Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Aung San Suu Kyi and Bono takes part in the Oslo Forum mediators’ retreat at Losby Gods just outside Oslo on 18-19 June. The Oslo Forum gathers around 100 mediators and other key actors in peace processes all over the world.

Mr Støre, Ms Suu Kyi and Bono will take part in a panel debate at the opening of the Oslo Forum entitled “Changing the unchangeable: the role of dialogue in transition”.

Members of the media who were accredited for Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit will follow the debate from the press room at Losby Gods. The debate will also  be transmitted live on www.regjeringen.no<http://www.regjeringen.no>. After the debate, Mr Støre, Ms Suu Kyi and Bono will hold a press conference.

Place: Losby Gods

Date: Monday 18 June

09:45:            Aung San Suu Kyi arrives at Losby Gods
10:00:            Panel debate
11:10-11:30: Press conference

The main theme of this year’s meeting is the role of dialogue in transition. The participants will be offered insights into the transition processes in Myanmar, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Current conflict situations that will be examined include those in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Ways of strengthening knowledge about the results of peace processes and the politicisation of humanitarian aid are two key topics for discussion.

Other participants at the Oslo Forum include Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, Myanmar’s Minister of Industry U Soe Thane, President of the International Crisis Group Louise Arbour, Head of the Philippines Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process in the Philippines Teresita Quintos Deles and Commissioner for Peace and Security in the African Union Ramtane Lamamra.

The objective of the Oslo Forum is to share practical experience of mediating between parties in conflict with a view to improving the international community’s ability to address armed conflict. It is an important part of Norway’s work to systematise and professionalise international peace efforts.

This year’s meeting is the tenth in a row, and is organised in cooperation between the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, which is based in Geneva.

End

Ms Fatou Bensouda taking her solemn oath as ICC Prosecutor © ICC-CPI/AP/Bas Czerwinski
On the, 15 June 2012, Fatou Bensouda made her solemn undertaking and formally took office as the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) during a ceremony held at the seat of the Court in The Hague. Ms Bensouda (the Gambia) was elected at the latest session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute (ASP) in December 2011 for a nine-year term.

In accordance with article 45 of the Rome Statute, founding treaty of the ICC, the ceremony was held in open court. The ceremony was presided over by ICC President Sang-Hyun Song. Referring to Ms Bensouda’s wealth of prosecutorial experience and staunch international support, ICC President Song stated, “I am confident that her strong independent voice, legal expertise and genuine concern for human rights issues will contribute greatly to the continued fight against impunity”.

The ASP President, H.E. Tiina Intelmann, then made a report on the election of the Prosecutor  and administrated the solemn undertaking. Taking her oath, Ms Bensouda stated: “I solemnly undertake that I will perform my duties and exercise my powers as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court honourably, faithfully, impartially and conscientiously, and that I will respect the confidentiality of investigations and prosecutions”.

Ms Bensouda then signed her oath before the ICC Registrar, Ms Silvana Arbia, and made her first speech as the ICC Prosecutor.

——–

Prosecutor Elect of the International Criminal Court

Ceremony for the solemn undertaking of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court

Statement by Ms. Fatou Bensouda

15 June 2012

The Hague

Madam President and Mister Vice President of the Assembly of States Parties, Mister President of the International Criminal Court, Your Honors, Madam Registrar, Mister Deputy Registrar, Prosecutor Moreno Ocampo, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Before anything, I would like to say my thoughts are today with our four colleagues who are currently being detained in Libya, as well as with their families and friends. The Office of the Prosecutor stands with the Court as a whole in their support, to ensure their safe and swift release.

Allow me now to express my gratitude for the honour to continue to serve international justice, as I take up today the position of Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

I am humbled by the privilege, responsibility and vote of confidence bestowed upon me by the Assembly of States Parties and the wider international community. I am particularly thankful for the confidence of the African Union in me and their support for my candidature. This is yet another clear demonstration of the continent’s commitment to international justice and the fight against impunity.

The one thing which every one of you can rest assured of is that I will be the Prosecutor of all the 121 States Parties, acting in full independence and impartiality. Justice, real justice, is not a pick

 ‐and‐

choose system. To be effective, to be just and to be a real deterrent, the Office of the Prosecutor’s activities and decisions will continue to be based solely on the law and the evidence.

In turn, the Office’s decisions and those of the Court in general must be respected and implemented. That is the only way to sustain and strengthen the system of international criminal justice created by the Rome Statute. It requires the efforts of all actors within the system.

When my predecessor, Prosecutor Moreno Ocampo started the work of the Office in 2003, he had two staff members with him, six empty floors and no cases ongoing. He had to build the Office from nothing and he had to develop Office strategies and working methods.

There were millions all over the world looking to this Court with immense expectations; some with scepticism, worried about the next steps of an independent and impartial Prosecutor, while others hoped to see justice at last for situations of massive atrocities where nothing was being done.

Madam President,

As I take over the Office of the Prosecutor today, this Court finds itself in a completely different stage of its existence. I do not need to build a new Office.

Thanks to the tireless efforts and the commitment of Luis Moreno ‐Ocampo, I inherit a well‐respected and sound functioning Office, with almost 300 staff from 80 countries, 7 situations under investigation, 14 cases before the Chambers, 7 preliminary examinations and one verdict.

From a groundbreaking idea on paper in 1998 to an incredible international criminal justice experiment in 2003, we have now, reaching our 10^{th anniversary, become an undisputed reality in the international arena.}

However, and despite this incredible success, we should not – we must not – take pause and be content with these achievements.

For, as I speak, massive crimes continue to be committed in Darfur; Joseph Kony and the Lord Resistance Army’s acts of violence continue unabated in central Africa; Bosco Ntaganda is still a fugitive of the ICC. In total, 11 arrest warrants remain outstanding. Nothing short of arresting all those against whom warrants have been issued will ensure that justice is done for millions of victims of the crimes committed by these fugitives.

Today, the Court has become a global judicial institution that is part of the greater world system. We however need to focus our attention on consolidating and understanding its role and relevance in the management of violence through effective exercise of its mandate to investigate, prosecute and prevent massive crimes. Cooperation with, and support for the Court need to be consistently upheld and strengthened by all actors.

In so doing we should not be guided by the words and propaganda of a few influential individuals whose sole aim is to evade justice but – rather – we should focus on, and listen to the millions of victims who continue to suffer from massive crimes. The return on our investment for what others may today consider to be a huge cost for justice is effective deterrence and saving millions of victims’ lives.

Madam President,

As I begin my tenure, moving forward in consolidating current practices, the Office will continue to forge ahead with its investigations and prosecutions.

It will in particular also continue to look for innovative methods for the collection of evidence to bring further gender crimes and crimes against children to the Court to ensure effective prosecutions of these crimes while respecting and protecting their victims.

Preliminary examinations will remain a key element of the Office’s activities and the Office will continue to ensure clarity, transparency and predictability in its decisions.

Based on the lessons learned exercises it has been conducting internally and externally, the Office will build on its experiences, identify best practices and continue to improve its efficiency.

While conducting its activities within its mandate, respectful of the divisions of functions and responsibilities established by the Statute, the Office will continue to work in partnership with the other organs of the Court, the Assembly of States Parties as well as its civil society partners. Respect for the independence endowed to the Office by the Statute must however be maintained at all times.

This is how the Rome system was designed; this is how it has to be implemented. Collaborative efforts will ensure its success. I am ready to do my part and hope I can count on the other different members of the system to do their part.

Thank you.

end

source ICC

——————–

Photo: Tom Maruko/IRIN

Dadaab is overcrowded and becoming increasingly difficult to manage (file photo)

NAIROBI, – Key stakeholders meeting on 14 June to discuss the future of Dadaab refugee camp in eastern Kenya acknowledge that there are tough choices ahead, but no agreed way forward.

The panel discussion, entitled “Dadaab 20 years on: what next?”, was organized by NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Nairobi, and included government officials, UN agencies, NGOs and representatives from Dadaab’s refugee community.

Dadaab, originally built to house 90,000 refugees, currently hosts close to 500,000; management of the camp was handed over to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in the early 1990s. Stakeholders say with more refugees arriving daily, it is becoming increasingly difficult to run: It now has a bigger population than Nakuru, Kenya’s fourth largest city, and is the biggest refugee camp in the world.

The panel discussed possible alternatives to Dadaab, including persuading the international community to allow more refugees to resettle abroad, relocating refugees to safer areas in smaller camps, and creating ways for the refugees to become more self-reliant.

“A refugee camp is not a long-term solution,” Elena Velilla, MSF Kenya country representative, said in a statement. “Thousands of vulnerable people have already suffered too much. In a safe haven, health and dignity should be guaranteed. As long as no action is taken, the Somali refugees will continue to pay the price…

“The solution is of course political – it’s a very political question”, she told IRIN after the event. “We are humanitarians – we can only question what we are doing.”

Experts like Torben Bruhn, regional health coordinator for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, spoke of “donor fatigue” – amidst deteriorating security, overstretched services and what Kellie Leeson, country director of NGO International Rescue Committee, describes as “a constant struggle… to make sure people remain healthy”.

Returning home?

Kenyan politicians have persistently made calls for Dadaab’s largely Somali population to be resettled inside Somalia. “Kenya can no longer continue carrying the burden”, said President Kibaki at this year’s London conference on Somalia in February.

Badu Katelo, Kenya’s commissioner for refugee affairs at the Ministry of State for Immigration and Registration of Persons, asked the international community to give greater assistance to the Kenyan government in hosting the refugees. He said Dadaab would be restructured into smaller units with a ring road around it, adding that security was a key concern, particularly with elections looming.

While Katelo said the best solution was for the refugees to return home, he likened sending Somalis back after 20 years while their country remained insecure to “eating a whole cow but being unable to eat the tail”. “The return we are talking about is not a forced return,” he said. 

“The refugees who are the most educated will be the first ones to return home,” said the IRC’s Leeson, who has witnessed repatriation in Sudan. “We need to make sure refugees get educated so they can contribute now and in the future”, she said, advocating that the government take advantage of what refugees could contribute to Kenya.

Integration

Bare Osman Abdi, the Dagahaley Youth vice-chair, described the camp as an “open prison” for many, some of whom have not left since arriving 20 years ago. “We believe the Somalis’ case has been forgotten,” he said, appealing to the government to review the employment act that prevents Somali refugees from working in Kenya.

Non-state actors at the meeting, including UNHCR and MSF, publicly called on Kenya to consider local integration for refugees – an integration that would involve granting some refugees Kenyan citizenship.

Integration is one of the central points of disagreement between state and non-state actors in the Dadaab debate. Deputy Speaker of Parliament Farah Maalim, an ethnic Somali, said integrating 400,000 Somalis into Kenya would not be a shrewd move for any politician hoping for election success, but was adamant that, given the opportunity, the Somali population living in Kenya would be self-sufficient.

Maalim described a situation in Zambia where refugees were given the tools to produce their own food and helped sustain the national granary. “Yes, we could have done it differently”, he said.

Abel Jeru Mbillinyi, UNHCR deputy country representative in Kenya, said he believed there were Somali refugees who had the right to claim Kenyan citizenship. “How many are Kenyan? And if they are Kenyan, what way do we have of helping them?” he asked. “In the long term, the government can take part in absorbing citizens to Kenya,” he said, describing the alternative option of voluntary repatriation as “becoming a bit illusive”.

jh/kr/cb
source www.irinnews.org

Photo: Phil Moore/IRIN

A displaced Congolese man sits in a classroom of the Katoyi primary school being used by displaced people for shelter

KATOYI,  – More than 100 people have been killed and thousands displaced in ethnically motivated massacres in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since mid-May, according to government officials.

Bigembe Turikonkinko, the sector chief of Katoyi in North Kivu’s Masisi territory, has recorded the details of 120 people, primarily women and children, who were killed in 12 village massacres carried out between 17 and 22 May in Katoyi and its environs.

The police commissioner in Katoyi, Capt Lofimbo Raheli, says the attacks were carried out by a coalition of two Mai-Mai groups: the Raia Mutomboki, until this year only operational in South Kivu, and the Mai-Mai Kifuafua. According to Raheli, this Mai-Mai alliance is believed to be operating as a collective of smaller groups targeting speakers of Kinyarwanda, the language of Rwanda.

Mai-Mai Kifuafua was founded by ethnic Tembos in the early 1990s to fight Rwandan pro-Hutu militia group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and claims to have supported the Congolese army, FARDC, in operations against FDLR for years. Raia Mutomboki, meaning “angry citizens”, was loosely formed in South Kivu less than five years ago but revived and took up arms against the FDLR in 2011 when government forces left empty positions in Shabunda, South Kivu.

Fighting between the Raia Mutomboki and FDLR ensued, with at least 50 reported killed, according to DRC analyst and blogger Jason Stearns. The attacks spread northwest and, in alliance with Mai-Mai Kifuafua, Raia Mutomboki moved into Masisi and Walikale - also in North Kivu Province – where they carried out the first reported attacks in May this year. Since then some 1,500 families have fled to Katoyi, according to village officials, where their newly constructed bamboo huts dot the steep green hillsides.

Brutal attacks

Experts are concerned that these latest attacks suggest the Raia Mutomboki has moved from targeting the families of FDLR fighters to directing attacks against any Rwandaphone communities in eastern DRC.

Patrick Borama, 26, describes without emotion the attacks that killed his mother, pregnant sister and two nephews, along with 20 other fellow residents in Marembo village on 14 and 15 May. “Before the attacks we heard rumours of the Raia Mutomboki. On the [first] day of the attack, we saw it was people speaking Swahili wearing clothes made from raffia, nearly naked,” he said.

Borama could not say how many men there were, but other witnesses report groups of 10-40. Borama said they attacked with machetes, spears and axes, as well as some Kalashnikovs; he said they shouted out their intention to kill anyone who speaks Kinyarwanda.

The situation is the worst it’s been for several years. Progress made is being lost as previously stable areas are becoming increasingly insecure

The attackers killed Borama’s mother by stabbing her in the chest; they killed his sister with a bullet in the back of her neck as she fled, and his nephews with machetes, their intestines left spilling out. He spent a week hiding in the forest, only returning when the sound of gunshots stopped; he buried 10 corpses, already rotting, including those of his mother, sister and nephews.

Army overstretched

“The situation is the worst it’s been for several years. Progress made is being lost as previously stable areas are becoming increasingly insecure,” said Samuel Dixon, policy adviser for the NGO Oxfam.

FARDC has maintained a fragile stability in the region since 2009, but in April, a string of defections led by indicted war-criminal Gen Bosco Ntaganda, left power vacuums that have been filled by militia. The army is now overstretched in dealing with these new threats as well as the mutiny playing out close to the Ugandan border.

Thousands of Congolese refugees have been streaming across the border to Rwanda and Uganda as a result of fighting between FARDC and mutineers.

Overlooking the village of Remeka in Masisi, FARDC has deployed a battalion in response to pleas from locals to secure their safety. The thousands of displaced persons in Remeka, many living with host-families, fled retaliatory attacks by the FDLR that security experts say left hundreds dead. MONUSCO has deployed a platoon of 36 Uruguayan peacekeepers at a temporary base on a hilltop overlooking Katoyi, from where they carry out daily patrols.

On the afternoon of 2 June, police commissioner Raheli arrived at the peacekeeper’s base with news of another massacre. He said Raia Mutomboki had attacked at the village of Kahunda - a few kilometres from Katoyi - at 1pm that afternoon. The next day, sector chief Turikonkinko confirmed that Raia Mutomboki were now closer to the village than ever before. “Our security has been breached,” he said. According to Raheli, nine people were left dead in Kahunda.

Turikonkinko says he has received a communiqué from Raia Mutomboki that details their intention to kill all remaining Kinyarwanda speakers in the area.

On the morning of 3 June, many of the temporary bamboo houses inhabited by displaced people stood empty. Camp officials said it was because people had heard of the 2 June attacks and fled once more, fearing the Raia Mutomboki would move on Katoyi; by 4 June those who fled had returned, but the atmosphere remains tense.

Photo: Phil Moore/IRIN

A camp for the internally displaced in Katoyi

Need for lasting solutions

MONUSCO has operational procedures in place should the village of Katoyi come under attack. Four heavy machine guns will take hilltop positions surrounding the wire-fenced base; the troops will be outside, with civilians held in the enclosed area little bigger than a football pitch.

Bernard Harerimana, director of the primary school in Katoyi, seems weary of the 120 displaced persons living in his school but is nonetheless concerned for their welfare; he says he fears the roofs leak at night, leaving many shivering cold and wet. Harerimana says they began arriving in mid-May. By day, they vacate the classrooms, but by night he allows them to sleep under blackboards and among the desks. His pupils have nowhere to sit, he says, as the displaced are using the benches for firewood, and the school is becoming unclean with human waste.

Oxfam’s Dixon says the Congolese government and UN do have plans to stabilize eastern Congo, but that the current wave of insecurity shows they are not working; he called for a serious political commitment to a long-term solution involving local, regional and international actors, and including real progress on army reform.

“Without a lasting solution to eastern Congo’s problems, crises such as this will continue to plague DRC and ordinary people will continue to face the everyday risk of violence such as massacre, rape, extortion, forced labour and looting. It is unacceptable that violence in Congo goes unstopped and under-reported. While world leaders rightly condemn Syrian massacres, the human tragedies happening in Congo are hidden at best, ignored at worst,” he said.

jh/kr/cb
source www.irinnews.org