Toronto Star
Mar 03, 2009
Martin Regg Cohn
Tomorrow, all eyes will be on Khartoum if the International Criminal Court indicts Sudan's controversial president, Omar Hassan Bashir, for war crimes over the genocide in Darfur.
Later this month in Phnom Penh, a special court is set to begin the first trial for Cambodia's genocide, three decades after the Khmer Rouge were ousted.
And this past Sunday, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon officially got underway, tasked with prosecuting the killers of Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, in Beirut four years ago.
Each of these three major prosecutions will be breaking new ground this month, but the fact that each has taken so long is a testament to the painstaking delays and political difficulties of international law.
When it comes to prosecuting deadly acts in Sudan, Cambodia and Lebanon, the intersection of justice and politics makes for a difficult balancing act.
The Sudanese genocide has been going on for six years. And there are signs the UN Security Council may use the indictment as leverage to extract concessions from the Sudanese government, rather than follow through with a prosecution.
In Cambodia, it took 13 years to establish a special court because of domestic political resistance. A Canadian lawyer, Robert Petit, is acting as the influential co-prosecutor.
Another Canadian, Daniel Bellemare, is playing a similarly key role as chief prosecutor for the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The case doesn't involve genocide, but rather the political survival of a people under threat from outside forces for three decades.
It is being conducted under Lebanese law, but because of the volatile political and security situation in Beirut, it is being largely outsourced to a suburb outside The Hague where the Canadian lawyer and his international team have based themselves.
In 2005, a massive truck bomb demolished Hariri's motorcade in downtown Beirut, killing the former prime minister and 22 others. The unseen hand of Syria had slain Hariri, but also sown the seeds of the "Cedar Revolution" – a popular uprising that finally forced Damascus to withdrew all its uniformed troops.
When I first met Hariri in the late 1990s, his country was occupied by Israeli forces in the south and 40,000 Syrian troops everywhere else. Official portraits of Syria's then-president, Hafez Assad, were ubiquitous. I asked Hariri about Assad's domineering presence, but he fingered his prayer beads and fixed an exasperated glare on me, as if to say: What shall we do?
Years later, he acted. Assad had died in office and been succeeded as Syrian president by his son Bashar. Hariri challenged Syrian hegemony, but paid for it with his life.
Now, Bellemare describes the hybrid court as "the first international anti-terrorist tribunal." Indictments are expected within two months, drawing on three years of painstaking investigations.
But the biggest barriers lie ahead. There are signs of a rapprochement between Damascus and Washington that could lead to political trade-offs, especially if the tribunal needs help from the Security Council to extradite suspects. Syria is refusing any extradtions.
Lebanon's fledgling anti-Syrian government is also facing parliamentary elections in June. The country's divided parliament squabbled bitterly over the prosecutions, and if pro-Syria Hezbollah MPs make electoral gains, they could stonewall the tribunal.
Bellemare has vowed to maintain his judicial independence: "We will go wherever the evidence leads us. We will leave no stone unturned."
But political obstacles could yet block his path, just as they stand in the way of other international prosecutions.
Martin Regg Cohn's column appears Tuesdays.
Mar 03, 2009
Martin Regg Cohn
Tomorrow, all eyes will be on Khartoum if the International Criminal Court indicts Sudan's controversial president, Omar Hassan Bashir, for war crimes over the genocide in Darfur.
Later this month in Phnom Penh, a special court is set to begin the first trial for Cambodia's genocide, three decades after the Khmer Rouge were ousted.
And this past Sunday, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon officially got underway, tasked with prosecuting the killers of Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, in Beirut four years ago.
Each of these three major prosecutions will be breaking new ground this month, but the fact that each has taken so long is a testament to the painstaking delays and political difficulties of international law.
When it comes to prosecuting deadly acts in Sudan, Cambodia and Lebanon, the intersection of justice and politics makes for a difficult balancing act.
The Sudanese genocide has been going on for six years. And there are signs the UN Security Council may use the indictment as leverage to extract concessions from the Sudanese government, rather than follow through with a prosecution.
In Cambodia, it took 13 years to establish a special court because of domestic political resistance. A Canadian lawyer, Robert Petit, is acting as the influential co-prosecutor.
Another Canadian, Daniel Bellemare, is playing a similarly key role as chief prosecutor for the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The case doesn't involve genocide, but rather the political survival of a people under threat from outside forces for three decades.
It is being conducted under Lebanese law, but because of the volatile political and security situation in Beirut, it is being largely outsourced to a suburb outside The Hague where the Canadian lawyer and his international team have based themselves.
In 2005, a massive truck bomb demolished Hariri's motorcade in downtown Beirut, killing the former prime minister and 22 others. The unseen hand of Syria had slain Hariri, but also sown the seeds of the "Cedar Revolution" – a popular uprising that finally forced Damascus to withdrew all its uniformed troops.
When I first met Hariri in the late 1990s, his country was occupied by Israeli forces in the south and 40,000 Syrian troops everywhere else. Official portraits of Syria's then-president, Hafez Assad, were ubiquitous. I asked Hariri about Assad's domineering presence, but he fingered his prayer beads and fixed an exasperated glare on me, as if to say: What shall we do?
Years later, he acted. Assad had died in office and been succeeded as Syrian president by his son Bashar. Hariri challenged Syrian hegemony, but paid for it with his life.
Now, Bellemare describes the hybrid court as "the first international anti-terrorist tribunal." Indictments are expected within two months, drawing on three years of painstaking investigations.
But the biggest barriers lie ahead. There are signs of a rapprochement between Damascus and Washington that could lead to political trade-offs, especially if the tribunal needs help from the Security Council to extradite suspects. Syria is refusing any extradtions.
Lebanon's fledgling anti-Syrian government is also facing parliamentary elections in June. The country's divided parliament squabbled bitterly over the prosecutions, and if pro-Syria Hezbollah MPs make electoral gains, they could stonewall the tribunal.
Bellemare has vowed to maintain his judicial independence: "We will go wherever the evidence leads us. We will leave no stone unturned."
But political obstacles could yet block his path, just as they stand in the way of other international prosecutions.
Martin Regg Cohn's column appears Tuesdays.
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