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ICC's Moreno Ocampo Learned
Nothing from Lubanga Case, Laughs at Retaliation Finding
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 3 -- The day before he
indicted Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, Luis Moreno Ocampo of the
International Criminal Court was found by the International Labor
Organization
to have retaliated against a whistleblower,
who was awarded 200,000 Euros
including 25,000 Euros in "moral damages." On Wednesday at the UN,
Inner City Press asked Moreno Ocampo, "Did you learn anything" from
the ILO's criticism, and from the suspension of the cases against
Thomas
Lubanga of the Congo, for failure to turn over exculpatory evidence?
Moreno
Ocampo would not admit any error in either case; in fact, he laughed at
the
finding of retaliation. Video here,
from Minute 21:11. When asked if the
finding against him impairs his or the ICC's work, or is brought up as
he
travels the world explaining his questionable legal strategies for
example in
the Lubanga case, Moreno Ocampo said, "When I come here, you ask me
questions about it." Perhaps most
amazingly, after saying that the state parties of the ICC paid the 200,000
Euros judgment to the whistleblower he fired, Moreno Ocampo said on
camera that
the charges against him had been "manifestly unfounded." Video
here,
from Minute 37:33.
Such a
dismissive attitude to judicial findings, and such misleading
statements about
a ruling, Moreno Ocampo would be sure to criticize in any of his
indictees. How
then does he engage in them? And how could this behavior by the ICC's
chief
prosecutor be curtailed? Or is he above the law?
Moreno Ocampo at the UN on Dec. 3: I have learned nothing from Lubango or ILO
Earlier
this year, Inner City Press published verbatim quotes by
the head of the
Coalition for the ICC, comments made after a press conference at the UN. This Coalition's spokeswoman then called
Inner City Press asking that the quotes be stricken. This reflects the
unwillingness of those who are supposed to directly and indirectly
oversee
Moreno Ocampo to be seen as criticizing him, for fear of being
misunderstood to
be criticizing international justice, or as supporting al-Bashir.
But Moreno
Ocampo's behavior, including that underlying the
ILO's 200,000 Euro judgment,
injure the reputation and integrity of the international criminal
justice
system. Substantively, a prosecutor who jeopardized the case against an
alleged
child soldier recruiter like Lubanga, and then says he had nothing to
learn
from the delay and criticism by judges, should not continue as
prosecutor. But who will tell him?
Sitting
next to Moreno Ocampo at Wednesday's news conference was the State
Parties' Christian Wenaweser, of Liechtenstein. Even as Moreno Ocampo
made light of the 200,000 Euro judgment, paid not by him but by the
State Parties, Wenaweser said nothing.
In September, the
former foreign minister of a Pacific country which supports the ICC
told Inner City Press that Moreno Ocampo had been telling diplomats
that he had offered to Bashir not to indict him, if he turned over the
two previously indictees Kushayb and Harun. Inner City Press asked
Moreno Ocampo, and he denied it, saying, "I never did it, I cannot
offer." Those who make decisions about the ICC and its prosecutor
will have to assess Moreno Ocampo's credibility.
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
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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