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As Indictment of Bashir Arises at UN,
Moreno-Ocampo Accused of Ego and Errors
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
September 22 -- As a range of
countries come to the UN General Debate in New York to ask for a
suspension of
the request by the Prosecutor of International Criminal Court for an
arrest
warrant against Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir, questions are
mounting about
ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. On September 17, a recent Foreign
Minister
of country that is a major support of the ICC told Inner City Press
that
Moreno-Ocampo had told countries that he had offered to not indict
Al-Bashir if
he would turn over two previous indictees, Ali Kushayb and Ahmad Harun.
At a
September 19 press conference, Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch
answered
Inner City Press that such an offer by Moreno-Ocampo, if made, would be
"wrong and unprincipled." Video here,
from Minute 31:44. "If you have more
information, I'm interested," he said. But if as the ex-Foreign
Minister
said, Moreno-Ocampo bragged out his offer to more than one country, the
information will come out, perhaps at an even more inopportune time.
The Convenor
of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, William Pace,
after the
briefing told Inner City Press that Moreno-Ocampo could be an
"egomaniac," specifically in claiming that he had asked African heads
of state to refer cases to him. Pace said that not true, the Ugandan's
Yoweri
Museveni, for example, had decided on his own to refer the Lord's
Resistance
Army. His own army's crimes, he thought, were largely before the ICC's
jurisdiction began in early 2002. Likewise, Democratic Republic of the
Congo
president Joseph Kabila somehow felt confident that Moreno-Ocampo would
never
indict him.
Bill Pace and Richard Dicker earlier this year,
Moreno-Ocampo errors and ego not shown
Both
during and after the briefing, Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch, a
doctrinal supporter of the ICC, acknowledged that Moreno-Ocampo has
made
errors. On camera, Dicker called Moreno-Ocampo's failure to turn over
potentially
exculpatory information to lawyers for DRC militia leader -- and Kabila
opponent -- Thomas Lubanga a mistake, that he hopes Moreno-Ocampo has
learned
from. Video here,
from Minute 41:31. Dicker also said that
Al-Bashir must have known that UN peacekeeping missions to which he
consented
would sent information against him to the ICC. As Dicker advised on a
related
matter, whether South Sudan leaders despite what they say are in favor
of the
indictment of Al-Bashir, Inner City Press will ask the Sudanese
delegation if
they know UN Peacekeeping would share information, that in turn would
be
withhold. Somehow we doubt it.
Watch this site, and this Sept. 18 (UN) debate.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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