CRINMAIL 143

In this issue:

Top story: DR Congo - ICC prosecutors appeal Lubanga release order

[THE HAGUE, 16 July 2010] - International Criminal Court prosecutors appealed on Friday against an order to free Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga, whose trial for war crimes was halted by judges.

The trial judges in Lubanga's case on Thursday ordered his release, saying he could not be held on a "speculative basis" with no set date for his trial to resume.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters on Friday that his office had filed the appeal and was confident of winning an order suspending Lubanga's release.

At issue is the identity of an intermediary, used by the prosecutor's office to help find witnesses. Lubanga's trial was suspended on July 8 after the prosecution refused an order to turn over the intermediary's identity to the defence.

The prosecution had insisted the intermediary needed physical protection before his identity could be revealed.

But the intermediary is also a potential witness in another Congo war crimes case, that of Germain Katanga, and the court in that case has now ordered protection for the witness.

Moreno-Ocampo said the protection order in the Katanga case eliminated the problem in the Lubanga case and there was no longer a reason why the identity of the witness could not be revealed to the defence team and therefore the case could proceed.

Lubanga is accused of enlisting and conscripting children under 15 years of age to his Union of Congolese Patriots to kill members of a rival tribe in a 1998-2003 war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has pleaded not guilty and described himself as a politician, not a warlord.

Lubanga's trial resumed in January, six months after prosecutors ended their case. His defence has argued that the former child soldiers who testified against him made up their stories.

[Source: Reuters]

Further information

• DR Congo: ICC to proceed with trial despite setbacks (January 2009)
• DRC: ICC’s first trial focuses on child soldiers (Human Rights Watch, 23 January 2009)
• The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict
• More on children's rights in the DR Congo
• About the International Criminal Court (ICC)

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22892

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LATEST NEWS AND REPORTS

Security scare

Nepal: A girl who spoke before the UN Security Council last month about her experiences as a child soldier has been threatened by a group of Maoists upon returning to her village. Although the girl's name was concealed during the event, she was identified from photographs. The girl said: "They told me that my intentions were not good ... and told [me] and my mother that anything can happen to me in the future." The UN's office in Kathmandu is aware of the threats and is assessing the situation. Read the full story.

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Arbitrary detention and unrest

India: The Jammu and Kashmir state government should carry out a high court order to ensure due process rights and protections for children detained for allegedly participating in violent street protests, Human Rights Watch said today. Hundreds of these children, locally known as “stone pelters,” are at risk of arbitrary detention and abuse as authorities struggle to contain the protests. Read the full story.

Kyrgyzstan: Security forces in southern Kyrgyzstan are responsible for human rights violations, ranging from arbitrary detention to torture, threatening the fragile peace in the area six weeks after it was rocked by deadly inter-ethnic violence, a top United Nations official said today.

“Large numbers of people – most of them young men, and virtually all of them Uzbek – have been arbitrarily detained in ways that not only demonstrate flagrant ethnic bias, but also break many of the fundamental tenets of both Kyrgyz and international law,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stressed. Read the full story.

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Seeking refuge

Uganda has forcibly returned 1,700 Rwandan asylum seekers and refugees from two camps in the southwest of the country, the UN refugee agency said last week, according to AFP news agency.

In one settlement, asylum seekers were gathered on the pretext that they would learn the results of their asylum claims before being loaded onto trucks and deported.

A spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that children had been separated from their parents in the process. Read the full story.

Disability: Forced Migration Review 35 has been released by the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. This issue focuses on disability and displacement.

The journal features 27 articles showing why disabled people who are displaced need particular attention.

It is not common practice to include people with disabilities among those considered particularly vulnerable in disasters and displacement. Therefore, there are often no targeted responses or services for persons with disabilities despite the fact they represent a full 10 per cent of displaced persons. Download the report.


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Sinister developments

Israel: "Spot and Shoot" is the latest killing machine to be used by the Israeli military, reports United Arab Emirates newspaper "The National". Operators, who are mainly young women serving in the army, sit in front of a TV monitor from which they can target Palestinians in Gaza with a PlayStation-style joystick. Read the full story.

Occupied Palestinian Territories: Save the Children UK has released its annual review of children’s rights in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) for 2009.

The report reviews the major trends that impact children's rights to health, education, protection, and a decent standard of living using publicly available data and our own latest research. Download the report.

Iraq: Lack of donor funding has forced the United Nations to cut back on its humanitarian efforts in Iraq, with its food aid agency halting distributions to hundreds of thousands of women and children in the conflict-ridden country, reports America Online. Read the full story.

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