Durban - The government should have arrested Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and demanded justice for the thousands who fell victim to war crimes and genocide under his watch, says former UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay.
The first black woman to sit as a high court judge of South Africa said as a signatory to the Rome Statute, the government should have fulfilled its obligations to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and arrested Bashir. An arrest warrant had been issued by the ICC.
Pillay was addressing a gala dinner of the Law Teachers Conference hosted by Varsity College and Juta conference at Sibaya Casino.
She said it was important to dispel the myths and propaganda that:
* African countries were targeted by ICC and the ICC was a western colonial justice imposed on Africans.
* Africans could prosecute their own cases.
* Africans did not need the ICC.
* A head of state could not be prosecuted.
* South Africa’s loyalties lay in Africa.
“The facts are six of the eight Africans being investigated invited the ICC to investigate allegations of serious crimes - these are Uganda, DRC, Ivory Coast, Mali, CAR and Kenya. Sudan and Libya were referred to the ICC by the United Nations Security Council.
“In each of these countries the demand for justice and accountability came from the thousands of victims of serious crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war.
Pillay said Africa, with 23 member states, had the largest signatories and ICC indictments were imposed against individuals and not countries.
“The ICC will not admit a case if a state satisfies it of willingness and ability to investigate and prosecute ICC crimes. The Rome Statute is clear that there can be no amnesty or immunity for ICC crimes, no one is above the rule of law and that is a clear message,” she said.
She said although the African Union had adopted resolutions that prevented the prosecution of serving heads of states, this did not supersede the ICC.
“Our loyalty should be for justice, for the victims in the situation in Darfour, (where) the accusation is thousands of African peasants and farmers were driven off the land by Bashir’s military. When we in our country refuse to arrest al-Bashir, what are we saying to the of victims in Darfour?”
She called for law lecturers to advocate for rule of law, loyalty to the constitution and to spread awareness and knowledge about the rights of others.
On the recent xenophobic attacks that swept through parts of our country, Pillay, who chairs a special reference group set up by KZN Premier Senzo Mchunu, said their investigations were continuing.
She said although some of the reports they were hearing at university campuses had yet to be verified, it was concerning how foreigners were being targeted.
She said foreigners and non-Zulu speaking locals were being allegedly harassed - sometimes even by police.
She told how a Nigerian academic and his wife had been stopped by police and harassed because of their nationality.
“As soon as he responded in English to the Zulu-speaking policeman, the attitude towards him changed. The policeman said ‘Oh so you’re a foreigner, open your boot. Whose clothes are those, did you steal them, I want proof that you bought them’.”
Pillay said although the couple explained the clothes were being sent for laundering and even after showing proof they had been bought, they spent a weekend behind bars before being released without being charged.
The couple were allegedly later told the officer who had arrested him hated Nigerians and viewed them as criminals.
“To what extent are foreigners and asylum seekers subjected to hate speech and how should they be protected?”
She said this was similar to ethnic profiling in Europe and the US, where a study had found that North and sub-Saharan Africans were 6-8 times more likely to be stopped by police than whites.
“A suggestion to reduce the ethnic profiling required police to issue a written notice to the individual concerned, stating the reason for the stop, so discriminatory stops can be challenged,” she said.
Daily News