Sudan hails AU decision on ICC

July 4, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government lauded the African Union (AU) resolution granting immunity to president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir from arrest in the continent.
The AU summit concluded in Libya this week said that the African members of International Criminal Court (ICC) will not execute the outstanding arrest warrant against Bashir issued last March.
Bashir is accused by the court of committing war crimes in the Western region of Darfur since 2003.
The Libyan backed clause in the resolution overcame resistance from some countries including Ghana, Botswana and Chad, all of which are ICC members.
The Rome Statute which forms the basis of the ICC puts legal obligation on the members states for the apprehension of individuals wanted by the court if he arrives in their territories.
The Sudanese foreign minister spokesperson Ali Al-Sadiq said that Bashir is now free to travel to any African country without fear of arrest.
This year Botswana and South Africa have publicly announced that they will apprehend the Sudanese head of state if he visits. However Djibouti and Comoros Island announced that they will not honor their obligations under the Rome Statute.
But Al-Sadiq suggested that South Africa’s stance has changed.
“Maybe at one point, the new South African government expressed some negative views … As South Africa was part of the decision at Sirte, it implies that this means he would be able to travel there” Al-Sadiq said.
“As far as we are concerned, whenever there are meetings in the African continent, or in Arab countries, he will go there,” he added.
The legal aspects of the decision at the Sirte summit are unclear. International treaties ratified by a state are binding in whole unless it decides to withdraw from it altogether.
Al-Sadiq said he thought the AU decisions are binding to its members, so Bashir would not have to wait for further approval from the parliaments of each state.
The London based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat quoted the South African president Jacob Zuma as saying that the African stance on the issue did not change against the ICC adding that peace be achieved in Darfur before thinking about reaching a decision on Bashir.
Darfur rebels and human rights organizations condemned the decision saying it grants impunity to a war indicted individual.
In 2004 the UNSC formed a UN commission of inquiry to look into Darfur abuses headed by former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Italian Antonio Cassese.
The five-member commission included three African figures from Ghana, South Africa and Egypt.
The commission concluded that the government did not pursue a policy of genocide in the Darfur region but that Khartoum and government-sponsored Arab militias known as the Janjaweed engaged in “widespread and systematic” abuse that may constitute crimes against humanity.
They further said that Sudanese judiciary is “is unable or unwilling” to prosecute those crimes and thus recommended referring the situation to the ICC.
The UNSC issued resolution 1593 under chapter VII in March 2005 referring the situation in Darfur to the ICC. At the time Tanzania and Benin voted in support of the resolution while Algeria abstained.
(ST)
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Related regions :
Darfur :
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AU resolution on Sudan’s Bashir draws condemnation
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9 Comments
Sudan hails AU decision on ICC
5 July 2009 07:28, by Ambago
Here is a situation that the African continent has wronged itself by reacting in defiance of the international community upon which the war torn continent dwells mostly for humanitarian assistance.
The 53 member states in the AU have allowed themselves to be fooled by the two Arab leaders, Ghadafi and Al Bashir by allowing the AU to adopt the resolution which dictates that no African country should cooperate with the ICC to arrest President Al Bashir who is needed by the court over counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity that he committed in Darfur.
Wherever we are heading to, the 30 African countries who rectified the Rome Statue are still bound to respect their commitment to the ICC by arresting any criminal wanted by the court that happens to be on their soil as long as they have not yet officially abandoned their memberships in this international body.
Besides having stood by the side of the victimizer and abandoned the victims in the Darfur crisis, the AU has failed to be the organisation that deserves any respect as it endorses impunity in broad day light. Otherwise why did they refer the Darfur issue to the UNSC in the first place? Yet they were there when the UNSC decided to refer the case to the ICC and it was their votes that landed the case in The Hague.
It would have been better had the 30 African countries directly withdrew their memberships from the ICC, than taken such a bizarre position only to please their new master , “Sheik Muammar Al Ghadafi” who is known for his swinging moods.
And again the AU without any shame is requesting the UN to impose sanctions on Eretria because of the country’s role in Somalia. This is ridiculous. How can the UN again have trust to take seriously any call that comes from such a shaky organisation as the AU who says one thing today and another thing tomorrow?
Leave Afowerki to do his bit in the continent of impunity just as his close neighbour al Bashir has done his in Darfur. Why deny Eritrea the same AU ticket to commit crimes with impunity while it is the order of the day in the African continent and with a blessing from its heads of state.
The Serti ( Libya) conference for the AU’s head of states shall be remember in the world history as the day the African leaders turned their backs against their subjects. To hell with the call for the African unity of al Ghadafi and long live to the just struggle of the African people of Darfur and other similar struggles all over the world.
Dr. Justin Ambago Ramba, UK.