Lords’ Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony. Photo/FILE NATION MEDIA GROUP
By WAGA ODONGO
Posted Monday, November 12 2012 at 02:00
Posted Monday, November 12 2012 at 02:00
IN SUMMARY
- The Wag satirises the situation in east Africa, where several leaders wanted or being investigated by international criminal courts over various allegations still hold sway over multitudes
I recently got a call from an unknown number. The man at the other end claimed that he was Joseph Kony’s unofficial spokesman and wanted to speak to someone “well connected in the media”.
“So why me?” I asked him.
“Everyone who matters is busy,” he shouted angrily. “I want to declare Joseph Kony is seriously considering vying for the Ugandan presidency in 2016.”
Kony’s indictment has been a permanent hurdle to the peace process in Uganda. He insists on getting immunity from the ICC before engaging in any peace initiatives, but his opponents imply that he is a Christian Idi Amin at the head of an African Khmer Rouge.
When asked about this, the ‘spokesman’ dismissed the claims as “propaganda funded by Western backers who support our enemies and a few local NGOs”. “Kony is an innocent man,” he insisted.
The ICC is the most important issue facing East Africans, he added. “Unemployment, insecurity, poor public services and inflation are secondary. The next election in both Kenya and Uganda will be a referendum on the ICC process.
“East Africans as a whole are being targeted by the ICC. All the court cases have been African. The court also seems to have a particular interest in eastern Africa.”
Perhaps, I suggested, we in East Africa have a particular predilection to butchering each other on religious, ethnic and racial lines.
“Rubbish,” he replied. “Well it is an East African thing, you see. International Criminal courts are courts for us darkies; it should be called the East African Criminal Court.”
“What about Taylor? Wasn’t he from West Africa?” I asked.
“A statistical anomaly.”
“Milosevic and other Serbians?”
“A blip on the radar.”
“What about the Nuremberg trials that were constituted against the Nazi leadership?”
“As I said, international courts are clearly courts for Africans, if you do not count all the Europeans who have been brought before various other international criminal courts. Kony is an innocent man (he added again despite me not challenging the statement). He has not been found guilty in any court of law.”
“What about Kony’s warrant for arrest for mass murder, enslavement and abduction?”
“Falsehood. Absolute falsehood.”
“Human rights violation?”
“Manifest nonsense. And because of that Uganda is clearly being left behind. The whole east African region prefers to be led by persons being investigated by the ICC. Rwanda’s leadership is being considered for crimes in the Congo. We commiserate with Thomas Lubanga. Sudan sits defiantly thumbing their noses at the ICC. Kenya is about to make the step forward to join the club. Considering the way they are clamping down hard on the opposition in Tanzania in 2015, the country may join our league of extraordinary gentlemen.”
(Stephen Rapp, the Head of United States Global office of Criminal Justice, did say in the ‘Guardian’ earlier this year that some military leaders, including Paul Kagame, could find themselves before The Hague due to “aiding and abetting” crimes against humanity in the Congo.
And, according to a UN report, the Rwandan military is shielding from justice M23 rebels led by Bosco “the Terminator” Ntaganda. I bet that Bosco “the terminator” did not get his name because he looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger).
The spokesman talked of how Al-Bashir, who believes in a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia, and Joseph Kony, a man who wants to set up a nation guided by the 10 commandments, have been able to work together.
According to an Al-Jazeera documentary, Al-Bashir’s Islamic government has been giving military support to Kony’s rebels. Kony similarly, in what is thought of as a nod to his Sudanese paymasters, is said to have banned alcohol in areas he controls and forbidden eating of pork.
“The ICC clearly is at the forefront of fostering the spirit of ecumenical co-operation between different religions. You can see how confirming charges against individuals in Kenya has brought the leaders of two tribes who fought the hardest together in peace. That is the power of the ICC.”
He further said that the ICC had done what the Kenyan TJRC was unable to do and has united the main antagonists in the province Bonde la Kufa.
“Bonde la Ufa province,” I corrected him.
“No, the name changes during election years,” he said unhelpfully.
Asked whether Kony’s presidency or that of any ICC suspect would result in sanctions by western countries, he dismissed such worries as inconsequential.
“Aside from hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, military training and support, billion-dollar bilateral trade agreements, bailing Kenya out during its election crisis, setting up headquarters of numerous international organisations in the region, free drugs, scholarships to students and tourism, what does Kenya and Uganda gain from their relationship with the West? Nothing! This quest for justice is being pushed by foreigners. Africans have forgiven each other and moved on.”
“But, surely, shouldn’t Kony clear his name first before campaigning for the presidency? Why the rush?”
“He is an innocent man” he replied. “His presidency is based on issues, not the ICC.”
“Is Kony’s attempt at the presidency an attempt at evading justice?”
“Of course not. No east African leader supports the ICC, not even the opposition candidates who stand to benefit. In Kenya, Raila Odinga, Musalia Mudavadi and Kalonzo Musyoka have all intimated that if elected they would try their best to return the cases of the four suspects to a local tribunal.
In Sudan during the 2010 election, opposition candidate Sadiq Al-Mahdi declared that if elected he would not surrender General Al-Bashir to the ICC.
“In fact these people complaining about the genocide in Darfur... don’t they know Darfur was bombed to a shell in 1916 during the Great War by Western powers? Now when Africans bomb it, they scream war crimes! Isn’t that hypocrisy?”
(Al-Mahdi did indeed say that he would not hand Al-Bashir over to the ICC if elected president despite the fact that in 1989 Al-Bashir overthrew his government. He isn’t one to hold grudges).
“But how will a suspect on trial at The Hague run the country?” I asked.
“Even if the president goes to The Hague, a country can still be ruled via Facebook. It shows how developed ICT infrastructure in Kenya has become. In Malawi former President Mutharika used to be away for months on end on foreign trips — not unlike a Hague suspect would have to be — and yet he still found time to administer the country. In fact Kenya truly is on its way to becoming the Silicon savannah. A twitter DM (direct message) or Facebook wall post shall from next year, all factors permitting, be official government correspondence. Isn’t that progress?”
Then the line went dead... before I could get his name.
dn2@ke.nationmedia.com
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WOULD A KENYAN HEAD OF STATE HONOUR ICC SUMMONS?
Pierre Laval, a former Prime Minister of France, asked Joseph Stalin in 1935 to allow Catholicism in Russia “in order to make the Pope happy”. Russia was then an atheist state that believed that religion was an opiate that the people ought to withdraw from. Stalin retorted: “The pope! How many divisions has he got?”
The only thing that could compel the Soviet dictator to remove his jackboot from the throat of organised religion was an army division. From his response, it looked like it would take more than one division to do so.
No earthly power, nor, for that matter, any earthly powers with a direct line to the heavens, was enough to morally compel him to change his mind on so crucial an issue.
When the ICC issued a warrant of arrest on Sudanese President Al-Bashir, he must have retorted: “The ICC! How many divisions have they got?”
Similarly, the countries across the world, from Qatar to Kenya, that he has visited since his warrant of arrest for genocide have refused to arrest him. Qatar is not a signatory of the Rome statute, but Kenya is. Malawi under Joyce Banda threatened to arrest him should he set foot in it though.
The ICC is operationally incapable of removing the Sudanese president from office to honour his arrest warrant because it has no method of enforcement. In Sudan, the story was that Al-Bashir should remain in power for stability reasons. Stability is more important than justice, you see.
If you try to remove him it might jeopardize a fragile peace both in his own country and in the region. The Sahel is complicated.
Peace and stability are apparently competing interests. It is better to live the whole rotting edifice in place than risk removing a single plank and bringing the whole thing down. (The reason that Lady Justice — or Justitia — is depicted as being behind a blindfold is not because she is impartial, but that they are preparing to put her before a firing squad).
How can a criminal justice system have no mechanism of enforcement? In 2009, eight of the court’s 11 wanted suspects were at large. It seems like a logical question to ask because I fear — or rather I expect — that once a Kenyan president is on the ICC radar the situation changes. The chorus will be stability ahead of any justice as it happened in Sudan.
“Kenya is facing a fraught situation in Somalia, secessionists at home, marauding gangs across the landscape and the aftermath of a bitterly contested election. It is a time for healing and strong leadership. Could we reschedule? Preferably to the 32nd of Never?”
Would an elected Kenyan president with a summons at the ICC really attend court, considering that bail may not be granted? I doubt it.
“Your Excellency the CGH, Bensouda is on the line. She wants to know if you can make it for the afternoon session.”
“Bensouda! How many divisions has she got?”
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