Will Bashir take a walk on the wild side?
21 May 2015
The South African government has invited Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir to attend the African Union (AU) summit in Sandton early next month. This is despite Bashir being a fugitive from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
South African official sources have confirmed that an invitation has gone out to him, as to all heads of state of AU member countries. But whether or not he accepts the invitation remains the big question.
As a founding member of the ICC, South Africa is obliged to cooperate with the court in bringing to justice those it indicts. So if Bashir comes to South Africa, it would have to arrest him. The ICC Prosecutor indicted Bashir in 2009 and 2010 for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, allegedly committed by forces under his command in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.
In 2009, when Bashir was officially invited to attend President Jacob Zuma’s first inauguration, the Director-General of International Relations and Cooperation Ayanda Ntsaluba was obliged to point out, when asked by a journalist, that South Africa would nevertheless have to arrest Bashir and hand him over the ICC at The Hague if he actually set foot on South African soil. He had to say the same a year later when asked about the blanket invitation to Bashir and all other AU leaders to attend the opening of the FIFA World Cup.