By Merlyn Mwanza
South Africa has granted diplomatic immunity to Russian President Vladmir Putin to attend the 15th BRICS Summit to be held in Johannesburg in August, 2023.
This is a slap in the face for the International Criminal Court (ICC), the United States and their western subjects who have been pressuring South Africa to arrest President Putin following the arrest warrant against him by ICC, which has however, found little support with the majority global south as it is viewed to be biased in favour of the west.
The court has failed to arrest former US president George Bush and former British prime minister Tony Blair for war crimes and crimes against humanity for invading Iraq and killing thousands over lies that the middle east country had weapons of mass destruction.
The court has also failed to investigate crimes against humanity perpetrated by the USA in Afghanistan, and let alone failed to do anything against former US president Barack Obama and his NATO allies for having obtained the UN Security Council resolution to impose a no fly zone in Libya allegedly to ‘protect civilians’ but instead turned the same into a brutal hunt for former Libya leader Muarmar Gaddafi whose death they celebrated.
The USA which has not ratified the ICC and even imposed sanctions on the courts for attempting to investigate war crimes against US leaders is today encouraging countries to arrest Putin following the arrest warrant slapped on him by the same court they have rejected jurisdiction over their country.
However, Russia, which has also not ratified the ICC, has itself taken retaliatory measures by placing the British ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan and ICC judge Rosario Salvatore Aitala on the wanted list.
