We Are Not Targeting African Leaders – International Criminal Court
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Tags: ICC, International Criminal Court, Joseph Kony, Judge Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi
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The International Criminal Court (ICC) president, Judge Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi, has assured African leaders that the world court is not targeting only African leaders to have them prosecuted but rather the court is playing its role of dispensing justice world-wide.
Judge Fernández was, however, quick to admit that the court initiated its investigations legally called situations mainly on the African continent.
The ICC president’s assurances follow last year’s pronouncement by the governments of South Africa, Burundi and The Gambia to withdraw their membership from the ICC over what they described as disproportionate targeting of the continent’s leaders. In particular, President Museveni has on several occasions lashed out at the ICC for allegedly targeting African leaders before referring to them as a bunch of ‘useless’ people.
“It is a useless body, they are a bunch of useless people,” Mr Museveni hit out at the ICC in his swearing-in speech last year at Kololo ceremonial ground.
In April 2013, while speaking at the swearing in ceremony of Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, Mr Museveni lashed out at ICC saying the West is using The Hague-based court to eliminate certain African leaders they don’t like.
But while responding to questions raised by journalists during a press briefing in Gulu Town yesterday, Ms Fernandez denied that the ICC targets leaders from Africa. She explained that the world court was created out of the Rome Statute to bring individual perpetrators to justice.
“The court indeed focused most of the years on the situations in Africa. But most of them were brought to court by the state partners concerned, the court started its investigation upon request where some of the atrocities were committed,” Ms Fernandez said.
In further defence to prove the court is global, the ICC president gave an example of how the office of the ICC prosecutor opened investigations into crimes committed in Georgia.
She cited the Uganda government, a signatory to the Rome Statute Treaty, which established the ICC Hague-based court, as being among the first African countries to refer cases to the ICC. Uganda referred the LRA’s Joseph Kony situation to the ICC in December 2003.
