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As Taylor Case Winds
Down, Africa-Only Focus Clouds ICC's Future
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, February 2 -- The
prosecutor of Charles Taylor came Monday to New York to brag about this
case, a
full year before he expects a verdict. Charles Rapp, previously with
the
International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, said he expects a motion to
dismiss
but predicted it will be rejected by the judges of the Special Court
for Sierra Leone.
Inner City Press asked about
defense arguments that prospective defense witnesses are afraid of
being put on
the UN's travel ban and asset freeze lists. Rapp was dismissive of this
as
well, saying that those already on the lists can, upon notice, travel
to
testify. But what about those not on the list, who think that any open
testimony in support of Taylor's defense would land them on the list?
Rapp did
not answer this. Video here,
from Minute 10:57.
Inner City Press asked about the impact of the conviction,
in Federal
court in Miami, of Taylor's son for torture. Rapp said this helps
give
assurance that Liberia will remain "Taylor-free," as he put it. He
noted that there were two witnesses in the U.S. torture trial who
brought
"Sierra Leone" facts to the case otherwise about torture in Liberia
itself, including a Sierra Leonean rebel who had fled to Liberia.
Charles Taylor in flak jacket and UN custody, 2006
Broader, Inner City Press asked Rapp to respond to
the criticism, most
recently by the African Union's Jean
Ping, that international criminal justice
is disproportionately targeted at Africa, and excludes, in the four
examples
Ping gave, Gaza, Georgia, Colombia and Iraq.
Rapp first defended his court, pointing out that
other than Taylor, the
other defendants were tried in Africa.
Then he went broader, arguing both that since more
African nations than
others joined the International Criminal Court, the result was to be
expected,
and that the ICC's first three cases were "on invitation" by the
Congo, Uganda and the Central African Republic. Video
here, from Minute 20:25.
But ICC prosecutor Jose Moreno
Ocampo has bragged that he invited the
African leaders to refer these cases to him.
To respond to an African critique by saying, African
nations joined,
brings up the possibility of countries deciding to unjoin. Moreno
Ocampo has
said he is looking at Colombia, but he's also said he's impressed with
Colombian justice. Now ICC indictee Bosco Ntaganda has appeared at a
press
confernce with Congolese officials, and appears on the verge of being
integrated into the Congolese Army. Where is Moreno Ocampo? As he
reportedly bungles
the Congo's Lubanga case, his eyes are on
Sudan.
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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