Vol. 8 Issue 7 - Public International Law & Policy Group

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Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but only Greek Cypriots enjoy the bloc's benefits. Numerous U.N.-sponsored initiatives to reunify the island have failed over the last 35 years, including the most comprehensive bid in 2004 when Greek Cypriots rejected and Turkish Cypriots approved a U.N.-backed plan. Christofias and Talat ended a four-year stalemate last year when they agreed to restart peace talks. Learn about PILPG’s work in Cyprus Return to Table of Contents Democratic Republic of the Congo Peace before justice, Congo minister tells ICC Agence France Presse, 2/12/09 The Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday justified a refusal to hand over a former rebel chief for trial by a world court on the grounds that domestic peace was best served by his remaining free. The country's justice minister, Emmanuel-Janvier Luzolo, told a press conference that "in the judicial practice of any state, there are moments when the demands of peace override the traditional needs of justice." The <strong>International</strong> Criminal Court, based The Hague, wants to try Bosco Ntaganda for alleged war crimes in the country's northeastern Ituri region, particularly enlisting child soldiers in 2002-2003. But Ntaganda, the head of general staff of the rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), on January 16 went over to Kinshasa's side in a conflict that has wracked the eastern region for years. When President Joseph Kabila on January 31 stated that he sought "peace and security" in the Nord-Kivu province, where hundreds of thousands of people were uprooted by successive conflicts, his remark was already a strong hint that he would not turn Ntaganda over to the ICC. Luzolo acknowledged Thursday that "justice is an intrinsic element of peace" and also warned critics against "dragging the DRC through the mud" despite his remarks.
"Have I said that Bosco Ntaganda has been pardoned?" he asked, without detailing what fate awaited the former rebel leader. Ntaganda's defection dealt a massive blow to one of Kinshasa's toughest adversaries in the eastern Kivu provinces, renegade general Laurent Nkunda, who was arrested in neighboring Rwanda on January 22. Since then, CNDP forces have started rallying to the national DRC army, the FARDC, which is engaged in joint operations with Rwandan troops and with UN logistic support to quell strife in the region. When it came to Nkunda, Luzolo said that his extradition from Rwanda was in hand and said that he would be tried within the DRC, but gave no precise details of when and how except that the renegade leader would get a regular trial with a right to defense. <strong>International</strong> watchdog Human Rights Watch on February 5 urged Kabila to hand over Ntaganda to the ICC, a court set up in 2002 for try cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The eastern provinces of the vast central African country, which has great mineral wealth, have been particularly scarred by successive conflicts before and after a 1998-2003 war that embroiled more than half a dozen African armies, with Rwanda then fighting Kinshasa. A long peace process began before the end of the war, but aroused concern in human rights and judicial circles when former war crimes suspects on all sides in the DRC appear to benefit from a waiver of justice on being integrated into the new national army. Rwandan Hutu rebel commanders surrender Aimable Twahirwa, Agence France Presse, 2/13/09 Top commanders from Rwanda's Hutu rebel group in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have surrendered to a joint military offensive by Kigali and Kinshasa, the Rwandan army said Friday. The operation's command simultaneously announced that 40 other members of the group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), had been killed in an air raid on Thursday. The Rwandan army said Lieutenant Colonel Edmond Ngarambe, the FDLR's spokesman, turned himself in with other rebel fighters on Wednesday, while the government-run Radio Rwanda aired an appeal purportedly read by Ngarambe urging his forces to lay down their arms. "Lieutenant Colonel Michel Habimana (Ngarambe's real name) has surrendered to the forces of the joint operation," army spokesman Jill Rutaremara told AFP.
Page 1 and 2: PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WATCH Thursday,
Page 3 and 4: Kosovo marks 1 year of independence
Page 5 and 6: Whitman said he could not discuss p
Page 7 and 8: "Now that we have realized this is
Page 9 and 10: "However, the aforesaid statements
Page 11 and 12: The court has linked the former Bos
Page 13 and 14: The military regime has promised to
Page 15 and 16: Former US President George W. Bush'
Page 17 and 18: "How can we go on without the main
Page 19 and 20: "I don't want to be on the side of
Page 21: EU enlargement commissioner Olli Re
Page 25 and 26: The first victim of the operation h
Page 27 and 28: The five-day war and Russia's subse
Page 29 and 30: Tengku Syamsuddin, a spokesman for
Page 31 and 32: India and Pakistan have fought thre
Page 33 and 34: New Delhi has noted with strong app
Page 35 and 36: Serbs consider Kosovo to be the hea
Page 37 and 38: "The key to our success is in unity
Page 39 and 40: Macedonia EU mulls economic support
Page 41 and 42: "As for the content of the document
Page 43 and 44: The UN Security Council has called
Page 45 and 46: Moro Islamic Liberation Front which
Page 47 and 48: Somalia Overcrowding at Kenya refug
Page 49 and 50: "We are happy with that," he said,
Page 51 and 52: "With a growing number of children
Page 53 and 54: Dr. Thurairaja Varatharaja, the top
Page 55 and 56: Without a borehole, water was colle
Page 57 and 58: The New York Times reported on Wedn
Page 59 and 60: The talks mediated by Doha are the
Page 61 and 62: Aid workers and human rights activi
Page 63 and 64: "They have no way out of these swam

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