Mike Corder reports: "The International Criminal Court prosecutor at The Hague on Monday requested arrest warrants for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, his son Seif Islam Kadafi and his intelligence chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity."
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. (photo: Reuters)
Hague Prosecutor Seeks Indictment of Gadhafi for War Crimes
16 May 11
he International Criminal Court prosecutor asked judges Monday to issue arrest warrants for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and two other senior members of his regime, accusing them of committing crimes against humanity by targeting civilians in a crackdown against rebels.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo says Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi ordered, planned and participated in illegal attacks.
He said Gadhafi's forces attacked civilians in their homes, shot at demonstrators with live ammunition, shelled funeral processions and deployed snipers to kill people leaving mosques.
Judges must now evaluate the evidence before deciding whether to confirm the charges and issue international arrest warrants.
"The case is now in their hands," Moreno-Ocampo told reporters at a press conference.
The warrants are not expected to have any immediate impact on the war in Libya, but they could make it harder for their targets to end the conflict by going into exile. Because the Security Council ordered the ICC investigation, all UN member states would be obliged to arrest him if he ventures into their territory.
Moreno-Ocampo said he had evidence of Gadhafi issuing orders, his son organizing the recruitment of mercenaries and of Al-Sanousi's direct involvement in attacks on demonstrators.
Moreno-Ocampo said that the persecution is continuing in areas under Gadhafi's control.
"Gaddafi's forces prepare lists with names of alleged dissidents. They are being arrested, put into prisons in Tripoli, tortured and made to disappear," he said.
"These are not just crimes against Libyans, they are crimes against humanity as a whole," he added.
Moreno-Ocampo said he was continuing investigations into allegations of mass rapes and war crimes "committed by different parties during the armed conflict" and attacks on sub-Saharan Africans wrongly perceived to be mercenaries.
"There will be no impunity for such crimes in Libya," said the Prosecutor.
Moreno-Ocampo says his team has gathered so much evidence that he is almost ready to go to trial.
Even if Gadhafi flees Libya, some nations have refused to act on arrest warrants. Three countries have let Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visit without arresting him. Al-Bashir has been indicted for crimes including genocide in Darfur in the only other International Criminal Court case ordered by the Security Council.
The Libyan conflict appears largely stalemated, with each side claiming gains one day, only to be turned back the next, despite NATO air strikes aimed at supporting rebels. Gadhafi has vowed to fight to the death.
The head of Britain's armed forces, Gen. David Richards, in remarks published in The Sunday Telegraph in London, urged NATO to widen the range of targets the alliance's planes are allowed to hit in the effort to stymie the Gadhafi's regime's attacks on protesters.
Richards declared that "more intense military action" was needed or the conflict could end in stalemate.
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Comments
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Rapist IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is the prototype of Hague oligarchs.
NATO IS PROTECTING CIVILIANS - more like helping armed rebels to kill MORE civilians. Who is criminal here?
And NO, I AM NOT defending atrocities against the Jews AND OTHER minorities.
But lower ranking soldiers were, in effect, given two choices: A. Die now for insubordination , or obey orders and hope Germany would not lose the war.
When I was in the military, if I was ordered to do something, my alternatives were not as dire on the disobedience side, but life-changingly dire. And, thank heaven, though some G.I.s reportedly were ordered to do things terribly cruel or improper, as at Abu Ghraib, I never was. Just lucky.
But most often in history the winners are who have had the luxury of deciding who were the war criminals are.
If you believe in prayer, pray hard that the U.S. never loses one.
That is that by trying a little bit-player like Qadaffi, but not trying Cheney, Bush, or Rice, we are cheapening the precedent at Nuremberg.
We (or, the Hague) are in effect saying that the trials of the Nazi monsters of the 1940s was just victor's justice --- that is, you are tried and convicted if you are weak, but not just if you are evil.
Qadaffi should never be on trial until and unless Cheney and Bush also are.
That would be fair, and not dishonor the Nuremberg trials.
The Nurnberg trials had nothing to do with a real trial, laws applied were post facto, the prosecutors were judge, jury and executioner. The number 6 million Jews was used long before anyone ever heard of Hitler and do not forget the Germany leaders were also accused of the Katyn murder of 18000 Poles.
IF, the prosecutor wishes to sustain some form of creditability, why doesn't he also charge Tony Blair for contradicting the Geneva Convention and wagiing war against an innocent nation.
Unlike Gaddaffi's case, there is ample substantiating documentary evidance readily available to sustain such a charge.
Latest here; http://www.presstv.ir/detail/180045.html
Bloody hypocrits the lot of them.
Put a label on the person so NATO can "bring him to justice".
Crime was killing Qaddafi son and 3 grandchildren - kids under 12. SICK.
"Now let's see what the 1977 Protocol Addition to Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 say on the business of attacking "infrastructure."
"In order to ensure respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects, the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives."
Part IV, Section I, Article. 48
"It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuff, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works…"
Article 54
"It is prohibited for the Parties to the conflict to attack, by any means whatsoever, non-defended localities…"
Why is the ICC not indicting Obama, Sarkozy, Cameron, and Berlusconi? Could it be that the ICC is just an instrument of Euro/American imperialism; that is, a colonialist kangaroo court.
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