• Thousands of Palestinians protest for 4th Friday in a row over US policy

    Thousands of Palestinians protested for the fourth Friday this month against the US president's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. 

    Protesters marched on the streets in Gaza and the West Bank, chanting “Death to America, death to Israel, and death to Trump”.

    According to local health officials at least 50 Palestinians have been injured by live fire by Israeli troops. 

  • German police detain Bosnian man over alleged war crimes in 1990s

    Police in Bavaria, Germany on Thursday detained a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. 

    The man was detained at Munish airport following an arrest warrant issued by Interpol, reports Sputnik.  

    He is alleged to have involved in acts of torture and executions of civilians. 

  • Ukraine swaps over 300 prisoners with separatists

    The Ukrainian government and separatists reportedly backed by Russia have carried out the largest prisoners swap to date, since violence erupted in the region in 2014.

    Ukraine handed over 246 prisoners that it had in its custody in exchange for 74 prisoners who were being held by separatist forces. The prisoner swap is the largest to date, since the signing of the 2015 Minsk peace agreement.

  • Bosnian court sentences former fighter over war crimes

    A former fighter, Azra Bašic was found guilty by a Bosnian court of committing war crimes during the 1990s Balkan war. 

    Ms Bašic who is 58 years old was sentenced to 14 years in prison. 

    She was found guilty of atrocities including the murder of a detainee who she stabbed in the neck and torture. 

    Known as "the mistress of life and death", Ms Bašic was said by the judge to have exhibited "particular cruelty" towards detained ethnic Serbs. 

  • South Korea and Japan clash over reparations for sex slaves

    The governments of South Korea and Japan have clashed over a 2015 reparations agreement on the use of wartime sex slaves by Japan.

    South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the deal on the enforced sex slaves – or ‘comfort women’ as they have been termed – was “seriously flawed”. Tens of thousands of Korean women and girls were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during the Second World War.

  • German investigators uncover nine new cases of Nazi war crimes

    Investigators in Germany have handed over nine new cases of war crimes committed by Nazis during World War Two to authorities, for possible prosecution of the perpetrators.

    Die Tageszeitung reported this week that the cases all involved guards at concentration camps run by the Nazis at Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Buchenwald and Ravensbrueck.

  • EU launches disciplinary action against Poland over judicial reforms

    The European Union has launched disciplinary action against Poland over a series of judicial reforms that it claims threatens the rule of law.

    A series of 13 new laws introduced by the Polish government have allowed it to "interfere significantly" in the judiciary says the EU. Vice president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, told reporters that the new laws” put in serious risk the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers”.

  • US vetoes US Security council resolution calling for reversal of Jerusalem foreign policy decision

    The UN Security Council voted 14-1 in favour of a resolution calling on the US to rescind its decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

    The resolution, which was vetoed by the US, stated “any decisions and action which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the holy city of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded.”

    British Ambassador to the UN Matthew Rycroft said,

  • Cyril Ramaphosa elected leader of South Africa’s ANC

    South Africa’s African National Congress announced that Cyril Ramaphosa, has been elected leader of the party

    The 65 year old veteran ANC activist ran on an anti-corruption platform against Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the former wife of current leader Jacob Zuma. He won by a margin of just 179 votes out of the more than 4,700 total ballots cast on Monday. Mr Zuma had been leader of the party since 2007.

  • Genocide prosecutions cannot be ruled out in Myanmar says UN Rights Chief

    The United Nations Human Rights Chief said future prosecutions for genocide could not be ruled out in assessing the mass atrocities in Myanmar.

    The rights chief criticised Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi's inaction on the situation and refusal to use the term “Rohingya,” adding “to strip their name from them is dehumanising to the point where you begin to believe anything is possible.”

    Speaking to the BBC Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, said,

  • Former UN general slams inaction over ‘very deliberate Rohingya genocide’

    The former commander of the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide warned that the same crime is taking place in Myanmar, and called on the international community to intervene.

    "You’re into the mist of a very slow moving and very deliberate genocide,” Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire told Sky News.

  • Rwandan government report accuses France of complicity in genocide

    A new report commissioned by the Rwandan government accuses France of being complicit in the 1994 genocide, which saw more than 800,000 people killed.

    The Muse Report, written by US law firm Cunningham Levy Muse, was commissioned by the Rwandan government to explore France’s role in the massacres. Published this week, the report states that French officials attempted “to conceal their own role in the genocide and to undermine attempts to prosecute genocide suspects”.

  • Court in Netherlands convicts man of war crimes in Ethiopia in 1970s

    A court in the Netherlands on Friday convicted a man of war crimes in Ethiopia during the Marxist regime of the 1970s. 

    The 63 year old man, Eshetu Alemu was deemed by the court to have been in charge of the Dergue regime in Gojam province. 

  • US calls on Myanmar to release disappeared journalists

    The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for the “immediate release of two Reuters reporters arrested in Myanmar.

    Speaking on Friday, Mr Tillerson further called for “information as to the circumstances around their disappearances.”

    The journalists, Wa Lone 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo 37, went missing on Tuesday after being invited to meet police officials over dinner in the northern outskirts of the city of Yangon.

  • British police arrest distributors of Kurdish newspaper

    Two Kurdish women and two teenagers have been arrested to be questioned about the sale and distribution of Kurdish newspaper Yeni Ozgur Politika (New Free Politics),” reports the BBC.

    The Kurdistan Solidarity Campaign described the arrests as “an attack on freedom of expression.”

    The organisation added,

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