ICC expects 2-to-3 new cases per year

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Two years after taking office, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in Congo, Uganda and Sudan’s conflict-wracked Darfur region and looking at killings in Colombia and Ivory Coast.

A security guard stands near boxes of documents in front of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, Tuesday, April 5, 2005. (AP).

Luis Moreno-Ocampo says the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal -which was created to punish perpetrators of the worst atrocities if national courts don’t act -is a very busy place, and he expects two or three new cases every year.

In an interview Wednesday with two reporters, he said investigators in Uganda are finishing the collection of evidence of alleged crimes by the Lord’s Resistance Army, and he hopes by the end of the year to present cases to the court’s judges who will decide whether to issue indictments and arrest warrants. They would be the first for the court, which began work in July 2002.

On Monday, the court announced it had begun investigating alleged war crimes in Darfur, where an estimated 180,000 people have died and 2 million have been displaced.

The U.N. Security Council made its first referral to the tribunal, which Moreno-Ocampo said was very important because the council represents the world on issues of peace and security and Darfur is the gravest global crisis today.

A U.N. commission of inquiry concluded in January that crimes against humanity had occurred in Darfur, although the mass killings fell short of a policy of genocide. It recommended that the case go to the fledgling court based in The Hague, Netherlands, and drew up a list of 51 potential suspects. They reportedly include Sudanese government officials, anti-government rebels and Janjaweed militiamen.

Moreno-Ocampo said the list is advisory and he won’t be bound by it.

“We will try to define who will be the people under the investigation in a few months,” he said. “We need to collect evidence, to define how things happened in Darfur, who are the most responsible in the situation.”

The chief prosecutor was asked whether his investigators will be able to operate on the ground in Darfur since the Sudanese government opposes the court.

“I will be able to collect evidence on Darfur. In Darfur, we’ll see,” Moreno-Ocampo said.

Some U.N. diplomats have warned that indictments in Darfur could interfere with peace talks to end the conflict there, as well as the fragile peace agreement between the government and southern rebels signed in January.

Moreno-Ocampo cited a provision of the Rome statute which created the International Criminal Court that says the prosecutor must stop his investigation if “it is not in the interest of justice.”

“The ICC cannot give immunity, but can give time,” Moreno-Ocampo explained, using the court’s initials.

In contrast to Darfur, the chief prosecutor said the court’s investigation in Uganda produced “beautiful evidence” and has “strong support from locals and the government -and that makes a difference.”

Over the years, Joseph Kony’s followers in the Lord’s Resistance Army have abducted more than 30,000 children, forcing them to become fighters, porters or concubines, according to U.N. statistics. His supporters have killed tens of thousands of civilians and forced more than 1.6 million people to flee their homes.

The government has been in peace talks since December with the Lord’s Resistance Army, which is the remnant of a northern rebellion that arose to overthrow President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, after he took power in 1986.

If peace talks succeed, Moreno-Ocampo said, “we have the duty to consider the possibility to stop the investigation.”

But if Kony is indicted and peace talks fail, Moreno-Ocampo said the Sudanese government would have an opportunity to show cooperation with the court by handing over the rebel leader, who operates from bases in southern Sudan.

“I think the new government of Sudan creates new opportunities,” he said.

In Congo, Moreno-Ocampo said, investigators are focusing on violent Ituri province in the northeast where they have been collecting evidence despite serious security problems.

Congolese authorities have arrested some people in Ituri and the court is waiting to see “if the defendants overlap,” he said. If so, they could be indicted by national and international tribunals which would have to decide which would conduct the first trial.

“Congo probably will be a sitution in which we have many cases because in Congo there is not just one group,” Moreno-Ocampo said. “In Congo, there are many groups and we probably will be there for many years.”

Uganda and Congo are among the 99 states that have ratified the Rome treaty.

The United States opposes it, citing possible political prosecutions against American citizens, but allowed the Darfur referral to be approved.

Even though Ivory Coast is not a party to the court, Moreno-Ocampo said both the government and rebels “asked us to intervene” and the court is assessing whether it can act. The court is also monitoring the killings in Colombia and trying to cooperate with the government which is trying to deal with the problem, he said.