14 June 2015, 11:45 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The International Criminal Court (ICC) should treat leaders of Africa and the West equally for human rights violations, South African Minister of Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa told Sputnik Tuesday amid a pending ICC trial against Sudanese President Omar Bashir.
On Monday, Bashir, barred by a court ban from leaving South Africa over ICC genocide charges, returned to Sudan.
“It looks like the ICC wants to go for the easy targets, for Africa. Perhaps if people have done wrong things in Africa, they have to go face the might of ICC, but let there be justice, let there be equal approach…You’ve seen leaders in the [African] continent being held before the ICC, some countries being signatories of ICC, like South Africa. But you have not seen other people,” the minister said.
“The fact of the matter is that Libya, what it is today, is a wreck because of the US, and the Security Council members. And these things continue — the violation of human rights,” Mthetwa said, adding that despite the fact that Washington failed to back its invasion in Iraq with any substantial evidence, former US President George W. Bush was not summoned by the ICC.