United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on the international community to do more to help arrest leaders indicted on war crimes charges. Six Sudanese and Ugandan suspects have been evading trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for up to two years.
Addressing a meeting of the parties to the Rome Statute, the international instrument which set up the court, at UN headquarters in New York on Monday, Ban noted that there were “a number of outstanding arrest warrants” that had to be executed.
“I urge all member states to do everything within their powers to assist in enforcing these warrants” he pleaded.
The ICC issued warrants for the arrest of five leaders of Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army in July 2005, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since July 2002. One leader has since died, but the others, including the top LRA leader, Joseph Kony, are still at large. (The court is still investigating the accuracy of reports that Kony recently killed another of the suspects, his deputy, Vincent Otti.)
Earlier this year, ICC prosecutors obtained arrest warrants for Ahmad Muhammad Harun, a Sudanese government minister responsible for its “Darfur security desk,” and a Janjaweed militia leader, Ali Kushayb. The two men are charged with 51 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes, committed in attacks in villages and towns in West Darfur between August 2003 and March 2004.
Speaking in New York on Monday, Ban said that five years after its establishment, the ICC “has established itself as the centrepiece of our system of international criminal justice ... It serves notice to any would-be [Slobodan] Milosevic or Charles Taylor that their actions today may lead to international prosecution tomorrow.”
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However, he added: “The single most important determinant of success for any international tribunals is cooperation.”
He acknowledged the pressures – currently experienced in Uganda – for ICC indictments to be withdrawn in exchange for those charged signing peace agreements.
He said “questions about the relationship between peace and justice are unavoidable” in unstable situations where peace had not yet taken hold.
“There are no easy answers to this morally and legally charged balancing act,” he added. “However, the overarching principle is clear: there can be no sustainable peace without justice. Peace and justice, accountability and reconciliation are not mutually exclusive. To the contrary, they go hand in hand.”
