PHOTOS: Extraordinary Session Of The AU Assembly
AU Chief Dlamini Zuma addressing the summit
African leaders on Friday and Saturday met in an Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia over the continent’s relationship with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The leaders met and discussed withdrawing from the ICC, but failed to get support.
With both Kenyan and Sudanese presidents facing ICC cases, African leaders have long complained that the court unfairly targets them.
The leaders agreed that Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta should not attend trial at the International Criminal Court if the U.N. Security Council did not agree to delay the proceedings, Ethiopia’s foreign minister said.
Both he and his deputy, William Ruto, deny charges of organising violence after the 2007 election.
While Mr Ruto went on trial in September, President Kenyatta has repeatedly requested his trial – due next month – be postponed.
At the summit, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni met with his Sudanese counterpart Omar El Bashir and held talks although it is not clearly what the two leaders discussed.
The two nations enjoy tense relations.
Ethiopian Prime Minister and AU chairman Hailemariam Dessalegn said the summit was not a crusade against the ICC but a call for the court to address Africa’s concerns seriously.
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Then the UN should also put restrictions on which African leaders should NOT travel abroad seeking AID.Why kill your own citizens in the name of staying in power and then fear to face the Hague court? what a shame.
The ICC as a court aspiring to champion international justice can only be credible if all countries of the world are equally likely to face prosecution by this court. According to its current set up, the top two notorious countries in terms of waging wars and killings millions of people are effectively above this court i.e. USA and Israel. The nationals of these countries are unfairly protected, yet I can state with confidence that there is no country on earth that kills more people in war than these two.
So for me, ICC is good for witch hunting some human beings, while turning a blind eye to the biggest criminals. This is immoral. We either have to agree that we are all under the same court or let individual countries or groups of countries work out their own soultions.