Mugabe mocks call for his indictment by ICC

January 4 -- In an opinion editorial published on December 27, 2005 in the International Herald Tribune, the Executive Director of the International Bar Association, Mark S. Ellis, calls for an indictment of Zimbabwe’s “demagogue,” President Robert Mugabe.

“Mugabe must be held accountable for the crimes he has committed,” Ellis wrote. “A UN Security Council referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Mugabe and his regime, similar to the referral over Sudan's Darfur situation, is the most appropriate and effective response.”

Aside from allegedly authorizing the commission of crimes against humanity such as imprisonment, abduction, rape, and torture, Mugabe explicitly called for the demolition of thousands of homes and businesses in the slums of Harare and neighboring cities in May 2005. The demolitions resulted in the displacement of over 700,000 Zimbabweans, including children with HIV/AIDS. UN Special Envoy Anna Tibaijuka, an international diplomat from Tanzania, spent two weeks in Zimbabwe and produced an official report condemning the operation as “indiscriminate and unjustified” with “indifference to human suffering.”

In response to Ellis’ op-ed, Mr. Mugabe’s press secretary, George Charamba, has dismissed the call to have his president indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the ICC. Declaring the call as an effort to “tarnish the image of the president and the country,” Charamba said that Zimbabwe is a not a state party to the ICC and is therefore exempt from its jurisdiction. Under Article 13(b) of the Rome Statute, however, the UN Security Council is authorized to refer a situation to the ICC, even if the country in which the situation occurs is not an ICC member.

Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic and political crisis since it declared independence in 1980.

Updated January 4, 2005

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