbers. "They are now using guns which they have never used before," said the refugee, who arrived from Hivale in eastern DRC after hearing rumours that the Lendu were about to attack. Several refugees said it was the first time the Lendu were armed with guns, and that they believed the attackers had been bolstered by the Mai Mai traditional warriors, along with Ugandan Allied Democratic

BBC 22 Jan 2001, Massacres in eastern Congo Tension over land distribution has led to conflict About 200 people have died in brutal ethnic massacres in the past few days in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Vehicles went around town parading cut off heads that had been spiked on sticks rebel official Jacques Depelchin Rebel officials said that severed heads had been paraded around Bunia on the border with Uganda after violence erupted on Friday between the Lendu and Hema groups. "Vehicles went around town parading cut off heads that had been spiked on sticks - it was horrible," rebel official Jacques Depelchin told Reuters news agency. Officials say most of the dead have been taken off the streets and buried in mass graves. Tensions Tensions between the Hema and the Lendu, who share fertile land close to the Ugandan border, have existed for many years, but appear to have been exacerbated by the wider war in the country. According to a number of reports, Lendu warriors armed with spears and arrows attacked the town's airstrip and radio station on Friday. Gangs of Hema youths armed with machetes responded by attacking Lendu civilians on the streets and in their homes. "There have been a lot of revenge killings. Many houses have been burnt down, entire families have been killed," Mr Depelchin said Ethnic tensions between the Hema and Lendu have existed for decades. The Hema are traditionally pastoralist, while the Lendu are mainly farmers. No Kabila connection The two communities have periodically fought over fertile land. Our East Africa correspondent says the outbreak of violence is not connected to the killing last week of President Laurent Kabila in the capital, Kinshasa, but the traditional hostilities have been exacerbated by the two-and-a-half year old war. Some local aid workers accused the Ugandan army, which is backing rebels in the area, of stirring up trouble by giving support to the Hema. This is denied by Uganda. A statement by the Ugandan government says extra troops have been deployed to restore order in Bunia.

BBC 22 Jan 2001, 200 dead in Congo ethnic fighting Reports from the Democratic Republic of Congo say about two-hundred people have been killed in fresh fighting between two rival ethnic groups in the north-east of the country. The clashes are between the Hema and the Lendu, who've fought periodically over fertile land close to the Ugandan border. The reports said Lendus attacked the airstrip and the radio station in the town of Bunia with arrows and spears last Friday. Hemas, carrying machetes, then retaliated. The reports speak of brutal killings, with people burnt alive and severed heads displayed on sticks. The violence is not connected with last week's killing of President Laurent Kabila in the capital Kinshasa, but a BBC correspondent in the region says the traditional hostility between the groups has been exacerbated by the country's civil war. CONGO: Massacres in Ugandan-Controlled Areas Museveni Urged to Discipline Ugandan Troops in Bunia (New York, January 22, 2001) -- The Ugandan government must be held responsible for the security of the population and humanitarian workers in areas under its control in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Human Rights Watch said today. On January 19, rival Lendu and Hema militias killed at least one hundred and fifty civilians in the northeastern Congo town of Bunia. Uganda is one of six foreign governments that have intervened in the civil war in the Congo (DRC) where its troops now control a sizable portion of the northeast. "Foreign troops should not be taking sides in Congo's civil war," said Alison Des Forges, consultant to the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. "But if they are there, they should certainly not be complicit in attacks against civilians. The perpetrators should be apprehended and punished." The outbreak of violence does not appear to be connected to the recent death of Congolese President Laurent Kabila and the transition of power to his son, Joseph Kabila. But it does further destabilize northeastern Congo at a time of uncertainty in the capital of Kinshasa. Militia of the Lendu and affiliated Ngiti people attacked near the Bunia airport at dawn, carrying to the provincial capital the violence which has taken scores of lives in villages to the south of Bunia in the last three weeks. One of their objectives was apparently to disable a Ugandan helicopter which had been used to attack them in the earlier conflicts. The militiamen, who attacked with bows and arrows and spears, were driven back by the Ugandans using heavy weapons. The Lendu and Ngiti militia then attacked Hema families in several residential areas, killing more than fifty and wounding another twenty. In reprisal killings later in the day, Hema militia wielding machetes searched houses in Lendu areas and killed more than one hundred people. Representatives of humanitarian organizations were reluctant to go to the assistance of victims because extremists have recently accused them of taking sides in the dispute or even of supplying arms to one of the rival groups. Some local observers believe that Ugandan support for the Hema, a local minority group related to the Hima of Uganda, has aggravated the long-standing ethnic conflict. According to early reports from local residents, Ugandan soldiers at first did nothing to stop the January 19 attacks and their commanding officer, Col. Edison Muzoora, failed to respond to pleas to halt the killing. Bunia residents belonging to none of the rival groups finally intervened to stop the slaughter. Only then or shortly after did Ugandan soldiers begin patrolling the streets to restore order.

HRW Jan 2001 Background to the Hema-Lendu Conflict in Uganda-Controlled Congo Human Rights Watch, January 2001 In the past two years, Ugandans have recruited and trained both Hema and Lendu to serve in the forces of the Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement (RCD-ML), a rebel group which is backed by Uganda and which nominally controls this area. Within the last year, however, at least some Ugandan officers have reportedly favored the Hema: In June 1999 Brigadier General James Kazini, then commander of the Ugandan People's Defence Force (UDPF) in the Congo, ignored objections of the RCD-ML and created a separate province of Ituri with Bunia as its capital. He named a Hema to head the new administration. The installation of the new governor coincided with an outbreak of violence between Lendu and Hema [see below], with the Lendu and others seeing Uganda and the RCD-ML as increasingly committed the Hema. In the months of violence that followed, an estimated 7,000 persons of both groups were slain and 200,000 fled their homes. Investigatory commissions named by the RCD-ML and the local administration concluded in late 1999 that UDPF soldiers had done little to contain violence in areas under their control and that several of them had actively helped Hema attack Lendu. Although the Ugandan government has denied these accusations, it has reportedly begun judicial proceedings against one captain accused of having given such assistance. Even as the extent of the Hema-Lendu conflict became clear, UPDF soldiers continued to train recruits from both sides. More recently the Lendu trainees are said to have deserted the RCD-ML forces to fight instead in locally based militias. At the end of 1999 the RCD-ML replaced the Hema governor of Ituri by a person from neither of the rival groups. In the following months, the ethnic fighting diminished but it revived several weeks ago after Col. Muzoora named a Hema as interim head of the province and placed the governor named by the RCD-ML under house arrest. The colonel later "deported" the deposed governor to Kampala, where Ugandan authorities continue to hold him without explanation. The Lendu attacked Hema first in Nyankunde, a village south of Bunia where Col. Muzoora had recently visited with the new Hema appointee. Lendu militia then attacked Hema in other villages south of Bunia, killing scores of people and driving some 8,000 across the border into Uganda. Ugandan troops intervened to end this fighting. During this period leaders of the RCD-ML, locked in a struggle for power, have been in Kampala at the request of Ugandan authorities, trying to settle their differences. The Congolese politicians failed to come to an agreement until earlier this week when the RCD-ML factions supposedly reconciled and agreed also to combine with the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) into a new front against the Congolese government. Jean-Pierre Bemba of the MLC was supposedly to head the new group, the Congo Liberation Front (FLC). But Professor Wamba dia Wamba, head of the RCD-ML, balked at this agreement which he said was "imposed" by Uganda. In Bunia, Wamba and his group are seen as more allied to Lendu and other groups opposed to the Hema. The other RCD-ML faction reportedly celebrated the merger, seeing it as confirming the status of their leaders, one of whom is a prominent Hema. In a January 19 statement, Bemba blamed "undisciplined" rebels supporting the Lendu for the violence. He asserted that his troops, presumably meaning the RCD-ML forces supposedly now under his authority, would soon restore order. Suliman Baldo, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch who returned from the region last month, warned of the gravity of the situation in Bunia. "What makes these attacks so dangerous," said Baldo, "is the way the two groups are now identifying with the Hutu-Tutsi categories that figured in the Rwandan genocide. The Lendu are now thinking of themselves as kin to the Hutu, while the Hema are identifying with the Tutsi. The two groups have competed for control of the land for a long time, but these identifications and the connection they have to genocide threaten to transform the struggle into something far more devastating." The Lendu, who number some 700,000 in the area, live primarily from their crops while the Hema, about 150,000 people, rely on both cattle raising and cultivation for their livelihood. The two ethnic groups share a similar language and have regularly practiced interethnic-marriage. Human Rights Watch called upon both the United Nations and donor countries with influence in Kampala to do everything possible to persuade President Museveni to restore discipline among his troops and to assure accountability for any killings and other abuses against civilians in northeastern Congo.

NYT 29 Jan 2001 Congo's War Turns a Land Spat Into a Blood Bath By Ian Fisher BUNIA, Congo, Jan. 24 — The head was hacked off a young man who was quite small, witnesses said. It was then skewered on the tip of a spear and paraded on the back of a white pickup truck, only five days before, around the streets of this city in northeastern Congo. Soldiers on the truck sang a soccer anthem. "You doubted we could win," they sang. "But now you see." This went on for several hours, as 250 or more people were hacked or shot to death in a resurgence of ethnic violence between the Hema and the Lendu, the two main groups here. Finally, a Congolese commander told the soldier with the spear it was time to bury the head. "In any family — say of 10 children — one or two will be a little odd," said the commander, Sion Malekera, fumbling to account for his soldier's behavior. "I was horrified. I have never seen anything like that." What is happening here, awful enough on its own, does not bode well for the rest of Congo. What began as a local dispute over land has now become entangled in Congo's larger two-and-half-year civil war — and thus, experts say, has been raised a frightening notch. Politicians and businessmen apparently see something to gain in taking sides. There is now no government in this region — and so no local authority to prevent everyday tensions in a very poor place from exploding. And the de facto rule by outsiders, in this case Uganda — one of five outside nations with troops regularly in Congo — seems to only fan the flames. These conditions exist, in varying degrees, all around Congo. The fear — heightened by uncertainty around the assassination this month of President Laurent Kabila — is that other parts of Congo where order has already been breaking down will also erupt into violence, as Bunia has sporadically done since June 1999. "We are reaching a situation where the soil is so thin that it may crumble beneath them, and we will see a crumbling of Congo," said Suliman Baldo, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch who recently visited Bunia and wrote a report on the situation here. "I fear for the worst." It is hard to imagine much worse here, only a higher body count. "Cover me," a 9-year-old boy, Ngudjolo Bulo, asked his mother in a small, stone-walled room at a hospital with 20 beds, each filled with someone shot or hacked on Jan. 19. The boy's left hand was chopped off completely, along with most of the right, apparently as he tried to shield himself from his attackers' blows with machetes. Bandages cover deep machete gashes on his face. He is the second born of five children, and the only one who survived. He happens to be Hema, but even more Lendu died during the fighting. "These patients can recover but they will be scarred forever," said the doctor, Jean-Norbert Ngadjole. "This is a political problem. They are exploiting the tribal side of things so they do not expose the other side. "Before, all the tribes — Hema, Lendu, Ngiti — lived together," he added. "But since the war began, it has gone to the other extreme." No one knows how many people have died since the conflict between the Hema and Lendu, who have feuded for decades over land and other resources, erupted into violence two years ago. But most here agree that the number of dead is several thousand. There is also general agreement that it began in 1999 as a local dispute over a farm in Djugu, north of Bunia. The allegations are that the farm's owners, who are of the Hema, seen as richer than the Lendu, sought to expand their reach into land owned by Lendu. The disputes broadened, and for several months in late 1999 and early last year they battled viciously, killing hundreds of people in single attacks. From the start, two aspects of the larger war in Congo have been at play. The first is the weakening of local government as a mediator of such disputes as the Ugandan military effectively took control of northeastern Congo in August 1998. Then, Uganda and Rwanda began backing rebels to overthrow Mr. Kabila. The second is the role of Ugandan soldiers themselves: human rights groups and aid officials allege that rich Hema have hired rogue Ugandan soldiers to drive Lendu from their land, in some cases killing them. Uganda has essentially conceded that point by replacing commanders and removing soldiers accused in the disputes. And their move, along with other political changes, eased tensions considerably after the first wave of killings. But in the last several months the conflict has become embedded in the larger war, people here say, inflaming passions and raising the stakes of even the smallest dispute between individuals from each group. "It's different from the first fighting, which was more about land," said Alidor Mwanza, the editor of a local newspaper, who wandered around Bunia on Friday photographing dozens of bodies. "Now it seems to be more political." What has happened is that the Hema and Lendu have found themselves on opposing sides in an internal power struggle within the rebels here, who are controlled by Uganda. The Hema have sided with two mutinous rebel officials, among them a leading Hema businessman, John Mbogemu Thibasima. And the Lendu have sided with the rebel group's longtime leader, Ernest Wamba dia Wamba. Each side accuses the other's leaders of manipulating ethnic hatred for personal power or financial gain, though it is unclear to what extent that is true. In any case, the situation was not helped when Uganda called the feuding leaders to its capital, Kampala, after a coup attempt against Mr. Wamba dia Wamba in November — leaving no local government at all. "Since November there is political confusion here," said one aid official. "No government. No ministers. Nothing." Officials here say a breaking point came when rumors circulated recently that Uganda had decided to replace Mr. Wamba dia Wamba with the Hema leader. It was then, officials say, that the Lendu essentially declared Uganda an enemy and gave up on any negotiated end to the dispute. On Jan. 19, before dawn, more than 100 Lendu warriors, armed mostly with spears and machetes, attacked the airport here, the main center for Ugandan troops. At the same time, other Lendu warriors attacked villages north of Bunia. When word reached Bunia itself, which is largely Hema, vigilantes went to kill any Lendu they could find. That was when the head, apparently of a young Lendu man, appeared on the spear paraded around the dusty streets of Bunia. "I washed my hands and I said: `God, I have never seen anything like that since I was born,' " said McLambert Isaiah Lutula, 29, an artist and sign painter here. "When I remember what they did, I don't want to eat anymore." The carnage was terrifying: Ugandan military officials told United Nations officials that they had killed 84 Lendu who attacked the airport. Mr. Mwanza, the newspaper editor, said he himself counted 48 Lendu dead — many mutilated — near another military encampment and another 12 Lendu in the market. Both sides committed atrocities: in a village called Soleniema north of Bunia, residents said Lendu fighters hacked about 24 people to death, many of them women and children. At least 30 houses were burned to the ground, on both sides. "We can't understand what happened," said Jackson Dunji, 37, a motorcycle repairman in town and a Hema (and whom the Lendu accuse of being a prolific killer of Lendu). "We were just sleeping in our beds." The worst of the reprisal killings of Lendu were in the Muzibela neighborhood of Bunia, where people from both groups lived before the attacks. A woman named Mbure Dzusu, 18, said Hema warriors beat her and her sister with sticks and tossed them into a latrine. Her sister died. But she lay in the filth for a day, until Congolese Red Cross workers burying the dead arrived and found her. In the end, Mr. Mwanza, the editor, tallied up 159 Lendu who died and 118 Hema — a number that aid officials said seems roughly correct. Another 30,000 people have fled their homes on both sides, aid officials say, on top of the 120,000 already displaced from the earlier fighting. The question of what happens now has no easy answer in the absence of peace or a regular government. The onus, though, is on Uganda: aid groups and the United Nations are urging Uganda not only to step in to stop the killings but also to appoint neutral government officials. "They are the people controlling the area," said Col. Simon Caraffi, the chief of staff for the United Nations mission to Congo, who visited Bunia this week. "That is clear." For their part, the Ugandans are adamant that they are completely neutral, and deny allegations from Lendu and some aid officials that they did not act quickly enough to stop the killings. "We are stopping each side from finishing each other," said Col. Edison Muzoora, the Ugandan military commander of the area. Meantime, the hospitals are full of the war's victims — and for all the tension, Hema and Lendu are nursing their wounds in the same rooms. At Rwankole Hospital, a Lendu teacher, his head battered, whose brother died beside him, lay on a mat recovering not 10 feet from a 2-year- old Hema boy, his cheek split by a machete from his mouth to his ear. "This hospital is too small," said the administrator, Oku-Onzi Dada. "We have no choice but to put them together. It's better that way. They can get used to it."

Nigeria

BBC 31 Jan 2001 No end to Christian-Muslim tension - Religious conflict in Nigeria has led to vicious riots By Barnaby Phillips in Gusau, Nigeria One year on there is no sign that enthusiasm for Sharia law is waning. Thousands of Muslim men gathered in Zamfara's capital Gusau to celebrate the first anniversary of the introduction of an Islamic legal code, or Sharia. It includes punishments such as stoning to death, amputation and flogging. According to the Muslim's in Zamfara, it is the fear of these punishments which have already made for a better society. Sharia is the only way out of corruption Muslim man in Gusau "Sharia is the only way out of corruption," one man told me, "anything that you feel is evil, when it comes to Sharia, it is like you wash it, you clean it, so it will clean the minds of our leaders and the followers." Tension high For the Christian community these are nervous days. Christians were always a tiny minority, but the Anglican Bishop of Gusau, Simon Bala, says their numbers have dwindled in the past 12 months, because of the fear of Sharia. "It has affected the numerical strength of my Church in particular, because some of the members of my Church who felt insecure because of the introduction of Sharia have left. "And because they have left the numerical strength has reduced and the financial strength of the Church has reduced". The fear stems from events elsewhere. Attempts to introduce Sharia in the neighbouring state of Kaduna - with its much larger Christian population - led to terrible bloodshed last year. At least 2000 people died in fighting between Christians and Moslems. Zamfara itself has remained peaceful. Religious freedom? The Governor, Ahmed Sani, has been at the forefront of the Sharia revival, but he says he has no intention of harming Christians. "They have total freedom. We don't in anyway attempt to tamper with their religious freedom. As far as we are concerned each religious group should be able to practice fully its own religion." The problem is that Governor Sani's interpretation of complete religious freedom for Muslims does, in itself, encroach on the freedoms of other peoples. The Christians have been suffering... and will continue to suffer Christian priest Men and women - of all faiths - are now prohibited from sharing public transport in Zamfara. Boys and girls are taught in separate schools. The sale and consumption of alcohol has been banned. More radical Christians in Zamfara, such as Father Linus Awuhe, say their people have taken enough. "The Christians have been suffering here in the north and will continue to suffer, until the Christians themselves stand up and assert their own identity and their own rights, and tell the Muslims 'This is where there is a demarcation - you don't come within this terrain.'" VIP visit The spiritual head of the Anglican Church Archbishop George Carey is due to visit Zamfara on a tour of Nigeria. He will be entering something of a minefield. Christians in the north will be disappointed if he is not seen to be standing up for them. Whilst the Moslem authorities will not take kindly to lectures from a visiting Western clergyman. The Nigerian government, eager to heal divisions between the two faiths, will be keeping a nervous eye on his progress.

Tanzania

Monday, 29 January, 2001,New head of Rwanda genocide tribunal The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has appointed a new registrar for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which tries cases connected with the 1994 genocide. He's Adama Dieng from Senegal, who replaces the Nigerian, Agwu Okali. The tribunal, which is based in Arusha in Tanzania, is charged with trying key suspects in the Rwandan genocide, during which more than half-a-million ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. The tribunal has secured the arrest of forty-four people and convicted seven. From the newsroom of the BBC World Service Nigeria BBC 9 January, 2001, 14:32 GMT
Nigeria : Ethnic clashes over oil revenues Reports from Nigeria say at least twenty people have been abducted and believed killed after ethnic clashes between communities in the oil rich southern Rivers State. Local newspaper reports said the violence erupted involving three groups -- the Ke, the Krakrama and the Bille -- competing for the siting of lucrative oil pumping stations. A regional police commander was quoted as saying that the situation in the region had been deteriorating over the past week. He said waterways had been blocked by armed youths, some of them wearing camouflage uniforms and using what he described as sophisticated weapons. Correspondents say disputes between communities over the siting of oil facilities in the Niger Delta region are quite common.

Americas

Costa Rica

Tico Times (Costa Rica) 8 Dec 200 Suspected Nazi War Criminal Ordered to Go By Lauren Wolkoff Tico Times Staff After living 16 years in Costa Rica, suspected Nazi war criminal Bhodan Koziy has been officially ordered to leave the country by a recent appeals court order. In giving Koziy his walking papers last week, the judges finalized a government decision emitted last February and dismissed an earlier appeal filed by the Ukrainian-born suspect's legal counsel. However, judicial sources said that Koziy, 78, could still appeal to the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) to avoid leaving, or at least prolong his stay here. Attorney Ademar Alfaro — a retired employee of Costa Rica's Judicial Branch who is now part of the legal team representing Koziy -- told The Tico Times this week that the lawyers have filed a motion with the appeals court seeking to clarify certain fundamental points. "There were some issues with the mechanics of the decision that were not clear," said Alfaro. For example, the expulsion order does not specify where Koziy is to go once he leaves Costa Rica, he said. Alfaro declined to say more about the case, or about the possibility of an appeal, saying he wanted to confer with the other lawyers. Koziy has lived in Río Segundo de Alajuela, roughly 20 km northeast of San José, since he was stripped of his naturalized U.S. citizenship in 1984. That citizenship — granted in 1956 because he claimed displaced-person status following World War II — was revoked by the U.S. Justice Department when officials determined that he had been an active member of the Nazi-run Ukrainian Security police and had participated in several murders during the war. As a police officer in the small town of Lysiec near the Carpathian mountain range in central Europe, Koziy was accused of shooting and killing a four-year-old Jewish girl and participating in the murders of more than 100 civilians. U.S. Justice Department officials told The Tico Times in 1985 that the evidence compiled against Koziy — involving videotaped testimony from witnesses to his alleged crimes — was "some of the strongest" presented to the department (TT, Aug.16, 1985). John Russell, of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, said Tuesday that his office has no role in the matter, because the case is entirely in Costa Rica's hands now. "Once he's out of the U.S., we don't care what he does," he said. His office is currently investigating roughly 200 Nazi war criminals thought to be scattered all over the world. Koziy, who has not spoken to the press in years, has all along maintained his innocence, claiming the allegations are a case of mistaken identity. Once, in 1987, he narrowly escaped being extradited to the former Soviet Union under the administration of former President and Nobel Peace laureate Oscar Arias. At the time, the Costa Rican government refused to accept a promise from the U.S.S.R. that Koziy would not be sentenced to death, a punishment that does not exist here (TT, Sept.11, 1987). He has lived here ever since under the rentista residency status. Arias, who was in Brazil this week, failed to respond to a fax sent to his hotel by The Tico Times seeking comment on the news. Fernando Durán, executive director of the Arias Foundation for Peace, said he supports the Arias administration's decision not to extradite Koziy to the Soviet Union in 1987 because of the death penalty issue. Stressing that he was not speaking on Arias' behalf, Durán also said he supports the current administration's decision to expel him, provided it was based on solid judicial information from here and the U.S. "If the Costa Rican authorities are certain that it is not a case of mistaken identity, then it is reasonable that they would make this decision," he said. Koziy's residency in Costa Rica has fueled both national and international letter-writing campaigns and protests over the years by Nazi-hunting groups that have tried to pressure the government to declare Koziy persona non grata. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading international Jewish organization, has been a main player in lobbying officials here to deport Koziy so he can be tried for war crimes by the Ukrainian government. "The decision of the Costa Rican court is a very positive step for justice, which we welcome with deep satisfaction as it marks the culmination of a 16-year battle to expel Koziy from Costa Rica," said the center's director in Israel, Efraim Zuroff, in a statement. "Now we will direct our attention to bringing him to trial, preferably in the Ukraine. . . so that justice can finally be achieved." Rabbi Hersch Spalter, of the orthodox Jewish congregation Beit Manachem, said he is "pleased, but not surprised" by the decision to oust the Ukrainian. "Justice has to be done. I don't see why people shouldn't accept that," he said. Some who have followed the case argue that Koziy has managed to maintain a relatively low profile here because he was not regarded as a "high-level" Nazi criminal. "If he had played in the big league, like [notorious Nazi war criminals] [Adolph] Eichmann or [Joseph] Mengele, it would be a different story," said Harry Wohlstein, a San José attorney who has been involved in the national campaign to expel Koziy. Wohlstein said that claims used to defend Koziy in the past, such as the fact that he is nearly 80 or that the war was a long time ago, have no merit. "This is not about vengeance; this man's life doesn't interest me at all," he said. "This is so people learn about the atrocities that happened so they can never be repeated." San José Archbishop Román Arrieta, one prominent national leader who intervened to prevent Koziy's extradition more than a decade ago and defended him ardently in the press, has since grown quiet. Arrieta said this week that he prefers not to comment on the matter, except to say that he is sure Koziy's attorneys are going to appeal. In 1994, Arrieta told The Tico Times that he was "absolutely convinced of Mr. Koziy's innocence," both from conversations with the accused and from other unspecified documents that proved to him that there was a confusion of identity (TT, June 10, 1994).

Colombia

BBC 6 Jan 2001 Twelve killed in Colombia massacre Colombian police say gunmen in the northwestern province of Antioquia have killed at least 12 peasants, two days after an alleged paramilitary massacre in the same region. State police commander Guillermo Aranda said residents in the village of Guatape were taken one by one from their homes by men in combat uniforms and shot in the head. They came murdering peasants... these people did not have anything to do with the conflict in which these outlaw groups are engaged. Police commander Guillermo Aranda Coronel Aranda said it was not yet known if the killings had been committed by rebels or paramilitaries. The authorities say they do not know who committed this latest killing. The authorities have blamed paramilitaries for Wednesday's attack in which 11 suspected guerrilla sympathisers were rounded up in the town of Yolombo and killed. Rebels and paramilitaries have been involved in intense combat for control of the area. Getting worse Police say they recorded 205 massacres in 2000, in which 1,226 were killed. Most of the killings were attributed to paramilitaries. According to the US-based group Human Rights Watch, paramilitary groups are responisble for 70% of the human rights abuses in Colombia, most of them massacres of unarmed civilians. Correspondents say the conflict - which in the last decade has claimed some 35,000 civilian lives - has intensified in recent months. Peace talks began two years ago between Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces (Farc), and the government, but were broken off two months ago by the guerrillas.

BBC 18 Jan, 2001 Colombian massacre: 25 dead Extra troops and police have been sent to Colombia's north-west coast to hunt for suspected right-wing paramilitaries who killed twenty-five people in one village on Wednesday. Witnesses said the gang raided the village, targetting those they accused of collaborating with left-wing guerrillas and setting houses on fire as they left. The killings came just days after the Colombian government announced it was setting up a task-force to track down death squads. The country's biggest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC, froze peace talks last November, accusing the government of not doing enough to tackle paramilitary groups.

Guatemala

BBC 9 Jan 2001 Guatemalan defence minister replaced The Guatemalan president, Alfonso Portillo, has dismissed the controversial defence minister, Juan de Dios Estrada, whose appointment led to widespread discontent within the armed forces. The new minister is General Eduardo Arevalo Lacs, who's been linked by human rights groups to a number of massacres during Guatemala's civil war, when he led counter-insurgency operations. General Arevalo will take office on Monday. Correspondents say the appointment is a further signal that Mr Portillo has lost ground to Guatemala's powerful military, a year after taking office with a promise to strengthen civilian control over affairs of state.

Mexico

BBC 12 Jan, 2001 Mexico court approves extradition Miguel Cavallo is currently being held in Mexico A Mexican court has ruled that an Argentine man can be extradited to Spain to face charges of genocide and torture allegedly committed during Argentina's military regime from 1976-1983. Miguel Ricardo Cavallo, a former lieutenant in the Argentine navy, is accused of committing crimes of genocide, terrorism and torture against left-wing opponents of Argentina's former military rulers. I hope Mexico gives us justice Mariana Masera Relative of one of the 'disappeared' Criminal Court Judge Jesus Luna ruled that Mexico should "concede international extradition of Ricardo Miguel Cavallo for trial for genocide and terrorism" as requested by Spain. The Mexican Government now has 20 days to decide whether to accept the recommendation and hand Mr Cavallo over to the Spanish authorities. Leading the investigation of Mr Cavallo is Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, who last year attempted to extradite Chile's former military ruler General Augusto Pinochet. Relatives approval Relatives of some of the thousands of people who disappeared during military rule in Argentina who were in court shouted their approval of the ruling. Only a few graves of the 'disappeared' exist "Assassin!" shouted a weeping Mariana Masera, whose father and grandfather died during the military regime. Human rights groups estimate that about 30,000 people were killed or "disappeared" in the Argentine military's war against left-wing guerrillas and their sympathisers. Many were tortured, drugged and thrown from aircraft into the River Plate or Atlantic Ocean. Mr Cavallo was originally arrested last August in the Mexican resort of Cancun after a newspaper accused him of being a former "Dirty War" intelligence agent who used the alias "Serpico". Question of identity Under this name, he allegedly ran the notorious Navy School of Mechanics in Buenos Aires, where many opponents of the military regime were imprisoned. Former members of the military cannot be prosecuted in Argentina However, Mr Cavallo says he has been the victim of mistaken identity, and instead claims to be a retired member of the Argentine marines. His lawyer argues that his client should be returned to Argentina, where he would likely not face trial thanks to an amnesty for alleged "Dirty War" participants. Argentina's President Fernando de la Rua has also said he is opposed to the extradition.

United States

BBC 1 Jan 2001 US signs up for war crimes court Nuremberg was the scene of the first international war crimes tribunal The United States has signed up to the world's first permanent international court to try those accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. The US move came only hours before the deadline after which no more signatures will be accepted. Israel and Iran followed suit. The US has a long history of commitment to the principle of accountability US President Bill Clinton President Bill Clinton said he had endorsed the international court in order "to reaffirm our strong support for international accountability and for bringing to justice perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity". But observers say other reasons include maintaining US leverage in defining the court's parameters and trying to set the agenda for his successor and the next Congress. Republican opposition Conservatives in the US have opposed moves to set up the court for fear that it might encroach upon US national sovereignty. Senator Jesse Helms, the influential Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described Mr Clinton's move as "a blatant action by a lame-duck president to tie the hands of his successor." The Senate must ratify the treaty for Mr Clinton's signature to be valid. The court will act much like the two temporary war crimes tribunals currently investigating the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the Yugoslav conflicts. Supporters of the project hope that, because the tribunal will be a permanent body, it will be able to deliver swifter justice than an ad-hoc one, and thereby act as a greater deterrent. Hold-outs sign Israel signed the treaty a few hours after the US did. A temporary tribunal is already investigating the Yugoslav conflict Israel's UN ambassador, Yehuda Lancry. said Israeli lawyers who had contributed to formulating the court's statutes "had in mind and in heart the memories of the Holocaust - the greatest and most heinous crime against mankind." The Israelis had been concerned that under the new court's jurisdiction, Jewish settlers in the occupied territories could be charged with war crimes. Iran also signed the treaty shortly before the deadline. Reservations Mr Clinton said he still had reservations about some aspects of the treaty, including the possibility that the court might not be able to exercise authority over countries that had not ratified the treaty. Hundreds of thousands died in Rwanda's 1994 genocide The president had come under pressure from defence officials not to sign until Washington had guarantees that no US servicemen or other government officials abroad would be subject to the court's jurisdiction. BBC correspondent Tom Carver says the move is certain to be criticised by conservatives, who fear the court could subject American citizens to politically motivated prosecutions. Based on Nuremberg The tribunal - which will be set up in the Netherlands and based on the principles of the Nuremberg Nazi war crime trials at the end of World War II - will come into existence automatically after 60 countries have ratified the treaty. So far, 139 countries have signed the treaty and 27 have ratified it. The United Kingdom, which signed the treaty in November 1998, is expected to ratify it within the next few months.

BBC 31 Dec 2000 Clinton's statement on war crimes court - Clinton still has concerns about the treaty President Clinton has authorised the US signing of a treaty to establish an International Criminal Court. The following is the text of his statement from Camp David. President Clinton: "The United States is today signing the 1998 Rome Treaty on the International Criminal Court. In taking this action, we join more than 130 other countries that have signed by the 31 December, 2000 deadline established in the Treaty. The US has a long history of commitment to the principle of accountability Bill Clinton We do so to reaffirm our strong support for international accountability and for bringing to justice perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. We do so as well because we wish to remain engaged in making the ICC an instrument of impartial and effective justice in the years to come. The United States has a long history of commitment to the principle of accountability, from our involvement in the Nuremberg tribunals that brought Nazi war criminals to justice to our leadership in the effort to establish the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Our action today sustains that tradition of moral leadership. Under the Rome Treaty, the International Criminal Court will come into being with the ratification of 60 governments, and will have jurisdiction over the most heinous abuses that result from international conflict, such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. In signing... we are not abandoning our concerns about significant flaws in the treaty Bill Clinton The treaty requires that the ICC not supersede or interfere with functioning national judicial systems; that is, the ICC prosecutor is authorised to take action against a suspect only if the country of nationality is unwilling or unable to investigate allegations of egregious crimes by their national. The US delegation to the Rome Conference worked hard to achieve these limitations, which we believer are essential to the international credibility and success of the ICC. In signing, however, we are not abandoning our concerns about significant flaws in the treaty. In particular, we are concerned that when the court comes into existence, it will not only exercise authority over personnel of states that have ratified the treaty, but also claim jurisdiction over personnel of states that have not. With signature, however, we will be in a position to influence the evolution of the court. Without signature, we will not. Signature will enhance our ability to further protect US officials from unfounded charges and to achieve the human rights and accountability objectives of the ICC. I will not, and do not recommend that my successor submit the treaty to the Senate for advice and consent until our fundamental concerns are satisfied Bill Clinton In fact, in negotiations following the Rome Conference, we have worked effectively to develop procedures that limit the likelihood of politicised prosecutions. For example, US civilian and military negotiators helped to ensure greater precision in the definitions of crimes within the court's jurisdiction. But more must be done. Court jurisdictions over US personnel should come only with US ratification of the treaty. The United States should have the chance to observe and assess the functioning of the court, over time, before choosing to become subject to its jurisdiction. Given these concerns, I will not, and do not recommend that my successor, submit the treaty to the Senate for advice and consent until our fundamental concerns are satisfied. Nonetheless, signature is the right action to take at this point. I believe that a properly constituted and structured International Criminal Court would make a profound contribution in deterring egregious human rights abuses worldwide, and that signature increases the chances for productive discussions with other governments to advance these goals in the months and years ahead.

BBC 6 Jan 2001 Reward offered for Rwandan suspects More than 800,000 are believed to have died The United States has offered rewards of up to $5m for information on the whereabouts of nine people indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR) who are still at large. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the rewards would be given for information which resulted in the transfer to the tribunal or conviction of those indicted. Former Prime Minister Kambanda: Convicted for genocide by the ICTR Mr Boucher said the international community must continue to do all it can to help achieve justice for the genocide which ocurred in Rwanda in 1994, when over 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists. The tribunal, which meets in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, holds in custody 44 of the 53 publicly indicted individuals for alleged war crimes. 'Useful means' "We applaud those successful efforts and we're launching this programme in order to support the tribunal further," said Mr Boucher. "We believe that the rewards will provide a potentially useful means to achieve the apprehension or voluntary surrender of the remaining indicted fugitives of the ICTR." Washington already has similar reward programmes for information on those accused of war crimes in the Balkans and those accused of the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa. The size of the rewards depends on the quality of the information - the largest amount ever paid so far was $2m.

Boston Globe 6 Jan 2001 Powell may pull 'special envoys' Career diplomats to pick up the job By John Donnelly, Globe Staff WASHINGTON - As part of a State Department shake-up, Secretary-designate Colin L. Powell is leaning toward abolishing about 70 special envoy positions as well as the War Crimes Bureau, according to department officials. The possible changes, among several to be instituted by Powell when he starts his job following Senate confirmation, are based on his belief that career foreign service officers have been underappreciated and underused for many years. US diplomats have high expectations that Powell not only will give them better jobs but also will bring more funds into the State Department, which now receives one-16th as much as the Defense Department. It was unclear whether Powell would eliminate such high-profile envoy positions as those held by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and George Mitchell, the former Senate majority leader. But two State Department officials, speaking on background, said that Powell wanted to instead use the talents of career diplomats for any similar duties. One official said Powell was dismayed to see that some of the envoy positions were given as political favors. On the War Crimes Bureau, a top priority of Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, Powell simply has less interest than Albright on the issue and believes that the duties could be assumed by other parts of the bureaucracy, department officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Some members of the current War Crimes Bureau have already been contacted by other parts of the department looking to fill vacancies. Other parts of the government, including the Justice Department, also have investigated war crimes suspects. Powell and a small team of close advisers have settled into the first floor of the labyrinthine State Department building, quietly holding dozens of meetings during the last two weeks with foreign service officers representing nearly every bureau. He first met with those specializing in Africa, a surprise to many given the lack of attention to the continent by George W. Bush during the campaign. F. William Smullen, Powell's longtime chief of staff and now a member of his inner circle for the transition, declined to comment on any prospective changes. He said the meetings were designed to include as many people as possible for the department's future direction. Powell has decided not to comment publicly until after his Jan. 16 confirmation hearing. ''What we are going to attempt to do is instill in these career officials a sense of importance, convince them quickly that they are important to him, and he will treat them like pros,'' Smullen said. ''I think you'll see Colin Powell popping in to all parts of the building where he is least expected.'' Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also has been briefed by members of two commissions that are studying the State Department - a Council on Foreign Relations task force and the US Commission on National Security in the 21st Century. Both groups are expected to release their reports soon. One sure conclusion will be that the bureaucracy is woefully underfunded. In 1950, the account for civilian foreign affairs totalled 16 percent of the government budget; today it accounts for 1 percent. Also in 1950, its budget was half of the military's budget. This year, the State Department receives $21 billion; the Defense Department receives $309 billion. ''People in the administration, Congress, and the population have to have some greater appreciation for the importance of diplomacy, and they have to understand it is not free,'' said Marshall P. Adair, president of the American Foreign Service Association, a union representing 11,000 active and retired foreign service officers. A White House official who has served in both the State and Defense departments said he believed Powell will be shocked at the poor condition of the State Department's information systems, among other things. ''He's going to order up some reports, and he'll find out the computers aren't working or something else is broken and he'll know it's no longer the good times,'' the official said. But broken-down equipment isn't the State Department's only problem, said Adair. Morale also is poor. ''People had gotten really pretty down in the last four years,'' he said. There are several reasons. One has been Albright's dependence on a tight circle of advisers. Another is the State Department's declining voice in several areas, as experts in the National Security Council and Defense Department have had greater access to President Clinton. ''The hope with Colin Powell is that someone who has spent his career in the military will be much less likely tempted like the others to do it all himself,'' Adair said. ''He recognizes the need to delegate.'' / This story ran on page A6 of the Boston Globe on 1/6/2001. /

Asia-Pacific

Afghanistan

BBC 19 Jan 2001 Afghan fears over UN sanctions - The Afghan people are worried that food prices will rise By Kate Clark in Kabul There is widespread confusion among Afghans as to what exactly the new United Nations sanctions will mean. The sanctions are designed to target the Taleban authorities, to try to force them to expel the Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, whom the Americans accuse of masterminding bomb attacks against them. It will drive people towards more extremist measures Chris Johnson, Strategic Monitoring Unit But that is not the way it is seen on the streets of Kabul. The public is afraid that sanctions will only make their lives worse. "Everyone's worried about the sanctions because prices will go up - maybe we won't be able to get flour or cooking oil," said one man. "Some people are saying the United Nations is going to stop their aid programmes, and that's made us worried that everyone will go hungry." Another man said the sanctions would bring only misfortune. "The UN should feel guilty about doing this," he said. "We've suffered enough and the economic blockade will mean nothing will be allowed into the city." Market panic Afghans mistakenly believe the UN is going to close the borders and withdraw its aid. More trauma and hardship - that is what Afghans are expecting from the international community. The UN wants to put pressure on the Taleban The UN insists its humanitarian work will go on and ordinary people should not be affected by the new measures. They include a ban on senior Taleban officials travelling abroad except for religious, humanitarian or peace process-related trips, the closure of almost all the Taleban's overseas offices, and a unilateral arms embargo which leaves the opposition still free to buy weapons. Only a ban on international flights would have a direct economic effect. But that has not stopped people worrying. The national currency, the afghani, is devaluing and people fear food prices will rise. In Kabul's money market, people are racing to sell local afghanis and buy dollars or Pakistani rupees. People's worry over sanctions is not surprising given the steady message from the mosques and the state-run media. The UN has been accused of hatching conspiracies against the Afghan nation and against Islam itself. "Sanctions like this have been imposed many times in the history of Islam and now they are being imposed again," said Taleban information minister Qudrat Ullah Jamal. "When the prophet was calling people to become Muslims, he faced many problems and restrictions. "He was forced to leave secretly for Medina and he was surrounded and blockaded by the opposition. "Now the sanctions are being imposed not because of anything that we have done, but because of the hostility that there is towards the Islamic system." 'Extremist measures' The feeling on the street is not so much anger as perplexity. Why, people ask, has the world abandoned the Afghan people? America's most wanted man: Osama Bin Laden Chris Johnson, the director of a Kabul-based research organisation, the Strategic Monitoring Unit., believes the psychological impact of the sanctions on a people suffering from war, drought and poverty is already massive. "What they need to be able to see is some light at the end of the tunnel, some hope for a better future for their kids," she said. "And there's a huge belief still that the international community can help to deliver this. "And what these sanctions are doing is just knocking a huge hole in that, making them feel that absolutely everybody is against them. "And ironically I think it will have absolutely the opposite effect to that which the United States says is intended, and it will drive people towards more extremist measures because they see absolutely no other way out of the situation they're in." At the moment, Afghans are simply demoralised rather than angry. But that anger may come, especially if the economic situation gets even worse and the Taleban continues to blame the international community.

Saturday, 20 January, 2001, 17:38 GMT UN accuses Taleban of massacre The UN says the Taleban conducts summary executions By Kate Clark in Kabul The United Nations has accused Taleban forces of killing at least 100 civilians in central Afghanistan. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said they had received many reports of civilians in Yakawlang district being deliberately attacked and killed. It appears more than 100 people may have been killed, including Afghan humanitarian workers Kofi Annan The district of Yakawlang has been under Taleban control since 1998, but was briefly captured by opposition troops late last year. The UN says the killing of civilians took place when the Taleban recaptured the district, but the Taleban has denied the allegations, saying it has the support of civilians in the area. Displacement In a statement issued in New York, Mr Annan said there had been summary executions and arbitrary arrests. One UN employee has not been seen since 7 January and remains unaccounted for. Other Afghans working for aid agencies are also reported to be among the dead. The UN said the massacre has resulted in the displacement of thousands of civilians, who are fleeing Yakawlang. The secretary-general said 200 families were arriving every day in the town of Panjab alone. Perilous journey Travelling in this mountainous region in the middle of winter can be perilous, especially if families with children are setting out on foot in the snow. The whole area is severely affected by drought and food shortages. Mr Annan said the displaced people were in danger of death from exposure and hunger. He said the aid community would need unimpeded access to the area to give humanitarian assistance. He has also called for a full investigation into who was responsible for ordering the killings, and for justice to be done. The Taleban Minister of Information, Qudratullah Jamal, rejected the UN accusations. He said the Taleban had enormous support in the area, and there was no reason for them to target local civilians. He also said journalists were free to go to the region and judge for themselves what had happened.

Cambodia

AP 2 Jan 2001 Cambodia to Try Khmer Rouge Leaders By Chea Sotheacheath PHNOM PENH, Cambodia –– Cambodian lawmakers on Tuesday agreed to set up a tribunal to try former Khmer Rouge leaders, a key step forward in U.N.-led efforts to bring to justice those behind the Maoist regime that killed more than a million people in the 1970s. The passage follows two years of negotiations as the United Nations and United States pushed a reluctant Cambodian government toward the first thorough trial of Khmer Rouge leaders. The legislation largely meets the U.N. demands, but critics warned it gives the corrupt and politicized Cambodian legal system too much influence. Cambodian judges would have a one-person majority at each level of the proposed tribunal, but at least one international judge must side with them before a binding judgment can be made. The National Assembly approved the draft, which establishes a tribunal of Cambodian and international judges, after two days of discussion, with all 92 lawmakers in attendance backing it. Thirty legislators were absent from the vote. Surya Dhungel, with the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights office in Cambodia, said the legislation complied in "substantive matters" with an informal July agreement between the government and the U.N., but small details still needed to be combed through. The legislation must now be approved by the Senate and Constitutional Council, and signed by King Norodom Sihanouk. Then an agreement between the government and the United Nations must be signed before the tribunal can be convened. But the National Assembly was the major hurdle facing the legislation. Assembly president Prince Norodom Ranariddh has said it could take a year or two to prepare for a trial. Currently only two senior leaders are in prison from the brutal regime, which took power in 1975 and caused the death of some 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution in its campaign to create an agrarian utopia before it was toppled in 1979. The movement's top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998. "To sentence the leaders of the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime is meant to finish the regime forever," said Heng Samrin, a former Khmer Rouge military subcommander who turned against the communist movement in 1977. According to the law, the tribunal would prosecute the "senior leaders ... and those persons who are most responsible" for atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. Former Khmer Rouge officials now in Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party have feared they or their associates could be targeted leading to political unrest. But they and other opponents to a tribunal were placated by the clause specifying that only those "most responsible" for the atrocities would be tried. Despite the legislation's broad backing in the assembly, two of Cambodia's most prominent lawmakers – assembly president Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen – were absent from the vote. Opposition lawmaker Chheam Channy warned Cambodia's legal officials not to "change the law's color" once the tribunal begins. Pol Pot and his top lieutenant Ieng Sary were tried in absentia after Vietnam ousted the Khmer Rouge in a military invasion in 1979, but it was widely regarded as a show trial not meeting reasonable standards of justice. Most of the Khmer Rouge's aging leaders have died or defected to the government side and live free in Cambodia. The two senior figures now in custody are Ta Mok, 74 – once the Khmer Rouge's military chief – and Kaing Khek Iev, known as Duch, the head of Tuol Sleng prison and torture center. Last month, Hun Sen said massive unrest could result if Ieng Sary is targeted by the tribunal. Leng Sary broke away from the Khmer Rouge's crumbling guerrilla organization and joined Hun Sen's government as foreign minister in 1996, bringing thousands of combatants and civilians with him. Hun Sen said Ieng Sary's followers might create unrest if he were tried. Hun Sen said the tribunal could reach two other top figures. Khieu Samphan, 68, the movement's nominal leader, and political ideologue Nuon Chea, in his early 70s, left the Khmer Rouge not long before its final collapse in late 1998. Both live modestly and freely in the northwestern town of Pailin, not far from the Thai border.

BBC 2 Jan 2001 Cambodia backs genocide law The communists' brutal regime killed up to 1.7 million Cambodia has taken a major step towards putting former Khmer Rouge leaders on trial for war crimes committed during the Pol Pot era. New laws have been unanimously approved by the National Assembly, ending months of deadlock over exactly what form the trials should take. We will try only the top leaders and the people who had direct responsibility for the genocide National Assembly vice-chairman Heng Samrin Under the legislation - which still needs Senate, constitutional and Royal approval - Khmer Rouge defendants will face a tribunal that will include foreign judges and prosecutors. The first suspects to face trial have yet to be named, but the Khmer Rouge is held responsible for around 1.7 million deaths in the 1970s. It is thought that up to 30 men, many in their 70s, could be brought before the tribunal. One of Pol Pot's most ruthless commanders, Ta Mok - nicknamed "The Butcher" - and chief executioner Kang Kek Ieu are being held in jail pending trial. Ta Mok - nicknamed The Butcher - is in custody Other surviving senior leaders include Nuon Chea, who was known as Brother Number Two, and the movement's public face, Khieu Samphan. They live peacefully in the town of Pailin, near the Thai border. Pol Pot himself died in his jungle hideout in 1998. "I am very happy that today the National Assembly has passed the long-awaited draft law on the Khmer Rouge trial, allowing us to fulfill the goal of all Cambodian people and also the world to try leaders of the genocidal regime," said the National Assembly's vice-chairman, Heng Samrin. He said lower-ranked Khmer Rouge officials would not be targeted. Khmer Rouge leaders Pol Pot - died in 1998 Ta Mok - the Butcher - captured and awaiting trial Kang Kek - chief executioner - in jail awaiting trial Ieng Sary - foreign minister - pardoned Nuon Chea - chief political theorist and "Brother Number Two" - at liberty Khieu Samphan - public apologist - at liberty "I would like to appeal to our compatriots who were with the Khmer Rouge in the past, please do not be scared because (we) will try only the top leaders and the people who had direct responsibility for the genocide," he said. The basic shape of the tribunals was agreed by Cambodia and the United Nations in April, after nearly a year of talks. Cambodia had been concerned that the foreign judges and prosecutors would override Cambodian sovereignty. Under the formula now agreed, Cambodian judges will have a majority of one at each level of the proposed court - but at least one international judge must side with them before a binding judgment can be made. The new law, passed more quickly than expected by the lower house of parliament, has still to be approved by the country's Senate and Constitutional Council, before being signed by King Norodom Sihanouk. Pol Pot led the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror It is not expected to meet any major obstacles. The Khmer Rouge took power with their brutal form of radical communism in 1975, declaring it Year Zero and forcing millions to work on the land, in what became the country's "killing fields". Pol Pot ruled until January 1979, by which time hundreds of thousands of people had died and the country's economy and infrastructure lay in ruins.

WP 5 Jan 2001 Bringing Justice Home Page A20 CAMBODIA'S NATIONAL Assembly this week took a step that would have been politically unthinkable in that country a few years ago: It voted to set up a special tribunal, with help from the United Nations, in order to try some of the world's most notorious mass murderers. The Khmer Rouge movement systematically killed more than 1 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979, a staggering act of genocide for which no one has ever been brought to justice. The Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, died two years ago, but a number of his chief lieutenants are still alive and could be tried by the new court if the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen sticks with the process.The move to establish the court has been politically difficult for Hun Sen, himself a former low-level Khmer Rouge member, and U.N. officials are worried that the prosecutions could be diluted by local pressure not to push too hard for a reckoning with the past. Still, the fact that the Cambodian tribunal may move forward at all offers more evidence of how recent international efforts to hold dictators and war criminals accountable are beginning to push national governments and judiciaries toward action of their own. Another brutal ruler from the 1970s, the Chilean Augusto Pinochet, is now at last facing a legal process in the courts of his country; the Chilean Supreme Court recently lifted the immunity he had enjoyed in a case prompted by Mr. Pinochet's 1998 arrest in London and near-extradition to face charges in Spain. And Yugoslavia's new democratic leaders have suggested they are likely to arrest and try their former president and warlord, Slobodan Milosevic, if only to head off demands for his extradition to the international tribunal on Yugoslav war crimes at the Hague.None of these prosecutions is likely to entirely satisfy Western human rights advocates. The Chilean courts, for example, seem likely to rule that the senile Mr. Pinochet is unfit to stand trial, and Mr. Milosevic remains a long way from being held seriously accountable in Belgrade for his many crimes of the past decade. But none of the local trials would be happening without the international impetus. And therein lies the right goal for the international justice movement: not trials before a world tribunal but justice delivered by the courts of the countries where the crimes take place -- courts that are subject to local politics and pressures but that ultimately can reinforce respect for human rights and the rule of law where it is most needed.That, ideally, would be one effect of the Rome treaty creating an international criminal court, which the Clinton administration signed last weekend. Critics have rightly focused on weaknesses in the treaty that could allow politically motivated international prosecutors and judges to single out U.S. citizens for prosecution. They also worry about the court interfering with national sovereignty and rules of due process. But a more positive likely consequence is a scramble by countries around the world to adjust their own criminal and military codes to cover genocide and war crimes so that they can avoid the new court and prosecute their own citizens in the event of such abuses -- an alternative the Rome treaty explicitly encourages. The continuing process in Cambodia demonstrates that when international justice is thus domesticated, compromises may be made, and legal purists disappointed. But to those in Washington who would scrap the Rome treaty entirely, Cambodia offers another message: Without some international initiative to set standards and apply pressure, the Khmer Rouges of the future are unlikely to be prosecuted at all.

WP 8 Jan 2001 Cambodians Chart the Khmer Rouge Paper Trail By Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, January 8, 2001; Page A01 PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- The three dozen gray filing cabinets are bulletproof and fireproof. They have combination locks that appear designed for bank vaults and sturdy casters so they can be spirited away in an emergency. During the day, the cabinets are watched by a half-dozen guards, and at night, five people sleeping on bamboo mats block the narrow hallway leading to the file room. "You can never be too careful here," said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which houses the cabinets. "There are people who would want to destroy what's inside." The filing cabinets contain some of the darkest secrets of the Khmer Rouge: more than a half-million pages of frayed and yellowing documents, many of which detail the mass killings, torture and forced confessions carried out by the regime as it sought to turn Cambodia into an agrarian utopia in the 1970s. The documents, which are being analyzed and indexed by researchers at the center, could provide prosecutors with crucial evidence to bring genocide charges against Khmer Rouge leaders, who are believed to have caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people through starvation, overwork, disease and executions. The documents, according to researchers who have pored through them, include incarceration orders, confessions and memorandums to and from top officials. "They will be punished by their own files," Youk Chhang predicted. "When they did these things -- and they wrote it all down -- they never expected it would come back to haunt them. But it will." Although researchers at the center have been studying and cataloguing the documents since 1995, their work has taken on added importance and pressure since Cambodia's National Assembly approved legislation last week to create a tribunal to prosecute senior Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide. The legislation must still be approved by the Senate and a constitutional council and signed by the king, but political observers here say that Cambodian and international prosecutors could begin work by the end of the year. The researchers have already begun to assemble dossiers on seven of the regime's surviving leaders who are considered the most likely to be prosecuted. Youk Chhang said he will offer the information to both prosecutors and defense attorneys. Among what he regards as the most powerful pieces of evidence are handwritten logs kept by Kaing Khek Iev, also known as Duch, who was the head of the infamous Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh where an estimated 14,000 people were tortured and killed. In one orange-covered, dog-eared book, a list of four prisoners has a note in the margin saying, "Put them in jail for now and destroy them later." There are scores of messages sent to Nuon Chea, one of the regime's top leaders, detailing the interrogation of prisoners. "When he did not answer," a jail official wrote of a prisoner in a 1977 memo to Nuon Chea, "I tortured him until he confessed." For people who despised intellectuals -- teachers and those with glasses were among the first to be executed -- the Khmer Rouge were obsessive record keepers. Prisoners were methodically photographed. Notes of village meetings were dutifully transcribed. And more than 25,000 government functionaries wrote detailed autobiographies. "They were proud of what they were doing," said Youk Chhang. "They wanted to show that the enemy was being eliminated. To them, this was not a crime, it was a victory." After Vietnamese forces toppled the regime in 1979, some of the documents were collected for safekeeping, and they eventually wound up at the center. Other records have been retrieved from government buildings by researchers, and still more paperwork has come from citizens who stumbled upon it when they reclaimed their homes and offices in 1979. The center's 30 researchers have plowed through about 155,000 pages of documents and 6,000 photographs, cataloguing them in a computer database. More than 400,000 pages of text and 30,000 photos remain to be analyzed. The documents depict the 31/2 years of Khmer Rouge rule as painful and prosaic. While some notebooks detail a regimen of torture to be carried out on prisoners, others recount the humdrum routine of village life. Many reflect a deep-seated paranoia -- of CIA infiltrators, church workers and other "enemies of the revolution" -- and an unquestioning adherence to the exhortations of top leaders. Despite vast evidence of genocide -- researchers at the center have identified more than 20,000 mass graves and 400 bone-strewn "killing fields" -- legal experts say that building court cases will be challenging. Many of the surviving documents were sent to, not from, top leaders. Memos and reports indicate a maze of bureaucratic routing, with names and acknowledgments scribbled in margins. And in many of the records, authors used code language. Instead of "kill" or "execute," they used words such as "decide," "resolve," "raze" and "reduce to ash." "If the Khmer Rouge said, 'I decided on him,' what does it mean?" Youk Chhang said. "We believe it means kill, but it could be open to arguments among lawyers." Legal specialists and diplomats who have examined some of the records said they would give prosecutors a valuable head start, but they warned that the documents alone would not make a genocide case. "The documents will be important to show a pattern of activity, of how the Khmer Rouge conducted its operations, the chain of command and decision-making authority," said a diplomat in Phnom Penh. "It's good evidence to learn about the macro issues, but it's still not clear to what extent they will prove specific people committed specific offenses." The documents, however, will likely be instrumental in assembling other parts of the cases, particularly witness statements, the legal specialists said. Through the autobiographies, for instance, researchers have been able to track down several former guards at Tuol Sleng who might be called to testify against Duch. Youk Chhang said he believes the documentary evidence is strongest in the cases of Nuon Chea and Duch, but less so when it comes to two other senior leaders, Khieu Samphan and Ta Mok, the regime's military commander. "Nuon Chea and Duch are easy. You can prosecute them tomorrow," Youk Chhang said. "But with Khieu Samphan it's difficult. We don't have files signed by him, only ones sent to him." Duch and Ta Mok are in jail, but Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan are living freely in northwestern Cambodia after agreeing to end a long guerrilla war against government forces in 1998. Legal experts believe those four former leaders and two or three other officials are most likely to be prosecuted. Although the Khmer Rouge has been all but vanquished as a political and military force, it still has supporters in Cambodia who oppose the tribunal, fueling fears of attempts to destroy the documents. The documentation center operates with money from the U.S. government, administered by the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University, and from the Netherlands, Norway and other donors. The center was founded not just to assemble evidence for possible tribunals but to preserve the records for future research. Even so, Youk Chhang and others at the center said they want the trials to begin soon. They hope the proceedings will address one question whose answer is strangely absent in the documents. "People want to know why," he said. "Why did the village chief take my wife? Why did they starve my children? Why did they rape my daughter? They've been waiting 25 years for answers."

BBC 15 Jan2001Khmer tribunal law passed by Senate The brutal regime left skulls around the country Cambodia's Senate has approved a law to create a tribunal to prosecute former leaders of the Khmer Rouge government accused of genocide. All 51 deputies present in the 61-seat Senate voted for the draft law to be passed without any changes. Almost every Cambodian family lost relatives to the Khmer Rouge An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from starvation, disease or execution between 1975 and 1979, during the Khmer Rouge regime led by Pol Pot. Already passed by the lower legislative house, the draft law now requires approval from the Constitutional Council, King Norodom Sihanouk and the United Nations. The legislation ended months of deadlock over exactly what form the trials should take. 'The Butcher' held But officials have said it could still take many months to set up a tribunal. Ta Mok could go before the tribunal Mass trials are not expected, but it is thought that up to 30 men, many in their 70s, would be prosecuted under the tribunal. Prime Minister Hun Sen has said he expects the tribunal to start work this year. The first suspects to face trial have yet to be named, but one of the regime's most ruthless commanders, Ta Mok - nicknamed "The Butcher" - and chief executioner Kang Kek Leu are being held in jail pending trial. No Khmer Rouge leader has ever appeared in court to answer for the deaths. Hun Sen has warned against trying Ieng Sary, Pol Pot's brother-in-law Many surviving leaders have lived in quiet retirement while Pol Pot himself died in his jungle hideout in 1998. Other surviving senior leaders include Nuon Chea - known as Brother Number Two - and Khieu Samphan, who both live peacefully in Pailin, a town near the Thai border. The prime minister has cautioned, however, against trying Pol Pot's former foreign minister and brother-in-law, Ieng Sary, to the concern of activists. UN negotiations The head of the government task force on the trial, Sok An, told journalists that he believed negotiations with the UN over the legislation would be resolved soon. The UN had asked for some revisions in the draft law, which is based on American proposals. Pol Pot died in April 1998 Under the tribunal, both Cambodian and foreign prosecutors and judges will jointly indict defendants and reach verdicts. The foreign judges would be a minority, but would hold the power of veto over decisions. The arrangement was a compromise between Cambodian officials, who wanted to run it on their own, and the UN, which pressed for foreign control. The Khmer Rouge took power with their brutal form of radical communism in 1975, declaring it Year Zero and forcing millions to work on the land, in what became the country's "killing fields".

BBC 17 Jan 2001, Ta Mok taken for hospital treatment The jailed Khmer Rouge leader, Ta Mok, has been taken to hospital to be treated for high blood pressure. After being given medication, he was returned to his prison cell where he is awaiting trial on charges of genocide. His lawyer Benson Samay said that he believed that Ta Mok would die before being put on trial. But the doctor who treated the Ta Mok said that his condition was not serious. Ta Mok is the former military chief of the Khmer Rouge, and is one of two former Khmer Rouge leaders in prison awaiting trial over the deaths of more than a million people. Legislation for establishing a UN-backed tribunal to prosecute the former leaders is still awaiting approval by the constitutional council and the king. It was passed on Monday by the Senate. From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

East Timor

Thursday, 25 January, 2001, 07:42 GMT First Timor militiaman sentenced The militias were encouraged by the Indonesian military An international court in East Timor has sentenced a pro-Jakarta militiaman to 12 years imprisonment for murder. It marks the first successful prosecution for the violence that surrounded the territory's 1999 independence vote. Joao Fernandes was found guilty of murdering a pro-independence activist in Maliana, close to the border with Indonesian-held West Timor. More than 1,000 people died in East Timor after the vote The court had heard how Fernandes dragged village chief Domingos Pereira from his hiding place in the police station and then repeatedly stabbed him with a sword. Militia members then attacked other independence supporters, leading to a massacre in which 40 people were killed. "This judgment should be enforced immediately," presiding judge Luca Ferrero, an Italian, said. Army influence The 22-year-old was a member of the militia gang "Merah Putih" - meaning red and white, the Indonesian flag's colours. Militiamen were blamed for many of the massacres During the trial, Fernandes testified that Indonesian army officers had given him a samurai sword and ordered him to kill independence supporters. His prison sentence was reduced from 20 years after he agreed to supply further information about militia activities in the Maliana district. A UN spokesman described the conviction as an important development, showing the East Timorese that justice was being done. More cases Prosecutors in East Timor, working under the UN administration, hope that 15 more cases will be heard in the next month. There are in total about 60 people being held in prison in the East Timorese capital, Dili. The UN wants to see mass destruction charges brought against the militias In Indonesia itself, where many of those who have been blamed for the violence are now living, no-one has yet been sentenced in connection with the violence. And, although militia chief Eurico Guterres is currently on trial in Jakarta, he is charged with the lesser offence of possessing illegal weapons. The militias, with backing from elements in the Indonesian military, waged a campaign of terror in East Timor after the territory voted for independence from Jakarta in 1999. More than 1,000 people were murdered and almost every town was burned to the ground in the violence.

India

BBC 15 Dec 2000, Vajpayee's double victory Vajpayee has gained the upper hand over Ayodhya By Vir Singh in Delhi In one stroke, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has staved off an opposition attack and pleased hardline Hindu groups. Hindu nationalists had become increasingly critical of his government over its refusal to openly support the construction of a temple on the site of the demolished mosque at Ayodhya. But several of Mr Vajpayee's coalition allies expressed alarm at his remarks in support of the temple and urged him not to deviate from the government's secular agenda. However, when their loyalty was put to the test, they stood by the prime minister. A motion in India's lower house of parliament calling for the dismissal of three senior ministers charged with inciting a mob to tear down the Babri mosque eight years ago was defeated. Now the government has the upper hand in the Ayodhya row. Playing to the gallery Mr Vajpayee's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and at least two opposition parties want to extract maximum political mileage from the debate so as to broaden their appeal. Hindu nationalists want a temple to be built on the site of the mosque In Indian political parlance, this is known as building "vote banks." But some other parties, notably some regional allies in the BJP-led coalition, want to steer clear of Ayodhya. They fear that being linked with a "communal" party - a party associated with a particular religious community - will hurt them in upcoming elections to state assemblies. Mr Vajpayee's remarks last week, when he said the movement to build the temple was an "expression of national feeling," drew widespread criticism. Mr Vajpayee's reputation as a moderate Hindu leader, which helped him to form a coalition government 14 months ago, was seen as a "mask" that had now come off. Drumming up Hindu support But hardline Hindu groups such as the National Volunteer Corps (RSS) and the World Hindu Council (VHP), praised the prime minister and asked him to remain "resolute." Criticism from the RSS - whose grassroots workers the BJP depends on during elections - has grown over the last few years because of the BJP's gradual backing away from the Ayodhya issue. Mr Vajpayee's remarks in support of the temple were calculated to win back support from its ideological forebears who espouse a fiery mix of economic and religious nationalism. Taking the high ground As for India's main opposition party, Congress now has few fundamental differences with the Vajpayee government on economic reforms - certainly not enough to create a stir. The mosque's demolition prompted riots It tried criticising the government for neglecting Indian farmers but found that this issue did not arouse much interest. So Congress reached into its pockets and out came a temple. The party's decision to seek a motion against the BJP's Ayodhya-tainted ministers came just two days before the 6 December anniversary of the mosque's destruction - when tensions in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where Ayodhya is situated, traditionally run high. By provoking the latest Ayodhya debate, Congress has taken the high moral ground, hoping its secular image will pay off in state elections. The party, which headed the national government when the Babri mosque was pulled down, wants to win back Muslim voters. Not over yet On Monday, the debate moved to the upper house, where the government lacks a majority. While a censure vote there could not bring down the government, it would be an embarrassment for the BJP. The next stage of the Ayodhya row promises to be as noisy and emotional as the drama of the past week.

National Post of Canada 18 Jan 2001 India’s Temple Mount Author: Daniel Pipes Publication: As Israeli intelligence services raise alarms about the prospect of radical Jewish groups attacking the mosques atop the Temple Mount, an eerily similar controversy is simultaneously developing in India, with possible lessons and implications for Israel. According to legend, the god-king Lord Ram, one of Hinduism's principal deities, was born in Ayodhya, about 300 miles southeast of New Delhi. The Muslim conquerors of India, destroyed the temple commemorating his birthplace centuries ago and built a mosque, known as the Babri Masjid, on the ruins. This was by no means a unique replacement; "in their zeal to hit Hinduism and spread Islam," one study notes, the Muslim rulers had the knack of desecrating or demolishing Hindu temples and erecting mosques, etc., in their place." A preliminary survey finds some 1600 temples destroyed and replaced by Muslim edifices. Ayodhya's temple was the most prominent of those destroyed Hindu sites, and that made the Babri Masjid especially unacceptable to the fundamentalist Hindus in the Bhartiya Janata party (BJP), which made Ayodhya the central plank of its 1991 election plank. These efforts culminated on Dec 6, 1992, when BJP officials led a march to the Babri Masjid and an out-of- control crowd climbed the centuries-old-mosque, furiously demolishing it by hand and with explosives. This led to India's worst outbreak of communal rioting since the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan, with some 2,000 to 3,000 people losing their lives and violence spreading to several countries (including Britain). Despite its high drama, this episode resolved nothing. Where a temple and a mosque once stood now lies an empty plot of land (and many policemen). Some Hindus insist on rebuilding the temple to Ram; some Muslims demand the Babri Masjid be rebuilt. A court case disputing the land's ownership has been wending its way through the torpid Indian legal system since 1949, with no end in sight. Since coming to power in 1998, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the BJP have down played their goals in Ayodhya. As recently as October last year the BJP's president assured Indians that rebuilding the temple was not on his party's agenda. But the issue has resurfaced anyway and it may come to an explosive head shortly. Near the disputed site in Ayodhya, a Hindu nationalist group, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), is building a pre-fabricated temple that it plans soon to assemble on the site as a three-storied building. The first floor, it declared last July is "almost ready". Responding to the heightened fervour of his constituency, Prime Minister Vajpayee commented in December that this work on reconstructing the Hindu Temple "is an expr