South Africa quits war crimes court

TROUBLED: Govt alleges bias against African leaders

SOUTH Africa announced on Friday that it would withdraw from the International Criminal Court, dealing a major blow to a troubled institution set up to try the world’s worst crimes.

The decision followed a dispute last year when Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited the country for an African Union summit despite facing an ICC arrest warrant over alleged war crimes.

South Africa refused to arrest him, saying he had immunity as a head of state. Justice Minister Michael Masutha said here that the ICC was “inhibiting South Africa’s ability to honour its obligations relating to the granting of diplomatic immunity”.

“There is a view in Africa that the ICC in choosing who to prosecute has seemingly preferred to target leaders in Africa,” Masutha said.

The ICC, set up in 2002, is often accused of bias against Africa and had also struggled with a lack of cooperation, including from the United States, which had signed the court’s treaty but never ratified it.

As an ICC signatory, South Africa’s failure to arrest Bashir last year led to a wave of condemnation and an early threat from the government to withdraw from the court.

Earlier this month, Burundi said it would leave the court, and Namibia and Kenya had also raised the possibility. Welcoming South Africa’s decision to withdraw from the ICC, Sudan urged other African member nations to follow suit.

South Africa, which delivered a letter to the United Nations on Wednesday to activate its official withdrawal, is likely to complete the process in one year.

Of the 10 ICC probes since 2002, nine had been into African countries and one into Georgia, though most ICC cases had been referred to the court by African governments themselves. AFP