Twilight of impunity for Africa's presidential criminals

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 25, Issue 8, 2004, Pages 1487-1499

  Baker, Bruce ^a  

^a Institute for Clean Growth and Future Mobility   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CRIME; GLOBALIZATION; INTERNATIONAL LAW; POLITICAL CHANGE; SOCIAL JUSTICE;

AFRICA;

EID: 33144483028     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/0143659042000308483     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. G Robertson, Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice, Buckingham: Penguin Books, 2002
2. L Sadat, The International Criminal Court and the Transformation of International Law: Justice for the New Millennium, Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers, 2002.
3. M Bassiouni, The Statute of the International Criminal Court and Related Instruments: Legislative History 1994-2000, Ardsley, NY: Transnational Publishers, 2001
4. A Cassese (ed) The Rome Statute for an International Criminal Court, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001
5. M Lattimer & P Sands (eds) Justice for Crimes against Humanity: International Law after Pinochet, Oxford: Oxford: University Press, 2001
6. R Lee, The International Criminal Court: Elements of Crimes and Rules of Procedure and Evidence,bArdsley, NY: Transnational Publishers, 2001. As of May 2004, 94 countries are States Parties, 24 of them are African Countries, viz: Senegal; Ghana; Mali; Lesotho; Botswana; Sierra Leone; Gabon; South Africa; Nigeria; Central African Republic; Benin; Mauritius; Democratic Republic of Congo; Niger; Uganda; Namibia; Gambia; Tanzania; Malawi; Djibouti; Zambia; Guinea; Burkina Faso; Congo.
7. H Meyer, The World Court in Action: Judging Among the Nations, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002
8. P Sands (ed) From Nuremberg to The Hague: The Future of International Criminal Justice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003
9. P Gaeta, 'Ratione Materiae immunities of former Heads of State and international crimes: The Hissène Habré case', Journal of International Criminal Justice, 1(1), 2003, pp 186-96.
10. It lists murder; extermination; enslavement; deportation or forcible transfer of population; imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; torture; rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization; persecution against any identifiable group on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender grounds; enforced disappearance of persons; the crime of apartheid; other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.
11. www.icc-cpi.int/library/basicdocuments.
12. C Nicholls et al. The Law of Extradition and Mutual Assistance International Criminal Law: Practice and Procedure, London: Cameron, 2001
13. S Witten, 'Testimony of Samuel M Witten deputy legal adviser US Department of State before the subcommittee on criminal justice, drug policy and human resources of the committee on government reform US House of Representatives, 1 October 2003, available at http://reform.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Witten.pdf.
14. J Holbrook, 'Law and humanitarian intervention', in: D Chandler (ed) Rethinking Human Rights: Critical Approaches to International Politics, London: Palgrave-Macmillan; Robertson; Sadat.
15. www.crimesofwar.org.
16. www.irinnews.org/report, 4 June 2003. There is of course a case for Taylor to answer as regards crimes against humanity related to his conduct in the Liberian civil war. See B Berkeley, The Graves Are Not Yet Full, New York: Basic Books, 2001
17. www.reliefweb.int, 5 June 2003.
18. www.crimesofwar.org.
19. A Lamin, 'Building peace through accountability in Sierra Leone: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Special Court', Journal of Asian and African Studies, 38(2/3), 2003.
20. http://web.amnesty.org.
21. http://newswww.bbc.net.uk.
22. BBC News, 13 November 2003, http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/ africa/3266075.stm.
23. The News, Liberia, 9 July 2004.
24. www.hrw.org/press/2002/12/habre1205.
25. www.ethnonet-africa.org/data/tchad/rep1202.
26. www.icj.org//news.
27. S Milas & J Latif, 'The political economy of complex emergency and recovery in northern Ethiopia', Disasters, 24(4), 2000, pp 363-79.
28. http://www.branna.ca; for full interview see G Ayele, Ye Letena Kolonel Mengistu Hailemariam Tiztawoch, Addis Ababa: Mega, 2002.
29. IRIN, 4 November, 2003.
30. The US embassy in Harare said at the time of Mengistu's flight that former Assistant Secretary of State, Hank Cohen, was involved in negotiations that resulted in Mengistu coming to Harare in 1991.
31. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/575405.stm.
32. The Monitor, 2 August 2003.
33. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3089483.stm.
34. The International Herald Tribune, 25 July 2003.
35. www.zamnet.zm/newsys.
36. R Orizio, Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators, London: Secker & Warburg, 2003, p 97.
37. G Nzongola-Ntalaja, The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People's History, London: Zed Books, 2002
38. M Nanuizeyi, 'The state of the state in Congo-Zaire: A survey of the Mobutu regime', Journal of Black Studies, 29(5), 1999.
39. For Mobutu and Bokassa see D Chirot, Modern Tyrants: The Power and Prevalence of Evil in our Age, New York: The Free Press, 1994, pp 669-83.
40. http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9705/23/mobutu/.
41. http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9705/16/zaire/.
42. Sunday Times, South Africa, 27 April 2003.
43. D Chandler, From Kosovo to Kabul: Human Rights and International Intervention, New York: Pluto Press, 2002
44. N Tsagourias, Jurisprudence of Humanitarian Intervention: The Humanitarian Dimension, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000.
45. S Chesterman, Just War or Just Peace? Humanitarian Intervention and International Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001
46. C Gray, International Law and the Use of Force, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000
47. N Wheeler, Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
48. As an example, the French President Jacques Chirac justified the Kosovo intervention with reference to 'une conscience universelle de ce que sont les Droits de l'Homme', www.fraternet.com/magazine/info1106.htm. For justification of such interventions in Africa see: M Malan, The Principle of Non-Interference and the Future of the Future of Multinational Intervention in Africa, 1997, available at www.iss.co.za/ Pubs/ASR/6No3/Contents.html.
49. It is not however an equitable process. The International Criminal Court has been vehemently opposed by America which has engaged in exercises of brute diplomacy to seek bilateral deals with numerous states to secure war crimes immunity deals for Americans. Further, the assumption of universal jurisdiction in respect of war crimes and crimes against humanity by Belgium's legal system resulted in complaints being filed against Western heads of state (George W Bush, Tony Blair and Ariel Sharon) and the US threatened to block further funding for Nato's new headquarters in Belgium until the law was restricted.
50. www.nato.int/shape/news/2003/01/n030120.htm.
51. 'Declarations and decisions adopted by the Thirty-Sixth Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government', available at: www.africa-union.org/Special_Programs/CSSDCA/cssdca-solemndeclaration.pdf
52. N Steinberg, 'Background PAPER ON African Union', 24 October 2001, available at www.wfm.org/ACTION/africanunion1001.