ICTY Postpones High Profile Trial; France to Transfer Rwandan to ICTR; Basques Demonstrate for Peace

by Sarah Benczik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - On May 16 the Appeals Chamber for the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) suspended the trial of two former security chiefs charged with training, arming and direcing paramilitary units that murdered and drove out non-Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia during the war.  The trial has been suspended because the Appeals Chamber ruled Jovica Stanisic too ill to effectively participate in his trial.

The trial of the two men, Javica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, began on April 28 after trial judges allowed Stanisic to participate via a two-way video link between his detention block and the court.  Stanisic is suffering from depression and kidney stones. 

The Appeals judges ruled that the two-way video link "gave insufficient weight to Stanisic's fundamental right to be present in court," and questioned whether Stanisic would be able to effectively participate in his trial in "light of his physical and mental state of health."

Both men were close aides to Slobodan Milosevic, and are allegedly responsible for orchestrating the paramilitary groups Arkan's Tigers and the Scorpions.  If convicted of the murder, persecution, forced deportations and inhuman acts, they will face maximum life sentences. 

For more information, please see:

International Herald Tribune - UN appeals judges order suspension of war crimes trial of 2 former Serb security chiefs - 16 May 2008

IWPR - Stanisic Trial Adjourned on Appeal - 16 May 2008

PARIS, France - On May 16 the European Human Rights Court (HRC) refused to block the transfer of Dominique Ntawukuriryayo from France to Tanzania, where he will be brought before the Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). 

Ntawukuriryayo's attorneys had appealed to the HRC after France's Final Court of Appeal refused to block his transfer.  Ntawukuriryayo's attorneys argued that the ICTR, which is attempting to close cases by 2008, would eventually hand Ntawukuriryayo back to Rwandan authorities.

Prosecutors have charged Ntawukuriryayo with taking part in the massacre of Tutsis in 1994 in Gisagara, where thousands had gathered and were told they would be safe.  Ntawukuriryayo was Deputy Governor of Gisagara, and prosecutors allege that his actions led to the killing of not less than 25,000 Tutsi refugees on Kabuye Hill, Butare Province, Southern Rwanda.

Ntawukuriryayo had been living in France since 1999 and was arrested in Carcassonne in October 2007.. 

For more information, please see:

AFP - France to transfer Rwanda genocide suspect to war crimes court - 16 May 2008

AllAfrica.com - Rwanda: French Court Nods Transfer of Genocide Accused to UN Court in Arusha - 7 May 2008

MADRID, Spain- Hundreds of Basque Spanish citizens held a ceremony in San Sebastian on May 18 to commemmorate the lives of people killed in attacks by the ETA over the last forty years. 

The ceremony included speeches from the Basque regional president and a man whose son was killed in the 1998 Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland, and the production of a painting of two people embracing in front of a Basque landscape as a symbol of peace.

According to the International Herald Tribune, ETA is has killed more than 820 people in its campaign to carve a Basque homeland out of northern Spain and southwestern France. 

The most recent fatality at the hands of ETA occurred during a car bombing outside police barracks in Legutiano on May 14 where police officer Juan Mañuel Piñuel was killed.  The government said ETA had intended to massacre all 29 people inside the barracks at the time. The most recent ETA bombing occurred in the early morning hours of May 19 in Getxo. 

ETA declared a cease fire in March 2006, but has reverted to violence after failing to win concessions from Spain's socialist government. 

"Only one reason explains our commitment, the sense of why we must carry on, hang on and withstand so much pain," said Lorencio Sainz, a police officer who was seriously wounded in an ETA bombing in 1984. "It is for liberty and the rights of citizens." 

For more information, please see:

ABSCBN - Radio: ETA bomb strikes Spain's northern Basque - 19 May 2008

Euronews - Homage to ETA victims in Spain - 18 May 2008

International Herald Tribune - Basque demonstrators call for an end to violence - 18 May 2008