By Hassan Isilow
JOHANNESBURG (AA) – The increasing defiance shown by African countries not to arrest wanted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is an indication the International Criminal Court (ICC) is losing credibility on the continent, a leading expert has said.
Johannesburg-based academic and political analyst Professor Sipho Seepe told Anadolu Agency that African leaders believe the ICC is only targeting them, yet some Western leaders accused of committing war crimes are not brought before The Hague-based court.
“Justice must be justice for all, not selective. The ICC must show the same approach and bring Western leaders to the ICC,” Seepe said in an interview on Wednesday.
He further said African leaders were not willing to arrest fellow sitting heads of state because they know this will lead to conflicts in their countries.
“African leaders want to see fewer conflicts, yet it seems the ICC is more about vengeance,” he claimed.
Despite having an international arrest warrant issued against him, Sudan’s Bashir traveled to Rwanda on the weekend to attend the 27th African Union Summit.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant against him in 2009 for allegedly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told reporters in the capital Kigali that her government would not arrest the Sudanese leader despite the ICC writing to Rwanda requesting them to arrest him.
-ICC credibility
Pretoria-based constitutional law expert, Professor Shadrack Gutto, believes the ICC still has credibility among ordinary Africans.
“Africans are tired of wars, genocide and conflicts. I believe, in their eyes, the ICC has credibility because it tries those who have committed these crimes,’’ he told Anadolu Agency Wednesday.
However, he said the ICC needs to also try Western leaders accused of war crimes in the Middle East.
“If the ICC is to regain its credibility amongst African leaders, then it should also try Western leaders such as former British prime minister Tony Blair and others for wars in the Middle East,’’ he said.
He, however, agrees it is difficult for a sitting president to be arrested.
“One has to wait for Bashir to leave office before he is arrested,” he noted.
This year Bashir travelled to Uganda to attend the inauguration ceremony of President Yoweri Museveni but was not arrested despite the country being a signatory to the Rome Statute that formally established the ICC.
The Sudanese leader was also in South Africa in 2015 to attend the 25th African Union Summit in Johannesburg, but was not arrested although a high court had issued an interim order preventing him from leaving the country.
Bashir defied the order and left the country, leaving the African National Congress-led government in a difficult position answering court cases on why they let him depart.