African leaders will meet in the Ethiopian capital on October 13 to take a position on whether to join Kenya’s planned pull-out from the International Criminal Court over the prosecution of its leaders, officials said on Thursday.
So far, there seems not to be much support for it.
However, Heads of State from the 54-member AU may still discuss the possibility of a pullout by the 34 African signatories to the Rome Statute that created the tribunal.
Last week’s start of the trial of the Kenyan Deputy President, William Ruto, for crimes against humanity, with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s trial due in November, has fuelled a growing backlash against the Hague-based court from some African governments, which sees it as a tool of Western powers.
“The Kenyans have been crisscrossing Africa in search of support for their cause, even before their parliament voted to withdraw from the ICC,” an AU official said.
“An extraordinary summit will now take place to discuss the issue. A complete walk-out of signatories to the Rome Statute is certainly a possibility, but other requests maybe made.”
The summit would be preceded by a meeting of African foreign ministers a day earlier, he said.
Kenya’s spokesman for the Presidency, Manoah Esipisu, said the country had not canvassed for the summit, but “welcomed the opportunity by African leaders to discuss what is obviously an important matter for the continent”.
ICC prosecutors had accused Kenyatta and Ruto, alongside radio journalist, Joshua Arap Sang, of fomenting ethnic violence that killed about 1,200 people after a disputed election in December 2007.
The three suspects deny the charges.
Some neighbours of East Africa’s biggest economy, have petitioned the ICC alongside Ruto’s lawyers for him to be excused from attending all ICC hearings.
A diplomat at the AU said Kenya may ask that Kenyatta and Ruto should not attend the entire trial.
“There is a belief shared by the Kenyans and African States that the leaders appearing at the trials risk destabilising the country,” said the diplomat, who declined to be named.
In May, the AU backed a request by Kenya that the trials should to be referred back to Kenya, on the ground that the ICC hearings risked raising ethnic tensions and destabilising its economy.
Officials from some of the AU’s biggest member states said that their governments had no plans to leave the ICC.
“We are far from that kind of position. There is a big if,” said South African Foreign Ministry spokesman, Clayson Monyela, when asked if there were plans for a walk-out.
Nurudeen Muhammed, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said the continent’s leading oil-producer had no “grudge against the ICC”.
“Kenya has its own reasons because the country’s President and Vice President were both indicted by ICC,” Muhammed said.
Zambia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Wylbur Simusa, said Lusaka would want to study the issue more thoroughly before commenting, adding: “As for now, we still remain part of the ICC.”
Reauters/NAN.
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