Al-Bashir should be arrested the moment he steps foot in SA

12 June 2015

The President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, is expected to arrive in South Africa tomorrow morning for the African Union (AU) Summit held this weekend in Johannesburg. On arrival he should be immediately arrested by the South African Police Service.

The DA will write to Riah Phiyega, as the head of the police service, to urge her to display the political will to uphold the law, both domestic and international, and send a message that South Africa takes allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes very seriously.

Mr Bashir is a fugitive from the International Criminal Court (ICC) which issued a warrant for his arrest in 2009. He was charged him for war crimes and crimes against humanity for playing an ‘essential role’ in the murder, rape, torture, pillage and displacement of large numbers of civilians in Darfur.

The DA firmly believes that governments and those in power are answerable for their actions and must be held to account should they abuse this power entrusted to them in any way.

South Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statute which established the ICC. As a member of the ICC, South Africa is duty bound to arrest him as soon as he sets foot in our country. 

The Rome Statute established four core international crimes. These are genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. The ICC is empowered to prosecute these four crimes in situations where states are ‘unable’ or ‘unwilling’ to do so themselves.

South Africa has a duty to reaffirm our commitment to our human rights-based foreign policy.

Just last month the Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Mr Luwellyn Landers, delivered a speech in which he claimed that fundamental to our country’s foreign policy is “A belief in human rights...and A belief that justice and international law should guide the relations between nations.”

If South Africa is indeed serious about upholding human rights as a cornerstone of our foreign policy, Mr Bashir will be arrested and finally face the charges against him for the atrocities he mandated and oversaw against his own people.

Statement issued by Stevens Mokgalapa MP, DA Shadow Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, June 12 2015