AFRICA MUST ESTABLISH ITS OWN ICC TO TRY EUROPEANS - MUGABE

African Union (AU) chairman and Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe says Africa must establish its own International Criminal Court (ICC) which would be mandated to prosecute Western leaders who have committed crimes on the continent.

According to the state-owned Chronicle newspaper, Mugabe said it was high time Africa set up a criminal court which would seek justice for “serious” war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the West, particularity during the colonial era.

Mugabe was quoted as saying:; “They committed crimes, colonial crimes galore – the slaughter of our people and all that imprisonment… I have a case, why was I imprisoned for 11 years? We forgave them, but perhaps we’ve not done ourselves justice… You set up the ICC, we set our ICC to try Europeans, to try Mr [George] Bush and Mr [Tony] Blair,”

Mugabe’s remarks came a few days after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir evaded an ICC arrest order by leaving early from an African Union summit that was held in Johannesburg.

At the summit, Mugabe wanted a mass withdrawal of African states from the ICC.

The veteran leader harshly criticised the ICC after Al-Bashir dodged his arrest, saying the international court was not wanted in Africa.

SOURCE: AFRICAN LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE BLOG via RICHMOND HEWTON