Loot, Pillage and Plunder: Prosecuting Economic War Crimes in the 21st Century

Oct 8, 2014 | JHU-SAIS African Studies Program and The Enough Project
Washington, DC

Natural resources are a major driver of armed conflict, fueling and incentivizing violence in diverse countries including Sierra Leone, Congo, and Afghanistan. Diamonds, other minerals, and ivory trades finance and motivate armed groups, driving them to terrorize civilians and destabilize societies. Theft in war is a war crime - also known as pillage, looting, and plunder - and ending impunity for these crimes is critical to ending some of the worst violence of the last century. While the war crime of pillage has been prosecuted as far back as the Nuremberg trials, there have been few cases in recent years, particularly relative to how prevalent resource wars have become, especially in West and Central Africa. Little is known of the history, strategies and possibilities for bringing perpetrators of natural resource pillage to justice. This panel discussion brings together experts from a number of different cases and geographic areas all with one thing in common: widespread natural resource pillage and the need for war crimes accountability.

SPEAKERS:

Mohamed A. Bangura is Prosecution Legal Adviser and Evidence Officer at the recently established Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone (RSCSL) based in The Hague, the successor to the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), which completed its operations in December 2013.  Until its closure, Mohamed was the longest serving Sierra Leonean attorney in the Office of the Prosecutor, SCSL (2002-2013), and prosecuted in three of the four major trials conducted by the court - the CDF and RUF Trials in Freetown, and Charles Taylor’s Trial in The Hague. His knowledge and familiarity with the local culture as a Sierra Leonean was an invaluable asset to the Office of the Prosecutor, in its assessment and evaluation of witness statements and testimonies, often given in one of several local dialects, or in English, tweaked with a local dialect. Bangura practiced law with the private law firm, Renner-Thomas & Co. in Sierra Leone for eight years before joining the SCSL. He is a member of the Sierra Leone Bar, and holds an MSc degree in Property Law from London South Bank University (2001), and an LLM degree from the University of London (2001).    

Holly Dranginis, is a Policy Analyst at the Enough Project, focusing on economic war crimes, sexual violence, gender inclusive peace building, and conflict minerals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic. An attorney specializing in war crimes trials and transitional justice, she has worked on numerous high-profile cases involving sexual violence crimes, including the case against former-Liberian President Charles Taylor. In 2008, she was a consultant to then-Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, and later led a program in Northern Uganda supporting conflict affected communities. She has conducted extensive research in Congo on prosecuting the pillage of natural resources as a war crime, gender inclusivity in peace processes, and military rape trials. Her upcoming policy work focuses on prosecuting war crimes related to natural resource exploitation in Congo and the importance of criminal accountability for building peace in the region. Dranginis holds a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and a B.A. in international relations and history from Connecticut College. 

James G. Stewart, an assistant professor of law at the University of British Columbia and a former war crimes prosecutor, is the author of “Corporate War Crimes: Prosecuting Pillage of Natural Resources,” published by the Open Society Foundation. Professor Stewart joined UBC law in August 2009, after spending two years as an Associate-in-Law at Columbia Law School in New York. Prior to his time at Columbia, Professor Stewart was an Appeals Counsel with the Prosecution of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and has worked for the Legal Division of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. His research focuses on the responsibility of corporate actors for international crimes, especially in the Great Lakes Region in Africa. In 2006, Professor Stewart received the La Pira Prize for his article on unlawful confinement at Guantanamo. In 2010, he was awarded the Cassese Prize for his ongoing work on the liability of corporate actors for international crimes. In 2011, he was awarded the Aurora Prize from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) as the leading pre-tenure scholar in Canada across all social sciences. He has published an op-ed on his work with the New York Times, given interviews with BBC World Service, and his work has featured in Columbia University's Magazine.

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