Former president of Liberia first head of state indicted, tried and convicted in an int’l court
This two-‐year-‐old girl lost her right arm when her grandmother was shot and killed by Revolutionary United Front rebels. She was being carried on her grandmother’s back and was wounded by the same bullet that killed her grandmother. The four other men all had their hands amputated by rebels ©1999 Corinne Dufka/Human Rights Watch
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, was convicted in The Hague Thursday 26 April on 11 counts of war crimes by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
The court’s statement noted that the 11-count indictment alleged that he was responsible for crimes committed by rebel forces during Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war. “The Special Court’s Trial Chamber II found unanimously that Mr. Taylor aided and abetted RUF and AFRC rebels in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone.”
The court did not accuse him of personally committing crimes but rather “found that he had aided and abetted the rebels by providing them with arms and ammunition, military personnel, operational support and moral support, making him individually responsible for their crimes”, from his base in neighbouring Liberia.
The charges included the recruitment, enlistment and use of child soldiers and
- several war crimes: terrorism, outrages upon personal dignity and cruel treatment, pillage plus
- several counts of crimes against humanity: rape, enslavement, sexual slavery, mutilations and amputations and murder.
A sentencing hearing will be held 16 May and he will be sentenced 30 May. The court must sentence him to a specific number of years in prison; it cannot give him a life sentence or the death sentence.
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The search for victims of an avalanche at Les Diablerets in canton Vaud has been called off, after 150 rescue workers combed the area and ran tests for evidence of victims Wednesday evening 29 February that showed no evidence anyone was caught by it. A team is back on the slopes Thursday morning to recover gear and check further, but canton Vaud police say there have been no reports of missing persons since their alert yesterday.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Work continues to find survivors and clear rubble five days after the area around the town of Ercis was struck 23 October by a 7.5 earthquake, but snow and freezing rain are hampering the effort and causing major problems for victims, many of whom are still reportedly without shelter. Survivors have been cheered, nevertheless, by extraordinary rescues: a 13-year-old boy was pulled out alive early Friday morning and an 18-year-old youth Thursday evening, reports Reuters. The government now officially reports 535 people have died. Aljazeera says that about 185 have been brought out of the rubble alive since Sunday. And a mother was reunited with her 18-day-old baby Thursday, reports the Telegraph, although the child’s father is yet to be found.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The badly decomposed remains of 15 victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi population in Rwanda have been found at the Hotel Tech in the district of Remere in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Authorities were told of the bodies in May and the process of exhuming them began in mid-July. They were buried under what is now the sauna and the women’s bathrooms of the new hotel, built on the premises of an older hotel called Total.
The Tutsis were taken from the Catholic church, where they had taken refuge, to the hotel where they were killed by grenades, then buried, according to the survivors who led authorities to the graves. The information has been confirmed by the survivors’ umbrella organization, Ibuka.
More than one million people are estimated to have been killed during the 100-day genocide campaign. An educational centre about the killings and genocide worldwide was built in 2004 to mark the 10th anniversary; its sits on the place where 250,000 bodies were buried.
Links to other sites: Aegis Trust, UK, allAfrica 14 July, allAfrica 19 July, Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre and Facebook page for the new “Raindrops over Kigali” documentary film
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The International Migration Organization in Geneva Monday 20 September launched a new, second major appeal to international donors, for help aiding victims of Pakistan’s ongoing flood crisis. The IOM is asking for $114 million in new funds to help the 20 million people affected by the country’s worst-ever flooding. It follows a August appeal for $38m for three-month emergency funds, of which £22m in pledges have come in, mainly from the US, UK, Canada, Sweden, Japan and the UN.
The new appeal covers projects to run through July 2011 and includes money for:
- Emergency and longer term shelter, and coordination of the Emergency Shelter Cluster ($70m)
- Community restoration, including debris removal and repair of damaged infrastructure ($26m)
- Staff and procurement support for the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) ($4m)
- Logistics and transport for aid agencies and the NDMA ($3m)
- Mass communications for disaster-affected populations ($3m)
- Emergency health care and restoration of primary health care ($2m)
- Distribution of tool kits to help people to restart their livelihoods and rebuild their houses ($2m)
- Displacement camp coordination and camp management ($2m)
- Prevention of human trafficking ($1m)
Details of IOM’s Pakistan funds appeal
Lausanne police provide images of stolen jewelry to help victims identify missing pieces
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – If you have jewelry that went missing in 2009 or early 2010, you would do well to contact the city of Lausanne, which is working with city police to identify the owners of a spectacular haul of jewels made in February.
Lausanne police seized 900 items of gold jewelry at the time, most of it stolen from homes in the region, including 150 items from Geneva.
The investigation, carried out with Vaud police, that led to the haul took several months, but resulted in the arrest of two thieves and two jewelers who were receiving some of the stolen goods, police say. Several kilos of goods were discovered at a gold foundry in Bienne, where one of the jewelers had sent the items to be melted down.
What to do if you think your missing jewels are part of the haul
Victims who believe their jewels are part of the collection will need to send an e-mail to eurojud@lausanne.ch with the number of the item from the police photo page (see image at left) and contact information.
The police will then get in touch. Alternatively, they can phone Lausanne police at 021 315 4000, from 08:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00.
Links to other sites: 20 Minutes (Fre), Vaud Police
Paris, France (GenevaLunch) – An area 5km by 5km has been pinpointed, say French authorities, where the black box from the Rio to Paris Air France flight AF447 disappeared inexplicably 1 June 2009. New technology has made it possible to get a more precise location, and the French government has requested that the search continue. One of the more unusual details to come out of French coverage of the missing plane is that an American victim had a payout “value” for his of her family, according to Le Monde, 16 times higher than the value of a European victim. All 228 on board the plane were killed.
Links to other sites: Business Week, Le Monde (Fre)
Sion, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The former second in command of the police in canton Valais was fined CHF16,500 and handed a suspended sentence of 100 days of community service 1 April in a case of child sexual abuse. He was charged with sexual acts involving a 13-year-old girl.
The case underscores some of the difficulties courts, victims and the accused face in child sexual abuse cases.
The man, who was removed from his job and reassigned to a cantonal police department project where he is still working, was charged after the girl’s school contacted the police.
Catholic Church leaders in Switzerland say they underestimated the problem
Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s Bishops Conference, the highest body in the Catholic church in this country, has publicly apologized for problems of sexual abuse by its clergy, saying it grossly “underestimated the extent of the problem.”
The Conference notes in a statement (pdf) issued Wednesday 31 March, the most public acknowledgment made to date of the problem, that “Diocesan leaders and those in religious orders made mistakes, and we apologize for those mistakes.”
In Geneva, 24-26 February
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Money will help people off the hook in capital punishment cases, according to a round table discussion at the fourth World Congress against the Death Penalty, held in Geneva 24-26 February. That, and the victim being a foreigner makes it unlikely that he or she will be put to death. Panelists from Bahrein, Pakistan and the United States argued that “money can buy you immunity” from prosecution. “Torture and the death penalty are for the poor,” says Kamran Arif, a lawyer from Pakistan, which hands down one-third of the world’s death sentences.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police in Geneva have now made available dozens of photos of recovered stolen jewelry to help victims find their missing possessions. The jewelry can be viewed by going to the police jewelry division, opening the pdfs and noting the reference number if you find something of yours there. Contact the police and make an appointment to see them in order to claim it:
Service des bijoux de la police judiciaire, Vieil Hôtel de Police, 17-19 boulevard Carl-Vogt, Geneva.
Tel: +41 22 427 8281 (08h00-11h30)
E-mail : cid.bijoux@police.ge.ch
Update 7 September / More than 100 Irish IRA victims’ families in the UK have been told by Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office in London that the government will not put formal pressure on Libya to compensate them, thus following the example of the US. Lawyers for three families in the US have obtained what the BBC describes as a multi-million pound out of court settlement with Libya, which the victims’ lawyers say supplied the IRA with explosives from Libya. Monday 7 September Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffi’s son Saif al-Islam told Sky News that if victims’ families requested compensation the answer in the first instance would be “no” and they could take the matter to court – a reply seen by the families as positive because it is the first sign of engagement on the part of Libya.
Thirteen bodies have washed up on the Tanzanian island of Mafia (map), along with debris, and they are thought to be those of victims of the Comoros archipelago crash of a Yemeni airliner in 1 July. Officials say DNA tests will be needed to identify them. The island is south of Dar es Salaam, not far from the mainland. BBC
The explanation for what precisely happened to flight AF447 over the Atlantic is still missing, but Air France Thursday 4 June told the families of victims that enough information is now available to know there is no hope of anyone surviving the crash. Yahoo/AP
Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Names of those who died in the Air France crash in the Atlantic Monday 1 June are gradually making it into media around the world. In Switzerland, police in Vaud say that a man from the area was on the plane, but they will not make details public. The Tribune de Geneve and its sister newspaper 24 Heures published news of the death of Christophe Paus, 32, a neurosurgeon at the Chuv (University Hospitals) in Lausanne but it is not clear if he is the Vaud resident known to police. A total of six Swiss were reported to be on the plane.
Among those from other countries, known to have been on the flight:
Italy on Good Friday before Easter, an important day in the Catholic Church which plays a significant part in Italian life, is mourning the nearly 300 victims of the earthquake that rocked the town of Aquila 6 April. At least 150 people are being buried Friday, with dignitaries and officials from throughout Italy attending, reports the BBC.
French officials denied claims of a relationship between nuclear weapons tests and health problems among the testers for decades. Defense Minister Hervé Morin told Le Figaro, Tuesday 23 March, that they will compensate those suffering from illnesses linked to radiation exposure from the test. French authorities carried out more than 200 nuclear tests between 1960 and 1996 that theoretically affected approximately 150,000 civilian and military personnel, according to Morin. International Herald Tribune
Tens of thousands of people, according to Al Jazeera wire service, marched in Naples 21 March to demand an end to organized crime and violence attributed to the Mafia, as well as to commemorate some 900 Mafia victims.
NPR, National Public Radio in the US, carries a long feature on one family’s efforts to build new lives several months after the devastating earthquake in Sichuan 12 May that left 88,000 people dead and 5 million homeless.
