* War crimes court winning over doubters

* Investigations have deterrent effect

* Culture of impunity on the wane

By Emma Thomasson

THE HAGUE, June 5 (Reuters) - The world's first permanent war crimes court is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with and is winning over doubters by showing itself to be above politics, its president said on Thursday.

The International Criminal Court is due to launch its first trial -- of a Congolese militia leader -- on June 23. In July, it celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Rome Statute which established the court and which 106 countries have since signed.

"It has proven itself. It has shown itself to be a central element in international justice," ICC President Philippe Kirsch said in an interview in his office overlooking The Hague, adding countries had joined up more quickly than expected a decade ago.

"One of the reasons why support has increased for the court is because the court has stayed away from anything political."

The United States, long openly hostile to the court due to concerns it could launch politically motivated cases against its citizens or soldiers, has signalled a more cooperative stance towards the court of late as the ICC's influence grows.

The court is investigating war crimes in four African conflicts -- in Uganda, Sudan's Darfur region, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It is also monitoring conflicts in Colombia and Afghanistan, but decided not to pursue allegations of U.S. crimes in Iraq, noting national proceedings had already been initiated.

Kirsch, a Canadian who chaired the body that drafted the ICC statute in 1998, said the start of the first trial should help towards its goal of universal acceptance.

"For the court to be able to fulfil the function that was assigned to it, it will have, sooner or later, to get close to universality," he said. "It will be a gradual process. A number of countries are waiting to see how the court operates."

The court has grown rapidly to employ 760 people from the skeleton staff who started work in 2002 after its statute entered into force once the first 60 states had signed up.

It has taken more than two years for its first detainee to come close to trial, but Kirsch said proceedings would be faster in the future once the court had settled issues such as how to balance the rights of the defence with the role of victims' representatives.

Kirsch rejected suggestions the court should consider dropping some arrest warrants to help peace processes and said that would be precisely the kind of politics it should avoid.

"The court cannot, will not and should not balance its judicial role against political considerations," he said.

Sudan has said ICC indictments against Sudanese officials would wreck the peace process for Darfur, but the court's prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo said on Thursday that Sudan's "entire state apparatus" of involvement in crimes in Darfur.

Kirsch said that, rather than hampering peace processes, investigations were already having a deterrent effect in Congo and Uganda.

"A culture of impunity is gradually being replaced by a culture of accountability. People who are contemplating...the commission of major crimes can no longer be sure that those crimes will go unpunished," he said. (Editing by Jon Boyle)

AlertNet news is provided by