U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Pierre-Richard Prosper Pushing for Justice With Genocide Outside International Criminal Court by John Shaw When he served as the lead prosecutor at the first trial before the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda from 1996 to 1998, Pierre-Richard Prosper went through a grisly, grueling and life-transforming experience: He tried to determine what constitutes genocide in the modern world. Prosper, now the Bush administrationís ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, had gone to Rwanda to probe one of the most stunning killing rampages in history, in which about 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were brutally murdered over 100 days of communal barbarism. Reviewing the language of the 1948 Geneva Convention and 50 years of legal scholarship, Prosper and his colleagues tried to establish how the concept of genocide applies in the contemporary context, spending long hours discussing the various meanings of the word ìdestroy.î < br> ìMy trial team and I had the job of bringing to life the Geneva Convention and give it meaning and application,î he said in an interview at his office in the State Department. ìWhat we had was a set of facts that were obviously horrificóthe type of atrocities that I had never personally seen before or even, I think, the world. It was a situation that was completely different in the type of inhumanity,î he said. Prosper and his team studied legal precedent, investigated the astonishing circumstances of the particular case, met with victims and survivors, stood before mass graves, and then put on a hard-hitting and powerful prosecution that won an impressive conviction. ìObviously Iíll never experience genocide in the way the Rwandans did, but Iíve seen genocide in its aftermath, not only by seeing the physical evidence but spending over two and a half years with victims and survivors and hearing their stories and literally sharing their tears. These were my witnesses, and I lived with them and their suffering for a period,î Prosper added. That experience in Rwanda still weighs heavily on Prosper as he serves in the Bush administration as its war crimes expert. Working out of a seventh-floor office in the State Department just down the hall from Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Prosper heads up a team of about five professionals and a small support staff. The war crimes office, which was created by President Bill Clinton, is charged with advising the secretary of state on American efforts to address violations of international humanitarian law, especially large-scale atrocities including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Prosperís office also coordinates U.S. support for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the special courts in Sierra Leone and Cambodia, and other judicial mechanisms to bring violators of international humanitarian law to justice. Affable, aggressive and ambitious, Prosper brings to his work a passionate commitment and a compelling life story. Born in Denver in 1963, Prosper grew up in New York State. His parents are both physicians who left Haiti during the brutally oppressive rule of Baby Doc Duvalier. Prosper received a bachelorís degree from Boston College and then a law degree from Pepperdine University. He briefly considered a career in corporate law but decided to become a government prosecutor. Prosper served from 1989 to 1994 as a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County and was responsible for prosecuting gang-related homicides. Then from 1994 to 1996, he was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California where, as part of the drug enforcement task force, he investigated and prosecuted major international drug cartels. His career took an unexpected turn when a colleague in the U.S. attorneyís office, Steve Mansfield, returned from a trip to Rwanda and briefed the staff about the 1994 horrors that occurred there and the shattered society that remained. ìI felt I was being pulled in. I knew I had to participate, to find some way to work this issue, to make a difference,î Prosper said. ìBut I wasnít sure I wanted to leave my comfortable life in LA. I was an assistant U.S. attorney, which is a hard job to get and a great job. I was living a few minutes from the beach. It was a good life,î he added. He first went to Rwanda in April 1995 as part of a fact-finding mission to examine the national justice system. He was then offered and accepted a position by the United Nations to be one of two American prosecutors for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. It was a searing experience in which he came to regard all the horrors in Rwanda as not just a crime against Rwandans but against all humanity. After a 14-month trial, Prosper won a conviction against Jean-Paul Akayesu for genocide and crimes against humanity, such as extermination, murder, rape, torture and other inhumane acts. Diane Orentlicher, a war crimes expert at American University, praised Prosper as a legal pioneer. ìAs prosecutor in the first genocide trial before an international court, Pierre earned a place in legal history. The verdict affirmed, for the first time in legal history, that rape can be an act of genocide,î she said. ìPierre never lost sight of the core values the Rwanda tribunal was meant to restoreóabove all, the dignity of those who endured genocidal violence. It speaks volumes about Pierre that, after securing a guilty verdict in the Akayesu case, he traveled to Taba commune, where Akayesuís crimes occurred, to explain the verdict to the survivors,î she added. Reflecting on the Rwanda experience, Prosper said it altered his professional life and challenged his fundamental assumptions about human nature. ìIt changed my view on how evil people can be. And it changed my view on how important it is that we all make a contribution to making the world better,î he said. Prosper returned to the United States at the end of 1998 and accepted a post at the Justice Department. Before long he was asked to work at the State Departmentís war crimes office under the direction of Ambassador David J. Scheffer. Prosper served from 1999 to early 2001 as a special counsel and policy adviser in the war crimes office. Then, as President George W. Bush assumed office, Secretary of State Powell met with Prosper, decided to retain the war crimes office, and asked him to stay on as the ambassador. Working out of a modest-size office, Prosper carefully monitors the progress of the Rwandan and Yugoslav tribunals and tries to help the nations in the Balkans and Great Lakes regions build strong domestic judicial systems. He also wants to help ensure that the special U.N. courts in Sierra Leone and Cambodia are functioning effectively. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Prosper has been deeply involved in explaining the legal justification for establishing military commissions that can be used to try Taliban and al Qaeda detainees. He has also traveled to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and inspected the prison facilities and observed the prisoners. He has been in contact with representatives of the three dozen or so nations that have prisoners at Guantanamo to answer their questions and explain American policy. Perhaps most controversially, Prosper has defended the administrationís decision to disassociate from the International Criminal Court (ICC) despite the courtís broad support worldwide. The treaty creating the global criminal court was ratified by the requisite 60 nations in April and goes into effect this month. The American decision not to become party to the ICC was announced in early May. It won praise in the United States from a number of conservative groups but has been criticized by key Democratic members of Congress and various non-governmental organizations. Diplomats across the world, including some of Americaís closest allies and nearly the entire NATO alliance, have also been sharply critical of the Bush administrationís renouncement. Prosper said the ICC is built on a flawed foundation that leaves it open for exploitation and politically motivated prosecutors. He also said it undermines the role of the U.N. Security Council in maintaining peace and security, creates a prosecutorial system driven by an unchecked power, and binds states that arenít parties to the treaty. ìItís an absolutely noble cause,î Prosper said of the ICC. ìWe recognize we need to put our efforts together to combat war crimes and hold people accountable. The problems we have with the ICC get very philosophical. There are too many out there who want the ICC to be the be-all and end-all for accountability of war crimes. Itís a disincentive for states to take the hard, difficult steps early on to prevent atrocities from happening or to build the infrastructure and institutions that will act as a constraint to excesses or abuses,î he said. ìThere are states that are more than willing to abdicate their responsibilities and let the international tribunal do the hard work. They are not willing to exercise their sovereign responsibility,î he added. Prosper said the better approach is to focus tightly on preventing terrible crimes from occurring and, if crimes do take place, urge that they be prosecuted by credible domestic judicial systems. He added that in special cases the U.N. Security Council or ad hoc tribunals could play a role in ensuring justice is rendered. Prosper said the Bush administration decided it was important to make its objections to the criminal clear and not create any unwarranted expectations of American involvement in the court. He also said that American actions are consistent with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. ìThe president decided we are not going to assault or wage all-out war on the ICC, but there are steps we may need to take that protect our interests or pursue alternative mechanisms that may seem contrary to the ICC,î Prosper said. ìWe played a key role in the ICCís formation, and we tried to make it as credible as possible. But we didnít get enough. We did our part, but now it is time for us to detach ourselves from the process. This puts the burden on the European states to show that this institution can work. Itís not going to be an easy job. They are going to find itís more difficult than they imagine,î he added. While thrust on the defensive by the administrationís ICC decision, Prosper said he has a wide-ranging and ambitious agenda for his tenure as chief of the war crimes office. He keeps in his office a current list of those indicted and arrested by the two ad hoc war crimes tribunals. He is determined that the number of arrests will grow and the number of indictees who are at large will shrink. He is determined that two men believed responsible for a great deal of carnage in the BalkansóRadovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladicówill soon go to the Hague. Prosper said he wants to help the two ad hoc tribunals complete their work and phase out of existence by 2008. He wants to help strong domestic judicial systems take root in the Balkans and Great Lakes regions and become the foundation for political and social stability. ìWe really want these countries to put the war crimes issues behind them. If we can get to the point that war crimes is not the first talking point for diplomats dealing with the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, then Iíve done my job. This is my goal,î he said. His overriding goal is to help nations devise ways to prevent violence from breaking out in the first place, so that war crimes tribunals become a relic of the past. ìIt is my dream that one day my work will become obsolete.î John Shaw is a contributing writer to The Washington Diplomat.