ICC issues arrest warrant for Sudan’s Omar Al Bashir

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/03/04/18574909.php

Sudan’s President indicted on five counts of Crimes against Humanity and two counts of War Crimes, the crime of Genocide is not included in the warrant

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Missoula, March 4, (Al-Masakin)–The International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague, Netherlands, has issued its long expected arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir this morning for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Al Bashir is suspected of intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population in Darfur, Sudan, which include murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and transferring by force large numbers of civilians and looting heir property. An estimated 300,000 people have died in the conflict.

This is the first warrant issued by the ICC for a Head of State. The Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC claims Al Bashir capacity as a Head of State does not grant him immunity from prosecution, or mitigate his criminal culpability.
According to the Court, the aforementioned crimes were committed during a five-year counter-insurgency campaign led by Sudan’s government against the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and other armed groups opposing the Government of Sudan in Darfur.

It is alleged that this campaign started soon after the April 2003 attack on El Fasher airport as a result of a common plan agreed upon at the highest level of the Government of Sudan by Omar Al Bashir and other high-ranking Sudanese political and military leaders. It lasted at least until July 14 2008, the date of the filing of the Prosecution’s Application for the warrant of arrest for Omar Al Bashir.

A core component of that campaign was the unlawful attack on that part of the civilian population of Darfur – belonging largely to the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups – perceived to be close to the organized armed groups opposing the Government of Sudan in Darfur.

The civilian population was to be unlawfully attacked by Government of Sudan forces, including the Sudanese Armed Forces and their allied Janjaweed Militia, the Sudanese Police Force, the National Intelligence and Security Service and the Humanitarian Aid Commission.

The Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Omar Al Bashir, as President and Commander-in-Chief de jure and de facto, of having coordinated the design and implementation of the counter-insurgency campaign. In the alternative, it also found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that he was in control of all branches of the “apparatus” of the State of Sudan and used such control to secure the implementation of the counter-insurgency campaign.

The counts

The warrant of arrest for Omar Al Bashir lists 7 counts on the basis of his individual criminal responsibility (article 25(3)(a)) including:

• Five counts of crimes against humanity: murder – article 7(1)(a); extermination – article 7(1)(b); forcible transfer – article 7(1)(d); torture – article 7(1)(f); and rape – article 7(1)(g);
• Two counts of war crimes: intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities – article 8(2)(e)(i); and pillaging – article 8(2)(e)(v).

Findings concerning genocide

The majority of the Chamber, Judge Anita Ušacka dissenting, found that the material provided by the Prosecution in support of its application for a warrant of arrest failed to provide reasonable grounds to believe that the Government of Sudan acted with specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups.

Consequently, the crime of genocide is not included in the warrant issued for the arrest of Omar Al Bashir. Nevertheless, the Judges stressed that if additional evidence is gathered by the Prosecution, the decision would not prevent the Prosecution from requesting an amendment to the warrant of arrest in order to include the crime of genocide.

Cooperation of States

The Judges directed the Registrar to prepare and transmit, as soon as practicable, a request for cooperation for the arrest and surrender of Omar Al Bashir to Sudan, and to all States Parties to the Rome Statute and all United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members that are not party to the Statute, as well as to any other State as may be necessary.

The Judges found that, according to UNSC resolution 1593 and articles 25 and 103 of the UN Charter, the obligation of the Government of Sudan to fully cooperate with the Court prevails over any other international obligation that the Government of Sudan may have undertaken pursuant to any other international agreement.

Obstruction of Justice

Pre-Trial Chamber I also found that the Government of Sudan has systematically refused to cooperate with the Court since the issuance of warrants for the arrest of the Sudanese Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Ahmad Harun, and a regional Janjaweed militia leader, Ali Kushayb, on May 2, 2007.

As a result, the Judges emphasized that, according to article 87(7) of the Statute, if the Government of Sudan continues to fail to comply with its cooperation obligations to the Court, the competent Chamber “may make a finding to that effect” and decide to “refer the matter […] to the Security Council.”

Furthermore, the Judges noted that the dispositive part of UNSC resolution 1593 expressly urges all States, whether party or not to the Rome Statute, as well as international and regional organizations to “cooperate fully” with the Court.

EHC / EHC
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad submits bill on Universal Jurisdiction and international war crimes, awaits Majlis and Guardian Council approval

View Rate : 1125 #            News Code : TTime- 189890        Print Date : Monday, February 23, 2009 Ahmadinejad submits intl. war crimes bill Tehran Times Political Desk TEHRAN — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presented a bill to the Majlis on Sunday calling for the investigation of international war crimes. In January, the cabinet approved the bill calling for the prosecution of individuals charged with committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially against Muslim people, in any part of the world. According to the bill, massacring people or depriving them of basic necessities and blocking the supply of humanitarian assistance with the aim of exterminating all or part of a population because they practice a particular religion or inhabit a particular region are all considered genocide and those convicted of such offenses will be sentenced to death or receive a prison sentence ranging from 15 years to life. Displacing people, racism, rape, and other similar inhumane actions perpetrated against a civilian population on a large scale in order to carry out the policies of an organization or a government are deemed to be crimes against humanity and those convicted of such offenses will be sentenced to 10 to 20 years imprisonment, the bill states. The bill also defines the deliberate murder of people, illegal confiscation of assets, forcing captives to fight against their own country, taking hostages, using toxic weapons, starving civilians, and recruiting children under 15 year olds for military operations as war crimes. If the bill is approved by the Majlis and the Guardian Council and becomes a law, the Iranian Judiciary will designate some of its courts in Tehran for holding trials

Three judge panel of the ICC to publish decision on possible arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir March 4

Missoula, Feb. 23 (Al-Masakin)–The International Criminal Court (ICC) shall publish its decision on whether or not to issue an arrest warrent for Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir for the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

In an effort to quash media rumors about a possible arrest warrant being issued for Al Bashir, the three judeg panel of Pre-Trial Chamber I,  after noting the Prosecution’s application for an arrest warrent for Al Bashir made July 14, 2008, article 58 of the Rome Statute, which established the procedure for issuance of summons and arrest warrents for failure to appear, and article 68 which protects the witness and victims of the crimes, decided to make a public announcement on the disposition of the case March 4.

EHC / EHC

The ICC doesn’t need jurisdiction over Palestine to proceed against Israel

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/02/14/18570675.php

The crimes over which the ICC has jurisdiction do not need to be committed against a sovereign, nor does the alleged criminal need to recognize the authority of the court.

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Op / Ed
By Edward Campbell
Missoula, Feb. 14 (Al-Masakin)—The Palestinian authority does not need to be a sovereign state for Israel to be tried in the ICC because the ICC will not be asserting jurisdiction over Palestine. The ICC will be asserting jurisdiction over Israel, not Palestine. Israel is a sovereign state therefore the jurisdiction of the ICC applies.

The assertion that a sovereign state must advance the cause in the ICC is also incorrect for it is not a person at law that advances a criminal proceeding; it is the prosecutor on behalf of the court who advances a case in court. Criminal proceedings are advanced by public prosecutors vested with the authority to proceed in court. The crime victim, in this case Palestine, is a witness in this court not the prosecutor of the cause before the court.

The fact that Israel is a non-signor to the Rome Statute of the ICC is equally irrelevant because the jurisdiction of the court is over sovereign states not over signors to the Rome Statute. The questions before the ICC at this time then are: Is Israel a sovereign nation? Is there prima facie evidence that Israel committed any of the following crimes: genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity?

None of these alleged crimes need to be carried out against a sovereign nation in order to be considered crimes at law in the ICC. For instance the Nazi crimes against

the Jewish people were tried in an international court though the Jewish people were not a sovereign nation. Germany however was a sovereign nation. The jurisdiction of the court applied to Germany not because the Jewish people were a sovereign nation, but because Germany was.

Slobodan Milosovic was tried in the ICTY though neither Serbia nor Yugoslavia were signors to the Rome Statute. Likewise Ahmad Harun and Ali Kushayb of Sudan are both under indictment by the prosecutor of the ICC though Sudan is a non-signor to the Rome Statute. Israel, moreover, first recognized the ICC then “un-signed” the statute in 2002.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs currently explains its reversal on the issue of the ICC: “the head of Israel’s delegation, Judge Eli Nathan, pointed to the inclusion of the crime of transferring population as an example of politicization that Israel could not accept.”

This would suggest that Israel feared the jurisdiction of the court on account of its deportations of Palestinian civilians. The charges being advanced in the present case, however, are not charges of a lingering injury, but are in fact new injuries of recent memory which stem from different causes. The present case has nothing to do with the foundation of Israel, or it legitimacy.

The matter in hand is however whether or not Israel used banned weapons on civilian populations a war crime. The question of genocide as it may be applied in the ICC is not whether act were committed against a sovereign nations, but whether or not acts were committed against ‘a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.’ Clearly Palestine does not need to be a sovereign nation in order to articulate its claims, but indeed it isn’t Palestine who articulates the claim but the Prosecutor of the ICC. Palestine merely stands as evidence of the crimes, not the prosecution for them.

If Israel believes it is innocent of these charges, then it should rest assured that its leadership who will be brought to the dock there will be vindicated at trial. Israel’s leadership should have little to worry about if they are indeed innocent.

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Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) to convene international conference on Israeli war crimes in Rabat Feb. 14 & 15

International Conference at Rabat on Israel’s Crimes in Gaza Strip   Feb 12, 2009

Rabat, (SANA) – An international conference on the war crimes and genocide committed by Israel during its aggression on Gaza Strip will be held on the 14th and 15th of February at the headquarters of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) at the Moroccan city of Rabat. According to a statement published on the ISESCO website, the conference which is organized in cooperation with Palestinian, regional and international juristic organizations aims to prepare studies on the Isreaeli war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity committed against Palestinian civilians. The conference will also seek to gather evidence to support reports in that regard and discuss means for utilizing international movements calling for putting Israel’s leaders on trial for their crimes in Gaza. The conference will discuss several issues including international laws and UN resolutions that affirm the Palestinian people’s right to liberate their land and establish an independent state, in addition to documenting Israeli violations of these laws and resolutions. H. Sabbagh / Ghossoun