Is International Criminal Court An African Super-Supreme Court?

Barring any unforeseen circumstance, Dr. Lauren Gbagbo, the power drunk despot from Ivory Coast will today appear before the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crime against humanity.

His arraignment will set the record as the first president to be tried by the court. This man came to power by default in the year 2000 following the mismanaged electoral process by late Gen. Robert Guei who had earlier overthrown an inconsistent Henri Konan Bedi. His electoral value at the time was a little less than 10% which he maintained throughout the reign of late Felix Houphet Boigny. Ivorians simply used him to chase away the ‘coupist’ General from power. He consolidated power and deployed the obtuse logic associated with his predecessors to prevent Dr. Alhassan Outtara, the current president from participating in the electoral process.

I attempted a brief summary of Lauren Gbagbo to underscore my disdain for inconsistency and recklessness by African leaders. Having said that, is the ICC the right institution to bring Gbagbo to book for his alleged crimes? Is the Ivorian legal system not properly entrenched to try an indicted ex-president? For transferring Laurent Gabgbo to Hague, Alhassan Outtara has confirmed to the world that the sovereignty of his country meant little or nothing to him. He has brought ant infested firewood and should not complain when lizards come to feast at his home.

My problem with African leaders is that they shout imperialism and neo-colonialism when entrapped in their deviousness. They wave the banner of Africa for Africans when they realize that the political water is too murky for them to swim. All these notwithstanding, ICC is not the ideal place to try barbaric African leaders. The current practice is nothing but the total subjugation of our hard earned independence. Our founding fathers are surely weeping in their graves.

Another major problem is the manner of indictment by ICC and other international courts set by United Nations. The case of Charles Gankey Taylor is a succinct example. While he was indicted for sponsoring RUF rebels in Sierra Leone, Paul Kergame of Rwanda and Roweri Museveni of Uganda were excused for attacking Lauren Kabila’s Democratic Republic Congo. To satisfy the international community and obtain their approval for his demonic quest for an inglorious third term as president, Olusegun Obasanjo shredded the agreement reached by the African Union on the matter and handed over Charles Taylor to Hague.  The case of President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso who was fingered alongside late Eyadema of Togo as sanction busters in Angola was devoid of condemnation.

Secondly, while Ghadafi was quickly indicted for alleged killing of civilian demonstrators, troops were sent into Bahrain to protect the minority government there that killed proven number of civilians. The international community and ICC maintained a graveyard silence while President Saleh went on a murderous binge. This is not the way to maintain world peace. The citizens of Bahrain and Yemen are desirous of freedom and democracy as their peers in Libya. Why treat them in such an ignoble manner?

Thirdly, President Al Bashir of Sudan has the ICC indictment hanging on his neck for alleged war crimes in Darfur region of the country. The people of Darfur are fighting to secede from the present Republic of Sudan. It is odd that the international community is extremely silent on the plight of the people of Western Sahara, a recognized country that was forcefully annexed by the Kingdom of Morocco. They have been subjected to all manner of abuses by the Moroccans, yet nobody has been cautioned and indictment an unimaginable scenario.

The African Union should take a second look at the appropriateness of the International Criminal Court in adjudicating matters involving African countries. A situation in which the ICC is programmed to act as a “SUPER SUPREME COURT” of Africa is totally unacceptable. I am not one of those who blame the west for all the problems of Africa, but the psychological effect of believing that one’s race is inferior to another is far deeper than physical annihilation.

Part of the problem we have is information indoctrination perpetrated by foreign media outlets. It is important to link this to the laziness that has permeated the media landscape. So called foreign editors sit in the comfort of their offices and quote foreign media organisations verbatim without any iota of shame. I recall that Guardian Newspaper once sent Kingsley Osadolor to Harare in the late 80s to head the Southern Africa Bureau of the news house. How many of our present day media organisations have resident foreign correspondents? If we do not tell our stories nobody will do it for us.

Condemning the arraignment of Lauren Gbagbo before ICC does not in any way exonerate him from his alleged atrocities. As Ghana’s former President, Jerry John Rawlings described it, “No one is trying to evade justice. But when such justice is drenched in a sea of humiliation and abuses, so as to be governed by self-righteous hatred with its untenable logic, it only befits human conscience to stand up against it for the good of all.” I concur with this assertion.