Mr President, Heads of States, honourable Ministers, Honourable delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to be given this opportunity to make a statement on behalf of the countries of the Southern African Development Community on the occasion of this historic diplomatic Conference on the establishment of an International Criminal Court.

The Southern African Development Community consists of the Republic of Angola, Republic of Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Malawi, Kingdom of Lesotho, Republic of Mozambique, Republic of Mauritius, Republic of Seychelles, Republic of Namibia, Kingdom of Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Republic of Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe and Republic of South Africa.

First of all, allow me if you may, Mr President, to convey our congratulations to you on your election to chair the proceedings of this historic Diplomatic Conference. The countries of SADC have the confidence that under your able leadership this Conference will be able to make significant progress on the many complex issues that face the delegates in the forthcoming five weeks.

We would also like to take this opportunity to commend the City of Rome for the warm hospitality extended to us as delegations and indeed to the entire process of establishing an International Criminal court. This Diplomatic Conference takes place at a critical moment in human history. It takes place at a time when many parts of the world, including Africa, have experienced some of the most brutal and shocking conflicts. The last two decades have experienced many significant changes in the frequency, scale and complexity of both international and internal conflicts.

Due to these conflicts millions of people have been forced to abandon their homes as a result of political terror, armed conflicts and social violence. In a number of these conflicts mass displacements have not only been simply a consequence of armed conflicts, but have also been explicit objectives of warring parties. In the former Yugoslavia due to the process of ethnic cleansing, more than three million people have been uprooted, victims of human rights abuses such as imprisonment. torture, rape and other forms of physical and psychological intimidation. In Africa we have experienced human tragedies of the most extreme dimensions in Somalia, and Liberia, while in the Great lakes Region of Africa, Particularly Rwanda and Burundi millions of people have been massacred and many more forced to flee into the neighbouring states. These events have brought to the foreground the need to establish an international system of justice; a system under which those responsible for these atrocities will be prosecuted and punished.

The Southern African Development Community considers the establishment of an international criminal court a matter which should be given priority. We believe that the establishment of such a court would not only strengthen the arsenal of measures to combat gross human rights violations, but would also ultimately contribute to the attainment of international peace. We also believe that the creation of such a court would send out a clear and unequivocal message that the international community is resolute in its resolve that the perpetrators of such heinous crimes will not get away with impunity. We say this because of our experience in the region under the apartheid system, the attendant destabilisation of the region and colonial systems.

We therefore, congratulate governments, sub-regional groups and non-governmental organisations which over the last few years have taken initiative to promote the early establishment of an effective international criminal court . In an effort to contribute to this momentum Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General in SADC region met in Namibia from 27-29 April 1998 to deliberate and consider amongst other things the Draft Statute on the establishment of an international criminal court.

At the end of the Conference:

We affirmed our commitment to the early establishment of an independent and impartial international criminal court which should be an effective complement to the national criminal justice systems, operating within the highest standards of international justice. In this regard we are also of the view that the composition of the court should reflect equitable geographical representation. At the same time we re-iterate that the basic principle underlying the setting up and operation of the international criminal court , should be the acceptance that the said court should contribute towards the furtherance of the integrity of the states generally as well as equality of states within the general principles of international law.

We also believe that an effective and independent international criminal court is a necessary element of peace and security in our contemporary world where universal respect for human rights is of paramount significance to humanity.

It is therefore, our belief that the international criminal court must have inherent jurisdiction over the core crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes in international and non international armed conflicts and aggression.

Furthermore, we believe that the international criminal court should have competence to decide admissibility issues regarding the inability, unwillingness or unavailability of national criminal justice systems to bring to justice those responsible for grave crimes under the Statute while respecting the complementary relationships between the international criminal court and such national systems.

We also feel that for the court to be able to command the respect and trust of the member states, it is essential that the Court operate with utmost impartiality, fairness and integrity. It is for this reason that we feel strongly that the international criminal court must respect the human rights of suspects, the accused, witnesses and victims at all stages of the proceedings, and in particular, that the international criminal court should be sensitive to the rights of women and children.

We would also like to emphasise that the method by which the Court will be financed will be critical for both the independence and the effectiveness of the Court. We are therefore, of the view that the relationship that the court will have with the United Nations should be such as to ensure that the court will be provided with long-term secure funding as well as human, technical and other resources necessary for its effective functioning enunciated in international human rights instruments and jurisprudence.

Lastly, Mr President, we would like to see all states cooperate fully with the international criminal court. It is in that spirit that we call on all delegations represented at this Diplomatic Conference to fully and actively participate in the Conference with a view to finalising and adopting the Statute for the establishment of an effective international criminal court at the end of this Conference.

We are also hopeful that when the Statute is adopted the number of ratifications required for the Statute to enter into force will be such that (a) it ensures universality (b) it facilitates the establishment of the international criminal court without undue delay.

As one goes through the Draft Statute it is clear that a lot of work still need to be done in order to come up with the Statute which enjoys greater unanimity. We have noted that the Statute still has a lot of brackets and options. We in SADC commit ourselves to cooperate with you Mr President, the persons chairing other committees and working groups and indeed other delegations in facilitating the work of this Conference.