Ocampo
Analogizes
Darfur to
Auschwitz, As
Bashir's
Invited to
Doha, Free
Press Question
on Kenya
Witness
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 5 --
Outgoing
International
Criminal Court
prosecutor
Luis Moreno
Ocampo bragged
Monday that
Kuwait, a non
member of the
ICC, is saying
the Syria and
Bashar al
Assad should
be referred to
the ICC.
But
elsewhere in
the Gulf, as
Ocampo should
know but
didn't say,
ICC indictee
Omar al
Bashir of
Sudan had been
invited to
Doha, Qatar
for a
conference of
the UN
International
Telecommunications
Union. So has
international
justice
progressed in
the Gulf? Or
in the UN?
Inner
City Press
asked Ocampo
about
photographs
with Bashir
recently taken
by the UN -
Africa Union
envoy to
Darfur Ibrahim
Gambari, and
about a
draft
General
Assembly
resolution
which would
urge Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon to
discourage
such contacts,
which have
included the
UN
flying ICC
indictee Ahmed
Haroun into
Abyei, where
later
civilians
were killed.
Ocampo
replied
that if you
were a Darfur
victim, you
wouldn't like
to see photos
of
Gambari with
Bashir. But
why go so soft
on the UN,
Gambari and
Ban
Ki-moon?
(From
the draft
GA resolution,
Inner City
Press
first
reported, the
language
urging
that UN limit
contacts with
ICC indictees
is set to be
stripped.
Its
proponents say
it was noticed
just be being
proposed. But
when Inner
City Press
asked for Ban
Ki-moon
comment on it,
there was
nothing.)
Ocampo
is a
political
animal: he
knows which
prosecutions
are popular.
Inner City
Press asked
him to comment
on the new International Commission of
Inquiry report
on Libya,
which details
killings not
only by
Gaddafi
forces, but
also his
opponents, and
at least 60 by
NATO.
Last
time he
spoke at the
UN, Ocampo
said "wait for
the report of
the
International
Commission of
Inquiry." Now
that it is
out, and
Inner City
Press read to
him from it,
Ocampo says
there is a
Human
Rights Council
session on
March 9, that
his office
will go to
Libya
in April and
that he'll be
back at the UN
in May. And?
Inner
City Press
asked Ocampo
about reports
that his
office told
Ugandan David
Matsanga to
remove from
the Internet
video of what
purports to be
a
recanting
Witness Number
4 in Ocampo's
Kenya case.
Ocampo said
the
defendants can
appeal, but
there should
be no witness
tampering.
Inner City
Press asked if
Ocampo sees
any tension
between his
position and
freedom of the
press.
Matsanga "is
not your
colleague,"
Ocampo told
Inner City
Press. But
when a court
tries
to order the
removal of
testimony from
the Internet,
it impinges on
free speech --
even or
especially if
the publisher
is unpopular.
(c) UN Photo
Ocampo
oversees
former Sudan
PR, toolbox of
double
standards not
shown
Footnote:
Ocampo
analogized the
camps in
Darfur to
Auschwitz; he
said that in
2004 when Kofi
Annan went to
Darfur, his
translator was
Ahmed Haroum,
later to be
indicted for
war crimes.
With Kofi
Annan now the
envoy to
Syria, one
expects this
won't be the
end of that
anecdote.
Watch this
site.
, 
