International Criminal Court is after justice not African leaders - Kofi Annan

The former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has described statements attributed to the fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC) targets only African leaders as fallacious.

His statement comes in the wake of the decision by the member states of the African Union (AU) to withdraw from the ICC due to unnecessary persecution of Africa heads of states.

The ICC has since denied the claims by the African Union.

However according to Mr. Kofi Annan, “the court did not go after African leaders. In fact, most of the cases at the ICC were referred to the ICC by the African countries themselves.”

He further stated that if member states can assure its respective citizens of justice there is no need for the ICC to interfere in their operations.

‘’the modus operandi of the ICC, if a government can and does offer justice at home “there is no need to refer to the ICC.”

“So, there is a complementarity there. It is when either the government is unable or willing to, that the case will end up at the ICC. I was very much involved in the Kenyan situation. I [called] on the Kenyan government on several occasions to set up a local tribunal twice; parliament voted it down and in fact, the parliamentarians included those who ended up in the Hague,” he said.