War Crimes Rewards Program

Expansion of the War Crimes Rewards Program in 2013

United States views on international law [1] in relation to Expansion of the War Crimes Rewards Program: On January 15, 2013, President Obama signed into law the Department of State Rewards Program Update and Technical Corrections Act of 2012, S. 2318. Under the updated War Crimes Rewards Program, the Department of State may offer and pay cash rewards for information leading to the arrest, transfer, or conviction of foreign nationals accused of crimes against humanity, genocide, or war crimes by any international, mixed, or hybrid criminal tribunal. The original program offered rewards for information only about those indicted by the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. On April 3, 2013, Stephen J. Rapp, Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, participated in a special briefing about the expanded War Crimes Reward Program, announcing specific individuals for whom rewards were being offered under the program. Ambassador Rapp's remarks are excerpted below and are available in full at (Secretary of State website) state.gov/j/gcj/us_releases/remarks/2013/207031.htm. Secretary Kerry also announced the reward offers and described the expanded War Crimes Reward Program on April 3 in a contribution to the Huffington Post, which is available at (Secretary of State website) state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2013/04/207033.htm.

Some Aspects of Expansion of the War Crimes Rewards Program

We're here today to announce the designation of additional fugitives …for which a reward can be paid under recent legislation to expand the State Department's longstanding War Crimes Rewards Program. We're announcing today that the U.S. Secretary of State will offer up to $5 million for information leading to the arrests, the transfer, or conviction of three top leaders of the LRA, the Lord's Resistance Army: Joseph Kony, Okot Odhiambo, and Dominic Ongwen, as well as the leader of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, known as the FDLR, Sylvestre Mudacumura. The nine fugitives that had earlier been designated for the ICTR, the Rwanda tribunal, will remain on the list. Accountability is a key pillar of the United States Atrocity Prevention Initiative and our national security strategy, which states that the end of impunity and the promotion of justice are not just moral imperatives; they're stabilizing forces in international affairs. We act today so that there can be justice for the innocent men, women, and children who have been subjected to mass murder, to rape, to amputation, enslavement, and other atrocities. I'd like to tell you just a little about this program and its expansion. It's managed by my office, the Office of Global Criminal Justice, here at the State Department. It originally offered rewards for information leading to the arrest or conviction of individuals indicted by the three international tribunals that were created for the former Yugoslavia, for Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Since 1998, our ability to pay these rewards has proven to be a valuable tool for the United States Government to promote accountability for the worst crimes known to humankind, by generating valuable tips that enable authorities to track down the world's most notorious fugitives from justice.

Developments

In the past two years alone, we've made 14 payments at an average of about 400,000 per person, with the largest payment being $2 million. The actual amount depends on a range of factors, including the risk, the informant, the value of the information, and the level of the alleged perpetrator. To date, with the assistance of the War Crimes Reward Programs, no indictee remains at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. 161 persons were charged; all of them have been brought to justice. In addition, out of the 92 individuals indicted by the Rwanda tribunal, only nine have yet to be apprehended. And these nine individuals are still subject to rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to their capture. This program has sent a strong message to those committing atrocities that the deeds that they have done, for those deeds, they will have to answer in court. Nevertheless, while the program has achieved great success with these three tribunals, it risks becoming obsolete as they gain custody of their last remaining fugitives. To that end, we began to advocate for an expansion of the program to bolster our ongoing efforts to bring other alleged war criminals to justice. In early 2012, Congressman Edward Royce, who then headed a subcommittee and now chairs the full House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Secretary Kerry, who chaired Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate and now, of course, heads our Department, introduced bipartisan legislation to expand and modernize this program. The bill passed both houses unanimously with final legislative approval on January 1st, 2013. On January 15th, 2013, President Obama signed the legislation into U.S. law.

Details

Under this expanded program, the U.S. Secretary of State, after interagency consultation and on notice to Congress, may designate individuals for whom rewards may be offered for information leading to their arrest, transfer, or conviction. The designated individuals must be foreign nationals accused by any international tribunal, including mixed or hybrid courts, for crimes against humanity, genocide, or war crimes. This includes the International Criminal Court, but also new mixed courts that may be established in places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo or for Syria. To that end, the expanded program now targets the alleged perpetrators of the worst atrocities, some of whom have evaded justice for more than a decade. The LRA is one of the world's most brutal armed groups and has survived for over 20 years by abducting women and children and forcing them to serve as porters, sex slaves, and fighters. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Joseph Kony and other top LRA leaders on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. For too long, the DRC has been plagued by conflict, displacement and insecurity. Innocent civilians have suffered continued atrocities at the hands of armed groups such as the FDLR and M23 that support themselves by pillage of the population and exploitation of precious minerals.

Resources

Notes

1. Expansion of the War Crimes Rewards Program in the Digest of United States Practice in International Law