Guilty, Charged, Elusive
The International Criminal Court, another global institution set up for the purpose of restraining and holding to account criminal action against humanity, with the best of intentions of pursuing the interests of peace and bringing the world's worst offenders to account, faces a very human dilemma.How to proceed when it is dependent on the recognition and co-operation of various countries on the universality of moral and ethical conduct. And when that co-operation, initially granted as a self-interested given, is suddenly reviewed and felt to be impolitic, after all.
The ICC's purpose - to make certain that the world's most horrendous crimes committed by those of high rank among the world's political, leadership and military hierarchy would face condemnation for their egregious offences against humanity, leading to officially-recognized charges, trial and ultimately, sentencing - is in jeopardy.
That signal lesson to the world at large - representing the best interests of humankind, that the world will no longer stand by in silent witness to mass atrocities - that, malefactors, no matter their position, will be held accountable for the dreaful things they do to others, will fall completely flat, utterly disengaged from practical purpose.
The ICC was formed, given its mandate and legal position to ensure justice on behalf of the international community when there was sufficient support given its institutional principles and direction from the world-wide community. It would be known for its independence of action and determination, backed by the co-operation of signatory nations, to allow the ICC to effect arrests, detention, trial and sentence.
Its creation was hailed as a real step forward for humanity. A way to finally seek justice for those unable to do so for themselves - vast segments of humanity upon whom tyrants, ideology-sodden militias, and righteous zealots of theocratic dictates - suffering under grievous situations of land predation, irregular conflicts, sectarian violence, and corrupt government misrule.
And it has never yet, in its brief but determined history, been able to successfully bring a case to closure. It must depend on the co-operation of the countries from which those named as world-class offenders of human rights emanate, to assist it in pursuing its mission. It is a court of international justice, and as such it has no physical might attached to it, only the rather less powerful, but more authentic right of universal morality.
It is neutral to nuances that some states, even those that are signatories to its mission and purpose, may bring into play to excuse their internal offenders. And so in the case of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army and its leader, Joseph Kony, an exemplar of vicious brutality cloaked in a righteous cause of tribal liberation, the ICC faces a reluctance to co-operate by the country of origin.
Originally the creation of a movement to liberate the Acholi people of northern Uganda, the LRA was inherited by Joseph Kony from its founder, his aunt, who built her force with an arcane blend of Christian and tribal beliefs. The current militia of the LRA is built on the involuntary, criminal abduction of children, whose abusive tutelage in guerrilla warfare has earned Joseph Kony the disgust of the world at large.
These child-soldiers are forced to commit unthinkable atrocities. First against their own families, and then toward all others in the all-consuming war on civilization. Murder and torture the order of the day, every day, without pause. Children are easier to manipulate, to threaten and force into action than adults. It was estimated that up to 80,000 children have been abducted and inducted into mass atrocity.
And throughout the course of the war about two million civilians were placed into refugee camps, squalid refuges where they suffer and live on the edge of existence. Ironically enough, most of those refugees rounded up by the government of Uganda are the very Acholi people whose interests the LRA was founded to represent.
Now the government of Uganda feels that justice would be better meted out by itself toward one of its own. They cite the fact that the order for arrest hanging over Joseph Kony, to have him brought to The Hague so the ICC can commence bringing him to justice will only discourage him from turning himself in, and encourage him to continue his atrocities, spread elsewhere now, to Sudan and Congo.
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni asserts that his country should be empowered to hand out justice in this case, although African states were originally among the most enthusiastic nations to support the mission of the ICC. International human rights groups fear, however, that if Joseph Kony returns to Uganda to face punishment for his horrendous crimes, traditional judgement may allow him to escape paying for his crimes.
Uganda plans to challenge the international court's right to hear this case and ultimately pass sentence. But if it plans to proceed without the imposition of a clear, accountable punishment acceptable by the international community as a message to other current, past-and-waiting, or future figures who would carry out mass atrocities without fear of prosecution, nothing at all will have been availed.
If a traditional Ugandan court permits atonement through a symbolic ritual, permitting Kony to avoid prison, the very need to impose punishment for the gravest of human offences against helpless people will have been flaunted, nothing at all gained. Leaving no proactive or preventive or punishing human measure communally agreed to, to ensure that the worst excesses of human depravity will come at a cost to the offender.
And nothing at all will have been gained by the best-intended and urgently required representative institution of a world court to attempt to solve some of the world's worst offences committed against humanity. A noble vision will have come to nothing; the mission of the International Criminal Court completely left in shambles with its initial case utterly eviscerated.
It can then humbly, and with the best of all possible intentions, join the ranks of other world bodies established to assist the most powerless in the world. Bodies like the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization....
Quite pitiful. But then, it's a pitiless world.
Labels: Political Realities, Social-Cultural Deviations, Troublespots, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, August 02, 2008
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