International Justice Quickies

by Karl Horberg · 2009-09-09 15:14:00 UTC
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Amnesty International released a report criticizing the government of Timor-Leste for failing to prosecute those responsible for violence surrounding the country's independence.  President Jose Ramos-Horta did not react positively to the report, going as far as to suggest that the U.S. should be investigated for supplying weapons to Indonesia. CAVR estimated that 18,600 unlawful killings and disappearances occurred between 1974 and 1999.

A government official in Sri Lanka expressed similar reservations when the UN suggested an investigation into a video that allegedly shows a member of the Sri Lankan army executing unarmed Tamil rebels.

In Kenya, a key endorsement by an association of lawyers greatly assisted in the attempt to create a special tribunal to prosecute those involved in the 2007 post-election violence. This tribunal would be separate from the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Committee established in July 2009. The TJRC recently survived a legal challenge by former members of the Kenyan Parliament.

The ICC postponed a public hearing on the conditional release of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo. The Pre-Trial Chamber granted Bemba interim release last month under certain conditions. The Office of the Prosecutor has appealed this decision. Belgium, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy, and South Africa are the countries Bemba could possibly be transferred to.

[Picture: ICC Press Conference Room.]

Karl Horberg
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