IFP welcomes ICC ruling on Bashir

6 July 2017

The Inkatha Freedom Party welcomes the judgment handed down by the International Criminal Court [ICC] which was unequivocal in stating that South Africa had failed to comply with its international obligations by refusing to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir wanted in connection with the crime of genocide in Darfur, when he visited South Africa in 2015.

IFP spokesperson on International Relations, Hon. Mkhuleko Hlengwa, MP, said, “It was never in any doubt that South Africa acted in defiant breach of it international obligations when it refused to exercise an existing ICC arrest warrant for Omar El Bashir. In fact, South Africa went one step further and provided extra assistance to Bashir to evade the warrant by allowing him to leave the country expeditiously via Waterkloof Air Force base,”

“South Africa’s failure to comply with its obligations in not arresting Bashir additionally sends an extremely worrying message to the rest of the Continent. A message which may be interpreted as one of the South African government condoning human rights atrocities on the continent. This is not the first time either, as one has just look a little further at the blind eye turned by this government on human rights abuses being perpetrated against Tibetans in Tibet, by China,”

“The South African government in not arresting Bashir, failed to uphold the founding values of its own Constitution as well as its obligations in terms of the Rome Statute. The act of allowing Bashir to flee has brought shame on this government and shame on this country. Cry the beloved country,” concluded Hlengwa, MP.

Issued by Mkhuleko Hlengwa, spokesperson on International Relations, IFP, 6 July 2017