Individual countries in crisis continue to offer impunity to perpetrators of some of the most heinous crimes imaginable. Although the RUF is known to have committed countless atrocities, including systematic rape, dismemberment, and murder, the peace accord granted Sankof amnesty from criminal prosecution in Sierra Leone and gave cabinet posts to a number of RUF leaders. This may have been the case most recently in East Timor, where militia members conducted a campaign of killing, torture, and destruction throughout the country. The campaign was conducted after East Timor held a referendum in which its people voted for independence from Indonesia. The government of Indonesia claimed it was trying to control the militias but could not.
Evidence suggests, however, that there was army and police complicity involved.
There have been significant strides in both international organizations and in individual state action to prosecute crimes against humanity. The most obvious examples of the former would be the prosecutions by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which has now convicted five individuals, including former Prime Minister Jean Kambanda. Another notable success was the indictment of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the first indictment of a current head of state. The most important example of the latter was the recent historic arrest in England of former Chilean president General Augusto Pinochet. Additionally, support for the International Criminal Court has been growing around the world and it is hoped that enough countries will ratify the treaty to officially create the court within the next few years, thus establishing a permanent international forum to address these types of issues.