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October 22, 2008
Posted 10:22 PM
by Mary
Closing Guantanamo may not be enough: U.N. envoy By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The next U.S. president, whether it is Barack Obama or John McCain, will likely shut down Guantanamo Bay prison camp but may decide to keep some prisoners indefinitely, a U.N. rights envoy said on Wednesday. The prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the system for trying its detainees, has been widely condemned by human rights groups and governments around the world, including close allies of the United States, who say it does not meet international legal standards. Both candidates seeking to succeed President George W. Bush -- Republican Sen. McCain and Democratic Sen. Obama -- have pledged to close the detention center where some 255 suspected members of al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated groups are detained. The prison once held as many as 600 detainees. Martin Scheinin, U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the fight against terrorism, told reporters he expected the next U.S. president to swiftly follow through on his promise to close down the prison. This will lead to the "release of those detainees who are ready for release, who have already been determined as posing no threat," said Scheinin. It will also lead to trials for those suspected of serious crimes who have been deemed ready for trial. "I would expect the trials to be taken to (U.S.) federal courts," Scheinin said, adding that he was confident the suspects would receive fair trials. But for those who are neither ready for release or trial, the new administration may decide to seek legislation to create a "regime where indefinite detention would be continued." "I strongly recommend against that solution," Scheinin told reporters after briefing the U.N. General Assembly's Third Committee on social, humanitarian and cultural affairs. He said the current legal basis for indefinite detention of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay was deeply flawed. "But replacing it with an ex post facto law authorizing, after so many years, continued detention -- unavoidably it would be assessed by international human rights bodies as constituting a form of arbitrary detention," he said. He also chided Canada for refusing to request extradition of a 22-year-old Canadian captive who was 15 years old when he was detained after a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002. Scheinin said Omar Khadr was a juvenile at the time he was alleged to have thrown a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier. "It is troubling that Canada is not doing what other countries have done in order to get their citizens or even residents out of Guantanamo," Scheinin said. Labels: canada, guantanamo, torture
October 17, 2008
Posted 11:21 PM
by Mary
SC 2009 Japan has been elected as a temporary member of the UN Security Council, defeating Iran for the Asian seat. In the vote at the UN headquarters in New York, Japan received 158 votes and Iran received 32. Turkey and Austria have been elected for the two European seats, defeating Iceland. Uganda and Mexico won their seats unopposed. The five successful countries will take their seats at the Security Council on 1 January 2009.They will replace South Africa, Panama, Indonesia, Italy and Belgium. Labels: Security Council
Posted 10:48 PM
by Mary
Prosecutor to present third Sudan case within weeks 17 Oct 2008 By Michelle Nichols NEW YORK, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said on Friday he will present a case within weeks for the indictment of some rebel commanders accused of attacking peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region. The court is currently considering chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's case for the indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and has already indicted a Sudanese minister and an allied militia leader for war crimes. "In a couple of weeks I will present my third case against some rebel commanders who were attacking African Union peacekeepers," Moreno-Ocampo told a Council on Foreign Relations symposium, sponsored by Hollywood actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Moreno-Ocampo has been investigating a 2007 attack on an AU base in Haskanita, Darfur which killed 12 peacekeepers and was blamed on rebels. A U.N. report said vehicles used in the attack bore the initials "JEM," which could have stood for the Justice and Equality Movement, a powerful rebel group. Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the group, said in July that if any of his guerrillas was indicted they would be handed over to the international court for trial. Sudan, which has signed but not ratified the treaty establishing the Hague-based ICC to try suspected war criminals, has refused to hand over the Sudanese minister or the militia leader indicted last year. Asked how confident he was that the court would approve an arrest warrant for Bashir, Moreno-Ocampo said: "The case is in the hands of the judges, I have requested before 12 arrest warrants -- I got 12. I am pretty confident I have a solid case." Bashir is accused of orchestrating a campaign of genocide in Darfur, a desolate region of western Sudan, from 2003. International experts say more than five years of fighting there has killed 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes. Sudan puts the death toll at 10,000. Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told the symposium that "peace is placed before justice, often instead of justice. "We let those who destroyed their countries decide the future for their countries," she said. "There is no enduring peace without justice." Labels: ICC, SUDAN
Posted 10:42 PM
by Mary
Afghan war cannot be won militarily, U.N. agrees 06 Oct 2008 By Jonathon Burch KABUL, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The war in Afghanistan cannot be won militarily and success is only possible through political means including dialogue between all relevant parties, the U.N.'s top official in the country said on Monday. His comments come a day after Britain's top military commander in Afghanistan told the Sunday Times that the war could not be won and that some form of insurgency would exist even after international troops left the country. Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith said if the Taliban were willing to talk, that might be "precisely the sort of progress" needed to end the insurgency. "I've always said to those that talk about the military surge ... what we need most of all is a political surge, more political energy," Kai Eide, the U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan, told news conference in Kabul. "We all know that we cannot win it militarily. It has to be won through political means. That means political engagement." Eide said success depended on speaking with all those involved in the conflict but did not say whether this included the Taliban. "If you want to have relevant results, you must speak to those who are relevant. If you want to have results that matter, you must speak to those who matter," he said. The U.N. envoy's comments echo those made by NATO commanders and diplomats for some time that negotiations with the militants will ultimately be needed to bring an end to the conflict. But the Taliban have consistently rejected the idea of talks and have said that negotiations with the Afghan government could only take place after the more than 70,000 international soldiers were pulled out of the country. Labels: Afghanistan
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"War does not determine who is right--only who is left." - Bertrand Russell
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