At
UN
After 33 Days,
Uganda Tops
Sierra Leone
for ICJ Spot,
Not Only AU
But India Had
Impact?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 13,
update -- It
took 33 days
at the UN to
find a winner
for the last
International
Court of
Justice
judgeship,
between the
incumbent from
Sierra Leone
and the
challenger
from Uganda,
but
Tuesday it was
decided in
Uganda's
favor.
Back
on November
10,
and since, the
Security
Council and
General
Assembly could
not
come to an
agreement if
the fifth seat
would go to
Sierra Leonean
Abdul Koroma
or Ugandan
Julia
Sebutinde,
who served on
the Special
Court for
Sierra Leone.
She
was unable on
November 10 to
garner the
needed eight
votes in the
Security
Council,
despite
getting 109 in
the General
Assembly.
Koroma,
meanwhile, had
10 votes in
the Security
Council, but
only 88 in the
General
Assembly, less
than the 97
needed. Inner
City Press
wondered at
the
time at how a
sitting judge
could fall
below 50%
support in the
General
Assembly.
While
Sierra Leone
and Uganda
never came to
an agreement,
on December 13
a
pro-Sebutinde
diplomat
assured Inner
City Press
that Sierra
Leone would
lose.
This
confidence
seemed to be
based on the
African
Union's
endorsement,
which was
enblazoned on
Sebutinde's
campaign flier
on December
13.
Lo and beyond
when the votes
were held,
Sebutinde got
the requisite
97 votes in
the General
Assembly,
while
increasing her
vote count in
the Security
Council from
seven to
nine. As
well as
mentioning the
AU, India was
named to Inner
City Press as
having
responsibility
for the
solution by
multiple
sources, none
of them
Indian. The
decisive
action was
called
impressive,
and telling.
Sebutinde
in Charles
Taylor trial,
AU and Indian
solution not
(yet) shown
The
sources also
opined that
the US had
been against
Sebutinde,
because of her
positions the
the Charles
Taylor
litigation.
This finds
some support
in a
Wikileaked
cable of April
15, 2009,
classified by
the legal
counsellor at
the American
embassy in the
Netherlands Denise
Manning,
which said
"contacts in
Prosecution
and Registry
speculate that
Justice
[Julia]
Sebutinde may
have a timing
agenda."
The
prosecutor at
the Special
Court on
Sierra Leone
at the time,
Stephen Rapp,
is in New York
this week as
part of the
US' "observer"
mission to the
International
Criminal
Court's
Assembly of
States
Parties. Click
here for
Inner City
Press' interim
story on those
elections, and
watch this
site.
, 
