Global Policy Forum

By Jim Lobe

Citing the recent discoveries of mass graves in Iraq, survivors of atrocities in three different regions of the world called on the international community and private individuals Tuesday to contribute to the Victims Trust Fund of the new International Criminal Court (ICC) set up earlier this year in The Hague to try cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Fund, which will help the ICC distribute awards to victims, many of whom who would otherwise not receive any reparation, was established in recognition of the need for restoring dignity to victims, in addition to punishing the perpetrators of such atrocities.

Supporters of the ICC here are asking the American public to make personal donations to the Fund and circulating letters on Capitol Hill to press their elected representatives for contributions to demonstrate U.S. support for international justice, despite last year's rejection by the administration of President George W. Bush of the 1998 Rome Statute, the underlying treaty that established the Court.

Virtually all of Washington's closest allies, including all members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization except Turkey, have ratified the treaty. "The outpouring of support for this campaign has been tremendous," said Heather Hamilton of the World Federalist Association. "In only a couple of weeks, thousands of individuals across the country have sent and collected checks, and 70 celebrities have signed on to an open letter to senators."

The letter, signed by Harry Belafonte, Richard Dreyfuss, Mike Farrell, Susan Sarandon, Martin Sheen, and Gloria Steinem, among many others, urged senators "to support U.S. engagement with the Victims Trust Fund and the ICC."

"It is important that a body like the ICC be put in place by the world community," said Paiman Halmat, president of the Kurdish Foundation and an Iraqi Kurdish survivor of the regime of the former President Saddam Hussein. "I wish (the court had been) in place 25 years ago so my brothers would still be alive today and my family and people would not have suffered."

Several mass graves in both northern and southern Iraq have been uncovered since the launch of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in mid-March. Most of the victims are believed to have been killed during uprisings against Hussein in the aftermath of the first Gulf War in early 1991.

While the ICC's jurisdiction extends only to the 89 countries that ratified the Rome Statute and to crimes committed after July 1, 2002, dozens of complaints have already been filed. The Court is expected to take up the first cases early next year.

Halmat was joined by two others who have survived atrocities, including Frederick Terna, who lived for three and a half years in various concentration camps before his liberation in 1945. "The first need of victims is the affirmation of their human dignity," he said. "We may not be able to restore their lives...but we can endorse their personal and community values and reinforce their self-esteem." The Victims Trust Fund offers a way of doing that, he said.

Tizon, a torture survivor from the Philippines who currently works with Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International in Washington, said "Survivors of torture seek to reclaim a world where trust in the human community that the torture has shattered will be restored; where at last the rule of law--not the rule of power and might--guides human relations; where torturers cannot do their evil work with impunity. We do not seek vengeance, we seek justice and the restoration of our human dignity for ourselves and for future generations."

Contributions, according to Fiona McKay, director of the International Justice Program of the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, "are crucial in demonstrating the commitment of the citizens of this country and others who contribute to it to the goal of achieving justice for victims of the worst crimes imaginable."

The Fund's backers say they are determined to show the world that, despite the Bush administration's renunciation of the treaty, American citizens are committed to international justice. The administration has charged that the procedures under which the ICC will operate give too much discretion to prosecutors, who might investigate and indict U.S. officials and military personnel for political reasons--particularly if Washington continues to deploy troops around the globe at the pace it has since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The administration has also pressed other governments to sign bilateral agreements with the U.S. that commit them not to surrender any U.S. national to the ICC for prosecution. So far some two dozen nations have reportedly signed such agreements, including India, Israel, Romania, a handful of South Pacific island states, and several Central Asian countries whose military bases were recently used by Washington.

The ICC's supporters, including Britain and the rest of Western Europe, argue that U.S. fears are exaggerated and that the recent appointment of a prominent Argentine jurist, Luis Moreno Ocampo, should reassure Washington that the ICC will not abuse its mandate.

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