Warrant against Gaddafi changes nothing

The chief prosecutor in the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, on Monday filed a request for an arrest warrant against Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi. The left-leaning daily die tageszeitung finds the gesture irrelevant: "The Libyan terrorist leader faces considerable threats, but a cell in Scheveningen is not one of them. Firstly, a request for an arrest warrant is not the same as a judicial warrant. In the case of [Sudanese President] Bashir it took around eight months for a warrant to be issued after the request was filed. The Libyan people no longer have that much time. Secondly, the Libyan authorities would be responsible for enforcement, but it's unlikely that they would then proceed to arrest Gaddafi. ... Nothing has changed for Libya. Any other solution than the victory of the freedom fighters is unthinkable. But Moreno-Ocampo says nothing about how this solution is to be achieved. Nor is he in a position to do so. The ball's not in his court."

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