This so called Human rights group make a of noise about african leaders, which is fair and fine, but are so quiet about Bush and Blair who also butchered a lot of innocent people in IRAQ and now Obama and Brown are killing innocent people in Afghanistan and Pakistan, we want to hear them demand that Bush and Blair who are no longer sitting presidents be arrested immediately.

you're dreaming if you think they will ever charge Obama, Blair or Brown, or even Obama. Fact facts!

These criminals(ICC;IMPERIALIST COURT OF CONFUSION) are at it again,they only become functional when it concerns Africa,we reject their glaring hypocricy and racism.I thought they said what,s good for the goose is good for the gander? Omar Bashir can go rot in hell, he,s one of the same people whose ancestors invaded Africa and still hold,s Africans to ransom, but that,s not to push aside the fact that this ICC is an illegal court and was created by the imperialists to continually disturb Africa and if not why have they(icc) not yet commenced the procecution and trial of Bush,Blair;Howard and other criminals that,ve equally butchered tens of thousnds of innocent people? Bottom line is, if this fake, corrupt and illegal court is deemed good enough for Africa it also should be good enough for EUROPE and USA.Wake up people, the imperialist hypocrites are at it again.

Rafil - Why do you raise the charge of racism when there are many more white people from the former Yugoslavia being prosecuted in the Hague than black people from Africa? Surely you would be aware of that?

Katz, ICC does not have credibility in Africa any more. ICC position was worsened when they ignored AU about the Bashir case. Also NGOs warned ICC to postphone it's decision about Bashir. Yet it choice to go ahead. That clicked to most Africans as trying to control the judicial principals of individual countries.

There are actually a number of fault lines between ICC "procedures" and African belief of consensus. I would like to see ICC membership be based on each African parliament decision.

The failure to indicate Bush/Cheneny participation in Killing 1 million Iraqs has far worsened the credibility of ICC. Many people in Africa view Bush/Cheney role in Iraq as similar to Nazi Hitlers role in barbaric murder of Jewish people. At least Nazis are being hurted down. The moment Bush admitted mistakes, the whole World wanted war crimes against them. And where was the ICC!! Nowhere to be seen.

Phiri - from the very start, I was opposed to the Iraq invasion. I felt it was illegal, foolish and bound to fail. That does not mean that I believe that Bush or Cheney were responsible for the tens of thousands who have died (where did you get your figure of 1 million from?); what they were responsible was for opening up the sectarian schisms that already existed and these were exploited by extremists of all description. Yes, Bush has a case to answer, and No, unfortunately he will not face court for this.

It is a great pity, but these are the realities of the world that we live in. Remember also that the provocation of 9/11 was bound to result in the redneck response that we saw, and this is precisely what Al-Quieda wanted and sought to achieve. Apart from anything,Bush is guilty of stupidity and naivity, but he is not guilty of wanting to kill hundreds of thousands of unarmed civilians.

None of this, however, should make Bashir unaccontable for his crimes or nor does it make the ICC racist. (An Arab African kills 300-400,000 black Africans, the White West complains, and is held to be racist by Africa as a whole??)

Bush was replaced by a person cut from very different cloth, and the Republicans will spend a long time in the political wilderness. In Africa there are also criminals, but they are not removed through the democratic process. The ICC represents at least one way of trying to keep the tyrants in check, as the democratic process is not sufficiently developed to do so.

Katz, I believe that the moment that Bush and Cheney finally admitted in public that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that Iraq was not responsible for 9/11, that is the time they became accountable to there actions. Alas, they continued to torture Iraqs and others and continued to bomb Iraq, long after they admitted that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

UNESCO reported that about 600,000 children Iraq died of hunger and malnuitrition, hunger, bombings etc during the US occupation of Iraq. WE WILL NEVER KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT THE BARBARIC AND MURDER COMMITTED BY USA IN IRAQ. USA/UK ALL GOT AWAY WITH MASS DESTRUCTION OF IRAQS. I FOR ONE CAN NEVER SUPPORT MEMBERSHIP IN THE ICC BECAUSE OF DOUBLE STANDARDS! Even you Katz, will have to admit that they were and continue to be human rights abuses by both USA and British troops in Iraq.

Phiri - again I say that I am not, and have never been a supporter of the illegal invasion of Iraq; but again I ask you - how does any of this absolve Bashir? Because of Iraq and the fact that Bush and Blair have not been held accountable (other than in a political sense) for what they did there, you as an intelligent person would rather Bashir, who has killed hundreds of thousands of black Africans gets off scott free?

Phiri - I have a suggestion; would it not be better that the AU set up a transnational court to which all member states would agree that their nationals can be tried under a predetermined code of human rights? A permanent panel of judges would be paid by the AU and to the extent that it is possible, be protected from any political pressure. For instance all judges sitting in trial would be selected from countries outside the region where the alledged crimes occurred.

Charles Taylor is currently being tried by the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the only reason that the court was moved from Freetown to the Hague is because it was feared that the trial would provoke unrest in West Africa.

What if the AU's transnational court could sit in say Cape Town, Dar es Salaam or Accra and the court would chose which one according to where the alledged crimes took place, with the further away the better? This seems to me to be better than the Hague and removes the perception that this is interferring white man's justice for what are sovereign states which are quite capable of administering their own.

Katz, looking at the way all the African leaders are showing support for Mugabe and just closing their eyes to the horrors that Mugabe has done, which one of them do you think would ever say "guilty" to him. I think the African court would be a playground for bribery and corruption and these murderers would go Scots free every time. At least the Hague is neutral ground.

Katz, A tribunal set up by AU would be a far better way, even if it was supervised by ICC or the international community! The only reason I would agree to that is that people in Africa could see for themselves what is happening and it would be closer to home. Sending despots to the Hague, removes the entire process from Africa to Europe, and that is what a lot of people object to. On that point I find some agreement with you.

Even though I'm not sudanese I do know that barbaric torture against the Southern black christians has taken place under AlBashire and he is also responsible for human rights violation. It is the process in which the ICC went about this issue that I'm oppossed to. I take the position of the AU to be right in saying it is better to engage Al-Bashir than to exile him to the Hague and what is left after that would seem more of a european affair as oppossed to African affairs. I also believe that taking the Bashir issue to the Hague would not help solve the crisis. Bashir gets a lot of support from Arab states.

Phiri, with all that said and the fear of upsetting the Arabs, then long live Omar al Bashir.

TD, you really are becoming TeDious. You are in cloud cuckoo land.

ICC will never bring peace to Africa only horrors and cry. This an instrument made by the western capitalism to disturb Africa and create chaos in Africa,it'll never make justice nor are professional people.They are biased and really biased , mere thugs. Remember the public interest supersede the justice interest. Bashir cannot be tried byt the incompetent court that I hate and will fight against during my whole life. Now Americans , britons are allowed to be tried there.What kind of justice do they have to privide. Blair , Bush and other genociders like them , where are they .They are free , why bashir? Go to hell Africa and its sons will one day stand as one person and say this is enough for the west to use us , kill us and exploit us

If someone butchered my family, I would not care what court or organization went after them and hauled their asses. Those of you who are complaining about the ICC going after these murderers shows you have no qualms about being butchers yourselves. Human rights groups are there to protect innocent people stripped and denied of all rights even that of human life and only those who have abused, committed atrocities or been a part of, find the nerve to criticize this body. Libya made a number of proposals during the so called summit some of which were the establishment of the African Defense Council, the establishment of the Agency for the protection of Territory and economic Waters of African countries. These were all adopted but with no debate allowed by the Chair.The adoption of not to co-operate with the ICC was also done without a debate by the Chair. So that is why a lot of criticism was made because that is not the way to conduct such business.

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