ICC warrant for Gaddafi

Libya hits back at ICC warrant for Gaddafi

     

     International Criminal Court arrest warrant for war crimes against the Libyan leader Gaddafi. Government has hit back on charging the tribunal tool of European powers.

          Rebel fighters on ground yesterday captured a large arms depot from pro-Gaddafi forces in the desert near their mountain of Tripoli in big boost to their resupply, an AFP correspondent said.

          Human rights bodies and the West, meanwhile, hailed the ICC's move on Nato bombing campaign.

          Libya rejected the warrants issued for Gaddafi, 69, his son Seif al-Islam, 39, and the head of Libyan intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, 62, for atrocities committed in a bloody uprising that began mid-February.

          The ruling is a "cover for Nato which is still trying to assassinate Gaddafi", said Libya's justice minister, Mohammed al-Gamudi.

          Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaaim said the ICC "functions as a European foreign policy vehicle.

          ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo sought the warrants as thousands died in fighting and an estimated 650,000 people fled the country 

          The submissions forces carried out a systematic campaign of arrest and detention of alleged dissidents.

          The Libyan strongman ordered the shooting of civilians leaving mosques after evening prayers.

Extrajudicial Killings

Rajapaksa summoned by US court

The Tigers were also accused of crimes against humanity during their separatist war.

Sri Lanka's justice ministry received a summons issued by a US federal court for President Mahinda Rajapaksa linking him with a extrajudicial murder case filed under the Hague convention by relatives of Tamil victims.
However Sri Lanka's president has cited constitutional immunity and refused to go before a US court where he is being sued for $30 million over the killing of a Tamil man, an official said yesterday.
A US-based Tamil lobby had filed the case claiming damages from him as commander-in-chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces for the alleged killing of Raghiar Manoharan, a member of the island's ethnic Tamil minority.
The alleged killings took place during the Sri Lankan civil war.
"Under our laws, the president has immunity," justice ministry secretary Suhada Gamlath told AFP.
"We don't have to respond to such summons and I have written to the District Court of the Southern District of Columbia of our legal position last week," Gamlath said.
Sri Lanka is facing mounting international criticism over alleged war crimes committed in the final months of its battle against separatist Tamil Tiger rebels who were defeated in May 2009.
The UN and rights groups have said that they had "credible allegations" that thousands of civilians were killed by government troops.