[ 2012-08-31 ]

ICC team in Mali to investigate potential war crimes
BAMAKO (AFP) - A team from the International
Criminal Court was in Mali on Friday to
investigate whether Islamic extremists who have
occupied the country's desert north have committed
war crimes.

"We're in Mali to pick up elements, listen to
various people and take a comparative look" at
available reports, ICC mission chief Amady Ba told
journalists three days after the delegation
arrived in Bamako.

"This is a time of analysis... We shall be taking
our findings back and the (ICC) prosecutor (Fatou
Bensouda) will judge if there is a need for
inquiries before taking legal action," Ba said.

The three-member team from the tribunal based in
The Hague on Thursday met Mali's interim president
Dioncounda Traore, prime minister Cheick Modibo
Diarra and members of a Malian panel set up to
liase with the ICC.

According to a dossier by the Mali working group,
the crimes include summary executions of Malian
soldiers, rapes, massacres of civilians, the
enlistment of child soldiers and torture.

The extremists are also accused of forced
disappearances, looting and the destruction of
state buildings such as town halls, schools,
courts and hospitals, as well as churches, mosques
and mausoleums.

Bensouda in mid-July announced an initial probe at
the request of the Mali government into whether
armed groups committed war crimes and crimes
against humanity in their sweep that followed a
coup in the capital Bamako.

The regions of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal have for
five months been occupied by the Movement for
Oneness and Jihad (MUJAO) and Ansar Dine
(Defenders of Islam), which both profess links to
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The groups have sidelined Tuareg rebels and
imposed strict Islamic law.

The extremists have since stoned an unwed couple
to death, cut off the hand of a thief, and
destroyed historic religious monuments in
Timbuktu, which they considered sacrilegious
icons.

A Malian justice ministry official said the ICC
mission will stay for an unknown duration, as long
as it needs for its task.

"The dossier sent by the working group to call on
the ICC is clear: it's a matter of crimes
committed by the occupants of the three northern
regions."

Source - AFP

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