SA takes legal advice on al-Bashir as US voices concern

IN A bid to avert a diplomatic crisis, SA has referred an African Union (AU) resolution obliging member states not to co-operate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) — which has indicted Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir — to its experts for legal advice.

The resolution of July 3 came after an AU request to defer al- Bashir’s indictment was not acted on by the United Nations Security Council.

The resolution said that AU members should not co-operate pursuant to the provisions of article 98 of the Rome Statute of the ICC on immunities for the arrest and surrender of al-Bashir to the ICC.

Only Botswana opposed the AU’s resolution, vowing to remain committed to the ICC and to honour its Rome Statute treaty obligations by fully co-operating in the arrest of al-Bashir.

Department of International Relations and Co-operation head of multilateral affairs George Nene said on Wednesday that the government had sought legal advice on how to respond to the international arrest warrant for the Sudanese president.

“The experts will advis e government which will then make a statement ,” Nene said. He would not elaborate, saying that the AU fell under another portfolio in his department.

Th is move follows concerns expressed by SA’s allies, particularly the US, that Pretoria is straying from former president Nelson Mandela’s vision that human rights would be the light that guided SA’s foreign policy.

In confirming President Barack Obama’s ambassadorial nominee to SA, Donald Gips, the US Senate urged him to express Washington’s reservations about SA’s perceived drift from a human rights-based foreign policy and its approach to HIV/AIDS.

radebeh@bdfm.co.za