ICC Note: The International Criminal Court lost trustworthy ally when South Africa failed to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he visited Johannesburg for an African Union summit last weekend. Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed during the genocide in Darfur in which many Christians were killed. By failing to arrest Bashir during his attendance at the African Union Summit, South Africa violated international law, and failed to bring dictator Omar al-Bashir to justice. Sudan is noted for its hostility towards non-Arabs and non-Muslims, often resulting in death and discrimination towards Christians. Currently, the highly publicized case of the two South Sudanese pastors detained in Sudan for their faith is proof of such hostility on the part of the Bashir-led government.
By David Bosco
6/17/15 Sudan (FP) – When Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s flight from South Africa landed in Khartoum on Monday, he was greeted as a conquering hero. He had struck a blow not against a foreign nation, but against what he and his supporters regard as the biased International Criminal Court, which in 2009 issued a warrant for Bashir’s arrest. On Sunday, Bashir hobnobbed with fellow heads of state at an African Union summit in Johannesburg before jetting back to the safety of his capital the next day.
His short visit was not without drama. On Sunday, a South African human rights group secured a court order requiring that Bashir not leave the country. But by the time the High Court in Pretoria confirmed the following day that the government had an obligation to arrest Sudan’s leader, Bashir had already made it to a military airfield and boarded his flight home. The South African government, it seems, had ensured Bashir safe passage. In response, the High Court and several opposition politicians accused the government of flouting the law to protect Bashir, with South African judge Dunstan Mlambo slamming the government for behavior “inconsistent with the constitution of the Republic of South Africa.”
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