State ‘delays to explain why he escaped’

Cape Town – The DA has accused the government of using delaying tactics to avoid it explaining why it did not fulfi l its legal obligations to arrest Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.

DA MP Stevens Mokgalapa said yesterday the government’s failure to meet the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) request for an explanation was a “thinly veiled attempt” to allow Bashir into the country at the end of the year. Despite an ICC warrant of arrest issued for Bashir for war crimes and genocide, South Africa assisted in his escape from the country in June this year.

As a signatory to the Rome Statute, the political body of the court, South Africa was legally bound to arrest Bashir. The decision was upheld by a South African court.

Mokgalapa has charged that South Africa’s failure to meet the ICC’s Monday deadline was an attempt to bide time to allow for Bashir’s return to the country to attend the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit (Focac) in December.

“The ICC in 2009 and 2010 issued cooperation requests to all state parties, so South Africa would have been fully aware, for several years, of its obligation to arrest Bashir.

“If they felt they had difficulty in doing so they should have approached the ICC.

“This flagrant abuse of and disregard for international and domestic law cannot be allowed to stand,” said Mokgalapa.

Department of international relations and cooperation spokesperson Clayson Monyela said South Africa had applied to the ICC for an extension to submit its explanation.

“This was done in view of the complex and conflicting legal principles involved, both in international and in South African domestic law, and the fact that the South African domestic courts are still seized with the matter,” Monyela said.

More clarity was also needed on the rules and procedures of the Rome Statute member states. Government has openly said it was revising its membership to the Rome Statute, following the al-Bashir saga.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s neighbour Botswana has asked all countries to respect the ICC.

This flagrant abuse of and disregard for international and domestic law cannot be allowed to stand Stevens Mokgalapa DA MP