Johannesburg - South Africa may face another dilemma over a visit by Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, a fugitive from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Chinese embassy in Pretoria announced on Friday that President Jacob Zuma and Chinese President Xi Jinping had decided earlier in the day to upgrade the sixth ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation (Focac), scheduled for December 4 and 5 in South Africa, to summit level.
This raised the possibility that Bashir would be invited to attend.
If he comes, the ICC will demand that South Africa, as a member, arrest him. Bashir has good relations with China and was warmly greeted as “an old friend” by Xi in Beijing this week.
Bashir attended the military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of China’s defeat of Japan in World War II.
Bashir also had a “warm” meeting with Zuma in Beijing on Thursday, Zuma’s office said. The two leaders committed to strengthening relations and Zuma accepted an invitation to visit Sudan again. He was last there in February.
Zuma was also in Beijing to watch the parade and on Friday met Xi. The two leaders then decided to lift the Focac meeting to summit level, the Chinese embassy said.
“Both leaders pledged their commitment to working along with other African countries for a full success of that summit.”
Focac was launched in Beijing in 2000 as a forum for the Chinese government to meet all African governments to discuss political, economic and other forms of co-operation. It has since met every three years, alternately in Beijing and in Africa, mostly at ministerial level, though with some participation of leaders.
Zuma attended the last meeting in Beijing in 2012. Al-Bashir caused a huge stir when he paid a short visit to South Africa in June to attend the AU summit.
The Southern Africa Litigation Centre, an NGO championing the rule of law, obtained orders from the North Gauteng High Court to the South African authorities first to detain him in South Africa and then to arrest him, as it said South Africa was obliged to do as a member of the ICC.
The ICC issued warrants for Bashir’s arrest in 2008 and 2009 on charges of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the people of Sudan’s rebellious Darfur area.
But Pretoria let him leave the country before the summit ended, in alleged defiance of both court orders.
The government has said it will appeal against the orders on the grounds that it had a higher obligation to the AU to allow Bashir into South Africa to participate in its summit.
Last week the DA failed in an attempt in Parliament to impeach Zuma for failing to uphold the law.
The ANC called for South Africa to withdraw from the ICC as a result of the court’s refusal to grant South Africa an indemnity to allow Bashir to attend the AU summit.
It is not clear if that is the intention of the government.
The Chinese embassy as well as Sudanese and South African governments were asked on Friday whether, should Bashir be invited to the Focac summit, he would accept, and if he would be allowed in.
Anton du Plessis, director of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, said he did not think the government would take on the judiciary again by allowing Bashir into the country.
He expected the legal issue of Bashir’s visit to South Africa in June to end up in the Constitutional Court, which would uphold the decision of the North Gauteng High Court.
Foreign Bureau