[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] on Monday announced the initiation of removal proceedings [press release] against a Michigan man accused of killing Jews while serving as a member of the Nazi-sponsored Ukrainian Auxiliary Police (UAP) in L’viv, Ukraine, during World War II. John Kalymon is accused of personally shooting Jews while serving in the UAP between 1942 and 1944 and participating in various violent anti-Jewish operations. Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said:

These charges once again demonstrate the resolve of the Department of Justice to deny safe haven in this country to human rights violators, no matter how long ago they committed their heinous acts. The ultimate removal of John Kalymon will close a very painful chapter and provide a measure of justice to his victims and their families.

[JURIST] The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) [official website] announced [press release] Monday that William Smith of Australia has been appointed acting international co-prosecutor to replace Canadian Robert Petit [official profile] when his resignation [JURIST report] takes effect September 1. Smith has served for three years as deputy co-prosecutor and was previously a trial lawyer, legal officer, and analyst at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website]. Petit announced his resignation in June, citing personal and family reasons. Smith will serve as co-prosecutor until a permanent replacement is chosen. The Cambodian national co-prosecutor Chea Leang will continue on in her role.

The ECCC, charged with trying those responsible for atrocities committed during the rule of the Khmer Rouge [BBC backgrounder], is in the midst of the first trial of a former Khmer Rouge leader, Kaing Guek Eav [TrialWatch backgrounder, JURIST news archive], also known as "Duch." Earlier this month, an ECCC spokesperson said that a verdict is expected [JURIST report] in early 2010. Kaing is the first of eight ex-Khmer Rouge officials expected to be tried before the ECCC, which recently announced the establishment of an independent counselor to oversee anti-corruption efforts [JURIST reports]. The ECCC has been plagued by accusations of corruption, and, last month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] asked the ECCC to determine the scope of its prosecutions [JURIST report] "to thwart growing perceptions that court decisions are directed by the government." In February, HRW warned that ECCC trials were in danger of being tainted for their failure to follow fair trial standards, and in January a Cambodian court agreed to hear a corruption case [JURIST reports] involving two ECCC judges.

[JURIST] The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights commemorated [press release] the International Day of the Disappeared Monday, calling on states to eliminate enforced disappearances and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance [text, PDF]. Jemery Sarkin, chairperson of the UN working group on enforced disappearances, said the signing the treaty was important because enforced disappearances, "affect[] many people worldwide, and [have] a particular impact on women and children ... When women are victims of disappearance themselves, they are particularly vulnerable to sexual and other forms of violence." Also Monday, protesters in Srinagar [Sify report], Belgrade [B92 report], and Manila [Inquirer report] marked the day, renewing calls for government authorities to reveal the whereabouts of their friends and family.

The International Convention has been signed [JURIST report] by at least 57 countries but has not been ratified by the required 20 to take effect. It has not been endorsed by several countries including the US, England, Spain, Germany, and Italy. In 2008, Guatemala started its first [JURIST report] civil war disappearance trial, while the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] has recently found Russia responsible [JURIST news archive] for numerous disappearances in Chechnya. The UN has also criticized Sri Lanka [JURIST report] for failure to address its problem of enforced disappearances.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday began [press release] genocide proceedings [case materials] against a former businessman man charged with ordering a bulldozer to knock down a church housing refugees and then ordering the bulldozer driver to crush those refugees during the 1994 Rwandan genocide [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. Prosecutors say that Gaspard Kanyarukiga [Trial Watch backgrounder] helped plan the 1994 massacre in which 2,000 Tutsis died from being crushed or shot as they attempted to flee the structure. Kanyarukiga was indicted [text, PDF] in 2001 and pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] in 2004. In June 2008, the ICTR denied a request to extradite [JURIST report] Kanyarukiga to Rwanda for trial. The trial could take a several years [AP report] to complete.

Last month, the UN Security Council [official website] extended the terms [JURIST report] for ICTR judges until December 31, 2010, or until they complete their cases. In March, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon pledged his ongoing support [JURIST report] for the ICTR and stressed that the international community must continue to combat genocide. Last year, Kanyarukiga's alleged co-conspirator, Catholic priest Athanase Seromba was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the genocide after prosecutors successfully argued that his original 15-year sentence [JURIST reports] was too lenient. The ICTR was established to try genocide suspects for crimes occurring during the 1994 Rwandan conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in which approximately 800,000 people, primarily Tutsis, died.

[JURIST] North Korea called on the newly-elected Japanese government Monday to apologize for its use of Asian "comfort women" [Amnesty International backgrounder; JURIST news archive] by the Japanese Army in World War II. In an editorial [Korea Herald report] published in the communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmum, North Korea called on Japan to repudiate its past and urged it to emulate Germany, which apologized for its crimes during World War II and paid compensation to the victims. The editorial comes just a day after a major election victory [BBC report] for the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, marking only the second time that the Liberal Democrats [party websites] have been out of power since 1955.

The Liberal Democrats, the party of former prime minister Shinzo Abe [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], have denied that the Japanese Army officially forced women to become prostitutes. In July 2007, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution [JURIST report] calling on Japan to apologize for its use of comfort women during WWII. Abe dismissed the resolution [JURIST report], claiming it was based on erroneous information [JURIST report], and claimed the women were professional prostitutes paid for their services. Abe has expressed sympathy and apologized [JURIST report] for the "situation" faced by so-called "comfort women" but stopped short of explicitly acknowledging the alleged roles of the wartime military and government in facilitating the practice. Japan has previously accepted that Japanese soldiers coerced [JURIST report] women into prostitution but denied government involvement.

[JURIST] The US has released more than 5,000 Iraqi prisoners and transferred more than 1,000 more to Iraqi control in 2009, according to a Sunday statement [press release] by the US-led Multinational Force in Iraq [official website]. This year's releases and transfers, conducted in accordance with the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) [text, PDF], brings the number of prisoners detained by US forces in Iraq below 9,000 for the first time since March 2005. There were 11,000 prisoners [JURIST report] in US custody as recently as June. The US is currently running three prisons in Iraq including Camp Cropper, which currently holds 3,572 detainees, Camp Taji, with 4,585 detainees, and Camp Bucca, which contains 790 detainees. Central Baghdad Prison, formerly Abu Ghraib [JURIST news archive], was transferred back to Iraqi control [JURIST report] in 2006 following the release of photographs depicting prisoner abuse by US military personnel. Camp Bucca is scheduled to close in September, at which time the remaining detainees will be sent to the other two prisons. Under the SOFA, the US must release all prisoners or transfer them to the control of the Iraqi government by 2011.

In July, the US began building a facility [JURIST report] to train Iraqi corrections officers in anticipation of Iraq's takeover of prisoner control. In November, Iraqi human rights activists said they were concerned about the treatment of detainees [JURIST report] due to be transferred from US military custody to Iraqi authorities under the then-proposed SOFA. Last August, the US military said that it has released more than 10,000 Iraqi detainees [JURIST report] over the past year. In November 2007, US military forces in Iraq released 500 detainees [JURIST report] at a joint ceremony with the Iraqi government at Camp Victory outside Baghdad.

[JURIST] Former US vice president Dick Cheney [JURIST news archive] accused President Barack Obama [official website] of backtracking on his promise to not prosecute Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] agents for alleged abuses of suspected terrorist detainees under the Bush administration during an interview [transcript] with Fox News Sunday, calling it a political move. Cheney's statements come after Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile] announced [JURIST report] last week that the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] will "open a preliminary review" into allegations of prisoner abuse by CIA interrogators during the Bush administration. Cheney accused the Obama administration of setting bad precedent if they should move forward with the investigations. When asked whether he believed the "preliminary review" would become a criminal investigation he responded:

I have no idea whether it will or not, but it shouldn't. The fact of the matter is the lawyers in the Justice Department who gave us those opinions had every right to give us the opinions they did. Now you get a new administration and they say, well, we didn't like those opinions, we're going to go investigate those lawyers and perhaps have them disbarred. I just think it's an outrageous precedent to set, to have this kind of, I think, intensely partisan, politicized look back at the prior administration ... I just think it's an outrageous political act that will do great damage long term to our capacity to be able to have people take on difficult jobs, make difficult decisions, without having to worry about what the next administration is going to say.

[JURIST] Vietnamese Vice Minister of Public Security Le The Tiem said Monday that President Nguyen Minh Triet will grant amnesty to more than 5,000 prisoners on Wednesday in honor of National Day. Catholic priest Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly [AI backgrounder], who was sentenced to eight years in prison [JURIST report] for anti-government activities in Vietnam in 2007, will not be granted amnesty. In July, a group of US senators sent a letter [press release] to Triet urging Ly's release. Tiem indicated that amnesty was reserved for prisoners who had shown genuine rehabilitation and that Ly had been granted amnesty before and had committed new violations [AFP report] since then. Ly was accused of plotting to join his Vietnam Progression Party [party website] with foreign activists. During his trial, Ly shouted slogans against the Communist Party of Vietnam [party website]. Ly also publicly acknowledged that he did produce political materials, but maintained that his actions were not criminal and that he would "continue to fight for democratic values" in Vietnam. Ly, who spent 10 years in prison for his political activism, was previously granted amnesty in early 2005.

Restrictions on expression have become a recurring issue in Vietnam. In June, pro-democracy lawyer Le Cong Dinh was disbarred from the Ho Chi Minh City Bar following his recent arrest [JURIST reports] for allegedly conspiring against the government. Earlier this year, two Vietnamese newspaper editors were dismissed from their jobs for protesting the arrests of two journalists [JURIST reports] who reported on government corruption. The arrested reporters, who were accused of 'abusing freedom and democracy,' were sentenced to two years of prison and "re-education" for reporting on the so-called PMU 18 corruption scandal [JURIST reports]. Last September, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Vietnamese government [HRW report] to end efforts "to silence independent bloggers, journalists, and human rights defenders" and to enforce the right to exercise freedom of expression, assembly and association under the Vietnamese Constitution [text] and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [text]. In 2007, Triet granted amnesty [JURIST report] to 8,066 prisoners.