7453: Bush to nominate war crimes envoy (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

from: avrussell@hotmail.com

> > Bush to nominate war crimes envoy
> >
> > By Elizabeth Neuffer, Globe Staff, 3/22/2001
> >
> >
> > UNITED NATIONS - President Bush said yesterday he intends to nominate an
> > ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, after weeks of speculation
that
> > his administration might reduce the Clinton administration's commitment
to
> > international institutions of justice.
> >
> >
> > Pierre-Richard Prosper, a former prosecutor with the International
> Criminal
> > Tribunal for Rwanda, was Bush's choice for the post within the US State
> > Department, the White House said yesterday.
> >
> >
> > ''I am honored to be under consideration,'' said Prosper, 37, who now
> serves
> > as a special counsel in the war crimes office.
> >
> >
> > In January, US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was said to be leaning
> > toward abolishing the war crimes bureau, a top priority of his
> predecessor,
> > Madeleine Albright. Albright, who played a pivotal role in creating the
> two
> > war crimes tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda while acting as
ambassador
> to
> > the United Nations, had created the office to ensure attention was paid
to
> > war crimes issues.
> >
> >
> > David Scheffer, an Albright aide, played a key role in ensuring the
> > tribunals were adequately funded and that crucial intelligence needed
for
> > indictments reached prosecutors. Powell earlier this year had said such
> > duties could be overseen by other parts of the State Department, State
> > Department aides had said.
> >
> >
> > Yesterday's announcement appears to indicate a change of heart,
advocates
> > say. ''It's a very positive signal from the new administration,'' said
> Nina
> > Bang-Jensen, of the Coalition for International Justice in Washington,
DC,
> a
> > watchdog group on issues of international justice.
> >
> >
> > The announcement comes at crucial time for the International Criminal
> > Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Serbia has until March 31 to hand
over
> > former leader Slobodan Milosevic to the war crimes tribunal in the Hague
> or
> > face losing American aid. The Bush administration must also wrestle with
> > what to do about a treaty creating an international criminal court.
> >
> >
> > Prosper, while at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda,
oversaw
> > the prosecution of the case of Jean-Paul Akayesu, the first official
ever
> to
> > be convicted for genocide. The case, which focused on the killings and
> rapes
> > in a Rwandan village, made legal history as the first in which judges
> ruled
> > that rape was a crime against humanity and an act of genocide.
> >
> >
> > Prosper, the son of Haitian doctors living in upstate New York, is a
> > graduate of Boston College and the Pepperdine School of Law.
> >
> >
> > ''It's terrific,'' said Bang-Jensen of Prosper's appointment, recalling
> how
> > Prosper went personally to deliver the verdict in the Akayesu case to
the
> > village involved. ''The impressive thing about him is that he clearly
> hasn't
> > forgotten the victims.''
> >
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