Africa: International Justice Catches on

By Fred Oluoch

Africa is waking up to the reality that impunity can no longer hold as the international justice system takes the centre stage. The world is becoming small indeed and those countries that used to mistreat their citizens while knowing they will be protected by the East or West no longer holds. In other words, the concept of sovereignty is getting thinner.

Kenya is currently the focus of the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the 2008 post- election violence, while some elements in government are trying to resist citing sovereignty and national security.

Since the end of the cold war in 1989, Africa has woken up to the reality that countries or their leaders cannot get away with crimes against humanity on the pretext of protecting national interest.

At a recent World Economic Forum in Dar-es- Salaam , Tanzania , African leaders concurred that Africa has for the last 15 years  moved towards constitutional order, political stability and democracy. Africa’s democracy is gaining ground despite challenges posed by delayed elections and negotiated “unity governments”.

While the massive slaughter of the Jews by Hitter shocked the world in the war periods, Serbia , Sierra Leone , DRC and Rwanda are some of the leading example of the modern day genocide.

The most fundamental development in the war against human rights violation in the world was the creation of (ICC based at The Hague. In 1998, 120 countries adopted the Rome Statute that established the court.

For the first time in the history of mankind, states decided to accept the jurisdiction of a permanent international criminal court for the prosecution of the perpetrators of the most serious crimes committed in their territories or by their nationals after the Rome Statute came into force in 2002.

Interestingly, African countries comprise the majority of signatories to the Rome Statute, continent wise. Yet, African despots now feel that they are being targeted and that the ICC is seen as another weapon in the hands of the West to keep the continent in check. Luis Moreno Ocampo, the ICC chief prosecutor, has become anathema to most African leaders.

The ICC Prosecutor has opened cases against 16 individuals for alleged crimes in northern Uganda , the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic , and the Darfur region of Sudan . In addition, the Prosecutor is investigating post-election violence in Kenya and analyzing situations.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, became the first sitting African president to be indicted by the ICC over war crimes and genocide in Darfur . Sudan is not a signatory to the ICC but the UN Security Council is allowed to refer any individual to the ICC so long as the security and human rights are threatened.

At the same time, Darfur rebel leader, Bahr Idriss Abu Garda  of Darfur United Resistance Front (URF) has been cleared by the ICC over charges that he commanded an attack on African Union (AU) peacekeepers in 2007.  The judges ruled that there was no sufficient evidence to prove that , Abu Garda-who voluntarily presented himself to The Hague- played a role in the deadly assault that left 12 soldiers dead and wounded eight others.

As far as Kenya is concerned, in March  2010, a panel of ICC judges approved, in a two-to-one decision, the Prosecutor’s request to open a formal investigation into post-election violence in Kenya , in which over 1,300 were reportedly killed along with other abuses. Ocampo’s team is in the country to try and link the names to the crimes. It is the first time the ICC is using Article 15.

Uganda had referred the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) , Joseph Kony, to the ICC for war crimes and human rights abuse in northern Uganda . Kony, who has waged war against president Yoweri Museveni, is shuttling between DRC and the Central African Republic .  In March 2010, the Ugandan parliament passed legislation known as the International Criminal Court Bill, which creates provisions in Ugandan law for the punishment of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

In DRC, three  leaders of militias and a former Congolese rebel leader, transitional vice president, and senator who is accused of overseeing war crimes in neighboring Central African Republic have been indicted. Jean Piere Bemba, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, are currently held at The Hague . Former Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda remains at large, as Congolese authorities have declined to implement an ICC arrest warrant against him.