International Criminal Court

Luis Moreno Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said that the first cases for the court will probably involve the Congo:

"We selected the situation in the Ituri region as the first case because it's urgent, it's of great gravity, it is under our jurisdiction and the state itself is not certain to act," he said at a news conference. "We may be able to prevent more killing."

Mr. Moreno Ocampo said he hoped national jurisdictions would join him in investigating the criminal business of the Congo war: money laundering, gold smuggling and arms dealing. He said he had received reports that organized crime groups from Eastern Europe and "some African, European and Middle Eastern companies" could be linked to the atrocities. Doing away with the illicit business of war is vital, he said, because unless it is stopped, atrocities will continue."

He added: "This is a message. We are now here and will investigate and punish crimes. And companies doing illegal business and financing crimes must now know we will follow them."

He also made a comment that speaks to some of the fear-mongering from the Bush administration regarding the ICC:

While the court's mandate is to deal with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, Mr. Moreno Ocampo today announced that he had received nearly 500 complaints, some dealing with environmental crimes, tax evasion, money laundering and judicial corruption, none of those pertinent to the court.

More than 100 letters were complaints relating to Iraq, half of them accusing the United States of aggression. The prosecutor said they were outside his jurisdiction because neither Iraq nor the United States are parties to the court.

I wonder if that is the reason or because aggression is outside the court's mandate? In any event, while the hysteria and bloviating continues from the right-wing regarding the ICC, this certainly seems like another example of restraint trumping hysteria. It also clearly shows that despite, the calls for prosecuting a panoply of alleged crimes, Ocampo plans to stick to the court's mandate.