AFRICAN HEADS OF STATES MUST STOP UNDERMINING THE ICC.

I read with great consternation a press release from the African Union (AU) dated 29th August 2010 in which the ICC was censured for reporting Kenya and Chad to the UN Security Council and the Assembly of the State Parties to the Rome Statute over President Al Bashir`s fiasco. Therein was a re-affirmation of resolutions adopted by the AU summit about three months ago in Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort, Kampala. Here, the African heads of states for the umpteenth time unflinchingly reiterated that subjecting a “sovereign head of state” to a warrant of arrest is undermining African solidarity and African peace and security.”

Borrowing heavily from this communique, Mwangi Thuita, in his capacity as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs opined in one of the local dailies that arresting Al Bashir (who is accused of murdering hundreds of thousands of Sudanese Christians among other war crimes) would be ignoring the region's raison d'être as well as undermining the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) midwifed by Kenya.

Sadly, the AUs communiqué as well as Thuita`s article point at African heads of states who are increasingly determined to shield themselves and their protégés from prosecution from crimes against humanity or genocide. In the pretext of local peace and reconciliation initiatives, they want to be given carte blanche to create a two-tier system of international justice. It will be suicidal to grant them such a wish given the fact that they have often demonstrated a genius for working at cross-purposes with the objects of the ICC. This will definitely lead to increased human rights violations by the same leaders with justice being the very least of their concerns.

Any keen observer would not fail noticing that beneath the African heads of states veneer of pursuing peace, justice, stability and reconciliation is an attempt at warding off any incursion at their comfort zones that are characterized by a common denominator: impunity.

It must be crystal clear to these leaders that no amount of immunity for a sitting president can justify the perpetration of heinous and murderous acts against his own citizens. The world will never let go unpunished such tragic bloodletting.

The public is therefore specifically warned to be wary of those who are desperately trying to accuse ICC of ignoring this region`s political realities. Such arguments are misleading as they are false.

With respect to the CPA, suffice it to say that nobody is against Kenya and its cohorts under the auspices of the AU and IGAD in spearheading its implementation. Indeed, the world lauds this initiative. But it would be extremely naïve to obsessively think that such an agenda can replace justice. The CPA was never intended to be Al Bashir`s washing powder. That is why (notwithstanding our inability to arrest him) his presence in Kenya was repulsive. Simply put, it was a huge diplomatic gaffe.

Kenya should therefore not flaunt unabated her sovereignty in defiance of the Rome Statute. She will undoubtedly become a target of unrelenting opprobrium and censure within international forums such as the United Nations. Unfortunately, this will not bode well with our struggling economy.

TOME FRANCIS,
BUMULA.
http://twitter.com/tomefrancis