The Netherlands: Drama at the International Court - Bosnian Croat war criminal 'takes poison' in court

A war crimes appeal hearing in The Hague was cut short dramatically when one defendant drank what he said was poison upon hearing the verdict.

Slobodan Praljak was one of six former Bosnian Croat political and military leaders up before the court.

He was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment in 2013 for crimes in East Mostar.

On hearing that his sentence had been upheld, he told the judge, "I have taken poison".

The six were appearing in court for the final appeals judgment to be handed down by the Yugoslav Tribunal.

Note EU-Digest: If Slobodan Praljak did take poison, which seems unlikely, it does not speak well for the security surrounding the war criminals.

 Read more: Bosnian Croat war criminal 'takes poison' in court - BBC News

War Profiteering: George Clooney Donates $1 Million To Investigate War Profiteering In Africa - by Greg Evansby

George Clooney has donated $1 million through his Clooney Foundation for Justice to The Sentry, a team of policy analysts and financial forensic investigators tracking down war profiteering networks in Africa.

The gift kicks off the Sentry’s “Making War Criminals Pay” fundraising campaign, and will, the organization says, “dramatically increase its production of dossiers focused on war criminals and their financial networks.”

The Sentry also announced leadership gifts from Don Cheadle, Carl Allen, Ruben Vardanyan, the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, and three major anonymous donors. In all, including the Clooney Foundation grant, the gifts total $3.45 million, with a campaign goal of $6 million.

Clooney is the co-founder of The Sentry, and said: ”Our focus is to make sure that war crimes don’t pay. We want to make it more difficult for those willing to kill en masse to secure their political and economic objectivesWhen we’re able to go after the warlords’ wallets and bankrupt those who choose the bullet over the ballot, suddenly the incentives are for peace, not war; transparency, not corruption.”

Read more: George Clooney Donates $1 Million To Investigate War Profiteering In Africa

War Criminals: Hospitals Cannot Be Targets in War - by Jason Cone

On April 27, a series of airstrikes hit Al Quds hospital in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo, killing upwards of 50 people, including at least 29 women and children, and wounding scores more. The hospital—its emergency room, its intensive care unit, its operating theater, all of it—was destroyed. Doctors were among the dead as well, including one of the very few, if not the last, pediatrician in Aleppo.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supported Al Quds hospital with supplies and funding to help its remarkably brave staff assist patients. The bombing was shocking news. But, like a painfully recurring nightmare, it was not surprising.

There have been far too many of these attacks in recent years, in far too many places. It seems obvious enough that people, even people at war, should not attack hospitals and kill medical workers and patients. And yet in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, South Sudan and elsewhere, it happens over and over again—a man-made, and eminently avoidable, epidemic of death and destruction.

Read more, click here: Time Magazine