Continent must combat impunity if it is to credibly deny the ICC the authority to do so, writes Peter Fabricius.
The decision by regional leaders to establish an independent commission of inquiry headed by a Botswana judge to investigate the crisis in Lesotho is unusual, possibly even unique, in this region. And revealing.
When a government appoints an “independent” judicial commission of inquiry to probe a problem in its own country, that means it is supposedly independent of the government and other interested local parties.
But on Friday a summit of leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) established an “independent” commission of inquiry that was clearly intended to be independent of Lesotho as a whole.
That at least was the implication of Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili’s disclosure after the summit that the commission would be headed by a Botswana judge.
The communiqué issued by the summit only mentioned that the commission would investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of former defence force Brigadier Maaparankoe Mahao.
He was shot dead by soldiers on June 25, near his home. The government claims he was killed while resisting arrest – for plotting a military coup against Mosisili’s government. His family and supporters insist he was killed in cold blood.
Mahao was a bitter rival of the current defence force commander, General Tlali Kamoli. When then Prime Minister Tom Thabane fired Kamoli last year and replaced him with Mahao, Kamoli launched a mutiny or coup attempt, sending Thabane, Mahao and others fleeing into South Africa.
Thabane was restored to his country and office under heavy South African police guard and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa then brokered a political settlement which led to early elections in February that Mosisili’s coalition won.
The new government immediately fired Mahao and reappointed Kamoli – who then launched a reign of terror against Thabane supporters, they claim, culminating in the killing of Mahao. The government’s version is that it was merely pre-empting a coup attempt by the Thabane faction.
However, Mosisili, briefing journalists after the Friday summit, said the independent commission’s mandate would be broader than an investigation of Mahao’s death. It would also investigate the hiring and firing of both Kamoli and Mahao and the “mutiny” as he called it, last year.
The summit leaders also urged the Lesotho government and all political stakeholders to urgently undertake unspecified constitutional and security sector reforms, though it was not clear if these would be part of the commission’s mandate too.
But it is obvious that if it is to produce meaningful recommendations, the commission will have to inquire very deeply why Lesotho’s security establishment remains so persistently highly-politicised and so frequently sparks political violence in the kingdom.
Perhaps the appointment of an outside judicial commission was especially significant, coming in the aftermath of the recent African Union (AU) summit in Sandton.
That meeting was dominated by the saga of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s attendance.
The SADC summit’s unusual – perhaps unique – decision to appoint its own judicial inquiry to investigate the causes of Lesotho’s unrest certainly implies a lack of faith in the independence of Lesotho’s own judiciary.
But if the commission recommends legal action, which court would prosecute them? Surely not a Lesotho court if the country’s own judiciary is not considered impartial enough to conduct the inquiry?
Cape Times