Omar al-Bashir, who has tormented Sudan for 26 years, was an honoured guest of Zuma at an African Union summit in Johannesburg.
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“We are not commenting on the al-Bashir matter”, Department of global Relations and Co-operation spokesman Clayson Monyela said by phone. However, as soon as the Sudanese president stepped onto South African land, there was a huge uproar on the worldwide scene and the worldwide Criminal Court called on the South African government to arrest him. That’s a better option when signatories to the Rome Statute have shot themselves in the foot while non-signatory countries can literally get away with kill, virtually unchallenged.
It said the African Union should lead by example in this regard.
All 54 AU member states have pledged to vigorously promote the participation and empowerment of women in all aspects of society, including government and economic affairs.
Professor Maundeni warned that Gaborone was unnecessarily isolating itself adding that the Southern African country is a “dependent state”. But this is not a justifiable basis on which to renege on worldwide obligations. Western countries are not treated the way they treat African countries.
At its inception and with virtually every key administrative position occupied by their own citizens, monetary subventions from the West for the ICC flowed unabatedly.
Another issue that undermines the AU’s position is its weak financial position.
“It is terrifying that on the one hand there is more and more impunity for those starting conflicts, and on the other there is seeming utter inability of the global community to work together to stop wars and build and preserve peace”, he said. Last but not least, the ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda expressed: “I am looking forward to President Bashir to be arrested and sent to the ICC“.
“Al-Bashir was invited to attend the summit by the AU”. It was then when Judge Hans Fabricius, from the Pretoria High Court, issued an interim order preventing the Sudanese President from leaving South Africa, pending a decision of the court. For the past five years, the ICC, based in The Hague, has sought the extradition of Omar al-Bashir on charges of genocide and mass killing, many related to events in Darfur. “No Kangaroo Court shall ever come and disturb the political-social environment we have”, he said. It is a very flawed European court for Africa.
“It is EU funded, EU directed”.
Al-Bashir, 71, has ruled Sudan for a quarter century since taking power in a military coup. The first is the country’s accession to the Rome Statute of the ICC on November 27, 2000. Although the ICC has dismissed views that the court’s standing has been hugely damaged, arguing that it is playing a long (strategic) game. “Pulling out will depend on each individual country”. Once, the people of those townships would demonstrate against apartheid; today they mount regular protests against the woeful delivery of basic services by corrupt and underfunded local councils. The USA’s refusal to do so is understood as stemming partly out of concern that its foreign troops would face prosecution, and partly out of a characteristic Bush-administration refusal to compromise U.S. sovereignty in matters of justice.
Political analyst Alex Magaisa told the Daily News yesterday that Mugabe was not just playing his role as the chairperson of the AU in the saga, but also to protect his comrades. It is hosted according to the AU. It is not a South African venue. Until the ICC can unilaterally pick up indicted persons no matter where they are hiding, situations like this will continue.
Lastly, ICC has to take interest in petitions against Western leaders to assure the Third World that it is meant for Africa alone, as it is supposed to be a global body. ICC has State parties, AU has no State party.
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President Barack Obama is driven more by the 24-hour news cycle than by any clear vision of what the U.S.is and what it should be doing.
