JK counsels African leaders to shun despots

PRESIDENT Jakaya Kikwete has cautioned African leaders against snubbing the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, saying attempts to belittle the ICC will further reinforce claims that heads of state on the continent condone impunity.

Mr Kikwete was speaking at the African Court for Human and People’s Rights here, during the occasion to launch a booklet containing the basic facts of the Court that has been translated in Kiswahili, being one of the court’s efforts to take reach to the grassroots.

“While there are deliberate efforts to raise the status of this court even higher, to be an international criminal tribunal, it is important for African states and their leaders to continue respecting and supporting the ICC in the global battle against despots and their tyrannical rule,” said Mr Kikwete.

President Kikwete also lauded the court’s move to translate its basic facts into the local language for Kiswahili speaking countries.
“The language which is the lingua franca for East African states is also growing rapidly across the continent and world as a whole, such that my Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Museveni has coined a term for countries adopting the language as ‘Swahiliphone’ states,” he said.

The court’s President, Judge Augustino Ramadhan, revealed that after the ‘Taarifa za Msingi,’ booklet launch, the court is also working towards translating the basic facts for the continental legal institution into Arabic as well as Portuguese, languages that are also widely spoken in Africa.

Judge Ramadhan praised Mr Kikwete for his determination to have the seat of the continental court in Arusha; “Not only that, but we know just too well what you have done to provide us with office accommodation in which we function with reasonable comfort,” stated the Head of the Court.

The justice also took time to recognise the role of Tanzania in the liberation of Southern African states in the assertion of their ‘unquestionable’ and inalienable right to self-determination as provided by Article 20 of the African Charter in Human and People’s Rights, is well documented.

Regarding the Arusha-based court, Judge Ramadhan was of the view that even without the Swahili translation, Tanzanians have utilised the court effectively.

“We have a total of 22 cases from Tanzania, 5 cases from Rwanda, 2 cases from Burkina- Faso, 2 more cases from Ivory Coast, one case from Malawi and a single case from Mali.

/Daily News.