We noted Friday that reports were circulating that ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo would ask the Court to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. CNN reports that Moreno-Ocampo sought an indictment this morning. In it, the Prosecutor's Office alleges that the Sudanese military coordinated […]
The Washington Post reports that ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo will charge the president of Sudan, Colonel Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, with genocide and crimes against humanity. Appropriately, the announcement comes on the anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, which gave rise to an exceedingly rare holding that genocide had actually been committed. A conviction on genocide […]
Warning: This post contains offensive language. This post was originally published July 11, 2007. Today marks the 12th 13th anniversary of the massacre in Srebernica. In July 1995, in the United Nations mandated "safe area' of Srebrenica, Serbian forces summarily executed some 8,000 Bosnian men. The forces of the Army of Republika Srpska, led by […]
A Yemeni national which the U.S. government says ran an al-Qaida terrorist training camp where two of the Sept. 11 hijackers trained says the prosecution should let him view classified evidence, Reuters reported. Walid bin Attash said Thursday he wants access to classifed evidence because he says it would be safer in his hands than […]
THE CASE OF Huzaifa Parhat provides the clearest, most compelling evidence yet that the process used by the Bush administration to justify holding detainees at Guantanamo Bay is deeply and irreversibly flawed and must be discarded. Mr. Parhat is an ethnic Uighur who fled China in 2001 because of the abuses against Uighurs in that […]
The ex-vice-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been extradited to The Hague to face trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Jean-Pierre Bemba, who fled DR Congo last year, was detained in Belgium in May. He will face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Mr Bemba is accused over atrocities allegedly […]
Writing for the European Courier, former ICTY spokeswoman Florence Hartmann slammed Western powers and international courts for not adequately protecting the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, either in the runup to the genocide or in the recent litigation. In her first book, Peace and Punishment, Hartmann accused Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and […]
The U.S. Defense Department announced Monday it formally charged a Saudi Arabian national held at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay with plotting the bombing of the USS Cole in October 200 in the Yemeni port of Aden. The Pentagon said it charged Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri with eight charges associated with the suicide attack that […]
Unlike in the cases of its neighbors Bosnia and Croatia, the Yugoslavian government made no extended attempt to reconquer Slovenia when it seceded in 1991. The military conflict was ten days long and created less than 100 total casualties. One colonel in the Yugoslav National Army has been indicted by the Slovene government for his […]
Jonathan Adler notes the DC Circuit's Tuesday release of Simon v. Iraq, a case where US servicemen alleged that Saddam Hussein's Iraqi intelligence services had taken them hostage and tortured them during Gulf War I. The court concluded (in contrast to earlier, similar lawsuits) that the suit could go forwards. The plaintiffs rely on an […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously that there is no justification for the “enemy combatants” designation of detainees held at the U.S. naval facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The case involves Hazaifa Parhat, a member of the Chinese dissident group, Uigher. The federal appeals court ruled the Pentagon […]
The Security Council demanded that all sides to armed conflicts around the world stop using violence against women as a tactic of war and take much tougher steps to protect women and girls from such attacks. In a resolution adopted unanimously after a day-long debate on women, peace and security, Council members said women and […]
WARNING: THE “SLAUGHTER” LINK CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES A case before a Dutch court will determine whether Dutch peacekeepers operating under the flag of the United Nations are liable for the 1995 massacre of thousands of Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica. In July 1995, forces from the paramilitary group The Scorpions, oversaw the detention […]
We’ve rightly been focused on the Boumediene decision for the last few days, but the good people at the Enough Project were before the UN Security Council today. Co-Chair John Prendergast's testimony is here. In a column Prendergast wrote on Huffington Post, he emphasized the continuing spillover of the Darfur conflict into neighboring Chad. In […]
The Diane Rehm show Tuesday hosted a round-table discussion on the latest decision from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the rights of detainees held at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Thursday the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to deny Guantanamo prisoners the right to challenge their detention. Implications of the ruling, and […]