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INTERVIEW-World needs time to accept global criminal court

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  • INTERVIEW-World needs time to accept global criminal court

    INTERVIEW-World needs time to accept global criminal court

    By Damian Wroclavsky

    BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, April 29 (Reuters) - The International
    Criminal Court will need two decades to win over reticent nations that
    fear politically-motivated trials, the tribunal's chief prosecutor
    said.

    Luis Moreno Ocampo, the Argentine lawyer at the ICC prosecution helm,
    said he believes the United States and other skeptics will come around
    after seeing the court prosecute war criminals without meddling in
    countries' internal affairs.

    "If the judges and the prosecutors do their job well, in 20 years
    there is going to be consensus. There is already consensus against
    genocide but there is no consensus on how to implement the court,"
    Moreno Ocampo told Reuters in an exclusive interview at his Buenos
    Aires home.

    The ICC, whose statutes are ratified by 98 nations, began functioning
    in The Hague, Netherlands a year ago. It is the world's first
    permanent criminal court to prosecute individuals for genocide and
    crimes against humanity. Everyone, from heads of state down to
    average citizens, can be tried.

    Moreno Ocampo, 52, was seen as the perfect candidate for the job after
    prosecuting Argentina's "dirty war" generals in 1985, when wounds from
    the 1976-1983 dictatorship were still fresh. As many as 30,000 people
    were killed or disappeared during one of South America's most brutal
    regimes.

    "The trial of the Junta in Argentina was very important because it was
    the first trial since Nuremberg of top-level leaders responsible for a
    massive crime," he said.

    "One of the teachings of that process was to start with the leaders to
    get the whole picture."

    Moreno Ocampo said he will apply the Argentine model to the cases now
    before him at The Hague, including war crimes in Sudan's Darfur
    region.

    SAYING "NO" TO THE POWERFUL

    The lawyer is no stranger to adversity. While trying Argentina's
    strongmen, he lived across the street from an army intelligence base,
    making an easy target for those who wanted to stop him.

    Now he resists pressure from powerful nations that want to dominate
    the ICC.

    "The big countries wanted the Court to only begin cases when there was
    a referral from the U.N. Security Council, where they have veto power.
    The rest of the countries said 'no'," he said.

    The United States opposes the court vehemently and has sought
    exemptions for all its officials and soldiers worldwide. China has
    neither signed nor ratified the court's statues, Russia has signed but
    not ratified. But all but one of the 25 European Union nations are
    members of the court and provide most of its financing.

    Last month, the Security Council asked the ICC to investigate crimes
    in Darfur, where at least 180,000 people have died from fighting,
    hunger and disease and more than 2 million have been forced out of
    their homes by Arab militia.

    "This is the Africa decade," Moreno Ocampo said, referring to attempts
    to bring human rights abusers to justice.

    He said the ICC could heal war-torn societies by turning conventional
    wisdom on its head. In the past, he said people fought for peace first
    and said justice would come later.

    "The international court introduces a new concept which is to do
    everything at the same time. That's why humanitarian aid and working
    for peace are so important," he said.

    04/29/05 19:07 ET

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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