February 6, 1997. Copyright, 1997, Graphic News. All rights reserved

WAR CRIMES
By Lis Ribbans

LONDON, February 6, Graphic News- There have never been so many people on indictment for war crimes as there are today. Aside from those awaiting trial by national courts, a total of almost 100 suspects have been charged by the two UN international tribunals seeking to bring to justice the perpetrators of atrocities in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. But human rights groups hope that these tribunals Ð the first since the Nuremberg trials following World War Two Ð will be the last. Critics of the ad hoc system for dealing with grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions want a permanent international criminal court Ð and they could soon get it. The UN has recently agreed to a series of preparatory meetings this year to work on the text of a treaty for the new court, which it is hoped will be signed by June 1998. Amnesty International points to the mass of crimes against humanity, in countries such as Argentina, Cambodia, Iraq, Indonesia, Burma and Liberia, that have gone largely unpunished. But it is expected that the proposed international court will try only those cases relating to crimes carried out after its establishment.

France: The Supreme Court ruled on January 23 that Maurice Papon, 86, the last surviving Vichy official, should be tried for complicity in crimes against humanity. He will be only the second Frenchman to be tried on the charge. Paul Touvier, a former Lyon militia chief, died last year in prison while serving a life term. It has taken 15 years to bring the case againt Papon.

Britain: On January 17, BritainÕs first war crimes trial collapsed when Belarus-born Szymon Serafinowicz, 86, was declared mentally unfit to stand trial by a jury at the Old Bailey. He had been charged with murdering three Jews on the Eastern Front in the 1940s.

The Hague:  A verdict is expected shortly on Dusan Tadic, the Serbian guard charged with murder, rape and torture at the notorious Omarska concentration camp. The first international war crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials has so far tried only one other man, Drazen Erdemovic, 25, who was jailed for 10 years for his role in executing 1,200 Muslim civilians. Of the further 74 indicted suspects Ð three Muslims, 18 Bosnian Croats, 50 Bosnian Serbs and three Serbian officers Ð 68 are still at large, including former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadic, and his army commander, Ratko Mladic.

Tanzania: On January 23, Colonel Theoneste Bagasora, former director of RwandaÕs defence ministry, was handed over with three others to the UNÕs Rwanda war crimes tribunal in Arusha, northern Tanzania, bringing the total number of suspects in detention to 11. The capture of Bagasora, accused of directing the slaughter of around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, is a boon to the tribunal which is beset by allegations of incompetence and nepotism. A further 10 indicted suspects are still at large.

Italy: Former SS captain Erich Priebke is in prison in Rome awaiting a new trial after the Supreme Court overturned an earlier ruling by a military tribunal that he was guilty but no longer liable for punishment.
Priebke, 83, is charged with taking part in the Nazi reprisal killing of 335 men and boys at the Ardeatine Caves in 1944. The judiciary is currently trying to decide whether the case should be heard in a civilian or military court.

Source: Coalition for an International Criminal Court; Amnesty International; UN War Crimes Tribunal, The Hague