Global Arab Network | AU to create a new authority to support President Bashir

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AU to create a new authority to support President Bashir

African leaders summit in Libya has agreed to create a new authority to protect Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. African Union leaders approved a resolution to abstain from cooperation with ICC over extraditing Bashir. The pan-African body adopted a motion effectively ruling out the arrest of al-Bashir on the territory of any of its members and urged the United Nations to intervene to delay the case.

Sudan said its president was free to travel across Africa after heads of state of the African Union voted not to cooperate with the International Criminal Court's indictment of him.

The global court has issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges he masterminded human rights abuses in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Under the court's founding statute, member countries are required to arrest suspects within their territories. Bashir has only visited states not bound by the court's rules since the warrant was issued in March.

Ali al-Sadig, Sudan's foreign minister, said: "The president is free to travel anywhere in Africa, including those countries that have ratified the ICC's Rome statute.
"We think that Africa is now one front against the ICC... Most Africans believe it is a court that has been set up against Africa and the third world."

Thirty of the 54-member states of the AU signed the Rome statutes creating the court, and have treaty obligations to arrest al-Bashir if he steps on their territory.

In May, the Sudanese president stayed away from the inauguration of Jacob Zuma, his South African counterpart, amid reports that Pretoria had warned Khartoum that al-Bashir could be arrested.

"Maybe at one point, the new South African government expressed some negative views... As South Africa was part of the decision at [the summit in] Sirte, it implies that this means he would be able to travel there," al-Sadig said
"As far as we are concerned, whenever there are meetings in the African continent, or in Arab countries, he will go there."

The African leaders agreed to create the African Union (AU) Authority, but it has to be ratified by African parliaments, said Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at the closing session of the 13th AU Summit.

Gaddafi said the African leaders "decided to establish a new Authority speaking in one voice on behalf of the African people," adding the new organ is headed by a president and possessing an enhanced role to coordinate foreign affairs, trade and defense policies on the world's poorest continent.
But the AU Authority will only come into force when the 53 African states ratify an amended treaty of the AU, known as the Constitutive Act, according to the veteran Libyan leader.

Asked when the new Authority would be ratified at a joint press conference with AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping after the summit, Gaddafi said it would be ratified "in due time."

The compromise reached after a three-day heated debate will give the African states at least six years to consult their parliaments before committing themselves to submitting their authority to the new AU Authority, diplomatic sources said.

The idea of establishing a unity government in Africa has been discussed for years among African leaders. Gaddafi is leading the calls to immediately establish a union government, which he believes is the only way to meet the challenges of globalization, fight poverty and resolve conflicts without western interference.

But the gradualists, mainly south and east African leaders grouped around former South African President Thabo Mbeki, oppose an immediate integration, suggesting currently African nations should first focus on improving their respective socio-political systems, strengthening regional cooperation, and solving their own peace and development problems.

However, South African President Jacob Zuma said at the closing session that South Africa remained to be steadfast in its commitments to African unity, pledging "we will never betray the causes of African advancement and African unity."

The text adopted at the summit voiced the frustration felt by many African nations who say that the UN Security Council ignored an earlier AU resolution calling for a one-year delay to the indictment.

"They are showing to the world community that if you don't want to listen to the continent, if you don't want to take into account our proposals ... if you don't want to listen to the continent, as usual, we also are going to act unilaterally," Jean Ping, the AU commission chair, said.

The UN Security Council can ask the court, via a resolution, to suspend investigations or prosecutions for 12 months, under Article 16 of the Rome statute.

The African Union's decision not to co-operate with the International Criminal Court (ICC), has been heavily criticised by human rights groups.

Amnesty International said on Saturday that the move showed "disdain" for the victims of violence in Sudan's western Darfur region, where al-Bashir is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"This decision by the African Union member states shows a disdain for those in Darfur who suffered gross human rights violation and makes a mockery of the AU as an international body," Erwin van der Borght, Amnesty's Africa director, said.
"By supporting a wanted person accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, it undermines the credibility of states who are party to the Rome statute and the AU as a whole."(Xinhua, Reuters, AFP, )

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