Editorial/877 words Power taking account of reality This week the International Criminal Court (ICC) made history by trying, for the first time it its history, a sitting deputy head of state. This was quite a sensational event, although most of the news media have been focusing on the Syrian crisis and had no time to revisit the conflict that killed 1,500 Kenyan people in 2007. With only a few exceptions (including Slobodan Milosovic, former president of Yugoslavia and Radovan Karadzic of Bosnia) the International Criminal Court has only investigated Africans and has convicted only Thomas Lubanga of Congo and Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia. It is currently trying former president Laurent Ggabo of Cote de Ivoire, demonstrating again that African files seem to be the most frequent in this court that is supposed to be international. With coups and counter coups, Africa became the chessboard of the cold war powers, the United States and the former USSR. Here they tried to install governments because world powers needed to count on voting strength of nations during the passage of international treaties, and so each power tried to install its puppet to lead any country. One good example would be that of Patrice Lumumba of Congo DRC. This is the country in the world where most of all known elements can be mined. The country is so fertile that it can feed the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. However, Belgium -- its former colonial master --and the US would not let it go so easily. Therefore, when its first prime minister tried to nationalise its mines, which included some with plutonium and uranium, the US would not take this lying down. As such, Mr Lumumba was killed and his body carried around Kinshasa by a CIA van before it was interred. A puppet by the name of Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku wa Zabanga was installed and he stayed in power for 26 years before he was thrown out by a rebellion, ostensibly sponsored by the US, when he reached his sell-by-date. Such examples were replicated almost everywhere in Africa, with the exception of South Africa, Namibia, Kenya and a few others that do not know a military coup. Therefore 35 state parties of the ICC are African countries who were tired of military dictatorships. Out of 17 active conflicts in the world, the ICC web page only has active files of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa Republic, Darfur, Sudan, Kenya, Libya, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali. These countries had been threatened with sanctions by the US but they defied it and ratified the Rome treaty. When India was approached to sign the same treaty, it refused, citing the fact that the ICC was answerable to the United Nations Security Council and so if one of the countries with veto power were to have war criminals, nothing would happen. The United States, Israel, Russia, Syria and a few others have also refused to sign the Rome treaty that created the ICC. However, despite the fact that the US is not a signatory to the ICC, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said in early 2011 that they would ask the ICC to indict Muammar Gadhafi as a way of increasing pressure on him. They did this, but dead men tell no tales so the despot was captured and shot, thanks to a US drone that bombed his convoy. Recently when a warlord presented himself for arrest at the US Embassy in Kinshasa, the US flew him to The Hague. US citizens are not tried by the court, but it appears that anyone else can be tried. Today therefore, despite the fact that there is a case where Deputy President William Ruto and a sitting President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya will be facing judges in November, the conundrum of international law being right and wrong at the same time is always seen thanks to the US hegemony. A coup last year was wrong in Mali, yet right in Egypt this year; rebels in 2011 were right in Libya, but wrong in Northern Mali and France had to intervene. In Syria, the rebels who cannibalise fellow human beings are right, yet their elected government is wrong. In Syria on Wednesday this week there was a video footage of rebels firing sarin gas and pictures are consistent with the neighborhood that had the gas attack on 21 August. However, this does not fall in the narrative of the powerful. Senator J. William Fulbright wrote a book titled the Arrogance of Power in 1966. In this, he talked of the “attitude above all others which I feel sure is no longer valid is the arrogance of power, the tendency of great nations to equate power with virtue and major responsibilities with a universal mission.” In it he said that when nations are powerful they feel that they can create their own reality. It is when reality stands in the way of power that power takes account of reality. African powers voted 52-1 in May this year against the current ICC cases. Kenya has had its bicameral parliament vote out the Rome Statute and 20 African countries have promised to withdraw from the statute, It seems now reality is going to stand in the way of the powerful soon.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 05:09:21 +0000
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