Rwanda’s stand on ICC is a matter of international justice

Editor, Please allow me to respond to the article, “Rwanda maintains position on ICC”, published in The New Times yesterday. As President Kagame has stated, Rwanda’s refusal to be party to the International Criminal Court (ICC) was and is not because of rejection of the idea of international justice. Rather, it is due to our experience with the manner in which international institutions and international principles such as universal jurisdiction are being misused by the powerful as weapons against the weaker. The sacrosanct principle of equality before the law that requires that all – mighty and weak, rich or poor, white, yellow or black, man or woman – be treated equally, has been deformed into a unidirectional process in which the mighty must sit in judgment against the weaker, even where the mighty is the one guilty of a crime against the weaker. Remember Jean-Luis Bruguière and the French Genocide accomplice’s attempt at shifting the crime to their victim with not a squeak of protest from their Western allies against this perversion of historical fact and contemporary justice? Does anyone similarly forget the ICTR farce, deliberately designed to ensure it would spare the French and other Genocide accomplices and enablers in the UN but would attempt to lump together under its remit RPA soldiers with the Genocide ringleaders? Just imagine for once had the Nuremburg Tribunal the victorious allies with the Nazi defendants? And yet in the case of Rwanda the RPA was solely responsible for single-handedly stopping the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi which the powerful of this world, who now appoint themselves global judges, were either content to let take its course or, in the case of the French, actively abetting it. Other than power, what moral standing do these people think they have to judge any one when in fact they should be the ones in the dock? And then there is the UN Secretariat of the likes of Nazi Kurt Waldheim, Francophile Peter Peter Ghali, Friday Annan and now Ban Ki-moon. Would anyone trust these characters with the dispensation of real justice? I wouldn’t. Mwene Kalinda, KigaliRwanda *************************** Russia is at the forefront in resisting this world of unipolar dominance that some are trying to bring about. There are many fronts in this struggle. The reason there is a focus on Rwanda is because Rwanda is important rather than inconsequential (size doesn’t matter...). Otherwise, other countries are dealing with the same focused attention and harassment, though they are of course bigger and of more obvious importance. Peter DM, Eastern ProvinceRwanda

Opinions

Rwanda’s stand on ICC is a matter of international justice