Parliament - Amid the debacle over South Africa’s refusal to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the chairman of Parliament’s portfolio committee on international relations on Monday suggested that all African nations should consider withdrawing from the International Criminal Court.
Siphosezwe Masango issued a statement criticising the court application by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), a rule of law advocacy group, for an order instructing South African authorities to arrest Bashir while he was in South Africa at the weekend to attend the African Union summit.
He has two open arrest warrants against him for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against the people of Darfur.
“This is an opportunistic act only meant to pit African leaders against each other in the name of international law... Government should be alert to opportunism by civil society organisations whose claim to legitimacy is to ‘strengthen democracy by overseeing African governments’ while the opposite is true,” he said.
Masango accused the ICC of unfairness towards African leaders.
“If things continue this way the Committee might have to advise government to re-look its membership of the ICC. In fact, it would be best if the entire continent follows suit. Although SA holds international governance structures in high regard, it is crucial that their programmes are not open to sinister objectives and hidden agendas,” he said.
Sources said Bashir appeared to have left South Africa at dawn on Monday after a weekend of speculation as to whether South Africa would respect its obligations as a member of the ICC and arrest him.
In doing so, Bashir pre-empted a court ruling by Judge Hans Fabricius in response to the SALC’s application on Monday on whether or not the South African authorities should be compelled to arrest him. And home affairs border authorities defied an interim order made by Fabricius on Sunday to prevent Bashir leaving South Africa until the court had delivered his judgement on whether or not he should be arrested.
The judge had postponed his final ruling to give the government until Monday morning to respond to the application.
On Sunday, the African National Congress’ National Executive Committee (NEC) gave an indication of its stance on the matter in a statement saying the ICC was “no longer useful for the purposes for which it was intended”.
ANA