Arua elders accuse world powers of frustrating ICC
by Vision Reporter on 06 Dec 2010 | Comments
ELDERS and opinion leaders in Arua have accused some members of the UN Security Council of frustrating the operations of the International Criminal Court by refusing to join it.
Specifically pointing out the United States of America, Russia and China, the leaders accused these countries of applying double standards and precipitating the cycle of violence in weaker nations.
“These countries are shunning the ICC because they are behind most of the violence in the world. They make and distribute the guns used for committing genocide and crimes against humanity,” Joram Ajeani, Uganda’s former envoy to the DRC, said.
“The ICC is the court for victims of heinous crimes and vulnerable people. Anybody who commits crime against humanity must stand trial,” the 64-year-old added. He was speaking as a plenary discussant during a two-day national peace building film festival held at Arua Christ The King conference hall.
Dozens of people attended the festival, which ran on Saturday and Sunday. It was the fourth film festival of “Beyond Juba, A Transitional Peace Process.”
Under the Refugee Law Project of Makerere University’s Faculty of Law, Human Rights and Peace Centre, the festival’s aim was to generate debate on violence using documentaries, and to gather public opinion.
Jackie Budesta Batanda, the senior communications officer of the project, said the main issues raised are used to develop policy papers for advocacy.
She said they want to explore people’s experiences, find avenues for conflict resolution and build national consensus on peace-building.
Flanked by Annelieke Van De Wiel, the project’s transitional justice lawyer, the duo called on Parliament to pass the draft National Reconciliation Bill so that a forum can be created to discuss and address the causes of violence.
The participants expressed differing opinion on the issue of ICC versus traditional justice systems for conflict resolution, but agreed that the most influential world powers had paralysed the ICC.
“ICC now is a toothless barking dog, even if you give it meat, it cannot chew it,” commented Joseph Noah Drasi who used Thomas Lubanga of DRC as an example to drive his point home.
He said peace building is a collective responsibility but victims of violence need to forget the pain of forgiving the perpetrators of violence in order to have a sustainable peace.
While proponents of the traditional justice system said it is the best system for conflict resolution, critics said that it could be a recipe for more violence by encouraging impunity.
Solomon Ayiko, the director of Peace for All International, an NGO involved in peace building and conflict resolution activities said the ICC provides an opportunity to develop globally acceptable norms and establish global authority to stamp out impunity.
source: New Vision
