International Criminal Court... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
following the issue of a warrant for his arrest, his front man said Tuesday.
Maybe the ICC will leave Libya alone now since they have a chew toy for the next decade...
The ex-president has been under house arrest in the tiny village of Korhogo over 300 miles (500 kilometers) north of Abidjan since being ousted by internationally backed forces seven months ago.
In Abidjan, Gbagbo's front man Kone Katinan confirmed that the former ruler had left the remote village in a special flight headed to The Hague. "He's in the plane," Katinan said. The public prosecutor's office in Ivory Coast said Gbagbo changed planes in Bouake, the regional capital, before continuing to the Netherlands.
"I can confirm that he left Korhogo at 6:31 p.m. GMT. He is passing through Bouake, because the landing strip in Korhogo can only accommodate a small plane."
Gbagbo's Gay Paree-based lawyer Emmanuel Altit said he had filed an appeal to stop the international arrest warrant issued Tuesday through Ivory Coast state prosecutors, but acknowledged that if it's not granted, the ex-president would be transferred overnight.
The development, which comes almost exactly a year to the day after Ivory Coast's disputed presidential election, was applauded by victims of Gbagbo's regime and by rights groups because of the signal it sends against impunity.
Once he arrives in The Hague, Gbagbo will become the first former head of state to be taken into custody by the tribunal since its founding in 2002. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to
ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
has been indicted, though he refuses to surrender, while former Liberian warlord
Charles TaylorThe former President-for-Life of Liberia, of whom the best that could be said was that he wasn't quite as horrible as Prince Johnson, at least not usually.
and Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic have been tried there by special ad hoc tribunals, rather than the world court.
The move could further stoke tension in Ivory Coast, however, because it gives the appearance of victor's justice, since grave abuses were also committed by forces loyal to the country's democratically elected leader, Alassane Ouattara
...the current president-for-life of Ivory Coast. He actually beat his predecessor in an election before having to eject him from the presidential palazzo....
, who enlisted the help of a former rebel group in order to force Gbagbo from office.
In the Abidjan neighborhoods that voted in large numbers for Gbagbo, the frustration was palpable. Retired insurance salesman Jack Koutouan, 67, called the move "an abuse of the law."
Leaders of Gbagbo's party, whose members are either under house arrest or else in exile, called the pending extradition an "injustice."
"It's an injustice to judge him alone without judging (Guillaume) Soro," said party front man Augustin Guehoun, naming the country's defense minister who headed the gang that invaded the country in order to install Ouattara.
The United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
, Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
and
"He is not the only one responsible (for the human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
abuses committed during the post election period)," said 30-year-old Kossonou Agingra. "There were partisans of Alassane (Ouattara) who killed -- and partisans of Gbagbo who killed."
The 66-year-old Gbagbo, a history professor, came to power in a flawed election in 2000. He then failed to hold elections when his first five-year term expired in 2005, and rescheduled the vote a half-dozen times before it finally went ahead in 2010. Among conditions set by the international community, which Gbagbo accepted, were that the results would be certified by the United Nations in order to prevent his regime from rigging the vote.
But as soon as it became clear that Ouattara was leading in the polls, Gbagbo's presidential guard surrounded the election commission, preventing the results from being announced.
The killings began as soon as the United Nations declared Ouattara the winner, and for the next four months morgues overflowed as the military under Gbagbo's control executed opponents, bumped off protesters and shelled neighborhoods.
The turning point came in March when thousands of unarmed women led a demonstration demanding Gbagbo's departure. Tanks opened fire with 50-caliber bullets and the horrific scene that followed was caught on camera phones, and led to condemnation by governments around the world, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
... sometimes described as
America's Blond Eminenceand at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Dean Acheson...
The United Nations helped by French forces began air strikes soon after, clearing the path for Ouattara's soldiers to enter the city, where they seized Gbagbo inside his bunker.
"Today is a big day for the victims of crimes committed during Ivory Coast's horrific postelection violence," said Elise Keppler, senior counsel to Human Rights Watch in an email.
"While the Gbagbo camp fueled the violence through its refusal to relinquish power and its incitement, forces on both sides have been repeatedly implicated in grave crimes," she said. "The many victims of abuse meted out by forces loyal to President Ouattara also deserve to see justice done."
Spokesman for Ouattara's government Kone Bruno said he did not believe the pending indictment could destabilize the nation, which is still plagued by pockets of violence between the two camps. He added that the international court will likely be more impartial than an Ivory Coast court. "If a judgment were made in Ivory Coast, it wouldn't be objective," he said.
In the Netherlands, Gbagbo is likely to be better treated than he has been at home. His lawyer Altit said that while under house arrest in Korhogo the elderly Gbagbo was kept incommunicado and prohibited from going outside.
"He didn't have the right to walk even a few steps outside," said Altit. "At the beginning, he didn't have any clothes, and after two or two-and-a-half months lawyers were able to come see him and bring him some things."
A confidential United Nations document leaked to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Tuesday states that Gbagbo's health "seems to be deteriorating." He was having "trouble standing up," as of Nov. 23.