MALI: Mali Asks International Court to Investigate Atrocities

The government of Mali on Wednesday formally asked the International Criminal Court to investigate atrocities attributed to groups of armed rebels, including Islamic extremists, who established a breakaway ministate in the northern half of the country this year.

A delegation, led by Mali's minister of justice, Malick Coulibaly, visited the court's headquarters in The Hague and handed over its request in a meeting with the court's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda.

The request, signed by Mr. Coulibaly and released by the court, said that the crimes committed in northern Mali since January involved “grave and large-scale violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law, committed notably in the north of the country.”

The document cited “summary executions of soldiers, rape of women and young girls, massacres of civilians, the use of child soldiers and pillage.” It also included the deliberate destruction of hospitals, courts and schools, and attacks on churches, tombs and mosques.

After the meeting, the prosecutor said that she had instructed her staff to decide quickly if the court's jurisdiction applied to Mali's request.

But she left little doubt about the outcome. In a statement, Ms. Bensouda said that her office had followed the violence in Mali “very closely” since its start in January and that several sources had reported large-scale atrocities. Early this month, she warned against the further destruction of shrines of Muslim saints, which was occurring in the ancient desert city of Timbuktu, saying that it could qualify as a war crime. In principle, the court has jurisdiction over large-scale crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Mali because it is among the 121 countries that are signatories to the court. In its application Wednesday, Mali's government said it was turning to the tribunal in The Hague because the country's courts would be “unable” to handle the prosecutions.

Ms. Bensouda in her statement made a point of noting that Mali was now the fourth African country to bring a case of its own volition to the court, apparently in an effort to deflect renewed criticism that the court has focused too much on Africa. All the cases on the docket of the court, which opened its doors a decade ago, are linked to conflicts in Africa.