[JURIST] In a bid to appeal to Sunni voters, former Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Allawi [JURIST news archive; Iraqi National accord party website, in Arabic], a Shiite, said in an interview with the UK's Observer newspaper Sunday that human rights abuses by Iraqi Shiites are as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein's regime. Sunnis claim that they have been unjustly targeted by Shiite-led security forces; Allawi accused Shiites in the government of managing death squads and secret torture chambers [JURIST report], allegations which multiplied after the recent discovery of an Interior Ministry facility holding more than 170 mostly Sunni prisoners [JURIST report]. Allawi is running on a secular platform in the December 15 elections [JURIST news archive] separate from Shiite religious parties. Iraqi government officials have downplayed abuse reports as lies created by enemies, but Allawi used them to invoke memories of Saddam's regime and remind voters of "the precise reasons [they] fought Saddam." AP has more.

[JURIST] Citizens in the former Soviet republic of Armenia [government website] voted Sunday on constitutional amendments to impose stricter separation of powers between the judicial, executive and legislative branches. The amendments also remove a clause in the Armenian constitution [text] barring Armenian citizens from obtaining dual citizenship. The US and EU support the constitutional amendments which will strengthen democracy, but a similar set of amendments failed to win approval in a 2003 referendum [election results]. The opposition boycotted Sunday’s referendum because they claimed their proposals were not considered, and the amendments give President Robert Kocharian [official website] too much power. Last week the opposition held a protest that gathered just over 1,000 people, and accused Kocharian of corruption and failing to improve Armenia’s poor economy. The referendum requires support from at least one third of Armenia’s 2.2 million citizens. AP has more. Armenia Liberty, an advocacy group, has additional coverage.

[JURIST] Britain has caused a diplomatic stir by rejecting a proposal advanced by US ambassador to the UN John Bolton [official profile] to block the upcoming UN budget [JURIST report] as a way to press disputed reforms to the beleagured world organization. Bolton suggested last week that the UN push back the two-year budget talks as a means to overcome resistance by the G77 bloc [official website] of developing countries who oppose wide-ranging management reforms because they believe the reforms are driven by American political pressure. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official profile] has said that a delayed budget would create a “serious financial crisis” for the UN. Britain supports the management reform package and British ambassador Emyr Jones Parry has stated that that the package needs to be approved by the end of this year. The management changes were agreed to in the September World Summit [official website; JURIST report] and are less than what both the US and the EU hoped for. If approved, the management reform package will give the secretary-general’s office more power to oversee management, finance and staffing, which are currently handled by the 191-member General Assembly. The London Telegraph has more.

[JURIST] Former Philippines election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano [Wikipedia profile] emerged from hiding Sunday to clear President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo [official website] from election fraud allegations. Garcillano has not been seen in public since June, when the opposition released recordings of conversations that claimed to be of Garcillano and Arroyo planning to fix the results of the May 2004 national elections. The allegations [JURIST news archive] claimed that Arroyo ordered Garcillano to rig the election results to give Arroyo a one million vote victory over the late Fernando Poe Jr. [BBC profile], a movie star who challenged and nearly defeated Arroyo. Garcillano pointed out that the conversation he had with Arroyo took place after the votes had been counted and Arroyo only inquired about why Arroyo's margin had decreased to 892,000. Immediately following the allegations, Arroyo apologized for speaking with an unnamed election official before the votes were tallied during last year’s elections, but Arroyo’s opposition still tried to unseat her in a failed impeachment attempt [JURIST report] and protests [BBC report]. Arroyo’s presidency nearly collapsed after the election fraud allegations because members of her cabinet resigned and called for Arroyo to resign as well. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers for Saddam Hussein, reinforced by the late addition of Johnson-era US attorney general Ramsey Clark [Wikipedia profile] and former Qatari justice minister Najib al-Nuaimi, said Sunday that they would ask for another adjournment of the ousted Iraqi dictator's trial [JURIST news archive] when the proceeding resumes in a fortified Baghdad courtroom Monday. The trial was initially adjourned [JURIST report] soon after Hussein made his initial appearance before the Iraqi High Criminal Court - formerly known as the Iraqi Special Tribunal [official website] - on October 19 when defense lawyers asked for more time to prepare their case. Clark first joined Hussein's Jordan-based defense team [JURIST report] late last year before it was radically trimmed [JURIST report] by his daughter Raghdad in August. Since serving in the Johnson Administration from 1967-69, Clark has become widely known for his criticism of the US government, political activism and representation of various high profile defendants, most recently Slobodan Milosevic, still on trial at The Hague. It is not yet clear if presiding Chief Justice Rizgar Mohammed will let Clark and al-Nuaimi appear or speak in Monday's proceeding. Meanwhile, Iraqi authorities said Sunday that they had arrested 12 Sunnis in Kirkuk "linked to the Iraqi branch of Al-Qaeda" who "confessed under questioning" to participating in a plot to assassinate chief investigating judge Raed Juhi later this week. Juhi, the first of the judges in the Saddam trial process to reveal his identity publicly, has already survived one attempt on his life and is closely guarded. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A US military spokesman has said there is no secret detainee camp run by the US in Kosovo, although the US military there does share a well-known detention facility with NATO as part of the latter's KFOR [official website] operation. Major Michael Wunn spoke to AFP after Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Alvaro Gil-Robles [official profile], speaking to French newspaper Le Monde in an interview published Friday [Le Monde article], described seeing detainees held there in "shocking" conditions during a visit to Camp Bondsteel [official website] in 2002. Gil-Robles called the facility a "mini-Guantanamo" and said that he saw four North Africans there as well as Serbs and Kosovars. Major Wunn was quoted as saying the facility, currently empty, was maintained by the US Army "as part of its KFOR responsibilities pursuant to UNSC Resolution 1244. The facility is subject to inspection by the International Committee of the Red Cross and is regularly inspected by the United States Army, Europe." AFP has more.