Impunity remained one of the main challenges in addressing past and ongoing atrocities. In August and September, the criminal court in Bangui tried 55 cases, some of them dealing with serious crimes such as rape and murder. However, the court did not address any abuses or alleged war crimes related to the con-flict.
Resource constraints and administrative hurdles impeded operationalizing the
prosecutors that will focus on grave international crimes committed since 2003.
In a positive step, the minister of justice announced in July that the court’s spe-cial prosecutor would be appointed before the end of 2016. In August, the UN and the government signed a document that outlined their tasks and responsi-bilities related to the court.
The Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC continued its investigations throughout the year into serious crimes committed by the Seleka and anti-balaka. The ICC is-sued no arrest warrants in 2016.
A previous ICC investigation led to the conviction of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, a former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Forces from Bemba’s Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo) were active in the Central African Republic in 2002 and 2003, acting at the behest of then-President Ange-Félix Patassé to repress a coup attempt by then-Gen. François Bozizé.
On March 21, 2016, ICC judges found Bemba guilty of rape, murder, and pillage under the legal principle of “command responsibility.” On June 21, the court sen-tenced him to 18 years in prison. In September, Bemba’s legal team filed an ap-peal. The prosecutor, who had sought a 25-year sentence, has indicated that her office would appeal the sentence to “reflect the totality of Bemba’s culpability.”
On October 19, ICC judges found Bemba and four associates guilty of witness tampering because they attempted to bribe witnesses.
Key International Actors
France began withdrawing its peacekeeping forces in October. They are expected to retain approximately 300 troops in the country.
At the Brussels International Conference for the Central African Republic on No-vember 17, the European Union, the country’s largest donor, pledged €409 mil-lion (US$450 milmil-lion) over five years for peace building, development and humanitarian assistance. Overall pledges from the conference totaled €2.06 bil-lion ($2.28 bilbil-lion).
In 2016, the United States provided $95 million in humanitarian aid. The total humanitarian response met only 32.2 percent of the country’s funding needs.
The Netherlands, US, and the UN were the principal donors to the Special Crimi-nal Court, but the court’s five-year budget remained only partially covered.
In April, the EU approved the establishment of a military training mission, EUTM RCA, operational for an initial period of two years to train two battalions of the national army.
In August, the Ugandan military began withdrawing troops from an AU-led offen-sive against the LRA in the southeast. At time of writing, the US had decided to continue counter-LRA operations in the country.
Chile
Courts continue to prosecute people for abuses committed during military rule In Chile, but the Supreme Court has used its discretionary powers in many cases to reduce sentences against human rights violators, resulting in punishments in-commensurate with the gravity of the crimes. Poor prison conditions and reports of excessive use of force by police also continue to be significant human rights concerns in Chile.
The National Service for Minors became the center of a scandal in 2016 when in-formation was released indicating that more than 850 children and 448 adults had died in state custody since 2005. Reported causes of death varied, but in-cluded infants and young children drowning in their own gastric or respiratory fluids, suicides, and delayed medical attention to injuries.
Chile’s parliament has debated reform of a counterterrorism law and decriminal-ization of abortion in limited circumstances, as promised by President Michelle Bachelet, but neither had passed at time of writing. In November, a bill was in-troduced to end the jurisdiction of military courts over alleged human rights abuses by Carabineros, Chilean police officers responsible for public order and crime prevention.
Confronting Past Abuses
According to data released by the Ministry of the Interior’s human rights program in December 2015, justice authorities are investigating a total of 1,048 cases in-volving human rights violations committed during military rule (1973-1990). As of December 2015, 344 individuals had been sentenced for human rights crimes, including killings and enforced disappearances; 117 of them were serving prison sentences. While courts continue to prosecute abuses committed during military rule, the Supreme Court has used its discretionary powers in many cases to re-duce the sentences imposed on perpetrators, sometimes even to a non-custo-dial sentence.
In July 2016, Juan Emilio Cheyre, former army commander-in-chief, was placed under judicial investigation for his alleged role as accomplice in the 1973 mur-ders of 15 opponents of the Pinochet dictatorship. At the time, he was a
lieu-tenant in the La Serena regiment, and the homicides were part of what became known as the “Caravan of Death,” a military death squad that tortured, extrajudi-cially killed, and disappeared suspected dissidents throughout Northern Chile.
Gen. Sergio Víctor Arellano Stark, who led the Caravan of Death, died in March 2016 without serving prison time, though the Supreme Court convicted and sen-tenced him to six years.
In October, the Supreme Court overturned the 1974-1975 convictions for sedition and treason of 12 ex-members of the Chilean air force who refused to join the 1973 military coup.