Posts Tagged ‘Darfur’
Desmond Tutu: Save The International Criminal Court (ICC)
 In 2 days, African leaders could vote to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, crippling one of the world’s best hopes for confronting genocide and crimes against humanity. I know together we can stop this. Join me in urging the voices of reason within the African Union to stand up for justice and accountability — let’s protect this great institution:
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In just 2 days’ time, African leaders could kill off a great institution, leaving the world a more dangerous place.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the world’s first and only global court to adjudicate crimes against humanity.
The leaders of Sudan and Kenya, who have inflicted terror and fear across their countries, are trying to drag Africa out of the ICC, allowing them the freedom to kill, rape, and inspire hatred without consequences.
I know that together we can change this.
We have to join hands and call on the voices of reason at the African Union (AU) – Nigeria and South Africa – to speak out and ensure that the persecuted are protected by the ICC.
In my years of work, life and travel, the fight for justice has been a long and arduous one. I have seen the very worst in Darfur and Rwanda, but also the very best with the reconciliation in South Africa.
During this journey, I have seen great gains made that protect the weak from the strong and give us all hope. The ICC is one of these beacons of hope.
This threat to the ICC started precisely because the court was doing its job. It charged Kenya’s Deputy President for killing people who rallied against him during an election and Sudan’s President for murdering women and children in Darfur.
Now Kenya and Sudan are lobbying all of Africa to pull out of the court and destroy its chance of success.
But in Darfur, Congo, Cote D’Ivoire and Kenya, the ICC has played a key role in bringing hope to those terrified by the armies, militias and madmen that have waged war against the innocent. It’s a light in the darkness that cannot be allowed to go out.
The main argument by some leaders with a guilty conscience is that the ICC is a Western witch-hunt as most of the investigations have happened in Africa. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.
The the ICC was an institution that was created by 20 African countries, 5 of the court’s 18 judges are African and the chief prosecutor is African.
Friday is a key judgement day. Will our African leaders stand on the side of justice or injustice? With survivors and fallen victims or with tyrants and oppressors?
This is the moment to choose. Join me in calling on African leaders to stand on the side of justice and support the International Criminal Court:
I’ve seen some of the brightest moments in human history, moments where we together brought hope to so many. This is our chance to do that again, together.
Join me by adding your name to the petition now and share it with everyone — when we have hit 1 million our petition will be delivered straight into the AU conference hall where Africa’s leaders are meeting in Addis Ababa (capital of Ethiopia).
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/justice_for_africa_icc/?bFAfecb&v=30068
With hope and appreciation for this community,
Desmond Tutu
Note: So far, the ICC has been manipulated by the superpower forces to reach political objectives. However, it is an excellent tool to any public criminal who still believe that the superpowers will save him in the long run from justice, as politics is ever changing, and the ICC will be called upon to deliver “justice”.
More information:
Botswana Supports International Criminal Court (Voice of America)
http://www.voanews.com/content/botswana-supports-international-criminal-court/1764960.html
130 Groups Across Africa Call for Countries to Back ICC (Human Rights Watch)
http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/10/07/130-groups-across-africa-call-countries-back-icc
Kenya pushing for African split from International Criminal Court (Irish Times)
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/africa/kenya-pushing-for-african-split-from-international-criminal-court-1.1549427
Annan defends International Criminal Court (News 24)
http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Annan-defends-International-Criminal-Court-20131007
Africa to debate ICC role amid growing opposition (Yahoo News)
http://news.yahoo.com/africa-debate-icc-role-amid-growing-opposition-103053710.html
Kid-Soldiers
Posted on: October 30, 2009
Kid-Soldiers; (October 30, 2009)
The last two decades witnessed recruiting kids to joining guerillas and armies in the various civil wars in Africa. The UN estimates that more than 300,000 kids played soldiers in various functions. Since many kid girls were also swiped into “the war efforts” and be used mainly as “sexual slaves” and partners in many other tasks then the UN decided to name these kids “Kids associated with armed groups”.
Over thirty conflicts in the Congo, Chad, Sudan, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leon, Mozambique, Angola, Burundi, Darfur, and Myanmar (former Burma) made the forced recruiting of children a way of life; many kids who grew up quickly by committing murder and learning to survive are still carrying arms after the cessation of hostilities. The task of re-integrating these kids into their communities is turning to be a daunting effort. Communities had to re-create rituals of purification so that the kids feel comfortable when welcomed in their families. The UN is doing its best in that regard under the various MINU* missions.
Isolating these kid-soldiers is not the solution: families and communities have to be encouraged to taking these kids back within society. The main difficulty is that families have greater need for psychological supports then the kid-soldier since families will have the burden of assimilating and controlling aggressive kids who turned out to be “best soldiers” for killing and executing their “enemies”. Many of the kid-soldiers were forced to mutilate members of their families to discourage them from escaping the military group and going back to their communities. The kid-soldiers had the opportunity to realize their dreams of omni power status; they feel immortal with power to back it up.
These kid-soldiers would not go into agriculture or solitary jobs outside urban environments: they have dreamt of getting out of their former peasant or tribal restrictions and will not return. Kid-soldiers like driving taxis in cities, mixing with people, and get remunerated as adult soldiers when disbanded. Kid-soldiers are mostly ready as reservists for regular armies: fighting is their main job and they learned it better than adult soldiers.
International Justice failed to sent the strong right signal to those who hired and recruited kid-soldiers; actually, many of those recruiters were elevated to ranks of Generals after the civil wars. What the UN is doing for re-inserting these kid-soldiers is not enough and short on target: the specialists are still in the phase of learning what to do with kid-soldiers before they can measure successes of re-insertion programs. The governments offering funds for re-integrating kid-soldiers are doing it to relieve their bad conscience and care less for effective results.
Adonis Diaries 