She been attacked by the Gambia, who is leveling the charge, for her silence about alleged atrocities against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Speaking on the final day of hearings, Aung San Suu Kyi called the 2017 crackdown on on the Rohingya a clearance operation targeting  militants.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner is accused to ignoring widespread allegations of  mass murder, rape and forced deportation of Rohingya.

Thousands were killed and at least 700 000 forced to flee into neighboring Bangladesh.

The court now has to decide whether to impose legally binding measures to protect the Rohingya.

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Mengistu Haile Mariam, who presided over the deaths of thousands in Ethiopia’s Red Terror,  is but one of many ousted African leaders sheltering in exile.

Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh is the latest Africa ejected by his country.

He’s been taken in by Equatorial Guinea.

Blaize Campaore is in Ivory Coast after Burkina Faso had enough of his 27-year rule.

Charles Taylor of Liberia and Hissen Habre of Chad are both serving lengthy prison sentences.

Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda’s Idi Amin both died in exile after being deposed.

The post Who will shelter Mengistu after Mugabe’s gone? appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Is access to the internet a right or a privilege? The same question might be asked of international travel.

Governments are able to control both of these. Embarrassed at denying access to them by political foes, they justify their repressive action by saying the ability to get onto the internet or  to cross borders is a privilege.

Last year, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution promoting and protecting the right of users to get online.

It urged countries to enshrine this in their local law.

No fewer than 11 African countries responded, as it were, by instructing the providers to switch off the internet.

The companies refuse to talk about this, save to say that their licensing agreements stipulate governments’ right to order them to close down access.

The governments have  learned the lesson from the Arab Spring five years ago where demonstrations were directed by the internet.

The protestors turned out in droves having been summoned by what they had learned online.

And that was years before the more efficient and infinitely wider-reaching Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp we know today.

The real game changer, of course, is social media. That simply cannot be silenced.

It is very foolish of  governments to think they control things simply by making pc and smartphone screen’s go blank.

Yayha Jammeh shut down the internet before the election he lost in December last year.

Thanks to decisive action by the Economic Community of West African States it did not stop him being forced to accept defeat and go into exile.

Currently, the Cameroon has instructed the service providers to cut off the internet to 20% of the country where English-speaking citizens complain they are being bullied and marginalized by the French-speaking majority.

Activists are angry with the telephone companies, who are the internet service providers, for complying with government directives

They say being a service provider  about more than profit and providing faster internet.

I get a sense of deja vu here, going back to South African newspapers during the apartheid era.

The anti-apartheid lobby argued that by succumbing to Pretoria’s repressive media laws we were playing into the hands of the repressive regime.

The idealists then and their contemporaries today have difficulty in accepting that operating in the mainstream media is a business.

That is necessarily accompanied by a raft of responsibilities.

Above all, it requires staying alive to do what businesses do: make a profit for owners and shareholders.

True we did have to comply with many of the laws. One editor likened his job at the time to walking blindfolded through a minefield.

But we should be given some credit for ingenuity.

By coming out daily, we were able to drive a coach and horses through some of the more repressive measures  imposed by the apartheid regime and in so doing play a significant role in bringing down the evil system.

Surely we should allow today’s internet service providers similar space.

The post Give the African internet providers a break appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

ends  intro

The victory by Nana Akufo-Addo’s centre New Patriotic party, after eight years of rule by the left-leaning National Democratic Congress, triggered wild celebrations across much of the country.

Akufo Addo thanked the incumbent  John Dramani Mahama for conceding defeat and for his  work for Ghana

His win follows the surprise electoral defeat last week of Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, who had spent 23 years in office after seizing power in a coup.

The two results point to west Africa’s improving record for smooth democratic transitions after recent transfers of power in Nigeria, Cape Verde and Benin. However, Jammeh has  backtracked on his concession.

The post Ghana confirms status as Africa’s cleanest democracy appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

ICC is telling  Burundi, South Africa and Gambia that the powerful may seek to leave the court, but victims everywhere a pleading for its involvement.

ends intro

ICC Assembly of Parties President Sidiki Kaba of Senegal says in a world criss-crossed by violent extremism, it is urgent and necessary to defend the ideal of justice for all.

Kaba accepts the tribunal opened in 2002 as a court of last resort to try the world’s worst crimes is going through a difficult moment.

He  offers reassurances to its critics that they have been heard.

Kaba  says the Hague-based court has to redouble its efforts to convince countries to return, and to ensure that there is truly universal justice for all.

The post ICC urges African nations about to quit to think again appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

However, her predecessor Luis Moreno Ocampo is  adamant African leaders are covering up war crimes.

Fatou Bensouda is a former justice minister in the Gambia.

Since becoming prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, she has been at pains to deny that the 14-year-old body is singling out African human rights violators for attention.

However, Gambia’s President Yayah Jammeh insists this exactly what has happened.

His Information Minister Sheriff Bojang asks why former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was not indicted over the Iraq war.

Gambia has been trying to get the European Union prosecuted for the deaths of Africans trying to reach its shores

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