WHILE much has changed in Liverpool, it still contributes to global affairs, courtesy of David Alton’s astonishing Roscoe Lectures, now in their 11th year.
In his role as chair of Liverpool John Moores University Citizenship department, not only will he welcome one of the world’s outstanding international criminal lawyers, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, on Wednesday, but he will also honour one of the most courageous political crusaders for democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi.
This LMJU fellowship will be granted in absentia to her sister-in-law, Lucinda Phillips, from Wiltshire, as Dr Suu Kyi is under permanent house arrest in Burma. She was elected prime minister of Burma in 1990, but never allowed to take power.
Dr Suu Kyi was married to the late English academic, Michael Aris, with whom she has two sons. When Aris contracted terminal cancer, Prof Lord Alton and fellow-crossbencher Lord Jack Weatherill visited the Burmese ambassador in London to plead that he should be granted his dying wish to visit his wife.
David recalls: “It fell on deaf ears, which tells you all you need to know about this regime of almost unparalleled cruelty. They were willing to let Dr Suu Kyi come to the UK, but this was a cold calculation as they would not let her back into Burma. She’s an icon of democracy and an extraordinary example of citizens who take on giants, big and small.”
Luis Moreno-Ocampo uses international criminal law as an innovative instrument to prosecute and prevent genocide via the International Criminal Court, where he is chief prosecutor, says David.
“This is a relatively new idea and 100 countries have given their signatures of support. Many have already called on the ICC to investigate crimes of genocide and abuses against humanity.
An Argentinian, Moreno-Ocampo successfully prosecuted senior military chiefs in his country for mass killings and human rights abuses after the Falklands War. In the 1990s, he established a law firm dealing in international human rights and worked on behalf of victims of Nazi Germany.
Moreno-Ocampo and David share particular interest in the war in Sudan. However, Moreno-Ocampo was criticised by fellow international lawyers for his 2008 decision to publicly charge Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s president, with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As the first Parliamentarian to go into Darfur, in western Sudan, David has witnessed the effects of huge displacement of population and mass killings.
“If it wasn’t genocide by al-Bashir, then what was it?” asks David.
“It’s worth mentioning al-Bashir’s behaviour since his indictment, blustering that this was a white man’s court, although one of the ICC judges on the panel was an African. Al-Bashir threatened to blackmail everyone involved and expelled aid agencies, leaving people with minimal chance of survival.
“His security chief, General Abdallah Gosh, said he would amputate the arms and cut off the head of anyone co-operating with the ICC.
“Tragedies like this are an indictment of our international failure to protect innocent people from these monstrous dictators.
“The system of international law may be imperfect at present, but if tyrants like Liberia’s Charles Taylor, or Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic, knew they would eventually face a day of reckoning, then they might just moderate their behaviour.
“The ICC represents a good deed in a nasty world. We’re privileged to have a person of such high renown as Luis Moreno-Ocampo here.”
ROSCOE Lecture, on Wednesday, May 6, at 5pm, given by Luis Moreno-Ocampo, at St George’s Hall, Liverpool; free admission by ticket only, please call 0151 231 3668.
peter.elson
