Скачать или смотреть USA: INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT SYMPOSIUM ON WAR CRIMES

(27 Feb 1998) English/Nat
The International Criminal Court heard horrific details of genocide and war crimes during it's first symposium in the United States on Thursday.
The forum is focusing on enforcing human rights law.
It's hoped this will be the first step towards establishing a permanent mechanism for bringing individuals to justice, once and for all.
But some have their doubts.
This is the International Criminal Court's first symposium on war crimes to be held in the United States.
The meeting focused on enforcing human rights law.
The I-C-C plans to establish, by June this year, a special court to enforce international law in the areas of genocide and crimes against humanity.
In a world first, the new court would have jurisdiction when national courts are unavailable or ineffective, and hold individuals accountable for human rights violations.
SOUNDBITE:(English):
"This court should be dealing with the mega-crimes, the atrocities, the largescale war crimes and the largescale crimes against humanity which erupt during armed conflicts and during internal power struggles where genocide can occur. So this is a court that will deal with the very worst of the worst of those crimes."
SUPER CAPTION: David Scheffer, U-S Ambassador at Large and Head of the U-S Delegation to International Criminal Court Preparatory Committee
In the past, many international courts have attempted to address serious war crimes but failed to bring indicted criminals to justice.
Thursday's symposium was dominated by horrific stories of genocide.
In particular, from civil war-torn countries like Rwanda, where millions of innocent civilians have been killed
SOUNDBITE:(English):
"It was a very methodical, quick institution of genocide whereby almost all segments of the Hutu population participated in, where, in about a hundred short days almost a million civilian Tutsis, men, women and children, elderly and infants were slaughter. Women were particularly targeted for sexual violence. Children were cut out of their mother's stomachs, women were sexually assaulted and sexually mutilated."
SUPER CAPTION: Elizabeth Farr, Former Prosecutor on International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
At the moment there is no permanent mechanism by which individuals can be held accountable for violations.
The only real option is for countries to impose sanctions, embargoes or use military force.
And often those measures fail to stamp out future acts of violence.
Happy Mutesi, lost her entire Tutsi family in a brutal massacre by the rival Hutu group.
SOUNDBITE:(English):
"They cut my father with machine gun and shot my mother. They threw my sister in a pit and buried them around. Everyone was there."
SUPER CAPTION: Happy Mutesi, Rwandan genocide survivor
SOUNDBITE:(English):
"If it is going to be able to do the job, prompting this establishment, it needs to be effective and independent. I think that given the current mood of the Congress, Senate ratification of an independent and effective court will be unlikely any time in the near future. I say that with sadness, I wish it were otherwise."
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Dicker, Human Rights Watch
Richard Dicker, from the Human Rights Watch group, fears U.S opposition to the new court will mean more disturbing scenes like this.
He says any objections will jeopardise the work of the United Nations Preparatory Committee which is finalising a treaty that will create the new court.
If negotiations go well, an international conference will meet in Rome to adopt the treaty in June of this year.

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