We’ll not pullout of ICC – State

Sat, 01 Jul 2017 11:17:50 +0000

By OSCAR MALIPENGA

ZAMBIA shall continue to uphold her membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC), Justice Minister Given Lubinda told Parliament yesterday.

This follows a report submitted to cabinet on the outcome of the consultative process on Zambia’s membership to the ICC.

Mr. Lubinda, who is Kabwata Patriotic Front (PF) member of Parliament, Zambia will present the same position to the African Union (AU) when the time for making submissions is due.

Delivering a ministerial statement on the report of the outcome of the consultative process on Zambia’s membership to the ICC, Mr Lubinda said government has been informed by the AU commission that the discussion on the ICC and the Africa Peer Review Mechanism shall not be the agenda items for the 29th Summit of the Heads of States but for a later summit to be advised.

“Allow me to state that the government indicated that the consultative process would inform cabinet on the decision of whether or not to withdraw Zambia from the ICC.

“Allow me to report to this honourable House, that the people of Zambia spoke very unequivocally through this consultative process. The results of the consultative process was well covered by our media and is already a matter of public knowledge,” Mr. Lubinda said.

He said the overwhelming majority of Zambians valued the membership to the International Criminal Court.

Mr. Lubinda explained that the consultative process on the matter allowed citizens to gain valuable knowledge about the existence of the ICC and the issues which could or not be referred to the ICC.

“From the total submissions received, 91.43 percent of the petitioners were against Zambia’s withdrawal of its members to the ICC. Only 8.57 percent were of the view that Zambia should withdraw its membership from the ICC,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lubinda told Kabompo UPND member of Parliament Ambrose Lufuma not to be hypocritical by suggesting that the process should not have been undertaken because Zambia never wanted to pullout of the ICC.

Mr. Lufuma wondered through a question why government decided to go ahead with such a process, wasting colossal sums of money when it was already known that Zambians wanted to remain in the ICC.

In his response, Mr. Lubinda told the UPND lawmaker that he was being hypocritical and explained that the process was agreed and approved by all members of Parliament including the UPND and independent members. “Some of our fellow citizens made wild allegations that the President and his government had a predetermined agenda on the matter.

Some of the alleged that the President was resolved to have Zambia out of the ICC because he feared being indicted on a case that UPND had allegedly submitted to the ICC and the international court of justice.

“Others on the other hand alleged that the President had resolved that Zambia should remain in the ICC because he wanted the UPND to be indicted on the basis of a matter that had been brought before the ICC by a local law firm,” Mr. Lubinda said.