The Independent Uncensored News Views And Analysis

According to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “A Muslim cannot commit genocide.” Perhaps this is not surprising from a country which has its own troubled history in coming to terms with its role in the decimation of its Armenian population in early 20^th century.  Turkey finds itself at a crossroads both culturally and internationally, on the one hand as a NATO member wanting to strengthen its relations with the European Union for possible membership and on the other, trying to be a leader in the Muslim world. As Prime Minister Erdogan succinctly put it during a visit to Iran last month, “We have one face to the west and one face to the east.”

President Bashir’s decision not to go to Turkey is a small victory for the International Criminal Court which has issued the warrants for his arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity, a call which has been largely rejected by the African Union. Many worry that the exclusive targeting of the ICC on African countries is troubling, given the alleged war crimes that have occurred in places like Israel, Chechnya and Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the problems of the ICC’s 2005 warrants for the arrest of Joseph Kony and three other high-ranking LRA leaders remain outstanding. For many, the joint announcement by ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo and President Museveni seemed suspect and possibly even counter-productive to a lasting peace deal, especially given the previous amnesty that had been tabled by government and allegations that the UPDF had also committed war crimes in the north. Another problem for supporters of “international justice” remains in the enforceability of the law: the ICC has no police force of its own and therefore requires the cooperation of governments to ensure the arrest of those charged. Turkey (alongside India, China and the United States) is not a signatory to the ICC Treaty, thus rendering it outside of the ICC’s jurisdiction.

Turkey defended the invitation of Bashir to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) but in the end Bashir reneged. The questions of the ICC’s effectiveness to enforce, alongside the alleged counter-productiveness of the warrant issuance in general, continue to put countries like Turkey and Uganda at a crossroads in the problematic field of international law.

By Ariel Rubin