BY News Agency
The government of Gambia has announced its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The announcement came days after Burundi and South Africa took the same decision.
Gambia accused the world body of ignoring the war crimes of Western nations and seeking only to prosecute Africans.
“This action is warranted by the fact that the ICC, despite being called the International Criminal Court, is in fact an International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans,” Sheriff Bojang, information minister, said in a nationwide broadcast.
He noted the case of the former British prime minister Tony Blair, whom the ICC decided not to indict over the Iraq war.
“There are many Western countries, at least 30, that have committed heinous war crimes against independent sovereign states and their citizens since the creation of the ICC and not a single Western war criminal has been indicted,” Bojang said.
The ICC has had to fight off allegations of pursuing a neo-colonial agenda in Africa, where all but one of its 10 investigations have been based.
Current ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is a former Gambian justice minister.
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