Nigeria said it is ‘disappointed’ with the ICC over African affairs.

Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, has called for an amendment of the laws governing the International Criminal Court, ICC, to allow serving African leaders to enjoy immunity from prosecution for war crimes, genocide, and war against humanity.

Two serving African presidents, Sudan and Kenya, have been accused of war crimes by the ICC.

Mr. Jonathan stated this on Saturday in an address at the Extraordinary Session of African Union Heads of State and Government, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“Our (Nigeria’s) position is that certain Articles of the Rome Statute are of grave concern to Africa. In particular, Article 27 which denies immunity to all persons without regard to customary international law, conventions and established norms, must be amended.”

Read More at http://www.naijacenter.com/president-jonathan-seeks-immunity-african-leaders-icc-prosecution-war-crimes-genocide/

Immunity ke? So leaders like charles tailor would have walked down the isle with smile on their face.

I have always known this man as FOOL. Did you just mention IMMUNITY?? Are you planning to commit genocide to Nigerians comes 2015

BrAkingNews: I have always known this man as FOOL. Did you just mention IMMUNITY?? Are you planning to commit genocide to Nigerians comes 2015

oladapo_a1: Immunity ke? So leaders like charles tailor would have walked down the isle with smile on their face.

Not only GEJ, other African leaders seek for immunity from ICC for serving leaders, when they are out of power they can be prosecuted like Charles Taylor.

Is this hard for both of you to understand, insulting your president does not make you smart.

BrAkingNews: I have always known this man as FOOL. Did you just mention IMMUNITY?? Are you planning to commit genocide to Nigerians comes 2015

...if he has not already done/doing that. What his soldiers and police are doing all over Nigeria now is called what?

[size=18pt]Lier. OP. You are a big foool. [/size]

[size=18pt]Leave Kenyan leaders alone, Jonathan tells ICC[/size]

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is currently prosecuting current Kenyan leaders over alleged crimes against humanity thought to have occurred during the nation’s post election violence in 2007, to leave the leaders alone.

In a statement at the the extra-ordinary session of African Union Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday, he maintained that since that election, Kenyans had proved that they could take care of their own problems.

“What remains is for the international community, in particular, the ICC, to give the elected leaders of Kenya the space to discharge their mandate in meeting the aspirations and needs of their people,” he said.

In expressing his support for Kenya on its difficulties with the ICC, he acknowledged that five years after the post-election violence of 2007, the people of Kenya have proven to the world that they are capable of expressing their sovereign wishes in a free, fair and credible manner in accordance with democratic norms and values.

“This is a clear demonstration to the world that the people of Kenya are in the best position to determine their own future and deal with their past,” he siad.

Jonathan noted that while the work of the ICC was immensely useful for the achievement of a world without crimes against humanity, genocide and other acts of impunity, it would be fair to say that in Africa today, the wave of democratisation has engendered greater commitment to the rule of law and respect for fundamental human rights.

He observed that the Constitutive Act of AU explicitly prohibited war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity with clear sanctions for violations.

“This is why the profound dissatisfaction that has been expressed about the Court’s relationship with Africa deserves the special attention that this Assembly is paying to it at this session,” Jonathan added.

The President observed that it was also the reason why the refusal of the ICC to accede to the requests by AU member-states for the deferral of the cases involving the President of Sudan, and now, the President and Deputy President of Kenya has left many African leaders disappointed.

According to him, “many are concerned that the African Union’s principled position that African leaders should not be targeted by the ICC has been ignored, and that the ICC, despite its universal jurisdiction, seems to be devoting unusual energy and enthusiasm to the prosecution of cases from Africa, compared to cases from other parts of the world.

“If the Court is concerned about this implied allegation of bias; it has not, in our opinion, taken enough pro-active steps to address it and allay the fears of concerned stakeholders. We think it should.”


http://tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/news/item/23817-leave-kenyan-leaders-alone,-jonathan-tells-icc.html

BrAkingNews: I have always known this man as FOOL. Did you just mention IMMUNITY?? Are you planning to commit genocide to Nigerians comes 2015

a Typical sentimental GEJ hater. the ICC is a western tool to intimidate weak countries who refuse to play ball. why has nobody been taken to ICC from syria? Why has nobody from the state of Isreal been prosecuted by the ICC after thier daily masacre of palestinians? why has ICC kept mute over the atrocities in egypt? why are the entire US soldiers immune to the ICC? I can give u 20 pages on why the ICC itself should be prosecuted and scrapped.. leave GEJ and try to improve your english...it's our lingua franca

The first four comments I have read here shows that some nairalanders do not reason first before spewing out vermin. Why display your ignorance on a public forum that the whole world can have access to? Must you comment? Even on an international diplomatic matter that is obviously beyond your capacity. You don't even know the background of which the President is coming from.

gregg2: The first four comments I have read here shows that some nairalanders do not reason first before spewing out vermin. Why display your ignorance on a public forum that the whole world can have access to? Must you comment? Even on an international diplomatic matter that is obviously beyond your capacity. You don't even know the background of which the President is coming from.

Let me take some of you round the world of international media on this issue:


Yahoo news

African Union gives ICC ultimatum over Kenyatta trial

Addis Ababa (AFP) - African nations on Saturday demanded the International Criminal Court defer the crimes against humanity trials of Kenya's leadership, as the country's president furiously attacked the tribunal as imperialist and racist.
A special summit of the African Union insisted that sitting heads of state should be exempt from appearing before the Hague-based court, and the bloc warned it would support a no-show at the ICC by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta if the demand was not answered.
"What the summit decided is that President Kenyatta should not appear until the request we have made is actually answered," Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
"This elected leader should lead his country."
Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have been charged with crimes against humanity for allegedly masterminding a vicious campaign of ethnic violence that left at least 1,100 dead and more than 600,000 homeless after disputed 2007 elections.
Now allies and elected this year on a platform of national reconciliation, they argue the case is violating Kenyan sovereignty and hampering their running of the country.
Kenyatta's trial is due to start in The Hague on November 12, and if he fails to turn up the ICC could issue an arrest warrant -- which would expose Kenya to diplomatic isolation.
Kenyatta signalled that relations with the tribunal had hit a new low point, saying the institution has been "reduced into a painfully farcical pantomime, a travesty that adds insult to the injury of victims".
"It stopped being the home of justice the day it became the toy of declining imperial powers," the president told his fellow African heads of state, accusing the ICC of "bias and race-hunting".
The ICC, set up in 2002 as the world's first permanent court to try genocide and war crimes, has so far issued indictments linked to conflicts in eight nations, all of them in Africa, and diplomats with the 54-member AU said there was a sentiment that the court was turning a blind eye to crimes committed in other parts of the world.
"It is the fact that this court performs on the cue of European and American governments against the sovereignty of African states and peoples that should outrage us," Kenyatta said, urging the AU to unite in the face of a "divide and rule" policy.
"Africa is not a third-rate territory of second-class peoples. We are not a project, or experiment of outsiders," he added.
Threat of mass pull-out
African countries account for 34 of the 122 parties to have ratified the ICC's founding treaty, and an African withdrawal from the court could seriously damage the institution.
The Ethiopian foreign minister did not say if a mass pull-out was discussed at the summit, but said it could be an option in the future if the AU's requests were not met.
"The option is open, it's on the table," he told reporters.
The AU bloc, however, has been divided on the issue -- with countries like Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia and Rwanda taking a tough line, but other nations seemingly reluctant to get embroiled in a diplomatic confrontation.
AU executive council head Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, a former anti-apartheid activist, acknowledged that African nations should "do more to strengthen the capacity of our national and continental judicial systems" -- seen as a concession to several prominent African figures who have defended the court.
Prior to the summit, South African anti-apartheid icon and Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu had lashed out at African "leaders seeking to skirt the court are effectively looking for a licence to kill, maim and oppress their own people."
Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, from Ghana, also said a pull-out would leave Africa wearing a "badge of shame".
The summit leaves a question mark over whether Kenyatta may choose to follow the path of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has refused to stand trial at the ICC for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Sudan's Darfur conflict and who is now the subject of an arrest warrant.
Following last month's Islamist militant attack on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall, Kenyatta has already demanded he be allowed to appear by video-link so he can deal with national security issues, and this week his lawyers alleged abuse of process and called for a halt in proceedings.


http://news.yahoo.com/african-leaders-open-summit-ties-war-crimes-court-091925793.html