The Pinochet Prosecution: The Genocide Controversy
by Marguerite Feitlowitz
When Spainish Judge Baltasar Garz�n determined to call for Augusto Pinochet's extradition, he essentially used the template from his Argentine investigation. In this regard, the charge of genocide is worth special scrutiny, for even within human rights circles it has engendered controversy and criticism.

East Timor: A First-Hand Account
by Jose Vegar
Following the vote for independence in East Timor last August the Indonesian Army and pro-Jakarta militias unleashed a wave of destruction and violence against the local Timorese population. Reports of atrocities filtered out, leading many journalists and international observers to believe that wide-scale breaches of international humanitarian law had been committed.

Rights of Prisoners of War: U.S. Soldiers in Kosovo
by H. Wayne Eliott, S.J.D.
On March 31, 1999, Serbian forces took three American soldiers captive near the town of Kumanovo in the border area between Macedonia and Serbia....For at least part of their captivity, the American POWs were subjected to clear violations of the Geneva Prisoner of War Convention.

Sierra Leone: Case Study
by Janine DiGiovanni
Abdul Sankoh doesn't understand the events that led up to the Lome Accords, nor what amnesty granted to war crimes suspects really means. All he knows is his own story. �I said, please, please don't take the left one. I can't live without my left hand,� Abdul recounted. The soldiers took it anyway.

A "Special Court" for Sierra Leone's War Crimes
by Michelle Sieff
In August, 2000 the UN Security Council requested that the Secretary-General negotiate an agreement with the Sierra Leone government to establish a special court to prosecute war crimes committed during the on-going war.

The Lome Peace Accords: The View From Washington
by Michelle Sieff
In January 1999, after ECOMOG successfully pushed the RUF out of Freetown, Nigeria, ECOMOG's main troop contributor, announced that it would withdraw its troops from Sierra Leone unless the West contributed some money to fund the operation. Nigeria was spending $1 million a day and could no longer sustain the financial burden.

Deadly Competition
by Peter Maass
As demand for war footage to air on the network news heats up, more journalists are taking chances in dangerous situations -- and for two of them, the risks proved fatal.