www.ictj.org
April 30, 2003
HEADLINES
Bosnia: Naser Oric Pleads Not
Guilty
Burundi: Parliament Passes
Genocide Bill, Sets Up TRC
Chile: Pinochet’s Secret
Police Chief Sentenced to 15 Years
Cuba: Florida International
University Releases Report on Cuban National Reconciliation
Iraq: Investigations Begin
Into Past Human Rights Abuses
Serbia: Radic Surrenders to
Serbian Authorities; Milosevic Trial Hears From Paramilitary Leader’s
Secretary
Sierra Leone: Truth
Commission Public Hearings Begin, Tribunal Indicts Gbao
South Africa: South Africa to
Pay Reparations to Apartheid Victims
Uruguay: Report on
Disappeared Released; President Announces Reparations
Holocaust: Museum Exhibit
Addresses Holocaust-Era Medical Experiments
International Criminal Court:
ICC Names Chief Prosecutor
BOSNIA
Naser Oric Pleads Not Guilty
April 16, 2003
Bosnian Muslim wartime commander Naser Oric has pled not guilty at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to six charges of murder and torture of Bosnian Serbs between 1992 and 1993. Oric worked as a bodyguard for Slobodan Milosevic during the communist era. He later became the commander who headed the 1995 defense of Srebrenica against Serb forces.
See: Reuters, Bosnian
Muslim Commander Oric Denies War Crimes
BBC, Srebrenica chief denies
war crimes
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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BURUNDI
Parliament Passes Genocide Bill, Sets Up TRC
April 18, 2003
The transitional parliament of Burundi has passed a law that puts genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in the domestic criminal statutes. In addition, lawmakers decided to create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The TRC, which will look into crimes committed since independence in 1962, will have broad powers to summon and to enter results of its investigations into legal proceedings. The commission will come into effect on May 1, the same day that President Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, is due to turn over the presidency to current Vice President, Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu. The genocide law, TRC, and transfer of the presidency were all agreed to in the 2000 peace accords.
See: BBC, Burundi approves
genocide law
News 24 (South Africa), TRC to be set up in Burundi
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CHILE
Pinochet’s Secret Police Chief Sentenced to 15 Years
April 17, 2003
A judge has sentenced former General Manuel Contreras, who headed the secret police during General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile, to 15 years in prison in connection with the disappearance of Carlos Sandoval, a dissident who was apprehended by security forces in 1975 and was never seen again. Contreras has already completed a prison term for his role in the 1976 car-bomb murder of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C.
See: The Guardian, Ex-Secret Police Chief Sentenced in Chile
Reuters, Pinochet spy chief gets jail sentence, appeals
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CUBA
Florida International University Releases Report on Cuban National Reconciliation
April 16, 2003
The Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University has released a report, “Cuba, The National Reconciliation,” based on a three-year study carried out by a Task Force on Memory, Truth and Justice. The 110-page report centers on the issue of how a democratic Cuba might address a legacy of human rights abuse. Drawing on comparative cases studies, the report recommends a dialogue among all Cubans (on and off the island) on “a Cuban civic reunion” that is peaceful, inclusive, and democratic and has at its core an effort to seek ways to recover Cubans’ historical memory.
See: Cuba, la reconciliación nacional (also in English, Cuban National Reconciliation)
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IRAQ
Investigations Begin Into Past Human Rights Abuses
April 22, 2003
Although no formal mechanism has yet been established for investigations into past human rights abuses under the regime of Saddam Hussein, a variety of investigations are already beginning. Victims of abuses are now talking openly with the press about what they suffered. In addition, one cemetery manager has revealed the site of a clandestine mass grave where the remains of almost 1000 political prisoners are buried. A group of Iraqi dissidents who had previously been detained have secured thousands of government files on dissidents, including informants’ reports, court records, confessions, and execution orders. The U.S. Army’s special forces have relinquished policing duties to members of the Hussein-era police force, who were reinstated by a committee of local leaders.
See: New York Times, One City Sorts the Résumés of Good Cops and Bad Cops
AP, Iraqis
Discover Secret Dissident Files
New York Times, Iraqis Tell of a Reign of Torture and Maiming
New York Times, Iraqis Confront Grim Memories
AFP, Graves
of nearly 1,000 Iraqi political prisoners discovered
New York Times, Justice for Iraq
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SERBIA
April 23, 2003
Captain Miroslav Radic, a former Yugoslav army commander, has turned himself in to Serbian authorities. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has accused Radic of directing the 1991 massacre of about 300 Croatian civilians in Vuvokar. He is expected to be extradited to the ICTY for prosecution.
See:
New York Times, A
Top Suspect In '91 Massacre Of Croatians Surrenders
Milosevic Trial Hears From Paramilitary Leader’s Secretary
April 25, 2003
A witness, introduced to the court as B129 to protect her identity, has testified at the ICTY that paramilitary leader Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan, took orders and funds from Slobodan Milosevic’s secret police during the Balkan wars. B129 worked as a secretary for Arkan, who was assassinated in Belgrade three years ago. Her testimony contradicts Milosevic’s claim that he cannot be held responsible for what Serbs outside of Serbia did in Croatia and Bosnia because he had no control over the soldiers or paramilitary fighters.
See: New York Times, Mystery Witness Faces Milosevic at Hague Trial
Please see “Bosnia” (above) for links to more
information about the ICTY.
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SIERRA LEONE
Truth Commission Public Hearings Begin, Tribunal Indicts
Gbao
April 21, 2003
After collecting about 6000 reports on human rights abuses committed over the past decade, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone has begun hearing public testimony from victims. In related news, the Special Court has indicted former RUF battlefield commander Augustine Gbao. The former leader, who was already in court custody, has pled not guilty to the 17 charges of crimes against humanity.
See: AP, Sierra
Leone Truth Commission Opens
AP, Sierra
Leone Tribunal Indicts Rebel Gbao
BBC, Sierra Leone truth body starts
UN News Centre, Sierra
Leone rebel commander pleads innocent to attacks on UN
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SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa to Pay Reparations to Apartheid Victims
April 17, 2003
South African President Thabo Mbeki has announced that the government will pay approximately $85 million in reparations to more than 19,000 apartheid victims who testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Each will receive a one-time payment of about $3900. The TRC final report called for a total of $360 million and recommended raising the funds for the reparations through a “wealth tax” on businesses. Mbeki rejected that option and stated that payments would come from a special presidential fund, and he encouraged individual South Africans to make contributions. Mbeki also criticized lawsuits aimed at receiving damage payments from corporations that benefited from apartheid. Victims and human rights groups criticized the reparations policy for falling so far short of the TRC’s recommendations.
See: AP, Apartheid
Victims to Receive Reparations
New York Times, South Africa Will Pay $3,900 to Apartheid Victims’ Families
SABC News, Mbeki slammed for recommendations on TRC report
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URUGUAY
Report on Disappeared Released
The Comision para la Paz (Peace Commission) has released its final report on the situation of those persons who were disappeared during the dictatorship. The report was turned over to the Jorge Batlle, President of Uruguay, and is available to the public. In an executive decree dated April 16, 2003, President Batlle accepted all of the report’s conclusions as an official statement on the situation of persons who had been detained and then disappeared.
See: Uruguay, Aceptación De Informe De Comisión Para La Paz (in Spanish)
President Announces Reparations
April 23, 2003
Uruguayan President Jorge Batlle has announced that the government will pay reparations to families of people who died while in the custody of the military dictatorship between 1973 and 1985, as well as to victims of guerrilla groups. The reparations are aimed at appeasing families of victims who are pushing for prosecutions. The Families of the Detained and Disappeared Organization criticized the move, claiming that investigations were incomplete and that the report should not mark the end of efforts to deal with past abuses.
See: New York Times, Compensation for Dictatorship
Comunicado de los
familiares de detenidos desaparecidos (in Spanish: critical statement on the reparations action)
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HOLOCAUST
Museum Exhibit Addresses Holocaust-Era Medical Experiments
April 25, 2003
A recently opened exhibition at Berlin’s Medical History Museum addresses the medical experiments conducted by Nazi doctors in concentration camps. Called “Unscrupulous and Scrupulous,” the exhibit focuses on the physicians who carried out medical experiments on up to 10,000 victims. Organizers portray the scientists not as psychopaths, but normal individuals carrying out immoral acts.
See: Reuters, Exhibit
Puts Nazi Doctors Under Microscope
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INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
ICC Names Chief Prosecutor
April 22, 2003
The governing assembly of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has voted unanimously for Argentine attorney Luis Moreno Ocampo to become the tribunal’s first chief prosecutor. Moreno Ocampo assisted in the prosecutions of the military junta following Argentina’s 1976-1983 “Dirty War” and is currently a visiting professor at Harvard Law School.
See: AP, War
Crimes Tribunal Picks Head Prosecutor
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Editor: Patrick J. Pierce
Patrick J. Pierce serves as a consultant to the ICTJ.
This semimonthly newsletter summarizes major news events in the field of transitional justice. To unsubscribe, please e-mail unsubscribe@ictj.org. To subscribe, please send an e-mail request to srutledge@ictj.org.
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) assists countries pursuing accountability for mass atrocity or human rights abuse. The Center works in societies emerging from repressive rule or armed conflict, as well as in established democracies where historical injustices or systemic abuse remain unresolved. It provides comparative information, legal and policy analysis, documentation, and strategic research to governments, nongovernmental organizations, and others. Its work focuses on five key elements of transitional justice: developing strategies to prosecute perpetrators, documenting violations through nonjudicial means such as truth commissions, reforming abusive institutions, providing reparations to victims, and promoting reconciliation.
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