“China, India, and Russia are not members of the ICC but they have never been accused of aggression or of violating the territorial integrity of other countries”
If we are to historically retrace our membership in the International Criminal Court, students of international law could easily detect the Statute of Rome creating the ICC is fundamentally flawed.
The ICC ignores the most basic principle that places international order to human interaction.
Foremost is the concept of sovereignty and respect for territorial integrity and independence.
This has somewhat disregarded the principle of law now imposed by the ICC.
This has now become a supra law superseding international law and the UN charter which has been upheld by the members through the ages.
This means the principles upheld by the ICC overlaps International Law that often require procedural due process like the approval of the UN Security Council if the subject matter affects the peace and security of the state.
These are principles that should stand with the law itself because they could affect the social order of society; that, without them, human civilization will never advance.
Two American presidents waged war against several countries without the US Security Council approving a resolution.
On March 24, 1990, US President Bill Clinton bombed Serbia for refusing to withdrew its forces from the breakaway province of Kosovo.
For five months, US-led NATO forces bombed Serbia including the bombing of the Chinese chancery, killing several embassy personnel while the country could not do anything to defend itself from being pulverized.
That, after Serbia opted to withdraw from the arrogant alliance created by the US that demanded the extradition of Slobodan Milošević and died while in prison without being convicted for his alleged war crimes.
During the administration of President George W. Bush, his country waged war against Iraq and Afghanistan, also without the UN Security Council sanctioning that decision.
Bush lied before UN General Assembly about the weapons of mass destruction allegedly found in Saddam’s laboratories to ensure that its ally then, Iran, would be able to execute its foremost enemy.
More than a million Iraqis died in the indiscriminate bombing.
The subsequent occupation of Iraq by its mortal enemy, now an accomplice of the US, was, in fact, encouraged by the US to ensure the capture of Saddam’s Sunni Muslim followers resulting in numerous casualties.
Many believe the US merely used Iran to finish off the Sunni Muslims, and when that project was accomplished, like the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the US abandoned their erstwhile ally which today stands as ally of Saudi Arabia against the US, Israel and Yemen.
Many countries were pressured to join the ICC.
The thing that is unusual is the major powers continue to shun their membership with the ICC for refusing to submit or surrender a part of their sovereignty which to them is indivisible to their independence.
The issue is the political immunity which they accorded to their head of state.
The architects of the ICC made sure the President or the head of state allegedly guilty of war crimes or crimes against humanity be indicted for crimes which policies often overlap with existing international law.
Perceptions on the enforcement of certain laws have become a political issue as in the case of our country’s handling of prohibited drugs.
Our President tried to resolve the problem of drug abuse but often was misunderstood.
Consequently, our harsh application of the law results in the misapplication of policy with Presidents often accused of human rights violation.
The crime may ordinarily be treated with some kind of understanding to a society that is wrapped in a vicious cycle of poverty.
That, with zealot politicians often resorting to violence to gain quick results like executing those engaged in the selling and peddling of prohibited drugs without them knowing the consequence often bears a far greater consequence to society and affect the stability of the government.
Our joining the ICC has made us a pariah in the international community.
The ICC has lumped all the cases that could validate US and NATO intervention in other countries.
Some say, the US and NATO have politicized the ICC in their bid to arrest Putin for its invasion of Ukraine.
Yet, none of the NATO member-countries has voiced out the same concern when the US invaded Serbia, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan.
Some even say our approval of the ICC marked the return of neocolonialism to our country for, physically, it meant the return of imperialist control on our own armed forces to ensure our sovereignty will be greatly affected as we project our country as an alleged stalwart member of the ICC.
Members of the political opposition are acting more like morons debating whether to surrender our own former President to an unelected bunch of self-styled leaders purporting to represent the free world.
These people want to surrender President Duterte to the ICC which could reduce them to nothing more than a bunch of lunatics unable to determine what is right from what is wrong.
The ICC can never purport to be an independent body empowered to investigate and prosecute individuals for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, genocide, and aggression.
Its power summarily shortcuts the UN Security Council that originally must be approved by the said UN agency.
In effect, the ratification by the members to the ICC means that individuals accused for war crimes, for crimes against humanity, genocide, and aggression could be outrightly prosecuted by the ICC without the approval of the UN Security Council. Full text at www.manilastandard.net
The prosecutors determine whether the person accused should be tried and sentenced without them considering the person enjoys the mandate of his own people.
The decision of the ICC to issue a warrant of arrest against Vladimir Putin is not only unprecedented but a mockery to embarrass the world body because the world knows that behind the agitation seeking his arrest is the US and some members of the North Atlantic Alliance that even refused to join the ICC.
Such refusal could result in war or in the total destruction of the ICC as a system of collateral imperialism devised by the collective West.
The greatest irony is the agitation of the US for other members to join the organization and to submit to its jurisdiction while it holds the unblemished record of invasion and aggression in many countries without the approval of the UN Security Council.
China, India, and Russia are not members of the ICC but they have never been accused of aggression or of violating the territorial integrity of other countries.
The Russian investigation of Ukraine is a long case of US and NATO’s forceful eviction of Russian inhabitants in Lugansk and Donbass.
It was a long period of ethnic cleansing orchestrated by the neoliberals that resulted in a civil war climaxed by the ouster of Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 thereby prompting Russia to invade that country to stop the bloodbath. (rpkapunan@gmail.com)
