Spring 2009

I have very carefully and slowly read this article. If it was Christmas, this would be the Authors' Christmas gift to me. I wish there was a way in which this article could be made more accessoible to as many people as possible - especially to those of us who had been recently described by Professor Mahmoud mamdani as Human Rights Fundamentalists. Ther is everything wrong with individual who abuse their power but this pales in comparison to those who make every efforts to subvert entire systems for personal agrandisement.

Posted by Abdulrahman Wandati | April 8, 2009 11:31:34 AM EDT

Most of the controversy over the Bashir case has focused on the prudence of indicting a head of state in a fragile country prone to conflict. Those 300,000 died are human beings. Why iis Alex de Waal alway and unconditionally defending criminal al-Bashir?

Posted by Darfur Daily News | May 8, 2009 3:11:51 PM EDT

I can't see how any interpretation of this article could be read as a defense of al-Bashir. The focus is on Ocampo's failure to meticulously, or otherwise, gather probative evidence to support the charges, rather he seems to be pursuing a maxim of "fiat justitia ruat caelum" (let justice be done though the heavens may fall) in a conflict region where it seems quite likely that the heavens might do just that.

Posted by Rachel Flynn | June 25, 2009 7:11:35 PM EDT

Dear Sir: Alex de Waal advance against Luis Moreno Ocampo (“Case Closed,” Spring 2009), it helps to know that the authors’ real grievance is that leveling international charges against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is a mistake. The authors put forward Moreno Ocampo as the alleged incompetent, but their true disagreement is with a host of actors: the ICC Judges, who issued the warrant naming Bashir; the governments of the U.S., U.K., and France, who have firmly resisted calls to defer Bashir’s prosecution; the UN Security Council, which referred the Darfur case to the ICC back in 2005; and Darfuris themselves, who favor the view that peace in Darfur will not be attained absent justice. I can state that their portrayal of Moreno Ocampo’s ICC tenure rests on a base of misstated facts and material omissions. The authors also fail to disclose the interests and biases of their (unnamed) sources. The authors also fall well short of proving that Moreno Ocampo’s tenure has been incompetent or that he has acted “without borders.” Moreno Ocampo’s decision that his criminal investigators could not safely operate in Darfur was cautious and, in the end, correct. The Sudanese government indeed detained and tortured persons believed to be cooperating with the ICC and recently expelled aid groups based on the same pretext. Most have judged that this Prosecutor’s tenure has been characterized by extreme conservatism in executing the prosecutorial mandate: four investigations opened in the world’s worst conflicts and in each case following either self-referral by an involved State or referral by the Security Council. The Prosecutor’s strict observance of boundaries is what accounts, in no small part, for the Bush administration’s abandonment, over time, of its categorical opposition to support for the court’s work. The issue is not the man or the woman: it’s the mandate and, now, the institution. The view of Flint and de Waal—to propose no solution other than to let even the world’s worst atrocities continue—is becoming obsolete. Discussing policy might be more productive than engaging in character assassination.

Christine Chung
 Former ICC Senior Trial
 Attorney (2004–2007)

Posted by Christine Chung | May 15, 2009 11:16 AM EDT

Christine Chung’s fuming response to Alex de Waal’s and Julie Flint’s carefully researched and rather moderate review of the confused years of Luis Moreno Ocampo’s years as ICC Prosecutor needs some background to be fully understood. In the Prosecution Division of the ICC OTP (Office of the Prosecutor) Chung played the role of Moreno Ocampo’s special confidante and hit man. It was a well known fact in the OTP that Chung and Moreno Ocampo had a special and personal relationship. She had the right to bypass her own superior in the Prosecution Division, Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, and go directly to Moreno Ocampo, very often providing critical information regarding her colleagues or even her supervisor, the Deputy Prosecutor. Indeed, on one occasion, in 2006, Chung despatched a 500 word e-mail to Moreno Ocampo with accusations against Bensouda for being incompetent. The wording in this e-mail (which I have read, courtesy of Moreno Ocampo’s personal assistant Sofia Velasco), was such that in any normal organisation an employee who, while bypassing her own superior had sent a similar letter to a principal, would have been the subject of disciplinary proceedings, or even immediate dismissal. The problem of Chung’s short cut to Moreno Ocampo was widely discussed in the office and one (brave) colleague of Chung in the PD (Prosecution Division) even had the audacity to bring it up in a conference with all OTP managers present. Chung was also known for aggresively hunting Moreno Ocampo dissenters in the office, often with e-mails that were copied to many staff members. These e-mails routinely were laced with highly abusive personal remarks. The Investigation Divison even had compiled a special file of these abusive e-mails. One staff member in the end found it necessary to invoke the internal rules against “sexual and other forms of harassment” in order to bring a halt to Chung’s abusive campaign. Chung’s comments to World Affairs should hence not be seen as independent of Moreno Ocampo, but rather as a proxie or client acting on orders from Moreno Ocampo. Christian Palme former Public Information Adviser to the ICC prosecutor.

Posted by Christian Palme | September 8, 2009 09:17:52 AM EDT