The International Center for Transitional Justice
www.ictj.org
September 15, 2004
HEADLINES
Bosnia and Herzegovina: New Mass Graves Found; ICTY Considering Transfer of Cases to Domestic
Courts
Cambodia: Government Asks UN Team to Delay Trip
Chile: Judge Blocked From Questioning Pinochet
Guatemala: Government Will Pay Paramilitaries
Liberia: Official Sets Conditions for Handing Over Taylor
Mexico: “Dirty War” Atrocities May Be Addressed
Rwanda: ICTR Trials Continue; Bodies of Genocide Victims Reburied
Serbia and Montenegro: ICTY Appoints Lawyers to Represent Milosevic; Brdjanin Sentenced to 32 Years
Zimbabwe: Class Action Suit Against Mugabe Being Considered
Holocaust: Nazi Murder Suspect Goes on Trial in Munich
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
New Mass Graves Found
September 11, 2004
Forensic experts have discovered the remains of more than 100 victims of the Srebrenica massacre in a mass grave near the village of Bljecevo. A spokesperson for the forensic team said that, based on evidence collected, the victims were from Srebrenica and tried to escape through the woods after the city fell. Another grave near Prijedor has also been discovered; it contains the remains of more than 100 additional victims. A spokesperson for the Commission for Missing People said that the victims had been inmates at the Serb-run Omarska prison camp.
See: Reuters, More Srebrenica victims found in Bosnia mass grave
Turkish Press, More Than 100 Bodies Found In Bosnian Mass Grave
ABC, Prison camp victims exhumed from Bosnian mass grave
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA; CROATIA
ICTY Considering Transfer of Cases to Domestic Courts
September 9, 2004
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is considering prosecution requests to transfer pending cases to domestic courts. The ICTY president has appointed a trial chamber to consider the referral of the Ademi-Norac case to a court in Croatia. The prosecution also applied for a referral of the Omarska-Keraterm case to a special court in Sarajevo. No trial chamber has been assigned to that request, as the Sarajevo court is not yet ready to accept cases.
For more detailed weekly updates on the ICTY, please see Tribunal Update by The Institute for War and Peace Reporting, the UN Public Information Services’ ICTY Weekly Update, and the Coalition for International Justice’s Latest Reports. See also the International Center for Transitional Justice/Bard College’s audio/video archive of the Milosevic trial.
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CAMBODIA
Government Asks UN Team to Delay Trip
September 13, 2004
The Cambodian government has requested that a United Nations team dealing with the potential Khmer Rouge trials delay its trip. A spokesperson for the government announced that the team should wait until the Cambodian parliament approves the agreement between Cambodia and the UN to set up the trials. The UN team was scheduled to finalize security and budget details.
See: Japan Today, Cambodia asks U.N. team to postpone trip on Khmer Rouge trial
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CHILE
Judge Blocked From Questioning Pinochet
September 12, 2004
A court has blocked Santiago Court of Appeals Judge Juan Guzman from questioning General Pinochet about disappearances during his 17-year rule. Pinochet’s lawyers filed a request for Judge Guzman’s removal from the case for allegedly showing animosity toward the former dictator. The court has assigned the case to another judge while it considers the request. In related news, an annual march marking the 1973 military coup and commemorating the victims of the Pinochet dictatorship was cut short because of violent clashes. Organizers blamed the violence on thugs who threw Molotov cocktails, to which police responded with tear gas and water cannons.
See: ABC, Pinochet Avoids Comment on Disappearances
BBC, Clashes as Chile marks 1973 coup
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GUATEMALA
Government Will Pay Paramilitaries
September 2, 2004
The government of Guatemala has announced that it will issue
payments to former paramilitary fighters who battled rebels during Guatemala’s civil war. Congress recently overturned a decision a ruling by Guatemala’s highest court, declaring the payments unconstitutional. The former
paramilitaries, who threatened to paralyze the country if they were not compensated,
are accused of some of the country’s worst human rights violations, including
massacres, torture, and rape. About 700,000 people will each receive about
US$600.
See: BBC, Guatemala to pay paramilitaries
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LIBERIA
Official Sets Conditions for Handing Over Taylor
September 13, 2004
Liberia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Aminu Wali, has announced that the government of Nigeria would be willing to hand over former president Charles Taylor if an elected government of Liberia made such a request. Taylor went into exile in Nigeria after the Special Court for Sierra Leone indicted him for war crimes. Liberia’s current transitional government was appointed after Taylor fled, and elections are expected in 2005.
See: Concord Times, Nigeria to Surrender Taylor to Special Court
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MEXICO
“Dirty War” Atrocities May Be Addressed
September 3, 2004
Special Prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo Prieto has announced that he will bring charges of genocide against 30 former civilian and military leaders, accusing them of the deaths and disappearances of students and other activists during Mexico’s “Dirty War,” which occurred from the 1960s to the 1980s. A judge turned down a request for a warrant against former president Luis Echeverria and 11 others earlier this year, a decision that the prosecutor appealed to the Supreme Court. President Vicente Fox said that if the Court will not consider the genocide case, he would call for the creation of a truth commission to investigate the atrocities.
See: Washington Post, New Genocide Charges Planned in Mexico
Reuters, Mexico asks highest court to take ‘dirty war’ case
New York Times, Mexico’s Leader to Pursue Genocide Case
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RWANDA
ICTR Trials Continue
September 14, 2004
A number of trials at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) heard witness testimony recently. Witnesses for the prosecution appeared before trial chambers in the case of former senior army official, Colonel Aloys Simba; the “Military 1” trial (Lieutenant Colonel Nsengiyumva, Colonel Bagosora, Brigadier General Gratien Kabiligi, and Major Aloys Ntabakuze, defendants); and the Butare trial. The trial of Mika Muhimana, a former councillor of Gishyita, is nearing its completion with witnesses for the defense giving testimony.
See: Simba trial: Hirondelle, Simba Told Civilians to Hunt Tutsis and Break Their Heads, Witness Says
Hirondelle, Simba Organised Military Training of Hutu Youths, Witness Claims
Hirondelle, Simba Asked Civilians to Kill Tutsis in Neighbouring Communes
Military 1 trial: Hirondelle, Nsengiyumva Encouraged Hutus to Exterminate Tutsis Says Witness
Hirondelle, Defence Accuse Prosecution Witness of ‘Fabrication’
Butare trial: Hirondelle, Witness Testifies for the Third Day Behind Closed Doors
Muhimina trial: Hirondelle, First Group of Rwandan Detainees Arrive to Defend Former Councillor
Hirondelle, Four More Rwandan Prisoners Defend Former Councillor
Hirondelle, Witness in Genocide Trial Disowns Statement, Says It’s a Forgery
Hirondelle, Trial of Former Municipal Councillor Enters Final Phase
Bodies of Genocide Victims Reburied
September 2, 2004
The bodies of nearly 6000 genocide victims in the Mutura district were recently exhumed from mass graves and reburied. Senate speaker Vincent Biruta said that the killings began before 1994.
See: Hirondelle, Thousands of Genocide Victims Reburied in Rwanda
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SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
ICTY Appoints Lawyers to Represent Milosevic
September 11, 2004
Judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have appointed two lawyers to represent former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, despite the defendant’s objections. The decision came after medical reports that Milosevic’s life would be at risk if he continued defending himself. Several witnesses have refused to testify in protest of the appointments.
See: Washington Post, Court Names 2 Lawyers To Represent Milosevic
AFP, Witnesses refuse to appear in Milosevic case
New York Times, Witnesses Pull Out of Trial After Judges Refuse to Let Milosevic Act as His Own Lawyer
Brdjanin Sentenced to 32 Years in Prison
September 3, 2004
Judges at the ICTY have sentenced former Bosnian Serb Deputy Prime Minister Radoslav Brdjanin to 32 years in prison. The defendant was acquitted of genocide and extermination but was found guilty on eight charges of supporting killings, torture, and persecution of Bosnian Croats and Muslims in 1992.
See: The Guardian, Bosnian Serb jailed for war role
Please see “Bosnia and Herzegovina” (above) for links to more information about the ICTY.
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ZIMBABWE
Class Action Suit Against Mugabe Being Considered
September 12, 2004
Two human rights groups, Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Foundation, are considering bringing a class action suit against President Robert Mugabe to compel him to publish the findings of a report on the 1980s killings by the military of an estimated 20,000 people in Matabeleland. Mugabe has called the killings “an act of madness” and appointed a commission of inquiry, but has refused to publish the findings.
See: The Independent, Mugabe faces class action lawsuit
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HOLOCAUST
Nazi Murder Suspect Goes on Trial in Munich
September 12, 2004
A court in Munich has started hearing the trial of Ladislav Niznansky, 86, who is accused of being a death squad commander and killing 164 Slovak villagers as well as 18 Jewish civilians found hiding in a bunker. Naznansky is believed to have fled Czechoslovakia in 1948 and resided in Germany since. A court in the former Czechoslovakia convicted Naznansky in absentia and sentenced him to death. German authorities began investigating him in 2001 after being approached by the Slovakian government.
See: AP, Nazi War Crimes Suspect Rejects Charges
BBC, WWII Nazi murder suspect on trial
The Guardian, 86-year-old goes on trial for wartime Nazi massacre
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Editor: Patrick J. Pierce
Patrick J. Pierce serves as a consultant to the ICTJ.
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