Malawi undecided on ICC pullout
Malawi is yet to make its position on whether or not to pull out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) known because it needs consult thoroughly before making such decision Minister of Foreign Affairs, George Chaponda, has said.
Chaponda said this during the press briefing in Lilongwe earlier today where he briefed journalists on the recent African Union (AU) summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The summit, among other things, condemned ICC’s alleged targeting of African leaders, a long term accusation by the continent’s heads of state, and further warned of African countries’ withdrawal from the ICC.
“South Africa has taken a position. But, these are issues adopted by various governments. In adopting these issues, sometimes it involves a lot of consultations and sometimes this involves Parliament. In case of Malawi, we have not made a decision,” said Chaponda.
According to a communiqué released by the ministry of foreign affairs, on ICC question, “the Summit noted with concern the failure by the United Nations Security Council to respond to the request of the AU to defer cases of Sudan and Kenya.
According to the communiqué the summit further asked individual member states who are party to ICC, such as Malawi, to reconsider the position on the ICC which, it added, “continues to discriminate against African leaders.”
“To this effect, some countries are questioning their continued presence in the ICC, including the Republic of South Africa, and are taking steps to review their positions.”
South Africa’s ICC membership has been thrown in jeopardy and controversy over the failure last year by the country’s authorities to arrest and handover indicted Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir to ICC during his attendance of an AU summit hosted by the country.
The rest of AU countries are concerned that apart from Bashir, the UN has refused to force ICC drop charges against deputy president of Kenya William Ruto.
