African Leaders Consider Boycott of International Criminal Court
African leaders in Libya were on Friday hotly debating a draft resolution by the African Union (AU) which will, if adopted, deal a major blow to the efforts of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute war criminals in Africa.
The surprise draft was circulated on Thursday by Libya, the host country of the 13th AU summit, and by that evening, AU Foreign Ministers had moved to endorse the draft that will see the AU boycott the ICC. The draft declares that the AU ‘deeply regrets’ that the United Nations ignored its previous demand for the ICC in The Hague to postpone its arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, for crimes in Darfur. In consequence, the draft decision provides that AU countries ‘shall not cooperate’ with the ICC ‘for the arrest and surrender of African indicted personalities’, including al-Bashir.
The warrant against al-Bashir was issued in March on charges of masterminding the violence that led to the deaths of an estimated 300 000 people in Darfur since 2003. African signatories to the ICC are meant to hand al-Bashir over to the ICC for prosecution in The Hague, if he visits their countries. But support for the Sudanese leader has been growing and Libya was one of the first countries to ignore the ICC and host him as a visiting head of state. Zimbabwe also welcomed al-Bashir with open arms at the Comesa summit last month, where the grouping called for the international criminal charges against him to be dropped.
The draft decision against the ICC has contradicted assurances by the AU’s executive chairman, Jean Ping, that the African Union would not reach hard decisions against the ICC. Ping had said Wednesday that the AU would not reach ‘dramatic or binding conclusions’ for African countries that are party to the ICC.
“This is an insult to the 30 AU states member to the ICC, it basically orders them to flout their legal obligations,” said Reed Brody, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch said on Thursday. At the same time, human rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba told SW Radio Africa on Friday the precedent being set for Africa is a deeply troubling one, explaining that “the message this move sends out is that African leaders cannot be trusted.”
Written By: Alex Bell, SW Radio Africa
Posted by Raymond Mhaka
on July 3, 2009. Filed under Main Headline.
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