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Why only Bashir? Arrest other war-mongers

This amateurish attempt on the part of a South African court to arrest him on a so-called interim order and hand him over to the world court is vendetta.

Sudan’s President Omar Hassan Al Bashir should be immediately allowed to travel home from Johannesburg. South Africa’s attempt to hold him incommunicado and try him for alleged crimes against humanity on behalf of the International Criminal Court is against all norms of decency. Bashir was in Johannesburg to attend the African Union Summit and the host state cannot detain or arrest him. This amateurish attempt on the part of a South African court to arrest him on a so-called interim order and hand him over to the world court is vendetta. This could have far reaching consequences for the region and the African fraternity.

Bashir is among seven other Black-African leaders who are wanted by The Hague on genocide charges. The criteria of the ICC to indict these select leaders is now being widely questioned, as the body has maintained silence over other high-profile characters who plunged the world in undesired wars, inevitably leading to millions of casualties. Former US president George Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair must take the blame for the war in Iraq and face justice.

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, who volunteered himself to face charges of mass slaughter, walked out of the dock, as the world court failed to prosecute him in the absence of substantive evidence. Not much different will be the fate of Bashir, who is wanted for ordering mass executions in Darfur.

 Africa and the world at large has seen carnage and bloodshed, but when it comes to justice there has to be a benchmark for trying the accused. Why has the ICC only singled out Black leaders? They should spread the net wide — for the sake of true justice.