Kindgo
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ICC Opens Tuesday
Permanent world war crimes court set to open
By ANTHONY DEUTSCH, Associated Press
http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/world/...p-5709344c.html
Published 12:43 p.m. PST Monday, March 10, 2003
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Locked away in the walk-in vault of the first permanent war crimes court are thick files filled with tales of rape, plunder and devastation from around the world.
One such folio is heavy with witness accounts of sexually abused children, looted homes and the expulsion of thousands of poor villagers from the Central African Republic.
Compiled by the France-based International Federation for Human Rights, it is one of about 200 claims alleging war crimes which have reached the court's offices since they opened last July.
On Tuesday, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan installs 18 judges and formally inaugurates the International Criminal Court or ICC, where such crimes will finally be prosecuted.
Advocates say the court will at last provide a forum for punishing those accused of the most serious crimes against mankind, including genocide.
But critics say it will become a tool for harassment, propaganda and politically motivated prosecutions, especially against Americans, given their extensive military and civilian presence abroad, and the anti-American climate that has intensified since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Bush administration removed the United States' signature from the 1998 Rome Treaty establishing the court and adopted legislation empowering the president to use "all means necessary" to free Americans from the court's custody.
But 89 other countries are on board as the court enters a field of international jurisprudence that has been developing since the Nuremberg trials after World War II. The new court is modeled on the temporary tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, East Timor, and Sierra Leone.
But it faces daunting challenges in winning credibility as an independent and forceful legal body that not only prosecutes war criminals but deters future crimes.
Optimists say it may take two years before the court is ready to try its first case. It would need hundreds of staff to handle a single case, yet it is starting out with a team of just 62, including judges.
It is in a temporary building with no courtroom, detention cells, trial lawyers or enforcement arm to make arrests. The mass murderers of recent times need not worry; the court's jurisdiction went into force last July and isn't retroactive.
Nor have the signatories to the Rome Treaty establishing the court reached consensus on a prosecutor. A short list of six or seven names is circulating, and the choice may come down to a divisive election next month.
According to sources speaking on condition of anonymity, they include Reginald Blanch, chief judge at the New South Wales District Court in Australia, and U.N. Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte of Switzerland. Canadian, Gambian and Argentine candidates have also been named.
"This is not an easy post to fill because it involves more than the usual combinations of talents and skills for a prosecutor," said Richard Dicker, the American who heads the international justice program at Human Rights Watch.
The prosecutor needs to be strong enough to stand up to political pressure, but diplomatic enough to ensure other countries' cooperation in arresting suspects.
The United States has bilateral agreements with 22 other countries giving its citizens immunity, and its rejection of the court has strained relations with Europe, where the court has unanimous backing.
"This court is about making the Europeans and like-minded countries feel good about themselves," said Paul R. Williams, a professor of law and international relations at the American University.
"There are serious fears that the court will respond to political directions from Europe and its allies," said the former State Department lawyer and author of several book on war crimes.
Disagreement comes from William Pace, the American head of the International Coalition for the International Criminal Court, an umbrella group of around 2,000 non-governmental organizations that helped bring the court into being.
"What we are going to see is the creation of one of the greatest institutions for peace and hope in the 21st century," he said. "There are some people who say the world is not ready, but I believe that international justice can replace war and violence."
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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