African Union exposes ICC's racism

By Eugene Puryear

PSL, July 10, 2011

The member states of the African Union have adopted a motion calling on its member states to disregard the arrest warrant issued against Muammar Gaddafi by the International Criminal Court.

The AU decision is an expression of frustration with U.S./NATO intervention in Libya, as well as a significant blow to the ICC—one that exposes the hypocrisy of the ICC process.

AU Chairman Jean Ping stated that the ICC is "discriminatory," focusing on crimes committed in Africa while ignoring those committed by Western powers—including U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

"With this in mind, we recommend that the member states do not cooperate with the execution of this arrest warrant," the motion said.

The AU resolution openly flouts the technical adherence of a number of African states to the ICC. The ICC is the product of previous attempts at international jurisprudence following World Wars I and II and concerning conflicts like Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s. Ratified in 2002, the court includes 114 member states.

The arrest warrant for Gaddafi acts very directly as an instrument of regime change. The ICC has jurisdiction over crimes committed by nationals of its member countries, or committed in the territory of a member country—but Libya is not a member of the ICC. However, the ICC will also act upon referrals from the U.S.-dominated Security Council, as it has done in this case.

The U.S. government, for its part, never ratified its membership in the ICC, and has generally rejected ICC jurisdiction for fear that U.S. leaders could face prosecution for their numerous crimes against humanity. Washingtonhas pursued bilateral agreements with a number of countries to protect U.S. nationals from being handed over to the ICC. Overt rejection of the ICC was especially strong under George W. Bush, whose criminal record speaks for itself.

Nevertheless, the U.S. government has managed to use the ICC to advance its own imperialist agenda. It had no objection to the Security Council’s referral of oil-rich Sudan to the ICC in 2005. And now, it has voted with the Security Council to refer the situation in Libya to the ICC as well.

Not good enough to prosecute Washington’s war criminals, but not a bad tool against Washington’s targets. That has been the orientation of the U.S. government toward the ICC.

While countries such as the United States and Israel remain out of the ICC’s reach, African countries have been repeatedly targeted for investigation and prosecution. In fact, every situation investigated or prosecuted by the ICC focuses on African states.

The AU has pointed out this hypocrisy, and has potentially damaged use of the ICC as an effective agent of regime change.

The AU, however, still collaborates with the ICC on other cases. While they often oppose ICC moves against African heads of state, many AU countries work with the court to carry out "victor's justice" with war crimes indictments being used as political weapons.

The AU’s opposition to the ICC arrest warrant against Gaddafi is entirely justified, serving as an important exposure of the racist hypocrisy of "international justice" in the age of imperialism.