In a spectacular turn of events, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against
the incumbent president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, on 16 March 2023 — the first time an arrest
warrant has been issued against a sitting head of state from one of the permanent members of
the United Nations Security Council. Another interesting feature of this latest move by the ICC is
the swiftness with which president Putin has been indicted for crimes allegedly committed in the
war with Ukraine which only started last year; especially when one considers how long war
criminals such as George W Bush, Barack Obama, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Nicholas Sarkozy
and Francois Hollande have gotten away with their atrocities in various countries and regions from
the Middle East to Africa and Latin America without so much as a slap on the wrist — these gents
don’t even suffer from any negative publicity or coverage in the mainstream media.
I often say to my friends, jokingly, political education is essential, which is frankly an innocuous
statement, however a lot of truth is said in jest, and if we are to understand the machinations at
play presently, it’s imperative that we understand the geopolitics and the proxy wars that have
characterised the post Cold War “multilateral world order”. As far back as 1966, the General
Assembly of the United Nations passed a resolution that called for the speedy independence of
the last remaining colonies and colonial outposts. Calls were also made against the abhorrent
system of apartheid, more importantly, there were calls made to UN specialised agencies to stop
giving/loaning any money to the reprehensible regime from Pretoria. The Breton Woods
institutions, namely, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who at one point
in time were specialised agencies of the United Nations (UN), gained their independence from the
UN in 1947 — thereby creating an avenue through which the world body could be undermined,
which would have dire consequences for the fledgling world body.
Following the Soweto Uprising and the Youth Day massacre of June 1976, wherein the genocidal apartheid government killed 174 Black students, the now “independent” IMF extended three loans to South Africa totalling more than $460 million. Funny thing that international law, since it isn’t entirely clear whether it is indeed law, because there is no legislator in international law nor is there a court to enforce international law. There is also no executive who could assure the adherence to judgements, and for the most part, subjects of international law remain states and international organisations. International law is a dynamic concept which is heavily influenced by whatever hegemonic power structures exist, as well as by any major ideological trends that may find resonance in an ever more globalised world that continues to evolve. Arguably the biggest obstacle to enforcing international law is the small matter of state sovereignty, which basically means a state is free to do as it pleases within its own territorial borders without any external interference by another state, and to date this remains one of the most pivotal principles of international law. International law can be defined as the rules
governing the relations between states, as well as between states and international organisations.
Contrary to what many believe, international law is binding on parties because the respective
parties involved elected to be bound by those particular laws. Now back to the warrant, it’s
evident that we have a war between two states, Russia & Ukraine, and there’s also the
involvement of an international organisation, the ICC, however the warrant was issued against an
individual, namely president Putin. The introduction of the individual as a quasi-subject of international law is a more recent development that arose after the international community agreed that steps needed to be taken to ensure the world does not suffer a repeat of the atrocities of White War One and White War Two of the twentieth century. At this point I’d like to borrow from Malcolm X who once said “I’m Black first… my sympathies are black, my allegiance is black, my whole objectives are black…” as such I care not for organisations such as the UN or ICC because they have never been interested in me
or my well-being nor that of any African for that matter — these institutions and the people who
run them are only concerned with what they can extract from Africa or how they can use Africans.
When the republic of South Africa was placed in a similarly invidious position by the same
organisation back in 2015, the Union Buildings decided to flout their own international law
obligations by failing to arrest then Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who had been indicted by
the ICC for alleged war crimes committed in the Darfur region of his native Sudan. Among the most glaring inconsistencies that exists in these cases is that neither Russia nor Ukraine are
parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC, therefore neither of the two states falls within the
jurisdiction of the ICC, hence we have a bit of a quandary… Interestingly Sudan is not a party to the Rome Statute of the ICC either, although a draft bill to join the Rome Statute has been submitted. However, when the warrant was issued against Omar al- Bashir in 2009 it was on the back of a United Nations Security Council resolution being issued, something which has been conspicuously absent in this current chapter — in all probability due to the veto power of Russia, with the backing of China of course.
Although having said that, Ukraine has opted to delay the ratification of the Rome Statute “until after the war” which leaves much to be desired, what is it they fear investigators will uncover if they were to become a member with immediate effect, perhaps the presence of Neo Nazis and/or other far right extremists as Putin has claimed? This ratification process has already been drawn out since 2016 still with no end in sight. Once again, international law is dynamic and is influenced by the powers that be and ideological trends as they spread across the world. It will be interesting to see how this all plays
out as the BRICS Summit of August 22-24 draws nearer. Will South Africa withdraw their invitation
to Putin or maybe host him virtually? Or will the government opt to use “diplomatic immunity” as
they’ve done before, or maybe they’ll once again apply to withdraw from the ICC? Maybe they
should arrest Vlad to appease The West because “trade” as many local right wing (see: white)
politicians have quipped… whatever they do decide will no doubt have consequences for the
republic and her people. In my next piece I’ll expand on the options open to the government of
South Africa and the possible ramifications resulting from these decisions.
Peace and Black power.