[JURIST] Democrats in the US Congress will introduce legislation this week to maintain the authority of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) [official website], according to the New York Times Sunday. SIGIR was originally established to independently supervise and investigate operations of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority [official website], and has to date uncovered multiple instances of fraud, bribery, and other legal violations [JURIST reports] by US government officials and government contractors in Iraq. The post is currently set to expire on October 1, 2007 under the terms of Republican-initiated HR 5122. The legislation to be introduced by congressional Democrats is expected to be the first of many inquiries into US dealings in Iraq. The New York Times has more.

The Office of SIGIR was originally established as the Inspector General of the Coalition Provisional Authority [CPA-IG] in November 2003 under the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense and for the Reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan [PDF]. It was redesignated "Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction" by an October 2004 amendment [PDF]. This amendment also established a termination clause for the office, to occur ten months after 80% of the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund had been contractually obligated [SIGIR official website]. In October of 2006, HR 5122 reset the termination date as October 2007. Democrats criticized the SIGIR's inclusion in the National Defense Authorization Act as an attempt by Republicans to quietly dismantle the post.

[JURIST] A landmark international treaty governing the clean-up of unexploded munitions left over from war went into effect Sunday. The Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War [treaty text], has already been ratified by 26 states [text, states party]. Although major munitions-producing nations like the United States and Russia have not yet acceded to the pact, it is the first agreement setting guidelines for post-conflict removal of the unexploded ordinance posing grave risks to civilians. According to a summary released by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which welcomed the treaty, it requires parties to an armed conflict to:

• Survey, mark and clear explosive remnants of war (ERW) in areas under their control after a conflict.
  
• Provide technical, material and financial assistance for the removal of ERW left by their armed forces in areas not under their control.
  
• Record information on explosive ordnance [sic] used or abandoned by their armed forces and share that information with organizations involved in clearance activities.
  
• Take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from the effects of ERW, including marking and fencing off dangerous areas and warning them of the risks.

[JURIST] A top Iranian prosecutor called for the arrest and extradition of several Argentina officials and judges Sunday in response [IRNA report] to an Argentinean judge's Thursday arrest order [JURIST report] for former Iran President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani [official website, in Persian; BBC profile] and eight other Iranian officials for their alleged roles in the AMIA Jewish cultural center bombing [Wikipedia backgrounder; BBC report] that killed 85 people and wounded over 200 more in Buenos Aries in 1994.

After Argentina [JURIST news archive] federal judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral issued last week's arrest warrants, Iranian Prosecutor-General Qorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi wrote to Tehran prosecutors requesting the issuance of arrest warrants for those involved in the investigation of the bombing, including former lead judge Juan Jose Galeano, who was dismissed from the case in the midst of corruption allegations, the current prosecutor and other legal officials. Argentinean prosecutors claim [JURIST report] that Iranian officials authorized the bombing while members of Hezbollah [BBC backgrounder] actually carried out the attack. Iran [JURIST news archive] has repeatedly denied having a role [BBC report] in the bombing's planning and execution. Iran prosecutor Dorri-Najafabadi said he wants Galeano and others involved in the case arrested because "making propaganda against Iran is a crime" and he plans to seek "spiritual and financial compensation" [Reuters UK report] for their "conspiracy against the Iranian nation." Reuters has more.

7:05 PM ET - An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman later Sunday called the Argentinean arrest warrants "hasty" and said they reflected US influence. He said Iran would turn over its information on the AIMA bombing to Interpol [official website]. From Tehran, IRNA has more.

[JURIST] Joseph Kony [BBC profile], leader of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army [MIPT backgrounder] in Uganda, asked UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland [official profile] Sunday to work with the International Criminal Court [official website] in lifting arrest warrants [PDF text] issued against Kony and several other top LRA officials. Kony and Egeland met in a heated 10-minute session [Aljazeera report] in the Sudanese jungle. Egeland agreed to meet Kony to address humanitarian issues with the LRA leader and sought the release of women, children, and wounded believed to be held by the LRA. After the meeting ended, Kony denied the accusations and said the LRA only held enemy combatants. Reuters has more.

Kony and the LRA have made the lifting of the ICC arrest warrants a condition of participating in peace negotiations being mediated by Sudan [UNMIS official website] and an LRA spokesperson Sunday called the arrest warrants the "biggest obstacle" in the peace process [AFP report]. The ICC has so far refused [JURIST report] to cancel the indictments, despite requests [JURIST report] from the Ugandan government [official website], who says that most Ugandans are willing to sacrifice prosecution of LRA leaders in exchange for successful peace negotiations. Egeland himself has gone on record as saying that the LRA rebels should be tried by the ICC regardless [JURIST reports]. Kony was indicted by the ICC [JURIST report] along with four LRA lieutenants last October on charges that they orchestrated the killing of thousands of civilians and the enslavement of thousands more children over two decades of conflict with Ugandan President Museveni's government. The rebel leader has denied the ICC charges [JURIST report], claiming the crimes were committed by the Ugandan military.

[JURIST] The Dalai Lama [BBC profile] called Sunday for the sparing of Saddam Hussein's life in the face of the death sentence [JURIST report] imposed on him last Sunday in the Dujail crimes against humanity case, telling reporters "however horrible an act a person may have committed, everyone has the potential to improve and correct himself." The exiled Tibetan leader and recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peace prize [official materials] was ending a two-week visit to Japan Sunday when he said he "hope[d] that, in the case of Saddam Hussein, as with all others, that human life will be respected and spared."

The Dalai Lama has been an outspoken critic of the death penalty [official message], calling it "very clearly a form of revenge." AFP has more.

[JURIST] London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair [official website; BBC profile], the United Kingdom's most senior police officer, told a German security summit Saturday that changes to Britain's terror trial laws were necessary to speed up cases and increase public transparency. Blair said the current ban on publicizing case details that could prejudice other cases reduced the public legitimacy of the criminal court system.

Blair also suggested that provisions of the Terrorism Act 2006 [PDF text, Home Office backgrounder] authorizing up to 28 days detention of suspects without trial - already the longest allowed in any western European country - need to be extended in the near future to improve Britain's counterterror efforts. The original draft [text] of the act, advanced by Prime Minister Tony Blair [JURIST report] on Sir Ian Blair's advice, would have authorized detention of terror suspects without charge for up to 90 days. The Police Commissioner's latest comments followed an uncharacteristically public speech [text] last week by MI-5 Director General Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller's [official website; BBC profile] warning of multiple terrorist threats to the United Kingdom. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] US Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) [official website] said this week that the incoming 110th Congress will review the Secure Fence Act of 2006 [PDF text; HR 6061 summary] and may scrap the plan after the new Democrat-controlled Congress convenes January 3, 2007. The bill, if implemented, will result in additional fencing of approximately 700 miles [JURIST news archive] along the US-Mexico border. Speaking to reporters, Thompson cited the Department of Homeland Security's Secure Border Initiative [DHS fact sheet; Global Security backgrounder], which uses surveillance systems instead of a physical barrier, as a possible alternative to the fencing plan.

President Bush signed [JURIST report] the controversial fencing bill in late October. The Mexican government has voiced strong opposition to it [JURIST report], saying it will complicate US-Mexico relations [Mexico MFA press release]. UPI has more.

[JURIST] France [JURIST news archive] should acknowledge crimes it committed as the ruler of Algeria [JURIST news archive] in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika [BBC profile] reiterated Saturday. France ruled the North African country for more than 130 years and allegedly massacred 45,000 Algerians demanding independence at the end of World War II. After eight years of conflict costing 1.5 million lives, French relinquished control in 1962 and the two countries have since worked on improving relations. The latest request comes only two days before a scheduled visit to Algeria by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy [JURIST news archive], a conservative politician expected to run for the French presidency next year. Reuters has more.

The request is not a new one. Algeria made a similar call [JURIST report] late last year, after France strained ties by approving a law [text in French; Guardian report] requiring French history teachers to stress the "positive role of the French presence overseas, especially in North Africa." The law was later rejected by French President Jacques Chirac [BBC profile], but it delayed the signing of a reconciliation treaty. More recently Turkish lawmakers objecting to French legislation that would make it illegal to deny that Turkish killings of Armenians during World War I was genocide have threatened to adopt a retaliatory measure [JURIST report] that would label the French killings of Algerians as genocide and make it illegal to deny that the French were responsible for the killings.

[JURIST] Morocco state news agency MAP [media website] reported Friday that a criminal court in Salé, a twin-city of the capital Rabat, has sentenced three former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees to prison for their involvement in terror activities. Mohamed Slimani was sentenced to five years in prison for his alleged role in creating and participation in a "criminal gang, practice of activities in a non-recognized association and organization of un-authorized public meetings." Najib Houssani and Mohamed Ouali each received three year sentences for falsifying administrative documents. The charges were related to the men's connection with Salafia Jihadia [MIPT backgrounder] and unrelated to their detention at Guantanamo Bay, where the three spent up to 4 1/2 years in US custody. Moroccan authorities acknowledged in February that the United States transfered the three to Moroccan custody [US DOD press release].

The Salafia Jihadia is an offshoot of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group [MIPT backgrounder]. Both organizations are allegedly linked with al-Qaeda and are believed to be responsible for the May 16, 2003 Casablanca suicide bombings [BBC report] that killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers. AP has more. Maghreb Arabe Presse has local coverage.