Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo was arrested and flown to The Hague overnight yesterday to face charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC), the first former head of state to be tried by the ICC since its inception in 2002.
The world’s top war crimes court opened an investigation last month into killings, rapes and other abuses committed during a four-month conflict in Ivory Coast triggered by Gbagbo’s refusal to cede power to Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara in an election last year.
Fadi El Abdallah, an ICC spokesman, said Gbagbo would make an initial appearance in court within a few days, where he would be informed of his rights and the charges brought against him.
Photo: Reuters
“Mr Gbagbo allegedly bears individual criminal responsibility, as indirect co-perpetrator, for four counts of crimes against humanity, namely murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution and other inhuman acts,” the ICC said in a statement yesterday.
Gbagbo’s arrest and detention in The Hague was welcomed by human rights groups, but could prove divisive in Ivory Coast and trigger unrest among his supporters.
The timing of the transfer is particularly sensitive, coming just days before a Dec. 11 parliamentary election, which Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front party is already boycotting in protest at the treatment of its top officials arrested in connection with the conflict.
Gbagbo’s aides have already branded the ICC “victor’s justice,” saying it demonstrates the bias of international players toward former top IMF executive Ouattara, who came to power only after French soldiers helped him oust Gbagbo.
Gbagbo’s arrest marks a big breakthrough for ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who has up to now struggled to get hold of some of his biggest targets.
“It is exactly a year since the presidential election that led to one of the worst episodes of violence Cote d’Ivoire has ever known, with ordinary Ivorians suffering immensely, and crimes allegedly committed by both parties,” Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement. “We have evidence that the violence did not happen by chance: widespread and systematic attacks against civilians perceived as supporting the other candidate were the result of a deliberate policy.”
Gbagbo, 66, is one of between two and six people the ICC prosecutor has said he wants to focus on in a civil war that killed 3,000 people and uprooted more than 1 million.
The conflict ended only when French-backed pro-Ouattara forces captured Gbagbo on April 11.
Gbagbo was whisked by helicopter on Tuesday from remote Korhogo in northern Ivory Coast, where he had been under house arrest since his capture, and put on a plane to Rotterdam, where he arrived yesterday morning. A convoy of police vans drove him to the detention center in The Hague.
His trial by the ICC is likely to prove as divisive as his election loss — almost half of Ivorians voted for him.
Seeing Gbagbo on trial at the ICC could anger many Ivorians after Moreno-Ocampo said Libya could try Muammar Qaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam at home, despite an ICC warrant for him.
“This victors’ justice is in reality nothing but a political maneuver designed to liquidate President Gbagbo,” his aide Toussaint Alain said in a statement.
The charge of victors’ justice would be easier for Ouattara to refute if any of his men had been arrested for alleged crimes during the conflict, but none have.
“Gbagbo’s transfer to the ICC is a welcome step to bring justice to victims of grave crimes in our country. But it is critical that the court investigate all serious crimes committed by all parties since the outbreak of armed conflict in 2002,” said Ali Ouattara of human rights group Cote d’Ivoire Coalition for the ICC, in a statement. “Only through fair and impartial justice addressing all sides of the conflict can the ICC avoid criticisms of bias and thus truly help bring justice and reconciliation to Ivorians.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia