LAST week I said it is time Africa vigorously resists attempts by Western countries to amend the Rome Statute to allow peacekeepers to arrest African leaders indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), arguing it is targeted at persecuting African leaders and weakening the sovereignty of states.
This week we look at how Western countries, especially the US, have continued to protect their citizens from prosecution at the ICC for crimes against humanity.
George Bush, a former US president, signed into law the American Service-Members’ Protection Act (ASPA) to grant US the right to use military force to free any US citizen being detained by the court.
This means America has given itself the right to invade The Hague, Holland and the ICC, which must pander to US’s desires.
This fact alone disproves the ICC’s claim to independence.
In addition, the ICC is funded by voluntary contributions from the United Nations (UN) which is dominated by the US.
It is no surprise the ICC has spent all of its more than 10 years involved in human rights cases from Africa.
Is Africa the only place with ‘dictators’ where human rights are compromised?
The ICC seems to be more of a Eurocentric plot against African progression.
Is Africa the only place with leaders who have violated people’s rights?
We need not look far to find crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression in other regions of the globe. 
Let’s look at some of the war crimes of the US and British forces.
The occupation of Iraq involved many illegal operations.
From the beginning, the fallacies of a quick and tight occupation of Iraq were debunked by reporters and Iraqi media sources.
The bombs that were touted as precise proved not to be.
Iraqi infrastructure, communities and families were demolished by the inaccurate bombings.
Rules of engagement in Iraq became very vague, which made every Iraqi an insurgent.
Iraqi civilians were killed out of wrong assumptions or fear.
The amount of force and firepower against civilians was deliberate overkill considering the relative dearth of military might of their opponents.
There have been leaks by soldiers giving accounts of these attacks on civilians.
In one specific case, a US chopper opened fire on a minivan filled with children and family not once, not twice, but thrice.
One of the soldiers who saw the aftermath tried to mend the situation by saving a bullet-riddled child from death. 
The US chopper’s reason for engagement was the illusion of an RPG in the hands of an on-looking civilian.
Later investigations showed very vaguely that the RPG was handled by insurgents across the street from the van.
But the civilian within the minivan did not have any weapons.
Movies like Green Zone tell a more vivid story of the reasons of US and British occupation of Iraq.
These stories are a common theme in US history.
Are these not crimes against humanity or crimes of aggression?
Laurent Gbagbo, former president of Ivory Coast, was transferred to The Hague unusually quickly following allegations of crimes against humanity.
In fact, the transfer was so speedy it was comparable to abduction and was in breach of international procedural code and ignored Ivoirian laws.
Jerry Rawlings, ex-president of Ghana, was angered to the point he issued a statement demanding that Africa should have the right to prosecute its own criminals and get rid of international intervention.
At the time Gbagbo was being transferred to The Hague, Alassane Ouattara was left well alone in his hotel in Abidjan.
He was Gbagbo’s rival and a former official of the International Monetary Fund, hence favoured by the Western powers.
Now one must ask: If the ICC turns a blind eye to European and Euro-American aggressions, how can they be trusted to dispense true justice anywhere in the world?
In the words of Martin Luther King Jr: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” and since some injustices are being ignored, there is no hope for justice to prevail.