Free Republic

On Monday, February 26, 2007 the U.N.'s highest Court will hand down the judgment as to whether Serbia as a nation will be held accountable for the alleged genocide perpetrated against the Bosnian Muslims in the 1990s. I'm posting here an essay written shortly after September 11, 2001 by Sandy Marquette that will hopefully provide some perspective. It may even be more relevant now than it was six years ago when it was written. AMERICA'S WAR AGAINST MUSLIM TERRORISTS: A WAR THAT THE ORTHODOX SERBS HAVE BEEN FIGHTING FOR YEARS By Sandy Marquette September 23, 2001 Imagine what it must...

MEXICO CITY Mexico plans to stand firm in pushing for the right of an international war tribunal to prosecute U-S soldiers. Today's announcement came despite the fact that the decision will cost Mexico more than one (M) million dollars in U-S military funding to fight drug gangs. A spokesman for President Vicente Fox -- Ruben Aguilar -- says nobody should be immune from the action of justice. U-S State Department officials said that the cut was made to comply with the 2002 American Service Members Protection Act. The law says military assistance should not be given to countries that have...

AMSTERDAM, April 25 (Reuters) - A Kosovo Albanian went on trial on Monday on charges of intimidating witnesses, the first such case at The Hague war crimes tribunal. The charges against Beqa Beqaj relate to a case against Isak Musliu, an accused commander of a former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) prison camp where some inmates were tortured. Beqaj faces seven years in jail if convicted. He was secretly indicted last year and transferred to the custody of the tribunal after being arrested by U.N. forces in Kosovo. Beqaj had already pleaded not guilty at his initial appearance last November and...

The French lawyer who defended Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and guerrilla Carlos the Jackal has confirmed he will defend Saddam Hussein. Jacques Verge said Saddam's nephew had chosen him to represent the former Iraqi president. Mr Verges, who is also defending former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, said he would lead Saddam's defence, supported by a dozen other French lawyers. In Baghdad, the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council is setting up a war crimes tribunal to try Saddam on charges which may include genocide and crimes against humanity. Washington has said the 66-year-old Saddam, whose interrogation is being led...

Saddam Hussein has been captured. How will he, and other members of his regime, be brought to justice? The United States could defer to a newly formed Iraqi court system, or lead the way through Coalition trials. These, and all options -- except for the International Criminal Court -- should be considered. Though, in the end, the Iraqi judicial system should be given preference once it is capable of handling the matter in a fair and just manner. History offers a lesson. After World War II, the Allies used three different judicial mechanisms: - Nuremberg trials. Most prominently, the war’s...

Paris - Washington has agreed that Gen. Wesley K. Clark, the former NATO commander and a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, can testify in the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic. But the Bush administration has demanded the right to edit videotapes and transcripts of the sessions before they are made public.The former opponents, the general and the formal president of Yugoslavia, will face each other in court Monday and Tuesday, but the sessions will be behind closed doors, with the public gallery off limits and minus the usual television and internet broadcasts.Closed sessions are routine at the U.N....

The following is a summary of facts about the new tribunal that was circulated last week at a DoD school for DoD lawyers as an educational hand-out. I believe "CPA" stands for Coalition Provisional Authority, which right now is Ambassador Bremer. I post the contents of the hand-out verbatim: Facts about Iraqi Special Tribunal [IST] - created on 12/10/2003 by Iraqi Governing Council - statue drafted by committee established by the Governing Council, advised by Coalition and other international law experts experienced with working with the tirbunals established to deal with atrocities in the former Yugoslavia, East Timor, and Sierra...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec 14, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The interim Iraqi government said Sunday it wants to try Saddam Hussein before a special tribunal, but a human rights group voiced deep concern about the legitimacy of the newly established panel. The United States reserved judgment. Iraq's new leaders want Saddam to face the tribunal they established last week specifically to hear cases involving leading members of the Saddam regime accused of genocide and other crimes against humanity. "We will deal with Saddam Hussein," said Adnan Pachachi, a member of the 25-seat interim Governing Council. "He was an unjust...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. officials said they still haven't decided what to do with Saddam Hussein now that he's been captured, but one option is putting him before a special tribunal established just days ago. Iraq's Governing Council said Saddam would face public trial in Iraq. Iraq's interim government established a special tribunal Wednesday to try top members of Saddam's government for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. At the time, they said Saddam could be tried in absentia. Lt. Gen. Richardo Sanchez said at a news conference Sunday that the U.S.-led coalition was still deciding what to...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — U.S. officials said they still haven't decided what to do with Saddam Hussein now that he's been captured, but one option is putting him before a special tribunal established just days ago. A member of Iraq's Governing Council said Saddam would face public trial. Iraq's interim government established a special tribunal Wednesday to try top members of Saddam's government for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. At the time, they said Saddam could be tried in absentia. Lt. Gen. Richardo Sanchez said at a news conference Sunday that the U.S.-led coalition was still deciding what...

<p>AFTER months of soul- searching, it now seems certain that the Iraq Governing Council is prepared to put the fallen Ba'athist regime on trial. The decision is important because it ends the debate over who should hold the trials and where. The council seems confident enough that the Iraqis can handle the task themselves: No need for a court outside Iraq, with foreign judges. The tribunal will sit in Baghdad, with only Iraqi judges to try Saddam and his associates on charges ranging from corruption to crimes against humanity.</p>

Couple of interesting articles on this subject. First is the usually insightful work of Taranto.Check out the lead paragraph of this Knight Ridder dispatch: Human rights activists are worried that Iraqi war crimes tribunals--which could be approved as soon as Wednesday--will be a kangaroo court in which victims will seek retribution against their former persecutors. These people are worried that victims of human rights abuses will bring the perpetrators to justice? If so, calling them "human rights activists" is downright Orwellian.WSJ Opinion JournalOther is the link to the actual story he comments on. Will these people against a Free Iraq...

<p>December 11, 2003 -- Iraq's new government established a special tribunal yesterday to try Saddam Hussein in absentia for crimes against humanity - if he is not captured or killed first.</p> <p>Calling it a great achievement and a historic event in Iraq's history, members of the Governing Council said the tribunal would try Saddam and his key loyalists and associates, many of whom are in U.S. custody, for genocide and war crimes that date back to July 17, 1968.</p>

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council voted Monday to create an Iraqi-led tribunal to prosecute human rights abuses committed under Saddam Hussein. The tribunal, which might eventually try Saddam among others, promises justice for oppressed Iraqis. Several top Baath Party members are now in coalition hands though it is unclear who among them will be tried. Saddam himself is believed to be at large. Some critics, however, question the unelected council's authority to create such a tribunal and its reticence to seek international assistance in forming it. "Setting up a tribunal to try the former leaders...

Dec 6, 7:34 PM ESTAP: Scientists to Excavate Iraqi Graves By NIKO PRICEAssociated Press WriterMAHAWEEL, Iraq (AP) -- The killers kept bankers' hours.They showed up for work at the barley field at 9 a.m., trailed by backhoes and three buses filled with blindfolded men, women and children as young as 1.Every day, witnesses say, the routine was the same: The backhoes dug a trench. Fifty people were led to the edge of the hole and shot, one by one, in the head. The backhoes covered them with dirt, then dug another hole for the next group.At 5 p.m., the killers...

Saddam Hussein and hundreds of his aides could go on trial for crimes against humanity and genocide, in an Iraqi-led tribunal that will be established in the coming days. Some human rights groups criticised the plans, saying Iraq’s US occupiers had too much of a hand in them and that Iraqi judges and prosecutors might not have the experience needed to try the cases. The law creating the tribunal – which could be passed as early as tomorrow – will be similar to proposals made in Washington in April, one member of Iraq’s Governing Council said. The law calls for...

Appeals judges at the International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague are considering whether an American journalist should be forced to testify before the tribunal. Is it conceivable that someone who could end up in front of this tribunal would speak to a reporter if that reporter were later required to give evidence against him? Floyd Abrams, lawyer Former Washington Post reporter Jonathan Randal has been called to give evidence in a war crimes case - but refuses to do so, saying war correspondents and their sources would be in jeopardy if they were considered as potential witnesses. Mr Randal...

Top Drawer-The Bunker George Szamuely Milosevic’s Trial Gandhi was once asked what he thought of Western civilization. He responded: "I think it would be a good idea." Western civilization in all its triumphalist, moth-eaten glory is currently on display at the show trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic at the Hague. The elected leader of a European country is being forced to defend himself against ludicrous charges manufactured by the intelligence agencies of the very same countries that waged aggressive war against his nation. The man who tried to keep multinational Yugoslavia together in the face of Western-sponsored nationalist...