Eugène Bakama Bope is the President of Club des amis du droit du Congo (CAD).

The 11th Anniversary of the Rome Statute comes on the heels of the heated, anti-ICC meeting of the African Union earlier this month in Sirte, Libya.

There, some African heads of state adopted a resolution suspending their cooperation with the ICC in retaliation for the Court’s arrest warrant for Omar Hassan

Ahmad Al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.This latest arm wresting over the ICC at the AU only draws attention to the fact that African governments—unlike their counterparts in Europe and Latin American—are not taking their obligations seriously when it comes to prosecuting grave crimes. For this reason alone, the role of the ICC is fully justified.

Europe experienced the Nuremberg trials. The Nazi collaborators continued to be judged up to the present day (see the latest trial of John Demjanuk who was transferred to Germany). In South America, there have been trials of the military junta in Argentina (trial led by current ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo).

What example has Africa set for prosecuting grave crimes in its national courts? Before blaming the ICC of unfairly targeting Africans, African governments would be wise to ask themselves what their own track record is for prosecuting atrocity crimes. More specifically, look at the Hissène Habré case: Senegal did not want to try him or extradite him, but Belgium asked for his extradition.

Recently, I was shocked by Senegalese President Wade’s hypocrisy. Wade, who organized the Hissène Habré case and was one of the first to speak out to the media following the issuance of warrant for Al-Bashir, has reportedly said the ICC only judges Africans. This comes at a time when his country has shown itself incapable of administering justice on its own soil and around such a critical trial.

The most heinous crimes are committed by state authorities, who, occasionally take over internal justice systems. It is one of the reasons to advance international justice.

Finally, there is room to question the prosecutor’s strategy. How, we can ask ourselves, after all these years of investigations can he still be so far from fingering those most culpable for the atrocity crimes in eastern DRC.

Clearly, both sides can do better.

Please Note: This is an unofficial translation by the CICC Secretariat from the original French.