South Africa will on Friday seek to defend its failure to arrest visiting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who is wanted on charges of genocide, at an unprecedented hearing before international war crimes judges.
It will be a humbling moment for Pretoria, one of the leading voices in the creation of the International Criminal Court, whose lawyers will be fending off accusations that it failed in its obligations to the tribunal.
To the frustration of the ICC’s prosecutors, Bashir remains in office and at large despite two international warrants for his arrest issued in 2009 and in 2010.
He faces 10 charges, including three of genocide as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity in the western Darfur region.
The deadly conflict broke out in 2003 when ethnic minority groups took up arms against Bashir’s Arab-dominated government, which launched a brutal counter-insurgency.
At least 300,000 people have since been killed and 2.5 million displaced in Darfur, the UN says.
Several victims of the lingering conflict in the western Sudanese region, who now live in The Netherlands, will attend Friday’s hearing which opens at 0730 GMT in the tribunal in The Hague.
Source: AFP
