Article 7: Crimes against humanity

For the purpose of this Statute, "crime against humanity" means anyof the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
(a) Murder;
(b) Extermination;
(c) Enslavement;
(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;
(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;
(f) Torture;
(g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity;
(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious,gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;
(i) Enforced disappearance of persons;
(j) The crime of apartheid;
(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

By Barrett Sheridan

Last week, the world cheered a little when an Indian warship said it had encountered a Somali pirate “mother ship” in the Gulf of Aden and, after being fired upon, blew it to smithereens. International shippers needed a reason to celebrate. Earlier that week, Somali pirates had captured their biggest prize yet, a Saudi supertanker carrying $100 million of crude, and, with nearly a hundred attempted hijackings so far this year, were making waters around the Horn of Africa about as welcoming as a bed of nails.   

Well, put away the champagne glasses. CNN is now reporting that the sunken “mother ship” was actually a Thai fishing trawler and that, while pirates were in the process of commandeering it, the vessel still had 14 innocent fishermen onboard when it was sunk by the Indian navy. One of them, a Cambodian, spent six days adrift before being rescued by a passing ship. (One other is confirmed dead; the rest are still missing.) The sailor is now recovering in a Yemeni hospital, where he had the chance to inform the Indian navy of their mistake.

The event underscores the difficulty of tracking pirates in waters where they easily blend in with fishing trawlers or other private watercraft. “The bulk of Somali coastal dwellers are still fishermen,” says Peter Lehr, a lecturer in terrorism studies at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews. “They are now caught in the fray and being attacked by western warships. How can you divide a real fisherman and a pirate from one another? They use the same vessels.”

That means recent military operations in the region—the European Union and NATO now have forces there—might not be a very adequate defense against the pirates. So what line of defense is left? The ships themselves. Armed guards aren’t an option, because they’re too expensive for ship owners, and firefights are risky onboard ships carrying two million barrels of flammable crude oil. But there are alternatives. Hanging barbed wire around a ship’s perimeter is a simple way to dissuade would-be boarders. Electrified fences also work, but they’re out of the question on ships carrying volatile cargoes. The Long-Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, has become popular after it effectively repelled an attack on a cruise ship in 2005; it blasts a deafening wall of sound at targets up to 300 meters away. Fire hoses also do the trick at shorter ranges. Even simply gunning the engines and picking up speed can deter pirates, who look for easy prey.

It’s worth trying anything to avoid being taken hostage. Although the Somali pirates, which are currently holding 300 hostages, treat their captives fairly well—they are, after all, worth a lot of money to them—negotiations can last weeks or months. The MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship carrying 33 Soviet-made tanks, was captured in late September and is still being held in the port of Eyl, in the Puntland region of Somalia. “These guys are very patient people,” says Stephen Askins, a maritime lawyer at London firm Ince & Co. “One guy may be having a bad day and he’ll say, ‘I want $5 million,’ and the next guy might say, ‘Well, I’m a bit more reasonable than that.’ It’s not like buying a car. It’s a very long, drawn out process.”

Nairobi- Barack Obama’s victory was greeted with unbridled joy in Kenya, the east African country that has claimed him as one of their own. From the lakeside village where his late father grew up and many of his relatives still live, to the capital, Nairobi, Kenyans stayed up all night to watch the results, which were broadcast on state television. The victory celebrations, which began at 7am local time when the polls closed on the west coast, continued all day.

The new president’s step-grandmother, Sarah Obama, told reporters she might visit Washington for the inauguration but hoped that her life would not change too much.Despite visiting the country on just three occasions, Obama has become Kenya’s biggest star. His toothy grin beams out from the back of Nairobi’s matatus, the ramshackle 14-seater minivans used for public transport. Street hawkers peddle home-made Obama merchandise including t-shirts bearing the slogan ‘Yes we can’ and dollar bills emblazoned with the President-elect’s face.

By Karen MacGregor

Durban - People across Africa danced with jubilation as Barack Obama swept to victory in yesterday’s remarkable election, and were moved to tears by the victory speech of the man who will soon become America’s first black president. From Cape Town to Timbuktu, people sat up overnight watching television and huddling around radios, or woke at dawn to learn that the man they claim as a son of Africa had become the worlds most powerful leader.

In Kenya, people celebrated in the streets of Nairobi and in the western village of Kogelo, home of Sarah Obama, grandmother of the man they consider a hero, and whose face graces billboards and busses. President Mwai Kibaki declared Thursday a public holiday so that people could celebrate the first Kenyan in the White House. “This is a momentous day not only in the history of the United States, but also for those living in Kenya,” Kibaki said.

By Barrett Sheridan and Fred Guterl 

The most common reaction across the world to Barack Obama’s Tuesday night victory was a simple one: “Thank you.” It was a sentiment directed not at the president-elect himself, but at the American people. Having felt abandoned by the United States for so long, and especially after the 2004 reelection of George W. Bush, people across the world saw Obama’s victory as an affirmation that yes, America still does represent something special. Nelson Mandela, in a congratulatory letter to Obama, perhaps summed it up best: “Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.” It was also a good excuse to celebrate. Kenya, the home of Obama’s father, declared a national holiday, and Brazilians proclaimed a new era of "esperanza". The few disappointed by the final tally—a dour-looking Tory in London, some security-conscious Israelis—did little to dampen the global celebration.

Parisians reacted with enthusiasm and relief to the news, some of them turning on a dime to become Amero-philes. And the French newspapers, after 8 years of George W. Bush, might perhaps be forgiven for getting a little tipsy on Obama.

Our team of foreign correspondents has cavassed the globe for the morning-after reaction to this historic election. The event was cause for celebration and contemplation in London, Paris, Jerusalem, Seoul, Durban, Lahore, Tokyo and Rio.

Journalists everywhere are lamenting the loss of profits and influence at some of the world's best papers. They might take some solace in the fact that printed cartoons, at least, still matter. The intentionally provocative Danish cartoons that depicted the prophet Mohammed unflatteringly stirred the Muslim world into riots and rampage. The United States proved it wasn't immune to animation anxiety when a satirical New Yorker cover depicting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a secret Muslim caused an eruption of protest. The latest offender is a South African cartoonist named Zapiro, the pen name of Jonathan Shapiro. His most recent work shows Jacob Zuma, the leader of the African National Congress, preparing to rape a woman symbolizing the justice system. His most avid supporters are seen holding the victim in place and egging on their leader. 

The cartoon, which appeared in Sunday's Times, has dominated the national discussion this week because of its close echoing of reality. Zuma has populist appeal -- he won the party leadership from president Thabo Mbeki last December by embracing leftist policies popular with the poor -- but is embroiled in conflict. In May, he was acquitted of raping a friend's HIV-positive daughter. To make matters worse, Zuma, who claimed the sex was consensual, admitted that he knew she had HIV, but neglected to use a condom anyway. He claimed that by taking a cold shower afterward, he didn't have to worry about contracting the virus.  

Zuma is now on trial for corruption charges stemming from a controversial 1999 arms deal; if he's convicted, he'll be forced to drop out of the presidential election, which he's expected to win. Many have alleged that Zuma and his supporters are using their powers to influence the outcome. The leader of the ANC's Youth League, Julius Malema, vowed this week to "eliminate any force" blocking Zuma's path to the presidency. Although Zuma urged restraint on his followers, protests in support of him turned violent on Wednesday, with a mob of 3,000 in Durban throwing water bombs at police, who responded with rubber bullets and widespread arrests. It was the fear of this kind of activity that led to Sunday's cartoon. "I am outraged at what Jacob Zuma is trying to do to the justice system and constitutional principles," Zapiro told a South African radio station. 

By Zachary Kussin

As Jason McClure writes in this week's magazine, piracy off the coast of Somalia has become a major maritime headache. Just last week, on Aug 20, another three vessels -- a Malaysian palm oil transport, a Japanese tanker, and a German cargo ship -- were hijacked. The machine gun-carrying pirates threatened uncooperative crewmembers with death, locked them up and steered the vessels to pirate bases on the northern Somali coast. Shortly thereafter, they began ransom negotiations with the ships' owners. The Gulf of Aden, which lies off Somalia and leads to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, is now considered to be the world's riskiest area for international shipping, according to the International Maritime Bureau, a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting marine crime. So far in 2008, 15 vessels have been hijacked off Somalia alone.

Lawlessness and heavy traffic -- 7.5 percent of world shipping passes through the Gulf each year -- makes the area a fat target for pirates. They can operate in Somalia's territorial waters with impunity. The Somali government, unable to patrol the Gulf on its own, asked the United Nations for help back in June, and the result was Resolution 1816, which allows the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Pakistan and Canada to help patrol the dangerous waters. The measure will help cargo containers and other commercial ships, of course, but its intended beneficiaries are the ships delivering humanitarian assistance to Somalia, which depends on food aid to feed close to three million of its desperately poor inhabitants.

The multilateral initiative hasn't lived up to expectations, however. In its three months on the job, the Canadian security contingent, which will head up the patrol until December, has helped prevent just two hijackings. And as of now, no naval force has agreed to take over from Canada once its six-month rotation is up. Pottengal Mukundan, the IMB's director, attributes the lack of participation "to items in other nations' foreign policy agendas, such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which surpass piracy." For now, ship crews will have to keep rolling the dice, or avoid the Gulf of Aden altogether.

by Andrew Ehrenkranz 

Mukumbi, a desolate hive of straw huts, looks like a typical village in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the poorest countries in Africa. But a few kilometers down a red-dirt road lies a deposit of some of the purest uranium on the planet. The Shinkolobwe mines produced uranium for the first atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The mine has been closed for decades, but with soaring demand for uranium to power new nuclear reactors and build weapons, this resource is beginning to attract attention. 

The United Nations and the U.S. government, among others, are concerned that uranium from the mines may wind up in the hands of terrorists or rogue nations who want the ore for weapons. Illegal artesian mining has long persisted in Shinkolobwe’s periphery, particularly for minerals like cobalt,  copper, and coltan, increasingly in demand for mobile phones, electronics, and batteries. In recent years there have been reports of uranium being confiscated at neighboring borders that was ultimately traced to Shinkolobwe. This week there have been unconfirmed reports in Kinshasa that the government is seeking foreign help to re-open the mine.

In London today former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan named the first recipient of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. Jenna Crombie of Newsweek's London bureau was present for the announcement. Her report:

No doubt by now, the former President of Mozambique will have heard the good news. This morning former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan announced that Joaquim Chissano, who led Mozambique between 1986 and 2005, was the first winner of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. Annan, chair of the Prize Committee, praised Chissano’s successes in reducing poverty levels, encouraging peace and reconciliation in wake of the ravages of civil war and in boosting the economy of his southern African nation during his two terms in office. Annan said he hoped this award would serve to celebrate good African governance and shed light upon the emergence of conscientious leaders.