According to Afrique en ligne, african foreign ministers have met on Monday, the 29th of June 2009 to discuss the continent’s position on the activities of the International Criminal Court (ICC). They have given the world court a year-long ultimatum to defer war crime charges against Sudanese leader Omar Al-Bashir or risk losing Africa’s entire support.
The ‘controversial tough’ decision of the African leaders was in conformity with what the leaders said was the utmost disregard for Africa’s request for the lifting of an arrest warrant against the Sudanese leader issued in March this year. The African foreign ministers, attending the 15th session of the Executive Council meeting in Sirte, central Libya, want the ICC to determine whether all countries that are not signatories to the Rome Statute are also bound by the treaty.
According to a position paper before the African ministers and which has been the point of high-level lobbying, led by the Sudanese delegation here, the African ministers said the behaviour of the ICC Chief Prosecutor Louis Ocampo should also be subject of future debate by the African members of the court. African state parties to the ICC statute have not unanimously agreed on the pattern of pulling out their membership but there are indications that unless the court shows that it is not committed to action on all war crimes, a final decision on whether African state parties should pull out of the court could be made in May 2010.
The African state parties, who form 30 out of the 108 members, said their member ship of the court was a binding commitment that AU could not make on their behalf and therefore agreed that more time should be given to the court. Although the decision by the 30 African state signatories to the Rome Statute to pull out of ICC within a year if the court does not show its impartiality has not been endorsed by all, a campaign is underway here to have this position adopted.
Confidential working papers, obtained by PANA, shows that although the African leaders affirmed their support for the court, the court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant against the Sudanese leader against Africa’s request for a deferral was in gross violation of the African Union. The African countries also said the ICC prosecutor should work closely with African countries in future if it planned to indict any African leader.
“The ICC prosecutor should engage with the African Union to identify African prosecutors with whom he would work in establishing elements of a crime,” they said. The African leaders said the court’s decision to indict President Al-Bashir while ignoring the request of AU to defer the process by a year was a gross violation.
The AU legal experts, who have drafted the paper, argued “there is a complementary relationship between peace and justice and none should be pursued at the expense of the other.” According to the decisions, taken during a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 9 June, the African states reaffirmed the decision of the AU Assembly requesting the application of Article 16 by the UN Security Council to defer prosecution of Al-Bashir for a year.
