ICC must have a visible presence on the ground in Darfur
Oct 12, 2006 (THE HAGUE) — The UN’s top human rights official, Louise Arbour, said the International Criminal Court (ICC) should be present on the ground in Sudan’s war-torn region of Darfur, in a legal document published Thursday on the court’s website.
ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo has stressed on numerous occasions that it is too dangerous for ICC investigators and local witnesses to meet in Darfur itself.
There have been some ICC missions to the Sudanese capital but none to the Darfur region. Mostly the ICC investigators gathered evidence from Sudanese refugees in neighbouring Chad.
In her so-called amicus curiae brief, a document request by the ICC who wanted to know about the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ experience with investigations of rights violations in war-torn states, Arbour stresses that the ICC should be more visibly present in Sudan.
“The High Commissioner respectfully submits that the security challenges particular to investigation of international crimes while an armed conflict is ongoing should not per se prevent the court from acting in pursuance of its international mandate,” Arbour writes.
The ICC launched an investigation into the events in Darfur in June 2005 and has said it has gathered evidence of killing, rape and destruction.
But the Sudanese government has vehemently maintained its right to handle the case domestically, and even established its own special court for that purpose.
The conflict in Darfur broke out in February 2003, when indigenous ethnic groups launched a rebellion against Khartoum that was brutally repressed by militia linked to the regime. An estimated 2.4 million people fled their homes.
Arbour argues in her brief that the ICC should not only take into account the possible risks to individual victims during an investigation on the ground but also “the advantage to the overall protection of a population that can be derived from an international presence”.
“The ICC’s presence on the ground would importantly contribute … to a proactive presence increasing the level of protection perceived and enjoyed by the affected population,” the brief summarizes.
(ST/AFP)