Vol. 491 No. 5
51 Mr. Farrelly asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he supports the view that, to be effective, any proposed international criminal tribunal needs to be able to prosecute crimes of genocide arising from internal conflict in states, for example, Cambodia, and not just crimes arising from international conflicts. [12388/98]
As the Deputy is aware a diplomatic conference on the establishment of an international criminal court will be held in Rome from 15 June to 17 July 1998. It is hoped at that conference to adopt a Statute to establish a permanent international criminal court which will have the jurisdiction to prosecute persons guilty of such heinous crimes as the crime of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ireland will be represented at the conference in Rome and I will attend during the first week to make a statement to underline the importance to Ireland that the conference be successful.
Most armed conflicts today are internal and not international. Therefore, I fully share the view that, in order to be an effective instrument of justice in relation to the types of crimes over which it is envisaged the court will have jurisdiction, including genocide, the future court should have the jurisdiction to try crimes committed in non-international as well as international armed conflicts. This is a position which Ireland has always advocated and will continue to do so in Rome.
In his question the Deputy referred to the prosecution of persons for crimes committed in Cambodia. It is generally envisaged that the future court will only have jurisdiction over crimes committed after the Statute setting it up has entered into force. However, this is a matter which will be finally decided in Rome.
The question of bringing to justice those guilty of committing crimes in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge period is now under active consideration in the UN and various proposals have been put forward. One such proposal is the establishment of a special tribunal empowered to prosecute persons found responsible for those crimes in Cambodia, similar to the two ad hoc tribunals created to prosecute those accused of committing crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Ireland supports moves to bring to justice the perpetrators of those appalling crimes.
