AMSTERDAM
(AP) -- A group of international war crimes experts is calling for the
creation of a special tribunal in the Syrian capital to try any
top-ranking officials, soldiers or rebels who may have committed
atrocities during the country's civil war.
Professor
Michael Scharf of Case Western Reserve University, acting as spokesman,
showed The Associated Press a copy of the draft statutes that have been
quietly under development for nearly two years. They could serve as a
template for such a tribunal after the civil war ends.
He
said Friday that U.S. diplomats also have copies of the 30-page
document, and are sympathetic to the idea of a Syrian war crimes court.
"We believe it's playing a role in closed-door discussions throughout the U.S. government," Scharf said.
He
said the group wants to push the issue of accountability for war crimes
into the ongoing international discussions over Syria, and hopes the
prospect will deter combatants from committing further atrocities, such
as the violation of the Geneva Protocol in the Aug. 21 use of chemical
weapons in Syria.
Syria is not a party to the
International Criminal Court - the permanent war crimes tribunal in The
Hague, Netherlands. The ICC doesn't have jurisdiction over war crimes
committed there unless the U.N. Security Council grants it.
However,
conflict-specific war crime courts such as the proposed Syrian court
have been created in individual countries in recent years. Scharf
himself was an adviser to judges at the Iraqi High Tribunal, which tried
Saddam Hussein.
The experts who participated
in creating the Syrian draft statutes, which are to be formally
introduced at the National Press Club in Washington on Thursday, have no
political power, though they are well-respected figures
internationally.
They include Egyptian-born
legal scholar Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni, who chaired the drafting of the
ICC's statutes, and South Africa's Richard Goldstone, the first
prosecutor of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia,
among others.
Sharif Shehadeh, a Syrian
legislator and political analyst, told The Associated Press that he
believes Syria's legal system is equipped to prosecute anyone -
civilians or soldiers - who commit such crimes. But he also questioned
whether a proposed special tribunal in Damascus would be able to arrest
and prosecute rebels who have "committed massacres against Christians
... and ruined churches and mosques."
Loay al-Mikdad, spokesman for the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, welcomed the initiative.
"Any
type of justice, especially based on international law, will help the
Syrian people," he said in an interview. "We are sure we need the
international community's help."
He said those
who committed crimes against humanity, whether fighting on the rebel
side or for the government, should face justice.
"The
revolution is not an excuse to do bad things," al-Mikdad said. "If
there are some rebels, any of them, that did anything against humanity
or the law, they should face justice."
Human
Rights Watch spokesman Richard Dicker in New York said Friday his
organization supports prosecution of war crimes, but top suspects should
be tried in The Hague because if they have been on the losing side of a
conflict they are unlikely to receive a fair trial at home.
"What
makes ICC involvement so critical is the reality that atrocities have
been committed on both sides," he said. "It's imperative that you have
impartial application of the law."
---
Contributions from Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Ryan Lucas in Beirut.
No comments:
Post a Comment