Crimes court may try perpetrators of ethnic, religious violence
From Emmanuel Onwubiko,
Okumephuna Chukwunwike and
Jane Ezereonwu, Abuja
THERE may be no hiding place for masterminds and perpetrators of ethnic and religious crises in the country as they may soon face trial at the International Crimes Court (ICC) over such offences against humanity.
This was disclosed at the weekend by the President of the Special Court of Sierra Leone and a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Emmanuel Ayoola.
Ayoola, who spoke at the 25th anniversary of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies FoundersÕ Day, said the prosecution of perpetrators of ethnic and religious conflicts may check the trend of ethnic violence in Nigeria.
In a lecture titled: "Expanding frontiers of Justice: The Challenge of Global Justice," the legal icon said: "While international law has not yet begun to regulate conduct in internal strife, it is evident that with the principle now declared and with the prohibitions of crime against humanity as declared in the international crimes court statute, it should now have been brought home to perpetrators of internal strife that there is a threshold of internationally tolerable conduct even in situations of internal strife beyond which international criminality starts.
His words: In countries where civil strife is prevalent, there is much to be learnt about the salutary significance of the new international regime of criminal international law whose machinery is not hampered by those factor and considerations that weaken national judicial and law enforcement institutions, hampers them in their operations and hinder their resolve to be an instrument for the termination of impunity. That salutary significance is that the main purpose of the expanding frontiers of justice is to ensure that those who bear the greatest responsibility for genocide and crimes against humanity are not only nationally made accountable, but also internationally accountable in their conduct."
"The international machinery of justice which the ICC represents is now available to limit widespread impunity so that victims of such strife and armed conflicts and their relatives may have the much needed moral satisfaction that justice has prevailed. The frontiers of impunity and injustice shrink when the frontiers of justice expand," Ayoola averred.
He stressed the need for the international crimes court to try former Liberian President Charles Taylor. He added: "It suffices to cite and adopt the opinion of Prof. Shaw when he wrote: The question of immunity ratione personae arises particularly and most strongly in the case of Heads of State. It is clear that serving Heads of State, and other governmental officials may be rendered susceptible to the jurisdiction of international tribunal, depending upon the terms of the constitution of such tribunals."
The crimes court in Freetown, Sierra Leone has indicted Taylor for alleged crimes against humanity perpetrated by rebels in the 10-year Sierra Leone war.
Meanwhile, to stem the rising tide of ethno-religious crisis in the country, a group, under auspices of Professional Moslem Sisters Association has resolved to check the trend.
Specifically, they identified poverty, ignorance and absence of youth empowerment scheme as being responsible for the crisis and pledged to tackle them. This was made known at the weekend during the public presentation and launch of the association at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
Speaking, the president of the association, Dr. Mario Mandara, said, as professional Moslem Women in our various fields, we are able to see these challenges perhaps, faster because, we more than any other group, are most affected by this wave. We feel the urge to do something about the situation because there is so much at stake. We have a duty to come together and address the issues of Islamic values in this fast changing world.
"In terms of ethno-religious crisis, I happen to have grown up in the North and so I am deeply affected by that. Our problems are not restricted to Moslems only. One of the major components of our programme is youth counselling. This will take the form of within and outside the school setting and it will not be just academic counselling," she said.
Mandara added that her group works in collaboration with the inter-religious committee of the federation to actualise the dream and decried that ignorance and poverty have been major contributors to the crisis.
She added: "In fact, one of the tenets of Islam is love. A Moslem should love his neighbour, in the sense that you should love without minding his religion, tongue or tribe. There are rules within Islam or how a Moslem should relate with his neighbours and these are issues we hammer on in our counselling services.
