African nations unite to defend Sudanese leader

By Associated Press

Saturday, 4 July 2009

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After bitter wrangling, Africa's leaders agreed to denounce the International Criminal Court and refuse to extradite Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who has been indicted for crimes against humanity in Darfur.

The decision at the African Union summit said AU members "shall not cooperate" with the court in The Hague "in the arrest and transfer of President Omar al-Bashir of the Sudan to the ICC".

Sudan welcomed the move, and other Africans said it was a signal to the West that it shouldn't impose its ways on Africa. A human rights group said the decision was a gift to a dictator.

The 13th AU summit of heads of state, which concluded yesterday in Sirte, Libya, also "expresses its preoccupation about the behaviour of the ICC prosecutor" Luis Moreno Ocampo, whom African officials describe as too hard on Africans.

The ICC has launched investigations into four cases since it was created seven years ago - all of them in Africa.

Sudan rejoiced at the AU's rebuttal of the ICC. "It's the confirmation of what we always said: The indictment is a political thing, not a legal thing," Foreign Minister El Samany El Wasila said just after the decision was made public.

Mr El Wasila declined to comment on whether Mr al-Bashir would now feel free to travel to the 30 African countries that are party to the ICC. "We don't even want to think about it anymore," he said of the international court.

Some AU leaders said there was strong opposition to the summit's decision. Benin Foreign Minister Jean-Marie Ehouzou said that Sudan's neighbour and antagonist, Chad, objected to the wording.

Comments

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AU should avoid cultural crash

armatogiorgio wrote:

Saturday, 4 July 2009 at 01:05 pm (UTC)

i'm afraid that AU is shifting into a perspective of cultural crash. This temptation is common in countries that have been colonialized in 19th and 20th centry and seek for a proud political identity and independence. But i think this is wrong and dangerous when it's about African leaders who are suspected of crimes against mankind: criminals are criminals before being African, European or whatsoever. Further, the ICC is an international istitution, what good do we get by contesting its value and overall utility for all the countries in the world?

Giorgio Armato, Italy

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come clean and do something

maisy_babe wrote:

Saturday, 4 July 2009 at 01:59 pm (UTC)

Hang on..........haven't we got around 10 or so genocidal maniacs from Rwanda and a few other African countries happily living in the UK with no fear of ever being deported home because they will be executed?

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AU and war criminals

kweliyangu wrote:

Saturday, 4 July 2009 at 02:56 pm (UTC)

Kudos to the African nations that stood up to Western countries wishing to impose their hypocritical and highly selective "moral" standards. Not that there is anything wrong with bringing to justice individuals whose vocation it is to bring misery, suffering and death to many. Bringing such persons to account is as it should be. Meanwhile, parallel diplomatic and legal tracks should simultaneously be set in motion: pressure must also be brought to bear on European countries to arraign and put on trial this century's most notorious war criminals -- George W. Bush, Tony Blair and their henchmen, not to mention Israeli war criminals.

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Africa should be politically ostracised

mind_ful wrote:

Saturday, 4 July 2009 at 05:10 pm (UTC)

In the light of this, Africa should be ostricized politically. At least we know where we all stand now if we didn't before. No need to pretend to be civilised with these people.

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A sense of scale

achilles0200 wrote:

Saturday, 4 July 2009 at 07:16 pm (UTC)

I find it rather strange that the African Union should regard the issue of Israeli treatment of Palestinians as meriting condemnation (as it may very well do) leading to the deaths of 5 - 6000 people (fatalities on both sides in 6 years) while concerns about a conflict that appears to be genocidal (and has resulted in perhaps 300,000 deaths in a shorter time frame) are swept aside. Am I missing something here?

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The ICC's rapist prosecutor has turned the court into a circus

fin_d_empire wrote:

Sunday, 5 July 2009 at 06:17 pm (UTC)

Moreno-Ocampo, who raped a South African journalist, fired his assistant for reporting it, and then conjured "genocide by rape" accusations against Sudan the day that that the rape story reached the media, is a living embodiment of White Mischief, a colonial-minded amoral bastard who has merely replaced the white colonial supremacism of the Salazar era with white moral supremacism, wrapping himself in the cloak of human rights to slander & rape Africans.

All of Ocampo's genocide charges were thrown out by the judges. He issued an arrest warrant for Bashir based on war crimes charges that could be leveled against any 20th century leader that has ever sent his troops into combat. Since Bomber Harris's discovery in Iraq of the merits of bombing civilians, almost all wars have contravened the Geneva conventions but international so-called justice has only picked out a select few to scapegoat for the collective crime of all.

A rapist prosecutor and his trumped-up charges have killed the ICC deader than any Bush could have done. The whole of Africa, the Arab Middle East, and even NATO member Turkey are ignoring the ludicrous ICC indictment.

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African nations unite to defend Sudanese leader

watnut wrote:

Thursday, 9 July 2009 at 10:10 am (UTC)

What your missing achilles0200 is that probably most of the leaders of these African countries are on doggy ground them selves when it comes to human rights of their minority groups.

So to let the Sudanese leader to be sent for trial makes a dangerous president for them.

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