Christof Maletsky
7 July 2009
NAMIBIA says Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), is welcome here.
Namibia was among around 30 African countries that issued a resolution in Sirte (Libya) on Friday announcing that they will not honour their obligations under the Rome Statute related to the apprehension of ICC indicted Al-Bashir.
"There is a decision that has been standing all the time and it is a request by African leaders to postpone the indictment. That decision was endorsed," Namibia's Foreign Minister Marco Hausiku told The Namibian from Paris, France, yesterday.
At least one African country has openly disagreed with the decision. Botswana's foreign minister Phandu Skelemani, made surprise statements suggesting that the resolution was forced upon its members.
"At the summit it is not everyone who spoke. We had our hands up, but one member moved that the question should be put," he said to Agence France Presse (AFP).
African diplomats said that the Libyan-backed text was agreed to, with a consensus, at foreign ministers level through a vote and at the leadership meeting. "We are not Botswana. We have got respect for meetings that we attend. I did not see any objection during the discussions," Hausiku said.
He said many people suffer in Sudan and will continue to suffer if Al-Bashir's indictment is not postponed. "Namibia is part of the decision to ask for the postponement and we will continue to be part of that decision," Hausiku said. The decision means that Bashir is now free to travel to those countries without fear of arrest.
Botswana argued that the ICC was established specifically to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community by, for instance, prosecuting those suspected of committing genocide, crime against humanity and war crimes.
The Rome Statute - which forms the basis of the ICC - places a legal obligation on the members states for the apprehension of individuals wanted by the court if he arrives in their territories.
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.
The London based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat quoted South African President Jacob Zuma as saying that the African stance on the issue did not change against the ICC - adding that peace should be achieved in Darfur before thinking about reaching a decision on Bashir.
Darfur rebels and human rights organisations have 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 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.
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