‘HARDtalk’ about the International Criminal Court. Hint: It’s a Friggin’ Boondoggle! -The iPINIONS Journal

Missed opportunities, misappropriations, and miscreants feature prominently in the story of post-colonial Africa. And this journal is replete with commentaries bemoaning it all.

But the following quote pretty well sums up my abiding dismay:

I just hope the damning irony is not lost on any proud African that, 50 years after decolonization, hundreds of Africans (men, women, and children) are risking their lives, practically every day, to subjugate themselves to the paternal mercies of their former colonial masters in Europe.

(“African Migrants Turning Mediterranean Sea into Vast Cemetery,” The iPINIONS Journal, February 12, 2015)

Still, my forlorn hope is such that I could not resist watching Stephen Sackur interview Chile Eboe-Osuji on Monday for his BBC program HARDtalk. Sackur duly introduced him as the president of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was set up to ensure that those who perpetrate crimes against humanity will be brought to justice. Their focus was on Africa, naturally.

Except that I’ve been decrying the ICC for years as little more than a perverse form of political indulgence to assuage European guilt. As indicated above, I have done so in too many commentaries to enumerate. But the titles to just a few speak volumes:

“Alas, the ICC Charging Bashir of Sudan with Genocide Means Nothing!” July 15, 2008
“ICC Double Standards…,” June 29, 2011
“International Criminal Court Has Lost All Credibility,” June 5, 2013
“African Leaders Defy ICC to Defend Kenya’s Kenyatta,” October 15, 2013
“ICC Decides Not to Prosecute Kenya’s Kenyatta. Duh,” December 8, 2014

With respect to Sackur’s interview, however, here is how I denounced the ICC for targeting African leaders in “No (Equitable) Justice in ICC Prosecuting Kenya’s Kenyatta,” March 25, 2013:

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It is noteworthy that the ICC elected Bensouda, an African woman from The Gambia, as chief prosecutor by consensus in December 2011. For there’s no gainsaying that it did so primarily to counter the growing perception that it is a court of white men sitting in biased judgment against black men.

No doubt Bensouda hoped to counter this perception further by going out of her way to hire three women as ‘Special Advisers’ to the court, one of whom is also black.

Never mind the reverse discrimination inherent in the ICC seeking justice only for victims of crimes against humanity committed by African leaders. For there’s also no gainsaying that it has steadfastly ignored calls to seek justice for victims of similar crimes committed by Western leaders, most notably former US President George W. Bush and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair with respect to Iraq. Where’s the equitable justice in that?

In fact, Iraqi victims are particularly worthy of ICC attention given that no less a person than former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is on record declaring in a September 16, 2004, BBC report that:

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the UN charter.

Come to think of it, the loved ones of dead American and British soldiers who died in vain might also derive some consolation from the ICC indicting Bush and Blair.

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Granted, there have been a few exceptions to that focus on Africa. Foremost was the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which the UN established ad hoc in The Hague to prosecute those (the Serbs) who committed war crimes in the former Yugoslavia (1991-2001).

Of course, Serbs complain so much of being oppressed, you’d be forgiven for thinking of them as the Africans of Europe. Indeed, I did so as I expressed solidarity in a series of commentaries, including “Of Slobodan Milosevic, Many Have Said: ‘I Hope He Rots in Jail!’ Well…,” March 13, 2006.

In any event, given that background, I hope you can understand my dismay – even if you can never relate to it. To his credit, though, Sackur did a terrific job of channeling that dismay. Because, throughout most of the interview, he pressed Eboe-Osuji to explain why the ICC has such a “pathetic record.”

Specifically, just think of the myriad crimes against humanity that have made news over the past 20 years. Yet, despite its highfalutin mandate and commensurate budget (of nearly $2 billion), the ICC has only won 8 convictions.

But here is the gravamen of Sackur’s questions and Eboe-Osuji’s answers:

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Sackur: One of your friends in the international community, the Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok [said] your operations are far too slow, far too cumbersome, the judges are far too focused on raising their own salaries, which are almost $200,000 tax free per year, when they should be focused on streamlining their own operations in The Hague. …

The ICC too often focuses on … countries in Africa … and doesn’t touch the more difficult areas, we’ve mentioned Syria but there are others too [like Iraq and Afghanistan], and he says you’ve got to do better. Do you accept that?

Eboe-Osuji: Of course whenever you talk about salaries it’s something that excites interests … I was hoping you wouldn’t bring it up. Let me tell you this, I know that the salaries of ICC judges is just a fraction of what you pay some of your people at the BBC … I haven’t asked you your salary. …

I say it’s much better to have this and work on it to improve things … but in the end we need a court of last resort … even if we do spot instances like happens in every judicial system in the world … we cannot then … throw out the whole thing and leave no place for victims to go for justice in the end.

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Frankly, it serves the ICC right that President Trump is threatening not only to defund it but to ban its foreign judges from ever setting foot on US soil. After all, if the ICC were serious about investigating the war crimes US soldiers allegedly committed in Iraq and Afghanistan, it had the eight Obama years to do so. President Obama would surely have accorded the Court the comity and jurisprudential respect it deserved.

On the other hand, had Trump targeted the ICC before going after the WTO and WHO, he would be the most popular white man in Africa today; that is, after soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo.

Finally, it might be helpful to keep this categorical precedent in mind:

Nobody called for the racist fiends who ruled the United States from slavery to Jim Crow to be hauled before any international criminal court for the systemic crimes they committed against humanity.

Therefore, I submit that, just as America has done since its founding, African countries should be left alone to figure out how to prosecute and imprison (if called for) any leader who commits an impeachable offense [including crimes against humanity].

(“International Criminal Court Has Lost All Credibility,” The iPINIONS Journal, June 5, 2013)