LONDON (AFP) — Prosecuting the perpetrators of genocide and other crimes against humanity is the best way to prevent further atrocities, actress Angelina Jolie said, urging tougher action in 2008.
"Accountability is perhaps the only force powerful enough to break the cycle of violence and retribution that marks so many conflicts," the Hollywood star wrote in The Economist magazine's "The World in 2008", out on Wednesday.
The actress, who is a goodwill ambassador to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said she hoped the coming year will see the international community seek "true accountability" for victims, particularly in Darfur.
"Through accountability we can begin the process of righting past wrongs, and even change the behaviour of some of the world's worst criminals," she said.
In the full-page article seen by AFP on Tuesday, she said international tribunals like those set up after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda or following conflict in the Balkans have the power to change behaviour.
Jolie -- one of a number of high-profile world figures to contribute to the publication -- said she had met a teenage boy from Darfur on a recent UNHCR mission to a refugee camp in neighbouring Chad who said he wanted those responsible to be put on trial.
"I hope that the Sudanese government will hand over the government minister and the Janjaweed militia leader who have been indicted for war crimes (by the International Criminal Court in The Hague), and that the teenager I met in Chad will get the trial he seeks," she added.
"I hope that those responsible for the atrocities in Darfur will be held to account, not only for that young man's sake, but for the world's."
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