Chad’s President Idriss Deby, elected African Union chairman at the two-day summit getting the reigns from Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe even a bigger critic, criticised International criminal court (ICC_ for focusing its efforts on African leaders.
“Elsewhere in the world, many things happen — many flagrant violations of human rights — but nobody cares,” Deby said at the close of the summit late Sunday, which had an official theme of protecting human rights.
No legally binding decision was made, and the decision to leave the ICC’s founding Rome Statute is up to an individual nation.
The decision is a “proposal…for the AU to develop a road map for the withdrawal of African nations”, a Kenyan presidential statement read.
The war crimes trial of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo began last week, rekindling a bitter row across Africa over the international justice system.
Malawi is yet to make a decision on whether to terminate its relationship with Hague based International Criminal Court or not. It is quite possible that the unwillingness to openly not support the powerful movement that has overtaken most of Africa and its leadership is the need to please the west and not irritate them further.
However the behavior of Virginia Palmer US Ambassador to Malawi has shown that these people cannot be trusted. First she takes to social media to criticize Peter Mutharika on Gay Issues. What diplomat does that kind of thing? She is meeting opposition leaders and Civil Society teaching those ways to destabilize the Peter Mutharika government.
So why care for her feelings. Peter Mutharika has bent backwards to please the West. However his efforts have met with rudeness and their unwillingness to lift the ban on budgetary support. Instead most of them have gone further courting the opposition parties because they are still bitter their Darling Joyce Banda was unseated by Peter Mutharika.
Peter Mutharika should ask himself what Bingu WA Mutharika would do. In answering that question he will find the answer on how to handle Virginia Palmer and what decision to make on the ICC.
