Yesterday I watched an hour-length documentary The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in my make-up class for Armed Conflict and International Law (Professor Kate Jastram). The purpose of ICC is to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. ICC could exercise its jurisdiction only (i) when the national courts are unable to prosecute criminals; (ii) when individual states refer investigations to the ICC or (iii) when the UN Security Council refers investigations to the ICC. Thus, ICC is the last resort to prosecute the most heinous offenses in cases where national courts fail to act. The ICC’s first hearing was held in 2006 so as to decide whether charges should be brought against Thomas Lubanga, who was accused of recruiting child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lubanga’s trial, the first conducted by the ICC, began in January 2009, and in March 2012 the court found him guilty and later imposed a 14-year prison sentence (part of the documentary shows the significant moments of the Lubangas trial). Thomas Lubanga the founder of Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) and the leader of the Ituri conflict (1999–2007) has been accused of massive human rights violations, including ethnic massacres, murder, torture, rape, mutilation, and forcibly conscripting child soldiers killing over 60,000 innocent people. There are significant procedures of how the ICC prosecutors and the ICC judges deal with the war criminals. I understand. But . . at this moment . . as a Human Being . . Killing 60,000 innocent people . . and getting only 14-year prison . . Wordless . . . . There is no way . . to describe the sadness . . of the loss of so many innocent victims of genocides . . . . Holocaust (1941 - 1945): 17,000,000 victims Iraq (1961 - 2003): 200,000 victims Guatemala (1962 - 1996): 200,000 victims Indonesia (1965 - 1966): 500,000 victims Nigeria (1967 - 1970): 3,000,000 victims Equatorial Guinea (1969 - 1979): 80,000 victims Bangladesh (1971): 3,000,000 victims Burundi (1972): 100,000 victims Northern Uganda (1972 - 2006): 560,000 victims Lebanon (1974 - 1991): 55,000 victims Cambodia (1975 - 1979): 3,000,000 victims Argentina (1976 - 1980): 20,000 victims Syria (1981 - 1982): 21,000 victims Sri Lanka (1983 - 2009): 1,000,000 victims Somalia (1988 - 1989): 400,000 victims Algeria (1991 - 2005): 50,000 victims Croatia (1991 - 1995): 50,000 victims Rwanda (1994): 1,000,000 victims Bosnian (1995): 100,000 victims Srebrenica (1995): 8,500 victims Democratic Republic of Congo (1996 - 2002): 5,400,000 victims Yugoslavia (1998 - 2001): 10,000 victims Sudan (2003 - 2010): 480,000 victims Gujarat (2003): 1,000 victims Kenya (2007 - 2008): 1,500 victims Libya (2011): 4,000 victims Rest In Peace . . . .
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 16:24:11 +0000
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