Court won’t act on Iraq claims

THE chief prosecutor of the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal has rejected appeals to investigate allegations of war crimes by US or coalition forces in Iraq.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the complaints fell outside the jurisdiction of the newly created International Criminal Court since neither the US nor Iraq is a party to the 1998 Rome Statute, the treaty that created the court.

President George W Bush’s administration fiercely opposes the court, fearing politically motivated indictments against Americans.

Mr Moreno-Campo, speaking in The Hague, said he may investigate alleged war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He said thousands of people have been killed in tribal wars in Congo’s Ituri province, and the atrocities continued after last July when the court came into existence and its jurisdiction began.

The prosecutor said detailed allegations had come from non-government organisations of starvation, killings, untreated injuries and the transmission of HIV/Aids through rape in Ituri.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said his first step would be to seek authorisation from the court’s judges to launch an investigation and to ask for more information from the United Nations and other organisations about events in the province.

Under the Rome Statute, the court has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed in any of the court’s 90 member countries, if that country cannot or will not prosecute suspects itself.

Non-party states can ask the court to intervene, as can the UN Security Council.

Among the 90 countries that ratified the treaty is the entire European Union and many of Washington’s allies, such as Canada and Australia.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo said he had no detailed reports of atrocities by soldiers of other countries which have endorsed the treaty.