The Chamber further found that Bemba knew that MLC forces were committing these crimes. Although he was not physically at the location of the atrocities, he was the leader of his forces and had ultimate authority over all military operations. Bemba was constantly informed via military and civilian intelligence services with “information on the combat situation, troop positions, politics, and allegations of crimes.” Additionally, the Chamber found that Bemba failed to take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent or repress the commission of the crimes, or to submit the matter to competent authorities for investigation and prosecution. Instead, Bemba merely warned his troops not to mistreat civilians, created two investigative commissions,
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Although the Assad regime has its own military apparatus and a hierarchy of power within it, Assad represents the ultimate authority over the military. His military is under his complete command and control. In July of 2012, a bomb attack killed Assad’s inner circle security leadership, including his brother-in-law and defense minister. At that point, Assad assumed personal command over his military, assuming day-to-day decision-making authority. There is no possible way that Assad was unaware of crimes committed by his forces, since everything they did was integrated into a statewide policy that Assad ultimately approved. Furthermore, Assad failed to take any measures at all to prevent the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but rather he did the opposite in encouraging and approving of them. Once again, the proof exists within the documents that CIJA stole, the Assad Files. Looking at the cases that have been mentioned so far throughout this paper, one lesson remains clear: the degree of criminal responsibility does not diminish as distance from the actual act increases; in fact it is often the exact
Although the Assad regime has its own military apparatus and a hierarchy of power within it, Assad represents the ultimate authority over the military. His military is under his complete command and control. In July of 2012, a bomb attack killed Assad’s inner circle security leadership, including his brother-in-law and defense minister. At that point, Assad assumed personal command over his military, assuming day-to-day decision-making authority. There is no possible way that Assad was unaware of crimes committed by his forces, since everything they did was integrated into a statewide policy that Assad ultimately approved. Furthermore, Assad failed to take any measures at all to prevent the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but rather he did the opposite in encouraging and approving of them. Once again, the proof exists within the documents that CIJA stole, the Assad Files. Looking at the cases that have been mentioned so far throughout this paper, one lesson remains clear: the degree of criminal responsibility does not diminish as distance from the actual act increases; in fact it is often the exact