Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC): it's one of the most difficult and politically sensitive jobs there is. But also one of the 'world’s best’ jobs, according to the current chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo. Everything points to Fatou Bensouda taking over from him in July next year. If she does, she can pick up where she left off as deputy prosecutor in 2004: a little unfinished business in Africa.

Fifty-year-old Fatou Bensouda got two presents in the pas weeks. She heard that she is the favourite to succeed Ocampo. And with the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo, she plucked the fruits of an investigation she herself led in the past year in Ivory Coast.

African playground
There were already rumours that the court’s new face would be African. Anything else would be out of the question. Africa is the playground for international law and the court is the theatre of justice.

African countries are overrepresented in the ICC and all the cases currently being tried in The Hague took place in Africa. African leaders, once its most passionate advocates, now jokingly dub it the ‘African Criminal Court’.

Now countries within the African Union are threatening to give up their membership. The court is accused of practicing legal colonialism and being arbitrary. The appointment of Ms Bensouda is partly to put an end to that idea.

Her Argentinian predecessor Moreno Ocampo had a hard job selling the ICC’s mission: the prosecution of suspects of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ms Bensouda, who speaks good French and English, will make a much better job of that than Ocampo.

Home game

After Mr Ocampo, the ICC will be less exciting – Ms Bensouda is more pragmatic and judicial. But that is what the member states want to see: a legal beagle who gets down to work without a lot of fuss.

Until the beginning of this week, there were two African candidates for the chief prosecutor’s job. But top Tanzanian judge Mohammed Othman no longer appears to be in the race for the position.

To choose Ms Bensouda is to choose continuity. She knows all the cases and day-to-day practice in The Hague like no other. The Gambian, once minister of justice in her home country and bank manager, came to The Hague on a rainy day in November 2004. Since then she has worked with her boss Mr Ocampo on the first investigations and prepared the first cases.

She was responsible for preliminary investigations in Ivory Coast, Guinea and Nigeria. To Ms Bensouda, it’s a home game. She knows the files, as well as the main players, which is important as politics quite often gets in the way of justice at the ICC.

Headache cases
Ms Bensouda headed the first trial at the ICC, the case against former warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo from Congo. To her, the case is a success if Lubanga is convicted for using child soldiers in Congo.

The trial cost her blood, sweat and tears. The witnesses were unreliable and twice there were serious procedural mistakes. The verdict is expected at the beginning of next year.

Ms Bensouda will inherit a barrow full of headache cases. One difficult point is that for many cases, the ICC depends on the coooperation of local leaders. Mr Ocampo and Ms Bensouda do not have their own police force to arrest suspects, and that is why suspects are more often than not dumped at the court once their own country no longer knows what to do with them.

Big fish
There is a difficult task ahead for the friendly Ms Bensouda. Her main challenge is to show the court can operate independently. Human rights organisations accuse Mr Ocampo and Ms Bensouda of failing to tackle the big leaders from conflict zones up to now. Take the presidents of Congo, Uganda, the Central African Republic and Kenya, for instance.

Fatou Bensouda will also depend on their cooperation for investigations. The question is whether she’ll manage to catch the biggest fish.

(nc/hs)