THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SHIHAB RATTANSI, CNN ANCHOR: Some 8,000 men and boys were killed in the Srebrenica massacre six years ago, and last week the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia found ex- Bosnian Serb general, Radislav Krstic, guilty of genocide. Krstic was sentenced to 46 years in prison, the longest sentence ever handed down by the tribunal. It's also the first time the tribunal has convicted someone of genocide.
Charles Verpoorten of Belgium's Way Press International reports on another universal tribunal seeking to bring to justice those accused of global crimes against humanity.
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CHARLES VERPOORTEN, WAY PRESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Throughout history, injustice (UNINTELLIGIBLE) have gone hand in hand in the drive for conquest and domination by different peoples over their less fortunate fellow beings.
Despite the historic Nuremberg trials in 1945, followed by other major landmarks in international law, the history of impunity has followed its course to the present day. High-ranking architects of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide all too often continue to avoid prosecution by hiding behind a protective and impenetrable wall of immunity.
In keeping with the concept of universal justice, which is applied by a handful of other countries, Belgium's tribunals have jurisdiction over such crimes, irrespective of the nationality of the author, the victim or the country where the crime was committed. But that's not all.
PROF. ERIC DAVID, UNIVERSITY OF BRUSSELS: That's the peculiarity of the law, is the fact that it is specifically provided for in the law that the immunity, which is traditionally recognized to foreign members of a government, to foreign heads of state, this immunity can't play any role, can't be an obstacle to the exercise of justice.
VERPOORTEN: This law can have far-reaching effects and become the source of unexpected complications when politicians will no longer be able to use the shield of immunity as a defense.
DAVID: Even if it's not a difference, it's a problem for our minister of foreign affairs to negotiate with a foreign minister who is indicted or who is prosecuted here in Belgium.
VERPOORTEN: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is addressing this issue seriously, and it has felt that often, certain aspect of the democratic nature of the Belgian constitution need to be emphasized.
KOLN VERVAEKE, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: We have to explain, and the basic principle in Belgium is the separation of powers, powers between the judiciary and the political level. And from the moment that the judiciary takes up a case against someone, a foreign head of state or foreign minister, on the basis of this law, the political field can't intervene. That's a basic principle in Belgium.
VERPOORTEN: The most significant example has been the attempts by Palestinian survivors to charge the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with war crimes allegedly committed in Lebanon in 1982. To avoid a possible indictment and the ensuing embarrassment, he even postponed a scheduled visit to Belgium.
A solution needs to be found, and Parliament is envisioning some controversial amendments to the existing law.
For the CNN WORLD REPORT, this is Way Press International in Brussels.
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