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African Union gives ICC Ultimatum – presents a dilemma for the West
Kenyatta signaled that relations with the tribunal had hit a new low point, saying the institution has been “reduced into a painfully farcical pantomime, a travesty that adds insult to the injury of victims”.
“It stopped being the home of justice the day it became the toy of declining imperial powers,” the president told his fellow African heads of state, accusing the ICC of “bias and race-hunting”.
The ICC, set up in 2002 as the world’s first permanent court to try genocide and war crimes, has so far issued indictments linked to conflicts in eight nations, all of them in Africa, and diplomats with the 54-member African Union said there was a sentiment that the court was turning a blind eye to crimes committed in other parts of the world.
“It is the fact that this court performs on the cue of European and American governments against the sovereignty of African states and peoples that should outrage us,” Kenyatta said, urging the African Union to unite in the face of a “divide and rule” policy.
“Africa is not a third-rate territory of second-class peoples. We are not a project, or experiment of outsiders,” he added.
African countries account for 34 of the 122 parties to have ratified the ICC’s founding treaty, and an African withdrawal from the court could seriously damage the institution.
The Ethiopian foreign minister did not say if a mass pull-out was discussed at the summit, but said it could be an option in the future if the African Union’s requests were not met.
