Africans should help bring Putin to the ICC
On March 17, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova for the war crimes of illegal deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
The crimes are believed to have been committed from at least February 24, 2023 — the day Russia embarked on an all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Russian officials have since dismissed the ICC indictment and closed ranks around their accused leader.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the allegations “outrageous and unacceptable”, but also “null and void”, because Russia – like China and the United States – does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Former President Dmitry Medvedev described the intergovernmental body as a “legal non-entity”, as he warned that any attempt to arrest Putin “would be a declaration of war on the Russian Federation”.
But ICC President Piotr Hofmanski said it is “completely irrelevant” that Russia has not ratified the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC.
“The court has jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territory of a state party or a state that has accepted its jurisdiction,” he told Al Jazeera. “Ukraine has accepted the ICC twice – in 2014 and then in 2015.”
As things stand, the ICC’s 123 member states are thus obliged to detain and transfer Putin to the organization’s headquarters in The Hague, Switzerland, should he land on their territory.
As the second sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes, Putin’s prosecution would be a major achievement for international justice.
The first was former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who was charged in March 2009 and July 2010 with committing genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 2003-2008 Darfur war.
The bloody conflict between the Sudanese government and rebels has killed at least 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million people, according to the United Nations.
Regardless of the veracity of the charges against al-Bashir, the landmark indictment amplified widespread discontent in Africa over the ICC’s excessive focus on investigating and prosecuting African leaders.
In 2010, the African Union (AU) urged its member states “not to cooperate with the ICC in the arrest and extradition of President Bashir”, putting countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Chad, Djibouti, Nigeria and South Africa under more to roll out the red carpet for him.
Only a few countries, including Botswana and Malawi, have expressed their willingness to arrest al-Bashir. South Africa refused to arrest him in 2015 while he was attending an AU summit in Johannesburg, saying he enjoyed diplomatic immunity. Al-Bashir eventually left the country under unclear circumstances after a South African court ordered his arrest. Later, the South African country argued that it was not responsible under international law or the Rome Statute to arrest a serving head of a non-state party.
Meanwhile, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) rightly complained that because “countries can choose whether or not to be a signatory” to the ICC, it meant that “gross human abuses committed by non-signatory countries go unpunished” .
This was a valid and relevant observation.
In 2020, for example, the US denounced an ICC investigation into the actions of US troops in Afghanistan.
It labeled the Hague tribunal a “kangaroo court” and imposed sanctions on former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and a senior official, Phakiso Mochochoko.
Thus, the ANC had spelled out the structural and operational shortcomings of the ICC and inadvertently advocated general reform. But no alternative court was proposed for the thousands of men, women and children raped and murdered in state-sponsored systematic violence in Darfur.
Nearly eight years after escaping arrest in Johannesburg, al-Bashir has still not faced trial for his alleged crimes in any Sudanese, African or international court.
While African countries rightly condemn the basic shortcomings of the ICC, they should not have hindered sincere efforts to ensure justice for the people of Darfur.
Like other global institutions paralyzed by the violent, lawless and regressive policies and actions of world powers, the ICC needs reform and decolonization.
In the meantime, African leaders must not repeat the mistakes they made regarding al-Bashir’s unforced arrest.
From 22 to 24 August 2023, South Africa will host the 15th BRICS Summit, with leaders from Brazil, India, China and Russia.
Should the stubborn and increasingly aggressive Putin attend the meeting, South Africa should fulfill its obligations to the ICC and arrest him, even though Russia has long been an ally of the ANC.
The Soviet Union provided significant financial, military and political support to South African and African movements during the fight for independence. Nevertheless, that commendable assistance cannot justify any South African or African attempt to dissuade Putin from taking responsibility for his alleged war crimes.
International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor has confirmed that South Africa has taken legal advice on how to deal with a visit from an alleged war criminal.
Meanwhile, the South African Communist Party (SACP) has characterized the ICC as “a supranational institution at the service of imperialist states”. And Julius Malema, commander-in-chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, has pledged to protect Putin if he lands in South Africa.
Unsurprisingly, the SACP and EFF condemned the ICC for failing to indict and arrest former US President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for orchestrating the long and brutal war in Iraq.
In 2003, the US, UK and several allies invaded Iraq under the false pretense that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction – an imperialist war effort that killed at least 200,000 civilians and caused regional instability.
Nevertheless, Malema and company are fighting the wrong battle and deliberately misinterpreting the essence of international humanitarian law and global justice.
Bush and Blair certainly must face the full force of the law for falsely violating Iraq’s sovereignty.
But Putin’s guilt for war crimes in Ukraine cannot be diminished, erased or disputed because of the numerous US military transgressions around the world.
So before the BRICS summit, South Africa should publicly reaffirm its commitment to support international justice and express its willingness to arrest Putin. No African nation committed to the establishment of a fair and equitable international order can ignore its murderous and destructive behavior.
Suffice it to say that as many justice systems in Africa are politically compromised or continually undermined by despotic leaders, Africa must abandon its superfluous whataboutism and instead strive to ensure that the ICC becomes a strong and independent multilateral institution.
And insofar as they advocate reparation for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died in an unjust war, Africans should also seek justice for the victims of war crimes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine, Myanmar and Ukraine.
No one – not even US President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping or Putin – should violate international law and avoid necessary legal consequences – certainly not with the support of Africa.
African states should see Putin’s indictment as the perfect opportunity to end once and for all the longstanding impunity claimed and perpetrated by the world’s powers.
The Russian leader must be expelled and made clear that the world will not support the genocidal chaos he orchestrated in Ukraine.
If he lands in South Africa or elsewhere in Africa, please arrest him.
Putin must appear in court.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial view of Al Jazeera.