Abeyi residents on their own plan to choose between Sudan and South Sudan

28 months after South Sudan became an independent nation from Sudan, a disputed region between the two countries is about to decide on its own future. The Abeyi region is a rather important one for both nations as it is oil rich with implications for future wealth, which is why its status was left to be decided later. That time is tomorrow, Sunday, October 27, 2013.

Abeyi (state, province, prefecture, parish?)is an oil-rich region between Sudan and South Sudan, populated in the main by Ngok Dinka, though pastoralist Misseriya periodically graze their cattle here as well. Map from the BBC

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This map from Africa Confidential, shows the complexity of this small region, with the Sudan government having proposed a smaller boundary, the UN commission establishing a larger boundary, the Misseriya recognized to the north, the Ngok Dinka to the South, a recent series of military conflicts between the two nations in the Heglig oil fields, etc.

However, there is a problem

The referendum is not supported by either Sudan or South Sudan. Sudan, the Islamic Republic to the north wants a negotiated settlement between the two federal entities, while South Sudan says that the Abeyi peoples can't just hold a referendum on their own, rather that any such vote be supported by international monitoring and protocol (to avoid later charges of corruption and fraud). That seems like a rather nice long-term view on the part of South Sudan, even though reports indicate that the Ngok Dinka are likely to vote to join with South Sudan.

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Photo from Al Jazeera showing Dinka cattle herder

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Arab misseriya view the Abeyi region as one which they have some rights to as the region has always been one which they have grazed their cattle in, and consider the region as a "portal" between the Arab north and African south. Photo from radiotamazuj.org. Teatree happily admits he has no idea of who actually is a Misseriya or a Dinka in the two specific pictures shown here. Just an educated guess that lighter skin and turbans indicate Arab connections, while darker skin reflects Dinka genes and that cowboy hat is an affectation showing an affinity to South Sudan's cowboy-hat-wearing President Salva Kiir.

Nonetheless, something will happen tomorrow, a strong Dinka vote for union with South Sudan will be on the record regardless of its international acceptance, and we'll see whether the two national governments will heed the vote and move at all on the current boundary status ...

Meanwhile, both Sudan and South Sudan are continuing their efforts to inoculate their citizens against polio which has emerged in scattered pockets along the neighbors' loosely governed border regions. Let's hope that these vaccination programs continue regardless of the outcome of the Abeyi referendum ...

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South Sudan health workers walking into village to provide oral doses of polio vaccine. Photo from www.gurtong.net

India absorbs major hurricane with effective preparation

While hurricanes and typhoons in SE Asia are annual events, the latest to hit India in the Bay of Bengal raises respect.

The Cyclone Phailin had formed in early October and was headed NW across the shallow, warm Bay of Bengal towards India. In the past the storms slamming either India or Bangladesh, which have heavily populated lowlands, have been horribly destructive and deadly due to lack of effective evacuation procedures and early warning systems.

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The path of Cyclone Phailin - image from the BBC

This time, while causing widespread damage and flooding, the government had stepped up, working to evacuate vulnerable citizens based on preliminary warnings of the storms path. From a BBC article, "We were preparing for a super cyclone, but Phailin did not turn into a super cyclone," disaster official Tripti Parule told the AFP news agency.

He said the evacuation was the biggest in India's history for such an event. ... The Indian Army's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) said 1,200 troops had been sent to Orissa and 500 to Andhra Pradesh. "The teams have medical first responders [for first aid] and heavy cutting equipment. In the case of cyclones there is a likelihood of collapsed buildings."

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While Westerners would expect heavy equipment to be moving debris, Indian citizens don't have that expectation and simply get on with the hard work of cleanup ...

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Indians work through the aftermath of flooding and heavy rainfall. The caption of this photo from the BBC notes that the last major cyclone on India's Southeast Coast in 1999, resulted in 10,000 deaths.

While the Cyclone is now on land heading north and still dumping rains, preliminary assessments, beyond the wind and flood related damage to buildings, powerlines, communications and other infrastructure, show only 14 were lost. Hundreds of thousands were being fed and sheltered in emergency centers, and already beginning to head back home.

Bravo to India's government, volunteers, and citizens who heeded the warning calls! While disasters strike, these precautions and responses are testimony to an intelligent, effective society.

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Skirting through branches left behind by Cyclone Phailin - image from www.firstpost.com

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Emergency workers preposition supplies for housing displaced citizens - photo from www.hindustantimes.com

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Coastal fishermen heeded the warnings regarding Cyclone Phailin, moving their boats far inshore from the approaching storm - photo from www.thehindu.com

Side discussion: What's the difference between a hurricane, cyclone and a typhoon?

Teatree wondered about this, vaguely recalling they are interchangeable terms. Through the miracle of "search engining" he came up with this confirmation from the trusted nationalgeographic.com

"Hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons are all the same weather phenomenon. Scientists just call these storms different things depending on where they occur. In the Atlantic and northern Pacific, the storms are called "hurricanes," after the Caribbean god of evil, named Hurrican.

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So, the Caribbean god Hurrican comes from an even earlier Mayan characterization of an evil force called Hurakan, who destroyed humans with great storms and floods. Image from dresdenfiles.wikia.com

In the northwestern Pacific, the same powerful storms are called "typhoons." In the southeastern Indian Ocean and southwestern Pacific, they are called "severe tropical cyclones."

In the northern Indian Ocean, they're called "severe cyclonic storms." In the southwestern Indian Ocean, they're just "tropical cyclones."

To be classified as a hurricane, typhoon, or cyclone, a storm must reach wind speeds of at least 74 miles per hour (119 kilometers per hour). If a hurricane's winds reach speeds of 111 miles per hour (179 kilometers per hour), it is upgraded to an "intense hurricane." If a typhoon hits 150 miles per hour (241 kilometers per hour) — as Usagi did — then it becomes a "supertyphoon.""

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From the nat geo website, "Typhoon Usagi killed at least 25 people after crashing ashore in southern China on September 23. Photograph from AFP/Getty Images"

Nepal's Festival of Dasain

Let's get away from the carnage of Syria, special forces raids and immigration sinkings from Africa, and all the rest of the trouble spots that we look at with despair, and head to Nepal, where winter is fast closing in.

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Nepal is a small country, though with a population of over 27 million, strategically located between the two most populous nations on earth - India and China. Its capital is Kathmandu. The map from www.youcaring.com shows Nepal on the Indian subcontinent.

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From Wikipedia, we learn, "The mountainous north of Nepal has eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including the highest point on Earth, Mount Everest, called Sagarmatha in Nepali." Map also from wikipedia ...

Every October in this small country nestled up into the Himalayan mountains celebrates a 10-day festival of Dasain. From www.frommers.com, we read, "Dasain is Nepal's most colorful annual festival, featuring 10 days of bathing in holy rivers, masked dancing, kite flying, bamboo swinging displays and a final four days of spectacular celebrations. It's a wonderful festival for people but not a particularly healthy one for their animals.

Generally the first six days are not celebrated publicly, but on the seventh day, Fulpati -- the public festivities -- begin. These include a procession of government officials from Kathmandu's royal palace, accompanied by a marching band, ritualistic receptions and the placing of sacred garlands of flowers at Hanuman Dhoka Gate. The eighth day, Kalratri, is the "black night" as the slaughter of goats, sheep and buffalo begins and continues on to the ninth day, when thousands of animals are sacrificed in Kot, the courtyard outside the Taleju temple. This day also sees a rather unappetizing display of Hindus sprinkling their cars with the blood of the animals to ward off evil spirits from the Goddess Durga and to prevent car accidents.

Looks like spectacular views are all over the country ... from a blog with few words, but plenty of pics http://jitendraadhikari.wordpress.com/

The tenth day, Bijaya Dashami, Hindus and Buddhists go to their elders to receive tika, rice patties immersed in a red liquid, that is then placed as a spot on their foreheads. That afternoon people gather and make their way to the temple of Nardevi for the Festival of the Sword, Khadga Jatra, which represents the victory of good over evil, commemorating the legendary killing of a demon by the goddess Durga. This is also considered the luckiest day of the year for Nepalis to gamble..."

So, that's the tourist version, here's another look at it:

The festival occurs during the 7th Nepalese month of kartika (mid October to mid November, and the year starts in our April) which is a reminder that our western twelve month calendar is a construct ...

Similar to the first U.S. government shutdown in 17 years, hysterically fixated on in the Western media, this festival sees the Nepalese government shutting down for 10-15 days each year so that people can celebrate good over evil, and strengthen community ties. Not a bad concept...

Certain days stand out - 1,7,8,9,10 - here's a few excerpts pulled from Wikipedia:

Day 1: Ghatasthapana
A pot is filled with water, cow dung and barley seed and the emergence of grass from the sprouting seed later on, represents the emerging goddess Durga for the rest of the festival. The festival is first and foremost a celebration of the goddess who emerged and triumphed over the demon Mahishasura, thus saving everyone from terror.

The goddess Durga, from www.mikeldunham.blogs.com

Day 7: Fulpati
The day when the barley seed sprouts and grows into sacred grass, jamara

from picosoftnepal.com

Day 8: Kalrati or Maha Asthami
This is the day when the most demonic side of Goddess Durga’s manifestations, the Kali, is appeased through the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of buffaloes, goats, pigeons and ducks in temples throughout the nation. Blood, symbolic for its fertility, is offered to the Goddesses. Appropriately enough, the night of this day is called Kal Ratri (Black Night).

from a particularly good blog post on the festival, http://www.everestuncensored.org/tag/dashain-greetings/

Day 9: Maha Navami
Ceremonies and rituals reach the peak on this day. On this day the Vishwakarma, the god of creativeness is also worshiped as it believed that all the things which help is in making a living should be kept happy. Artisans, craftsmen, traders, and mechanics worship and offer animal and fowl blood to their tools, equipment, and vehicles. And, since it is believed that worshiping the vehicles on this day avoids accidents for the year all the vehicles from bikes, cars to trucks are worshiped on this day.

Day 10: Dashami
On this day, a mixture of rice, yogurt and vermilion is prepared by the women, known as "tika". Elders put this tika and jamara which was sewn in the ghatasthapana on the forehead of younger relatives to bless them with abundance in the upcoming years. The red also symbolizes the blood that ties the family together. Elders give "Dakshina", or a small amount of money, to younger relatives at this time along with the blessings.

from www.explorehimalaya.com

Interesting, exotic, and there are items in this festival that could resonate well for all of us.

Like large cities everywhere, here is Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal - the background might be exotic, but the sprawl of civilization balances it out, from http://www.123rf.com/photo

Islamic extremist attacks in Africa bookend the past week

First, there was the horrific attack in Kenya's capital city on Saturday, September 21. A shopping mall targeted by al-Shabaab extremists, the carnage ending four days later with nearly 70 dead and 200 wounded. The coverage was extensive in the world press highlighting Kenya's visibility as the economic hub of East Africa. What also stood out in the attack is that while al-Shabaab took credit for the bloodshed, they had recruited ideologues from many countries, including the West.

Eight days later, Sunday, September 29, another Islamic extremist group, the notorious Boko Haram (fluidly meaning "Western education forbidden") attacked a college in Nigeria's troubled northeast state of Yobe, killing at least 50 students, many in their sleep. In this instance, the coverage will likely be much briefer and certainly less intense.

At the risk of sounding like a drum once again, the common thread, in Teatree's opinion, is the vigorous, violent religious-directed action of Islamic fundamentalists. It seems like many years ago (in the 1990s) that the world heard a host of excuses for the first attacks on Western targets - "it is what happens when the West ignores the plight of the poor, it is because of the West's oppression of the rest of the world, it is the presence of Israel and its occupation of Palestine," etc. Over time, with fellow Muslims taking the brunt of the bloodshed, these rationales have fallen away. What remains is an extremist vision of utopia - Sharia law - and the use of force to achieve it, and an equally bewildering hesitance in so much of the world to focus on it clearly.

Westgate shopping mall, Nairobi, Kenya

The attack of the Westgate mall was horrific, though what stands out most in Teatree's mind is the incredible acts of bravery by outmatched police and volunteers to lead individuals out of harms way through the corridors of the mall itself. Muslim, Christian, Hindi, others all helping each other. There is something so powerful to witness bravery in action, then and there, when so much is on the line.

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Rescue efforts broke past racial space, and human bonds emphasized. Photo from tv.msnbc.com by Amanda Sakuma

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Photo from Yahoo news, by Jason Straziuso

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We've learned that this individual in the police force is a Muslim who is credited with many acts of bravery and compassion. Photo from nydaily news by Philip Caulfield

Photo from terrorfreesomalia.blogspot by rahm Warsame

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Likewise, outgunned plainsclothes police and detectives - all races - worked together in the fluid situation. www.dailymail.co.uk

Later, there always plenty of stories and analysis, much true, much simply repeating stereotypes. The New York Times captured one thought well - that while Kenya showcases much of what is modern, its depth of security is overstated. While the "wananchi" shown, there remains the spectacle of rivalry between police and security forces. And all that overshadowed by the spectacle of Kenya's President and Vice President both facing charges over their influence in violence during the 2007 elections when 1,200 people died and more than 500,000 were uprooted from their homes.

College of Agriculture, Yobe state, Nigeria.

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The northeast provinces of Nigeria have for more than a decade been battered by a series of Islamic extremist attacks, the local Boko Haram demanding a state of their own, framed in Sharia law. This latest incident was in the state of Yobe. Graphic from www.rte.ie

In the comparatively sparse reports on Sunday's attack, up to 50 mainly male students at a local college were killed in their sleep by West Africa's premiere jihadists. Very few if any pictures have turned up yet - a testimony to the difficulty of media to get to these sites, and perhaps not the urgency ... As we read in allAfrica.com, "Residents believe the attack has the imprimatur of the extremist Boko Haram sect which has in the past three years slaughtered thousands of innocent Nigerians in attacks on schools, places of worship, media establishments and security installations.

Academic activities only resumed last week in schools across Yobe state following 10 weeks of closure after the brazen attack by members of the violent sect on two secondary schools, which led to the death of 29 students and three teachers. The state government ordered the closure of all schools in the northeastern state after the attack by members of the sect on Government Secondary School, Mamudo. But Government Secondary School, Mamudo, remained closed for another two weeks for the conclusion of ongoing reconstruction work in the school, the state Commissioner of Education, Mohammed Lamin said.

The Boko Haram sect had on Wednesday and Thursday murdered at least 27 persons in two separate attacks in the border towns of Borno State, government officials and security sources said. ..."

July 6, 2013, 30 killed in a Boko Haram attack on Mamudo Secondary School

In the latest AP report, "The extremists rode into the college in two double-cabin pickup all-terrain vehicles and on motorcycles, some dressed in Nigerian military camouflage uniforms, a surviving student, Ibrahim Mohammed, told the AP. He said they appeared to know the layout of the college, attacking the four male hostels but avoiding the one hostel reserved for women. "We ran into the bush, nobody is left in the school now," Mohammed said. Almost all those killed were Muslims, as is the college's student body, Usman said.

Much was made over al-Shabaab gunmen in the Kenya attack asking people if they were Muslim or not, and if so, they could flee. Yet in this tragedy in Nigeria, with no westerners around, Muslims were given no pass, rather were focused targets to make the extremists point (men, not women - who will find their rightful place later). And in fact, while western victims provoke a large international outcry and coverage, it has been the Muslim populations around the trouble-spots of the world who have borne the brunt of Islamic extremists.

As with Kenya, secondary reports just now starting to filter in include some disturbing news of a system out of whack. The necessary investment and discipline in providing security is simply not reliable or sufficient. In this case, the Nigerian government had promised police protection for schools if they would reopen after the July attacks. While the schools did, apparently the police protection did not come through, at least at this school.

In any case, it seems to Teatree that a struggle for Islam itself is underway - it is the central question underlying both the visible attacks on westerners and on the more frequent and less covered attacks on fellow believers of Allah. From recurring unrest in Tunisia, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, and even Sudan itself, the internal struggle rages on this continent, and on into the Middle East.

Sri Lanka's Tamils bolster presence with election win

In searching through an unusually bleak variety of news items this week, an election in Sri Lanka emerged as a bit of good news.

Sri Lanka is that little teardrop of an island, once known as Ceylon, off the the southern tip of India. Its recent history during the past three decades has been one of a civil war between the nation's Tamil people minority and a Sinhalese majority. The civil war came to an abrupt end in 2009 with a collapse of the Tamil forces and a complete victory of the Sri Lankan military.

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Sri Lanka, an island nation of nearly 21 million people, with beautiful beaches, mountainous terrain that supports a tea sector, and the scene of a tragic civil war for 30 years pitting the two largest population groups against each other. map is from Encyclopaedia Britannica used at www.citelighter.com

A recent provincial election (the first since the war's conclusion) resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The first words from the leader of the party, TNA leader R. Sampanthan, were conciliatory, saying "his party is ready to participate in the Parliament Select Committee appointed to resolve the national issue if the government agrees to a meaningful measure to devolve power." At the same time, addressing a media briefing in Colombo, Sri Lanka's Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, who is in charge of the development in the war-torn North, said the government is willing to work together with the TNA within the framework of the Constitution. "Minister Rajapaksa stressed that now the TNA has received the power they have responsibility to fulfill the needs of the Tamil people. He expressed hope that the Tamil party would not lead the northern people to another separatist struggle."

Tamil National Alliance leader, R. Sampanthan, now has a political platform from which to negotiate with the national government. Photo from dbsjeyaraj.com


Sri Lankan Economic Development Minister Basil Rajakaksa, has been overseeing the aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil war, and was the first to respond on behalf of the national government to the victory of the TNA in the northern provincial elections. Photo from www.onlanka.com

A quick summary. The defeated Tamil people, concentrated in the north of the country, have a stronger more unified voice now, and want their elected leader to pursue a policy of greater autonomy for the "distinct Tamil people" in their historical lands. The Sri Lankan government, overseeing the victory over armed separatists four years ago, also want to move forward in a positive fashion - one thinks that elections themselves is a step forward.

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The rusting hulk of this tank (personnel carrier, etc.?) along Sri Lanka's northeast coastline is a reminder of the recent civil war, and the continuing efforts of the Tamil and Sinhalese peoples to find a different path this time. Photo from http://blog.naver.com

As Teatree thinks about it, there are some similarities between this story and the previous post about the Philippines where separatists have moved to seek autonomy in practical aspects of government, in spite of sporadic outbreaks of violence. The temptation of advancing a cause through violence.

One also thinks back to the Muslim Brotherhood winning elections in Egypt within a year of the former Egyptian President Mubarak's loss of power, and how quickly the new President Morsi attempted to move beyond constitutional limits by issuing decrees, etc. So many ways to instigate violence and further instability rather than carefully treading a path that avoids them.

The Philippine's long running conflict flares again ...

The Philippines, located in the South China Sea, has a population of over 98 million.

The Philippines (officially The Republic of the Philippines) made the news this week due to a flareup of violence between one faction of an Islamic separatist movement and the national government. The conflict comes, unfortunately, at a time when there has been a recent agreement between the state and the main Muslim separatist group in the South which is set to bring greater autonomy to southern lands.

The most recent incident is apparently a local faction at work, but it has its roots in a long history of unrest that is complex, to say the least. Insurgencies in the Philippines have run for decades - government oppression and corruption to varying degrees over the past 50 years, communist influences, a rise in Islamic militancy - have all intertwined and morphed with various alliances, understandings, and support from a variety of other nations and ideologies. A short history of these streams of insurgencies can be found at http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_philippines.html

The long running Muslim separatist movements are in the South.

An article in the New York Times captures the essence along with the context,

"In August 2011, President Benigno S. Aquino III flew secretly to Tokyo to meet with the leader of the Philippines’ largest Muslim separatist group. The meeting, with the chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, led to a landmark October 2012 framework agreement for peace. But in the year since, Mr. Aquino has received a rough reminder that the quest for peace in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, one that goes back more than a century, remains as difficult as ever.

The most recent fighting, in Zamboanga, began last Monday when several hundred armed members of the Moro National Liberation Front, a rebel group that was not included in the 2012 peace deal, entered the port city by sea and, the police said, declared an independent Islamic state. Under attack by police and the army, the rebels took hostages and retreated to the poor Muslim areas outside the city, where on Sunday they were fighting house to house with the security forces. Officials said that nearly 100 rebels had been killed or captured, and that many had cast off their military fatigues in an effort to blend into the civilian population. Over all, more than 50 people have been killed, and nearly 70,000 displaced, in the battles during the past week between the military and the rebels, officials said."

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The 2012 agreement with the MILF granting greater autonomy to the southern islands remains in place, and the current conflict is isolated to some degree with one faction (MNLF) who did not sign the plan.

Unless the reader wants to get deep into the weeds, perhaps it is just as useful to consider the challenges that face this nation. The most unique aspect of the country is its geography. North to south, the length of the country is about 1000 miles (1609 km), which in the US is similar to Chicago to New Orleans. But the Republic consists of 7100 islands, only 154 of which are over 5 square miles, and if all the landbase could be compressed into a square it would be similar in size to Arizona. The two largest islands, Luzon in the north and Mindanao in the south, comprise about 65 percent of the total land area of the archipelago. Info from www.nationsencyclopedia.com And to emphasize the diversity that island legacy brings, Wikipedia notes, "According to the 2000 census, 28.1% of Filipinos are Tagalog, 13.1% Cebuano, 9% Ilocano, 7.6% Bisaya/Binisaya, 7.5% Hiligaynon, 6% Bikol, 3.4% Waray, and 25.3% as "others""

Let's hope that the government can continue to honor the agreements it has made, and that the Muslim movements in the South adhere to the spirit and letter as well.

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Article and photo in the NY Times, showing the despair of an individual "in Zamboanga City on Thursday as a standoff between rebels and the Philippine military continued ..."

The Philippines has many challenges on its plate. The country, along with a number of Southeast Asian nations, is challenging China's claims to expanded jurisdiction over the region's seas - and there have been confrontations. With over 7100 islands, international recognition of the the Philippines claim to the seas and waters around its lands is crucial for a peaceful Southeast Asian future.

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Map showing the Philippine's claimed (and recognized) zones of economic sovereignty regarding its territorial seas. from wikimedia

Kenya MPs agree to legislate a withdrawal from the International Criminal Court

Last week, Kenya's lawmakers agreed to draft a bill that would withdraw the country from membership in the international criminal court, situated in The Hague, Netherlands.

The motion was approved by the allies and party of the country's current president, Uhuru Kenyatta, who is scheduled to face trial in that court by the end of the year for crimes against humanity based on, as the BBC describes it, "the disputed elections in 2007, in which more than 1,000 people were killed and 600,000 forced from their homes."

Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta. Photo from the BBC

His Deputy President William Ruto is also being tried. Both winners of the most recent Kenyan presidential election have combined their supporters into a "Rainbow Coalition" in the current Parliament.

The article continues, "MPs from the opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord), led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, walked out of the debate, calling the motion "capricious" and "ill-considered". Kenya's withdrawal would not bring "honour to the nation and dignity to our leaders", Cord said in a statement. "Kenya cannot exist outside the realm of international law," it said."

This would be the first country to withdraw its ratified support for the ICC.

Still this is not Kenya on its own.

The BBC article goes on, "In May, the African Union accused the ICC of "hunting" Africans because of their race. The ICC strongly denies this, saying it is fighting for the rights of the African victims of atrocities. The ICC was set up in 2002 to deal with genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. The court has been ratified by 122 countries, including 34 in Africa.

It is even more ironic that the ICC's Chief Prosecutor is Fatou Bensouda, from The Gambia who took over the position after the first prosecutor had served a 9 year term. According to other accounts, in 2011, the African Union strongly supported and lobbied for Ms Bensouda, hoping for a more evidently fairer to wider selection of cases to pursue.

New ICC Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda. Photo from the BBC

So this is all rather murky, and certainly under-reported.

AllAfrica.com - a news service - has plenty of details on the case. Noting that President Kenyatta has asked for postponements 4 times, requested a change of venue from The Hague, and in some ways, his legal counsel seems to be turning the protocols inside-out to avoid or postpone the proceedings.

The Washington Post did run an editorial back in May, 2013, noting the following. "Almost 15 years ago, delegates from more than 100 countries gathered in a crowded conference room in Rome, cheering, chanting and even shedding a few tears. After weeks of tense negotiations, they had drafted a charter for a permanent court tasked with prosecuting genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes around the world.

Kofi Annan, then U.N. secretary general, cast the new International Criminal Court in epochal terms: “Until now, when powerful men committed crimes against humanity, they knew that so long as they remained powerful, no earthly court could judge them.” That earthly court is now rooted. Its glassy headquarters on the outskirts of the Hague houses more than 1,000 lawyers, investigators and staff members from dozens of countries. Judges hail from all regions of the world.

But for an institution with a global mission and an international staff, its focus has been very specific: After more than a decade, all eight investigations the court has opened have been in Africa. All the individuals indicted by the court — more than two dozen — have been African. Annan’s proclamation notwithstanding, some very powerful people in other parts of the world have avoided investigation."

So while the case of Kenya's President and his Deputy likely has strong merits, there is certainly some uneasiness over the broader history of this court. On the other hand, the ICC is not at all shy of describing the cases before it at the institution's website, http://www.icc-cpi.int/EN_Menus/icc/Pages/default.aspx

The Washington post article goes on,

"Great-power politics are the key here. China has a veto over Security Council action and wants the court to stay well away from North Korea, for instance. Russia will not permit an ICC investigation in Syria. And when violence in Iraq was at its most intense, the United States would have blocked any move to give the court jurisdiction there. A stray comment by an Iraqi minister in 2005 suggesting that the country might join the ICC produced nervous phone calls from U.S. diplomats. They got the assurances they wanted: Baghdad would not become a member.

Much of the responsibility for the court’s skewed caseload therefore falls outside the institution — but not all. The court has chosen not to open several non-African investigations that it could have taken on. As a senior Rwandan official has argued: “There is not a single case at the ICC that does not deserve to be there. But there are many cases that belong there, that aren’t there.”

Afghanistan is the most glaring example. Thousands of civilians have been killed in that country since the court began operating, most by the Taliban and other extremist forces but also by NATO troops and aircraft. The court has not moved to investigate. The ICC also stayed out of the 2008 Russia-Georgia conflict, which produced thousands of deaths and injuries and well-documented war crimes. It has not opened a full investigation of rebel and paramilitary violence in Colombia. The prosecutor’s office has moved extremely cautiously on accusations against Israel by the Palestinians, who attempted to give the court jurisdiction in 2009.

Still fragile, the ICC has no desire to provoke Washington, Beijing or Moscow. A full-blown confrontation with a major power could threaten the court in ways that tussles with Sudan and Kenya do not. It’s not so much that the court is biased against Africa as that it is reluctant to meddle in cases in which the geopolitics are intense. But the result is the same: stricter justice for one part of the world."

Yet again

Teatree remains unclear about the ICC focusing only on African cases. How separate is the ICC from an international war crimes tribunal for Yugoslavia, the ICTY - also based in the Hague - that prosecuted several leaders of the Balkans War. A lot of careful stepping and avoidance of snap judgements is probably needed.