The USA is fighting in Afganistan because that is where the masterminds of the 911 were and are now hiding with impunity. Moreover the G8 nations are not targeting to exterminate portions of their OWN citizens as do African tyrants, namely Bashir exterminating Darfurians, Mugabe exterminating the Ndebele, and Museveni exterminating the Ugandan northerners. As for crossing and attacking others, ten years ago, weren't Mugabe and Museveni and their armies killing, raping, and pillaging the citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo - a fellow African country at that - to the extent that the International Court of Justice, ICJ, has fined Uganda tens of billions of dollars for looting Congo's resources ? These twentieth century rhetorical excuses by African tyrants and their phoney "Pun Africanist" cohorts like you are tired, worn out, and are now meaningless and irrelevant in the twenty first century. There are empty, baseless, and should be confined to where they belong, in the dustbin of history. How anybody can defend African despots killing fellow Africans belies human intelligence, morality, and decency ? But then again most these so-called African leaders are people of scant intelligence. That why they usually end up in politics espousing half-baked ideas dressed-up in nonsensical pseudo-revolutionary rhetoric. The tyrants signed on the ICC thinking it wouldn't come and bit their rears, and it didn't hurt that they were enticed with the promise of aid money too, as one of the incentives. Now it is time to live up to their end of the bargain, something that is and anathema to them as they have modicum of integrity. Can you imagine Nyerere, as Kikwete now is, coming to the defence of the genocidal Bashir, after the former showed Idi Amin the exit door for similar crimes. I am sure Nyerere would be turning in his grave if he knew Kikwete was defending Bashir using African sovereignty as an excuse. Africa will just do fine with or without the current hordes of African genocide apologists, be they presidents or not. All the bases are or should be covered so that there is no more room for these African criminal presidents to hide, run as much as they can try to.

The ICC is not wrong on its indicment of el-Beshir, because whether we like it or not, the ICC was set up to be a judicial institution by an international treaty of nations, many of the them in Africa. Mr. Ocampo is a lawyer who is just carrying out what is in his mandate.

The conflict in Darfur has been raging for over five years. Taking the advice of the author would be tantamount to saying let the killings, rapes of the girls and women, burning down of whole villages continue. This passive attitude led to the Rwandan genocide, the masacres in Bosnia and Kosovo and other places.

Remember, Sadam Hussein was executed by his own people for killing Shiites in Iraq, and not by the ICC.

Who has come to the aid of those poor Darfuri people in the camps in Chad and inside Sudan? Not a single Arab World country, apart from Egypt with its token support, which is more a politically strategic move than anything else. The Arab World together with the African Union could have done so much to show the world that they care about the people of Darfur as much as they do about the Sudanese president. If the effort to seek the suspension of the indictments had gone to securing peace, justice and development in Darfur, we would not be here today.

African nations cannot call the ICC an imperialist institution, because in fact, many have ratified the Rome Statute, which established the ICC. Many African leaders would be afraid of the ICC, if they have some of the skeletons of their own citizens hidden away in some mass graves. Otherwise, there is no rationale for the anxiety.

It is hypocritical to stand for the rights of leaders and not the common people. Just because there were more atrocities in Nazi Germany, Iraq or Afghanistan is no excuse for the same to happen anywhere in Africa.

If Africa wants to show that they care, let us begin by standing up for the rights of the common people in the same manner that we would for our leaders. No one matters more than the other!