Thinking Critically: Terrorism, ICC and governance deficits
by Azaveli Feza Lwaitama in The Citizen Tanzania Wednesday October 2 2013
September 11, 2001 is marked worldwide as the date on which one of the most unusual and devastating terrorist attacks of the 21st century took place. Four passenger aeroplanes were said to have been hijacked by 19 alleged Al-Qaeda terrorists who then allegedly flew them into the World Trade Centre complex in
Twelve years and ten days later, on September 21, 2013, another daring and bloody terror attack was unleashed on unsuspecting shoppers who happened to be inside an ultra-modern shopping complex in
Once more the issue of fighting terrorism is a focus of attention in international relations. Questions are again being asked as to what is the essence of these terror attacks and how can humanity stop them from ever happening again. For it clear that most of us can agree on what terrorism is – the indiscriminate killing of individuals happening to be in a particular location at the time of the attack and whereby the person attacked had no way of knowing that such an attack would happen at that place and at that time!
A terrorist attack is not difficult to identify from other kinds of violent intrusions into peoples' lives. In a terrorist attack, the victim is unjustly targeted by perpetrators in that the victim is not given any warning to the effect that one should not be in a particular place at a particular time.
All armed attacks on human beings lead to human death and injury but terrorist attacks are those that target individuals who have no way of knowing that they had a dispute with the person seeking to hurt them and these innocent individuals do not see themselves as playing a role that could be deemed directly meant to hurt the interests of the terrorist attacker.
If the American government, for example, supports the settler colonialist state of Israel, it will be unjust for some angry Palestinian Arab and Muslim youth to throw a grenade into a packed restaurant at lunch hour in New York in the US even if some of its customers often are American soldiers.
This is because logic suggests that such a grenade may kill an American civilian who may actually be a militant supporter of the cause of self-determination for
One can say the same of a Somali Muslim believer happening to belong to Somali anti-foreign forces' fighters who think the Kenya Defence Forces have been meting out indiscriminate violence against Somali Al-Shabaab fighters who some Somalis may consider to be freedom fighters.
Such a Somali militant may be forgiven for attacking a military outpost and killing Kenyan armed services personnel but his or her actions will be rightly judged as terrorist if they led to the mowing down of shoppers in mall whose customers are known NOT to be exclusively Kenyan armed service personnel, and if it is known that it is often packed with civilians from all walks of life and from all nationalities in the world.
The irony of Nairobi's Wastage mall terror attack is that the government of Kenya is led by individuals at the highest level who themselves are facing indictment at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for allegedly having committed crimes against humanity, which are in many ways terrorist offences, during the post-election violence that engulfed Kenya from December 2007 to early 2008.
It was democratic governance deficits in the Arab world and in
Success in the fight against terrorism can only result from successfully addressing democratic governance deficits in
It is absurd that at this moment in world history, the AU is busy disparaging the work of the ICC and yet appealing to the international community for support in fighting against home grown human rights violators-cum-terror groups like Al-Shabaab.
Mwl. Lwaitama
From: hmrema11@hotmail.com
To: wanabidii@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: [wanabidii] Why Africa Should Not leave ICC - Desmond Tutu
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 11:03:04 +0000
The fact that the African Heads of States passed a resolution to protect three people, Bashir, Ruto and Kenyatta and sacrifieced Sang to be tried shows that they will do everything, at expense of everybody to get to power and remain in power. This is not acceptable by a civilized society, those days are gone and we should not allow them. Remember whether they like it or not Power belong to the People even when they acquire it by force one day they will surrender it and face the consequences. How can Africans trust such leaders?
Herment
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 02:10:22 -0700
From: petermakatu@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [wanabidii] Why Africa Should Not leave ICC - Desmond Tutu
To: wanabidii@googlegroups.com
We all know how the Hague issue started. It all started in Kenya parliament during Kibaki+Odinga's time. Kenya MPs rejected a bill to form a local tribunal that would handled the cases locally. Today the same people are fighting ICC. They are now using AU to fight it. Shame upon them. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android |
From: Abdalah Hamis <hamisznz@gmail.com>;
To: Wanabidii <wanabidii@googlegroups.com>;
Subject: Re: [wanabidii] Why Africa Should Not leave ICC - Desmond Tutu
Sent: Wed, Oct 16, 2013 8:57:37 AM
Can Kenya surrender its judicial sovereignty to 3rd party ? Don't they ( Kenyans / Africans ) trust their own judicial system ? On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 12:29 AM, Mburi Eric <ewabwaya@hotmail.com> wrote:
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