The outgoing International Criminal Court prosecutor has called on the UN Security Council and member nations to take stronger action against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, who is accused of genocide in Darfur. Al-Bashir has a warrant for his arrest along with three other other officials over alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. In his 15th and final report on Darfur to the UN Security Council, outgoing prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said, "The failure to arrest and surrender Mr. Harun, Mr. Kushayb, Mr. Hussein and President Al Bashir is a direct challenge to the...
Writing in the Guardian, Geoffery Robertson QC, who served as an appeal judge for the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, has commented on the Charles Taylor verdict, noting that as the former Liberia leader is jailed, more "despots" will follow. Excerpts have been reproduced below. See his full piece here . “ International criminal justice grinds slowly, but it can grind exceedingly small. Charles Taylor was first indicted in 2003 for crimes against humanity, in a UN court over which I presided. Then, he strutted the world stage as a head of state. Ghana refused our request to arrest him when...
The Syrian rebels anonunced on Monday that they could no longer be committed to Kofi Annan's ceasefire amid on-going attacks by the Syrian military on civilian targets. The rebels' spokesperson, Sami al-Kurdi, told Reuters news agency: " We have decided to end our commitment to this [plan] and starting from that date [Friday] we began defending our people ," On Tuesday, the UN announced that the Syrian regime had agreed to allow in humanitarian workers for the first time. The workers would be based in four cities: Homs, Deraa, Idlib, and Deir Azzor.
The deputy foreign minister of Russia, Gennady Gatilov said on Monday that Syrian president Assad, did not "necessarily" need to remain in power "at the end of the political process". See here for article by The Times. Gatilov said, “ We have never said or insisted that Assad necessarily had to remain in power at the end of the political process ,” “It would be good to . . . see a political will from both sides that would allow us to move toward a settlement,” he said. “And in that case, it would probably be appropriate to talk about the Yemeni model.” Meanwhile however, talks on Monday,...
The Syrian government barred 17 Western diplomats from the country, reports Reuters. The ban includes ambassadors from the US, Canada, Turkey and several European countries, and has been seen as a response to Syrian diplomats being expelled last week.
Thousands of protesters returned to Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday, angry at the sentence of Muburak. Warning of a renewed revolution, many demanded that Mubarak must face the death penalty for his treatment of the protesters during the January 2011 uprising, and pledged to protest until those who died received justice. Others demanded that the presidential election due to take place later this month be called off. Many of the protesters expressed dismay at the two current frontrunners - Ahmed Shafiq, former prime minister during Muburak's era, and Mohamed Mursi, of the Muslim Brotherhood...
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, defended the country’s human rights record and claimed that Russia has no political prisoners , the Associated Press reported from St. Petersburg on Monday. The statements come in light of a controversial bill which is expected to be voted into law on Tuesday which would increase fines for unsanctioned rallies 200-fold . Putin while talking to a reporter at an EU summit in St Petersburg called the bill “democratic” and similar to European legislation. However critics are accusing United Russia, the ruling party, of destroying democratic freedoms . Sergei...
Chinese authorities deleted numerous blog posts , closed down individual blog accounts , and blocked a whole cohort of words and phrases , such as "that year", "massacre", "recall", "candle", "suppress", "mourn" "square" and "today", from the Chinese equivalent of Twitter - Sina Weibo, as many commemorated the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. See here . In an inexplicable coincidence, the Shangai equivelent of the FTSE 100 - Shanghai Composite Index of shares - closed 64.89 points lower by the end of Monday's session. According to reports, as the infamous string of...
The newly elected president of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolic, has sparked controversy after claiming that " there was no genocide in Srebrenica ." See here and here . Speaking on Montenegrin television, Nikolic said, " There was no genocide in Srebrenica. In Srebrenica, grave war crimes were committed by some Serbs who should be found, prosecuted and punished ." "It is very difficult to indict someone and prove before a court that an event qualifies as genocide." His remarks come as the trial of Ratko Mladic gets underway. The spokesperson for the European Union's foreign policy official,...
The UN High Commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, said that amnesty could not be granted for "serious crimes" in Syria. Rejecting the possibility of President Assad being granted amnesty in a safe haven, in exchange for relinquishing power, Pillay said that whilst international leaders may be drawn into "politically expedient solutions which may involve amnesty or undertakings not to prosecute," it would be wrong under international law. In an interview with The Associated Press, Pillay said, " You cannot have amnesty for very serious crimes. " " So my message is very clear -- there has...