Soon after President Museveni had finished taking the oath, he started his speech which he started with introducing the Heads of State who were at the ceremony. He then acknowledged Omar Al Bashir the President of Sudan before he made defamatory remarks against ICC. He said that ICC as “a bunch of useless people” and immediately after saying this, Envoy of delegations from European Union, Canada and United States walked out and vacated the area in Protest. They said that Uganda should have arrested Bashir and taken him to ICC instead of praising him.
These delegations have no justification as far as Museveni talking about ICC is concerned. 1st off all, U.S is not a member of the ICC and it is one of the 8 countries which rejected the Rome statute in the first place, it therefore much clear that the US saw the ICC as something that will be useless “a bunch of useless people”, why should they then be concerned when some other president make remarks against something they rejected?
The ICC issued a Warrant of Arrest to President Omar Al Bashir in 2009, but since then, the U.S and the EU have continued their diplomatic relations with Sudan, they run Embassies in the Khartoum, Have envoys, participate in various projects with the government of Sudan, why should they blame the Uganda government for collaborating with the Sudan President? State department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said: “they had also objected to the presence of Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir at the ceremony.”
Uganda is not the first country President Omar Al Bashir visited since the Warrant of Arrest was issued. He has visited South Africa, Nigeria and many other countries including China in 2015, why not react then? ICC will never bring justice to Africa, if African countries are to vacate the “Bunch of Useless people” ICC, they have my vote.
