|
ICC's Ocampo Defends His Africa-Only
Focus, His Strategy In Question
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
July 17 -- International Criminal
Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the Press on Thursday,
"Because I
respect African leaders, I invite them to refer to me the case, and
they did
it." While dodging questions about his request for an arrest warrant
against Sudan's president Omar Al-Bashir, Ocampo responded to Inner
City Press'
question about why all of his prosecutions so far have been in Africa,
and not
for example in Colombia, Myanmar or North Korea. He responded that he
visited
Colombia last November, and will again "next month," to monitor
national proceedings. Those proceedings have offered a form of immunity
to
government-backed paramilitary forces, but apparently Ocampo is
satisfied with
that. Perhaps, then, Sudan should have put its two indictees Ahmad
Harun and
Ali Kushayb on trial, then offered then a slap on the wrist. Behind the
scenes,
Ocampo has been telling Ambassadors of Permanent Five members of the
Security
Council, and some of these have off the record been telling the press,
that if
Al-Bashir now turns over the two indictees, the prosecution against him
might
go away or be put on hold. Ocampo's prosecutorial strategy -- reversing
the
normal approach of trying to turn underlings against their boss -- and
his
performance are both subject to question. But on Thursday few answers
were
provided.
Inner City
Press asked Ocampo about both the Thomas Lubango case, which has been
suspended
due to his office's failure to show its evidence to the defense
lawyers, and
about the unacted-on arrest warrant against Joseph Kony of Uganda's
Lord's
Resistance Army. Video here,
from Minute 25:52. On Lubanga, Ocampo said
"the problem was how to disclose some documents." First, providing
discovery material to the defense is a basic principle of fair
prosecution.
Second, Inner City Press is told by sources inside the UN Secretariat
and its
Congo peacekeeping mission, MONUC, that they never expected Ocampo to
base his
prosecution on the hearsay material they provided him, but he did. Now
that
material must be disclosed, and they are unhappy. Neither
they nor the Western members of the
Permanent Five, however, will criticize Ocampo in public. That would be
politically incorrect.
ICC's Ocampo with outgoing Italian Ambassador, non-African prosecutions
not shown
Ocampo,
however, drapes himself in the role of the last of the just, an
objective man,
a slave to justice. Asked why all his prosecutions have been in Africa,
he
said, "I cannot respect geographical balance, I cannot respect gender
balance." Video here,
from Minute 25:52. But how can it be that a court
set up to try genocide and child soldier recruitment, among other high
crimes,
is focused only on Africa? Ocampo, and
later in his defense the foreign minister of Costa Rica Bruno Stagno
Ugarte, claim
this is because the presidents of Uganda and Democratic Republic of
Congo have
referred cases to Ocampo. First, Ocampo admitted that he invited them
to make
specific referrals, to make a showing of his respect for African
leaders.
Second, this has created a conflict of interest or bias, in which he
has not
for example investigated or at least prosecuted crimes of the Ugandan
army,
only the LRA. Ocampo never answered the question about Joseph Kony, who
meets
opening with UN officials like Joachim Chissano. Perhaps there was not
enough
media interest to keep Ocampo focused on the LRA case, or actually
succeeding
in the case of Lubanga.
In
Kinshasa last month, Security Council Ambassadors emphasized to Inner
City
Press that Congolese president Joseph Kabila had praised them and the
ICC for
the prospection of Lubanga and especially Jean-Pierre Bemba. But Bemba
was
Kabila's main opponent in the last elections. Even
in Congo, the ICC is arguably being used
politically. These questions should be answered and not dodged.
Footnote: Inner
City Press asked Ruth Wijdenbosch,
President of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee of
Suriname,
which just joined the ICC, about reports that the U.S. in 2007 had
sought anti-ICC
"non-surrender" agreements from Suriname. Video
here,
at end. She acknowledged the U.S. attempts and
said they have stopped -- not as some argue because the U.S. agrees, or
agreed,
with Ocampo's Darfur prosecutions, but because by arrogantly demanding
the
agreements the U.S. was "losing friends" in Latin America, presumably
to Hugo Chavez. So Hugo Chavez, under this theory, has helped the ICC.
Watch
this site.
And this --
|
