July, 20 2011, 09:51am EDT
Remaining Hague War Crimes Suspect Finally Arrested, says Amnesty International
As Goran Hadzic, the only remaining suspect wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, was arrested today in Serbia on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes in eastern Slavonia, Croatia, Sian Jones, Amnesty International's Serbia researcher, said:
"This long overdue arrest will bring justice at last to the victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Croatia.
WASHINGTON
As Goran Hadzic, the only remaining suspect wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, was arrested today in Serbia on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes in eastern Slavonia, Croatia, Sian Jones, Amnesty International's Serbia researcher, said:
"This long overdue arrest will bring justice at last to the victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Croatia.
"The Security Council must ensure that the Tribunal has the time and resources to conduct the trial of both Goran Hadzic and Ratko Mladic in accordance with the highest standards of international justice.
"This arrest underscores the continuing and urgent need for authorities in the countries of former Yugoslavia to investigate and, where there is sufficient admissible evidence, to prosecute those suspected of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. There are tens of thousands of such suspects where national authorities have failed to open any investigation.
"They must show political will and perseverance, while the international community should monitor the progress of domestic courts in bringing the perpetrators to justice for the horrific crimes committed by all sides to the conflicts and provide financial and other assistance where needed."
Goran Hadzic, President of the self-declared Croatian Serb Republic of Kraijna, is charged with the responsibility for the murder, imprisonment and forced labor of Croatian and other non-Serb civilians. He was indicted in 2004 and had been on the run ever since.
The arrest of Goran Hadzic comes two months after the arrest of the former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic.
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
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UN Chief Warns of Israel's Syria Invasion and Land Seizures
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed the "urgent need" for Israel to "de-escalate violence on all fronts."
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Other countries including France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have criticized Israel's invasion, while the United States defended the move.
"The Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area... which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing earlier this week. "Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions... We support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement."
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"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together."
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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