With arrest warrants being sought for the leaders of Egypt and Sudan, government is keeping a weary eye on AU summit arrivals, writes Janet Smith
Johannesburg - Joburg attorney Yousha Tayob sounded upbeat, if a little tired, on the telephone. He’d had his mobile all but strapped to his ear for days taking media queries, talking to other lawyers and justice authorities, and trying to keep his head above the fray which his organisation, the Muslim Laywers Association (MLA), had started in defence of human rights in Egypt.
That fray could upset the solemn activities at the AU Summit on Saturday, where ministers from all over the continent will gather in Sandton to discuss issues affecting their collective.
That’s because the MLA has relentlessly pushed for the arrest of Egyptian president General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, should he attempt to land here. It first lodged a warrant with the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) in November 2013 after the military overthrow of Mohamed Mursi’s democratic government in Egypt and related war crimes. Its request was based on our obligations as signatories to the Rome Statute. This was the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC).
It is believed that Sisi’s human rights violations contravene the statute, among other instruments which we have also ratified. These include the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, which is endorsed by the AU.
As of Friday, it looked like the association had succeeded. Excitement bristled as WhatsApps and SMSes first started going out late on Thursday afternoon to say that Sisi had cancelled his trip. Activists were united that this could only be interpreted as a tacit admission of guilt.
The word to the AU from lobbyists was firm: any undemocratic ruler in power on the continent as a result of a military coup should not be tolerated, and the democratic principles of free, fair and internationally approved elections upheld.
Tayob, who retained an edge of cynicism “because I’ve been a lawyer for so long”, said this would not be the end of the battle, however, as it was reported that Sisi’s prime minister Ibrahim Mahlab and a delegation would be representing the president at the Summit. The attorney said yesterday the MLA was urgently trying to identify members of Egypt’s delegation to see if they had also been party to war crimes.
“These may have been on Sisi’s instruction, but there are a whole host of others who may have been involved, so we would be simultaneously lodging arrest warrants for those people.”
This is believed to have placed the South African government under some pressure as it is obliged to commence investigations arising out of complaints or matters referred to the ICC.
And even more strain was placed on it on Thursday night as news came through that another Joburg-based human rights organisation, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), was preparing to seek an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir. He was also thought to be arriving for the summit, although a delegation is already in the country.
Executive director of the SALC Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh said an urgent application would be made to have him arrested, also for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as the genocide in Darfur.
As a member of the ICC, South Africa is obliged to arrest Sisi and Bashir, if they arrive. Threats have been made against Bashir twice – when he was expected in the country for President Jacob Zuma’s inauguration in 2009 and for the Fifa World Cup in 2010.
There are two complexities, however. The first is around the summit which was originally intended to be held in Chad until economic difficulties after falling oil prices in January precluded it from hosting, and the event was moved here.
So the summit is not about the our government at all, and Pretoria didn’t issue any of the invitations. This is a meeting of the AU which invited Bashir and other African leaders, except Catherine Samba-Panza of the Central African Republic, under suspension because of a violent overthrow of that government two years ago.
And matters are not as straightforward as they look in terms of the ICC. Although the AU has had a relationship with the Court in the past, that is now moot since the AU adopted policy which requires its member states not to co-operate with the Prosecutor’s office. Its reason is that the ICC has a bias against this continent since all its indictments to date have been against Africans, including Bashir and Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta.
But this is where Zuma’s government comes in, and why it might prefer it if Sudan’s vice-president Bakri Saleh represented the country instead. Our international image clashes with our obligations to the AU. If Bashir is allowed in, there will be condemnation from the West. If he isn’t, Pretoria may come across as betraying the AU. The same with Sisi.
The MLA first complained about Sisi to the Secretariat of the African Commission on People and Human Rights, based in Banjui, the Gambia, highlighting Article 55 of the African Charter.
The association is the first complainant, the second being Mohamed Reda Elhenedawi Elorabi, an Egyptian citizen with a South African work permit. Elorabi was injured on August 14, 2013 when security forces raided a camp of protesters at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, Cairo, which had been occupied by supporters of ousted Mursi after six weeks of sit-ins.
The raids were described by Human Rights Watch as one of the largest-ever killings of demonstrators. At least 1 000 died and nearly 4 000 injured.
Elorabi’s brother was shot and blinded. A cousin was killed, while another was arrested and unlawfully detained. Two other relatives were hospitalised after being shot.
The third complainant was the International Coalition for Freedom and Rights, which has lawyers and activists from Egypt as members. Based in London, it was created in Istanbul as a result of the coup.
The fourth complainant is Mohamed Beltagi, the father of 17-year-old Asma el Beltagi who was shot dead on the square.
While individuals were named in the complaint, their efforts were described as being on behalf of all victims and family members of those murdered, injured, killed and detained in breaches of international laws and treaties to which Egypt was bound.
The accused were the Egyptian military, generals and soldiers, and the government, which activists around the world have called illegal.
On July 3, 2013, the Egyptian military, under Sisi’s command, forcibly removed Mursi.
According to the Constitution, the president could only be removed by a process of impeachment for felony or high treason. The president would then have to be tried by a special tribunal of the country’s senior judges. This process was not followed. Mursi was removed through an extra-constitutional process and, as a result of these actions, the AU suspended Egypt’s membership on July 5.
He was sentenced to death in May, ostensibly for his involvement in mass jail breaks during a 2011 uprising. His supporters and those concerned about the situation in Egypt around the globe say Sisi’s government is guilty of a series of violations of the African Charter. It has sentenced more than 500 people to death, despite the country having ratified multiple international human rights instruments, including the Constitu- tive Act of the AU, which condemns and rejects unconstitutional changes of government.
Contributors to The Washington Post, Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Michele Dunne of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, were among analysts who reacted critically to US President Barack Obama’s restoration of military assistance to Sisi after Mursi’s overthrow. They said the view that Sisi would be “an effective ally against Islamist terrorists is misguided”.
Saturday Star