IN A move that could inject a new international actor into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the International Criminal Court will examine requests to investigate alleged war crimes during the recent combat in the Gaza Strip, its chief prosecutor has said.
Luis Moreno Ocampo, prosecutor of the court based in the Netherlands, said on Wednesday he had decided to consider an investigation after the Palestinian Authority accepted the jurisdiction of the court last week.
Now his prosecutors must analyse three questions, he said: whether the Palestinian Authority has legal power to recognise the court’s authority; whether war crimes occurred; and whether the governments involved conduct genuine investigations.
“Each legal area is complicated,” Mr Moreno said in a telephone interview from The Hague.
“We move when we are completely sure. Our contribution is impartiality. We will consider this carefully and thoroughly.”
The court has received 210 requests from organisations and individuals regarding the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas militants.
Many claims accuse Israel of offences such as violence against civilians and illegal use of phosphorus shells. But groups such as Human Rights Watch also have called for an investigation of Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli towns and its alleged use of its own civilians as human shields.
The prosecutor’s review could take years and faces legal and political obstacles. The court can only investigate in nations that accept its mandate, and most international bodies do not consider the Palestinian Authority to be a sovereign state.
“The ICC charter is adhered to by sovereign states, and the Palestinian Authority has not yet been recognised as one, so it cannot be a member,” Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, said.
“It doesn’t mean anything except that it’s a good propaganda stunt.”
Nonetheless, the court’s review could have symbolic and concrete repercussions. Israel could try to head off the outside investigation with its own comprehensive investigation, according to Yuval Shany, a professor of international law at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
“It will create greater pressures inside Israel to conduct a serious investigation,” Mr Shany said.
“The fact that it has not been dismissed offhand by the court could prove to be significant.”
The seven-year-old court has been ratified by 108 countries. Mr Moreno, who was appointed in 2003, is an Argentine who prosecuted his nation’s former dictators in the 1980s and later taught at Harvard University.
He has led ICC investigations of atrocities in Darfur. Last week, he launched the court’s first trial; the defendant is a Congolese strongman charged with forced recruitment of child soldiers.
Like Israel, the United States has not accepted the court’s authority, being wary of exposing American troops and leaders to prosecution. After eight years in which Washington was regarded as hostile, human rights advocates think the Obama administration will be more supportive of the court.
– ( LA Times/Washington Postservice)