Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/icc7ocampo060509.html
UNITED NATIONS, June 5 -- In what some are calling a showdown at the stakeout, International Criminal Court prosecutor Jose Moreno Ocampo walked up and stood next to Sudan's Ambassador to the UN as the latter spoke to the Press after Friday morning's Security Council meeting. Video here.
Ocampo stood flipping pages as the Ambassador spoke -- in part, ridiculing Ocampo -- and then took the microphone himself. He insisted that Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir will be arrested sooner or later. He said the government, that is, Bashir's government, should turn Bashir in.
Inner City Press asked what Ocampo was doing to bring about the arrest of the previously ICC indicted Jean-Bosco Ntaganda, now working with the Congolese Army and indirectly with the UN Mission there, MONUC.
The previous day, Inner City Press had put the same question to Human Rights Watch's Richard Dicker, who had said that Ocampo should do more about Bosco, should make an affirmative statement. But even prompted, Ocampo did not, merely saying that he has talked to the government.
Afterwards, a senior Ocampo staffer approached Inner City Press visibly upset. She asked, why do you say that I do not do my job? It was noted that the ICC Office of the Prosecutor "brooks no criticism."
Inner City Press contrasted the ICC Prosecutor's volume on Sudan versus Bosco, working with Congo and the UN. She predicted that Bosco will be arrested. We'll see.
Ocampo did not answer the question about HRW's September 15, 2008 letter criticizing his management, including retaliation against a whistleblower who accused him of sexual harassment. Moment later, Mia Farrow took to the microphone to say that there have been 100 babies born in Darfur and Eastern Chad named Ocampo, or Ocambo. Some who closely follow the ICC follies heard the sound of car keys jingling - click here for explanation.
Farrow, asked by Inner City Press about not only Congo but also Sri Lanka, said she hadn't come prepared to speak about either. She focused on Sudan. Inner City Press asked for her response to the African Union's criticism that peace talks are undermined, and only Africa targeted, by Ocampo. Farrow quoted Kenyan Nobel prize winner, as having made the AU's Jean Ping be quiet. Some said that the Turkish president of the Security Council for June had asked her to leave the Council's closed meeting.
The circus came to town, and then the circus left. It was not clear what was done, nor who won the standoff at the stakeout. Video here.
