07 Apr Jurisdictional Problems Everywhere
Homework, people, homework:
Bangladesh may request the International Criminal Court to put on trial Pakistani forces for alleged war crimes, a top official said Tuesday.
‘We will take the matter to the International Criminal Court and seek the trial of the members of the Pakistani occupation forces who committed crimes against humanity during our liberation war,’ State Minister for Liberation War Affairs, AB Tajul Islam, told German Press Agency dpa.
The alleged perpetrators of the atrocities among the Pakistani forces were not in Bangladesh now, so Dhaka needed international assistance to bring them to justice, he added.
‘And we will request the world body to bring them to justice as many of them are guilty of war crimes,’ said Tajul, a war veteran. He said the government was going to appoint a body to reinvestigate the crimes.
On the positive side: statements of states like these, or from the Palestinian Authority for instance, do suggest that the ICC is somehow perceived as a World Court, there to address the international community’s needs. If the court would lack legitimacy or would not be taken serious, statements like this would not likely to be made.