Bush, Blair Are Best Candidates for ICC, Not Gbagbo, Says Ghanaian Editor

Kwesi Pratt, editor of Ghana Insight, has made observations about the International Criminal Court's abuse of the African continent and its leaders. The ICC is based in The Hague., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Bush, Blair are best candidates for ICC, not Gbagbo Says Ghanaian Editor

Posted: 2011/12/09
From: Source

Ghana's 'Insight' Editor Kwesi Pratt: Incensed about ICC abuses of African Leaders.

The Editor of The Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., is fuming over the appearance of the deposed Ivorian Leader, Laurent Gbagbo, at the International Criminal Court.

He told Joy News the principles of justice and fairness demand that ex-US and British leaders, George Bush and Tony Blair respectively, must be hauled before the ICC to account for the millions of massacres they superintended whilst ruling their countries.

Gbagbo is answering charges of crimes against humanity, including murder and rape, after Ivory Coast's disputed presidential elections, a year ago, sparked internal conflict.

But Pratt believes the two former (Western) leaders are worse.

"Many world leaders, including George Bush and Tony Blair, have done far worse than African leaders have done. Within the last ten years, George Bush and Tony Blair and other world leaders have taken actions which have led to the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people; the rape of people. Troops of the US actually roasted Somalis alive on fire and so on. There has been no prosecution.

"So if it's important to prosecute leaders around the world for these acts, then it is important that every leader who commits such an act also needs to be brought to book," Pratt stated.

He, like Ghanaian ex-President John Rawlings, wondered why after 50 years of African unity, Africans would hand over their leaders to the ICC to undergo what he referred to as 'humiliation' and to deepen racial prejudice against the African people.

"Why do we think that it is only in The Hague that we can get justice?" Kwesi Pratt asked.

The US does not subject its citizens to any form of prosecution by the ICC and would rather prosecute its citizen accused of any form of human rights violation in the home country.

The Insight Newspaper editor said: "I am wondering why African leaders subscribe to the jurisdiction of the ICC. The US for a long time has refused to subscribe to the jurisdiction of the ICC. So, to some extent, African leaders are blameable for this situation."

Mr Pratt is also shocked that it is only Gbagbo who is before the ICC, when it is on record that the 'New Forces' which brought Allasane Quattara into power (in Côte d'Ivoire) also committed equal or even worse atrocities in the violence that followed the disputed elections.

"How come it is only Gbagbo who is before the ICC?" he quizzed.

He believes the prosecution of Gbagbo at ICC could have dire consequences on the current national reconciliation in Ivory Coast.

In November Bush and Blair were found guilty of war crimes by the Kuala Lumpur International War Crimes Tribunal.