The first prosecutor of the global criminal court today said he was focusing on the Democratic Republic of Congo for what could lead to his maiden formal investigation.
International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo's examination into complaints of atrocities in Congo's northeastern province of Ituri could produce the one-year-old court's first case on war crimes, genocide or crimes against humanity.
"We have decided to follow the situation closely in Congo, and specifically in Ituri," said Moreno Ocampo, an Argentine who began work last month, told a news conference.
The global court, which took effect in July 2002 to tackle the world's gravest crimes, has no cases on its books yet.
"I think this is the most urgent case and the one where we could do something to prevent killing," Moreno Ocampo said. "If necessary, we will seek authorisation from a pre-trial chamber(of the court) to start an investigation."
Conflict in Ituri has raged since 1998 and claimed some 50,000 lives. It is part of a wider war in Africa's third biggest country which has killed around three million people.
The ICC can act only if national courts cannot or will not, and has jurisdiction solely where crimes were committed by nationals of a state party to the court or on such a state's territory.
Prosecution staff have received a total of 499 complaintsfrom 66 countries since last July. More than 100 concerned theUS-led war in Iraq, most of those just protests against thewar itself, they said.
But neither the United States nor Iraq back the court. Sofar, 139 nations have signed and 90 have ratified the treaty.