WAR CRIMES | President
wanted by ICC in Netherlands to face charges of genocide
Pre-trial chamber requested Abuja to immediately arrest leader, as a
Rome Statute obligation
`` Hosting Bashir is an affront to victims of the Darfur conflict....How
can the court be targeting (African countries) if they are responding
to direct requests from governments affected or the council" Elise
Keppler of Human Rights Watch
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir
left Nigeria on Monday with the International Criminal Court demanding
his arrest, but Sudanese officials denied the departure was due to the
warrants against him. Controversy had swirled over Bashir’s visit,
and the ICC issued a statement yesterday confirming it had requested that
Nigeria arrest him on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity
and genocide.
Bashir left on Monday, a Sudanese embassy spokesman
said, though the African Union health summit he was attending in the
Nigerian capital Abuja was not due to end until yesterday.
The
spokesman, Mohammed Moiz, told AFP Bashir had returned to Khartoum for
another engagement, but gave no further details. He had arrived on
Sunday.
Sudan’s ambassador to the African Union also said Bashir’s departure was
not due to calls for his arrest, adding he would “never flee.” “He’s the
bravest,” Abdelrahman Sirelkhatim Mohamed told AFP at the summit venue.
“If he’s afraid of arrest, he would not have come here.” The ICC in
2009 and 2010 issued two warrants against Bashir for war crimes, crimes
against humanity and genocide over the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.
The ICC said its pre-trial chamber on Monday “requested the Federal
Republic of Nigeria to immediately arrest Sudanese President Omar
al-Bashir and surrender him to the ICC”.
It added that Nigeria, as a member of the court, had an obligation to arrest wanted suspects.
Should
Nigeria fail to comply “the court may make a finding and refer the
matter to its Assembly of States Parties or the (UN) Security Council,”
the judges warned.
Nigeria’s presidency had defended welcoming
Bashir to the country for the summit on Monday and Tuesday despite the
charges against him, say
ing it cannot interfere in AU affairs. Some African Union members and officials have criticised the Bashir indictments, and the body has passed a
resolution calling on members not to cooperate with the warrants.
Rights activists harshly criticised Bashir's visit and said they were
planning to go to court to try to force Nigeria to arrest him.
Britain's minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, also said Nigeria's
decision to host Bashir “undermines the work of the ICC and sends the
victims a dismaying message that the accountability they are waiting for
will be delayed further.“
Bashir has previously visited ICC
member states, including Chad, Djibouti and Kenya, but countries like
South Africa and Botswana have ensured he stays away.
Human
Rights Watch has said the AU resolution to ignore the warrants has “no
bearing on Nigeria's obligations as an ICC member“.
Hosting Bashir is an “affront to victims“ of the Darfur conflict, said Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch.
The court has been accused by some of unfairly targeting Africans,
while others have argued that the arrest warrants against Bashir
complicate peace efforts. Rights activists say many current
investigations came about because governments where the crimes were
committed asked for the court’s involvement or the UN Security Council
referred the situation due to the gravity of the crimes.
“How can
the court be targeting (African countries) if they are responding to
direct requests from governments affected or the council?” Keppler said.
She
added that “even though the claim of targeting flies in the face of the
facts, it continues to have great resonance in public debate likely due
to the damaging legacy of colonialism, and it is being leveraged and
manipulated to undercut efforts to give access of African victims to
justice.”
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