ICC keeps an eye on Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh.

[JSL3000]

ICC keeps an eye on Djibouti

Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh is in the sights of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the Ghana News Agency has been exclusively told.

The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) is monitoring events in the country where violence is currently escalating before the presidential election in May.

President Guelleh, who is going for a controversial fourth term, has been accused by the opposition of targeting its members, 19 of whom were killed on December 21.

In the light of the start of the trial at the ICC of Laurent Gbagbo, the former President of Cote d’Ivoire, as a result of election violence, the GNA’s London Bureau contacted the ICC by email to ask about its position on political violence in Djibouti.

The OTP sent a terse but no-nonsense reply saying: “Djibouti is a State Party to the International Criminal Court and The Office of the Prosecutor is following up on the developments in the country.”

Kenya, one of the situation countries at the ICC, at the recent African Union summit in Addis Ababa, led a call for African countries to walk out of the Court, arguing that it is unfairly targeting countries on the continent.

But ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told London Bureau Chief Desmond Davies in The Hague last May that the cases relating to Africa were not made up.

“After all, the crimes committed by those Africans accused by the ICC were real crimes,” she said, adding that, “What is happening is that the ICC is helping African countries to strengthen the rule of law on the continent.”

The situation in Djibouti is beginning to warrant international comment.

For instance, Professor Gregory Stanton, the founder of Genocide Watch, who drafted the UN resolution that created the International Criminal Tribunal Rwanda (ICTR), wrote last month that despite the ICC, “in Africa [today], I see worrying signs of [the] return [of genocide]”.

Writing in South Africa’s Mail and Guardian, the American noted: “Thousands of American service personnel live [in Djibouti], and we have more influence with President Ismaïl Guelleh than perhaps any other country.

“So I hang my head in shame that, after Guelleh’s troops opened fire on civilians on 21 December last year, neither the State Department nor the White House would condemn the massacre.”

Prof Stanton pointed that as in Burundi, the problem in Djibouti was “an unpopular president refusing to step down. Guelleh has already served three terms in breach of his own constitution and will stand again election this year”.

He said: “Freedom and democracy are not about being in power. They only mean something when the ruling party shows it’s not afraid to spend a few years in opposition, regrouping and putting up a better show at the next election.

“It is often said we lament genocide in the aftermath, but not in the lead up when something could have been done.”

Prof Stanton went on: “Well, here we are, with the red flag of danger flying high in Burundi and flapping to a softer but equally menacing breeze in Djibouti.

“The UN and the AU avoid taking forceful, preventive action by calling the massacres, ‘crimes against humanity’.

“The term that demands action – genocide – has been narrowed by international lawyers to cases of wholesale murders like the Holocaust, or as it occurred in Cambodia, Guatemala, Rwanda, or Darfur.”

The Head of External Relations for Djibouti’s opposition Union pour le Salut National (USN), Abdourahman Boreh, told the GNA in London that he welcomed the ICC’s “notice to the government of Djibouti to observe the rule of law”.

“We at the USN hope that President Guelleh will listen to the ICC and allow Djiboutians to go to the polls without fear of intimidation from government forces,” he said.

Last December, after the killing of 19 people, including a six-year-old girl, by government forces, Mr Boreh said in a statement: “We must get to the root causes and hold those responsible to account.

“The world has a duty to intervene to ensure justice is done – and the people of Djibouti can look to a free and democratic future with confidence.”

Source: GNA

https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2016/ ... -djibouti/

[JSL3000]

I don't know how the fatt niggaa going to dodge this one, he better say good bye to paris.

[jalaaludin5]

Why are you happy about such news? The ICC need to be indicated for unfairly targeting only African leaders when genocidal maniacs like Benjamin Netanyahu are left alone to carry on killing with impunity.

Screw the ICC. maybe tomorrow they'll turn their sight on Somaliland. What would you do then? You wouldn't be laughing, that's for sure.
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[JSL3000]

Lol maybe in your wildest dreams but fatt boy time is running out no more croissants.

From now on only fortune cookies.

[jalaaludin5]

Lol maybe in your wildest dreams but fatt boy time running out no more croissants.

From now on only fortune cookies.

So you wish for him to be arrested and locked up?
What good will that serve you?
You know they can indict anyone on whim, right?



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[JSL3000]

Lol maybe in your wildest dreams but fatt boy time running out no more croissants.

From now on only fortune cookies.

So you wish for him to be arrested and locked up?
What good will that serve you?
You know they can indict anyone on whim, right?



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If you say so my favorite song is dji-booty.
https://youtu.be/QxoJRFa9vlc

[jalaaludin5]

Lol maybe in your wildest dreams but fatt boy time running out no more croissants.

From now on only fortune cookies.

So you wish for him to be arrested and locked up?
What good will that serve you?
You know they can indict anyone on whim, right?



-
-
-

If you say so my favorite song is dji-booty.
https://youtu.be/QxoJRFa9vlc

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[Revolutionary]

Won't happen. Sudan Omar Bashir is in ICCs hit list for decade yet he is still in power and it never bothered him.

[LobsterUnit]

It is not hard 2 keep eyes on him.he surely won't run.

[Halmogg]

Why are you happy about such news? The ICC need to be indicated for unfairly targeting only African leaders when genocidal maniacs like Benjamin Netanyahu are left alone to carry on killing with impunity.

Screw the ICC. maybe tomorrow they'll turn their sight on Somaliland. What would you do then? You wouldn't be laughing, that's for sure.
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Well said bro, will take this so called court seriously when they start targeting people like mass killers bush, Cheney, Blair netanyahu etc but we all know they full of shit and only target 3rd world nations.

[Unionist]

Why are you happy about such news? The ICC need to be indicated for unfairly targeting only African leaders when genocidal maniacs like Benjamin Netanyahu are left alone to carry on killing with impunity.

Screw the ICC. maybe tomorrow they'll turn their sight on Somaliland. What would you do then? You wouldn't be laughing, that's for sure.
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Well said bro, will take this so called court seriously when they start targeting people like mass killers bush, Cheney, Blair netanyahu etc but we all know they full of shit and only target 3rd world nations.

Two wrongs don't make a right. The reason why ICC is targeting Africa moreso than any other continent is because of the corruption being too rampant and the living standard being poor. I welcome ICC offense against the African corrupted leaders who don't know what a Presidential job is. They think it's a King's crown.

[smooth]

I'll take them serious once they start hauling Siilaanyo and their terrorist financiers dhiighsiil to court

[Xildiiid]

^


This is your weak president sxb.

[smooth]

^

Since the British and now under the Ethiopians, you have been the only people subjugated without firing a single bullet, your own reporters are arrested by Ethiopian troops in your barren lands, if I was you walahi I wouldn't be debating or even show my face, The Western world is paying several 100's of millions to attempt to subjugate us using Amisom whom are still scared as fuck to leave their barracks, while $0 is spent in subjugating you, because they know your too coward to fire a bullet.

[Xildiiid]

lol, weak excuses.