Last week, a team from the International Criminal Court, commonly known as the ICC visited Nigeria to investigate cases opened against the country.
But the ICC Chief Prosecutor replied that the ICC normally takes up cases that countries cannot handle by themselves, and I think their are so many countries where glaring crimes against humanity are imply swept under the carpet, sometimes for ethnic considerations.
But with the international structure of the ICC, it is more difficult for cases to be swept under the carpet for ethnic, and allied considerations, dn the ICC has succeeded in arresting some very powerful men that loomed large above the judiciail structure of their countries and seemed above the law.
One example is former Liberian President Charles Taylor. According to many Liberians, Charles Taylor was so viscuous that one of the campaign slogans his party used for re-election was, ‘He killed my mama, he killed my papa, but I’ll still vote for him’. His country killed and killed and no court in Liberia could stop him.
People like respected Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe have raised eye brows over the fact that most of those convicted at the ICC are Africans. They point out ignored calls for non Africans to be investigated, for example former US president George Bush and former British prime minister, Tony Blair as double standards.
But one good thing about the ICCs focus on Africa is that if done without politicalconsiderations, it would decrease man’s inhumanity to man on the continent. The injustice in my Africa is just too much. The other day, we heard about a lady in Ejigbo that had hot pepper poured into her private part. Infact, you need to watch the video.
Even though she was accused of stealing, the punishment was just too inhuman.
The ICC should establish offices in all African countries, and stop visiting us from Europe where their headquaters is. In fact, let them relocate here, because frankly, we need the ICC more than the Europeans need it (at least at this moment).
This is because the way people are killed in Africa is just to horrible. People are killed simply because they come from another tribe, and the killers are sometimes aided by members of the government and armed forces.
Young child soldiers are frequently asked to go back and kill members of their own family to prove their loyalty to rthe organization they fight for. I have watched videos of these young child soldiers on Aljazeera, and I just feel pity for them.
Some of them are forced to kill the mother that carried them for 9 months and breats fed them. Others are forced to kill the fathers that sired them in the first place. Still others are forced to kill the children that shared the same womb with them.
These child soldiers -sometimes as young as 7 years of age- often do the bidding of their commanders, and then find out when they are grown that they have wippied out their family, the only group of people that ever really cared for them.
If only to stop the eveil of child soldiers the ICC takes a closer-than-others look at Africa, then so be it. Also, we can’t forget Foday Sanko, the leader of the infamous Kamajor that specialised in amputations of the population for no just reason, except that they wanted to spread terror.
God have mercy on Africa.
I don’t think their relocation to Africa will have any positive impact since they said they can only entertain cases that countries cannot handle by themselves.
It is well