the Hague

By Barnaby Phillips in Europe on July 21st, 2011
Reuters photo

There are no demonstrations on the streets of Belgrade for Goran Hadzic, the last suspect wanted by the UN Court in the Hague, who was finally captured this week.

There have been no outpourings of nationalist rage.  In part, this is because even the extremists find it hard to justify the appalling deeds of the Serbian militiamen who were, in theory, under Hadzic's command in eastern Croatia in the early 1990s.

Their savagery was notorious, their motives often blatantly mercenary.

Throughout the Balkan wars, the line between nationalist and criminal activity was frequently blurred, [and not just by Serbs] but it was perhaps especially hard to tell if the militiamen in the Slavonia region were more interested in fighting, or smuggling and profiteering.

In part, too, it is simply because the events of the early 1990s, Vukovar et al, now seem an awfully long time ago, and increasingly irrelevant, and not just to a younger generation of Serbs.

By Alan Fisher in Europe on March 2nd, 2011
Photo: EPA

The International Criminal Court sits in a non-descript suburb in what is a largely non-descript capital.  From his spacious office in the Hague, the Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo is the man tasked with investigating tyrants and regimes.

Neat and fastidious, he is unfailing polite even if he does carry the air of a man who would be rather doing something else when we sit for an interview.

We will meet again later today. 
 
The Argentinean will announce "the opening of an investigation in Libya", the latest step in the growing international pressure against Colonel Gaddafi and his cohorts in Tripoli.

Mr Ocampo, at a news conference, will name names, people to be targetted in a full scale inquiry into possible crimes against humanity.  It is almost impossible to think the Colonel will not be top of the list.

As well as presenting "preliminary information as to the entities and persons who could be prosecuted", the prosec

By Al Jazeera Staff in Middle East on February 17th, 2011
Saif Gaddafi, the son of Libya's leader, warned of 'civil war' in a speech on Sunday night.

As protests in Libya enter their eighth day, following a "day of rage" on Thursday, we keep you updated on the developing situation from our headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

(All times are local in Libya GMT+2)

Blog: Feb17 - Feb18 - Feb19 - Feb20

By Al Jazeera Staff in Middle East on February 4th, 2011
Photo by AFP

From our headquarters in Doha, we keep you updated on all things Egypt, with reporting from Al Jazeera staff in Cairo and Alexandria.  Live Blog: Jan28 - Jan29 - Jan30 - Jan31 - 

By Jonah Hull in Europe on November 22nd, 2010
Photo by AFP

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has plenty of critics, both among those states who have yet to commit themselves to its jurisdiction fearing a loss of legal sovereignty, and those who say that the court's work is disproportionately focused on Africa.

One can see the merit in both points of view, though the one rather answers the other.

Why, if you're a big and powerful country, willingly submit yourself to a higher authority when you're complicit in, or condone, the crimes in question?

Why have the ICC's only three cases to date, along with most of its ongoing investigations, dealt with war crimes in Africa?

The Jean-Pierre Bemba case, if successful, offers at least the prospect of impact beyond the African continent.

The prosecution seeks to define legally the responsibility a military commander has for the actions of his troops, whether he has ordered those actions or not.

It seeks to place the onus on him to reign in h

By Barnaby Phillips in Europe on March 1st, 2010

radepa3565.jpg

This will be an important week in The Hague, as the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia struggles to finally get some momentum going in the trial of the former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic.

One-and-a-half years have passed since that dramatic announcement in Belgrade that Karadzic, after more than a decade as a fugitive from justice, had finally been caught.

He had been disguised with a false identity, and practicing traditional medicine in the Serbian capital.

Since then, Karadzic has made only fleeting appearances in court. He boycotted the opening of his trial last October, saying he needed more time to prepare his own defence against 11 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and breaches of the Geneva convention during the Bosnian war.

By Barnaby Phillips in Europe on January 18th, 2010
Photo by Getty Images

Serbia aspires to join the EU, but has it really faced up to its war-guilt?

This article reports on a recent survey which shows that most Serbians do not think Ratko Mladic is guilty of war crimes, or that he should even be handed over to the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

Anyone who knows Serbia well will not be surprised by these findings, nor by the fact that the majority of Serbs have a negative opinion of the Hague.  Many Serbs have told me they believe the UN tribunal is biased against them.

The Serb leaders in the Bosnian civil war, Ratko Mladic, and Radovan Karadzic, are widely lionised, especially, in the Serbian part of Bosnia, known as Republika Srpska.

By Andrew Simmons in Africa on November 7th, 2009
Photo by Reuters

The International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo announced before leaving Kenya on Saturday that he had a “strong case” against key suspects in the violence that followed the 2007 Presidential elections.

He emphasised the importance of avoiding any more unnecessary delays and said he hoped to present two to three cases before judges at The Hague, possibly by July next year.

He agreed to an exclusive interview. This is my transcript:

Q: What is your assurance to Kenyan people after your visit here?

"Now I will go to the judges, it’s a judicial process, you have to understand that. The judges will decide if I can open up an investigation then I will be back.

I will go to the community, I will see the victims, I will listen to them. I have to collect the evidence.

By Andrew Simmons in Africa on November 5th, 2009
Photo by Reuters

Kenyan politics was to blame for the bloodbath in the wake of Presidential elections – and the politics of this country are also to blame for the absence of justice nearly two years later.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court plans to change that. But any hope he may have had in getting the active co-operation of the Grand Coalition formed as part of the peace deal that pulled Kenya back from the brink of civil war appear to have been dashed.

His hope had been for the Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to formally request the ICC’s intervention, triggering an immediate opening of his inquiry. In a meeting that lasted less than an hour, that was not the case.

By Mohamed Vall in Africa on October 31st, 2009
Photo by Getty Images

The 15-member African Union Peace and Security Council's endorsement of the idea of a special hybrid court for Darfur crime suspects could be a solution for the ICC-Khartoum quarrel.

The summit that has been held in the Nigerian capital Abuja stressed the need for both a solution to the conflict in Darfur and justice for the victims of the crimes committed during the war. The idea of a hybrid court has been proposed by a special AU panel on Darfur headed by former South African president Thabo Mbeki.

After all, the hybrid idea seems to have worked in Darfur with regard to peacekeeping. Not that peace in Darfur has been successfully maintained. But at least, after serious and protracted discords between Sudan and western nations over how to deal with the situation, a combined force of UN and African Union troops has been deployed and an end has been put to the row.

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