African rights groups, NGOs decry ICC defections

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG (AA) - Rights groups and experts across Africa have expressed disappointment at the recent decision by Burundi, South Africa and Gambia to leave the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).

Amnesty International’s regional director for Southern Africa, Deprose Muchena, told Anadolu Agency, the defections were a blow to the fight against impunity for crimes under international law in Africa and beyond.

“Staying in the ICC would be a sign of solidarity with the victims of human rights violations around the world,” he said in an interview with Anadolu Agency.

Muchena said South Africa’s decision to opt out of the ICC could be viewed as “effectively turning a blind eye to millions of people around the world whose rights have been violated with impunity”.

South African Justice Minister Michael Masutha announced last Friday that his country had begun a formal process to withdraw from the ICC.

Masutha said the Rome Statute, which establishes the court, conflicted with South Africa’s Diplomatic Immunities and Privileges Act, which offers protection to diplomats and other visiting officials from getting arrested.

South Africa’s decision to withdraw follows a 2015 dispute over the visit of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to South Africa -- despite being wanted by the ICC.

South Africa ignored a court order to arrest Bashir, accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.

-ICC bias

Last month, Burundi became the first African country to announce its decision to leave the international court after the ICC had said it could open a case against the government.

Days later, South Africa and Gambia also announced their decision to leave the International court, which is accused of excessively targeting African leaders.

Most of the cases tried at the ICC have been against Africans which has created suspicion that the court targets them and ignores certain powerful western nations that have allegedly committed war crimes in the Middle East and elsewhere.

However, the ICC urges that it only tries cases forwarded to it by member states and cannot try non-signatories of its treaty, namely the U.S..

“Despite being called the International Criminal Court, it is in fact an International Caucasian Court for the prosecution and humiliation of people of color, especially Africans,” Gambia’s communication minister, Sheriff Bonjang, said in a televised address.

Shadrack Gutto, director at the center of African Renaissance studies at the University of South Africa described the defections as a sad and regrettable moment for Africa.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Gutto said African countries that have ratified the Rome Statute should hold a referendum to allow their citizens to decide whether to leave the court or not.

‘‘Those who have domesticated the treaty into their laws should allow parliament to first vote on the matter before deciding to pull out,’’ he said.

The academic also dismissed claims that the court was merely targeting Africans saying it was African countries that had forwarded cases to the ICC.

Experts now fear numerous African countries could join the list of those defecting.

Critics of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh believe he is withdrawing from the ICC because he allegedly wants to evade justice.

“His withdrawal has to do with elections, in case he loses because Gambians will ensure that justice is done if the opposition wins,” activist Fatoumata Jallow Tambajang – once a minister under Jammeh, now an opposition leader -- told Anadolu Agency.

President Jammeh has been accused of human right abuses in his country including torture and disappearances of political opponents and journalists.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in office since 1986, is another has also been a strong critic of the ICC. In the past few years, he has led African countries in criticizing the International Criminal Court.

“ICC is none of our business, we had supported the ICC previously but they are just a bunch of useless people,” he said in May during his inauguration for a fifth term in office.

However, despite criticizing the ICC, in 2003, the Ugandan government has referred a case concerning the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) -- a rebel group that was operating in north of the country -- to the court.

In October 2005, the court issued arrest warrants for five LRA leaders including Joseph Kony who is still at large and Dominic Ongwen now being tried at The Hague.

Stephen Cheboi, chairman of the National Council of NGOs in Kenya said they were completely opposed to the idea of leaving the ICC.

“We cannot just allow millions of people to be at risk from bad and corrupt leaders, we are against it,” he told Anadolu Agency.

Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto were among African leaders accused of committing crimes against humanity at the ICC.

They were indicted in connection with the 2007-08 post-election violence, in which about 1,200 people died. However, prosecutors withdrew the case against Kenyatta in March last year.

*Anadolu Agency Correspondents Alieu Manneh from Gambia, Athumani Halima from Kampala, Magdalene Mukami from Nairobi, and Alpha Kamara from Dakar contributed to this story.