Kenya cases expose ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s limits Monday, October 28 2013 By Erich Follath Fatou Bensouda, 52, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, is doing all she can to put Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta behind bars. But the hurdles are high, and failure could spell doom for the dream of global justice. She is empowered by 121 countries to hunt down the worst of the world’s mass murderers and put them behind bars. She is, in a sense, everyone’s supreme conscience. Bensouda and her team have taken the bold step of indicting 52-year-old President Kenyatta. But in this case, there is a stark contrast between their aspirations and reality. At the moment, Kenyatta’s attorneys seem to have the upper hand. They have demanded that the case be dropped, arguing that there is no evidence to prove their client guilty. Throughout Africa, as well as in the West, doubts are growing as to whether the case has a future at all. A local Kenyan daily called the case “a farce,” while a TV commentator in Nairobi referred to it as “suicide on the part of the world court.” In recent weeks, Bensouda has been doing all she can to save the situation, spending inordinate amounts of time behind the bulletproof glass windows of her office in The Hague. She works late into the night, only to take yet another look at the files early the next morning. She is possessed of an iron will. Global justice There is a great deal at stake. If the case against Kenyatta were to collapse, the ICC would lose what little authority it still has and would become a tool as useless as it is costly. And it isn’t just a matter of the court’s survival: The long-cherished dream of global justice seems on the verge of failure. In addition to the permanent ICC, other, temporary United Nations courts have likewise failed to produce successes. The Cambodia Tribunal, for example, a court established to try the individuals responsible for the Khmer Rouge genocide, is merely treading water. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), by contrast, has managed to produce some convictions, but a judge at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague recently deplored the political pressure that allegedly led to the spectacular recent acquittals of senior Serbian and Croat officers. At the ICC, prosecutor Bensouda is respectfully referred to as “Big Mama,” because of her big heart and her authority. She knows what is at stake in the Kenyatta case — for her, for the court and for the concept of a global court. As a little girl, Fatou Bensouda already had a clear idea of what her destiny was: She wanted to fight crime. She also knew how difficult that could be. In the early 1970s, she accompanied her aunt several times to a police station in Banjul, the capital of her native Gambia, in West Africa. The aunt’s husband had beaten her repeatedly. But the police officers refused to investigate her complaints, because it was felt that the master of the house had every right to beat his wife. Such crimes were left unpunished. It was something that Bensouda felt had to change. Harsh lessons As a teenager, she always went to the courthouse after school, no matter what case the court happened to be hearing. She obsessively took notes and later discussed the cases with her mothers. Bensouda grew up in a polygamous Muslim household, in which her father had several wives. Later, when she was studying in Nigeria and Malta, she turned her attention to international law. A brilliant jurist, Bensouda was the first woman to become the attorney general, and later the justice minister, of Gambia. But conflict with the country’s president, in a system that is democratic in name only, was inevitable. She resigned after two years and joined the UN, with a stint as a trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, established to prosecute individuals responsible for the 1994 massacre there. Bensouda was named chief prosecutor in The Hague in June 2012. The same year, Time magazine included her on its list of the world’s 100 most influential people. She is seen as a symbol of African progress. Nevertheless, it is becoming clear that her influence is greatly limited. When she indicts powerful people, like Kenya’s president and deputy president, she is dealing with more than just the high- powered lawyers they hire. She also faces intimidation by those capable of manipulating public opinion in countries racked by civil war and turning it against a court that operates far away from the scenes of the crimes it addresses. The ICC also lacks the support of some of the world’s most powerful politicians. Although most countries have submitted to its jurisdiction, the United States and China never joined the ICC. Both Iran and Israel are also unwilling to relinquish a part of their judicial sovereignty. The court began prosecuting crimes against humanity 11 years ago, but its track record has been deplorable. This is partly due to sloppy investigations and the arrogance of Bensouda’s predecessor, Luis Moreno- Ocampo, who once said: “We are changing the world, guys.” So far, the ICC can boast of only one conviction, and that in a case relating to a second-tier defendant. In 2012, the ICC sentenced Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga to 14 years in prison for using child soldiers as cannon fodder. Arrest warrants have been issued against other butchers, like Sudanese President Omar al- Bashir and Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony — but the men are still free. The ICC is currently investigating eight cases, all of them in Africa — a situation which has engendered criticism. At the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa at the end of May, leaders of AU member states demanded that the case against Kenyatta be dismissed or remitted to the courts in Nairobi. Bensouda calls the attacks “outrageous.” Speaking with Spiegel, she pointed out that she herself is black and investigates cases without regard for skin color or nationality. “It is indisputable that Africans are being raped, displaced, tortured and held as child slaves by other Africans. Are we supposed to ignore that?” Besides, she added, the list of countries the ICC is currently focusing on also includes Afghanistan, Honduras and Georgia. “What offends me most of all is how quickly many concentrate on the words of the powerful, forgetting the millions who have no voice. We investigate without distinction of person or political rank.” Optimism vs riches “Big Mama’s” staff members have rarely seen their boss looking as nervous as in recent days. Almost defiantly, as if to embolden herself, she says: “We will bring Kenyatta to trial here in The Hague, and I am very optimistic that we will achieve a guilty verdict against him and his vice- president, William Ruto.” With an estimated net worth of $ 500 million, Kenyatta is one of the 25 richest and most powerful men on the continent. In March 2013, nothing had changed except the first names of the contenders. The sons, Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, had followed in the footsteps of their fathers, Jomo and Oginga. The scourge of nepotism is compounded by ethnic division, in a country whose leaders are more likely to champion the interests of their tribes than ideologies or political platforms. They procure jobs and perks for their “blood brothers” and, if need be, they incite ethnic groups against one another, sometimes to the point of tribal wars. Kenyatta did not run for the presidency in the December 2007 election, choosing to support Mwai Kibaki, a fellow Kikuyu, instead. After a highly disputed vote count, Kibaki was declared the winner and promptly sworn in.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 09:59:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015