AU Condemns al-Bashir’s Arrest Warrant

(PANA)--The peace and security council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) Thursday expressed its disappointment at the issuance of an international arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, a day after the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague issued the warrant.

The PSC urged the chairperson of the AU Commission, Mr. Jean Ping, to send a high level delegation to the UN Peace and Security Council in New York in a bid to persuade the authorities to stop the indictment, Bruno N. Zidouemba, Ambassador of Burkina Faso to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union, told journalists in Addis Ababa, after an emergency meeting of the PSC. ‘We are sorry to see this despite our efforts in requesting the suspension of the indictment for one year,’ Said Zidouemba, who holds the rotating chairmanship of the PSC. ‘Concern for justice should go along with concern for peace.’

On Wednesday, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against President al-Bashir on charges of orchestrating violence in Darfur between 2003 and 2008. President al-Bashir is accused of instructing his forces to destroy three non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur with the intention of committing genocide, leaving 300,000 dead and millions displaced from their homes.

The arrest warrant is the first to be issued against a sitting head of state by the Hague-based court, which stopped short of including a count of genocide over the conflict. ‘It is unique in the history of Africa for a head of state to be indicted,’ said Zidouemba, with disappointment apparent on his face. Sudanese Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the AU, Mohieldin Salim Ahmed, told the PSC that the government and people of Sudan condemned the court’s decision in its strongest terms.

Ambassador Ahmed said that the actions of the prosecutor and the court were political in character and were incompatible with the rules of international law. ‘It was a flawed decision referring the case to the ICC in the first place countervailing the principles of International Law and the Rome convention which provide all parties equal rights to examine evidence on their merits before bringing in proceedings into the case,’ Ambassador Ahmed said.

In their last summit in Addis Ababa, African leaders had rejected the move by ICC prosecutor Luiz Moreno-Ocampo seeking the issuance of an arrest warrant for al-Bashir, and they asked for its suspension for one year so that it does not stall the peace process in that part of Africa. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has urged Khartoum to cooperate with all UN entities and ensure their safety after the warrant was issued for al-Bashir’s arrest.

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