View previous stories
	Pakistan: kidnapped ICRC delegate murdered by International Committee of the Red Cross   29-04-2012   Islamabad/Geneva – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) condemns in the strongest possible terms the murder of its staff member Khalil Rasjed Dale. The ICRC has now received confirmation that Khalil, a 60-year-old health-programme manager in Quetta/Balochistan, was murdered almost four months after his kidnapping.   "The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms this barbaric act," said Director-General Yves Daccord. “All of us at the ICRC and at the British Red Cross share the grief and outrage of Khalil’s family and friends."   "We are devastated," said Yves Daccord.   "Khalil was a trusted and very experienced Red Cross staff member who significantly contributed to the humanitarian cause."   Khalil worked for the ICRC and the British Red Cross for many years, carrying out assignments in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq. He had been working as a health-programme manager in Quetta/Balochistan for almost a year. At about 1 p.m. on 5 January 2012, he was abducted by unidentified armed men while returning home from work.   The ICRC has been active in Pakistan since 1947, providing humanitarian services in the fields of health-care, in particular physical rehabilitation, including in Balochistan.   British Red Cross chief executive Nick Young said Dale had worked for the ICRC and the British Red Cross for many years, having previously been posted in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq.   "Khalil Dale has been a committed member of the Red Cross Red Crescent family for the last 30 years. He was a gentle, kind person, who devoted his life to helping others, including some of the world"s most vulnerable people.   "We condemn his abduction and murder in the strongest possible terms. It not only robs him of his life, and his family and co-workers of their loved one and friend - it robs the people he was helping of the expert care they need.   "Khalil first worked overseas for the Red Cross in 1981 in Kenya, distributing food and improving the health of people affected by severe drought. He also worked in Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq, before his posting to Pakistan with the International Committee of the Red Cross."   "In other words, he did not shy away from the tough assignments, in the name of improving the lives of others. He was a brave man who had the utmost respect of his colleagues in the Red Cross and in the humanitarian world generally." Visit the related web page
	Some measure of justice to the many thousands of victims by Human Rights Watch, UN News Sierra Leone   April 26, 2012   Sierra Leone: Landmark Conviction of Liberian Ex-President. (Human Rights Watch)   (The Hague) – The conviction on April 26, 2012, of Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia, for serious international crimes during Sierra Leone’s brutal armed conflict provides justice for victims and shows that no one is above the law, Human Rights Watch said today. Taylor was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity before the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone on charges that stemmed from his support for rebel groups there.   “Powerful leaders like Charles Taylor have for too long lived comfortably above the law,” said Elise Keppler, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch. “Taylor’s conviction sends a message to those in power that they can be held to account for grave crimes.”   Taylor is the only former head of state since Nuremberg to be convicted for war crimes or crimes against humanity by an international or hybrid international-national tribunal. Slobodan Milosevic, president of the former Yugoslavia, was tried by an international tribunal, but he died before a judgment was issued. Karl Doenitz, who was a German naval commander and president of Germany for approximately one week at the end of World War II, was convicted by the International Military Tribunal of Nuremberg.   The judgment in Taylor’s case comes five months after Laurent Gbagbo, the former Côte d’Ivoire president, appeared before the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity during Côte d’Ivoire’s 2011 political and military crisis. President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan is also subject to an ICC arrest warrant, but he remains a fugitive from justice.   The Special Court found Taylor guilty of the war crimes of terrorizing civilians, murder, outrages on personal dignity, cruel treatment, looting, and recruiting and using child soldiers; and the crimes against humanity of murder, rape, sexual slavery, mutilating and beating, and enslavement.   “Not since Nuremberg has an international or hybrid war crimes court issued a judgment against a current or former head of state,” Keppler said. “This is a victory for Sierra Leonean victims of Taylor’s brutal crimes, and all those seeking justice when the worst abuses are committed.”   26 April 2012   United Nations officials have welcomed the welcomed the guilty verdict handed down against former Liberian President Charles Taylor by the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL).   “This is a historic and momentous day for the people of Sierra Leone, for the region and beyond. The Secretary-General’s thoughts today are with the victims of the crimes for which Charles Taylor has been found guilty,” said a spokesperson for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.   “The judgment is a significant milestone for international criminal justice, as it concerns the first ever conviction of a former Head of State by an international criminal tribunal for planning, aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity,” he added.   “It sends a strong signal to all leaders that they are and will be held accountable for their actions.”   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said “This is undoubtedly a historic moment in the development of international justice.”   The High Commissioner noted that other leaders – namely Laurent Gbagbo and Radovan Karadžic – have also been charged with international crimes and are either already on trial or will be soon. As well, President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan has been indicted, while Slobodan Miloševic and Muammar Qadhafi were also at various stages of international proceedings at the time of their deaths.   “The days when tyrants and mass murderers could, even when they had been deposed, retire to a life of luxury in another land are over,” Pillay said.   “And so they should be. Few things are more repugnant than seeing people with so much blood on their hands, living on stolen money with no prospect of their victims seeing justice carried out.”   The Court’s conviction of Mr. Taylor included his involvement in the conscription, enlistment or use of children under the age of 15 years in hostilities. The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, said the court’s decision was a groundbreaking achievement in prosecuting those who commit or are responsible for the most horrendous crimes against children.   “In this decade long conflict, children have experienced unspeakable atrocities. Girls and boys have been forced to cut off people’s limbs or have been mutilated themselves,” Ms. Coomaraswamy said in a news release.   “I am encouraged by the prosecution of the mastermind behind these crimes and hope that with justice done today comes recovery and healing for the victims.”   She noted that the SCSL has been at the forefront of the fight against impunity for violations against children – it was the first international court to decide that the recruitment and use of children under fifteen constitutes a war crime. The Court also took a clear decision not to prosecute child soldiers, but to bring to justice those who bear the greatest responsibility: political leaders and military commanders.   Noting that three of the 11 counts in the indictment against Mr. Taylor pertain to sexual violence, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Margot Wallström, said the court’s decision sends a powerful signal that sexual violence will be punished.   “Wartime sexual violence used to be one of history’s greatest silences and the world’s least condemned war crime. The trial of Charles Taylor, former President of Liberia, represents a commitment by the international community that impunity is not an option for this type of crime,” Ms. Wallström said in news release. “The successful prosecution of a former President signals that no leader – however powerful – is above the law; and that no woman or girl is below it.”   The Prosecutor of the SCSL, Brenda J. Hollis, applauded the conviction, lauding it as another victory in the fight against impunity.   “Today is for the people of Sierra Leone who suffered horribly because of Charles Taylor. This judgment brings some measure of justice to the many thousands of victims who paid a terrible price for Mr. Taylor’s crimes,” Ms. Hollis said.
	View more stories