* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of
Amnesty
International *
30 June 2002 IOR 51/006/2002
Rome
Statute - An end to impunity for worst crimes
Amnesty International
welcomes the historic occasion today of the entry into
force of the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute)
and calls on all
governments to become parties to the Rome Statute and
actively support the
International Criminal Court (ICC).
"From today, those who commit the
worst crimes under international law can
be brought to justice by the Court,"
said Amnesty International.
The entry into force means that the ICC will
be able to investigate and
prosecute people accused of genocide, crimes
against humanity and war crimes
committed from this date onwards.
The ICC
is expected to begin investigating its first cases in early
2003.
"Currently 73 countries have ratified the Rome Statute at a pace
that has
surprised many and appears to be continuing,"
added Amnesty
International. "It is another step towards a strengthened
system of
international justice, where the ICC will complement national
jurisdictions
in the struggle against impunity."
"With the entry into force of the Rome
Statute today, new standards for
international criminal law become
operational. As more states join the
Statute and the Court itself starts
functioning, the chances increase of
bringing to justice perpetrators of the
worst crimes under international
law."
Background
The Rome
Statute was adopted by the international community on 17 July 1998
at a
diplomatic conference in Rome. The Rome Statute provides for
the
establishment of a permanent ICC with jurisdiction over genocide,
crimes
against humanity and war crimes. The crime of "aggression" will also
be
within the ICC jurisdiction, when a definition and a procedure
for
consideration have been agreed.
The Statute provides that it will
enter into force and the Court can be
established following the 60th
ratification --
this took place on 11 April 2002 at a special ceremony at the
UN
Headquarters. As of today 73 states have ratified the Rome Statute and
a
total of 139 states have signed the Statute.
The ICC will not take
the place of national courts but will be complementary
to them only acting
when national courts are unwilling or unable to do so.
The Court will have an
independent prosecutor who can commence an
investigation and based on
information from any source. The UN Security
Council can defer a case for 12
months at a time; however, all permanent
members of the Council must agree to
the deferral.
The ICC can only investigate and prosecute crimes committed
after 1 July
2002.
The ability of the ICC to act is also limited to
some degree by whether a
state has ratified the Statute -- this is the reason
that Amnesty
International is calling on all states to ratify. The Court
will only be
able to carry out investigations and prosecutions if the crime
was committed
on the territory of a state which has ratified; or, the state
makes a
declaration that it accepts the Court's jurisdiction over the crime;
or; the
accused person is the national of a state that has ratified. In
addition,
an important provision gives the Security Council the authority to
refer any
situation to the ICC -- regardless of whether a state has ratified
-- if it
considers it a threat to international peace and
security.
The Rome Statute makes clear that state officials, no matter
what their rank
or position, have no immunity for these crimes.
The
crime of genocide is defined in the same terms as the Genocide
Convention of
1948, that is killings and other acts "committed with the
intent to destroy,
in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or
religious
group."
According to the ICC Statute, the court will have jurisdiction
over war
crimes "in particular when committed as part of a plan or policy or
as part
of a large-scale commission of such crimes". The list of war crimes
in the
Statute considerably expands on the "grave breaches" of the 1949
Geneva
Conventions, and covers both international and non- international
armed
conflicts.
Crimes against humanity consists of certain acts
"when committed as part of
a widespread or systematic attack directed against
any civilian population",
in pursuit to a state or organizational policy to
commit such attack. The
acts in question include murder, extermination,
enslavement, deportation
abroad and forcible transfers within a state,
arbitrary detention, torture,
rape and other crimes of sexual violence,
"disappearances", persecution, the
crime of apartheid and other inhumane
acts. Such crimes may be committed in
war or peacetime, by state agents or
members of armed political groups.
From 1 to 12 July, the Preparatory
Commission of the International Criminal
Court is meeting at the UN
Headquarters in New York to complete its
preparation of supplementary
documents to the Rome Statute, including the
draft First Year Budget of the
Court and the procedure for electing the
Judges and the Prosecutor.
In
September 2002, the Assembly of States Parties will meet to approve the
work
of the Preparatory Commission. In January 2003 it is expected that it
will
meet again to elect the Judges and the Prosecutor. An inauguration
event for
the judges is planned to take place in The
Hague.
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get in touch with the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International.
The Times
July 01, 2002
Mugabe to take
over food firms
From Jan Raath in
Harare
PRESIDENT MUGABE intends to nationalise
multinational food
companies operating in Zimbabwe. Such a move would be
likely to worsen a
famine that is widely acknowledged as the result of his
disastrous policies.
Companies would be offered a chance to go
into partnership with
the Government or be taken over, the state-controlled
Sunday Mail yesterday
quoted him as saying.
He singled out
National Foods, the country's biggest food
distributor, which is 34 per
cent-owned by the South African Anglo American
Corporation, for allegedly
creating a shortage of salt, the latest commodity
to vanish from supermarket
shelves.
"We will ask National Foods and Anglo American to
tell the
nation why they have been hoarding salt and causing shortages of
basic
commodities," Mr Mugabe said. "We will not allow Anglo American to
become
the principal saboteurs of our economy."
Police
raided National Foods depots last week and uncovered 120
tonnes of salt that
they claimed was being hoarded by the company. No
comment could be obtained
from the company, but businessmen said that the
volume was perhaps two days'
national supply. "It's just nonsense to call
that hoarding," one said.
BBC
Sunday, 30 June, 2002, 05:54 GMT 06:54 UK
McKinnon pessimistic
about Zimbabwe
The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Don McKinnon, has
expressed pessimism
over prospects for change in Zimbabwe.
Mr McKinnon
said that nothing was improving in Zimbabwe, despite
international pressure,
and there was no let-up in the policy of seizing
white-owned farms for black
resettlement.
Some 3,000 commercial farmers were given until midnight
last Monday to stop
working their farms and just over a month to
leave.
The Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe for a year in March, in
protest at
alleged flaws in the country's presidential election.
From
the newsroom of the BBC World Service
Dear Family and Friends,
When I went grocery shopping this week in my little
home town of Marondera there was no salt, sugar, cooking oil, mealie meal or
milk. Standing in the supermarket with only the weekly newspapers in my basket
there was a sudden shout from the back and I hurriedly got out of the way as a
sea of people ran past me to a stock door and pushed and jostled to get to the
man who had a trolley load of salt. In less than 5 minutes the crush was over,
the salt was depleted and we went back to staring at the shelves full of things
so few of us can afford.With no sugar or milk, condensed milk is the obvious
alternative but the little tin which cost sixty dollars a few months ago is now
$187. The question on everyone's lips is how can we go on like this? But our
government and leaders seem completely oblivious to the suffering of their
people. They remain absolutely resolute in their determination that the farmers
who are still willing and able to grow food will not be allowed to do so. All
week on ZBC television we have been bombarded with government statements about
how there is no going back on the land redistribution, how white farmers must
get off their land within 45 days and will not be allowed to grow any
food.
Yesterday I went on a four hour journey through
what used to be one of the most productive farming areas of the country and the
view from the window was horrific. There are just miles and miles of nothing to
see. Most of the time it was hard to know just exactly where I was as almost all
the road signs have gone, the tin stolen to be made into pots and pans. In all
the little towns on the road the sales yards are crammed full of second hand
farm equipment waiting to be auctioned - but there are no buyers. The signs of
neglect and squalor are visible in all the towns with pot holes, litter, shanty
flea markets, beggars and street kids being an almost accepted part of the
scenery. The fields which at this time of the year should be bursting with crops
of irrigated wheat and winter vegetables are deserted, brown and weed filled.
Fence lines along the road have completely disappeared for dozens of kilometres
and everywhere trees have been chopped down by the new settlers for firewood. A
large part of the journey was through smoke filled air and there were few
stretches of the road where there was not a fire burning. It was cause for both
exclamation and excitement to see a farm that was still working, to see a 20
hectare square of green wheat being irrigated. I looked with great interest at
all the settlers, squatters and war veterans that are visible from the road but
what I saw did not give any cause for hope whatsoever. As on our Marondera
property, Zimbabwe's new farmers are concentrated in camps near the roadside
and are living in appalling conditions. Their houses are tatty little shacks
covered with thatching grass or old plastic, their complexes are surrounded by
felled trees and the men sit around in groups near the edge of the road. There
was no sign of any production at all and small herds of cattle look painfully
thin. On a four hour journey through Zimbabwe's prime agricultural land, the
only things on the side of the road available to buy were fishing worms and
firewood. One man had half a dozen pockets of sweet potatoes to sell but at
Z$100 a kg, he didn't have many takers. At the end of a long and tiring day I
got home to the news that yet another friend had been forced off her farm. Given
two hours notice to vacate her house, she lived through that day of hell which
has now become commonplace in Zimbabwe. This morning she and her family are
homeless and jobless and their life lies in boxes and cartons on a friends lawn.
The home they built, the lands they tended, the workers they employed are now
just memories and I could not find the words to tell yet another white farmer
how dreadfully sorry I was for their loss and anguish. Within months they will
leave the country of their birth because they are farmers and know no other way
to earn their living. They will have to go somewhere where they are allowed to
grow food. Until next week, with love, cathy. http://africantears.netfirms.com
Mugabe accuses Anglo-American of hoarding food and
threatens to seize company's assets
Monday, July 1, 2002
By MICHAEL HARTNACK, Associated Press
HARARE, Zimbabwe —
President Robert Mugabe has accused mining giant Anglo-American Corp. of
hoarding salt amid Zimbabwe's hunger crisis and threatened to seize the
company's local assets, state media reported Sunday.
Mugabe said his government "will not tolerate companies bent on causing
unnecessary suffering to the people by creating unnecessary shortages," state
radio reported.
The radio said ruling party officials last week found 2,000 metric tons
(2,200 tons) of salt in warehouses belonging to National Foods, a company
partially owned by Anglo Zimbabwe, a subsidiary of London-based Anglo American.
A National Foods executive said the salt had not been put on the market
because it had been imported from neighboring Botswana at the parallel exchange
rate of 300 Zimbabwean dollars to the U.S. dollar.
At that rate, nearly six times the government's fixed exchange rate, the
company would take a huge loss if it sold the salt at the market price set by
the government, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The
company had been negotiating with government officials to find a compromise
price for the salt.
In a speech to ruling party officials Friday, Mugabe attacked National Foods,
which he described as "an Anglo American company of Nicky Oppenheimer," the
chairman of the mining giant.
"They have been hoarding salt. ... They want people on the streets against
our government. What kind of mischief is this?" he said, according to the
state-owned Sunday Mail. "We will take over their enterprises."
Officials from Anglo Zimbabwe, which owns 34 percent of National Foods, could
not immediately be reached for comment.
In the 1990s, Anglo Zimbabwe sold off most of its industrial and agricultural
investments in Zimbabwe, but retained some mining interests.
More than 6 million Zimbabweans, about half the population, are in danger of
starvation after a drought and government seizures of white-owned commercial
farms nearly destroyed this year's grain harvest, according to the United
Nations.
The country is running out of corn and wheat, and its supplies of cooking oil
and salt are dwindling.
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 9:19 PM
Subject: another chaser to our farmers
Dear Farmers
Yip its us bugging you yet
again....We are in need of the following please:- (AGAIN
AGAIN)
1/ updated poaching
figures/reports
2/ more pictures (we will
develop the film)
3/ any video footage that
we could make a copy of.
4/ pictures on gold
panning
We appreciate your support
thus far, but still require a little more input. We realise that last week and
the forthcoming weeks are going to be very trying indeed, but try and get the
info to our offices. Please contact us for a drop off point.
Please forward this email
onto farmers/neighbours who don't have this means of communication.
We have received a lot of
response from "the outside world" and of course its of shock and horror as to
the extent of the poaching etc that is happening here, but they are slowly
becoming aware of our plight. We will give you an updated report in the next
newsletter.
all the best
J.
"lending a Voice for
the Voiceless"
thus giving our
ecosystem a future in Zimbabwe
________________________________________________
Keep up your
good work...I think we all have our up and down down days, but I genuinely
believe that the outside world is ever so slowly beginning to finally
listen.
I received a
call from someone in the Victoria Falls area yesterday informing me that he had
seen members of National Parks actually shooting animals in the Victoria Falls
National Park...he confronted the Warden who initially denied haven given
authority but then later changed his mind when he saw my friend attempting to
make a civilians arrest upon the guilty party. Unsubstantiated reports
indicate that Government employees are being allowed to hunt and decimate game
within the Parks...the meat is either being given to war vets or being sold
commercially by wildlife officials.
My associate is
attempting to obtain a full report about the poaching in the Victoria Falls game
park.
Kind
regards,
G.Ncube
________________________________________________
Isn't this soul destroying??.....shows how badly
the wheels have come off ,"ZIMBABWE....a looter's paradise!!" This poaching in
parks has been going on for the past couple of years....but now, as with
everything else...it's done almost openly!! These thugs are determined to make
the destruction TOTAL!!! Without a return to law & order , and a legitimate
govt, is there ANY hope?? C
From The Independent on Sunday (UK),
30 June
'If we lose this case, it will be
game over ...'
The coffee, paprika and tobacco need attention, but a legal
battle to keep farming prevents Sharon Kockott and her husband from getting down
to work on their land in Zimbabwe. A deadline for most white commercial farmers
in Zimbabwe to stop work expired at the beginning of last week. In just over
another month, they are supposed to leave their land altogether, but many are
staying put. Andrew Kockott and his wife Sharon bought their farm in the
Hurungwe district of northern Zimbabwe in 1995. They grow tobacco, coffee and
paprika under irrigation, and run cattle and game. Although the authorities
issued a "Certificate of No Interest" in the property seven years ago, and a
government-backed bank supplied the finance, the Kockotts, in common with other
white farmers, have received an expropriation order, which they are fighting in
court. This is Sharon Kockott's diary of their week:
Monday - We have been very fortunate in that
we have never had any settlers on the farm, unlike many in our district. We have
not been prevented from farming, but since our case was due to begin in the High
Court in Harare, we did not work on the farm. Instead we went to the capital to
bring our daughter home from university for the holidays, and to ask our lawyer
how things were going. He told us that the case began at 8.30am before Justice
Hungwe, and seemed satisfied with the way things went. Our case is based on the
fact that neither of the documents connected with the expropriation - known as a
Section 5 and a Section 8 - were served on the bank which holds the mortgage
over our farm. This is a technicality, but we hope it will give us some time, as
the Section 8 would have to be set aside. There is another group of farmers
challenging the government on constitutional grounds, but they have not yet had
a date set in court. Part of our land, which just happens to include our
homestead, has already been allocated to a Philip Muguti from Kariba, who first
arrived last year in a brand new pickup truck with a Zanu PF logo on the side.
He told us he had interests in off-licences and supermarkets in Kariba, and
suggested that Andy should carry on with his tobacco seedbeds. Andy pointed out
to him that we were contesting the compulsory acquisition in court, and were
confident of winning, so Mr Muguti should not make any hasty investments.
Tuesday - The lawyer was called into chambers
for clarification of certain points. Again, we did not work, although the coffee
and paprika should be reaped. The coffee needs water - it is already drying out.
We have till the end of the week to get the paprika off, because the law says
the crop residue has to be destroyed by 1 July As for the tobacco, we have
80,000kg in the shed which we have not started grading, because we have been too
busy with the coffee and paprika.
Wednesday - Again we are not working. Our case
was mentioned in the government-owned Herald, and an agricultural official
arrived, no doubt as a result, to tell us that a reallocation had been made
which would leave us with none of our land. Our lawyer filed his heads of
argument by noon - the respondents have until 4pm. We are still waiting: the
story of our life in Zimbabwe. Farmers have been to Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania
and Uganda to look into possible relocation. They come back saying that they
were made very welcome and that these countries are eager for investment, but
that the infrastructure in these countries leaves a lot to be desired unless you
are close to a major town. I find myself at the age where my pioneering spirit
is rather low.
Thursday - We had a power cut for most of the
day, which I spent catching up on filing and restoring order to my office. Andy
was bored to distraction - he is not good at being inactive. He went to Tengwe,
the nearest town, later for our weekly sitrep by the Farmers' Association
chairman, which keeps everyone posted on what's happening around the country. We
have to notify the police four days in advance if a meeting is being held. When
we phoned the lawyer, he said the respondents had filed their paperwork on time.
The judge had indicated that he would try to have a ruling by the weekend.
Friday - We went back to Harare to see the
lawyer again, but by the end of the day we still did not know our fate. It
remains to be seen whether Justice Hungwe will rule for us or against. If we
lose this case, it will be game over for us on the farm. We cannot defy a High
Court order. If we win, it will have huge implications for all people in our
position, because the courts will be flooded with applications on the same
precedent. Given the political and currency difficulties, not to mention the
drought, there are very few cash farmers left in Zimbabwe. Commercial
agriculture is on its knees in more ways than one.
From IRIN (UN), 29
June
Land reform could exacerbate
Zimbabwean poverty
President Robert Mugabe’s latest land reform venture may
cripple the economy even further and mire Zimbabwe in deepening poverty for the
foreseeable future. After failing to enact land reform for the first 20 years of
his rule, Mugabe resorted to more expedient measures, the latest, the Land
Acquisition Act passed May 10. Starting on June 25, farmers receiving a "Section
8" - a notice to cease farming - must suspend all farming operations and leave
their land. The farms become government property. According to United Nations
sources, because of the current drought and farm closures, 6 million Zimbabweans
will require food aid by the harvest in March of 2003. Since large-scale
commercial farms produce nearly all of the wheat, there is already a fear of a
bread shortage. The Commercial Farmers Union has estimated that about 300,000
farm workers will lose their jobs as a result of the land reform, which will
affect up to 1.5 million family members and dependents.
Land reform has been a top priority since independence in 1980
in a country where 4,000 white farmers own one-third of the best farmland. But
opposition politicians say the government has bungled reform. The government
purchased about 8.65 million acres of farmland from white farmers, but 740,000
acres of that land has yet to be distributed and 1.2 million more acres went to
government cronies and Mugabe’s political allies. Mugabe’s critics also say that
the fast-track program is not working because the new small-scale black farmers
lack the experience and capital to maintain previous standards of production.
The government disagrees, "There is ample capacity to continue farming in all
commodities except where there is a need for high capital, like greenhouses. We
acknowledge we will have problems in say flower production, but not in general
commodities like tobacco, paprika, maize, groundnuts, sunflower, fish, livestock
and dairy," said Lovegot Tendengu, executive director of the Farmers Development
Trust which trains new small-scale farmers. Tendengu said the government has
trebled their training and only needs support from the banks.
In the meantime, important cash crops may be in jeopardy. Eight
percent of tobacco farmers face eviction orders according to the association of
tobacco farmers. "The danger is that if we have a sudden transition, it may all
go wrong. I don’t see these resettled farmers producing the flavored tobacco in
a year. It takes time. A long time," said Kobus Joubert, president of the
Zimbabwe Tobacco Association. Joubert said purchases of chemicals and seeds are
down by two-thirds this year indicating that production will be down. Tobacco
produces over 30 percent of Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product and this year
brought in about 54 percent of foreign currency earnings.