Court to award damages for jihadist Timbuktu destruction

THE HAGUE - War crimes judges will on Thursday hand down a landmark ruling on reparations for the razing of Timbuktu's fabled shrines, but the victims' fund which is to implement the order warned it will not be easy.

Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi was jailed for nine years in 2016 after he pleaded guilty to directing attacks on the UNESCO world heritage site during the jihadist takeover of northern Mali in 2012.

Judges ruled last September that Mahdi "supervised the destruction and gave instructions to the attackers" who used pickaxes and bulldozers to hack apart some of the city's most ancient landmarks.

Last month the judges announced they will hand down a decision on compensation for victims who suffered from the destruction of the ancient city's centuries-old shrines and mausoleums.

The case was the first to focus on cultural destruction as a war crime before The Hague-based tribunal and the verdict was seen as a warning that destroying mankind's heritage will not go unpunished.

Whereas the judgment sent a strong message, an order for reparations "aims to alleviate the lasting imprints of these crimes," said Alina Balta, a researcher at Tilburg University's International Victimology Institute.

The International Criminal Court's order also "has the potential to bring hope to the victims of similar crimes committed in other parts of the world" including the destruction of Palmyra in Syria by the Islamic State group, Balta said.

It was not clear, though, what type of compensation the judges will decide on at Thursday's hearing.

However, the Trust Fund for Victims, which will implement the judges' order, has warned that doing so will be difficult and may still take a considerable amount of time.

In a recent court filing the Trust Fund asked judges to set a deadline for a draft implementation plan "at a minimum of six months".

The security situation in northern Mali "poses serious challenges not only to the implementation of any awards, but also the amount of time that the Trust Fund may need to consult with all the relevant stakeholders," the fund said in a submission to the judges.

Agence France-presse