The International Criminal Court or the International African Court

by Nilio Gumbs 24.MAY.11

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an independent, permanent court that came into being in 2002, by the Rome Statute, with the objective to try persons accused of the most serious crimes of international concern – namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. It was established on the premise to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community.{{more}}

A total of 114 countries have signed up to this statute. The notably absentees from this roster of signatory nations are the three major powers in the world (United States, Russia and China). Libya, also, is not a signatory to this statute, but its ruler is still accountable.

Several assumptions can made about the International Criminal Court regarding its impartiality or, more so, its partiality. There is the perception that the International Criminal Court is solely preoccupied with the prosecution of Africans, to the point where it is dubbed the African Court. All those indicted to date come from Africa: Charles Taylor from Liberia, two sitting Presidents in Omar -Al -Bashir from Sudan and Muammar Gadaffi from Libya. Other Africans include Jean Pierre Bemba from the Democratic Republic of Congo and four leaders of the Lords’ Resistance Army in Uganda. Clearly those indicted are from African countries with little or no military and international clout. The exception being Libya which, though having a small population, is a major oil producer. Other temporary Courts set up by the United Nations, of a similar nature, target individuals from developing countries, hostile to the West or not in keeping with Western interests.

On the contrary, the big boys in global politics – the United States, Russia, China, India and the European Union – have impunity in their actions, more so when not mandated by the Security Council, resulting in unknown loss of life in some countries.

The United States, under George W. Bush Jr.’s presidency, withdrew its signature from the Rome Statute, on the ground of having a judicial system that can prosecute any such transgression and the unpalatable notion of American citizens being tried by such an international body. Undoubtedly, fearing that such a scenario can manifest itself in Iraq, where more than 100,000 Iraqis subsequently lost their lives in a war that was not originally sanctioned by the Security Council. Hence, the United States was always ashamed to support any resolution reporting atrocities to the International Criminal Court for investigation, preferring to abstain from any vote. In the case of Libya, it made an about turn in its action.

The Major Powers have not only resorted to the use of Military force to back up the Security Council mandate, but have openly supported the rebels in Benghazi seeking to topple the Gadaffi regime, with both financial and military support. How is this action different from that of Charles Taylor, the former ruler of Liberia, who is awaiting trial in the Hague? Charles Taylor may have supported the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone, a notorious guerilla movement which committed mass rape and amputated the hands of its non-supporters, which came in two styles – a short sleeve – above the elbow and a long sleeve – above the wrist – but he himself did not commit any atrocity.

Cambodia was cajoled by the Security Council and Human Rights Organizations to establish a tribunal in that country, to try the surviving members of the Khmer Rouge for genocide, where 2.5 million people may have lost their lives in the 1970’s. Russia, China and the United States have all carried out monstrous crimes against humanity before and after the establishment of International Criminal Court, but no cries are being heard to hold the leaders of those countries at that time to account for their actions. How can we forget the mid-evening declaration of war on Iraq by George W. Bush Jr., Tony Blair or Jose Maria Anzar on International Cable channels, a nightmare for millions of Iraqis who have lost loved ones in the ‘War on Terror’?

There are other examples of atrocities worthy of note and crimes against humanity, which are ignored by the Security Council and the Major Powers, even though they were perpetrated before the establishment of the International Criminal Court.

Vladimir Putin, the former President of Russia, during the Chechen uprising, destroyed Grozny, the Capital of Chechnya, in his fight to subjugate and crush the rebels. Thousands of Chechen perished in the Russian onslaught on the city, where the vast majority of the buildings were flattened.

Li Peng, the then Premier in China was the face of the crackdown that quelled the protest in the Tiananmen Square by Chinese students calling for greater democracy in 1989, resulting in the death over 20,000 protesters, according to Western estimates.

In 1982, Hafez al-Assad, the deceased father of the now leader Bashir al-Assad, pursued a scorched earth policy in the town of Hama, to crush Sunni Muslim protesters, massacring of 20,000 people in its wake.

There was also the Burmese military crackdown on protesters seeking greater democracy, dubbed the 8888 massacre, because it took place on 8th August 1988, killing several thousand protesters in the process.

The world cannot forget the Israeli bombing of Gaza, three years ago, in densely populated Gaza, knowing there would be high civilian casualty with such an action. An investigation carried out by the United Nations stated that Israel may have a case to answer for war crimes.

The opening of live fire on peaceful demonstrators in Yemen, Bahrain and Eygpt by special forces and the military is not fitting for indictment by Luis Moreno Ocampo, the Argentine prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

The indictment of Colonel Gadaffi by the International Criminal Court is no surprise, given the Security Council mandate to protect civilians in Libya. One of the indictable charges is the bombing of ordinary Libyans by Gadaffi’s fighter jets. Irrespective of the fact that one cannot condone such actions, if they did occur, the Pakistanis, Yeminis and Afghans civilians can give similar accounts to the International Criminal Court, of the American drones – where ‘kill ten to catch one’ is morally permissible and casualties cast aside as collateral damage; taking comfort in the fact that grieving families duly are compensated.

What is more sad, is the vast majority of Vincentians who have fallen victim to Western propaganda are oblivious or ignorant of Gadaffi’s role in African history and development as a Pan-Africanist, who has supported the liberation struggles in Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia in their fight for independence and black rule in South Africa. More so, he is the only Arab leader to embrace black Africans from the Sahel region with open arms into his country, unlike other North African countries, where black Africans are discriminated against, as in major Western Countries. Not surprisingly, the Western Powers have applauded the black majority government in South Africa for establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Authority, which exonerated the white enforcers of Apartheid in the process, once they came clean.

The haste with which Gaddafi is indicted shows how Western Powers are able to create new surrogate institutions to maintain their hegemonic dominance – in what is called neocolonialism.