A Case of Liable
Published November 06, 2009 @ 02:44PM PT
So far the drafters of the Genocide Convention had established a definition and punishable acts. The next step was to clearly establish who could be held liable for genocide.
The Secretariat draft placed criminal liability for genocide on "rulers, public officials, and private individuals." In their commentary the experts stressed that the greatest responsibility for genocide prevention lies with rulers or statesmen. They also took the position that international law should concern itself with prosecuting "rulers" and that states should be in charge of prosecuting lesser public officials.
In a nod to the famed "Nuremberg defense" the Secretariat draft also prohibited "command of law or superior orders" as a justification of genocide. However, it did acknowledge that in some cases command of law or superior orders may constitute extenuating circumstances. This question would be left to the judge.
The Ad Hoc Committee unanimously voted to impose criminal liability on "heads of State, public officials or private individuals." Interestingly a Soviet proposal to include a prohibition of the Nuremberg defense was rejected. Other committee members explained that an in accordance with the definition of genocide an individual could not be held liable unless they possessed the requisite intent and orders were not sufficient to meet this requirement.
A Special Message from Indego Africa
Published November 06, 2009 @ 04:28AM PT
I received the following message from a board member at Indego Africa, nonprofit taking a social enterprise approach to empowering hundreds of women Rwanda to lift themselves out of poverty. If you're looking for something to do in DC tonight, check it out -- and enter the raffle to win a trip to Rwanda.
Dear Michelle:
I am a Board member of the non-profit Indego Africa, and I wanted to alert you to our fall fundraiser event being held this Friday night from 7-10pm at the Josephine Butler Parks Center in Northwest, DC. Indego is an innovative and entrepreneurial nonprofit built upon the belief that women in Rwanda can become economically self-sufficient. Our annual Ibirori fundraiser is meant to raise awareness of our organization and celebrate Rwandan progress. Maybe you could mention the event on your website?
We believe there will be no better way for DC residents to spend their Friday night. Here are three reasons why:
Racialized Refugee Status in the UK?
Published November 05, 2009 @ 04:27AM PT
Did the UK just endorse racial profiling of refugees?
According to a decision announced on Tuesday by Britain's Interior Ministry, all "non-Arab" Darfuri asylum-seekers will be allowed to remain in the country, contingent upon periodic reviews of the situation in Sudan:
"All non-Arab Darfuris, regardless of their political or other affiliations, are at real risk of persecution in Darfur and internal relocation elsewhere in Sudan is not currently to be relied upon," the Interior Ministry's UK Border Agency concluded in its operational guidance note.
Yes, non-Arab Darfuris were the targets of Sudan's genocidal violence, and return from abroad is a very dangerous prospect. But while the situation in Darfur is perilous for those groups singled out by the government, the human rights situation is pretty crummy (in my professional opinion) across the entire country -- for Arabs and non-Arabs and mixed races and foreigners and really anyone who happens to be there.
I'm certainly no lawyer, but I thought that an individual's asylum claim should be evaluated on the specific merits of his/her case. While its laudable for the British government to recognize the need to ensure of asylum to Darfuris, that protection should be extended to all Sudanese fleeing abuse in their home country.
New Darfur Film Knows No Shame
Published November 04, 2009 @ 04:42AM PT
The man "widely considered to be the worst working director today" + Darfur = Disaster.
You don't even need to see the full film to tell -- here's all you need to know: White journalists in a gun battle with the Janjaweed.
Seriously.
If the trailer is any indication, Uwe Boll's new film Darfur is the worst kind of white-man's-burden, heart-of-darkness trash known to cinema -- Eurocentric Africa filmmaking at its most condescending. Starring Billy Zane.
The film repeats a theme commonly seen in movies about African wars: White people in search of adventure stumble into a land of lawlessness and are touched and distraught by the devastation they find. But by bringing his rugged characters into direct confrontation with villainous Janjaweed militia, Boll is truly in a class of his own.
I've often found that most people are unwilling to criticize a movie about genocide, be it documentary or feature film. I was given a funny look when I walked out of Invisibles and said, "That's the most boring movie I've ever seen." The movies are always "moving" and "heartbreaking" because of the gravity of the subject matter, as if basic standards for storytelling (not to mention respect, in Boll's case) are thrown out the window every time someone decides to make a film about human suffering.
Boll takes this unfounded freedom too far. The trailer is embedded past the jump -- judge for yourself.
Bold Words, from Sudan to Zim to the DRC
Published November 03, 2009 @ 08:00AM PT
Dictator Delusion Disorder
Congolese President Joseph Kabila boasted that his army is winning its battle to uproot extremist Hutu militias in the east, just as the UN withdrew its support for the Congolese army and human rights groups issued warnings about egregious violence committed by the troops against civilians.
A typical day at the office?
Says my favorite old curmudgeon Bobby Mugabe of his Prime Minister: "Even if some person is not mentally stable he is still your partner . . . . We bound ourselves to work together even though we had disparate position." So is he on or off the Christmas card list?
Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
Such is the gist of statements by Sudanese presidential adviser Ghazi Salahuddin on Obama's recently-released Sudan policy: "We believe that the U.S strategy toward Sudan is tactics more than anything else, and therefore we need the U.S. to come out with a true strategy dealing with the overall relations."
Who else would have the moxie to tell the Leader of the Free World, "You did it wrong. Go back and try again?"
Khartoum's Spin Zone
Published November 02, 2009 @ 05:31AM PT
Misinformation is the cornerstone of dictatorship -- control of dominate political narratives allows for the manipulation of public sentiment. Those of you familiar with certain cable news programs may know this as "spin."
An intriguing interview from the latest edition from the Sudan Radio Project (an excellent program, if you're not familiar) makes me wonder exactly how the Sudanese government is spinning the Obama Administration's recently-released policy review. In a segment on Sudanese perspectives of the plan, a 27-year-old woman from Khartoum incorrectly states that Obama supports unified Sudan, with "no division between South and North," presumably following the 2011 referendum on Southern independence.
The policy statement, in fact, wisely does not take a stance on the outcome of the referendum, but states the administration's intentions to ensure peace both before, during, and after Southerners head to the polls. It is, after all, not our right to weigh in on what the outcome of the referendum should be -- the vote for self-determination was a key component of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended two decades of war, and the right to chose unity or independence belongs to Southerners alone.
This Week in Who's Going to Jail
Published November 01, 2009 @ 07:22AM PT
The wheels of justice keep on turnin':
A Rwandan actor "known for his humour [and] ability to act diverse roles and linguistic prowess" will spend 19 years in prison for his role in instigating the massacre of Tutsis during the 1994 genocide, thanks to a verdict from a gacaca court last week.
A fellow Rwandan genocidaire became the first person convicted under a Canadian law allowing for the prosecution of war crimes committed abroad; Desire Munyaneza received a life sentence from a Montreal court for his role in the killings.
Rwanda also plans to request the extradition from Italy of a Hutu priest accused of involvement in the massacre of 80 students at the school where he was the headmaster in 1994.
