14.03.08 - ICC/PROSECUTOR - ICC PROSECUTOR: I AM LIMITED ONLY BY WHAT I CANNOT PROVE

Arusha, 14 March 2008 (FH) - The International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Campo, said in an interview with the French website Rue 89 that  he was only limited by what he cannot prove, adding that an international prosecutor is by nature open to criticism from all sides.

 
"In the investigations which we carry out, we do not rule out anyone's charges, everything depends on the evidence that we can find," said Mr Campo.
 
Speaking about Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, whose court appearance was pushed to 23 June, he affirmed that Dyilo is "criminal number one" in the affair.
 
Dyilo is the founder and leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), an armed militia in Ituri, north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Implicated in numerous human rights violations against civilians and the murder of UN peacekeepers, he was arrested on authority of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and is the first person put on trial by the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands
 
On the subject of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA), whose delegation he refused to receive in The Hague, the prosecutor explained that the rebel group had committed most serious of crimes.
 
According to Moreno requests have been made to the Ugandan authorities for five LRA leaders, one of whom is Joseph Kony.
 
The ICC prosecutor maintained his stance that the crimes occurring in Darfur constitute genocide, even though an international commission decided such was not the case.
 
"Genocide isn't defined solely by the number of crimes committed, but also by the authors' intentions," Campo explained.
 
"We have presented our case," he added, "It involves a coordinated attack by the Sudanese Minister of the Interior Ahmed Harun... He is currently the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs," he added.
 
Other investigations have been ongoing in the Central African Republic since May 2007, for massive rapes perpetrated at the beginning of 2003.
 
In Colombia, he said, "We are examining the open procedures against the paramilitary leaders, investigations that involve around forty members of congress.
 
Regarding the Columbian Armed Revolutionary Forces (FARC), the ICC has received information from the Colombian government. He added that Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador have signed the Treaty of Rome, which created the ICC. 
  
PB/SL/SC

© Hirondelle News Agency

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