What is good for the gander is good for the goose

Editor,I totally concur with Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo. This should be a matter solely for the Governments of the United States and the Democratic Republic of Congo to address as they deem necessary with the International Criminal Court.

Thursday, March 21, 2013
ICC-bound war crimes suspect, Bosco Ntaganda. Net photo.

Editor,I totally concur with Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo. This should be a matter solely for the Governments of the United States and the Democratic Republic of Congo to address as they deem necessary with the International Criminal Court.Rwanda, which has rightly declined to subject itself to the ICC given our totally disappointing experience with international justice, which is justice only in name, should have the bare minimum of involvement with ICC officials who come to Kigali to take custody of DR Congo rebel leader, Bosco Ntaganda lest it give implied recognition.Better still, why can’t the Americans fly him out of our country and hand him to the ICC in The Hague, rather than accept that entity’s representatives on our territory?Given their ample resources, that should not be difficult for the Americans who similarly seem to want their unwanted guest off their Embassy premises without delay. In any case, they invited Ntaganda to come to them when they put a very generous prize on his head, and they should be glad he has himself come to them, thus saving the US Government a cool US$5 million.Rwanda should have absolutely nothing to do with Ntaganda and his rendezvous with an entity we do not recognise and do not wish to be associated with. Pressure from officials of a government which has similarly refused to sign on to the ICC statutes because it refuses that entity to have any jurisdiction over its own citizens while actively promoting the handing of other country’s citizens to it should be resisted.What is good for the American goose must be the same for the Rwandan gander.Mwene Kalinda, KigaliReaction to the story, "Officials from the ICC ‘coming for Ntaganda’”, (The New Times, March 21).