Ocampo Seeks Darfur Rebel Warrants

ICC prosecutor seeks arrest of Darfur rebels
Thu Nov 20, 2008 7:12pm EST
By Reed Stevenson

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The International Criminal Court prosecutor requested arrest warrants on Thursday for Darfur rebels for the first time, accusing them of storming an African Union camp and killing 12 peacekeepers.

Despite a ceasefire declared in Darfur by Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir last week, the army said its forces had killed 30 rebels while repelling an assault in North Darfur.

Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who also wants to put Bashir on trial over Darfur, said rebel attacks on peacekeepers last year were considered war crimes under the court’s statute and vowed that they would not go unpunished.

“Attacking peacekeepers is a very serious crime,” Moreno-Ocampo said. “This means civilians have no protection.”…read more

 

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NGO Enough Responds to Prosecutors Request for Warrants of Darfur Rebels

Sudan: Enough Project Responds to ICC Prosecutor’s Recommendations for Darfur War Crimes Prosecution

ENOUGH Project (Washington, DC)
PRESS RELEASE
20 November 2008
Posted to the web 20 November 2008
Washington, DC

The Enough Project today issued the following statement in response to an announcement by the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. The statement, which follows, is from John Prendergast, Co-chair, John Norris, Executive Director, and Omer Ismail, Poliy Advisor, of the Enough Project of the Center for American Progress:

Today the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, or I.C.C., Luis Moreno-Ocampo, applied for an arrest warrant for war crimes against several members of a splinter rebel faction in Darfur related to the September 29, 2007, attack on African Union peacekeepers in Haskanita. The Chief Prosecutor’s actions are a powerful reminder that the Court will pursue justice with an even hand and follow the chain of evidence with regard to crimes against humanity wherever it leads...read more

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ICTR to open Documentation Centers Across Rwanda

Rwanda: ICTR to Open Documentation Centres Countrywide

The New Times (Kigali)
19 November 2008
Posted to the web 19 November 2008
Kigali

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) recently opened a documentation centre at the Gasabo Judicial Palace, the seat for the Gasabo Tribunal of Higher Instance.

The centre, which includes television equipment that will enable area residents to follow live telecasts of court sessions in Arusha, Tanzania where the tribunal is based, also has books and computers that will help the residents to access information on the Internet…read more

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ICC will weigh in on whether mass rape can constitute genocide

Mass rapes constitute genocide
Written by David Scheffer

Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir might be prosecuted for use of rape as a form of genocide. / Reuters
November 19, 2008: People hear the word “genocide” and think of six million Jews killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust or the estimated 800,000 mostly Tutsis slaughtered in Rwanda.

They do not imagine that rape can be so well planned and done on such a mass scale as to wipe out much of an ethnic group just as thoroughly, if more slowly, than large-scale murder.

Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, stands accused of -among other horrible crimes – masterminding the use of rape as a form of genocide against several ethnic groups in Darfur…read more

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ICJ to hear Serbia-Croatia Genocide Case

AP Nov.18.2008

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: Croatia won the right Tuesday to sue Serbia for genocide after the United Nations’ highest court ruled it has the legal power to decide the case.

The decision marks the second time Serbia will face the allegation of genocide at the International Court of Justice. Bosnia also accused Serbia’s forces of being responsible for humanity’s worst crime during the brutal conflicts that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia…read more

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ICC Announces Lubanga Trial will begin in January

International court to prosecute Congo’s Lubanga

Nov. 18.2008

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court in The Hague has cleared the way to begin its first trial in January.

The court has lifted a suspension on the case against alleged Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga after the prosecution agreed to let judges review confidential material it received from the United Nations.

The judges had ruled earlier that Lubanga could not get a fair trial because some of the withheld evidence might help Lubanga’s defense.

Lubanga is accused of using child soldiers in eastern Congo in 2002-2003.

He would be the first defendant tried by the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal since it began functioning in 2002.

Judge Adrian Fulford on Tuesday scheduled the trial to begin Jan. 26.

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US releases State Department Opinion on ICC

U.S. Perspectives on International Criminal Justice

John B. Bellinger, III, Legal Adviser to the Secretary of State
Remarks at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 
Medford, Massachusetts
November 14, 2008 read full opinion

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Darfur Rebels Targeted by the ICC

AP Nov.14.2008

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Friday he will seek arrest warrants next week related to a deadly attack on African Union peacekeepers in Sudan’s Darfur region.

The case is the first by the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal to target Darfur rebels, who are fighting government troops and the allied janjaweed militia of Arab nomads in a five-year conflict that has left up to 300,000 dead...read more

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ICC warns it may take over investigation of Waki report in Kenya

 

Hague: We are ready to act on Waki report
By David Mugonyi, Citizen Correspondent, Nairobi

The International Criminal Court has warned that if Kenya does not move fast to act on the Waki report, then it will take over the cases of the names contained in a secret envelope handed to Kofi Annan.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said if Kenya failed to try the suspects of post-election violence, then the court will move in to start investigations and prosecute those involved…read more

 

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Human Rights Watch Urges Support for ICC

 

RIghts Group Urges Support of War Crimes Court

By MIKE CORDER – Nov 12, 2008

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The world’s first permanent war crimes court needs more support as it monitors atrocities in Congo and struggles to have important suspects arrested, an international human rights group said Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch also said the International Criminal Court’s independence must be supported in the face of intense diplomatic pressure on it to freeze its genocide case against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir…read more

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