The massacre of opposition supporters by Guinea’s military junta in September last year amounted to a crime against humanity, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.
“As the deputy prosecutor of the ICC, I end this visit with the feeling that crimes of the order of crimes against humanity were committed,” Fatou Bensouda told reporters at the end of a three-day mission to Conakry on Friday.
Bensouda spoke of “atrocious crimes” committed on Sept. 28 in Conakry’s biggest stadium, adding, “men in uniform attacked civilians, they killed and wounded. In full daylight they mistreated, violated and submitted women to unprecedented sexual violence.”
A UN commission of enquiry had already reached a similar conclusion.
It investigated the incident when troops attacked opponents of Guinea’s military regime who had gathered for a rally. Soldiers shot, stabbed and beat protesters, publicly raping women.
It declared in a report published on Dec. 21 that “it is reasonable to conclude that the crimes perpetrated on September 28, 2009, and the following days could be qualified as crimes against humanity.”
The commission said the violence had resulted in at least “156 deaths or disappearances” and that “at least 109 women” had been victims of rape or other sexual violence.
The junta has said there were 63 deaths.
Despite her conclusions, Bensouda said Guinea could set an example if it was willing to bring the main perpetrators to justice.
“These few days working in Guinea confirmed that Guinean institutions and the ICC can work in a complementary way: Either Guinean authorities can prosecute the main people in charge themselves, or they will turn to the court to do it,” she said.
During her time in Guinea, Bensouda visited hospitals and held discussions with those in charge of dealing with emergency casualties, in trauma and maternity wards and in the morgue.
She also made a stop at the military camp where junta chief Moussa Dadis Camara was shot in the head in a failed assassination attempt on Dec. 3.
The ICC mission came as Guinea announced a transition government to steer the country from military to civilian rule, with elections expected in June.
Colonel Siba Lohalamou, considered close to former regime leader Moussa Dadis Camara, stayed on as the justice minister.
In December the UN report said Camara and his aides bore “individual criminal responsibility” for the stadium massacre.
Among those mentioned was Moussa Tiegboro Camara, who is also part of the interim government despite being “squarely implicated in the September 2009 stadium massacre,” Human Rights Watch reported earlier this week.
But a junta-appointed commission this month absolved the former regime chief, who is convalescing in Burkina Faso since the assassination attempt, of blame over the stadium incident, saying he is “guilty of nothing.”
On Friday, Senegalese magistrate Amady Ba, head of cooperation in the office of the prosecutor at the ICC in The Hague, told the press: “We expect that the court will not allow a sham of an enquiry or a mock trial.”
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS