The African Union and several African leaders are opposing the indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir before the International Criminal Court after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for President Al-Bashir in March this year to stand trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, allegedly executed in Darfur.
As the civil war between North and South Sudan was coming to an end, another broke out in the western region of Darfur in 2003. Following rebel attacks, President Al-Bashir’s regime was accused of spurring violence by pro-government militias in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed.
The AU has asked the UN Security Council – who referred the case to the court – to defer the matter for one year to allow time for the conclusion of the peacekeeping efforts in Sudan. The ICC President – who addressed a seminar in Tshwane – says although the deferral is up to the Security Council, their prosecutor has collected enough evidence against Al-Bashir.
But because Sudan’s not an ICC signatory country, President Al-Bashir continues to reject the indictment. The court’s currently dealing with four cases, all from Africa and the developments around President Al-Bashir have sparked resistance on the part of African leaders accusing the ICC of targeting African countries.
But 30 African countries are signatories to the ICC and 3 of the cases were referred to the court by them. The ICC reiterated that all cases prosecuted by them, are referred to them by signatory countries or the UN Security Council.
حركة العدل و المساواة السودانية
موقع متخصص بنقل آخر الأخبار و البيانات و القرارات لحركة العدل و المساواة السودانية