UN Court clashes with Serbia over witness intimidation

Balkan Insight reports today that “Serbia’s continued non-compliance with its obligations obstructs the course of justice,” according to a memo released by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia about Belgrade’s refusal to extradite three of its nationals accused of witness intimidation during the war crimes trial of Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj. The three individuals are accused of being in contempt of court for threatening witnesses at Seselj’s trial. They are also accused of blackmailing protected witnesses and offering them bribes of 500 euros not to testify. http://bit.ly/2dtemp4

Dutch Srebrenica peacekeepers may sue for ‘mission impossible’

Yahoo News reports today that about 100 former Dutch UN peacekeepers may sue the government for sending them to defend the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in 1995, after the defense ministry admitted it had been a “mission impossible,” lawyers said Tuesday. The move…

Sri Lanka allows exhumation of journalist’s remains

The National Post, a Canadian news portal, reported yesterday that a Sri Lankan court on Thursday gave permission to police to exhume the remains of a newspaper editor killed seven years ago for a fresh investigation. Lasantha Wickrematunge, editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper, was killed while driving to work in January 2009. He was an investigative journalist who wrote about government corruption and a sharp critic of the then government’s alleged human rights violations during a civil war with ethnic Tamil rebels. A number of journalists were killed, reported as missing after being abducted by government paramilitaries, or beaten up under former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s administration. No one has been convicted. http://bit.ly/2cyd9KQ

Wanted: a court to try Da’esh for war crimes

The National, a news portal from Abu Dhabi, reported yesterday that private war crimes investigators say they have a case to try ISIL’s…

Mexico missing students: Unanswered questions two years on

BBC News reports today that two years have passed since 43 students went missing on their way to a protest in the Mexican town of Iguala. At the time, their disappearance caused outrage. Protests in Mexico City turned violent. But while many are still angry, the events on the night of 26 September and the early morning of 27 September 2014 have faded. The BBC visits the Raul Isidros Burgos rural teachers’ college in Ayotzinapa, where the trainee teachers were studying. http://bbc.in/2d20zHF

Two years after student disappearances in Mexico

Amnesty International issued a press release on 23 September indicating that a demonstration in London to be held on 26 September would see 43 chairs set out in front of Mexican Embassy to represent an empty classroom and remember the missing students. “From failing to stop the attack against the students, to preventing international efforts…

Enforced disappearances in Egypt

Middle East Monitor reported yesterday on a statement released by the Arab Organization for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK), which said that cases of forced disappearance in Egypt “have become rampant” since the July 2013 coup. The families of detainees killed after being forcibly disappeared are told they were never arrested in the first place, or that they died in clashes with the police. Many letters enquiring about victims’ whereabouts or fate go unanswered. More than 37 Egyptians have been missing for longer than 3 years following their arrest in the aftermath of the July 2013 military coup, according to AOHR UK. http://bit.ly/2csn8GD

Sri Lanka: Office on Missing Persons

Global Voices published an article yesterday on the Office on Missing Persons in Sri Lanka. It said 11 August 2016 was an important day because Sri Lanka’s Parliament enacted legislation to establish the first permanent entity to…

Nepal: war criminals will be prosecuted

Kathmandu Post reports today that Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said on Wednesday that those found guilty of committing serious crimes during the decade-long conflict will be prosecuted. Two transitional justice bodies – the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons – were set up in February last year, almost nine years after the peace agreement was signed. They started collecting complaints only in March this year and now have around five months to investigate thousands of complaints. The delay in establishing the transitional bodies and amending the bill on the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act in line with the Supreme Court orders as well as international laws and transitional justice process has stoked fears among conflict victims and rights activists that they will be deprived of justice. http://bit.ly/2dlrRts

Migrant boat capsizes off Egyptian coast

The…