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29 Mar 2017 - NPWJ News Digest on International Criminal Justice
Articles
Group says Duterte, not Robredo, upsetting int‘l community
by Inquirer.net, 29 Mar 2017
It’s President Rodrigo Duterte, not Vice President Leni Robredo, who is upsetting the international community for his inducement of extrajudicial killings, according to a United Nations affiliate organization to which Robredo sent a video message criticizing Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs. Speaking for the first time about the firestorm sparked by Robredo’s message to the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs annual meeting in Vienna on March 16, David Borden, executive director of the UN-accredited Drug Reform Coordination Network, said the Vice President deserved no blame for shining a spotlight on Mr. Duterte’s bloody war on drugs. In an e-mail correspondence with the Inquirer, Borden said it was Duterte himself who had diverted global attention to the Philippine human rights situation as a result of his strongman policy and rhetoric against drug pushers and users. “The President has repeatedly promised mass killings, urged police and civilians to engage in killings, and promised to protect the perpetrators of killings from prosecution,” said Borden, whose Washington-based group organized the forum on extrajudicial killings on the sidelines of the UN meeting in Vienna. Mr. Duterte’s allies, including Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, were outraged at Robredo’s criticism of the war on drugs. Alvarez threatened to impeach her for betraying the public trust.
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Ivory Coast's Former First Lady Cleared of War Crimes
by The New York Times, 28 Mar 2017
A court in Ivory Coast acquitted former First Lady Simone Gbagbo of crimes against humanity and war crimes charges linked to her role in a 2011 civil war that killed about 3,000 people, state television announced on Tuesday. The trial, the West African nation's first for crimes against humanity, was held in an Ivorian court after the government rejected her extradition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Gbagbo, who has often been absent from the trial on complaints of poor health, was not present for the verdict. Her husband, ex-president Laurent Gbagbo, is standing trial before the ICC on similar charges connected to the brief conflict, which was triggered by his refusal to accept defeat to Ouattara in a 2010 presidential run-off election. "We are happy. Since the start of the trial we proclaimed her innocence. The prosecution's case against her was empty," her lawyer Mathurin Dirabou told Reuters after the verdict was announced. But Human Rights Watch said the judgment left "unanswered serious questions about her alleged role in brutal crimes."
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Burundi: 'Corpse Phenomenon' On Greater Scale
by AllAfrica, 27 Mar 2017
Lifeless bodies are discovered all over the country. Some human rights activists speak of a revival of murderous violence of a political and ethnic nature and count about sixty corpses. For the police, this phenomenon would be linked to vengeance, banditry or witchcraft. In the morning of Monday, March 20, a body of a police officer, a colonel named Charles Ndihokubwayo, was found inside St. Joseph parish in District III of Ngagara area in northern Ntahangwa commune of Bujumbura city. Witnesses said his body did not have traces of wounds or contusion. Pierre Nkurikiye, Police spokesman, said that police officer who lived in Ngagara, was working at the Higher Police Institute in Mitakataka area of the western province of Bubanza. [...] Armel Niyongere: "The government has changed a strategy" "These executions are meant to frighten the population or even the members of the defense and security forces who do not support the regime in place as they are also victims of this repression, especially the soldiers from the former army (Ex- FAB)." This Human rights activist says the government's speech that security is total is not true because "the government has rather changed a strategy by executing opponents and ex-FAB soldiers to make the conflict ethnic."Armel Niyongere asks the government to conduct credible and transparent investigations to identify perpetrators and bring them before justice. Otherwise, he said, all these files will be sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Anschaire Nikoyagize: "A need for International investigations". "The phenomenon of corpses resumes with a worrying pace. The trend is similar to that observed towards the end of 2015, "said the human rights activist. According to him, it is a repression that is made by security and defense forces and the youths affiliated to the ruling party CNDD-FDD, the Imbonerakure. "What is still scary is that this repression focuses on the ex-FAB soldiers and the opposition youth."
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Katanga case: ICC Trial Chamber II awards victims individual and collective reparations
by The International Criminal Court, 24 Mar 2017
Today, 24 March 2017, Trial Chamber II ("the Chamber") of the International Criminal Court (ICC or "the Court") issued an Order awarding individual and collective reparations to the victims of crimes committed by Germain Katanga on 24 February 2003 during an attack on the village of Bogoro, in the Ituri district of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The judges awarded 297 victims with a symbolic compensation of USD 250 per victim as well as collective reparations in the form of support for housing, support for income‑generating activities, education aid and psychological support. Because of Mr Katanga's indigence, the Trust Fund for Victims was invited to consider using its resources for the reparations and to present an implementation plan by 27 June 2017. Mr Katanga was able to view the proceedings via video broadcast at Makala Prison in the DRC. To ensure that interested persons are well informed - in particular applicants for reparations and affected communities - outreach activities, including a viewing site, will be held today in Bunia, DRC and in other villages in coming days. The Legal Representative of Victims and the Defence may appeal the Order within 30 days if they so wish. On 7 March 2014, Mr Katanga was found guilty as an accessory on one count of a crime against humanity (murder) and four counts of war crimes (murder, attacking a civilian population, destruction of property and pillaging). On 23 May 2014, he was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment. His sentence was later reduced and was completed on 18 January 2016.
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