Скачать или смотреть EU praised for pushing war crimes cases despite US concerns

(28 Jun 2006)
1. Wide shot press conference
2. Cutaway press
3. Cutaway bookshelf with books on torture
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Nehal Bhuta, Author of Human Right's Watch report:
"And what we have seen in the practice of Europe in the last three years is that that potential for justice is becoming a reality. The cases that are being tried in European courts are cases that will never come before the ICC (International Criminal Court). They are cases and crimes that frequently happened before 2002 - which is the limit of the jurisdiction of the ICC - and also involve individuals who are lower in terms of political or military responsibility."
5. Cutaway journalist writing
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Nehal Bhuta, Author of Human Right's Watch report:
"Now there are still countries in Europe where the real risk of prosecution of a war criminal is low or almost zero. And these countries - some of which we discussed in our report, and include Germany and France who have risked becoming islands of refuge for war criminals in Europe. And it is imperative that those countries look carefully at the practice of governments of Belgium, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands to show how an effective policy against becoming a safe-haven for war criminals can be implemented."
7. Cutaway of books on torture
8. Cutaway of people standing
9. Presser
STORYLINE:
A global human rights group hailed European nations on Wednesday for overcoming legal and practical problems at home - and objections from Washington - to push ahead with prosecutions of war crimes committed far beyond their borders.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report that European prosecutors were increasingly comfortable in using universal jurisdiction to pursue foreign war crimes suspects.
The reports author, Nehal Bhuta, said the last three years in Europe, had seen "cases that are being tried in European courts...that will never come before the ICC (International Criminal Court). They are cases and crimes that frequently happened before 2002 - which is the limit of the jurisdiction of the ICC."
In recent years, a dozen suspects have been sentenced in universal jurisdiction cases that are contentious for they ask European judges to hear war crimes cases regardless of where they occurred, who committed them or who were the victims.
The United States has long been wary of such trials fearing politically-motivated show cases against American officials and citizens.
In 2003, it got Belgium to amend its 1993 war crimes law after a public warning that NATO headquarters may have to leave Brussels as US officials would run the risk of arrest.
The legal and practical problems the report speaks of were discovered through a series of interviews undertaken by the authors of the report, with judges, investigators, lawyers, law enforcement and immigration officials across Europe.
It found while Britain, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands have created special war crimes units to conduct investigations worldwide other nations have not and struggle with a lack of familiarity and expertise to pursue such investigations, the report said.
It called on France and Germany to do become more active in war crimes prosecutions.
"There are still countries in Europe where the real risk of prosecution of a war criminal is low or almost zero... and include Germany and France who have risked becoming islands of refuge for war criminals in Europe," said Bhuta.
Universal jurisdiction holds that acts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or torture are so horrendous they should be tried regardless of where they happened.

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