ICC Note: Notorious persecutor of the Church, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir already controversially escaped South Africa unscathed in June when he visited Johannesburg for an African Union Summit and his planned trip to the United Nations this month presents the United States government with a legal dilemma. Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and genocide relating to the war he perpetrated on Darfur where black Christians, in particular, were targeted in mass killings. Various legal measures exist to prompt Bashir’s immediate arrest when he travels outside Sudan, but the legal tangle regarding his planned U.N. trip is complicated. The world waits and watches to see how the Obama administration will react if Bashir crosses into U.S. territory.
By Hennie Strydom, University of Johannesburg
9/3/15 Sudan (AllAfrica) – Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s planned visit to the United Nations in New York this month presents US President Barack Obama’s government with a potentially embarrassing diplomatic challenge.
At the end of June, Fatou Bensoda, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), called on the UN Security Council to ensure compliance with the arrest warrant issued against al-Bashir in 2009.
The court wants to try him for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The chief prosecutor’s request came after it was announced that al-Bashir was planning to travel to New York to address a summit on sustainable development at the UN General Assembly.
Two weeks before the chief prosecutor’s call for action, al-Bashir escaped arrest in South Africa. He left with the help of the South African government. It ignored a court order preventing him from leaving after he attended the African Union (AU) summit in Johannesburg.
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