Minerva, Spring 2008 (Volume 32) - Citizens for Global Solutions

tial court that will enforce the law where
the states fail to do so. The responsibility
of our Office is to prove criminal responsibility
of the persons charged. As I said,
this is our part, and this is our part that we
will do in court. The culture of impunity
must stop.
This is the challenge; this is the major
challenge that not only the ICC faces,
but that the international community also
faces. Some of the international organizations
… involved in the management of
international conflicts should better respect
this new framework that we have.
The criminals that are sought by the Court
should be isolated and surrendered. This
is what we all have to do and I think that
we should all commit to it. Dealing with
this new reality is difficult; it is not easy.
The individuals that we seek today are
enduring the protection of armies, sometimes
they are enduring the protection of
militias and some of them are even members
of the government, as seen in the case
of Ahmad Harun. So the difficulties that
we face I will not underestimate. They
are real difficulties that we all face. What
we need to do, I think, is show leadership
now. It is time that we have some clear
activity to overcome these difficulties. If
the political leaders give up, I think the
very system that was created in Rome is
undermined. That’s the bottom line.
We see how the international community
is today addressing the problems that we
have in Uganda and in Darfur — where
in Darfur, for instance, the government
of Sudan is denying the crimes, denying
the reality, and labeling the destruction
of communities in Darfur as intertribal
clashes. We know they are not intertribal
clashes. It is organized; it is happening.
We try to urge the political leaders and I
think this is not only for the ICC to do; you
have your role in it. We have to remind
the political leaders of [Rome] 1998: that
was a unique political opportunity that we
had and it is time that we also rise to that
challenge. The law that we have today
makes the distinction between a soldier, a
terrorist, a policeman or a criminal.
One of the remarkable achievements of
Rome is that the armies around the world
… today are adjusting their regulations.
This is, I think, a direct consequence of
the Rome Statute. They are adjusting their
regulations to avoid the responsibility or
the possibility of committing acts under
the ICC jurisdiction. I think this is one of
the ways to stop crimes.
We also need citizens and political leaders
from all over the world requesting the
arrest of Ahmad Harun and Joseph Kony
as a first step. This is a first step for any
agreement and I think it will make a difference
for peace. It will make a difference
for the Ugandans, for the Darfuris.
What is simply at stake is the life or death
of millions … .
We cannot let the victims continue to wait.
These are people who took risks. They
took risks in situations of ongoing conflicts,
where you still have militias running
around, where you have brutal people
running around. We have to discreetly
work and talk with these people to get
their evidence and be able to present it in
court. I think these people deserve justice.
The perpetrators of these crimes continue
to threaten to resume the violence if
they are not given one form of amnesty
or another. … This is blackmail; really,
this is blackmail. They cannot commit all
these crimes for all these years and then
today say if you do not give me this, I
will continue. This is blackmail. They are
blackmailing the international community
and we need to really look into ourselves;
can we break the system? Can we?
That is what we need to ask ourselves.
I always say, of course we can. In 1830,
… those who were proposing to end slavery
were called different names. Some
said they were dreamers, some said they
were naïve, some even called them troublemakers
for proposing to end slavery.
But they succeeded. And I think we can
also.
“Justice as an Essential
Component of Peace”
[I]n recent years the marriage between
[the] two fundamental pillars of the United
Nations — peace and justice — has become
increasingly strenuous. More and
more the international community is
struggling to find a balance … . This has
become more pronounced as the judicial
work of the ICC begins to take shape,
amidst increased efforts by the United
Nations to achieve peaceful political
solutions to … internal armed conflicts
around the world. The recurrent question
has been: should perpetrators of grave
crimes such as genocide, war crimes and
crimes against humanity enjoy amnesty as
a trade-off for cessation of conflict? …
The challenge for negotiators is finding
solutions that are compatible with rules
of international law. The grim reality in
many peace negotiations is that negotiators
have to face the very leaders who
participated in the commission of grave
crimes and who will often seize the opportunity
to demand non-judicial alternatives
to prosecution as a precondition for
peace. Should the international community
give in to such blackmail?
… Peace and justice are not mutually
exclusive; they are in fact complementary
… . To sacrifice justice on the altar
of peace would be tantamount to giving a
new lease of life to impunity, and will, in
the long run, lead to more crimes. Justice
is an essential component to sustainable
peace.
- Karen Odaba Mosoti, of the
International Criminal Court Liaison
Office in New York, at a United Nations
University forum, 6 February 2008
36 • Minerva #32 • June 2008