Africans were once the most passionate supporters of the International Criminal Court (ICC). But now they are having second thoughts, concerned that the permanent war crimes tribunal is targeting their continent. The court should move its work to the continent, for instance Tanzania which has all the facilities ready.

At an African Union (AU) summit this week, Libya, Senegal, Djibouti and the Comoros lobbied their peers to withdraw from the ICC.

They are concerned that the Hague-based tribunal -- which AU chairperson Muammar Gaddafi has described as a "terrorist organisation" -- is unfairly targeting Africans while ignoring human rights abuses elsewhere.

The move comes as the court made one of the continent's most prominent leaders, Sudan's President Omar Al Bashir, its most wanted war crimes suspect for crimes committed in Darfur.

This time the AU voted against withdrawing from the ICC, but most of the 30 African members of the court favour asking the UN to suspend Bashir's indictment.
 

"Misperception"

But with the exception of the Darfur case that was brought by the UN, three African countries themselves invited ICC prosector Luis Moreno Ocampo to probe atrocities. The ICC will only intervene when countries cannot or don’t want to bring human abusers to justice as was the case in Uganda, Central African Republic (CAR) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Richard Goldstone, former war crimes prosecutor for the Rwanda and Yugoslavia tribunals, says it’s a “misperception” to see the ICC as targeting Africa.

This misconception is primarily due to a lack of familiarity with the court, says Jack Kahorha, a journalist in the DRC. “People need to understand what the court is doing.” When it comes to public outreach in Africa, Kahorha says, the court is trying, “but it’s not enough.”

ICC registrar Silvana Arbia agrees. The court is working to inform thousands of people in Africa about its activities, she says, but the security situations often make it impossible to get into the villages to actually talk with victims.

“Trials in The Hague less necessary”

Although African states supported the establishment of the court, a familiar critique now is that the court is a symbol of Western legal colonialism: Africans are being brought to Europe to face foreign judges and lawyers.

In an ideal world, says Richard Goldstone, the trials would be held as close as possible to the crime scene”.

And that option is becoming more likely. Tanzania recently offered to host the court after the Arusha-based Rwanda Tribunal comes to a close in December.

“We have UN-standards prison facilities and courts in Arusha,” Tanzania’s justice minister Mathias Chikawe recently told ICC president Sang-Hyun Song.

In a visit to the continent last week, Song said he would also be pushing African countries to enact their own legislation on war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide to "to make trials in The Hague less necessary."

And that is exactly what needs to happen says Chidi Odinkalu Anselm, legal officer at the US-based Justice Initiative: “The ICC should invest in technical assistance, to make complementarity real. If it is possible for the countries to say that they are credibly trying serious crimes, with the assistance of the ICC, that is as important, if not more important, than trials in The Hague where we are not given visa’s to come to.”
 

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Politics

Another often heard concern is that African governments have used the court as a political tool, something that’s “unavoidable” according to Goldstone. While Bangui, Kinshasa and Kampala appealed to the court themselves to get rid of rebels leaders or old-time political rivals, they are now turning their backs on Ocampo.

Take the Central African Republic. Since referring crimes committed during a 2002 coup, President Francois Bozize has been trying to stop the ICC from investigating more recent crimes.

Equally, after an initial flush of cooperation which brought four Congolese mutinous warlords to trial in The Hague, Kinshasa has allegedly welcomed one of the court's fugitives, Bosco Ntaganda, into the ranks of its army.

In the same vein, pleased that Lord’s Resistance Army rebel leaders are wanted by the ICC, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni is equally relieved that his own army troops are not being investigated for crimes they may have committed in northern Uganda.

Listen to fragments of a debate on Africa and the ICC:

• Is the ICC a playground for politics?

  With Richard Goldstone (former prosecutor at the ICTY & ICTR) and Chidi Odinkalu Anselm (Senior Legal Officer at the Justice Initiative).
   

• What to do for more African support?

  With Richard Goldstone (former prosecutor at the ICTY & ICTR) and Chidi Odinkalu Anselm (Senior Legal Officer at the Justice Initiative).