Wednesday, September 15, 1999

UN War Crimes Prosecutor Leaving

The outgoing U.N. war crimes prosecutor, leaving Wednesday for a seat on the Canadian Supreme Court, wrapped up her three-year tenure by stressing the importance of a permanent international criminal court.

Ad-hoc tribunals set up to prosecute war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda have helped put an end to the culture of impunity and abuse of power among political and military leaders, Louise Arbour said.

''But until we have a permanent, standing institution, we will not have achieved, I think, the full capacity that criminal justice can bring to bear on these issues,'' she said Tuesday.

Last year, 120 countries approved a treaty to establish the International Criminal Court. The treaty has since been signed by over 80 countries and ratified by four.

The court would begin operating when 60 countries ratify the treaty. Diplomats estimate that will take 2 1/2 to five years.

On her last day as U.N. prosecutor, Arbour briefed Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Security Council on the status of the tribunals she ran the Yugoslav tribunal based at The Hague, Netherlands, and the Rwanda tribunal

in Arusha, Tanzania.

Swiss federal prosecutor Carla del Ponte, who took over as the top war crimes prosecutor Wednesday, will have to investigate new atrocities from the Kosovo crisis as well as a backlog of cases stemming from the 1994 Rwanda genocide.