Sudan Lashes Out At Western Reactions to President Al-Bashir's Visit to Malawi

Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir, center, is congratulated by his supporters at the ruling party headquarters in Khartoum, Sudan, Monday, April 26, 2010., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Saturday 15 October 2011

Sudan lashes out at Western reactions to Al-Bashir’s visit to Malawi

October 14, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan has strongly denounced the stream of critical comments emitted by some Western bodies over the visit of its president Omer Al-Bashir to Malawi, saying it shows disrespect to sovereignty of African countries.

Malawi has flouted its legal obligation as a state member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to arrest the Sudanese president Al-Bashir when he visited the Malawin capital Lilongwe on Thursday and participated in the summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

Al-Bashir faces two ICC’s arrest warrants on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide allegedly committed in Sudan’s western region of Darfur where, according to UN figures, more than 300, 000 people died and more than 2.7 million fled their homes since a conflict erupted in 2003 between the government and rebel groups accusing it of marginalizing the region.

Malawi, whose president Bingu wa Mutharika is opposed to trying African leaders at the Hague-based court, came under fire by international quarters as well as local rights groups over its failure to arrest Al-Bashir.

The international advocacy group, Human Rights Watch, called on the Malawain government to respect its commitment to justice and implement the ICC’s arrest warrant.

Catherine Ashton, the EU’s High Representative, expressed concern over Malawi’s decision not to arrest Al-Bashir despite being a state party to the Rome Statute which founded the ICC.

A chorus of Malawian rights groups also called on their government to arrest Al-Bashir, saying that allowing him to enter “is not only a mockery to the victims of his alleged grave crimes but also contradicts Malawi’s commitments for justice as enshrined the Rome Statutes which we are party to,” the groups said in a joint statement, as reported by the by the Malawian newspaper The Daily Times on 14 October.

In response, the Sudanese ministry of foreign affairs has strongly condemned the countries and organizations involved in this tirade.

The ministry’s spokesman Al-Ubayd Adam Muruah told Sudan’s official news agency (SUNA) on Friday that these comments were another episode in the trend of “the political extortion and arrogance exercised by the West against sovereign African countries.”

Muruah said that sovereign African countries make a distinction between abiding by international law and the attempts by some to politicize international justice.

According to the Sudanese spokesman, the demands for Malawi to arrest Al-Bashir has proved Sudan’s claims that the West is trying to turn the ICC “into a tool of political action not a respectable organization serving justice,” adding that this is evidenced by the fact that article 98 of the Rome Statute does not allow the court to request its members to make arrests violating their obligations with respect to diplomatic immunities.

Muruah called on “the organizations purporting to respect human rights and pursuit of justice to quit their propaganda and look under their feet to see how the international law and human rights are being violated under the false pretense of fighting terrorism and etc.”

(ST)