by the Inter Press Service

March 16, 1999, Tuesday

LENGTH: 1708 words

HEADLINE: POLITICS-CARIBBEAN: REGION GETS READY FOR INTERNATIONAL COURT

BYLINE: By Wesley Gibbings

DATELINE: PORT OF SPAIN, Mar. 16

BODY:

All 15 Caribbean Community (Caricom) member states seem set to become

signatories to the Rome Statute which lays the groundwork for the

establishment of the proposed International Criminal Court (ICC).

Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Basdeo Panday gave such an

undertaking Monday when discussions opened in Port of Spain at a regional

conference on the ICC. The Rome Statute was devised at a diplomatic

conference in Italy last July.

Antigua and Barbuda and Haiti have already signed the Statute but Panday

said the others may soon follow suit. A decision to that effect was taken

at a January meeting of Caricom attorneys-general.

"There is clear evidence that the international community remains committed

to the establishment of the International Criminal Court, " said Panday.

"We... urge states to participate in the work of the Preparatory

Commission in such a way as to influence the structure and contents of all

the supporting instruments of the Court," he said.

He however warned that adoption of the controversial Rome Statute was "not

the end of the process for the Court's establishment."

Trinidad and Tobago holds the vice-chair of the ICC Preparatory Commission

which met for the first time at United Nations headquarters last month.

"Trinidad and Tobago will ensure that the concerns of the Latin American

and Caribbean region are addressed," Panday said.

But Trinidad-born, Jamaican jurist Patrick Lipton Robinson, who serves as a

judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,

said some issues associated with the Court are not attractive to Caribbean

countries.

"The issues to be adjudicated in the ICC -- war crimes, crimes against

humanity and genocide -- may seem distant and far-removed from us in the

Caribbean because, generally, we are a peace-loving people with democratic

traditions and institutions," he said.

"But we must not forget our past," he added, citing the slave trade which

brought Africans to the Caribbean.

"Recent events would (also) seem to indicate that for us in the Caribbean,

the kinds of atrocities covered by the statutes may not be so removed," he

warned.

He said the process of globalization could not but include the

internationalization of justice.

The point was also made by Marino Busdachin of the international NGO --

Transnational Radical Party.

"In the age of globalization, we believe that there is a growing need for

an international rule of law," he said. "What was before the prerogative of

a small group of states, must now become a big reality of the international

community in its entirety.

"The establishment of an International Criminal Court will significantly

contribute to the international legal order thus serving justice and peace

-- passing from the law of rule to the rule of law, and allowing the

principles of the life of rights and for the right to life.

"In promoting peace, preventing war and promoting human rights, there has

always been a big omission -- the lack of a permanent International

Criminal Court, " he said.

"Now, after a very long and difficult process, we have a start, but we

don't know what kind of Court we will have," Busdachin added.

He however advised that some obstacles remained. "Obviously, resistance

and strong opposition from some UN member states will always be there. But

we can't wait for all states to agree. We must set in motion a powerful and

dynamic shift in which we hope one day everybody will be on board."

He said the current drive to encourage no fewer than 60 states to sign the

Rome Statute "will give the necessary drive for the entry into force of a

permanent Court."

Professor Cherif Bassiouni, who served as chairman of the Drafting

Committee of the Rome Diplomatic Conference on the ICC said the advent of

the Court has been long in coming.

For many years, atrocities throughout the world were not afforded the kind

of attention they deserved and politicians and diplomats often made deals

which ensured that some culprits got away, he said.

He referred to killings and human rights abuses in Cambodia, Africa and

Argentina saying for the most part those most responsible for those

atrocities have simply evaded any type of accountability.

"All of these responsible leaders, responsible military persons throughout

the world who have caused so much terrible crimes have simply evaded

responsibility," Bassiouni said.

However, "somehow international civil society woke up and decided it is

time for this to stop... not because they suddenly stumbled on a concept of

justice (but) because a concept of justice is inherent to any organized

society," he added.

"As the history of humankind has shown in the last 35,000 years, has there

ever been any society that has been able to establish itself and exist

without having a system of justice?" he asked.

"Yet, we have a world community... we have a globalization of the world

economy and the world financial system... of the world communication system

and yet we reject the notion of globalization of justice.

"I think that the world community has come to the conclusion that we cannot

go on without some kind of equal justice for all, that functions in a

system that is fair, impartial, effective and that produces a sense of

justice," he said.

He was sharply critical of current peace negotiations which bypass the

notion of international justice.

"One of the essential elements of peace is not a political settlement...is

not an agreement signed by leaders who will then go away having received

amnesty or immunity," he argued.

"The essence of peace is when the communities that were at war are

reconciled to living with each other in peace, and you can never achieve

that without having justice."

The Court, "takes away the cards from the political negotiator.

They will not be able to play the card of justice. They will not be able to

grant amnesties in exchange for ceasefires", he said.

In that regard the Court entrenches a "sense of international democracy",

he added.

"The mighty will be called to the bar of justice as those who are not. The

leaders of major countries will be as accountable as the leaders of smaller

countries," he said.

"There is an increasing demand for justice for the perpetrators of war

crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide to be tried and punished. The

sluice gates of justice have been opened," added Gianfranco Dell' Alba of

No Peace Without Justice, an international NGO.

President of Trinidad and Tobago, Arthur Robinson, is widely credited

with placing the issue of an ICC back on the international agenda during an

address to the United Nations in 1988.