Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

HUMAN RIGHTS: Argentine Lawyer Confirmed as ICC Prosecutor

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Apr 21 2003 (IPS) - Prominent Argentine lawyer Luis Moreno Ocampo, a former assistant prosecutor in the trials of the members of the military juntas that ruled Argentina from 1976- 1983, was named the first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Monday in New York.

His designation was informally agreed a month ago by the states parties to the ICC, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands.

The ICC was set up to try war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity when no national court is able or willing to do so.

The court’s 18 judges – seven women and 11 men – were sworn in last March, and Moreno Ocampo will begin his non-renewable, nine-year term on Jun. 16 with a team of assistant prosecutors representing all regions of the world.

The assembly of states parties to the ICC formally approved the prosecutor’s designation Monday by a vote of 78-0.

Of the 139 countries that signed on to the 1998 Rome Statute that gave rise to the ICC, 89 have ratified it so far. Of that total, 11 countries were not present at Monday’s vote in the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Moreno Ocampo’s participation in the mid-1980s trials against the members of the Argentine military junta made him the best candidate because he has ”exactly the kind of experience (needed) in cases that the ICC will be prosecuting,” Richard Dicker, director of the international justice programme at Human Rights Watch, said in New York.

When the selection of the prosecutor was postponed in late January, Dicker underlined that ”The ICC prosecutor will have the single most important role in establishing the new court’s credibility…getting the right person outweighs the need to rush into an election under an artificial deadline.”

In 1985, Moreno Ocampo earned respect as the capable young assistant to Argentine prosecutor Julio César Strassera in the trial of the nine former members of the three military juntas that governed this Southern Cone country in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

After six months of historic trials that were attended by more than 650 journalists from a number of countries, five of the former commanders were sentenced to life in prison and the rest to shorter terms on charges of abduction, torture, forced disappearance and murder committed in the context of the ”dirty war” against political opponents and activists.

The case against the former junta members was based on testimony by survivors and families of the victims collected by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP), presided over by internationally renowned Argentine writer Ernesto Sábato.

The commission, set up by the democratically elected government of Raúl Alfonsín (1983-1989), documented more than 9,000 cases of forced disappearance in a book titled ‘Nunca Mas’ (Never Again).

Between 10,000 (according to official statistics) and 30,000 (human rights groups’ figures) people were victims of forced disappearance under the dictatorship.

Strassera and Moreno based their legal arguments on around 700 of the documented cases, which they considered sufficient to convict the members of the juntas.

However, the nine high-ranking officers were set free five years later by a pardon issued by then-president Carlos Menem (1989-1999).

The ICC prosecutor can initiate an investigation upon referral by a state party to the Rome Statute or by the United Nations Security Council of a situation in which there is a reasonable basis to believe that such crimes have been or are being committed.

The prosecutor will also be responsible for admitting or rejecting the results of an investigation that has been launched by a multinational coalition of jurists and civil society groups into alleged war crimes committed in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that began on Mar. 20.

The vice-president of the ICC, Costa Rican Judge Elizabeth Odio, recently told IPS that the court could prosecute any possible crimes against humanity that might be committed during the U.S. attack on Iraq, despite the fact that neither of the two countries have signed the Rome Statute.

That is because the court has the jurisdiction to handle cases of war crimes committed by individuals that are referred to it by the UN Security Council, Odio explained.

The investigation by the international coalition of legal experts and non-governmental organisations was triggered by Washington’s announcement that it planned to set up its own war crimes tribunal in Iraq.

Phil Shiner of the British-based group Public Interest Lawyers said ”Lawyers recognise no such principle as ‘victors’ justice’, the idea that it is just going to be the Iraqis and (deposed Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein who have to face the consequences of committing war crimes.”

Human rights groups accuse the U.S. military of using cluster bombs and depleted uranium that have a devastating impact on civilians, and of targeting known civilian sites and journalists’ offices.

The 89 countries that have ratified the Rome Statute do not include many of the nations in conflict situations in which many cases for the court could arise. Nor has the treaty been signed by major countries like the United States, China, Russia or India.

In addition, the ICC can only take up cases against those accused of war crimes committed after Jul. 1, 2002 when it legally came into existence. And it can only deal with cases where the accused is a national of a signatory state or if the crime took place in a signatory state.

Furthermore, no one is certain how the court will enforce its orders, and it could be years before it hands down its first verdict.

After the trials of the former de facto military rulers, Moreno Ocampo held several posts in the judiciary until going into private practice in the 1990s as the main partner in the Buenos Aires law firm Moreno Ocampo and Wortman Jofre, which specialises in criminal and human rights law and corruption control programmes for large organisations.

He is also visiting professor of Latin American studies at Harvard law school in the United States, president of Transparency International, the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog, in Latin America and the Caribbean, and a founding member and president of the Citizen Power Foundation, a local non-governmental organisation that foments civic participation and empowerment.

In his private practice, Moreno Ocampo sponsored former Argentine economy minister Domingo Cavallo when the former minister brought a complaint before the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, accusing the Argentine state of failing to respect the independence of the judiciary.

Cavallo filed the lawsuit after he was arrested in connection with an arms trafficking scandal that also led former president Menem to spend nearly six months under house arrest.

Moreno Ocampo’s involvement with the scandal-tainted Cavallo was one of the reasons that his appointment as ICC prosecutor was not celebrated by local human rights organisations, which preferred to remain noncommittal on the matter when telephoned by IPS.