Ugandan leader says ICC is 'useless', praises SA, Burundi

25 October 2016

Cape Town – Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has described the International Criminal Court (ICC) as "useless", as he praised South Africa and Burundi's move to leave the tribunal.

According to Lusaka Times, Museveni said this while speaking to journalists in Zambia.

"It is a very good decision that South Africa has done that. In fact it is [the ICC] that is very useless," Museveni was quoted as saying.

Museveni was in Zambia to grace the southern African country’s independence celebrations that took place on Monday.

South Africa dealt a heavy blow to the international court on Friday by announcing it was withdrawing from an institution set up to prosecute the world’s worst crimes.

The decision followed a dispute last year when Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited the country for an African Union (AU) summit despite facing an ICC warrant over alleged war crimes.

South Africa was the second country last week, after Burundi, to move to leave the Hague-based court.

Reports on Tuesday indicated that the ICC had since urged its member states to seek a consensus with critical African nations, while stressing that South Africa and Burundi’s announced departures would not take place for at least a year.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.