Ocampo
Says Speech
Can Be Crime,
Steps Back
from Sri
Lanka Mapping
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 5 -- As
International
Criminal Court
prosecutor
Luis
Moreno Ocampo
delivered his
swan song
Tuesday in a
Security
Council
briefing on
Darfur,
Sudan's
Permanent
Representative
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman
sounded a
discordant
note outside
at the
stakeout. In
the end each
man declared
victory.
Inside
the
Council,
Ocampo said
that Sudan's
Ambassador
should perhaps
be
prosecuted for
defending his
government's
crimes. Inner
City Press
later asked
Ocampo:
wouldn't this
theory chill
even a defense
lawyer?
Ocampo
replied
that there is
a difference
between being
an Ambassador
and being part
of a crime.
But, it has
become
increasingly
clear to Inner
City Press
as it has
covered the
UN, that
difference or
line is by no
means
clear.
Take
for example
Sri Lanka: its
Permanent
Representative
used to be a
UN Office of
Legal Affairs
official,
while its
Deputy PR is
General
Shavendra
Silva,
depicted in
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's own
report engaged
in war crimes.
But
Ban accepts
Silva as a
Senior Adviser
on
Peacekeeping
Operations,
saying it is
entirely up to
member states.
So where is
the line? And
who is
blurring it?
Also
inside the
Council,
Sudan's PR
cites among
other US envoy
Dane Smith for
the
proposition
that genocide
and ethnic
cleansing is
not going on
in
Darfur. One
waited for a
response from
the US; one is
sure to come.
Ocampo said
the same of
Sudan's former
Ambassador,
who still
works for the
government
without being
indicted.
When
Inner City
Press asked
Ocampo about
his proposal
to criminalize
speech, he
justified it
by saying the
victims are
not at the UN.
But in the
case
of Darfur,
there are many
countries
indicting
Sudan. Should
a country
under fire
have no
defense at
all?
Inner
City Press
asked Ocampo
about a
map he brought
in a folder to
a UN event in
September 2009
and which
Inner City
Press exclusively
photographed
and wrote
about. It
depicted
Countries
Where Crimes
Have Occurred,
including
Myanmar,
Zimbabwe and
Sri Lanka.
Syria wasn't
on his map in
2009, but in
answer to
another
correspondent's
question he
said the
situation was
the same: no
jurisdiction.
Ocampo,
just
before his
swam song
briefing, was
made aware of
another Sri
Lanka
related
situation; one
wonders what
he might do on
it.
A
third
correspondent
asked Ocampo's
spokeswoman,
who will
continue with
his
successor
Fatou
Bensouda, for
a copy of the
map.
Ocampo
himself
said he'd like
to be involved
in action on
Somalia
piracy, the
Mexican and
Colombian drug
wars, as well
as writing
case studies
and
teaching. He
was asked, "A
book?" When he
said maybe,
the
crowd said
yes. We'll
see.
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