International criminal justice was in the spotlight this past week. The residual Mechanism of International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), that took over from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTY) was taken to task by Rwanda’s Permanent Representative at the UN. Judge Theodor Meron, president of the tribunal has for some time been ruffling Rwanda’s feathers by granting early release to some of the most notorious criminals behind the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi that claimed the lives of over a million people. This time, Meron had made his intentions known to release another group of Genocide convicts. They included Hassan Ngeze of the infamous hate newspaper, Kangura, which played a pivotal role in ethnic incitement. All those released had been convicted for having been the engine of the Genocide. Today, they are back at their old tricks and are the main propagators of the Genocide ideology and loud voices of denial. Throw in Ngeze Hassan and Colonel Theoneste Bagosora – referred to as the architect of the Genocide the old killing machine would be complete. On a more positive note, the appeals court of the International Criminal Court overturned the conviction of a Congolese politician, Jean Pierre Bemba. He had been sentenced to 18 years and had already served 10. Whatever the outcome of both the Congolese and Rwandans dossiers, the bottom line is that it has tainted the image of international justice that has been more and more politicized and is seen to serve the interests of a few. The UN Security Council will have no one else to blame but themselves for they have given a free rein to an institution that has gone rogue under the council’s watch.
