[A-List] The Sierra Leone tribunal

["Jim Yarker" <sjy_estrien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.innercitypress.com/uncourts060807.html

Sierra Leone Prosecutor Goes Hat in Hand to a Closed Down BBC, While ICC 
Stays Off the Record

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, June 8 -- Two faces of the international justice system were 
on display Friday at UN headquarters, one pursuing publicity and the other 
trying to prohibit it.

           Charles Taylor's prosecutor Stephen Rapp came to brief the 
Security Council about the Special Court for Sierra Leone. In the run-up to 
Mr. Rapp's appearance, a major public relations firm, Hill & Knowlton, 
offered interviews with Mr. Rapp before or after . Wire services throughout 
Europe were, they say, bombarded by publicity for Mr. Rapp.

           And yet, when the Council briefing ended, there appeared to be 
no demand. UN Television shut down the stakeout camera and lighting. Mr. 
Rapp finally emerged, along with the president of the Court, Hon. George 
Gelaga King. Inner City Press, the only media on the scene, asked Mr. Rapp 
five questions in five minutes.

           Amplifying on a previous quote that he spends forty percent of 
his time cap in hand, Mr. Rapp said he spends 40% of this time on the road 
telling people about the Court.

           But how much cap in hand?

           "Isn't this cap in hand?" Mr. Rapp asked, gesturing back at the 
Security Council. Inside, the UK's Deputy Ambassador Karen Pierce had 
announced her country's contribution of $4 million to the Court. As to who 
is paying for the Hill and Knowlton public relations firm, it is not clear. 
Inner City Press asked the UN Spokesperson's Office and was provided with 
some background information, including when the UN provided money to the 
Special Court for Sierra Leone. But the specifics of this Court's use of an 
outside P.R. firm could not be ascertained.

           Inner City Press asked Mr. Rapp about a quote from Liberian 
president, and long-time World Bank and UN System insider, Ellen 
Johnson-Sirleaf, that "the media is very excited about Mr. Taylor. We just 
want to leave that era and put it behind us. And we wish the media would do 
the same." (Macleans).

           "I doubt she said that," Mr. Rapp replied. "In April, she was 
very happy we were there." Mr. Rapp continued that "Her people don't want 
Taylor to return."

Stephen Rapp (hat in hand not shown; ICC briefer not shown, see below)

           Inner City Press asked how the Court is publicizing its work in 
Sierra Leone. Mr. Rapp said that there will still not be streaming video all 
the time -- as there was for Slobodan Milosevic's trial -- but that the 
trial's opening, which Taylor boycotts, was shown, as will be the last week 
of the trial.

           Speaking of television, Mr. Rapp said he needed to go up to the 
offices of BBC, to appear before 11 p.m. London time. Inner City Press 
accompanied him upstairs.

           Asked about one Cindor Reeves, also quoted in Macleans, Mr. Rapp 
said that "the individual says he's a protected witness... If that were 
true, we could not confirm it." Mr. Reeves has been quoted that John 
Richardson, a person in Liberia subject to targeted travel sanctions, has 
threatened him. Of Mr. Richardson, Rapp said "he's the one who runs 
'ForTaylor.net' and who put up the billboards."

           Would threatening a witness be a crime he could prosecute?  Mr. 
Rapp said that one who threatens could be charged with contempt, and could 
be put in jail for up to seven years.

           Mr. Rapp arrived at the door of BBC's office, which was locked. 
"They said they might be gone," Mr. Rapp said. To Inner City Press he said, 
"I read your report after" his last appearance at the UN. That appearance 
had been in the UN's briefing room 226. This time, Inner City Press is told, 
the request to hold a press conference was discouraged, with the explanation 
that Friday at 5 o'clock does not work.

  But the Security Council chose Friday at 3 p.m. to hold its "debate," 
consisting of the reading of prepared statements by Council members and, 
among others, Germany, the Netherlands -- which says it has provided "gratis 
personnel" to the Court -- and Nigeria. President Obasanjo had offered 
sanctuary to Charles Taylor, but then under pressure, Mr. Taylor set out to 
Cameroon and was captured. The UN arranged for his detention and then his 
transfer to The Hague. Now his prosecutor has hired an outside P.R. firm, to 
try to tell the story.

           Less desirous of publicity, apparently, is the more directly 
UN-related International Criminal Court. In Friday's UN "Journal," an event 
was listed from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m. in Conference Room 6: "Friends of the 
International Criminal Count, briefing by the Office of the Prosecutor of 
the [ICC], organized by the Permanent Mission of Liechtenstein." There was 
no indication that it was a closed meeting, either in the Journal or on the 
sign outside Conference Room 6, so Inner City Press attended.

           There is much to say about the briefing, but supposedly now none 
of it can be reported. When question time arrived, Inner City Press was told 
that the event was entirely "off the record." This seeming strange, for a 
open event of the UN ICC, Inner City Press asked several questions, among 
them:

does the ICC track information collected, for example by UNICEF, of parties' 
recruitment of child soldiers, in Nepal and Sri Lanka and, for example, by 
Eastern Congo militia leader Peter Karim, who has been given a colonel's 
post in the Congolese Army?

           The ICC speaker's response was... off the record.

           Inner City Press asked about events in Somalia, including the 
targeting of civilian neighborhoods and a European Union memo questioning 
whether those supporting these shellings might be guilty of war crimes.

          The International Criminal Court speaker's response was... off 
the record.  Afterwards, Inner City Press asked the speaker if there was 
anything said that could be used. Apparently not. What sense does this make, 
for a public institution about a public issue?  "International Confidential 
Court," one wag has taken to calling it.

           Friday at the Security Council stakeout, Inner City Press asked 
Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson if the ICC indictments are helpful. The 
indictments "must proceed," he said. Video here.

           On Thursday at stakeout, when a question was asked for the ICC's 
position on UN officials meeting with the Lord's Resistance Army leaders who 
are under ICC indictment, without arresting them, Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo 
walked away from the microphone.  Video here, from Minute 8:36. Friday one 
of his deputies -- unnamed here in light of the unilateral and belated "off 
the record" declaration -- was asked this same question, but has requested 
that the answer not be published. Only at the UN...

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