The African Union (AU) has registered its displeasure against the International Criminal Court (ICC) of hunting only Africans because of their race at the union’s summit at the ancient city of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
The chairperson for the summit Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia made this remarks on Monday when the summit was on the verge of closing.
The mentioning of this by the Prime Minister brought uproar and loud applause from the many crowd gathered in the conference room from across the African continent.
The Africa Union converged at the historic city of Addis Ababa where its headquarters is located to celebrate the 50 years of existence of the union in the ultra-modern conference room built and donated to the Union by the Chinese government.
The African Union stated among many things that it is highly opposed to the International Criminal Court trying of Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta on charges of crimes against humanity as being responsible for the violence after disputed elections in 2007 in Kenya.
President Uhuru Kenyatta was elected in March this year beating the then Prime Minister Raila Odinga by 50.07% to 43.28% but the International Criminal Court wants him tried despite being a sitting President.
“African leaders are concerned that out of those indicted by the ICC, 99% are Africans and this clearly shows that something is flawed within the system of the International Criminal Court and we the Africa Union object to this practice by the ICC’’, Prime Minister Hailemariam lamented.
“The ICC had been formed more than a decade ago to end the culture of impunity, but now the process has degenerated into some kind of race hunting’’, he stressed further.
“The African Union is mandated by the assembly to take care of this issue, to present to the United Nations the core of this matter,” he said again.
The African Union will formally register its protest before the General Assembly of the United Nations as soon as possible, PM Hailemariam added.
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir is among the African leaders being indicted by the ICC but he attended the summit in defiance of an ICC warrant for his arrest.
The African Union Peace and Security Council head Ramtane Lamamra told reporters that it was unreasonable for the United Nations Security Council to refer President Bashir to the ICC when three of its five permanent members namely, the United States, Russia and China have all not ratified the Rome Statute which established the International Criminal Court.
“How could you refer the cases of others while you don’t feel compelled to abide by the same rule?” he is quoted as saying by reporters.
Some 300,000 people are estimated to have died in Darfur in Sudan since 2003, according to the UN report of which the International Criminal Court indicted President Bashir as being responsible for the conflict charging him with genocide.
The position of the African Union on the International Criminal Court was met with praises by many political analysts, of which some described as “the time for Africans to be free from both political and mental imperialism’’.
Specifically from the Ghanaian capital Accra, people were happy that the African Union has been able to take this bold decision by referring its displeasure to the United Nations.
Brief History of the African Union
The African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the African Union is Morocco.
The African Union was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and launched on 9 July 2002 in South Africa to replace the Organization of African Unity (OAU) which was started by 8 African leaders led by Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah.
The most important decisions of the African Union are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states.
The African Union is headquartered in the ancient city of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The Chinese government built and donated the current edifice of the African Union which is a giant and magnificent building in Addis Ababa to the Union.
Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News
[adrotate banner=”46″]
