Closing In

First get your man. All the efforts to deter tyrants, warlords and genocidal murderers by setting up international tribunals will come to nothing if the suspects cannot be arrested. Without any form of enforcement mechanism of their own, most of the new courts have always known this. Yet slowly, if not surely, they are pulling in the suspects.

Germain Katanga, also known as “Simba”, is the latest catch. The alleged leader of the Patriotic Resistance Force in the north-eastern Congolese province of Ituri has been arrested and transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. He is only the second person to be handed over to the world's first permanent war-crimes court since it was set up in 2002. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, another Congolese presumed to be a warlord, has been in the court's custody since March 2006. He was already in prison in Kinshasa, Congo's capital, when charged.

Of the seven others indicted by the ICC, four leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group in northern Uganda, are still on the run two years after warrants were issued for their arrest; a fifth has been killed. And the two other suspects, a Sudanese minister and a janjaweed leader, are unlikely to be caught soon, given Sudan's refusal even to recognise the court.

But Charles Taylor's impending war-crimes trial should have put the wind up a few despots. After three years of comfortable exile in Nigeria, the former Liberian president was handed over to a UN-backed Special Court last year. His trial is due to start in The Hague on January 7th.

Much has been made of the failure of the international war-crimes tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia to catch two Bosnian Serb leaders, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic. Both have been on the run for 12 years. Less has been said about the court's success in arresting all but four of the 161 men it has indicted. The Rwandan tribunal's record is only slightly less impressive. Of its 90 indicted suspects, just 14 are at large. One was caught in France last week, another in Germany last month, and the search continues for the rest.

Meanwhile, ordinary courts are showing less indulgence towards the high and mighty. Last month Chile's Supreme Court ordered the extradition to Peru of Alberto Fujimori, a former president of Peru, on charges of corruption and human-rights abuse. In Uruguay a federal appeals court confirmed charges of multiple murder against Juan María Bordaberry, the country's former president. An American court ordered the extradition of Manuel Noriega, Panama's ex-dictator, to France to serve a ten-year sentence for money-laundering. And Nuon Chea, “Brother Number 2” of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the 1970s, was arrested and handed over to the new UN-backed war-crimes tribunal in the country's capital, Phnom Penh. The noose tightens.

London (The Economist, 25 October)

Accused #2

A surprise in the office last week: the Prosecutor issued an indictment against Germain Katanga, a Congolese militia leader. He was handed over to ICC authorities last week and had his first appearance at the Court today. Somehow, I managed to negotiate a front-row seat for the hearing. It was packed with media representatives and Court staff, all eager to see our second accused in the flesh. It all felt a bit circus-like, this diminutive young man in the courtroom fishbowl. Part of me felt badly for him… He is only 27 years old and has never even met his second child, who was born while he was imprisoned in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, once the presiding judge started reading the list of charges against him, most of my pity dissolved. He is accused of forcibly enlisting child soldiers, of kidnapping young women and girls as sexual slaves, as well as several other war crimes and crimes against humanity. As I listened to some of the details of the charges, I could not help but think back to my experiences in East and Central Africa, meeting former child soldiers in Uganda, visiting a war-torn town in Eastern Congo, hearing witness testimony at the ICTR… While man’s inhumanity to man remains shocking and disheartening, the dedication and perseverance that I have witnessed here at the Court can only bring optimism.

Feeling distant...

Thanks to Eid El-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, the Court enjoyed a long weekend break. I decided to do a bit of travelling and took the train from Amsterdam to Paris. The view along the tracks was scenic, and the three-hour ride gave me the opportunity to reflect on my time thus far in The Hague. At this point, I am struggling a bit on the professional level. The time and distance from Boston has separated me from the concepts and skills learned over the summer, and I am finding it hard to link this placement to that experience. At times, I find myself thinking that, while I am ultimately very grateful for this opportunity at the ICC, this placement does not feel like it fits into the vision of the Fellowship program. There is no defined role for us as Fellows at the Court—I have no supervisor or tasks, so it is up to me to figure out how to maximize this experience. It has not been made easier by the Prosecutor’s extremely busy schedule, which has caused his office to cancel my appointments with him. Without his guidance and due to the distance from Insight, I feel a bit abandoned. However, I suppose that this is part of the challenge of this placement—a sentiment echoed by previous Fellows in my conversations with them. While I am having difficulties, it has strengthened my ties with them and this connection helps reinforce my purpose and motivation to make the best of the situation.

And the winner is...

Bike-naming competition entries in order received:

• Donor-Cycle (from my pediatrician uncle who is worried about lack of helmets)
  
• Miss Gulch (from the Wizard of Oz)
  
• Zelda
• Gertrude
• Fritz
• WinBell (Insight reference)
  
• Gretel
• Daisy Bell
• The CTFW (The Charles Taylor Freedom Wheels)
  
• Operation Hot Mother
• Tracy Morgan's Manatee (if you don't get the reference, watch this clip)
  
• Flavor of the Week
• Jiska
• Azura (Eve's daughter)
  
• Tinkerbell
• Sally Spins
• Nina
• Wilhelmina (my street here)
  
• Mini-Eve
• Den Byke
• Toto (little dog from the Wizard of Oz)
  

And the winner is: Miss Gulch

The main reasons behind this choice are:

1. There is a Wizard of Oz theme for naming vehicles in my family (my car's name is Dorothy etc), but the person who submitted this entry did not known about that, so clearly it was destiny;
2. Miss Gulch is the evil woman from the Wizard of Oz who wants to have Toto put down. During the Oz dream sequence, she turns into the Wicked Witch of the West character; and
3. On Friday morning, my bike went evil on me and bucked me off right in front of the Court... Nothing too serious, just a bashed up knee and some bruised dignity. Thank god it was 8:45am so no one was around yet to witness my klutziness (international justice sleeps in late on Fridays). Anyway, the name is perfect for such an occasion: as suggested by the submitter, "Miss Gulch went all Wicked Witch of the West on me."

Little Pieces of History in the Making

Today we had a 12th Floor meeting. The purpose was mainly to introduce new staff and inter. While most interns started work several weeks before my arrival, this was the first time everyone on the floor has an opportunity to meet. I was able get a sense of what they are all working on, which ranges from public information to legal research, as well as introduce myself and talk a bit about the Fellowship program.

Actually the most interesting was to find out where everyone is from; there are over 25 nationalities (and all inhabited continents) represented! In my large corner office alone, there are 8 distinct nationalities. It is always nice to work in such an international context, with people from such varied backgrounds and experiences. Particularly given my international and multilingual upbringing, it is refreshing to be back in what feels like a more familiar setting.

In addition, today I met the Chief Prosecutor for the first time. While it was a brief introduction— he peeked into the room just to say hello between meetings—it was nice to finally meet in person someone I have heard so much about.

This week the office is abuzz with activity as we are all helping to prepare a very unique meeting for the end of the week. It is a sort of unofficial get-together for representatives from the prosecution teams of each international tribunal, the ICTR, ICTY, SCSL, and ECCC. The three-day workshop will facilitate a discussion about best practices in prosecution with the end product being an outline of a manual. The manual will be put together by ICC staff and then brought to the official summit that will be held in Cambodia next month.

The best practices manual is a legacy project for the ad-hoc tribunals, most of which will be winding down operations and eventually closing within the next couple of years. The topics range from speeding up trials, to managing victim participation, to conducting efficient investigations. In a way, it is a chance to record the small pearls of wisdom gleaned from 10-15 years of prosecutorial experience so that it can be passed on to the new permanent Court.Even though I will only be assisting in an administrative capacity during the workshop, I look forward to sitting in on these discussions. In a way, so much of working here is just being a witness to little pieces of history in the making.

I miss Smith!

A rose by any other name...

As promised, here is a picture of my lovely new Dutch bike:

Isn't she cute?
The problem is that she is currently nameless, anonymous, seeking out her place in the world and helplessly lost in her quest for her identity... So this is where you all come in: name my bike! I will accept submissions until this time next week and announce the winning name here. Just go ahead and post a comment below with your suggested nomenclature :)