ICC should allow Africans to resolve own problems

Accra, July 24, GNA - During one of the visits of the Ghanaian President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills to the United Kingdom the BBC subjected him to intensive interview on the African Union's (AU) decision not to allow Omar al-Bashir, Sudanese President to appear before the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face charges of ethnic cleansing, crime against humanity and genocide.

In that interview President Mills told the BBC that the AU's decision was not taken by robots and that as African Leaders they would not bless human right abuses, terrorism and ethnic cleansing and that the Sudan situation, especially in Darfur, was deeper than met the eyes.

One wonders what has happened over the 12-month period, compelling the ICC to revisit the arrest of al-Bashir and to pursue a man, who is heading a sovereign State.

Chad refused to arrest al-Bashir at the weekend, saying; "it was merely following the AU's lead, despite a storm of protest from human rights groups".

Chad's Interior and Security Minister, Ahmat Mahamat Bachir said Chad was a sovereign State and would not succumb to injunctions of international organisations.

"We are with the rule of law and everybody has to pay for his mistakes and for any crime he commits but when it will be selectively and targeting only African Leaders it should not be accepted," he told the BBC.

This brings to mind America's invasion of Iraq when Saddam Hussein, President of that country, was chased to an underground hideout, arrested, tried, found guilty and hanged.

The act is in line with an anecdote that "when a lion is distilling an alcoholic drink, while the Tiger and its kittens are the public relations officers, how could an antelope dare to go there".

The invasion of Iraq was based on the premise that the country had developed weapons of mass destruction. The UN dispatched scientists to conduct investigations into the allegations.

The UN emissaries had hardly established the veracity of the accusation and against world opinion the US and its allies began that infamous war. The then UN Secretary-General Busumuru Kofi Annan described the incident in diplomatic terms as "unfortunate".

Renowned human rights activists were silent. The rest of the world kept quiet. Atrocities that were committed during that war are still fresh in the memory of humanity.

Where was the world when the Chilean Leader Eduardo Ayala was brutally murdered by people suspected to be CIA Agents? Who were the killers of Patrice Lumbumba? Who assassinated Bishop Morris of Granada? How did the legendary Revolutionary, Che Guevara end?

The wisdom of African Leaders not to allow al-Bashir to face the ICC should be acknowledged and respected.

Was it not heartening to read in the Daily Graphic of July 23, 2010 that Mr Bashir was warmly welcomed by President Idriss Deby?

Speaking to reporters, Sudan's Leader seemed more focused on improving relations with two of its neighbours, who had often clashed bitterly over Darfur, than on the possibility of his incarceration.

"Chad and Sudan had a problem in the past. Now this problem is solved. We are brothers. We are in a new phase of the history of our two countries, in the interests of our two peoples," he said.

Sudan once accused N'djamena of supporting anti-government rebels in Darfur, while Chad once claimed that Khartoum was backing rebels attempting to overthrow Mr Deby.

On the ICC action Chad's Interior and Security Minister, Ahmad Mahamat Bachir insisted during Bashir's visit that; "the President will be allowed to return home unmolested".

"Which country has ever arrested a sitting Head of State? Bashir won't be arrested in Chad," he was reported to have told the AFP news Agency.

Sudanese-Chadian relations improved dramatically after Chadian President Idriss Deby visited Khartoum in February 2010.

As a result Chad kicked out the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement rebels it had previously supported, thereby changing the dynamics of the conflict.

Chad and Sudan also committed themselves to joint military border patrols.

If Mr Bashir now feels safe enough to go to Chad, it shows his great confidence in the agreement. It also underlines the way most African and Arab countries have rallied round him, to the fury of the ICC and many in the West.

The ICC and its collaborators should, therefore, allow Africans to solve African problems as Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Africa's Man of the Millennium asserted: "The Blackman is capable of solving his own problems."