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Maite Nkoana-Mashabane

JOHANNESBURG. – South Africa has joined Burundi in officially announcing its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying its laws are incompatible with obligations under the ICC.The South African government gave a formal notice of its intention to pull out of the ICC yesterday.

South Africa “found that its obligations with respect to the peaceful resolution of conflicts at times are incompatible with the interpretation given by the International Criminal Court,” the document, signed by International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, read.

During his tenure as Sadc and African Union chairperson last year, President Mugabe lashed out at the ICC, and said it was time Africa established its own ICC to judge Western leaders who have committed plunder and mass murder on the continent.

“They committed crimes, colonial crimes galore – the slaughter of our people and all that imprisonment. . .We forgave them, but perhaps we’ve not done ourselves justice.

“There should be justice for all. You set up the ICC, we set our ICC to try Europeans, to try Mr Bush and Mr Blair,” said President Mugabe.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Michael Masutha told a media conference in the administrative capital, Pretoria, that the ICC’s obligations are inconsistent with laws giving sitting leaders diplomatic immunity.

“The Implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Act, 2002, is in conflict and inconsistent with the provisions of the Diplomatic Immunities and Privileges Act, 2001,” Masutha said.

South Africa says a bill over the matter, i.e. the withdrawal from ICC, will soon go to the country’s parliament.

The decision comes amid a dispute over last year’s visit by Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to attend an African Union summit in Johannesburg. President al-Bashir is wanted by the ICC over alleged war crimes. South Africa, however, said he had immunity as the head of a member state.

Nevertheless, the ICC criticised the South African government for its failure to arrest Bashir.

The announcement of the decision by South Africa to withdraw from the ICC sparked rapid criticism from the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).

South Africa is the second African country to declare its withdrawal from the ICC. Earlier this week, Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza signed a decree to quit the court’s jurisdiction.

Namibia and Kenya have also raised the possibility of withdrawal from the ICC.

Some African governments say the ICC has shown a post-colonial bias against the continent’s leaders.

Until this week, no country had withdrawn from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Now two African states, South Africa and Burundi, have made official decisions to leave.

Concerns are high that more African countries now will act on years of threats to pull out amid accusations that the court unfairly focuses on the continent. Here’s a look at what it all means.

Many in the international community cheered when the treaty to create the ICC, the Rome Statute, was adopted in 1998 as a way to pursue some of the world’s worst atrocities: genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Not all countries signed on, and before this week’s decisions by Burundi and South Africa, the treaty had 124 states parties. Notable countries that have not become states parties include the United States, China, Russia and India. Some countries are wary of The Hague, Netherlands-based court’s powers, seeing it as potential interference.

Only Africans have been charged in the six ICC cases that are ongoing or about to begin, though preliminary ICC investigations have been opened elsewhere in the world.

One case that caused considerable anger among African leaders was the ICC’s pursuit of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta for his alleged role in the deadly violence that erupted after his country’s 2007 presidential election.

The case later collapsed amid prosecution claims of interference with witnesses and non-cooperation by Kenyan authorities. The African Union has called for immunity from prosecution for heads of state, and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at his inauguration in May – with al-Bashir in attendance – declared the ICC to be “useless”.

Burundi kicked off the ICC departures this month when lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to leave the tribunal, just months after the court announced it would investigate recent political violence there.

President Pierre Nkurunziza signed the bill on Tuesday. Now South Africa is deciding to leave as well, objecting to what it reportedly calls “perceptions of inequality and unfairness in the practice of the ICC.”

With one of Africa’s most developed countries now pulling out, observers are waiting to see whether more states follow.

South Africa’s decision to pull out from the ICC is likely to lead “more African countries into wanting to follow in its footsteps”, a researcher at the Institute of Security Studies has said.

In an interview with News24, Allan Ngari said South Africa’s move was, however, not a surprise.

“South Africa pulling out of the ICC is actually not a surprise. It has been coming for over a year. However, I have to say that it is a huge blow on the fight against impunity. There are going to be more African countries that would follow in its footsteps,” said Ngari.

Ngari said that without any proper mechanism to protect victims of crime across the continent, South Africa’s decision to pull out of the international court was “travesty of justice” as it would have “unintended consequences on victims of international crimes across the African continent”.

The African Union proposed the establishment of the African Criminal Court some few years ago, but up to today, nothing tangible had been put in place.

According to Ngari only nine signatories were on the set up statute regarding the court.

“The AU proposed court is not functioning. There are only about nine countries out of the 53 AU member states that have signed to start that court, meaning that if AU countries pull out of the ICC that would be travesty of justice,” said Ngari. – News Agencies.