December 2012
The ICC at the Hague should be renamed as the “International Court of African Injustice”, because this is where Africa's pride is decimated. The Africans should wise up and establish their own, independent, non western court of justice in Addis Ababa.

The ICC presidency, the main decision-making organ of the International Criminal Court (I CC ), is crafted in such a way that majority of its membership are West’s friendly. The appointment of few black Africans in the Court’s top hierarchy is a clever way of “hoodwinking” African states that “ICC” is also theirs. These appointments are reminiscent of sugar-coating a dangerous pill for a patient to swallow. ICC has its owner. The owner is the west who are using the court covertly to propagate their policies in Africa. Since its inception almost all suspects have been from Africa. No one could put it better than former U.S. under secretary for state in charge of Africa, Madam Jendayi Frazer. Listen to her: " ICC is manipulated by U.S and Europeans and may not be impartial"

It's a fact that africa is home to some of the most notorious human rights violators. Africa has had more than fair share of beastly characters such as late Foday Sankoh of Sierra Leon who, very often and unashamedly, ordered the chilling act of cuttintg off hands of his opponents for simple reason of wanting to be the president of his country ! But why is it so? Africa, just like many other parts of the world, was colonized by Europeans who divided it without regard to diversity of its communities that inhabit there. In many cases a community that has one language and culture would find a part of their people in one country while the other part remained in another. For example, the Tutsi community in DR Congo is part of the Tutsi tribe in the Republic of Rwanda. The Belgians and the French, the former colonisers, did not see any sense of keeping this group of people as one! Now the Tutsi of DR Congo have to fight very hard for recognition by Congolese central government because of their almost insignificant number. In fact, a majority of other congolese tribes do not regard this group of people as truely part of them, especially the the Lingala speaking tribes of the central region and communities around the capital, Kinshasha.

There are nuemerous other reasons why Africa churns out so many violaters. Africans who violate human rights, without a doubt, should be reprimanded and punished accordinlgy. But, just like a corporate that establishes branch offices where customers are many, the United Nations should set up a justice court in Africa and engage non-african and africans alike as personel to dispense justice on
African soil.
The Hague court  is  seen as an  African   court   in Europe by Europeans !   It's  seen as an imperialist  court ! And it really is !

The Kenyan leadership that seemed enticed by Chinese economic charm as far as big construction projects were concerned found out the hard way what the ICC was made of. The engagement between the two nations ( kenya and China ) is based on pure economic sense, but there are those who interprete it as an affront to their long-held "economic-grip" on this East African nation.

The Kenyan case at the Hague doesn’t qualify by all standards to be an “ICC Trial”. The preliminary evidence adduced by ICC prosecutors was “demolished” and discredited at every level. For instance, a man who was alleged to have supplied guns to one of the accused was actually a jailbird at the time of alleged crime of gun-running. The prosecution was evidently weak and even prompted one of the judges to vote against confirmation of charges.

The Kenyan authorities tried unsuccessfully to sanction the UN Security Council to even defer the case. But the Western powers that hold the veto power, namely France, Britain and U.S. refused to accept even deferment. Only China was for Kenya. Don’t forget that the U.S. and China should not have voted since they both have not ratified the Rome statute that established the ICC court.

This shows that if Germany, a key western power, had veto power, it would have voted alongside its western colleagues. In fact, the German ambassador to Kenya once openly voiced his frustration that the Kenyan Government has become pro east, arguing that China doesn’t fund pro-democracy outfits!.

The Europeans contributes the lion’s share of ICC budget. Curiously and ironically, America (US), a non-member, also contributes significantly to ICC budget. Ideally, the Hague decisions should be binding to member states only. But, look, America has become the loudest mouth Piece for ICC, yet it is not ready to ratify the Rome Statute that established the Court. The fact of the matter is: there is no ICC without key western european nations that include Britain, Germany, France, Netherlands and Italy. Others like switzerland, though economically advanced, don't have the necessary political clout to be able to push forward an agenda.The ICC, again, is not a U.N. thing perse. If it were, they would have reigned on U.S. who have
killed hundreds of innocent civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan using Drones (Unmanned aerial vehicles). Or they should have arrested and charged officials of " Black water " company, an amrican outfit, that slained so many Iraqis at one time.If you asked ICC, these are [not] crimes against humanity !

After realizing the west's machinations china has offered to strengthen and revamp the AU
( African Union ) in Addis Ababa so that the africans can gain some semblance of independence in some policy matters.Consider this: kenya was able to broker peace in sudan that led to successful secession of southern sudan from the the mother sudan. Now southern sudan is a fully fledged state and a full member of U.N. system. If kenya was a banana republic like alleged by some powers it would not have succeeded in these peace efforts.

The involvement by kenya in somalia is yet another case that reinforces the fact that it
(kenya ) is not a banana republic like the ICC and the west would want the rest of the world to believe. For over 20 years, the UN and the world were unable to bring peace in somalia until kenya entered the stage, eventually. The american forces that had gone to restore peace in somalia was defeated and humiliated by militia led then by Farah Aideed. An ameriacn soldier was captured, killed and dragged in the the streets of Mogadishio in full glare of local and some international press. When this unfortunate act was shown on american T.V. the american citizenry went wild forcing the then president Bush to withdraw his troops from somalia. Since then somalia had been a den for extremists and terrorists until kenya entered the stage. Now western nations are back and are setting up embassies in Mogadishio ready to exploit any availlaible business opportunity.

Just recently, the British prime minister, Cameron, commented that he believed in
regionally-led interventions and that is the reason he couldn't commit British soldiers in Mali. The emphasis here is "regionally-led" interventions. Yes, african nations-led interventions for "genuine" justice to prevail in matters african including african cases before the ICC. African nations should watch out for neo-colonialism from the north, especially now that their
economic superority is at crossroads.

The ECOWAS in west africa is leading peaceful interventions in that region. Because Nigeria, an anglophone, is the force behind its operations, France is always jittery of its (ECOWAS) involvment especially in French speaking states of west africa.

If the U.S and the west care, they should help Africa stand on theirr own feet. But, because they have their own selfish interest, I know they will continue their machinations through the ICC, the world Bank, IMF, donor clubs etc to tighten their stranglehold on ( Africa ). After all the U.S. mounted a marshal plan to salvage and uplift its european brethrens after the second world war. And just recently the U.S and the I.M.F pumped in billions of dollars in the economies of Thailand and South Korea amongst many in order to contain the "asian flu" that had just started to snowball. Western europe is losing its economic might to a galaxy of nations including china, japan, india, brazil, malaysia, korea etc. This may explain its frustrations and the need to appear relevant has set them on panic mode, hence their behaviour towards the weaker nations of africa.

China and other eastern nations including India and Japan amongst many, offer the right economic product mix for Africa. For instance, consider the case of pharmaceutical products. A potent original anti-bacterial agent like “cefuroxime axetil” (zinat) from UK costs 5 times its Indian competitor (eg Altacef, Zifora) in Kenya. It is upon the west to design competitive econmic products and practices that are favourable to third word states instead of using
arm-twisting tactics to gain leverage over others.

Cote d’ivoire was for long time ruled by charismatic leader called Felix Houphouet Boigny. During his tenure as president cote d’ivoire realized unprecedented economic growth in that part of the world. In fact the world used to refer to Abidjan, Cote d’ivoire’s capital, as the Paris of Africa. Boigny was deeply religious and Roman Catholic to the core. He would later build an expansive church at Yamoussoukro, the yet-to-become capital of Cote d’ivoire. But that is a story for another day.

The economic magic that defined Cote d’ivoire then was largely due to favourable world
cocoa prices that prevailed then in the world market. As a result Boigny allowed many foreign workers from the North, notably Burkina Fasso, to enter and work in Cote d’ivioire. As time passed on these migrant workers inter-married with the locals, while others brought in their families and other relatives to settle. Many of these foreigners never returned even after the economy started to loose the shine.

Enter Bretton wood institutions. To salvage itself from this economic downturn, Cote d’ivoire turned to world Bank and International monetary Fund (IMF) for economic bail out. For those who know, bretton wood institutions bail-outs comes tied to “conditionalities” disrespectful of recipient nations’ culture, status, and other socio-economic pillars that “maketh” a nation. Amongst them; civil service down-sizing, democracy (elections), free unfettered foreign exchange regime and many more!. Something remiscent of mere experimental economic shock therapy. More later.

To shorten up the story, when Boigny passed on, the nation was not lucky to find a comparable replacement. The ivorians were in for a shock. When the elections were finally called, the electorate was divided between northerners and southerners. The northerners, made up mostly of foreigners (migrant workers) were led by Alasane ouatara, who has Burkina Fasso roots and southerners, the true (original) ivorians were led by Gbagbo.

The election had been brokered by UN and was hotly contested. The irregularities witnessed during voting were monumental, especially in the North that was still under ouatara Militia. Nonetheless the UN-(French) declared Alasane ouatara the winner by a small margin. Note that the election had been postponed a number of times before due to fears of rigging. In fact, the election was a sham.

Anyway, there was violence that led to civil war in cote divoire. The emphasis is that both leaders, Gbagbo and ouatara were culpable of atrocities. Surprisingly the west and ICC chose to punish Gbagbo leaving out ouatara to go scot-free.