THE government said yesterday that it has no plans to withdraw Tanzania's membership from the International Criminal Court (ICC), amid growing fears of a possible exodus of African countries from the Hague-based tribunal. “We are looking into complaints raised by some African countries against the ICC, but our membership in the court remains intact,” the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, East Africa, Regional and International Cooperation, Dr Aziz Mlima, told The Guardian.
Dr Mlima insisted that Tanzania thus far had no reason to exit the ICC, despite recent announcements by at least three African countries that they were pulling out their membership, accusing the tribunal of deliberately targeting Africans.
The West African nation of the Gambia last week became the latest country to pull out of the ICC.
Gambia’s withdrawal came after similar moves from Burundi and South Africa. Before that, no country had left the court that is based in the Netherlands. The court tries people for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The decision will also come as a personal blow to the court's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, a former Gambian justice minister.
Gambian Information Minister Sheriff Bojang called the ICC "an International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans."
He criticised the court for failing to indict former British Prime Minister Tony Blair over the Iraq war.
Burundi was the first country to announce its intended departure on October 7 after the court said it would investigate political violence there.
South Africa then announced it would leave, saying that handing a leader over to the court would interfere in another country’s affairs.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited South Africa last year while wanted by the international court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, western Sudan. He departed South Africa despite a court order banning him from leaving.
Only Africans have been charged in the six International court cases that are ongoing or scheduled to start soon. Kenya and Namibia have said they are also considering leaving the court.
Since the ICC started issuing arrest warrants in 2005, it has indicted 39 people, all of them Africans.
“There are various explanations for this, some of them defensible. But the bottom line is that it was an inexcusable mistake for the court not to pursue other cases,” said Noah Feldman, a Harvard University professor of international law.
“It wouldn’t have been tokenism, because there are, unfortunately, plenty of non-African war criminals. Yet even if it were, the tokenism would have been justified to show that the court is more than the imperialist agent of regime change that many Africans consider it,” he said.
The international court said in a statement: "The court is aware of the statements, but it has not received any official communication regarding a possible withdrawal of Burundi or Gambia. At this stage, we cannot comment further on such reports."
Last month, the court sentenced Islamist militant Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi to nine years in prison for destroying centuries-old mausoleums and a mosque in the historic city in Mali of Timbuktu, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In 2012, the ICC sentenced former Liberian president Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison for his role in war crimes committed during the civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone in the 1990s.
The ICC was set up in 2002 and is often accused of bias against Africa. It has also struggled with a lack of cooperation, including from the US, which has signed the court's treaty but never ratified it.
Gambia has been trying, without success, to use the ICC to punish the EU for the deaths of thousands of African refugees and migrants trying to reach its shores.
The tribunal is entrusted with "prosecuting the most serious crimes that shock the conscience of humanity, namely genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression".
Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former ICC chief prosecutor, criticised Burundi and South Africa, accusing them of giving leaders on the continent a free hand "to commit genocide".
"Burundi is leaving the ICC to keep committing crimes against humanity and possible genocide in its territory. Burundi's president wants free hands to attack civilians," he said.
He said Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, had "promoted the establishment of the Court to avoid new massive crimes in Africa. Now under the [Jacob] Zuma leadership, South Africa decided to cover up the crimes and abandoned African victims. The world is going backward.
"The chaos is coming. Genocide in Burundi and a new African war are in motion."
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday expressed regret over the intention of the three African countries to withdraw from the ICC.
“Deterring future atrocities, delivering justice for victims, and defending the rules of war across the globe are far too important priorities to risk a retreat from the age of accountability that we have worked so hard to build and solidify,” said Ban.
The UN chief noted the concern raised that the ICC has convicted only Africans despite evidence of crimes in other parts of the world, and stressed that such challenges are best addressed not by diminishing support for the court, but by strengthening it from within.
▼▼▼BOFYA PICHA HAPA CHINI KUONA VIDEO HIYO ▼▼▼
who said vera sidika wasn’t worth emulating? she is one of the few kenyans who make millions within a snap of the finger. with such a reputation, certainly lots of people must be looking up to her. many may harbor hate for vera sidika but not eldoret touts; they have mad love for the self-styled socialite, oh! is it prostitute? bet the two go hand in hand. so these makangas from the athletic capital of kenya decided to express their admiration for vera with a conspicuous graffiti on their matatu. i think someone misinformed vera it was a nairobi matatu because she went full blast with joy yapping how nairobi loves her.
▼▼▼Kujua Mbinu Za Kumfikisha Kileleni Mwanamke Kwa Haraka: BONYEZA HAPA CHINI▼▼▼
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