ICC urges countries to track down war crimes fugitives
Oct 10, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — The International Criminal Court and the tribunals prosecuting those responsible for war crimes in former Yugoslavia and genocide in Rwanda urged all countries to help track down and arrest fugitives so they can be brought to justice.
Judge Philippe Kirsch, president of the court, said Monday the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal doesn’t have the power to arrest five members of Uganda’s ruthless Lord’s Resistance Army, named in its first warrants, though one is believed to have died.
“That is the responsibility of states and other actors,” he told the U.N. General Assembly. “Without arrests there can be no trials.”
Kirsch said states and regional organizations can also help the court by providing evidence, assisting in the questioning of key people, carrying out searches, or identifying and tracing assets.
The court is conducting investigations of alleged war crimes in northern Uganda, Congo, and Darfur, Sudan, where security is so bad that investigations are taking place outside the country. The prosecutor is also analyzing five other potential cases to decide whether to go ahead with investigations, including in the Central African Republic and Ivory Coast, Kirsch said.
Judge Fausto Pocar, president of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, said the cases against 97 accused have been closed and proceedings against 155 are in various stages, but six are still at large including Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic.
He said meeting the target dates to wrap up the tribunal’s work “will hinge significantly upon the cooperation of all states now, specifically those in the region, in apprehending these fugitives to stand trial.”
“Regrettably, the authorities of Serbia have failed to achieve any progress in locating, arresting and surrendering Ratko Mladic to the International Tribunal, despite a number of promises made and the passing of several deadlines,” Pocar said. “Likewise, no progress has been made by the Republika Srpska towards locating Radovan Karadzic.”
Republika Srpska is the Serb-controlled half of Bosnia.
The Security Council has set out a timetable for the Yugoslav tribunal and the tribunal prosecuting those responsible for the 1994 Rwanda genocide to complete all trials by 2008 and finish appeals by 2010 – the target for ending their work.
Judge Erik Mose, president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, said that while the court is on schedule to complete cases involving between 65 and 70 accused by the end of 2008, 18 indictees remain at large.
“It is essential that member states assist and cooperate in the arrest and transfer of accused who remain at large,” he said.
Mose singled out one especially well-known fugitive, Felicien Kabuga, a Hutu businessman accused of financing the killers who marauded as the Rwandan Patriotic Army during the genocide. “It is important that he be arrested…as soon as possible in order to determine his guilt or innocence,” the tribunal president said.
Mose also appealed to U.N. member states to open their countries and accept people acquitted by the court, noting that only one of the five people found not guilty by the tribunal has found a new country to live in.
(AP/ST)