www.sandersresearch.com
December 1, 2005
The Dallaire Genocide Fax: A Fabrication
By Chris Black
© 2003-5. Sanders Research Associates. All rights reserved.
Chris Black, since 2000, has been a lead counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda.
The murder of two African presidents
The idea that the Rwandan government planned the genocide of the minority Tutsi population in 1994 rests primarily on the statements of the enemies of that government who need the idea of a genocide in order to justify the final act of aggression against Rwanda by the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) so-called and its allies. That final act of aggression was the RPF offensive launched the night of April 6, 1994 with the massacre of everyone on board the jet aircraft of President Habyarimana, the Hutu president of Rwanda and President Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi.
The two presidents were returning from a meeting called by President Museveni of Uganda to discuss the implementation of the Arusha Accords, the peace agreement between the Rwandan government and the RPF-Ugandan forces which had invaded the country in 1990. Also on board the plane was the Rwandan Army Chief of Staff, other dignitaries and a French military crew. The plane was shot down by anti-aircraft missiles as it approached Kigali airport. It is now established that the plane was shot down by the RPF with the cooperation and assistance of western powers including the United States of America, Britain, Belgium and Canada. President Ntaryamira was the second Hutu president murdered by Tutsis. President Ndadaye of Burundi was murdered by Tutsi officers of the Burundi Army in October of 1993.
British and US interests
The attack on the plane was the culmination of a long-planned war by the RPF and its allies. The war began in 1990 when Ugandan soldiers of Tutsi origin invaded Rwanda under the name of the RPF. This act of aggression by Uganda was supported by both Britain and the USA. Those countries provided the encouragement and the financial, material, logistical, advisory and training support necessary, flowing it all through the Ugandan Army to the RPF. The American and British instigated and controlled the war as a means of advancing their grand strategy of invading Zaire to seize control of the vast resources of the Congo basin.
The first attack was repelled and the RPF then adopted terrorism and guerilla operations to undermine Rwanda. Several other major attacks took place in the following three years. At the same time, the western allies of the RPF pressured the Rwandan government to come to terms with the RPF and in 1993 at Arusha, Tanzania, a series of negotiations resulted in the signing of the Arusha Accords. The Rwandan government was forced to make several major concessions to the RPF even though it could only claim, at best, to represent 15% of the Rwandan population. The Accords called for the establishment of a transition government sharing power with the RPF, leading to elections of a final government. However, it was known by everyone that the RPF could never win such elections and could only win power by force of arms and treachery.
Enter Dallaire
The Accords also called for the presence in Rwanda of a neutral UN force to help keep the peace during the process. That force, known as UNAMIR, was headed by Jacques Roger Booh-Booh and, under him, the military force commander, Canadian General Romeo Dallaire.
As UN documents show, Dallaire was aware, at least from December 1993, and probably before, that the RPF, with the support of the Ugandan Army, was daily violating the Accords by sending into Rwanda men, materiel, and light and heavy weapons in preparation for a final offensive. Dallaire kept this information from his boss Booh-Booh and the Secretary General, Boutros-Ghali. The RPF was assisted in these violations of the Accords by the Belgian contingent of UNAMIR and the Canadian officers involved who turned a blind eye to the RPF and Ugandan Army smuggling into Rwanda men and materiel and even assisted them in doing so all the while protesting that the Hutu regime was hiding weapons, a charge which has never been proven.
In conjunction with the military build-up by the RPF and its allies, including the infiltration into Kigali, the capital city, of up to 10,000 RPF soldiers, western journalists and western intelligence services masquerading as “human rights” organizations began a concerted propaganda campaign against the Government and through it the Hutu people, accusing it of various human rights abuses, none of which were substantiated. The RPF engaged in assassinations of officials, politicians and civilians, and attempted to cast the blame on the government. Dallaire assisted in this campaign by suppressing facts concerning these crimes and openly siding with the RPF propaganda statements.
A country pushed to the brink
These actions, combined with the stresses of the war on the economy and the social fabric of the country, mass unemployment, a large internal refugee population fleeing RPF attacks, and the breakdown of the government’s ability to function caused by the collapse of revenue from coffee and tea exports, resulted in a tinderbox. Only a spark was needed for the country to explode. That spark was the murder of the President and the country-wide offensive launched by the RPF and its allies the night of April 6, 1994.
From the very start of their offensive, the RPF began a propaganda campaign claiming that they were motivated by the need to stop a “genocide”. This entirely false claim was never questioned by the western press, always eager to support their governments, even in the face of the fact that the Rwandan government several times asked the RPF for cease-fires so that civilian attacks on civilians could be stopped, and the fact that Rwanda, then a member of the Security Council, demanded that 5,000 more UN troops be sent to assist in controlling the situation a request refused at the instigation of the US.
They stepped up this campaign as the war progressed. On April 13, 1994 the RPF demanded the trial of the Rwandan government and army for “genocide” before an international tribunal, echoing the threat made to President Habyarimana by Herman Cohen[2] on behalf of the US in the fall of 1993 that unless Habyarimana ceded all power to the RPF his body would be dragged through the streets of Kigali and his government tried by an international tribunal. This demand at one and the same time:
criminalized the Rwandan government,
justified the RPF and American refusal to negotiate terms with “criminals”,
prevented the government from obtaining support and assistance from its major western ally, France,
destroyed any support it had in the international community and public opinion, and finally,
justified the brutal RPF military dictatorship over the people of Rwanda.
The RPF and its allies succeeded in all these objectives and continue their propaganda campaign today with continuous show trials both in Rwanda, through the Gacaca “trial” system and through the show trials of Hutus taking place at the American and British controlled Rwanda War Crimes Tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania.
Two major problems with RPF claims
However, there are two major problems with the RPF claims. Firstly, there is a surprising lack of evidence. The only independent study of those killed in Rwanda in 1994, conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Maryland, indicates that there were approximately 250,000 people killed, not the 800,000 plus advanced by the RPF, and that for every Tutsi killed, two Hutus were killed, and those mainly by the RPF. This is confirmed in the recently released book, Rwanda, l'Histoire Secrete (2005, Edition du Panama) written by a former RPF officer named Abdul Ruzibiza who also states that the RPF shot down the plane [for further sources on this key issue see APPENDIX below] and that there was a genocide of Hutu by the RPF.
Secondly, there is a stunning lack of documentary evidence of a government plan to commit genocide. There are no orders, minutes of meetings, notes, cables, faxes, radio intercepts, diaries, or any other type of documentation that such a plan ever existed. In fact, the documentary evidence establishes just the opposite.
The "genocide" fax
This lack of documentation is the Achilles Heel of the RPF-western claims of genocide. Something was needed to fill this void. That something is the so-called “genocide” fax supposedly sent to New York UN HQ on the night of January 10th-11th 1994 and which first made its appearance in public on November 28th, 1995 when it was placed in the UN files in New York and contemporaneously leaked to a journalist in Belgium and the London Observer.
This fax is the single document upon which the claims of a planned genocide rest. It was supposedly sent by General Dallaire to General Baril, another Canadian general at the Dept of Peace Keeping Operations in New York. It sets out the claims of a UN informant named Jean Pierre Turatsinze that the ruling government party planned to exterminate Tutsis, was training civilians for that purpose and that there was a plan to kill Belgian soldiers to provoke the withdrawal of UN forces. This fax has been trumpeted by the ICTR prosecution as the key to the plan to commit genocide. However, all the evidence presented at the Tribunal and elsewhere establishes that, in fact, the fax is a fabrication.
On November 5th, 1995 the RPF organized a conference in Kigali to amplify support for their claims of genocide and for the trial and punishment of those responsible. This conference failed to provide any documentary evidence of such a claim. At the same time a UNAMIR commission was created by its new head, Mr. S Khan and which included several UN officers who went through all the UNAMIR cables, faxes and reports to determine whether there had been any prior indication of such a plan. Not one document was found, especially the “genocide” fax. That report is dated November 20th , 1995.
Fax on the fast track
Then, mysteriously, a few days after the release of the UN report, on November 28th, 1995 a fax machine at the UN offices in New York received a fax of a copy of a code cable dated January 11th 1994 sent by Dallaire to General Baril. The problem is that the person who sent the fax to New York that day was a Colonel R. M. Connaughton of the British Army, based at Camberly, Surrey, England, the home of the British Military Academy, Sandhurst as well as several other British Army establishments. His name and fax number appear at the top of the document. There was no cover letter explaining who sent it, why it was sent, nor is there anything indicating why this document was accepted by the UN in New York and placed in the DPKO files.
This document has typed on its face, “This cable was not found in DPKO files. The present copy was placed in the files on November 28th, 1995.” It is signed by Lamin J. Sise, a UN official. The document contains other handwritten notes made on it after its receipt that day.
However, the copy of this document presented by the Prosecutor at the ICTR for the last ten years has had the name and fax number of the sender, Sise’s note and other notes removed. It is this doctored version of the cable that the Prosecutor tried to present as an exhibit in the Military II in October, 2005, through a prosecution witness, Lt. Col. Claeys, an officer of the Belgian Army and one of the men who claims to have drafted and sent the original cable. But the prosecution suffered a major setback and embarrassment when defence counsel objected to the attempt to make this doctored version an exhibit and entered into the record the copy of the fax contained in the DPKO files bearing the name of the British Army source.
Conflicting testimony
Both General Dallaire and Lt. Col. Claeys have testified that the contents of the fax as set out in the fax presented by the prosecution are identical to the contents of the fax or cable sent the night of January 10th-11th, though interestingly Dallaire states that Claeys was not involved in drafting the fax, whereas Claeys insists he was. It is clear that Dallaire testified to the contrary when he was faced on cross-examination in the Military I trial with statements made by Claeys in 1995 to Belgian investigators and in 1997 to the Belgian Senate, that the fax sent that night dealt only with weapons caches and seeking protection for the informant and contained nothing about killing Tutsis or killing Belgian soldiers. In order to eliminate this embarrassing fact, Dallaire simply erased Claeys from the picture.
It is clear from the the fax itself and the surrounding circumstances, that there was a fax sent that night but it was not the one now presented to the ICTR and the world as the one sent by Dallaire.
The informant was presented to Dallaire by Faustin Twagiramungu, a Rwandan opposition candidate for Prime Minister and an strong opponent of the Rwandan government and sympathizer of the RPF. He has since stated that he told Dallaire and his staff that the informant claimed to have information only about weapons caches and he was surprised to hear years later that the informant had information about the killing of Tutsi and Belgians.
General Dallaire does not mention such a fax before November 1995. There is no mention of plans to kill Tutsi or Belgians contained in any of the notes of meetings between the informant and Claeys which followed the first meeting with the informant described in the fax. Again, the principal subject mentioned in those meetings is weapons caches. Neither Dallaire nor any of the Belgian commanders acted as if they had received any such information. There was no action taken by them to put their men on alert or to take precautions. There was no response from New York to such a fax. There exist only responses to a fax concerning weapons caches, but this original fax is nowhere to be found.
It is clear that Dallaire sent a fax that night and that it concerned only weapons caches and seeking advice from New York regarding the protection of the informant. In fact, the subject heading of the “genocide” fax is not “genocide” or “killing” but an innocuous “Request For Protection of Informant”. The present fax was fabricated using the original fax which dealt with weapons caches only by cutting out some of the paragraphs of that fax and pasting in new paragraphs about killing Tutsis and Belgians. This is supported by the fact that the paragraphs are numbered 1 through 13 but there is no paragraph 12. Further the only reply to a fax sent that night from Kigali refers to a paragraph 7 as the action paragraph. But in the fax as presented by the prosecution the action paragraph is paragraph 9, the paragraph seeking advice on protection of the informant. Also Paragraph 11 states that Dallaire will meet with Faustin Twagiramungu to brief him on events but as we know that man states that he was never told of such information coming from the informant. Lastly, paragraph 2 states that the killing of Belgians would “guarantee Belgian withdrawal from Rwanda” something that could only be known after the fact.
Nobody told Booh-Booh
One last curious fact is that Dallaire states he bypassed protocol by sending the fax without the signature of his boss, Booh-Booh or his seeing it. He states that this is the only occasion when this happened. This only makes sense if, in fact, he did not violate protocol as he never sent this fax in the first place. His version is a way of getting around the fact that Booh-Booh never saw what is now called the “genocide” fax. Booh-Booh testified at the Rwanda War Crimes Tribunal the week of November 21, 2005 that he never saw the fax Dallaire says he sent and that further that General Dallaire never mentioned to him in their meeting of January 12, 1994 that the informant mentioned the killing of Belgians or Tutsis. Booh-Booh also testified that when he and Dallaire met with several western ambassadors, including the Belgian ambassador, Dallaire never mentioned the killing of Belgians or Tutsis to them either nor in their meeting with President Habyarimana. In those meetings Dallaire spoke only about allegations of weapons caches.
New colonialism masquerading as “international justice”
All these circumstances can lead to one conclusion only; that the fax is a fabrication after the fact and that a fraud is being committed on the people of Rwanda and the world and the judges of the Rwanda war crimes tribunal. This fabricated fax is being used to try to condemn the accused on trial before the ICTR and to support the now discredited idea that a genocide was pre-planned by the former Rwandan government against the Tutsi population of that tragic country. However it is becoming increasingly clear that General Dallaire worked with the RPF throughout the period of his mandate in Rwanda in violation of the UN mandate. Booh-Booh states that he provided military intelligence to the RPF as well as covering up their preparation for their final offensive and through his false testimony at the Rwanda War Crimes Tribunal and his book continues to act on behalf of powerful interests in his own government and that of the United States and Britain.
Appendix
1) In his book, Abdul Ruzibiza states that he was one of the men involved in the shootdown as part of the team doing reconnaissance for the shootdown team. He was an officer in the RPF. He is due to testify at the ICTR in the coming weeks if his security can be assured. He is presently in hiding in Norway.
2) The Hourigan Report This report (a copy of which is in the author's possesion) was written by an Australian lawyer acting as the head of the investigative team at the ICTR assigned by then prosecutor Louise Arbour to determine who shot down the plane. She was acting under the theory that "extremist" Hutus in the Rwandan government shot down the plane. Hourigan and his team were successful in finding three members of the shootdown team who stated they were RPF and that they were assisted by a foreign power (unnamed) and that they had the documents to prove it. They asked for protection. When Arbour was presented with these facts she ordered the investigation closed. The author was informed by a former FBI agent who worked at the ICTR that she did so on the instructions of the US ambassador in Rwanda. (Which would make her guilty of being an accessory to a war crime as the murder of a head of state in a war is a war crime and it is evident that the murder of the president and army chief of staff was the first action of the RPF offensive.) This report was first published in the National Post in Canada by a reporter named Stephen Edwards in 2001.
The UN at first denied this report existed. But several defence counsel demanded its production so it was then "found" and sent under seal to the judges at the ICTR. They then released it to several defence teams.
Hourigan wrote this report to the oversight office for some reason and is a summary of the complete file. Several requests have been made to have the complete investigative file released, without success. Hourigan is now said to be working as a lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia.
3. Jean-Pierre Mugabe the former head of RPF intelligence who also fled the regime also stated in 2001 that Kagame and the RPF shot down the plane.
4. French investigative judge Brugiere investigating the shootdown on behalf of the families of the French crew leaked (or someone in his office did) a copy of the report to a French journalist with the English name Steven Smith last year who published its findings in Le Monde that it was the RPF who shot it down with the assistance of others.
5. Former Secratery General Boutros-Boutros Ghali stated this year that he had met Brugiere at a conference and was told by the French judge that the CIA was "heavily implicated" in the shootdown.
6. The RPF was the only force in Rwanda which had anti-aircraft missiles to the knowledge of the Force Commander Dallaire. Dallaire arranged for the closure of the western approach to the runway at the request of the RPF. This made it easier for the RPF and others to track the plane as it came in from the east. The Belgian contingent of the UN force was in control of the airport area and the area from which the missiles were fired. A Belgian unit (later killed at Camp Kigali) were the only people caught by the army coming out of the firing area after the shootdown when the army threw up a cordon to try to catch the culprits.
7. Wayne Madsen a former NSA intel officer who wrote, Covert Operations and Genocide in Africa, 1990-93, states that (and testified to this before the US Congress in 2001 when hearings were held by Cynthia McKinney into the Rwanda and Congo wars) that the CIA, using a Swiss front company used that company to rent a hangar at the Kigali airport in which they assembled the missiles. He also states that the US hoped to assassination, at the same time, Mobutu of Zaire and Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya all in in one fell swoop (they were supposed to attend the same meeting and be on the same flight) in order to seize control of all central and east Africa. At that time the US 6th fleet was cruising off Mombasa and there were 600 US Rangers on stand-by to assist the RPF in Burundi.
8. Charles Onana a well-known journalist writing on this subject wrote about his investigations and that it was the RPF, as did Canadian author Robin Philpot in his book It Didn't Happen Like That In Kigali (loose translation of the French title).
7. Honore Ngambo, Mobutu's former chief of security published a book earlier this year in France in which he recounts the last meeting between Mobut and the Hutu president two days before he was killed in which the President stated that he was told by Herman Cohen he was basically a dead man and that he heard from his agents in the RPF camp that they were going to shootdown the plane. He confronted Dallaire with this and that he knew Dallaire was involved and Dallaire just replied "No one will believe you".
8. This author possesses a radio intercept of a message sent by Kagame to his forces in the field the night of the shootdown stating that the "Target is hit" and encouraging his forces to take to the field and that they would be in Kigali and were receiving support from their friends in the south, that is from Burundi, where the US Rangers were, and Burundian forces the latter of which actually invaded Rwanda in May to link up with the RPF coming from the north. Other radio messages were intercepted referring to the fact the RPF had the assistance of the Belgians in the UN forces who were fighting alongside them. The Belgians deny this.
Footnotes:
[1]For an earlier essay entitled “ Persecution not Prosecution” (October 2004) see http://www.sandersresearch.com/Sanders/NewsManager/ShowNewsGen.aspx?NewsID=747
[2] Herman Cohen is a former US Secretary of State for African affairs who served under the elder George Bush. He is a consultant to American business firms operating and trading in Africa. He also provides strategic advice to African governments.
12 April, 2008
The Rwandan Document Project
In a monumental effort that renders my tiny attempt at an ICTR archive all but obsolete, Mr. Peter Erlinder, a lead defence council in the Military I trial at the ICTR, has officially opened a massive archive of ICTR documents to the public for research and viewing. It is located at:
http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?a=p&p=home&l=en&w=utf-8.
Here is the official introduction: The Rwanda Documents Project was started by Professor Peter Erlinder of William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota as a result of his work as a defense attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The goal of the Project is to collect and make available primary source materials from international and national agencies, governments, and courts that relate to the political and social history of Rwanda from 1990 to the present.
Mr. Erlinder's enormous effort to create this vital project helps ensure that the ICTR evidenciary documents are available to the public realm where they belong.
http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?a=p&p=home&l=en&w=utf-8.
Here is the official introduction: The Rwanda Documents Project was started by Professor Peter Erlinder of William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota as a result of his work as a defense attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The goal of the Project is to collect and make available primary source materials from international and national agencies, governments, and courts that relate to the political and social history of Rwanda from 1990 to the present.
Mr. Erlinder's enormous effort to create this vital project helps ensure that the ICTR evidenciary documents are available to the public realm where they belong.
Ethiopia: Repression Sets Stage for Non-Competitive Elections.
Human Rights Watch
11 April 2008
The Ethiopian government’s repression of registered opposition parties and ordinary voters has largely prevented political competition ahead of local elections that begin on April 13, Human Rights Watch said today. These widespread acts of violence, arbitrary detention and intimidation mirror long-term patterns of abuse designed to suppress political dissent in Ethiopia.
“It is too late to salvage these elections, which will simply be a rubber stamp on the EPRDF’s near-monopoly on power at the local level,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Still, officials must at least allow the voters to decide how and whether to cast their ballots without intimidation.”
Human Rights Watch carried out two weeks of field research during the run-up to the polls and documented systemic patterns of repression and abuse that have rendered the elections meaningless in many areas. That research focused primarily on Oromia, Ethiopia’s most populous region and one long troubled by heavy-handed government repression.
The nationwide elections for the kebele (village or neighborhood councils), and wereda (districts made up of several kebeles administrations), are crucially important. It is local officials who are responsible for much of the day-to-day repression that characterizes governance in Ethiopia. Many local officials in Oromia have made a routine practice of justifying their abuses by accusing law-abiding government critics of belonging to the outlawed Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which is waging a low-level insurrection against the government.
Candidates allied with the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) will run unopposed in the vast majority of constituencies across Ethiopia. On April 10, one of Ethiopia’s two major opposition coalitions, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), pulled out of the process altogether. UEDF officials complained that intimidation and procedural irregularities limited registration to only 6,000 of the 20,000 candidates they attempted to put forward for various seats. By contrast, state-controlled media reports that the EPRDF will field more than 4 million candidates across the country.
Violence, Arbitrary Detention, and Intimidation
Local ruling party officials have systematically targeted opposition candidates for violence, intimidation, and other human rights abuses since the registration period began three months ago. Particularly in areas with established opposition support, local officials have arbitrarily detained opposition candidates, searched their property without warrant, and in some cases physically assaulted them.
Credible reports collected by Human Rights Watch indicate a pattern of cooperation among officials across all three tiers of local government – zone, wereda, and kebele administrations – in carrying out these abuses. Victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch across different locations in Oromia recounted a consistent narrative. Some were arbitrarily detained and then interrogated or threatened by wereda administration officials in the presence of zonal officials. Others were arbitrarily detained by wereda police and then transferred to the custody to zonal security officials or federal soldiers.
One 31-year-old school teacher in western Oromia was detained by police and then interrogated by wereda and zonal security officials when he sought to register as an opposition candidate. “I was afraid,” he told Human Rights Watch. “They accused me of being on OLF member and said I would be shot... They put a gun in my mouth, and then made me swear that I wouldn’t go back to the opposition.” He was released nine days later, after the deadline for candidate registration had passed. Human Rights Watch interviewed other OPC candidates who had also been detained after trying to register in other constituencies.
Prospective voters who might support the opposition have been similarly targeted by the government. Secondary school students in Oromia’s Cheliya wereda, many of whom are of voting age, reported to Human Rights Watch that they have been compelled to provide a letter from representatives of their gott/garee – unofficial groupings of households into cells that are used to monitor political speech and intimidate perceived government critics – attesting that they did not belong to any opposition party. Local officials said that unless they produced those letters, they would not be allowed to register to vote. One civil servant in Gedo town was warned by a superior that he would lose his job if he supported the opposition.
“The same local level officials who are directly responsible for much of the day-to-day political repression that occurs in Ethiopia have their jobs at stake in these elections,” Gagnon said. “As such, their efforts to intimidate ordinary people into returning them to office are especially intense.”
Local authorities have also prevented the registration of opposition candidates in many constituencies where the opposition’s success in 2005 parliamentary polls appeared to give them a chance at winning. In Fincha in western Oromia, for example, the opposition Oromo People’s Congress (OPC) made three attempts to register a candidate for an open parliamentary seat. The seat had been vacated by an OPC candidate who won 81 percent of the vote in 2005 but was later forced into exile after local authorities accused him of being an OLF supporter. The OPC tried to replace him on the ballot with three different candidates but each was prevented from registering. All three candidates were physically threatened by members of the wereda administration and police and one was detained for more than a week when he tried to register.
The opposition Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) has encountered similar problems in western Oromia, with 10 of its 14 candidates resigning in response to pressure from local officials. In February, police in Dembi Dollo arrested 16 OFDM members and accused them of belonging to the OLF. Although a court ordered them all released two weeks later when police could provide no evidence to support their allegations, they were subsequently threatened with physical harm by local officials.
The home and crops of one OFDM member in the same area were burned. He reported this to the police with the aid of OFDM officials but alleged to Human Rights Watch that the police then failed to investigate the incident.
Such repression has been widespread in Oromia. The OPC gave Human Rights Watch the names of more than 300 party members it claims have been detained since November 2007. Investigations carried out by the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), Ethiopia’s preeminent human rights monitoring organization, corroborate claims that many opposition supporters in Oromia have been arrested or illegally detained for periods ranging from days to months, often on the basis of alleged links to the OLF.
Procedural and Other Bars to Opposition Participation
In many cases, acts of intimidation have gone hand-in-hand with unjustifiable bureaucratic and procedural bars on free opposition participation in the polls. Some representatives of the NEB responsible for the registration of candidates at the constituency level have worked with local officials to block opposition registration. In some cases NEB agents have cancelled the registration of opposition candidates either without explanation or based on age and residency criteria despite clear evidence to the contrary. In other instances, NEB representatives provided the names of opposition candidates to local officials and to the police. Police in some of those constituencies then cordoned off access to NEB offices and physically prevented suspected opposition candidates from entering.
Across western Oromia, the country’s largest state, local officials have refused to allow candidates of the two main opposition parties there, the OPC and OFDM, to register more than a token share of candidates. In some constituencies, authorities have closed down OPC and OFDM offices and threatened their candidates with arrest if they persisted in competing.
In some cases, local authorities offered bribes to opposition candidates to withdraw. One OFDM candidate interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that local ruling party leaders offered to pay his college tuition and guaranteed him a job in the local administration if he withdrew from the election.
“The run-up to these elections illustrates how meaningless the process of voting can be in an environment of intimidation and fear,” Gagnon said. “The Ethiopian government must publicly commit itself to ending the systemic human rights abuses that have become part of the foundation of its hold on power.”
Background
The patterns of repression and procedural manipulation that surround the upcoming polls are motivated in part by the increased importance that control of wereda and kebele administration has taken on since 2001. Financed in part by the World Bank and other donors, the Ethiopian government has decentralized the provision of basic services such as health and education. This has effectively empowered wereda administrators, who are appointed by the elected councils, with greater discretion in the allocation of budget expenditures.
The kebele system in particular is also a central part of the ruling party’s elaborate system of surveillance, intimidation, and coercion of ordinary people who are perceived as being unsympathetic to the government. The kebele were originally created by the dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam for precisely this purpose and have been put to the same use by the current government since Mengistu’s ouster in 1991. Because of the kebele system’s importance in this regard, the EPRDF is particularly loathe to contemplate losing control over them.
A dominant theme in the EPRDF’s political discourse on Oromia is the need to combat the activities of the outlawed Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which has been fighting a low-level insurrection against the government for years with Eritrean backing. Across much of Oromia, local officials have routinely and for many years used unproven allegations of links to the OLF as a pretext to subject law-abiding government critics to arbitrary detention, torture, extrajudicial killing, and other forms of human rights abuse.
Local officials in Oromia have also made extensive use of the kebele system, along with smaller cells called gott and garee, to keep residents under constant surveillance for signs of government criticism. The overwhelming majority of local and regional authorities in Oromia belong to the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), which is the regional arm of the EPRDF.
Ethiopia’s last elections were parliamentary polls in 2005. The run-up to the elections saw signs of openness in some areas, though in most constituencies the same patterns of repression documented above prevailed. Following the elections, opposition efforts to contest the results sparked a heavy-handed government crackdown that saw several hundred people gunned down in the streets of Addis Ababa, mass arrests of perceived opposition supporters, and several prominent opposition leaders jailed on charges of treason that were ultimately dropped.
Elections for city councils, kebele councils, and vacated parliamentary seats will be held on Sunday, April 13, 2008. Elections for the wereda councils will follow on April 20. The exercise is a vast one – Ethiopia is made up of 547 weredas, and each of those is broken up into numerous kebeles whose governing councils each seat 300 representatives. The weredas are grouped into zones, whose administrations are not at stake in these elections, and the zones are grouped into nine ethnically-based regions.
Ethiopia’s government is highly dependent on donor assistance but donor governments, including the United States and United Kingdom, have largely refused to criticize repression in Ethiopia or to demand improvements in the country’s human rights record. The United States in particular views Ethiopia as a key ally in the “war on terror,” and donor governments in general often express fear that Ethiopia’s government will react poorly to human rights-related criticisms. The Ethiopian government has refused to allow any foreign observers to monitor the upcoming elections.
11 April 2008
The Ethiopian government’s repression of registered opposition parties and ordinary voters has largely prevented political competition ahead of local elections that begin on April 13, Human Rights Watch said today. These widespread acts of violence, arbitrary detention and intimidation mirror long-term patterns of abuse designed to suppress political dissent in Ethiopia.
“It is too late to salvage these elections, which will simply be a rubber stamp on the EPRDF’s near-monopoly on power at the local level,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Still, officials must at least allow the voters to decide how and whether to cast their ballots without intimidation.”
Human Rights Watch carried out two weeks of field research during the run-up to the polls and documented systemic patterns of repression and abuse that have rendered the elections meaningless in many areas. That research focused primarily on Oromia, Ethiopia’s most populous region and one long troubled by heavy-handed government repression.
The nationwide elections for the kebele (village or neighborhood councils), and wereda (districts made up of several kebeles administrations), are crucially important. It is local officials who are responsible for much of the day-to-day repression that characterizes governance in Ethiopia. Many local officials in Oromia have made a routine practice of justifying their abuses by accusing law-abiding government critics of belonging to the outlawed Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which is waging a low-level insurrection against the government.
Candidates allied with the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) will run unopposed in the vast majority of constituencies across Ethiopia. On April 10, one of Ethiopia’s two major opposition coalitions, the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), pulled out of the process altogether. UEDF officials complained that intimidation and procedural irregularities limited registration to only 6,000 of the 20,000 candidates they attempted to put forward for various seats. By contrast, state-controlled media reports that the EPRDF will field more than 4 million candidates across the country.
Violence, Arbitrary Detention, and Intimidation
Local ruling party officials have systematically targeted opposition candidates for violence, intimidation, and other human rights abuses since the registration period began three months ago. Particularly in areas with established opposition support, local officials have arbitrarily detained opposition candidates, searched their property without warrant, and in some cases physically assaulted them.
Credible reports collected by Human Rights Watch indicate a pattern of cooperation among officials across all three tiers of local government – zone, wereda, and kebele administrations – in carrying out these abuses. Victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch across different locations in Oromia recounted a consistent narrative. Some were arbitrarily detained and then interrogated or threatened by wereda administration officials in the presence of zonal officials. Others were arbitrarily detained by wereda police and then transferred to the custody to zonal security officials or federal soldiers.
One 31-year-old school teacher in western Oromia was detained by police and then interrogated by wereda and zonal security officials when he sought to register as an opposition candidate. “I was afraid,” he told Human Rights Watch. “They accused me of being on OLF member and said I would be shot... They put a gun in my mouth, and then made me swear that I wouldn’t go back to the opposition.” He was released nine days later, after the deadline for candidate registration had passed. Human Rights Watch interviewed other OPC candidates who had also been detained after trying to register in other constituencies.
Prospective voters who might support the opposition have been similarly targeted by the government. Secondary school students in Oromia’s Cheliya wereda, many of whom are of voting age, reported to Human Rights Watch that they have been compelled to provide a letter from representatives of their gott/garee – unofficial groupings of households into cells that are used to monitor political speech and intimidate perceived government critics – attesting that they did not belong to any opposition party. Local officials said that unless they produced those letters, they would not be allowed to register to vote. One civil servant in Gedo town was warned by a superior that he would lose his job if he supported the opposition.
“The same local level officials who are directly responsible for much of the day-to-day political repression that occurs in Ethiopia have their jobs at stake in these elections,” Gagnon said. “As such, their efforts to intimidate ordinary people into returning them to office are especially intense.”
Local authorities have also prevented the registration of opposition candidates in many constituencies where the opposition’s success in 2005 parliamentary polls appeared to give them a chance at winning. In Fincha in western Oromia, for example, the opposition Oromo People’s Congress (OPC) made three attempts to register a candidate for an open parliamentary seat. The seat had been vacated by an OPC candidate who won 81 percent of the vote in 2005 but was later forced into exile after local authorities accused him of being an OLF supporter. The OPC tried to replace him on the ballot with three different candidates but each was prevented from registering. All three candidates were physically threatened by members of the wereda administration and police and one was detained for more than a week when he tried to register.
The opposition Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM) has encountered similar problems in western Oromia, with 10 of its 14 candidates resigning in response to pressure from local officials. In February, police in Dembi Dollo arrested 16 OFDM members and accused them of belonging to the OLF. Although a court ordered them all released two weeks later when police could provide no evidence to support their allegations, they were subsequently threatened with physical harm by local officials.
The home and crops of one OFDM member in the same area were burned. He reported this to the police with the aid of OFDM officials but alleged to Human Rights Watch that the police then failed to investigate the incident.
Such repression has been widespread in Oromia. The OPC gave Human Rights Watch the names of more than 300 party members it claims have been detained since November 2007. Investigations carried out by the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), Ethiopia’s preeminent human rights monitoring organization, corroborate claims that many opposition supporters in Oromia have been arrested or illegally detained for periods ranging from days to months, often on the basis of alleged links to the OLF.
Procedural and Other Bars to Opposition Participation
In many cases, acts of intimidation have gone hand-in-hand with unjustifiable bureaucratic and procedural bars on free opposition participation in the polls. Some representatives of the NEB responsible for the registration of candidates at the constituency level have worked with local officials to block opposition registration. In some cases NEB agents have cancelled the registration of opposition candidates either without explanation or based on age and residency criteria despite clear evidence to the contrary. In other instances, NEB representatives provided the names of opposition candidates to local officials and to the police. Police in some of those constituencies then cordoned off access to NEB offices and physically prevented suspected opposition candidates from entering.
Across western Oromia, the country’s largest state, local officials have refused to allow candidates of the two main opposition parties there, the OPC and OFDM, to register more than a token share of candidates. In some constituencies, authorities have closed down OPC and OFDM offices and threatened their candidates with arrest if they persisted in competing.
In some cases, local authorities offered bribes to opposition candidates to withdraw. One OFDM candidate interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that local ruling party leaders offered to pay his college tuition and guaranteed him a job in the local administration if he withdrew from the election.
“The run-up to these elections illustrates how meaningless the process of voting can be in an environment of intimidation and fear,” Gagnon said. “The Ethiopian government must publicly commit itself to ending the systemic human rights abuses that have become part of the foundation of its hold on power.”
Background
The patterns of repression and procedural manipulation that surround the upcoming polls are motivated in part by the increased importance that control of wereda and kebele administration has taken on since 2001. Financed in part by the World Bank and other donors, the Ethiopian government has decentralized the provision of basic services such as health and education. This has effectively empowered wereda administrators, who are appointed by the elected councils, with greater discretion in the allocation of budget expenditures.
The kebele system in particular is also a central part of the ruling party’s elaborate system of surveillance, intimidation, and coercion of ordinary people who are perceived as being unsympathetic to the government. The kebele were originally created by the dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Mariam for precisely this purpose and have been put to the same use by the current government since Mengistu’s ouster in 1991. Because of the kebele system’s importance in this regard, the EPRDF is particularly loathe to contemplate losing control over them.
A dominant theme in the EPRDF’s political discourse on Oromia is the need to combat the activities of the outlawed Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which has been fighting a low-level insurrection against the government for years with Eritrean backing. Across much of Oromia, local officials have routinely and for many years used unproven allegations of links to the OLF as a pretext to subject law-abiding government critics to arbitrary detention, torture, extrajudicial killing, and other forms of human rights abuse.
Local officials in Oromia have also made extensive use of the kebele system, along with smaller cells called gott and garee, to keep residents under constant surveillance for signs of government criticism. The overwhelming majority of local and regional authorities in Oromia belong to the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), which is the regional arm of the EPRDF.
Ethiopia’s last elections were parliamentary polls in 2005. The run-up to the elections saw signs of openness in some areas, though in most constituencies the same patterns of repression documented above prevailed. Following the elections, opposition efforts to contest the results sparked a heavy-handed government crackdown that saw several hundred people gunned down in the streets of Addis Ababa, mass arrests of perceived opposition supporters, and several prominent opposition leaders jailed on charges of treason that were ultimately dropped.
Elections for city councils, kebele councils, and vacated parliamentary seats will be held on Sunday, April 13, 2008. Elections for the wereda councils will follow on April 20. The exercise is a vast one – Ethiopia is made up of 547 weredas, and each of those is broken up into numerous kebeles whose governing councils each seat 300 representatives. The weredas are grouped into zones, whose administrations are not at stake in these elections, and the zones are grouped into nine ethnically-based regions.
Ethiopia’s government is highly dependent on donor assistance but donor governments, including the United States and United Kingdom, have largely refused to criticize repression in Ethiopia or to demand improvements in the country’s human rights record. The United States in particular views Ethiopia as a key ally in the “war on terror,” and donor governments in general often express fear that Ethiopia’s government will react poorly to human rights-related criticisms. The Ethiopian government has refused to allow any foreign observers to monitor the upcoming elections.
Victim Claims Rwandan Officials Forced ICTR Prosecution Witnesses to Lie.
Hirondelle News Agency
10 April 2008
A witness for the prosecutor in the Karemera trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) during his cross-examination Thursday, claimed that he had wrongfully accused a former politician in order to be released from prison in Rwanda.
In 2005 and 2006, the protected witness only known by code “BTH” had falsely stated that Joseph Nzirorera, former secretary-general of the former governing party in Rwanda(MRND), ordered, as of 7 April 1994, that Tutsis in Ruhengeri, northern Rwanda, be massacred.
BTH, who was held in Rwanda, was thereafter released and fled his country. It is from exile that he revealed that he was forced to testify against certain people accused before the ICTR, including Nzirorera.
He claimed that he as well as others detained in Rwanda had received the order to give false testimony before the ICTR. In order to bring credibility to his first testimonies, he admitted to having killed five and later six Tutsis, which he denied. "I did not kill anybody …in my legal files I was never accused of murder. It was all made up", he said.
"We had already spent a long time in prison and when they asked us to give these false testimonies we thought that it was a way out which was offered to us", he explained. BTH said such orders were to be carried out, especially that they came from the "authorities". (Emphasis mine-Editor.)
The lawyer for Nzirorera, Peter Robinson (United States), had raised several contradictions in his two preceding testimonies. BTH answered: "it was easy to be contradicted because we told lies and at certain times it was difficult to remember what we had said before". "We were to repeat a text which we had learned and which was not the truth", he continued.
Nzirorera has been on trial since September 2005 alongside two other officials for the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development, the party of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, whose assassination on 6 April 1994, during an attack on his plane, started the genocide.
The co-defendants of Nzororera are Matthieu Ngirumpatse, the president of the party, and Edouard Karemera, one of his vice-presidents.
The prosecutor, who had collected his first testimony, drew the attention of the witness to the risk of being indicted for contempt of the tribunal after having admitted to have made false testimonies. The witness took this opportunity to share his concerns for his safety.
Since the beginning of the hearings in 1997 the accusations of false testimony have multiplied at the ICTR. A first witness was tried and convicted at the end of last year for perjury and has just been released after having served nine months in prison.
10 April 2008
A witness for the prosecutor in the Karemera trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) during his cross-examination Thursday, claimed that he had wrongfully accused a former politician in order to be released from prison in Rwanda.
In 2005 and 2006, the protected witness only known by code “BTH” had falsely stated that Joseph Nzirorera, former secretary-general of the former governing party in Rwanda(MRND), ordered, as of 7 April 1994, that Tutsis in Ruhengeri, northern Rwanda, be massacred.
BTH, who was held in Rwanda, was thereafter released and fled his country. It is from exile that he revealed that he was forced to testify against certain people accused before the ICTR, including Nzirorera.
He claimed that he as well as others detained in Rwanda had received the order to give false testimony before the ICTR. In order to bring credibility to his first testimonies, he admitted to having killed five and later six Tutsis, which he denied. "I did not kill anybody …in my legal files I was never accused of murder. It was all made up", he said.
"We had already spent a long time in prison and when they asked us to give these false testimonies we thought that it was a way out which was offered to us", he explained. BTH said such orders were to be carried out, especially that they came from the "authorities". (Emphasis mine-Editor.)
The lawyer for Nzirorera, Peter Robinson (United States), had raised several contradictions in his two preceding testimonies. BTH answered: "it was easy to be contradicted because we told lies and at certain times it was difficult to remember what we had said before". "We were to repeat a text which we had learned and which was not the truth", he continued.
Nzirorera has been on trial since September 2005 alongside two other officials for the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development, the party of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, whose assassination on 6 April 1994, during an attack on his plane, started the genocide.
The co-defendants of Nzororera are Matthieu Ngirumpatse, the president of the party, and Edouard Karemera, one of his vice-presidents.
The prosecutor, who had collected his first testimony, drew the attention of the witness to the risk of being indicted for contempt of the tribunal after having admitted to have made false testimonies. The witness took this opportunity to share his concerns for his safety.
Since the beginning of the hearings in 1997 the accusations of false testimony have multiplied at the ICTR. A first witness was tried and convicted at the end of last year for perjury and has just been released after having served nine months in prison.
ICTY Told Krajina Suffered “Systematic Campaign” of Destruction.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
By Simon Jennings
11 April 2008
A former United Nations official testifying in the trial of Croatian general Ivan Cermak this week spoke of the looting and burning of buildings he said he witnessed in the Serb-held Krajina in the summer of 1995.
Edward Flynn, an ex-member of the UN human rights action team which patrolled the region during this time, was testifying about events in the Knin district of Krajina in the aftermath of the Croatian military offensive known as Operation Storm which led to mass exodus of Serbs from this region.
The witness told the Hague tribunal of his disbelief when, at a meeting of Croatian and UN officials in August that year, Cermak had asked to be notified immediately of any crimes so that he could dispatch police to investigate them as soon as possible.
“I considered it implausible for the general to ask us to notify him of incidents of lawlessness, when in our travels around the region, it was very easy to see burning buildings and acts of looting; and we also investigated at that time a number of killings,” Flynn told the court.
Cermak is on trial along with two other former senior Croatian generals, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac. The three men are accused of having an instrumental role in the forcible removal of up to 200,000 Serbs from the Croatian region of Krajina between July and September 1995.
Cermak was appointed the commander of the Croatian garrison in Knin on August 6, 1995, two days after Operation Storm. With operational control over Croatian army units and the civilian police, the former general is charged with conducting a joint criminal enterprise against Serbs by “permitting, denying and/or minimising the ongoing criminal activity, including participating in the reporting of false, incomplete, [and] misleading information regarding crimes committed”.
According to Flynn, in August 1995, he and his UN colleagues informed the Croatian authorities – for which Cermak was the main point of contact – about crimes such as the looting and burning of houses in the region.
UN video footage of burning houses and dead civilians were shown to the court this week as Flynn confirmed that there was a “systematic campaign” of destruction which he tried to prevent by reporting it to Cermak.
“We conveyed to the general our concern about continuing lawlessness in the sector… A number of killings, more burning houses had been observed, there was a high level of looting taking place,” he said.
And according to Flynn, Cermak had the necessary power over security forces to prevent such crimes.
“Cermak spoke with great authority about these issues,” said Flynn. “His response was that he would take the necessary action… He spoke as if he could control military police and civilian matters in the region.”
But while Cermak assured him that crimes were being investigated, Flynn said that his visit 10 days later to the house of a murdered man in Grubori, in the Plavno valley of Krajina, showed this not to be the case.
“There was still a bullet casing on the floor of that room some 10 days to two weeks after the incident. So I personally doubt that a serious investigation took place, at least at that time,” said Flynn.
During the cross examination by Cermak’s defence lawyer, Stephen Kay, Flynn agreed that there was a “cordial” relationship between Cermak and the UN staff in Knin. But he said that although a “mutual respect” existed between the parties there was also “a difference in perception at what was taking place”.
“There were some times that plainly evident facts were disputed by the general, such as widespread burning that was taking place in August,” said Flynn.
Kay put it to the court that Flynn was making an assumption about Cermak’s authority and did not know precisely what it was. Kay quoted Flynn’s words that he was “not exactly sure of Cermak’s actual authority”.
The defence contested that Cermak had “actual authority” to act to prevent or punish crimes in the region. Flynn confirmed he only “believed” this to be the case.
Kay contended that Cermak’s role regarding police forces in Knin amounted to little more than cooperation and that they were definitely not subordinated to him. He pointed to “the difference between being in control of the police and actually cooperating and coordinating with them”.
The defence counsel then brought a number of documents before the court, including letters between chiefs of the military and civilian police in Knin, to show that Cermak was not responsible for law and order in the region during the summer of 1995. He attempted to demonstrate that it was the military and civilian police, and not Cermak, who had direct obligations concerning security in the region.
“There was a complete hierarchy working entirely on its own without Mr Cermak, with the civilian police and the military police at the highest level…the failure of these bodies was not the responsibility of Mr Cermak,” Kay told the court.
The witness agreed that this may have been the case, although he was not aware of it at the time. But he contended that the chief of the civilian police in Knin district worked on the basis that some security resources were dependent on Cermak.
In Cermak’s defence, Kay sought to paint a picture of highly organised administrative structures that were not affiliated to the office of the accused, and were trying to operate in “a scene of chaos” to bring the area under control.
Flinn disagreed with Kay’s description, referring to the situation as “lawless” rather than one of chaos, as it was a sparsely populated area.
And when asked if he was aware of “a whole series of orders” for the military and civilian police to work together to provide security, Flynn replied, “I find this very surprising because well into my stay there, there seemed to be a minimal police presence… I felt there was a serious deficiency in security in the area so it’s quite remarkable to see these orders.”
Kay further sought to defend the security forces’ failure to investigate crimes, such as the murder described by Flynn. He read out a letter from Croatia’s assistant minister of the interior to the police administration in Knin, calling for police to clamp down on crimes. But the letter implied that an amnesty existed on all such acts committed before August 18. Kay contended that the ministry of the interior had decided not to investigate any crimes committed up to this date.
By Simon Jennings
11 April 2008
A former United Nations official testifying in the trial of Croatian general Ivan Cermak this week spoke of the looting and burning of buildings he said he witnessed in the Serb-held Krajina in the summer of 1995.
Edward Flynn, an ex-member of the UN human rights action team which patrolled the region during this time, was testifying about events in the Knin district of Krajina in the aftermath of the Croatian military offensive known as Operation Storm which led to mass exodus of Serbs from this region.
The witness told the Hague tribunal of his disbelief when, at a meeting of Croatian and UN officials in August that year, Cermak had asked to be notified immediately of any crimes so that he could dispatch police to investigate them as soon as possible.
“I considered it implausible for the general to ask us to notify him of incidents of lawlessness, when in our travels around the region, it was very easy to see burning buildings and acts of looting; and we also investigated at that time a number of killings,” Flynn told the court.
Cermak is on trial along with two other former senior Croatian generals, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac. The three men are accused of having an instrumental role in the forcible removal of up to 200,000 Serbs from the Croatian region of Krajina between July and September 1995.
Cermak was appointed the commander of the Croatian garrison in Knin on August 6, 1995, two days after Operation Storm. With operational control over Croatian army units and the civilian police, the former general is charged with conducting a joint criminal enterprise against Serbs by “permitting, denying and/or minimising the ongoing criminal activity, including participating in the reporting of false, incomplete, [and] misleading information regarding crimes committed”.
According to Flynn, in August 1995, he and his UN colleagues informed the Croatian authorities – for which Cermak was the main point of contact – about crimes such as the looting and burning of houses in the region.
UN video footage of burning houses and dead civilians were shown to the court this week as Flynn confirmed that there was a “systematic campaign” of destruction which he tried to prevent by reporting it to Cermak.
“We conveyed to the general our concern about continuing lawlessness in the sector… A number of killings, more burning houses had been observed, there was a high level of looting taking place,” he said.
And according to Flynn, Cermak had the necessary power over security forces to prevent such crimes.
“Cermak spoke with great authority about these issues,” said Flynn. “His response was that he would take the necessary action… He spoke as if he could control military police and civilian matters in the region.”
But while Cermak assured him that crimes were being investigated, Flynn said that his visit 10 days later to the house of a murdered man in Grubori, in the Plavno valley of Krajina, showed this not to be the case.
“There was still a bullet casing on the floor of that room some 10 days to two weeks after the incident. So I personally doubt that a serious investigation took place, at least at that time,” said Flynn.
During the cross examination by Cermak’s defence lawyer, Stephen Kay, Flynn agreed that there was a “cordial” relationship between Cermak and the UN staff in Knin. But he said that although a “mutual respect” existed between the parties there was also “a difference in perception at what was taking place”.
“There were some times that plainly evident facts were disputed by the general, such as widespread burning that was taking place in August,” said Flynn.
Kay put it to the court that Flynn was making an assumption about Cermak’s authority and did not know precisely what it was. Kay quoted Flynn’s words that he was “not exactly sure of Cermak’s actual authority”.
The defence contested that Cermak had “actual authority” to act to prevent or punish crimes in the region. Flynn confirmed he only “believed” this to be the case.
Kay contended that Cermak’s role regarding police forces in Knin amounted to little more than cooperation and that they were definitely not subordinated to him. He pointed to “the difference between being in control of the police and actually cooperating and coordinating with them”.
The defence counsel then brought a number of documents before the court, including letters between chiefs of the military and civilian police in Knin, to show that Cermak was not responsible for law and order in the region during the summer of 1995. He attempted to demonstrate that it was the military and civilian police, and not Cermak, who had direct obligations concerning security in the region.
“There was a complete hierarchy working entirely on its own without Mr Cermak, with the civilian police and the military police at the highest level…the failure of these bodies was not the responsibility of Mr Cermak,” Kay told the court.
The witness agreed that this may have been the case, although he was not aware of it at the time. But he contended that the chief of the civilian police in Knin district worked on the basis that some security resources were dependent on Cermak.
In Cermak’s defence, Kay sought to paint a picture of highly organised administrative structures that were not affiliated to the office of the accused, and were trying to operate in “a scene of chaos” to bring the area under control.
Flinn disagreed with Kay’s description, referring to the situation as “lawless” rather than one of chaos, as it was a sparsely populated area.
And when asked if he was aware of “a whole series of orders” for the military and civilian police to work together to provide security, Flynn replied, “I find this very surprising because well into my stay there, there seemed to be a minimal police presence… I felt there was a serious deficiency in security in the area so it’s quite remarkable to see these orders.”
Kay further sought to defend the security forces’ failure to investigate crimes, such as the murder described by Flynn. He read out a letter from Croatia’s assistant minister of the interior to the police administration in Knin, calling for police to clamp down on crimes. But the letter implied that an amnesty existed on all such acts committed before August 18. Kay contended that the ministry of the interior had decided not to investigate any crimes committed up to this date.
Bush Administration Set to Use New Domestic Spy Program in U.S.
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 12, 2008; A03
The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department will activate his department's new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional scientific and homeland security activities -- such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain maps.
Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement once privacy and civil rights concerns are resolved, he said. The department has previously said the program will not intercept communications.
"There is no basis to suggest that this process is in any way insufficient to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans," Chertoff wrote to Reps. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.), chairmen of the House Homeland Security Committee and its intelligence subcommittee, respectively, in letters released yesterday.
"I think we've fully addressed anybody's concerns," Chertoff added in remarks last week to bloggers. "I think the way is now clear to stand it up and go warm on it."
His statements marked a fresh determination to operate the department's new National Applications Office as part of its counterterrorism efforts. The administration in May 2007 gave DHS authority to coordinate requests for satellite imagery, radar, electronic-signal information, chemical detection and other monitoring capabilities that have been used for decades within U.S. borders for mapping and disaster response.
But Congress delayed launch of the new office last October. Critics cited its potential to expand the role of military assets in domestic law enforcement, to turn new or as-yet-undeveloped technologies against Americans without adequate public debate, and to divert the existing civilian and scientific focus of some satellite work to security uses.
Democrats say Chertoff has not spelled out what federal laws govern the NAO, whose funding and size are classified. Congress barred Homeland Security from funding the office until its investigators could review the office's operating procedures and safeguards. The department submitted answers on Thursday, but some lawmakers promptly said the response was inadequate.
"I have had a firsthand experience with the trust-me theory of law from this administration," said Harman, citing the 2005 disclosure of the National Security Agency's domestic spying program, which included warrantless eavesdropping on calls and e-mails between people in the United States and overseas. "I won't make the same mistake. . . . I want to see the legal underpinnings for the whole program."
Thompson called DHS's release Thursday of the office's procedures and a civil liberties impact assessment "a good start." But, he said, "We still don't know whether the NAO will pass constitutional muster since no legal framework has been provided."
DHS officials said the demands are unwarranted. "The legal framework that governs the National Applications Office . . . is reflected in the Constitution, the U.S. Code and all other U.S. laws," said DHS spokeswoman Laura Keehner. She said its operations will be subject to "robust," structured legal scrutiny by multiple agencies.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 12, 2008; A03
The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department will activate his department's new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional scientific and homeland security activities -- such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain maps.
Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement once privacy and civil rights concerns are resolved, he said. The department has previously said the program will not intercept communications.
"There is no basis to suggest that this process is in any way insufficient to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans," Chertoff wrote to Reps. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.), chairmen of the House Homeland Security Committee and its intelligence subcommittee, respectively, in letters released yesterday.
"I think we've fully addressed anybody's concerns," Chertoff added in remarks last week to bloggers. "I think the way is now clear to stand it up and go warm on it."
His statements marked a fresh determination to operate the department's new National Applications Office as part of its counterterrorism efforts. The administration in May 2007 gave DHS authority to coordinate requests for satellite imagery, radar, electronic-signal information, chemical detection and other monitoring capabilities that have been used for decades within U.S. borders for mapping and disaster response.
But Congress delayed launch of the new office last October. Critics cited its potential to expand the role of military assets in domestic law enforcement, to turn new or as-yet-undeveloped technologies against Americans without adequate public debate, and to divert the existing civilian and scientific focus of some satellite work to security uses.
Democrats say Chertoff has not spelled out what federal laws govern the NAO, whose funding and size are classified. Congress barred Homeland Security from funding the office until its investigators could review the office's operating procedures and safeguards. The department submitted answers on Thursday, but some lawmakers promptly said the response was inadequate.
"I have had a firsthand experience with the trust-me theory of law from this administration," said Harman, citing the 2005 disclosure of the National Security Agency's domestic spying program, which included warrantless eavesdropping on calls and e-mails between people in the United States and overseas. "I won't make the same mistake. . . . I want to see the legal underpinnings for the whole program."
Thompson called DHS's release Thursday of the office's procedures and a civil liberties impact assessment "a good start." But, he said, "We still don't know whether the NAO will pass constitutional muster since no legal framework has been provided."
DHS officials said the demands are unwarranted. "The legal framework that governs the National Applications Office . . . is reflected in the Constitution, the U.S. Code and all other U.S. laws," said DHS spokeswoman Laura Keehner. She said its operations will be subject to "robust," structured legal scrutiny by multiple agencies.
Court condemns Blair for halting Saudi arms inquiry.
The Independent
By Ben Russell and Nigel Morris
11 April 2008
Tony Blair's government broke the law when it abandoned a fraud investigation into a multibillion-pound arms deal between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia, the High Court ruled yesterday.
Two senior judges condemned the Government's "abject" surrender to a "blatant" threat when the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) halted its inquiry into allegations that BAE had made secret payments to Saudi officials in order to secure a series of massive contracts. BAE has always denied any wrongdoing.
Calling on Gordon Brown to hold a public inquiry into the affair, jubilant campaigners demanded the fraud investigation into the £50bn Al-Yamamah deal to sell Tornado and Hawk jets to the Saudis be restarted.
Mr Blair faced controversy in December 2006 when Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, announced the investigation had been dropped. Mr Blair warned at the time that threats had been received which indicated that continuing the inquiry would put British lives at risk.
But yesterday, Lord Justice Moses and Mr Justice Sullivan said that the SFO director, Robert Wardle, had failed to stand up to threats from the Saudis.
They said: "The director was required to satisfy the court that all that could reasonably be done had been done to resist the threat. He has failed to do so."
The judgment added: "No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice. It is the failure of government and the defendant to bear that essential principle in mind that justifies the intervention of this court."
The judges added: "On 11 December 2006, the Prime Minister said this was the clearest case for intervention in the public interest he had seen. We agree."
Disagreeing with the Government's argument that the SFO was entitled to "surrender" to the threat, the judges said: "So bleak a picture of the impotence of the law invites at least dismay, if not outrage." They were scathing about the SFO's line that the decision to halt the inquiry was taken independently of the Government. "The more the defendant stresses that he reached a conclusion free from pressure imposed by the UK Government, the more he demonstrates the inconsistency in submitting to pressure applied by the government of a foreign state," the judges ruled.
The no-holds-barred judgment sparked joy last night among the arms trade campaigners who had taken the case to the High Court.
Demanding that the SFO restart its investigation, Symon Hill, of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade which brought the action with the pressure group Corner House, said: "We hope the SFO will reopen the inquiry and we call on Gordon Brown and his government not to stand in the way."
He added: "We are delighted. This judgment brings Britain a step closer to the day when BAE is no longer calling the shots. It has been clear from the start that the dropping of the investigation was about neither national security nor jobs. It was due to the influence of BAE and Saudi princes over the UK Government."
The judgment could require the SFO to reconsider its decision to call off the inquiry although the department is thought likely to appeal. An SFO spokeswoman said: "The SFO are carefully considering the implications of the judgment and the way forward. No further comment at this stage." Downing Street also declined to comment.
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, demanded a full inquiry into the decision to abandon the SFO investigation and warned that the Government's decision had done "untold damage" to Britain's standing.
He said: "This investigation was blocked supposedly to protect our security, but it looks increasingly like it was done to protect BAE sales by appeasing the Saudi government.
"There is now a pressing need for a full inquiry into the SFO's decision to end the investigation and what pressure was brought to bear by the Government."
BAE said: "The case was between two campaign groups and the director of the SFO. It concerned the legality of a decision made by the director of the SFO. BAE Systems played no part in that decision."
Timeline
1985 – Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher agrees first phase of Al-Yamamah arms deal with the Saudi government.
1987 - British Aerospace (later BAE Systems) delivers first aircraft to the Saudis.
1988 – The governments sign the second stage of the deal.
1992 - National Audit Office investigates contract, but its report is never published.
2003 - Allegations surface that BAE paid bribes to senior Saudis through a secret slush fund. The company denies the claims.
2004 – BAE confirms the Serious Fraud Office is investigating its dealings with the Saudis.
2005 - Provisional agreement to supply Saudi Arabia with Eurofighter Typhoon jets is announced by BAE.
1 December 2006 – BAE Systems warns that talks with the Saudis are dragging over the Eurofighter. Its French competitor, Dassault, discloses it is talking to the Saudis over the sale of a rival jet, the Rafale.
8 December 2006 – Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, provokes outrage when he announces the SFO probe is being dropped. Tony Blair is said to be behind the move after persuading the SFO the investigation is threatening national security and "British lives on British streets".
September 2007 - Saudi Arabia and the UK agree a deal for 72 Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets.
Yesterday – SFO's decision to halt its investigation ruled unlawful in the High Court.
By Ben Russell and Nigel Morris
11 April 2008
Tony Blair's government broke the law when it abandoned a fraud investigation into a multibillion-pound arms deal between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia, the High Court ruled yesterday.
Two senior judges condemned the Government's "abject" surrender to a "blatant" threat when the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) halted its inquiry into allegations that BAE had made secret payments to Saudi officials in order to secure a series of massive contracts. BAE has always denied any wrongdoing.
Calling on Gordon Brown to hold a public inquiry into the affair, jubilant campaigners demanded the fraud investigation into the £50bn Al-Yamamah deal to sell Tornado and Hawk jets to the Saudis be restarted.
Mr Blair faced controversy in December 2006 when Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, announced the investigation had been dropped. Mr Blair warned at the time that threats had been received which indicated that continuing the inquiry would put British lives at risk.
But yesterday, Lord Justice Moses and Mr Justice Sullivan said that the SFO director, Robert Wardle, had failed to stand up to threats from the Saudis.
They said: "The director was required to satisfy the court that all that could reasonably be done had been done to resist the threat. He has failed to do so."
The judgment added: "No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice. It is the failure of government and the defendant to bear that essential principle in mind that justifies the intervention of this court."
The judges added: "On 11 December 2006, the Prime Minister said this was the clearest case for intervention in the public interest he had seen. We agree."
Disagreeing with the Government's argument that the SFO was entitled to "surrender" to the threat, the judges said: "So bleak a picture of the impotence of the law invites at least dismay, if not outrage." They were scathing about the SFO's line that the decision to halt the inquiry was taken independently of the Government. "The more the defendant stresses that he reached a conclusion free from pressure imposed by the UK Government, the more he demonstrates the inconsistency in submitting to pressure applied by the government of a foreign state," the judges ruled.
The no-holds-barred judgment sparked joy last night among the arms trade campaigners who had taken the case to the High Court.
Demanding that the SFO restart its investigation, Symon Hill, of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade which brought the action with the pressure group Corner House, said: "We hope the SFO will reopen the inquiry and we call on Gordon Brown and his government not to stand in the way."
He added: "We are delighted. This judgment brings Britain a step closer to the day when BAE is no longer calling the shots. It has been clear from the start that the dropping of the investigation was about neither national security nor jobs. It was due to the influence of BAE and Saudi princes over the UK Government."
The judgment could require the SFO to reconsider its decision to call off the inquiry although the department is thought likely to appeal. An SFO spokeswoman said: "The SFO are carefully considering the implications of the judgment and the way forward. No further comment at this stage." Downing Street also declined to comment.
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, demanded a full inquiry into the decision to abandon the SFO investigation and warned that the Government's decision had done "untold damage" to Britain's standing.
He said: "This investigation was blocked supposedly to protect our security, but it looks increasingly like it was done to protect BAE sales by appeasing the Saudi government.
"There is now a pressing need for a full inquiry into the SFO's decision to end the investigation and what pressure was brought to bear by the Government."
BAE said: "The case was between two campaign groups and the director of the SFO. It concerned the legality of a decision made by the director of the SFO. BAE Systems played no part in that decision."
Timeline
1985 – Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher agrees first phase of Al-Yamamah arms deal with the Saudi government.
1987 - British Aerospace (later BAE Systems) delivers first aircraft to the Saudis.
1988 – The governments sign the second stage of the deal.
1992 - National Audit Office investigates contract, but its report is never published.
2003 - Allegations surface that BAE paid bribes to senior Saudis through a secret slush fund. The company denies the claims.
2004 – BAE confirms the Serious Fraud Office is investigating its dealings with the Saudis.
2005 - Provisional agreement to supply Saudi Arabia with Eurofighter Typhoon jets is announced by BAE.
1 December 2006 – BAE Systems warns that talks with the Saudis are dragging over the Eurofighter. Its French competitor, Dassault, discloses it is talking to the Saudis over the sale of a rival jet, the Rafale.
8 December 2006 – Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, provokes outrage when he announces the SFO probe is being dropped. Tony Blair is said to be behind the move after persuading the SFO the investigation is threatening national security and "British lives on British streets".
September 2007 - Saudi Arabia and the UK agree a deal for 72 Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets.
Yesterday – SFO's decision to halt its investigation ruled unlawful in the High Court.
Chevron seeks contract with Iraq on oil field.
San Francisco Chronicle
By David Baker
11 April 2008
Chevron Corp. confirmed Thursday that it is negotiating with the Iraqi government for a contract to help expand production at a major oil field near Basra.
The company plans to work with French oil giant Total to improve operations at the West al-Qurna field in southern Iraq, said Chevron spokesman Kurt Glaubitz.
The negotiations had been widely reported earlier this year, but San Ramon's Chevron has not confirmed them until now. The company took the step after Total's chief executive officer publicly discussed the proposed deal Thursday at an oil industry conference in Paris.
"We just want to be consistent with them and confirm that what they're saying is accurate," Glaubitz said.
All the large, international oil companies are believed to be negotiating similar deals with the Iraqi ministry of oil.
Iraq holds what may be the world's third-largest oil reserves, and petroleum is the country's only significant export. But Iraq's state-run oil industry suffers from aging, outdated equipment and frequent sabotage. It also has been hamstrung by a deep division in Iraqi politics.
The oil ministry wants foreign companies to invest in Iraq, using their money and technical expertise to develop more fields and expand production. But the country's legislature has been unable to pass an oil law that would set ground rules for foreign investment and spell out how oil revenue would be shared among the country's provinces.
The widespread belief among Iraqis that the United States ousted Saddam Hussein to seize the country's oil makes political compromise difficult. Many Iraqis fear foreigners will gain too much control over a resource they consider a national treasure.
The contracts under discussion appear to be a way for the ministry to skirt the political deadlock. Although details remain sketchy, the contracts would be limited, running for only two years. And they would not involve development of new oil fields - the real prize sought by international oil companies.
Instead, the companies would work with the Iraqi operators of existing oil fields, looking for ways to increase the amount of oil pumped from each location. That could mean analyzing the geology of each site or bringing in advanced drilling techniques.
By David Baker
11 April 2008
Chevron Corp. confirmed Thursday that it is negotiating with the Iraqi government for a contract to help expand production at a major oil field near Basra.
The company plans to work with French oil giant Total to improve operations at the West al-Qurna field in southern Iraq, said Chevron spokesman Kurt Glaubitz.
The negotiations had been widely reported earlier this year, but San Ramon's Chevron has not confirmed them until now. The company took the step after Total's chief executive officer publicly discussed the proposed deal Thursday at an oil industry conference in Paris.
"We just want to be consistent with them and confirm that what they're saying is accurate," Glaubitz said.
All the large, international oil companies are believed to be negotiating similar deals with the Iraqi ministry of oil.
Iraq holds what may be the world's third-largest oil reserves, and petroleum is the country's only significant export. But Iraq's state-run oil industry suffers from aging, outdated equipment and frequent sabotage. It also has been hamstrung by a deep division in Iraqi politics.
The oil ministry wants foreign companies to invest in Iraq, using their money and technical expertise to develop more fields and expand production. But the country's legislature has been unable to pass an oil law that would set ground rules for foreign investment and spell out how oil revenue would be shared among the country's provinces.
The widespread belief among Iraqis that the United States ousted Saddam Hussein to seize the country's oil makes political compromise difficult. Many Iraqis fear foreigners will gain too much control over a resource they consider a national treasure.
The contracts under discussion appear to be a way for the ministry to skirt the political deadlock. Although details remain sketchy, the contracts would be limited, running for only two years. And they would not involve development of new oil fields - the real prize sought by international oil companies.
Instead, the companies would work with the Iraqi operators of existing oil fields, looking for ways to increase the amount of oil pumped from each location. That could mean analyzing the geology of each site or bringing in advanced drilling techniques.
11 April, 2008
EUROPEAN OBSERVERS REPORT CRITICISES ELECTORAL COMMISSION.
MISNA
11 April 2008
“The presidential elections leave a legacy of uncertainty as to who was actually elected as President by the Kenyans people”, reads a report released by the European Union (EU) observers in Kenya, adding that the electoral process suffered a lack of transparency in the counting and tallying of results which “has created an unprecedented situation in the country characterised by deep ethnic rifts and civil unrest and a political stand off”.
The observers also criticised the appointment of new members of the Electoral Commission by the ruling party without consulting the opposition, saying it “undermined public confidence in the electoral authority”. A situation further fuelled by the Commission’s failure “to meet international standards of transparency”. “Constituency results were announced on the basis of telephone calls and faxes rather than original result forms as required by law”, the report adds. The report was immediately rejected by the Party of National Unity (PNU) of President Mwai Kibaki, who won a new term in office in the vote. Meanwhile, the political deadlock between the majority and opposition over disagreements in the distribution of posts in the coalition government continues to fuel tension. Three houses were torched and one person wounded last night in the Molo province. Security forces have been deployed to displaced camps, where there is growing fear of a resumption of violence.
11 April 2008
“The presidential elections leave a legacy of uncertainty as to who was actually elected as President by the Kenyans people”, reads a report released by the European Union (EU) observers in Kenya, adding that the electoral process suffered a lack of transparency in the counting and tallying of results which “has created an unprecedented situation in the country characterised by deep ethnic rifts and civil unrest and a political stand off”.
The observers also criticised the appointment of new members of the Electoral Commission by the ruling party without consulting the opposition, saying it “undermined public confidence in the electoral authority”. A situation further fuelled by the Commission’s failure “to meet international standards of transparency”. “Constituency results were announced on the basis of telephone calls and faxes rather than original result forms as required by law”, the report adds. The report was immediately rejected by the Party of National Unity (PNU) of President Mwai Kibaki, who won a new term in office in the vote. Meanwhile, the political deadlock between the majority and opposition over disagreements in the distribution of posts in the coalition government continues to fuel tension. Three houses were torched and one person wounded last night in the Molo province. Security forces have been deployed to displaced camps, where there is growing fear of a resumption of violence.
10 April, 2008
Somaliland keen to host US base, hopeful on oil.
Reuters
9 April 2008
By Jack Reerink
The ruler of the self-proclaimed republic of Somaliland said on Wednesday he wanted the United States to put a military base there and had high hopes for finding oil.
Dahir Rayale Kahin, president of the former British protectorate that broke away from war-torn Somalia in 1991, told Reuters he would seek a second -- and last -- term in presidential elections scheduled sometime after October.
Kahin, whose main goal is to win international recognition, said priorities this year were smooth elections, fighting Islamic militants and an auction for oil exploration licenses.
"The major thing is the election. We're also trying our best to fight the terror -- We're the only Muslim country that has that in the constitution," Kahin said in the city of 800,000 where goats roam the centre and trees are decorated with discarded plastic bags swept up by desert winds.
Kahin said he had offered to host a U.S. naval base at the port of Berbera as part of efforts to win recognition. Kahin, who visited Washington and hosted the top U.S. diplomat for Africa early this year, did not say how his offer was received.
A planned auction of oil licenses will give priority to U.S. oil companies holding concessions from the 1980s, he said.
Somaliland, a region the size of England and Wales in northern Somalia, has been doing all the right things to please the West with democratic elections, a free press and passing on scraps of information on Islamic militants, said Peter Pham of James Madison University, ahead of the Kahin interview.
"If the elections are held and are perceived as legitimate and fair, that will be a major step toward recognition," he said.
Somaliland's accidental president, Kahin took office when Somaliland founder Mohamed Ibrahim Egal died in 2002. Kahin, from the minority Gadabursi clan, was elected the following year with a margin of just 80 votes out of 490,000.
Clean 2008 elections are key, especially as Kahin faced criticism last year after three journalists were thrown in jail for defamation, as were three politicians who tried to set up a new party in violation of the constitution.
Kahin, 56, arguing that the politicians and journalists were convicted by the courts, said he had since pardoned them.
His 4 million people have had peace for almost two decades but are poor, and the economy is mostly powered by $450 million a year in remittances from diaspora. His government's annual budget is $40 million -- an amount the U.S. government spends every six minutes.
OIL HOPES
One answer is oil. Kahin, who says he's paid $3,000 a year, said he was "very hopeful" a survey being wrapped up by oil consultants TGS Nopec would show oil and gas deposits -- an extension of Yemen's oil basins across the Gulf of Aden.
Oil majors such as ConocoPhillips, BP Plc , Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron staked out claims in the 1980s but suspended operations when Somalia imploded.
"We'll invite them and they'll have priority, but we'll give the concessions to whoever is ready to invest," Kahin said.
Small producers such as Ophir -- an outfit backed by South African businessman and veteran ANC politician Tokyo Sexwale -- have staked out new claims.
Resource-hungry China has taken an interest, too, with oil exploration firm CNOOC <0883.HK> signing a production deal with Somalia's interim government in 2006.
"It's a false agreement," Kahin said of the CNOOC deal. "People who do not govern an area cannot sign an agreement."
If anybody does strike oil, lawyers will be dusting off old agreements. For now, the majors stay put, said Monica Enfield of industry consultants PFC Energy ahead of the Kahin interview.
"Being in a place that doesn't have sovereignty will be the biggest concern. The second is violence," Enfield said.
Kahin's overtures to attract petrodollars such as Dubai World's $800 million investment in neighbouring Djibouti have failed so far. "Somaliland is facing a problem because of the lack of recognition" he said.
Somaliland already looks like an independent state. It has its own currency, army, flag, national anthem and tourist visa.
Recognition, though, would give it access to capital markets and investments. And it would solve its biggest gripe: That the world recognizes the failed state of Somalia.
"Somalia doesn't exist. The reality is that there is a functioning state in the North and a non-functioning one in the South," said Kahin.
The West wants the African Union (AU) to take the lead on Somaliland, but many African leaders are reluctant to open a Pandora's box of ethnic groups redrawing the continent's colonial borders.
Kahin doesn't buy that. Somaliland is not redrawing but reinforcing the historic British Somaliland border with Italian-ruled Somalia, he said.
"Countries tell us: `We won't be the first but we'll recognise you second," Kahin said. "But we're not interested in your being second."
9 April 2008
By Jack Reerink
The ruler of the self-proclaimed republic of Somaliland said on Wednesday he wanted the United States to put a military base there and had high hopes for finding oil.
Dahir Rayale Kahin, president of the former British protectorate that broke away from war-torn Somalia in 1991, told Reuters he would seek a second -- and last -- term in presidential elections scheduled sometime after October.
Kahin, whose main goal is to win international recognition, said priorities this year were smooth elections, fighting Islamic militants and an auction for oil exploration licenses.
"The major thing is the election. We're also trying our best to fight the terror -- We're the only Muslim country that has that in the constitution," Kahin said in the city of 800,000 where goats roam the centre and trees are decorated with discarded plastic bags swept up by desert winds.
Kahin said he had offered to host a U.S. naval base at the port of Berbera as part of efforts to win recognition. Kahin, who visited Washington and hosted the top U.S. diplomat for Africa early this year, did not say how his offer was received.
A planned auction of oil licenses will give priority to U.S. oil companies holding concessions from the 1980s, he said.
Somaliland, a region the size of England and Wales in northern Somalia, has been doing all the right things to please the West with democratic elections, a free press and passing on scraps of information on Islamic militants, said Peter Pham of James Madison University, ahead of the Kahin interview.
"If the elections are held and are perceived as legitimate and fair, that will be a major step toward recognition," he said.
Somaliland's accidental president, Kahin took office when Somaliland founder Mohamed Ibrahim Egal died in 2002. Kahin, from the minority Gadabursi clan, was elected the following year with a margin of just 80 votes out of 490,000.
Clean 2008 elections are key, especially as Kahin faced criticism last year after three journalists were thrown in jail for defamation, as were three politicians who tried to set up a new party in violation of the constitution.
Kahin, 56, arguing that the politicians and journalists were convicted by the courts, said he had since pardoned them.
His 4 million people have had peace for almost two decades but are poor, and the economy is mostly powered by $450 million a year in remittances from diaspora. His government's annual budget is $40 million -- an amount the U.S. government spends every six minutes.
OIL HOPES
One answer is oil. Kahin, who says he's paid $3,000 a year, said he was "very hopeful" a survey being wrapped up by oil consultants TGS Nopec would show oil and gas deposits -- an extension of Yemen's oil basins across the Gulf of Aden.
Oil majors such as ConocoPhillips
"We'll invite them and they'll have priority, but we'll give the concessions to whoever is ready to invest," Kahin said.
Small producers such as Ophir -- an outfit backed by South African businessman and veteran ANC politician Tokyo Sexwale -- have staked out new claims.
Resource-hungry China has taken an interest, too, with oil exploration firm CNOOC <0883.HK> signing a production deal with Somalia's interim government in 2006.
"It's a false agreement," Kahin said of the CNOOC deal. "People who do not govern an area cannot sign an agreement."
If anybody does strike oil, lawyers will be dusting off old agreements. For now, the majors stay put, said Monica Enfield of industry consultants PFC Energy ahead of the Kahin interview.
"Being in a place that doesn't have sovereignty will be the biggest concern. The second is violence," Enfield said.
Kahin's overtures to attract petrodollars such as Dubai World's $800 million investment in neighbouring Djibouti have failed so far. "Somaliland is facing a problem because of the lack of recognition" he said.
Somaliland already looks like an independent state. It has its own currency, army, flag, national anthem and tourist visa.
Recognition, though, would give it access to capital markets and investments. And it would solve its biggest gripe: That the world recognizes the failed state of Somalia.
"Somalia doesn't exist. The reality is that there is a functioning state in the North and a non-functioning one in the South," said Kahin.
The West wants the African Union (AU) to take the lead on Somaliland, but many African leaders are reluctant to open a Pandora's box of ethnic groups redrawing the continent's colonial borders.
Kahin doesn't buy that. Somaliland is not redrawing but reinforcing the historic British Somaliland border with Italian-ruled Somalia, he said.
"Countries tell us: `We won't be the first but we'll recognise you second," Kahin said. "But we're not interested in your being second."
Cameroon chamber frees president to run until 2018.
AFP
10 April 2008
Cameroon President Paul Biya was given a constitutional green light by his country's parliament Thursday to remain in power until 2018 -- with immunity from prosecution if he ever leaves office.
Minister for Parliamentary Relations Gregoire Owona said the National Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of an amendment allowing the 75-year-old, president since 1982 and already prime minister as early as 1975, to run for a third term in 2011.
Another article passed by lawmakers stipulates that "acts accomplished by the president of the Republic are covered by immunity, and responsibility cannot be ascribed (to him) at the expiry of his mandate".
Just five deputies voted against the amendment, with 15 opposition members from the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDF) staging a parliamentary walk-out and abstaining, Owona told AFP.
One of them, Jean Michel Nintcheu, said they all walked out to protest a "constitutional coup d'etat".
The vote was brought forward by 24 hours at the last minute, with signed voting helping Biya to convince 157 deputies out of a total 180 to side with a personal project that lay at the root of late February protests in which at least 40 people died.
Fusing powerfully with concerns over rising living costs, these demonstrations sparked riots in several cities, with rights organisations claiming that the toll from the unrest amid a police and army crackdown was more than 100.
The wife of award-winning Makossa singer Lapiro de Mbanga, who recently released a song entitled "Constitutional Constipation", told AFP Thursday that her husband had been arrested the previous day.
Lapiro, 51, has previously stood in municipal elections on an SDF ticket, and is accused of instigating February riots in the south-western town of Mbanga, whereas his wife says he actually stopped protesters from setting fire to the town hall.
"I don't understand it, ever since he has been constantly taken in for questioning," she added.
Even before the price riots, political protests had been banned in an opposition stronghold, the second city and economic capital Douala, in the wake of Biya's original announcement on the constitution.
Biya had declared at the start of the year that he wanted to remove a constitutional restriction on candidates seeking a third term, saying it sat "badly with the very idea of democratic choice".
Having blamed February's troubles on "apprentice sorcerers" unable to achieve their desired aims via the ballot box, he first called in the army to quell the unrest.
Cameroon's government has nevertheless introduced a series of economic measures to cope with the social unrest, including duty freezes on essentials such as electricity prices.
Communications Minister Jean-Pierre Biyiti Bi Essam, in an editorial published in the Cameroon Tribune, said Biya "is not looking, as some media outlets would like to suggest, to remain president forever".
"Actually, he wants to help the people of Cameroon to strive together to meet the country's fundamental challenge: (ensuring) Cameroon is and remains stable, governable (...) well beyond 2011," he wrote.
10 April 2008
Cameroon President Paul Biya was given a constitutional green light by his country's parliament Thursday to remain in power until 2018 -- with immunity from prosecution if he ever leaves office.
Minister for Parliamentary Relations Gregoire Owona said the National Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of an amendment allowing the 75-year-old, president since 1982 and already prime minister as early as 1975, to run for a third term in 2011.
Another article passed by lawmakers stipulates that "acts accomplished by the president of the Republic are covered by immunity, and responsibility cannot be ascribed (to him) at the expiry of his mandate".
Just five deputies voted against the amendment, with 15 opposition members from the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDF) staging a parliamentary walk-out and abstaining, Owona told AFP.
One of them, Jean Michel Nintcheu, said they all walked out to protest a "constitutional coup d'etat".
The vote was brought forward by 24 hours at the last minute, with signed voting helping Biya to convince 157 deputies out of a total 180 to side with a personal project that lay at the root of late February protests in which at least 40 people died.
Fusing powerfully with concerns over rising living costs, these demonstrations sparked riots in several cities, with rights organisations claiming that the toll from the unrest amid a police and army crackdown was more than 100.
The wife of award-winning Makossa singer Lapiro de Mbanga, who recently released a song entitled "Constitutional Constipation", told AFP Thursday that her husband had been arrested the previous day.
Lapiro, 51, has previously stood in municipal elections on an SDF ticket, and is accused of instigating February riots in the south-western town of Mbanga, whereas his wife says he actually stopped protesters from setting fire to the town hall.
"I don't understand it, ever since he has been constantly taken in for questioning," she added.
Even before the price riots, political protests had been banned in an opposition stronghold, the second city and economic capital Douala, in the wake of Biya's original announcement on the constitution.
Biya had declared at the start of the year that he wanted to remove a constitutional restriction on candidates seeking a third term, saying it sat "badly with the very idea of democratic choice".
Having blamed February's troubles on "apprentice sorcerers" unable to achieve their desired aims via the ballot box, he first called in the army to quell the unrest.
Cameroon's government has nevertheless introduced a series of economic measures to cope with the social unrest, including duty freezes on essentials such as electricity prices.
Communications Minister Jean-Pierre Biyiti Bi Essam, in an editorial published in the Cameroon Tribune, said Biya "is not looking, as some media outlets would like to suggest, to remain president forever".
"Actually, he wants to help the people of Cameroon to strive together to meet the country's fundamental challenge: (ensuring) Cameroon is and remains stable, governable (...) well beyond 2011," he wrote.
Uganda rebels delay peace signing.
BBC News
10 April 2008
The leader of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebels is refusing to sign a final peace deal until some key issues are clarified, officials say.
Joseph Kony was expected to come out of hiding to sign the deal in a ceremony in southern Sudan on Thursday.
But Mr Kony has reportedly sought more details on the mechanisms that will be used to try LRA members for war crimes.
The Ugandan-LRA conflict has cost tens of thousands of lives and is notorious for atrocities against children.
Two million people have been displaced in the conflict, which has lasted for more than 20 years, and during which the LRA allegedly abducted thousands of children to serve as child soldiers.
Elaborate camp
The signing ceremony was supposed to go ahead last week but was postponed at Mr Kony's request, when he told the southern Sudanese mediators he was too sick to attend.
The signing was rescheduled to take place on Thursday at a camp in the jungle town of Ri-Kwangba in southern Sudan.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was then due to sign separately on Monday in southern Sudan's capital, Juba.
The two sides have been in peace talks there since 2006.
The BBC's Sarah Grainger in Nabanga in southern Sudan says mediators and the United Nations have transformed the bush close to the venue of the planned signing ceremony into an elaborate camp, complete with electricity and a hot buffet.
They flew in dozens of journalists to report on the event and had already taken several members of Mr Kony's family to the meeting point.
But the leading mediator, South Sudan's Vice-President Riak Machar, said Mr Kony had asked for further consultations.
War crimes charges
Mr Kony, who has been in hiding since an arrest warrant was issued against him and two of his top commanders by the International Criminal Court (ICC), has been reluctant to emerge from the jungle until those indictments are lifted.
LRA negotiators have already said their fighters will not disarm unless the ICC arrest warrants are removed and they can be tried on war crimes charges in Uganda instead.
Rebel chief negotiator David Nyekorach Matsanga said the government had yet to secure the LRA immunity from prosecution.
The lead mediator, Mr Machar, said he had sent a team of elders to meet Mr Kony, and would meet him himself later.
"Then he will have a meeting with me and that too will take time," the South Sudan vice-president said.
He said he expected the signing would now take place on Friday.
If Mr Museveni signs on Monday, the rebels will then have 30 days to gather in southern Sudan before disarmament and demobilisation are scheduled to begin.
10 April 2008
The leader of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebels is refusing to sign a final peace deal until some key issues are clarified, officials say.
Joseph Kony was expected to come out of hiding to sign the deal in a ceremony in southern Sudan on Thursday.
But Mr Kony has reportedly sought more details on the mechanisms that will be used to try LRA members for war crimes.
The Ugandan-LRA conflict has cost tens of thousands of lives and is notorious for atrocities against children.
Two million people have been displaced in the conflict, which has lasted for more than 20 years, and during which the LRA allegedly abducted thousands of children to serve as child soldiers.
Elaborate camp
The signing ceremony was supposed to go ahead last week but was postponed at Mr Kony's request, when he told the southern Sudanese mediators he was too sick to attend.
The signing was rescheduled to take place on Thursday at a camp in the jungle town of Ri-Kwangba in southern Sudan.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was then due to sign separately on Monday in southern Sudan's capital, Juba.
The two sides have been in peace talks there since 2006.
The BBC's Sarah Grainger in Nabanga in southern Sudan says mediators and the United Nations have transformed the bush close to the venue of the planned signing ceremony into an elaborate camp, complete with electricity and a hot buffet.
They flew in dozens of journalists to report on the event and had already taken several members of Mr Kony's family to the meeting point.
But the leading mediator, South Sudan's Vice-President Riak Machar, said Mr Kony had asked for further consultations.
War crimes charges
Mr Kony, who has been in hiding since an arrest warrant was issued against him and two of his top commanders by the International Criminal Court (ICC), has been reluctant to emerge from the jungle until those indictments are lifted.
LRA negotiators have already said their fighters will not disarm unless the ICC arrest warrants are removed and they can be tried on war crimes charges in Uganda instead.
Rebel chief negotiator David Nyekorach Matsanga said the government had yet to secure the LRA immunity from prosecution.
The lead mediator, Mr Machar, said he had sent a team of elders to meet Mr Kony, and would meet him himself later.
"Then he will have a meeting with me and that too will take time," the South Sudan vice-president said.
He said he expected the signing would now take place on Friday.
If Mr Museveni signs on Monday, the rebels will then have 30 days to gather in southern Sudan before disarmament and demobilisation are scheduled to begin.
Canada Wants UN to Sack General Karake.
Rwandan News Agency
10 April 2008
The Canadian government through its representatives at the UN Headquarters has been consulting to know whether it is "convenient" to have Rwandan Gen Karenzi Karake among its ranks considering the accusations against him, RNA reports.
Gen Karenzi Karake is the deputy commander of the UN/AU Mission to Darfur but campaign organizations and exiled Rwandans say he has blood on his hands. Last month, new accusations surfaced suggesting that the same General was behind the death of Canadian missionary Guy Pinard.
The Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said last week that he is "preoccupied" with the presence of General Karake on the payroll of the UN amid such accusations. I hope the UN goes to the bottom of all this, Mr. Bernier said as quoted by Le Journal de Montréal.
But Rwanda Foreign Affairs Minister Rosemary Museminali said on Thursday that government here was "not aware of any demarche" by Canada at the UN on that issue.
"The governments of Canada and Rwanda to not communicate through the media", is how Ms. Museminali said when RNA put to her that Canada's position was all over the media.
According to the Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesman Shaun Tinkler, Canadian diplomats have engaged UN officials over General Karake.
"Canadian representatives have inquired from UN officials as whether it is convenient to have General Karake continuing to undertake his duties on a peacekeeping force", said Tinkler.
The General's woes arise from a Spanish investigation that led to the indictment of 40 senior officers for allegedly ordering the murder of 9 Spanish nuns in Rwanda and DR Congo just after the Genocide.
Last month, the Spanish lawyer Jordi Palou-Loverdos who has been working with the Judge that made the indictments took his battle to Montreal claiming that their investigation shows that General Karake and General Fred Ibingira know who killed the Canadian priests in questions.
The investigation, according to Palou-Loverdos points to Maj. General Karake - then a Lieutenant Colonel - as responsible for the death of Father Guy Pinard in 1997. As for priest Claude Simard, the Spanish attorney accuses Maj General - then a Colonel.
On his trip to Sudan two weeks ago, the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister met with a delegation from the UN mission there including the force Commander Nigerian General Agwai and his deputy General Karake.
"Karenzi Karake was in the meeting that I attended. He came in and went out. I did not speak to him. He did not bother me that he was subject to an arrest warrant", Minister Maxime Bernier told Le Journal de Montréal last week.
General Karake was nominated by the African Union as the preferred candidate to aide with the command of the hybrid UN/AU force in Darfur. Controversy over his candidacy was sparked by report after another from human rights groups and Rwandan opposition parties.
10 April 2008
The Canadian government through its representatives at the UN Headquarters has been consulting to know whether it is "convenient" to have Rwandan Gen Karenzi Karake among its ranks considering the accusations against him, RNA reports.
Gen Karenzi Karake is the deputy commander of the UN/AU Mission to Darfur but campaign organizations and exiled Rwandans say he has blood on his hands. Last month, new accusations surfaced suggesting that the same General was behind the death of Canadian missionary Guy Pinard.
The Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said last week that he is "preoccupied" with the presence of General Karake on the payroll of the UN amid such accusations. I hope the UN goes to the bottom of all this, Mr. Bernier said as quoted by Le Journal de Montréal.
But Rwanda Foreign Affairs Minister Rosemary Museminali said on Thursday that government here was "not aware of any demarche" by Canada at the UN on that issue.
"The governments of Canada and Rwanda to not communicate through the media", is how Ms. Museminali said when RNA put to her that Canada's position was all over the media.
According to the Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesman Shaun Tinkler, Canadian diplomats have engaged UN officials over General Karake.
"Canadian representatives have inquired from UN officials as whether it is convenient to have General Karake continuing to undertake his duties on a peacekeeping force", said Tinkler.
The General's woes arise from a Spanish investigation that led to the indictment of 40 senior officers for allegedly ordering the murder of 9 Spanish nuns in Rwanda and DR Congo just after the Genocide.
Last month, the Spanish lawyer Jordi Palou-Loverdos who has been working with the Judge that made the indictments took his battle to Montreal claiming that their investigation shows that General Karake and General Fred Ibingira know who killed the Canadian priests in questions.
The investigation, according to Palou-Loverdos points to Maj. General Karake - then a Lieutenant Colonel - as responsible for the death of Father Guy Pinard in 1997. As for priest Claude Simard, the Spanish attorney accuses Maj General - then a Colonel.
On his trip to Sudan two weeks ago, the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister met with a delegation from the UN mission there including the force Commander Nigerian General Agwai and his deputy General Karake.
"Karenzi Karake was in the meeting that I attended. He came in and went out. I did not speak to him. He did not bother me that he was subject to an arrest warrant", Minister Maxime Bernier told Le Journal de Montréal last week.
General Karake was nominated by the African Union as the preferred candidate to aide with the command of the hybrid UN/AU force in Darfur. Controversy over his candidacy was sparked by report after another from human rights groups and Rwandan opposition parties.
AMERICAN WAR CRIMES AMBASSADOR SAYS US REWARDS FOR JUSTICE PROGRAMME IS STILL ACTIVE.
Hirondelle News Agency
9 April 2008
The American Ambassador-At-Large for War Crimes , Clint Williamson, said that the US Rewards for Justice Programme is still in place and committed to see that the most wanted accused of war crimes and genocide are arrested and tried by an international court.
The U.S. Rewards for Justice program offers up to $5 million for information leading to the apprehension and transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) of persons indicted for war crimes and genocide.
“There are certain individuals that have to be dealt at the international process…we will not be comfortable them to be tried in a domestic process,” he told Hirondelle Agency in an exclusive interview, giving an example of Felician Kabuga, the alleged financier of the 1994 genocide, who appears prominently in the US reward list. He also mentioned ICTY indicted Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic.
The American Ambassador who is on a visit at the ICTR, said that he held meetings with the ICTR top leadership, including the President Justice Dennis Byron, Prosecutor Hassan Jallow and the Registrar Adama Dieng over the UN Court’s completion strategy, its legacy and over top suspects who have eluded arrests.
“We have had a very positive meeting,” he said, adding that the US wants to see the court completed its work successfully. The UN Security Council has directed that all first instance trials are completed by end of the year and appeals by 2010.
Asked if the indictments against the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) came up during the discussions, Ambassador Williamson said that their discussions were “general without any specific cases’’. The Prosecutor was reported last year saying that they are looking into the alleged atrocities committed by the RPF during the 1994 genocide and promised would come up with a decision after reviewing the files.
Regarding the suggested transfer of cases to Rwanda by the ICTR Prosecutor, Ambassador Williamson said they were closely following on the motions and how it will impact the completion strategy. The first motion is scheduled to be heard on 24 April. A total of five suspects have been lined up for transfer to Kigali.
He said that all these issues will have to be discussed by the UN Security Council and come up with firm decisions.
The ICTR Prosecutor, Hassan Jallow, told Hirondelle that the US Ambassador has pledged his country’s assistance to the tribunal, including stepping up efforts to apprehend especially the fugitives. ”We have a very frank and candid talks and the US government has assured of its continued support to the ICTR efforts,” he said.
Ambassador Williamson is also expected to travel to the Democratic of Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and to Burundi.
9 April 2008
The American Ambassador-At-Large for War Crimes , Clint Williamson, said that the US Rewards for Justice Programme is still in place and committed to see that the most wanted accused of war crimes and genocide are arrested and tried by an international court.
The U.S. Rewards for Justice program offers up to $5 million for information leading to the apprehension and transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) of persons indicted for war crimes and genocide.
“There are certain individuals that have to be dealt at the international process…we will not be comfortable them to be tried in a domestic process,” he told Hirondelle Agency in an exclusive interview, giving an example of Felician Kabuga, the alleged financier of the 1994 genocide, who appears prominently in the US reward list. He also mentioned ICTY indicted Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic.
The American Ambassador who is on a visit at the ICTR, said that he held meetings with the ICTR top leadership, including the President Justice Dennis Byron, Prosecutor Hassan Jallow and the Registrar Adama Dieng over the UN Court’s completion strategy, its legacy and over top suspects who have eluded arrests.
“We have had a very positive meeting,” he said, adding that the US wants to see the court completed its work successfully. The UN Security Council has directed that all first instance trials are completed by end of the year and appeals by 2010.
Asked if the indictments against the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) came up during the discussions, Ambassador Williamson said that their discussions were “general without any specific cases’’. The Prosecutor was reported last year saying that they are looking into the alleged atrocities committed by the RPF during the 1994 genocide and promised would come up with a decision after reviewing the files.
Regarding the suggested transfer of cases to Rwanda by the ICTR Prosecutor, Ambassador Williamson said they were closely following on the motions and how it will impact the completion strategy. The first motion is scheduled to be heard on 24 April. A total of five suspects have been lined up for transfer to Kigali.
He said that all these issues will have to be discussed by the UN Security Council and come up with firm decisions.
The ICTR Prosecutor, Hassan Jallow, told Hirondelle that the US Ambassador has pledged his country’s assistance to the tribunal, including stepping up efforts to apprehend especially the fugitives. ”We have a very frank and candid talks and the US government has assured of its continued support to the ICTR efforts,” he said.
Ambassador Williamson is also expected to travel to the Democratic of Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and to Burundi.
Swiss Ministry Upset Over Del Ponte's New Book.
Hirondelle News Agency
9 April 2008
The Swiss ministry of foreign affairs has cautioned Carla Del Ponte, former prosecutor of the UN international tribunals for ICTR and ICTY, who is now an Ambassador in Argentina, of her obligations as a Swiss diplomat after the publication of her book on her experiences as a prosecutor.
According to the Swiss newspaper La Liberté, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) prohibited Mrs Del Ponte to present her book, which appeared on 3 April in Milan ,published by Feltrinelli.
The book titled "The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals" blames, among other issues, the United States for their resistance to allow the prosecution of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), which is in power in Rwanda.
"There are statements in the book which cannot be made as a representative of the Swiss government", stated Jean-Philippe Jeannerat, spokesperson of the FDFA.
"We knew that to open an investigation into the RPF will irritated Kigali, because President Paul Kagame and other Tutsi leaders based a great part of their claim to legitimacy on the victory of the RPF against the genocidaires in 1994,” writes Carla del Ponte in her latest book. "They presented their conquest of the country as a just fight, to put an end to genocide", she adds.
"We knew that the government was against us", she recalls as the ICTR Prosecutor. In spite of that as of 2000, the prosecution opened a "secret" investigation.
“Rwandan authorities already controlled each stage of our investigations", she writes. "We knew that the intelligence service of Rwanda had received monitoring equipment from the United States which was used for phone calls, faxes and the internet. We suspected that the authorities had also infiltrated our computer network and placed agents among the Rwandan interpreters and other members of the team in Kigali.
Walpen [Laurent Walpen, former chief of investigations for the prosecution] also knew that the United States, for obvious reasons, did not want that the investigators to be equipped with the latest encryption Swiss telephones. In other words, the Rwandans knew, in real time, what the investigators of the tribunal were doing.
“In Kigali, 9 December 2000 I personally informed President Kagame that the office of the prosecutor had opened a case against him for allegations concerning the Rwandan Patriotic Front, for war crimes committed as Hutus committed the genocide. The meeting took place in his modest office of the presidential complex (...) the investigators say that evidence was collected on 13 episodes during which in 1994 members of the RPF would have massacred civilians as troops advanced through Rwanda. Kagame neither approved nor denied that these incidents had taken place", Del Ponte discloses in the book.
She also mentions the case of Jean Bosco Barayagwiza, released by the ICTR then re-indicted after protests in Kigali, The book was published in Italian language and an English version is scheduled for next January.
9 April 2008
The Swiss ministry of foreign affairs has cautioned Carla Del Ponte, former prosecutor of the UN international tribunals for ICTR and ICTY, who is now an Ambassador in Argentina, of her obligations as a Swiss diplomat after the publication of her book on her experiences as a prosecutor.
According to the Swiss newspaper La Liberté, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) prohibited Mrs Del Ponte to present her book, which appeared on 3 April in Milan ,published by Feltrinelli.
The book titled "The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals" blames, among other issues, the United States for their resistance to allow the prosecution of the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), which is in power in Rwanda.
"There are statements in the book which cannot be made as a representative of the Swiss government", stated Jean-Philippe Jeannerat, spokesperson of the FDFA.
"We knew that to open an investigation into the RPF will irritated Kigali, because President Paul Kagame and other Tutsi leaders based a great part of their claim to legitimacy on the victory of the RPF against the genocidaires in 1994,” writes Carla del Ponte in her latest book. "They presented their conquest of the country as a just fight, to put an end to genocide", she adds.
"We knew that the government was against us", she recalls as the ICTR Prosecutor. In spite of that as of 2000, the prosecution opened a "secret" investigation.
“Rwandan authorities already controlled each stage of our investigations", she writes. "We knew that the intelligence service of Rwanda had received monitoring equipment from the United States which was used for phone calls, faxes and the internet. We suspected that the authorities had also infiltrated our computer network and placed agents among the Rwandan interpreters and other members of the team in Kigali.
Walpen [Laurent Walpen, former chief of investigations for the prosecution] also knew that the United States, for obvious reasons, did not want that the investigators to be equipped with the latest encryption Swiss telephones. In other words, the Rwandans knew, in real time, what the investigators of the tribunal were doing.
“In Kigali, 9 December 2000 I personally informed President Kagame that the office of the prosecutor had opened a case against him for allegations concerning the Rwandan Patriotic Front, for war crimes committed as Hutus committed the genocide. The meeting took place in his modest office of the presidential complex (...) the investigators say that evidence was collected on 13 episodes during which in 1994 members of the RPF would have massacred civilians as troops advanced through Rwanda. Kagame neither approved nor denied that these incidents had taken place", Del Ponte discloses in the book.
She also mentions the case of Jean Bosco Barayagwiza, released by the ICTR then re-indicted after protests in Kigali, The book was published in Italian language and an English version is scheduled for next January.
RWANDAN DEPUTIES VOTE AMENDMENT TO LAW ON GACACAS.
Hirondelle News Agency
9 April 2008
The Rwandan Chamber of Deputies voted a Bill aiming at widening the jurisdiction of the semi-traditional Gacaca courts.
Until now these courts have not had jurisdiction for the "first category" defendants, which includes the alleged planners of the genocide and the authors of rapes. The people in this category, estimated to be about 7, 500 according to the Rwandan government, have been, until now, tried by normal courts. The Bill was voted last Thursday.
The new law only includes in this category accused planners of the genocide at the national or provincial level, the cases that will be transferred from foreign countries or the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) as well as the cases that could be discovered after the end of the gacaca courts.
Other defendants initially classified in this category, including authors of rape, are transferred to the second category, thus falling into the jurisdiction of the gacaca courts.
This bill, which must still be approved by the Senate, had been adopted by the Council of Ministers in January.
The gacaca courts can sentence up to life in prison.
Work of General Interest (WGI) or community work, as an alternative sentence to imprisonment as well as suspended sentences were introduced into Rwandan law for certain categories of genocide convicts.
Inspired by traditional gathering at the time when village wise men settled disagreements while sitting on the grass (gacaca, in Rwandan language), the courts are not presided by professional magistrates but by people with high integrity nominated from the community. They have tried until now approximately a million people.
9 April 2008
The Rwandan Chamber of Deputies voted a Bill aiming at widening the jurisdiction of the semi-traditional Gacaca courts.
Until now these courts have not had jurisdiction for the "first category" defendants, which includes the alleged planners of the genocide and the authors of rapes. The people in this category, estimated to be about 7, 500 according to the Rwandan government, have been, until now, tried by normal courts. The Bill was voted last Thursday.
The new law only includes in this category accused planners of the genocide at the national or provincial level, the cases that will be transferred from foreign countries or the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) as well as the cases that could be discovered after the end of the gacaca courts.
Other defendants initially classified in this category, including authors of rape, are transferred to the second category, thus falling into the jurisdiction of the gacaca courts.
This bill, which must still be approved by the Senate, had been adopted by the Council of Ministers in January.
The gacaca courts can sentence up to life in prison.
Work of General Interest (WGI) or community work, as an alternative sentence to imprisonment as well as suspended sentences were introduced into Rwandan law for certain categories of genocide convicts.
Inspired by traditional gathering at the time when village wise men settled disagreements while sitting on the grass (gacaca, in Rwandan language), the courts are not presided by professional magistrates but by people with high integrity nominated from the community. They have tried until now approximately a million people.
Breaking News: Kony to sign Peace Agreement Thursday April 10.
Sources state LRA chief Joseph Kony will arrive in Ri-Kwangba tomorrow and sign the peace agreement. The forward unit of Kony's Presidential Guard has already arrived. President Museveni will not attend. More to follow.
09 April, 2008
Thailand will not charge 'Merchant of Death' - lawyer.
RIA Novosti
9 April 2008
Thailand will not bring charges against a suspected Russian arms dealer arrested in Bangkok on March 6, Viktor Bout's lawyer said on Wednesday.
Viktor Bout, 41, was arrested in March in a joint police operation led by the U.S. Washington is seeking Bout's extradition on charges of illegal weapons deals with militant groups, including the Taliban and al-Qaeda, in Middle East and African countries.
His arrest came as part of a sting operation involving a 'deal' to sell and deliver surface-to-air missiles, helicopters and rocket launchers to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The group is listed as a terrorist organization in the U.S.
"A Thai prosecutor decided today not to charge Viktor Bout in Thailand. After that he [Bout] was rearrested at the request of the U.S.," Yan Dasgupta said.
He said Bout was arrested pending a United States extradition request. Bout could face 15 years in prison on the U.S. charges.
Washington has not yet filed the request and has 60 days to do so, the lawyer added.
"We are expecting that a Thai court will authorize his [Bout's] detention for another 60 days," Dasgupta said.
Bout is a former lieutenant in the Russian military who quit the armed forces in 1991. He then allegedly transformed himself into an international arms dealer, earning the nickname 'the Merchant of Death.' The Western media has consistently referred to him as a "former KGB officer."
Western law enforcement agencies consider him to be "the most prominent foreign businessman" involved in trafficking arms to UN-embargoed destinations.
9 April 2008
Thailand will not bring charges against a suspected Russian arms dealer arrested in Bangkok on March 6, Viktor Bout's lawyer said on Wednesday.
Viktor Bout, 41, was arrested in March in a joint police operation led by the U.S. Washington is seeking Bout's extradition on charges of illegal weapons deals with militant groups, including the Taliban and al-Qaeda, in Middle East and African countries.
His arrest came as part of a sting operation involving a 'deal' to sell and deliver surface-to-air missiles, helicopters and rocket launchers to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The group is listed as a terrorist organization in the U.S.
"A Thai prosecutor decided today not to charge Viktor Bout in Thailand. After that he [Bout] was rearrested at the request of the U.S.," Yan Dasgupta said.
He said Bout was arrested pending a United States extradition request. Bout could face 15 years in prison on the U.S. charges.
Washington has not yet filed the request and has 60 days to do so, the lawyer added.
"We are expecting that a Thai court will authorize his [Bout's] detention for another 60 days," Dasgupta said.
Bout is a former lieutenant in the Russian military who quit the armed forces in 1991. He then allegedly transformed himself into an international arms dealer, earning the nickname 'the Merchant of Death.' The Western media has consistently referred to him as a "former KGB officer."
Western law enforcement agencies consider him to be "the most prominent foreign businessman" involved in trafficking arms to UN-embargoed destinations.
Kosovo's parliament approves constitution.
RIA Novosti
9 April 2008
Kosovo's parliament approved on Wednesday a national constitution due to enter into force on June 15, Serbia's BETA news agency reported.
According to the document, Kosovo, which declared its independence on February 17 and has been recognized by most Western powers, is a parliamentary republic in which the president holds substantial powers and the official languages are Albanian and Serbian.
All 103 MPs present voted in favor of the constitution.
"This is a special moment in finalizing the establishment of the state of Kosovo, and this constitution ensures the rights of all Kosovan citizens," President Fatmir Sejdiu told lawmakers.
The Kosovo Constitutional Commission signed the draft constitution on Monday after working on it for several months. Former UN Kosovo settlement envoy Martti Ahtisaari's proposals were taken as a basis for the document. These envisioned internationally supervised independence for the breakaway region.
Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence on February 17, adopting a new national flag and national emblem. The province's sovereignty has so far been formally recognized by 36 countries including the United States and most European Union members. Russia and China have consistently backed Belgrade's position that Kosovo must remain a part of Serbia.
EU representative in Kosovo Pieter Feith told the Serb newspaper Danas on Wednesday that the constitution would benefit Serbs living in the province, giving them equal rights with other citizens.
9 April 2008
Kosovo's parliament approved on Wednesday a national constitution due to enter into force on June 15, Serbia's BETA news agency reported.
According to the document, Kosovo, which declared its independence on February 17 and has been recognized by most Western powers, is a parliamentary republic in which the president holds substantial powers and the official languages are Albanian and Serbian.
All 103 MPs present voted in favor of the constitution.
"This is a special moment in finalizing the establishment of the state of Kosovo, and this constitution ensures the rights of all Kosovan citizens," President Fatmir Sejdiu told lawmakers.
The Kosovo Constitutional Commission signed the draft constitution on Monday after working on it for several months. Former UN Kosovo settlement envoy Martti Ahtisaari's proposals were taken as a basis for the document. These envisioned internationally supervised independence for the breakaway region.
Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence on February 17, adopting a new national flag and national emblem. The province's sovereignty has so far been formally recognized by 36 countries including the United States and most European Union members. Russia and China have consistently backed Belgrade's position that Kosovo must remain a part of Serbia.
EU representative in Kosovo Pieter Feith told the Serb newspaper Danas on Wednesday that the constitution would benefit Serbs living in the province, giving them equal rights with other citizens.
08 April, 2008
U.S. Army Set to Recruit Ugandan Citizens.
The Nation
6 April 2008
Angelo Izama
Ugandans who want a career in the United States military, can sign up at the annual convention of the Uganda North American Association, organisers say.
American military recruiters will set up a booth at this year's UNAA convention in Orlando, Florida, and seek out professional Ugandans, said Lt. Frank Musisi, himself an officer in the US Army.
Lt. Musisi, who comes from Kalangala District on Lake Victoria, is the current president of UNAA. He said the US military would also advise Ugandans on the "proper channels" to follow in enlisting. The announcement, which is also on the UNAA website (www.unaa.net), is set to cause a rush to this year's convention that takes place from August 29 to September 1.
UNAA is encouraging interested Ugandans to book flights to Orlando and take a shot at joining the US military. The organisation says it has made a deal with Kenya Airways/KLM for a discounted return ticket at $1,200 (Sh74,400). The conference fee is $190 (Sh11,700).
"All registered Kampala travel agents have been authorised to book intending members," Lt. Musisi said in an email interview.
The tour firm Let's Go Travel confirmed to Saturday Monitor that UNAA had circulated a notice of the discounts. Applicants are being asked to carry their curriculum vitae (CV) suggesting that the recruitment exercise will be a main attraction at the convention.
Public interest in jobs abroad in Uganda is intense. Recruitment and job placement companies which advertise are often flooded with thousands of applications.
6 April 2008
Angelo Izama
Ugandans who want a career in the United States military, can sign up at the annual convention of the Uganda North American Association, organisers say.
American military recruiters will set up a booth at this year's UNAA convention in Orlando, Florida, and seek out professional Ugandans, said Lt. Frank Musisi, himself an officer in the US Army.
Lt. Musisi, who comes from Kalangala District on Lake Victoria, is the current president of UNAA. He said the US military would also advise Ugandans on the "proper channels" to follow in enlisting. The announcement, which is also on the UNAA website (www.unaa.net), is set to cause a rush to this year's convention that takes place from August 29 to September 1.
UNAA is encouraging interested Ugandans to book flights to Orlando and take a shot at joining the US military. The organisation says it has made a deal with Kenya Airways/KLM for a discounted return ticket at $1,200 (Sh74,400). The conference fee is $190 (Sh11,700).
"All registered Kampala travel agents have been authorised to book intending members," Lt. Musisi said in an email interview.
The tour firm Let's Go Travel confirmed to Saturday Monitor that UNAA had circulated a notice of the discounts. Applicants are being asked to carry their curriculum vitae (CV) suggesting that the recruitment exercise will be a main attraction at the convention.
Public interest in jobs abroad in Uganda is intense. Recruitment and job placement companies which advertise are often flooded with thousands of applications.
07 April, 2008
New law would recreate Iraqi oil company.
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN
Associated Press Writer
April 5 08
A parliamentary committee is working on a pair of oil-related draft bills, one to re-establish the state-run oil company and another to fight oil smuggling, a senior lawmaker said Saturday.
Abdul-Hadi al-Hassani, deputy chairman of the committee on oil, gas and natural resources, said legislation to re-establish the Iraqi National Oil Co., was likely to be presented to parliament on Tuesday.
The measure is part of a package which also includes legislation to regulate the country's oil sector, reorganize the Oil Ministry and distribute revenues among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish regions.
Al-Hassani said he was uncertain when the other bills in the package would be ready for parliament to discuss.
The bill to regulate the oil industry has been bogged down since February 2007 because of opposition from the Kurds, who fear losing control over the oil riches in their semiautonomous northern region.
Al-Hassani said parliament also began discussing a separate anti-smuggling bill this week.
The law would call for tight penalties against oil smugglers ranging from fines to years in prison and confiscation to boats that are used for smuggling.
He said that there is no accurate study on how much Iraq loses due to oil smuggling but his committee estimates the figure at nearly 10 percent of total revenue — or about $5 billion a year.
The Iraqi oil sector has been hampered by decades of neglect and lack of investment during Saddam Hussein's rule. Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, attacks on oil infrastructure have held back production, which recovered prewar levels only at the end of last year.
Iraq sits on the world's third-largest oil reserves, totaling more than 115 billion barrels. Its average production for February was 2.4 million barrels per day and exports averaged 1.93 million barrels per day.
Associated Press Writer
April 5 08
A parliamentary committee is working on a pair of oil-related draft bills, one to re-establish the state-run oil company and another to fight oil smuggling, a senior lawmaker said Saturday.
Abdul-Hadi al-Hassani, deputy chairman of the committee on oil, gas and natural resources, said legislation to re-establish the Iraqi National Oil Co., was likely to be presented to parliament on Tuesday.
The measure is part of a package which also includes legislation to regulate the country's oil sector, reorganize the Oil Ministry and distribute revenues among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish regions.
Al-Hassani said he was uncertain when the other bills in the package would be ready for parliament to discuss.
The bill to regulate the oil industry has been bogged down since February 2007 because of opposition from the Kurds, who fear losing control over the oil riches in their semiautonomous northern region.
Al-Hassani said parliament also began discussing a separate anti-smuggling bill this week.
The law would call for tight penalties against oil smugglers ranging from fines to years in prison and confiscation to boats that are used for smuggling.
He said that there is no accurate study on how much Iraq loses due to oil smuggling but his committee estimates the figure at nearly 10 percent of total revenue — or about $5 billion a year.
The Iraqi oil sector has been hampered by decades of neglect and lack of investment during Saddam Hussein's rule. Since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, attacks on oil infrastructure have held back production, which recovered prewar levels only at the end of last year.
Iraq sits on the world's third-largest oil reserves, totaling more than 115 billion barrels. Its average production for February was 2.4 million barrels per day and exports averaged 1.93 million barrels per day.
06 April, 2008
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Archive.
Dear readers,
On April 6th, we will again mark the anniversary of the assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana, Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, General Deogratias Nsabyimana, several other Rwandan and Burundian officials, and the French crew of the Falcon 50 airplane that was shot down out of the sky over Kanombe Airport by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA). This event marked the beginning of the period that would come to be known as the Rwandan Genocide that is observed from April 6th to July 4th every year. This year, like every year, I humbly enourage everyone to take some time to remember all of the innocent victims who perished, be they considered Hutu or Tutsi.
This past year has seen numerous developments with regards to Rwanda. The most memorable one for most people in the international community was the release of 40 arrest warrants from the Spanish High Court that indicted high-ranking Rwandan Defense Force (RDF) officials for crimes that include genocide and terrorism. One of the other important events is the final months of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The information revealed during the proceedings has been quite interesting to say the least. As some of the key military and government trials are calling their defense witnesses, stories that were never told before are now coming forward. However, the international media has failed to cover the recent proceedings.
The Rwandan Government and its backers are obviously concerned about the information from the court leaking out to the public. They are pushing to gain custody of all the convicted prisoners and are seeking the transfer of the remaining detainees whose trials are not finished by the end of the ICTR's mandate, which runs out at the end of this year. While Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch protested against some individual transfers to Rwanda relatively recently, they have been publicly silent on this most recent event.
In a bid to supress the information, the Rwandan Government has asked that all of the hundreds of thousands of documents and audio recordings be physically stored in Kigali and only available to the public through them. The Director of the ICTR documentation centre in Arusha, Mr. Louis Ndiaye, has said that he recieved several offers from online archivists and documentation centers, but he feels Rwanda should host the archives. If this comes to pass, the information will be forever lost to the public and researchers.
Therefore, my project for this year's anniversary is to open up the ICTR archive so-to-speak. Due to the format of this blog, I am unable to provide the documentation directly, but I can provide the information from the documentation that has been tendered as evidence at the ICTR and where possible, with enough detail that researchers will be able to request or track down the correct documents if they have the right capabilities. I will be adding information as time allows, so please continue to check back to my ZMag blog for updates. I will provide as much information as I can on each piece of evidence and I will make personal comments on them as little as possible.
Report dated March 30, 1994: Written from General Dallaire to General Maurice Baril in New York at Gen. Baril's request. On paragraph 11 on the third page, General Dallaire says, "the gendarmerie is assessed to minimum-to minimally in not ineffective." He states it is because of the rapid expansion of the gendarmeries during the war and their subsequent lack of training. On page 4, Gen. Dallaire states many of them did not want to go into real combat. This document number is ID. 11 [Ndindiliyimana].
D. 67B [Ndindiliyimana] This is a copy of the fax known as the "Genocide Fax" as recieved from Ralph Zacklin, a legal officer at the UN, who verified document D 67B as the fax on file at the UN in New York (Mr. Zacklin's letter is exhibit number D67A [Ndindilyiymana]). The contents of the body of the fax are the same as the copy of the "Genocide Fax" tendered by the prosecution team (which is available to download at the NSA Archives website), but the fax on file with the UN in New York has the following differences: 1. There are fax numbers on the top of page showing it was transmitted 2. The words "Recieved from" are present on the top of the fax. 3. The fax is stamped on page 1, "Not Found in DPKO Files before November 28, 1995." 4. The fax is noted to have been recieved by Lamin Sise on 28th November 1995 on page 1. 5. On page 2, it is noted that the fax was recieved from Colonel Connaughton, a British Army officer located in Camberley, Surrey at the time.
Following a June 30th meeting between President Habyarimana, the OAU, and the UNHCR, it was decided that the Tutsi refugees in Uganda would be allowed to return to Rwanda. The Rwandan Government agreed to create the infrastructure to settle them and the UNHCR agreed to do a census of the refugees to determine the number that would be returning. A delegation of refugees was arranged to meet with the president to discuss the matter, but the delegation never showed up for the meeting in Kigali. However, the UNCHR delegation who went to carry out the census was threatened by the RPF and was not allowed to conduct their business. The RPA invasion of Rwanda on October 1, 1990, occurred shortly after this incident.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni told the press on October 10th, 1990, "I doubt very much that the troops that are there (FAR) can defeat the rebel force (RPA). Some of them (RPA) are our (Ugandan Army's) best people."
Daily Situation Report (SITREP) from Gen. Dallaire to SR Booh-Booh on 18 April 1994: Describes how the Belgians in UNAMIR were pulling out of Rwanda and states, "Some heavy armaments and ammo are being left behind by the Belgians."
Senate Belgian Hearings - 13 June 1997 pg. 739: The Senate asked Col. Briot why mortar rounds were in Kigali that were not on the list of authorized weapons for the Belgian contingent. The Senate asked why such arms were secretly being shipped to Kigali. Col. Briot replied "In documents relationg to the dispatch in early December 1993, dispatch of ammunition, you'll see mention made of mortar bombs. Such ammunition indeed left for Kigali, but it was on the basis of an error because no provision was made for such a dispatch. As soon as that error was taken note of, the decision was taken to leave them in Kigali, but to treat them with discretion because they had to make sure their presence was not known to the UN or the FAR." These weapons were stored in Rutongo on 4 April 1994. Rutongo was also a storage place for food supplies shipped to Kigali.
The KIBAT report states that, on 8 April 1994, thousands of displaced people in Nyacyonga went to the depot for food. It was guarded by Belgian UNAMIR soldiers at the time. The IDPs asked for food, but the Belgians denied them access. The crowd became agitated and so the Belgians gave them a little food to calm them down, but not too much. The crowd remained angry when the RPA arrived and fired into the crowd and killed many of them until the crowd fled. The RPA then took the food and ammunition there.
Testimony of Corporal Thierry Tambour on 30 May 1995, to the auditeur militaire in Brussels: page 306 of Belgian Senate document, page 35 of ICTR document (Item B), "On the night of 6th April 1994, around half past eight, I was in OP nocturnal operations on the hill opposite the CND building. From my position we were about 3 or 4 kilometers from the airport without being able to see it, without having a view of the airport. Around 20:30 hours, I saw, in the sky, a huge reddish yellowish mark in the sky and I heard the sound of an explosion. The sound of the explosion was deafening. I then saw a ball of fire crash in the distance on the ground. Immediately after, our company commander, Captain Vandreissche warned us or informed us by radio and told us that it was apparently an aircraft of the president of Rwanda that had just crashed. At no point did I hear the sound of missiles. However, immediately after the explosion, I heard the sound of gunfire as if it was going off all over the area surrounding our position. At that point, we recieved the order from our company commander by radio to pack our bags and head for the airport.
I think around 22:00 hours we reached the airport. Along the return route, there were some FAR roadblocks we had difficulty passing. At the airport, we were tasked with the protection of the premises. Our Captain Vandriessche then explained to us that the RPF had left the CND and they were moving toward our position in order to go and attack the Kanombe Camp. Orders were clear. If they were to pass by our positions without showing hostilities to us, we were to let them pass. In fact, they passed by the airport. I think they were unable to attack Kanombe because they were intercepted first by the FAR troops. All through the night, we remained in the snipers' trench at the airport. The following morning, on the 7th of April, we were given the same task, with a specific guard duty." Document Numbers K0075306 and K00735307.
Letter from Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana to the President of the Constitutional Court and CCed to Gen. Dallaire and SR Booh-Booh on 5 January 1994: "I have the honor of informing you that after the swearing-in ceremony of the president of the republic this morning, all the other ceremonies wich were equally seen for today are now cancelled on my order." Document Number K 0077761, Exhibit Number ID 13 [Ndindiliyimana].
Document number K0152453. Dated January 21st, 1994. Lieutenant Nees memorandum to KIB AT Commander Subject: Intelligence. "There are rumors circulating in Kigali according to which the RPF has already left town with 3,000 men, including 600 who are officially installed in the CND. In the north are also found 15,000 soldiers of the RPF waiting for the signal to stage a coup d'etat from Kigali. Thie explains the patience and their passive attitude towards setting up of a government. It they came to power through a coup d'etat, they would explain to the outside world that the country is in a state of chaos and that without their intervention it would have, once more, swung into civil war."
Document number K0152438. Dated February 9th, 1994. Memo from Lieutenant Nees to the KIBAT Commander. "From a well-informed source, the RPF has just placed - or positioned 10 to 20 soldiers in each secteur, and there are about 1,500 in number.
Note sent from the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Gen. Dallaire and SR Booh-Booh dated 11 April 1994. The FM filed complaints to UNAMIR of the following: The lack of security around Kanombe Airport; UNAMIR had failed to prevent RPF incoursions around the CND, where the RPF was killing civilians; elements of UNAMIR had participated in offensive operations with the RPF against the FAR. In regards to the last claim, the letter stated: UNAMIR elements and the RPF attacked the FAR at the Centre Christus de Remera and UNAMIR soldiers had cut off and siezed the crossroads at Sonatube for the RPF. At Gikondo on April 10th, the FM says a UNAMIR vehicle opened fire on FAR who were fleeing from an RPF massacre. On April 10 during the night, UNAMIR did nothing while the RPF massacred civilians in Remera.
Cable from UNOMUR to General Dallaire, March 1st 1994. "The MI branch of UNOMUR gathered some sensitive information that the NRA itself is effectively supporting the RPF with a large amount of ammunition and weaponry. " They listed 122mm weapons, A2 and 60mm mortars, RPGs and heavy weapons.
Report dated February 7th, 1994, from Colonel Matiwaza to General Dallaire states that informants in the NRA told UNOMUR observers that the RPF and FAR might start hostilities by the end of the week.
Code Cable from Colonel Asrar in Kabare to Frank Clayes dated March 2, 1994. Titled "Information about NRA" and included a dossier on the annual military balance of the NRA and its weapons containment.
KIBAT report states there was a communique issued from the GQ sector stating that the UN Security Council was going to pronnounce the proposal for the withdrawal of UNAMIR forces on April 9th at 14:00 hours.
On April 6th, we will again mark the anniversary of the assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana, Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira, General Deogratias Nsabyimana, several other Rwandan and Burundian officials, and the French crew of the Falcon 50 airplane that was shot down out of the sky over Kanombe Airport by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA). This event marked the beginning of the period that would come to be known as the Rwandan Genocide that is observed from April 6th to July 4th every year. This year, like every year, I humbly enourage everyone to take some time to remember all of the innocent victims who perished, be they considered Hutu or Tutsi.
This past year has seen numerous developments with regards to Rwanda. The most memorable one for most people in the international community was the release of 40 arrest warrants from the Spanish High Court that indicted high-ranking Rwandan Defense Force (RDF) officials for crimes that include genocide and terrorism. One of the other important events is the final months of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The information revealed during the proceedings has been quite interesting to say the least. As some of the key military and government trials are calling their defense witnesses, stories that were never told before are now coming forward. However, the international media has failed to cover the recent proceedings.
The Rwandan Government and its backers are obviously concerned about the information from the court leaking out to the public. They are pushing to gain custody of all the convicted prisoners and are seeking the transfer of the remaining detainees whose trials are not finished by the end of the ICTR's mandate, which runs out at the end of this year. While Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch protested against some individual transfers to Rwanda relatively recently, they have been publicly silent on this most recent event.
In a bid to supress the information, the Rwandan Government has asked that all of the hundreds of thousands of documents and audio recordings be physically stored in Kigali and only available to the public through them. The Director of the ICTR documentation centre in Arusha, Mr. Louis Ndiaye, has said that he recieved several offers from online archivists and documentation centers, but he feels Rwanda should host the archives. If this comes to pass, the information will be forever lost to the public and researchers.
Therefore, my project for this year's anniversary is to open up the ICTR archive so-to-speak. Due to the format of this blog, I am unable to provide the documentation directly, but I can provide the information from the documentation that has been tendered as evidence at the ICTR and where possible, with enough detail that researchers will be able to request or track down the correct documents if they have the right capabilities. I will be adding information as time allows, so please continue to check back to my ZMag blog for updates. I will provide as much information as I can on each piece of evidence and I will make personal comments on them as little as possible.
Report dated March 30, 1994: Written from General Dallaire to General Maurice Baril in New York at Gen. Baril's request. On paragraph 11 on the third page, General Dallaire says, "the gendarmerie is assessed to minimum-to minimally in not ineffective." He states it is because of the rapid expansion of the gendarmeries during the war and their subsequent lack of training. On page 4, Gen. Dallaire states many of them did not want to go into real combat. This document number is ID. 11 [Ndindiliyimana].
D. 67B [Ndindiliyimana] This is a copy of the fax known as the "Genocide Fax" as recieved from Ralph Zacklin, a legal officer at the UN, who verified document D 67B as the fax on file at the UN in New York (Mr. Zacklin's letter is exhibit number D67A [Ndindilyiymana]). The contents of the body of the fax are the same as the copy of the "Genocide Fax" tendered by the prosecution team (which is available to download at the NSA Archives website), but the fax on file with the UN in New York has the following differences: 1. There are fax numbers on the top of page showing it was transmitted 2. The words "Recieved from" are present on the top of the fax. 3. The fax is stamped on page 1, "Not Found in DPKO Files before November 28, 1995." 4. The fax is noted to have been recieved by Lamin Sise on 28th November 1995 on page 1. 5. On page 2, it is noted that the fax was recieved from Colonel Connaughton, a British Army officer located in Camberley, Surrey at the time.
Following a June 30th meeting between President Habyarimana, the OAU, and the UNHCR, it was decided that the Tutsi refugees in Uganda would be allowed to return to Rwanda. The Rwandan Government agreed to create the infrastructure to settle them and the UNHCR agreed to do a census of the refugees to determine the number that would be returning. A delegation of refugees was arranged to meet with the president to discuss the matter, but the delegation never showed up for the meeting in Kigali. However, the UNCHR delegation who went to carry out the census was threatened by the RPF and was not allowed to conduct their business. The RPA invasion of Rwanda on October 1, 1990, occurred shortly after this incident.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni told the press on October 10th, 1990, "I doubt very much that the troops that are there (FAR) can defeat the rebel force (RPA). Some of them (RPA) are our (Ugandan Army's) best people."
Daily Situation Report (SITREP) from Gen. Dallaire to SR Booh-Booh on 18 April 1994: Describes how the Belgians in UNAMIR were pulling out of Rwanda and states, "Some heavy armaments and ammo are being left behind by the Belgians."
Senate Belgian Hearings - 13 June 1997 pg. 739: The Senate asked Col. Briot why mortar rounds were in Kigali that were not on the list of authorized weapons for the Belgian contingent. The Senate asked why such arms were secretly being shipped to Kigali. Col. Briot replied "In documents relationg to the dispatch in early December 1993, dispatch of ammunition, you'll see mention made of mortar bombs. Such ammunition indeed left for Kigali, but it was on the basis of an error because no provision was made for such a dispatch. As soon as that error was taken note of, the decision was taken to leave them in Kigali, but to treat them with discretion because they had to make sure their presence was not known to the UN or the FAR." These weapons were stored in Rutongo on 4 April 1994. Rutongo was also a storage place for food supplies shipped to Kigali.
The KIBAT report states that, on 8 April 1994, thousands of displaced people in Nyacyonga went to the depot for food. It was guarded by Belgian UNAMIR soldiers at the time. The IDPs asked for food, but the Belgians denied them access. The crowd became agitated and so the Belgians gave them a little food to calm them down, but not too much. The crowd remained angry when the RPA arrived and fired into the crowd and killed many of them until the crowd fled. The RPA then took the food and ammunition there.
Testimony of Corporal Thierry Tambour on 30 May 1995, to the auditeur militaire in Brussels: page 306 of Belgian Senate document, page 35 of ICTR document (Item B), "On the night of 6th April 1994, around half past eight, I was in OP nocturnal operations on the hill opposite the CND building. From my position we were about 3 or 4 kilometers from the airport without being able to see it, without having a view of the airport. Around 20:30 hours, I saw, in the sky, a huge reddish yellowish mark in the sky and I heard the sound of an explosion. The sound of the explosion was deafening. I then saw a ball of fire crash in the distance on the ground. Immediately after, our company commander, Captain Vandreissche warned us or informed us by radio and told us that it was apparently an aircraft of the president of Rwanda that had just crashed. At no point did I hear the sound of missiles. However, immediately after the explosion, I heard the sound of gunfire as if it was going off all over the area surrounding our position. At that point, we recieved the order from our company commander by radio to pack our bags and head for the airport.
I think around 22:00 hours we reached the airport. Along the return route, there were some FAR roadblocks we had difficulty passing. At the airport, we were tasked with the protection of the premises. Our Captain Vandriessche then explained to us that the RPF had left the CND and they were moving toward our position in order to go and attack the Kanombe Camp. Orders were clear. If they were to pass by our positions without showing hostilities to us, we were to let them pass. In fact, they passed by the airport. I think they were unable to attack Kanombe because they were intercepted first by the FAR troops. All through the night, we remained in the snipers' trench at the airport. The following morning, on the 7th of April, we were given the same task, with a specific guard duty." Document Numbers K0075306 and K00735307.
Letter from Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana to the President of the Constitutional Court and CCed to Gen. Dallaire and SR Booh-Booh on 5 January 1994: "I have the honor of informing you that after the swearing-in ceremony of the president of the republic this morning, all the other ceremonies wich were equally seen for today are now cancelled on my order." Document Number K 0077761, Exhibit Number ID 13 [Ndindiliyimana].
Document number K0152453. Dated January 21st, 1994. Lieutenant Nees memorandum to KIB AT Commander Subject: Intelligence. "There are rumors circulating in Kigali according to which the RPF has already left town with 3,000 men, including 600 who are officially installed in the CND. In the north are also found 15,000 soldiers of the RPF waiting for the signal to stage a coup d'etat from Kigali. Thie explains the patience and their passive attitude towards setting up of a government. It they came to power through a coup d'etat, they would explain to the outside world that the country is in a state of chaos and that without their intervention it would have, once more, swung into civil war."
Document number K0152438. Dated February 9th, 1994. Memo from Lieutenant Nees to the KIBAT Commander. "From a well-informed source, the RPF has just placed - or positioned 10 to 20 soldiers in each secteur, and there are about 1,500 in number.
Note sent from the Rwandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Gen. Dallaire and SR Booh-Booh dated 11 April 1994. The FM filed complaints to UNAMIR of the following: The lack of security around Kanombe Airport; UNAMIR had failed to prevent RPF incoursions around the CND, where the RPF was killing civilians; elements of UNAMIR had participated in offensive operations with the RPF against the FAR. In regards to the last claim, the letter stated: UNAMIR elements and the RPF attacked the FAR at the Centre Christus de Remera and UNAMIR soldiers had cut off and siezed the crossroads at Sonatube for the RPF. At Gikondo on April 10th, the FM says a UNAMIR vehicle opened fire on FAR who were fleeing from an RPF massacre. On April 10 during the night, UNAMIR did nothing while the RPF massacred civilians in Remera.
Cable from UNOMUR to General Dallaire, March 1st 1994. "The MI branch of UNOMUR gathered some sensitive information that the NRA itself is effectively supporting the RPF with a large amount of ammunition and weaponry. " They listed 122mm weapons, A2 and 60mm mortars, RPGs and heavy weapons.
Report dated February 7th, 1994, from Colonel Matiwaza to General Dallaire states that informants in the NRA told UNOMUR observers that the RPF and FAR might start hostilities by the end of the week.
Code Cable from Colonel Asrar in Kabare to Frank Clayes dated March 2, 1994. Titled "Information about NRA" and included a dossier on the annual military balance of the NRA and its weapons containment.
KIBAT report states there was a communique issued from the GQ sector stating that the UN Security Council was going to pronnounce the proposal for the withdrawal of UNAMIR forces on April 9th at 14:00 hours.
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