ICC
Prosecutor
Says UN
Shouldn't Deal
With Sudan
Minister,
Kenyans to The
Hague
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 12 --
Moments after
Fatou Bensouda
was
unanimously
elected to
succeed Luis
Moreno Ocampo
as chief
prosecutor of
the
International
Criminal
Court, Inner
City Press
asked her if
she
thought the UN
should have
flown ICC
indictee Ahmed
Haroun in a UN
helicopter,
and if it
should engage
with Sudan's
defense
minister,
recently
indicted for
war crimes by
the ICC. Video
here, from
Minute
19:57.
"They
should
be isolated,"
Ms. Bensouda
said. "There
are other
people in
the government
the UN could
deal with.
Especially
with respect
to
this one,
where there
was a Security
Council
referral, the
UN should
not be dealing
with them
directly."
So,
Inner City
Press asked,
was the UN
flying Haroun
in a
helicopter a
mistake?
"I
think we
made our
objections
known,"
Bensouda
answered.
But
the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations,
run for the fourth time
in a
row by a
Frenchman,
Herve Ladsous,
has said that
the Defense
Minister
is the Defense
Minister, who
must be
engaged with
in pursuit of
the
mandates of
the UNAMID and
UNISFA
missions.
So did the ICC
make its
position on
international
law clear to
Ban Ki-moon's
UN?
Inner
City Press
also asked
Bensouda about
Yemen and
Kenya. Video
here, from
Minute
8:10. On
Yemen, she
said that Ali
Saleh being
subject to
indictment
depends on the
timing of
Yemen joining
the ICC in the
future. So
even
for crimes
committee this
year, could
Saleh have
immunity?
(c) UN Photo
Fatou
Bensouda on
Dec 12, action
on Sri Lankan
dual citizens
not shown
On
Kenya, Inner
City Press
asked how she
would proceed
against the
"Ocampo Six,"
and if she
thinks that
trial in The
Hague would
make violence
more or
less likely
after the next
elections.
Bensouda
endorsed
Ocampo's
approach, and
said that due
to problems is
witness
protection if
trials were
held in Kenya,
her move is to
hold the
trials in The
Hague.
Inner
City Press'
was the last
question; no
more were
allowed. One
would have
liked to
ask if witness
protection
wouldn't
similarly be a
problem in
Libya.
And how
Bensouda will
proceed
against
alleged war
criminals with
dual
citizenship,
one both a
party and a
non-party,
such as
several people
responsible
for war crimes
in Sri Lanka.
Next time.
Watch this
site.
, 
