A huge campaign of marches, vigils, speeches and art is being held in Argentina, aimed at ensuring that a retired builder is not forgotten. Julio Lopez, 78, is a name that everyone in Argentina recognizes.

He disappeared two years ago after appearing as a witness in a major human rights trial. Mr Lopez has become a symbol in the fight for justice for the atrocities committed by Argentina’s military government in the 1970s and 80s.

He was a victim twice over. He was kidnapped and tortured by the authorities working for the Argentine military which governed between 1976 and 1983. Then two years ago, he gave evidence in the trial of police chief Miguel Etchecolatz. But the day before the policeman was sentenced to life in prison for human rights atrocities, Mr Lopez disappeared.

Unlikely hero

His family and human rights activists believe he was taken by police officers or ex-police officers as a warning to others considering testifying in subsequent human rights trials against former members of the military government.

Mr Lopez has not been seen since, despite a massive campaign of marches, rallies, media coverage and appeals from his family and the president.

To mark the second anniversary of his disappearance, a fresh round of protests has been organized in Buenos Aires and in Mr Lopez’s home city of La Plata.

A large silhouette of the former building worker is being unveiled on a wall in the capital, candles are being lit and thousands are marching from the Argentine Congress to the presidential palace.

The demand is simply that Mr Lopez be found alive.

The frail, quietly spoken man has become an unlikely hero in the continuing fight in Argentina to bring to justice those responsible for the tens of thousands of people kidnapped, tortured and killed during a period that become known as the Dirty War.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7624394.stm

One year after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for two war crimes suspects in Darfur, human rights organizations around the world are launching a “Justice for Darfur” campaign, calling for the two to be arrested.

The organizations behind the campaign, including Amnesty International, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Coalition for the International Criminal Court, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch and Sudan Organization Against Torture, have joined forces to call on the United Nations Security Council, regional organizations and individual governments to press Sudan to cooperate with the ICC.

The ICC has been investigating crimes in the region following a decision three years ago by the UN Security Council to refer to it the situation in Darfur. One year ago today – on April 27, 2007 – the ICC issued two arrest warrants against Sudan’s former State Minister of the Interior Ahmad Harun and Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb for 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Today the two men – who face charges of persecution, rape, and killing of civilians in four West Darfur villages – remain at large.

“The thousands of people who suffered murder, rape and persecution in Darfur deserve justice,”
said Dismas Nkunda, Co – Chair of the Darfur -Consortium, a group of African and Middle Eastern NGOs. “Instead, all they have had is disdain from their own government, and empty words from the international community. It is time for that to change.”

The Sudanese government has publicly and repeatedly refused to surrender either Ali Kushayb or Ahmad Harun to the Court. Instead, Ahmad Harun has been promoted to State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, responsible for the welfare of the very victims of his alleged crimes. As well as having considerable power over humanitarian operations, he is responsible for liaison with the international peacekeeping force (UNAMID) tasked with protecting civilians against such crimes. The other suspect, Ali Kushayb, was in custody in Sudan on other charges at the time the ICC warrants were issued, but in October the government announced he had been released, reportedly due to “lack of evidence.”

“The Sudanese government has shown blatant disregard both for the authority of the Security Council and for the victims of their brutality,” said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch. “So far, Sudan has faced no consequences for this brazen snubbing of the Court and the Council”.

The members of “Justice for Darfur” are urging the UN Security Council to pass a resolution calling on Sudan to cooperate fully with the ICC and immediately arrest Ahmad Harun and Ali Kushayb and surrender them to the Court.

“Now is the time for the Security Council to act to ensure that the men are arrested and surrendered to the ICC without further delay, as a first step towards ending impunity for the vast scale of horrific crimes committed in Darfur,” said Christopher Hall, Senior Legal Adviser for Amnesty International’s International Justice Project.

The group also called on the European Union, a strong supporter of the Court and key player in bringing the Darfur crimes to the ICC Prosecutor, to press Sudan to cooperate with the ICC and comply with the warrants. They called on other states and regional organizations to do so too.

“Through the ‘Justice for Darfur’ campaign, organizations will work together to generate as much pressure as possible on the international community to follow through on its commitment to justice for the victims of these crimes,” said Moataz El Fegiery, Executive Director at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.

Editor’s Notes:

* The following organizations are part of the “Justice for Darfur” campaign:
* Action des chrétiens pour l’abolition de la torture – France
* Aegis Trust
* Amnesty International
* Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession
* Bahrain Centre for Human Rights
* Bahrain Human Rights Society
* Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
* Center for Peace, Legal Advice and Psychosocial Assistance – Vukovar
* Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre – Nigeria
* Coalition for the International Criminal Court
* Collectif Urgence Darfour
* Darfur Consortium
* Darfur Union UK
* Fédération Internationale des ligues des Droits de l’Homme
* Human Rights First
* Human Rights Watch
* International Criminal Court Student Network UK
* Kalangala District NGO Forum
* Land Center for Human Rights
* League of Human Rights
* Prepared society Kenya
* Recherches et Documentation Juridiques Africaines
* Save Darfur Canada
* Society for Threatened Peoples International
* Socio-Economic Rights & Accountability Project
* Students Taking Action Now: Darfur – Canada
* Sudan organization against Torture
* UN Watch
* Waging Peace

For more information on the “Justice for Darfur” campaign, see: www.justice4darfur.org

This post was a copy of a letter written by the widow of the ex KGB operative who was allegedly murdered on November 1, 2006. by another KGB operative, Andrei Lugovoy, using radioactive polonium-210.

Marina Litvinenko stated in part: “I do this against the wishes of the Scotland Yard and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, who both told me that making the evidence public would prejudice a criminal trial of the chief suspect, Andrei Lugovoy, whom the UK is trying to extradite from Russia. But after waiting for 15 months I have come to the conclusion that Mr Lugovoy, a former KGB agent, will never be extradited. So I respectfully reject their argument. I cannot wait for another ten years for a slim chance that their approach would bear fruit.”

While preparing a follow up post that would include a wanted poster, the unexpected happened. To ensure the accuracy of our information, we did a search on Interpol, entering “Andrei Lugovoy” as the search term. We got an interesting return on our search queries!

No documents matching your query were found.

Continuing, others data banks were searched:

FBI: Your search – Andrei Lugovoy – did not match any documents.
No pages were found containing “Andrei Lugovoy”.

Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard): web search: no matches were found for ‘Andrei Lugovoy’

Home Office: Your search – Andrei Lugovoy – did not match any documents.
No pages were found containing “Andrei Lugovoy”.

The Crown Prosecution Service: Search results for “Andrei Lugovoi”
Sorry, no results found

We did actually get a hit using the US State department web site. There is a mention in the 2007 country report on Britain stating:
On May 28, British authorities requested the extradition from Russia of Andrei Lugovoy in connection with the 2006 death by radioactive poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Alekasandr Litvenenko. Litvenenko had been highly critical of the Russian political leadership, and many observers believed the killing was politically motivated. Russian authorities rejected the extradition request.

Marina Litvinenko indeed may be a long time waiting for “justice”!

EDIT: At the request of a contributor, we ran the same checks using the Russian spelling, “Andrei Lugovoi” and actually added more checks. Same results.

Your search – Andrei Lugovoi – did not match any documents.
No pages were found containing “Andrei Lugovoi”.