Former Nigerian president criticizes ‘politicized’ ICC
March 17, 2009 (WASHINGTON) — The former Nigerian president Olugun Obasanjo directed criticism at the International Criminal Court (ICC) saying that it is drifting towards politics in its investigations.
“I wonder today whether we have taken the right decision in supporting ICC because some of what I have personally seen, smack of more of politics than criminality and if ICC continues along that line, its repetition will be costly, endangered and undermined” he added.
The Nigerian ex-leader was responding to a question on whether Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir should be arrested as demanded by ICC earlier this month.
The ICC judges charged Bashir with seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which include murder, rape and torture.
African leaders have criticized the move saying it undermines peace efforts in Sudan and also accused the court of being biased against Africans.
All cases currently handled by the ICC are in Africa including Sudan, Uganda, Central African Republic (CAR) and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Except for the Darfur case which was referred to by the UN Security Council (UNSC) all other cases were referred voluntarily by their respective states.
Obasanjo suggested in the interview that Bashir should not be held liable for crimes committed in the war ravaged region of Darfur.
“I have been a military leader in the field and I have been a political leader also running the affairs of my country….. For what reason should a political leader who has to fight a war to save his country, be held responsible for the atrocities committed by the soldiers in the field, unless there is conclusive evidence that he have given instruction for those atrocities to be committed?” he asked.
“We all know that the situation in war is not a picnic situation… I fought for Nigerian Civil War…If any of them [soldiers] was found not to have acted according to that code of conduct, should General Gowan in Lagos be arrested or shall I in Port Harcourt be arrested?” Obasanjo added.
He also hinted that the decision to indict Al-Bashir was to satisfy unspecified parties.
“Are these arrests criminal arrests or political arrests that have been recommended and if they are political arrests to satisfy who? And we must watch what we do and what we allow to do” Obasanjo said.
The African Union (AU) has given its full backing to Bashir and yesterday inaugurated a high level panel headed by former president Thabo Mbeki to look into accountability issues in Darfur.
Before the UNSC referred the case to the ICC, Nigeria proposed a regional court but Sudan turned down the proposal.
In 2006 Obasanjo took a rare stance for an African president saying that “genocide” was developing in Darfur.
“It is not in the interest of Sudan, nor in the interest of Africa nor indeed in the interest of the world for us all to stand by and see genocide being developed in Darfur” he told diplomats and AU officials at the pan-African body’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.
(ST)