View previous stories
	UEFA orders Referees to stop matches for Racism by Reuters, agencies European Union   22/6/2007   UEFA orders Referees to stop matches for Racism. (Reuters)   Referees will stop all matches in which soccer fans shout racist abuse at players, starting with Saturday''s European Under-21 Championship final, a senior UEFA official has confirmed.   The announcement follows the launch of a UEFA investigation into racist chanting and a fight in the players tunnel after England''s 2-0 win over Serbia in the European Under-21 Championship on Sunday. Serbia face the Dutch hosts in Saturday''s final in Groningen.   "We have decided to step up our actions and take a zero tolerance approach. Referees have been told to stop any games in which there are racist chants from fans," William Gaillard, special advisor to UEFA president Michel Platini told Reuters in a telephone call.   "We have spoken to the referees and we have the support of the national associations, the clubs and the players unions for this measure." Gaillard was speaking after the opening session of the governing body''s executive committee in Heerenveen.   UEFA and European governments are also currently drawing up new measures to combat an increase in soccer-related racism and violence across the region in the last year.   England''s FA made a formal complaint to UEFA on Monday over the racist abuse directed at their players from Serbian fans and at least one member of the Serbian team in the tunnel after the match. UEFA said the incidents during and after the match in Nijmegen would be considered by UEFA''s disciplinary committee at its next regular meeting on July 12.   A message was issued over the public address system during the first half of the game after the referee brought the racist chanting to the attention of stadium officials.   "Today''s move goes a step further and sends a strong message to fans that the game will be halted if they racially abuse players," Gaillard said. When asked about the economic implications of such a decision such as sponsorship, corporate hospitality and television coverage of competitions such as the top tier Champions League, Gaillard said: "Money is the very last factor to be taken into account in making such a decision. This is about a prinicple and economics or TV rights should not have anything to do with it." Gaillard said the Serbian FA was making "extra security checks" in the distribution of their ticket allocation for Saturday''s final.   June, 2007   Members of European Parliament urge adoption of legal framework to combat Racism and Xenophobia. (European Parliament)   The European Parliament adopted a report on taking effective action racism and xenophobia in all Member States.   MEPs say that minimum harmonisation at European level is needed to defend one of EU''s most important common values. MEPs evaluate the progress of negotiations conducted at Council on this framework decision and expect to be formally re-consulted by Council in the coming months on the basis of the political agreement reached by Ministers of Justice last 19 April.   The aim of the draft decision as it stands now is to ensure that all Member States will impose harmonised criminal sanctions -from one to three years of prison- to any public incitement to violence and hatred against persons of a different race, colour, religion, national or ethnic descendent, dissemination of writings with such content, public approval, denial or gross trivialisation of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.   The draft legislation does not forbid specific symbols per se --such as swastikas-- and does not mention specific historic events, but it appeals to the definitions of war crimes or genocide contained in the Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Nuremberg Tribunal of 1945.   Parliament''s report aims to send a strong political message on the need to ratify this framework decision as soon as possible and recommends Council to "recognise" in the final text the fact that "some Member States have criminalised the denial or flagrant trivialisation of genocide" like the holocaust. Criminal sanctions should be more severe in the case of public figures and representatives of the authorities, as their status should constitute an aggravating circumstance, MEPs stressed in the text.   Other recommendations by Parliament are focussed on fixing common definitions on terms such as "racist and xenophobic offences" or "public order offence".   The Chamber finally requested EU governments to issue an evaluation report on this framework decision at the latest 3 years after it enters into force.   The fact that this legislation will be a framework decision implies that the general provisions adopted by the EU will have to be transposed into different national laws afterwards, allowing Member States the necessary degree of flexibility to maintain their specific constitutional traditions regarding the right to freedom of expression. Visit the related web page
	Sierra Leone: Rebels convicted of war crimes by Reuters / AFP   July 20, 2007 (Reuters)   A war crimes court sentenced three militia leaders to long prison terms Thursday for what a judge called "some of the most heinous, brutal and atrocious crimes ever recorded," including killing, rape and child enslavement.   Handing down its first sentences, the United Nations-backed tribunal jailed Alex Tamba Brima and Santigie Borbor Kanu for 50 years each and Brima Bazzy Kamara for 45 years for crimes committed during Sierra Leone"s 1991-2002 civil war.   Passing sentence, Justice Julia Sebutinde said, "The three accused persons have committed violations of human rights in which civilians were mutilated [and] other civilians were killed and burned in their houses. They also were participants in abducting children for slavery and as child soldiers."   The court convicted all three last month on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including terrorizing civilians, unlawful killings, rape, forced labor and looting.   The three were also convicted of forcing children younger than 15 to become soldiers, a verdict that rights campaigners hailed as the first such ruling by an international tribunal. The men pleaded innocent to all charges and were found not guilty on two counts of sexual violence and one of physical violence.   The defendants were commanders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, or AFRC, which staged a coup May 25, 1997, ousting President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah just six months after he had signed a peace deal.   The AFRC then sided with Foday Sankoh"s rebel Revolutionary United Front in a bid to gain control of Sierra Leone and its diamond mines.   21.6.2007 (AFP)   Three rebel leaders from Sierra Leone have been convicted of war crimes in a landmark judgement by the UN-backed International Court.   Alex Tamba Brima, 35, Brima Bazzy Kamara 39, and Santigie Borbor Kanu. 42 were convicted of crimes against humanity during the country’s decade-long civil war.   The three commanders, who were found guilty of murder, rape and enlisting child soldiers, were allegedly backed by former Liberian president Charles Taylor in exchange for Sierra Leone diamonds.   The landmark judgement is the first by an international court to convict individuals of conscripting children into combat and forcing wartime marriages, the court and human rights observers say.   "This trial marks the first time that an international tribunal has ruled on the charge of recruitment of child soldiers into an armed force, and on the crime of forced marriage in an armed conflict," the court says.   Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the convictions were a "groundbreaking step" toward ending impunity for commanders who exploit children as soldiers in conflicts worldwide. "Now that child recruiters are being brought to justice, their impunity is no longer so certain," says Jo Becker, children"s rights activist at HRW.   Rights groups say thousands of children were forcibly recruited and actively used to commit atrocities by all three warring factions in the conflict which started in 1991.   By the time the war ended in 2001 in Sierra Leone, some 120,000 people had died and thousands of others had been mutilated — their arms, legs, ears or noses chopped off.   The three men belonged to the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), a rebel faction led by Johnny Paul Koroma, which toppled an elected regime in 1997 and joined forces with the notorious main rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF).   After ousting president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in May 1997, the AFRC set up a junta which included RUF members. They briefly led the government before embarking on terror campaigns that included burning children to death. AFRC leader Koroma was among the 13 people originally indicted by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). He was never arrested and is now widely presumed dead.   Created in January 2002, the court is a hybrid of international and local law under a deal between the west African country"s government and the United Nations.   Although Sierra Leone"s civil war broke out in 1991, the court is only mandated to handle cases beginning in November 1996, the date Mr Kabbah signed a peace deal with the RUF which did not hold.
	View more stories