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S. African ruling party chief suggests to review membership with ICC

Xinhua, October 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

South Africa should "contemplate" to pull out or review its membership with the International Criminal Court (ICC) because the organization is "dangerous" and "arrogant," Secretary General of the ruling Africa National Congress (ANC) Gwede Mantashe said.

"If I was in government, I would say give notice, get out of that, it (the ICC) was not what was envisioned. It is a tool in the hands of the powerful to destroy the weak and it is a court that is focusing on Africa, Eastern Europe and Middle East," Mantashe said on private commercial radio station, Talk Radio 702.

"Have nothing to do with that, because it (ICC) is dangerous," he added.

Mantashe was speaking on the deadline day set by the ICC for the South African government to explain why it did not arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he was attending the 25th African Union (AU) Summit in mid June in Johannesburg.

The ICC issued a warrant to arrest al-Bashir on charges for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. As a signatory to the Rome Statute, South Africa was expected to arrest him during his visit in June during the AU summit, but Pretoria didn't take any action despite a ruling by the Gauteng High Court of South Africa that he not leave the country.

The ICC has since requested South Africa to make submissions to it by Oct. 5, 2015, its "views of the events surrounding al- Bashir's attendance of the African Union Summit, with particular reference to their failure to arrest and surrender al-Bashir." The request was made with a view to assess whether South Africa was in breach of its obligations to cooperate with the Court.

"The manner that we were treated around the al-Bashir incident is consistent with the cheeky arrogance that Africa has experienced in its interaction with the ICC," the ANC said in a statement released on Monday.

South Africa's recent refusal to arrest al-Bashir while he was in South Africa highlighted that in addition to complying with its obligations to the ICC, the country has obligations to the African Union and African countries, the ANC said.

Under the AU rules, no organization can arrest any sitting head of state in African countries.

Mantashe said the ANC was concerned about selective application of law by the ICC which he said targets only "Africans." Endit