Person of the Year – Fatou Bensouda
The face of international war crimes prosecution is now an African woman. Fatou Bensouda was chosen to succeed Luis Moreno-Ocampo as the International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor in December. Bensouda has formerly served as Solicitor-General in Gambia, and as an adviser and trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The choice of Bensouda will help the I.C.C.’s image in Africa where all of the crimes in cases being prosecuted at the court occurred. When Bensouda takes over in June she will become only the second Chief Prosecutor for the I.C.C. and the first African.
Sudan
South Sudan gained independence in July as Omar al Bashir’s genocidal campaign expanded. Civilian targets in Darfur and South Sudan continue to suffer dozens of casualties weekly by aerial bombardments from the north, while the targeted killing of civilians has expanded to South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions where mass killings and mass rapes began before South Sudan officially existed, and continue to this day. Meanwhile Sudanese president/genocidaire Bashir has received less pressure and softer criticism from Western governments than other Arab leaders despite his body count being larger by magnitudes. Bashir has a warrant issued for his arrest by the I.C.C. but still managed to visit Malawi, Djibouti, Egypt and China last year with impunity.
Côte d’Ivoire
Laurent Gbagbo became the first former head of state to appear before the International Criminal Court, in December. The former president of Ivory Coast was arrested in April after months of violence in the country which claimed 3,000 lives resulting from Gbagbo’s refusal to relinquish power after being defeated in the 2010 presidential election by Alassanne Ouattara. The I.C.C. is continuing its investigation into the situation in Ivory Coast where former chief prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo has described attacks against civillians there as widespread and systematic. Pro-Ouattara forces are also suspected of ethnically motivated massacres.
Libya
On June 27th, Moammar Gaddafi became the second sitting head of state issued with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court. Warrants were issued for Gaddafi for crimes against humanity following the February 15 uprising, along with his son and de-facto Prime Minister at the time Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, and for Intelligence Chief Abdullah Al-Senussi. The case against Moammar Gaddafi was terminated in November following his death. The I.C.C. is working with Libya on possible avenues of prosecution of Saif Gaddafi who is in Libyan custody, deciding whether the trial will occur in Libya, The Hague or both. Conflicting reports persist as to whether Al-Senussi has been captured or remains at large.
Kenya
The ‘Ocampo Six’ faced Confirmation of Charges hearings in September and October and expect a ruling on whether their trials will proceed at the I.C.C. in the first few weeks of the new year. Six high rankings officials, including two candidates in this year’s presidential contest, are being charged with crimes against humanity relating to the 2008 post-election violence. The ‘Six’ hopes of dismissal were bolstered by the Court’s decision in December declining to confirm charges against Callixte Mbarushimana for allegedly orchestrating attacks on civilians in the D.R.C. from abroad. Mbarushimana has also been implicated in murders during the Rwandan Genocide and has been released in France.
Sierra Leone
The trial of former Liberian war lord and president Charles Taylor concluded in March at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Two months later contempt proceedings commenced upon reports that prosecution witnesses were being sought out and offered bribes to recant their testimony. The judges are still in deliberation and a verdict is expected in early 2012. Wikileaks released a 2009 cable showing U.S. diplomats trying to arrange to extradite Taylor for trial in America if he is acquitted at the S.C.S.L. Taylor is currently on trial for his involvement in the Sierra Leonian Civil War and at trial has been accused of commanding the Revolutionary United Front, and using them primarily as a diamond pillaging force, killing and maiming thousands of civiallians during the war.
Central African Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Rwanda
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda wrapped up its last calendar year in 2011. In July of 2012 the new International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals is set to take over the remaining work of the ICTR (and that of the ITCY in 2013) which is currently estimated at less than 4%. Two former National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development leaders were sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the 1994 Genocide in December, meanwhile convicted Genocide architect, former Rwandan Defense Ministry Chief of Staff, Theoneste Bagosora’s life sentence was commuted to thirty-five years after appeals judges cleared him from charges surrounding some mass murders, while maintaining his conviction for genocide. In light of the impending closing of the ICTR and improvements in the Rwandan judicial system, the tribunal made its first referral of a genocide case to the domestic courts in Rwanda. Just five years previously the Tribunal refused to make such referrals citing the Rwandan court system’s inability to adequately administer justice. Since its inception in 1994 eighty-three of the ninety-two people indicted by the tribunal have been arrested; sixty-three have been sentenced to jail terms spanning from nine months to life imprisonment; five accused are still on trial and nine remain at large.
