The Horn Times opinion box, Dec 3, 2012
*Who should have been prosecuted first, the kind- hearted Madame Simone Gbagbo or the ferocious Senorita Azeb Mesfin?
by Getahune Bekele
The international criminal court has become a laughing stock in Africa, once again, when it bizarrely indicted the wife of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, Madame Simone Ehivert Gbagbo, 63, on four counts of crimes against humanity.
In a charge widely denounced across Africa as flawed, unjust and French fabricated, the ICC accused the former first lady of being her husbands’ alter ego in orchestrating a campaign of election violence where more than 3000 people lost their lives.
Madame Gbagbo has been in prison for the past 18 months in Odienne town, north west Ivory Coast, on charges of genocide and embezzlement.
Is the ICC starting to pick soft targets? Frustrated by lack of co-operation to go after the continent’s notorious war criminals; is the ICC targeting the weak, the meek and the down trodden?
After Lewis Moreno Ocampo exited the ICC, Africa expected more from the newly appointed chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in pursuing unresolved major cases such as going after Joseph Kony, and in dealing with hordes of jittery genocidal Tigre warlords in Ethiopia, who are left exposed by the sudden death of the fuehrer, Meles Zenawi.
Furthermore, the arrest warrant issued for Simone Gbagbo who didn’t held political office, while Ethiopia’s ferocious former first lady, the mastermind of the 2005 election massacre walks free, is regarded as implementing the one sided victor’s justice.
Dubbed the mother of corruption, Azeb Mesfin worked as second-in-command of her late husband’s ethnocentric regime, leading the 21 years ethnic cleansing campaign of western Gonder with no fear of prosecution, and she is yet to be held to account.
When her late husband lost elections, gave up the fight and fled to South Africa with his three kids in 2005, Azeb Mesfin who held political office with the power to make state decisions stayed behind alongside the inner circle of the clannish junta, with whom she met frequently to discuss the implementation and co-ordination of her evil plans, and was repeatedly filmed directing military operations in Addis Ababa, where more than 250 protesters were brutally killed by her dead husband’s private militia known as the Agazit brigade.
Together with her Hench men they targeted civilians and ethnic Amharics in particular, whom they perceived as their mortal enemy.
On Zenawi’s so called triumphant return on November 2005, during a victory parade in the compound of the palace, Azeb appeared before a crowd of jubilant warlords and praised herself, former Addis Ababa Meyer Arkebe ouqubay, former security chief Kinfe Gebre Medhin, Gen Samora Younis and the aging retard Sibehat Nega (all ethnic Tigres) as heroes of the “people’s revolution.”
Besides getting involved in flagrant human rights violations the former iron lady who until recently refused to vacate the official residence of the PM, showing her middle finger to the confused warlords, has also been accused of acquiring vast wealth through corrupt practices.
How on earth is then the ICC turning a blind eye to such crimes, leaving millions of victims in search of justice?
How long is going to take for the ICC to deliver an evenhanded justice to the people of Africa?
Only time will tale.
*Who should have been prosecuted first, the kind- hearted Madame Simone Gbagbo or the ferocious Senorita Azeb Mesfin?
by Getahune Bekele
Simone
Azeb Mesfin
The international criminal court has become a laughing stock in Africa, once again, when it bizarrely indicted the wife of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, Madame Simone Ehivert Gbagbo, 63, on four counts of crimes against humanity.
In a charge widely denounced across Africa as flawed, unjust and French fabricated, the ICC accused the former first lady of being her husbands’ alter ego in orchestrating a campaign of election violence where more than 3000 people lost their lives.
Madame Gbagbo has been in prison for the past 18 months in Odienne town, north west Ivory Coast, on charges of genocide and embezzlement.
Is the ICC starting to pick soft targets? Frustrated by lack of co-operation to go after the continent’s notorious war criminals; is the ICC targeting the weak, the meek and the down trodden?
After Lewis Moreno Ocampo exited the ICC, Africa expected more from the newly appointed chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in pursuing unresolved major cases such as going after Joseph Kony, and in dealing with hordes of jittery genocidal Tigre warlords in Ethiopia, who are left exposed by the sudden death of the fuehrer, Meles Zenawi.
Furthermore, the arrest warrant issued for Simone Gbagbo who didn’t held political office, while Ethiopia’s ferocious former first lady, the mastermind of the 2005 election massacre walks free, is regarded as implementing the one sided victor’s justice.
Dubbed the mother of corruption, Azeb Mesfin worked as second-in-command of her late husband’s ethnocentric regime, leading the 21 years ethnic cleansing campaign of western Gonder with no fear of prosecution, and she is yet to be held to account.
When her late husband lost elections, gave up the fight and fled to South Africa with his three kids in 2005, Azeb Mesfin who held political office with the power to make state decisions stayed behind alongside the inner circle of the clannish junta, with whom she met frequently to discuss the implementation and co-ordination of her evil plans, and was repeatedly filmed directing military operations in Addis Ababa, where more than 250 protesters were brutally killed by her dead husband’s private militia known as the Agazit brigade.
Together with her Hench men they targeted civilians and ethnic Amharics in particular, whom they perceived as their mortal enemy.
On Zenawi’s so called triumphant return on November 2005, during a victory parade in the compound of the palace, Azeb appeared before a crowd of jubilant warlords and praised herself, former Addis Ababa Meyer Arkebe ouqubay, former security chief Kinfe Gebre Medhin, Gen Samora Younis and the aging retard Sibehat Nega (all ethnic Tigres) as heroes of the “people’s revolution.”
Besides getting involved in flagrant human rights violations the former iron lady who until recently refused to vacate the official residence of the PM, showing her middle finger to the confused warlords, has also been accused of acquiring vast wealth through corrupt practices.
How on earth is then the ICC turning a blind eye to such crimes, leaving millions of victims in search of justice?
How long is going to take for the ICC to deliver an evenhanded justice to the people of Africa?
Only time will tale.
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