UNITED NATIONS, September 9 -- The talk was of war crimes at the UN on September 9, and those of Sri Lanka came up in discussion and on a color map. The President of the International Criminal Court's Assembly of State Parties noted that the UN Security Council has not referred Sri Lanka to the ICC.
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who has acknowledged receiving communications about Sri Lanka, spoke afterwards to the Press. On top of his file folder was a map, depicting by colors which countries have joined the ICC, which countries are being looked at (yellow dots), where prosecutions are ongoing (four red dots, all in Africa) and where Crimes Have Been Committed, noted with a green dot.
There was a green dot on Sri Lanka, another on Zimbabwe and one on Myanmar.
What does it mean, if the ICC's prosecutor acknowledges that crimes have been committed in three countries including by their governments but has actually put on trial so far only failed warlords in Africa? Inner City Press asked Ocampo and the prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, who has never charged a member of the RPF government with a crime, to address charges that only losers are put on trial, made most recently by Sri Lanka itself.
The ICTR Prosecutor, Hassan Jallow, said that his focus has been on genocide and not war crimes, to which the court is now turning. Inner City Press asked if he will bring any prosecution against an RFP defendant before the ICTR's powers lapse. Jallow could not say. Ocampo said he focused on Ituri in the Congo first, but in the Kivus is looking at the government as well, and is still requesting information about acts of the Ugandan Army as well as the Lord's Resistance Army.
Afterwards, Ocampo told the Press he is looking at nationals of 25 states for their acts in Iraq, which is not a state party of the ICC, and at acts not only of the Taliban but also of NATO forces in Afghanistan, which is a state party. He is traveling to Ecuador, at the invitation of President Correa, to look into allegations that support for the FARC passed from Ecuadorian territory into Colombia next door.
As he spoke the map of entirely unacted on crimes, in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Zimbabwe, lay on the table next to him. When he was finished, brushing off a question about extraordinary rendition, he put the map back in his file and turned away.
The map in its position on the table, (c) M.Lee
And see, www.innercitypress.com/iccsri1myanzim090909.html
