• Former Guatemalan leader to face Genocide charges

    Jan 26

    Guatemala’s former dictator, Efrain Rios Montt, has been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity by Judge Carol Patricia Flores on Thursday.

    Rios Montt ruled the country in 1982-83, after a military coup. A 36 -year civil war with leftist guerrillas, which ended in 1996, cost more than 200,000 lives, of which 93% were caused by state and paramilitary forces, according to a UN report.

  • Kenyan ministers must stand trial for war crimes rules ICC

    Two presidential candidates for the 2013 elections, must face trial for war crimes committed after the marred election of 2007, ruled the International Criminal Court on Monday.

  • Ex-Guatemalan military leader summoned, as immunity ends

    The former military leader of the Guatemalan army, Efrain Rios Montt, has been summoned to appear before a Guatemalan court on Thursday as the first step towards facing genocide charges for his role during the massacres committed by the army in the Mayan highlands during 1982-1983.

  • US Marine spared jail in plea bargain
    The only US Marine convicted in the killing of 24 unarmed civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha in 2005, will face no jail time after pleading guilty to a dereliction of duty.
  • France passes Armenian genocide bill, sparking Turkish anger
    The French Senate has passed a bill criminalising the denial of the Armenian genocide of 1915, a day which Armenia has hailed as “written in gold” and left Turkey threatening “total rupture”.

    Whilst hundreds of Turks demonstrated against the bill outside the French parliament, the Senate passed the legislation with 127 votes to 86. The bill means that denial of genocide could lead to a one-year imprisonment and a charge of up to 45,000 Euros in fines.

    The bill does not make specific references to the Armenian killings, but apart from the Holocaust, for which France already specifically denies, this is the only other recognised genocide.

    Turkey has reacted angrily to the bill with the Foreign Ministry stating,
    "Turkey is committed to taking all the necessary steps against this unjust disposition which reduces basic human values and public conscience to nothing."
    The Turkish ambassador in Paris, Tahsin Burcuoglu, also commented that the move would lead to “total rapture” between the two nations, saying,
    "When I say total rupture I include things like I can leave definitively."
    "You can also expect that now diplomatic relations will be at the level of charges d'affaires not ambassadors anymore."
    Charge d'affaires is the lowest rank of diplomatic representative under the Vienna conventions. 

    Armenians though have praised the bill, with Armenia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edward Nalbandian saying,
    "This day will be written in gold not only in the history of friendship between the Armenian and French peoples, but also in the annals of the history of the protection of human rights."
    About 500,000 French citizens claim Armenian descent, the largest such population in Europe.
  • Bosnian Serb war criminal escapee recaptured
    A former Bosnian Serb soldier, who was convicted of war crimes and imprisoned, has been recaptured by authorities after escaping from prison four years ago.

    Radovan Stankovic was convicted of ear crimes and crimes against humanity, after being found guilty of raping and enslaving Bosnian Muslim girls and women during the 1992-1995 war. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
  • Armenian genocide debate underway in French Senate
    French senators are set to vote on Monday over a controversial bill, which would make the denial of the killing of over 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 by Turkey as genocide, a crime.
  • Assad rejects Arab League plan to seek Security Council support

    No sooner had the Arab League annonced its decision to seek support from the UN Security Council to bring about a peaceful end to Assad's rule through a national unity government and elections held within 6 months, than the Assad regime declared it was rejecting it.

  • EU imposes embargo on Iranian oil

    The European Union has imposed severe new sanctions on Iran due to its refusal to suspend its nuclear activities.

  • Mali agrees to take on ICC prisoners
    Mali has agreed to open its prison to prisoners sentenced by the International Criminal Court, becoming the first African country to have done so.

    The agreement was signed on Friday by ICC Vice-President Fatoumata Dembele Diarra and Malian Foreign Affairs Minister Soumeylou Boubeye, which allowed for ICC prisoners to serve their sentences in Malian jails.
  • Saleh leaves Yemen, but calls for justice continue

    Anti-government protesters came out onto the streets of Sanaa to celebrate the departure of Yemen's ousted president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, on Sunday.

    According the Yemeni government's spokesperson, Muhammad Albasha, Saleh was travelling to New York for medical treatment, with a possible detour via Oman.

  • No US weapons to Vietnam, till progress on human rights

    US weapons will not be sold to Vietnam until the country reverses its "backward movement" on human rights, said US senators on Friday.

    Following a recent visit to Vietnam, the US delegation "specifically stated to the Vietnamese that our security relationship will be directly impacted by the human rights issues", said John McCain, who was a member of the delegation.

  • 65 years after conviction Nazi war criminal faces jail
    An 89-year old Nazi war criminal who was convicted in 1947 of war crimes may finally be jailed, after Bavarian prosecutors filed a motion to see him serve his prison sentence.

    Klaas Carel Faber, a Dutch native, was convicted for his role in 22 murders and aiding Nazi occupiers in World War II by a Dutch court. He was handed a death sentence which was later commuted to life imprisonment.
  • A pearl in the Thames?

    A Chinese sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation, bought a 8.68pc stake in the UK's Thames Water, owned by Kemble Water.

  • Australia poised to recognise Aborigines as first people of the continent
    Australia is on the verge of making a historic constitutional reform, which would recognise the Aboriginal people as the original inhabitants of the country and remove racist clauses from the country’s constitution.

    The proposals were presented, which called for a referendum to decide on the issue before the next general election in 2013, after a panel of 19 experts unanimously supported them.
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