SPLM-N rebels call on South African gov’t to arrest Sudan’s Bashir
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June 14, 2015 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement-North which has close relations with the ruling African
National Congress (ANC) urged the South African authorities to arrest
the Sudanese president Omer al-Bashir who is in Pretoria to attend an
African Union summit.
JPEG - 24.3 kb
National Congress Party (NCP) leader and presidential candidate Omer
Hassan al-Bashir holds a Sudanese flag during a campaign rally in
Omdurman on 9 April 2015 (Photo: Reuters)
Bashir arrived in Pertoria Saturday, defying two arrest warrants
issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against him for war
crimes and genocide in Darfur region in March 2009 and July 2010.
Immediately after his arrival in Pretoria, the ICC urged South African
government to arrest Bashir in ligne with the founding act of the
court , Rome Statute, and threatened to report the matter to the
tribal’s assembly of states and the UN Security Council.
"South Africa is one of the Rome Statute signatories and is bound to
arrest those who are wanted by the international justice," said the
SPLM-N secretary general Yasir Arman in a statement extended to Sudan
Tribune on Saturday.
Arman further said that Bashir’s visit poses a challenge for the
independent judiciary of South Africa and previous statements by the
Government of South Africa as well as it undermines "the history and
the legacy of its people and the struggle of the African National
Congress (ANC) against racism and war crimes".
The rebel leader was alluding to statements by South African president
Jacob Zuma. Following his elections in May 2009 Zuma said if Bashir
was to ever set foot inside South Africa he would order him arrested.
An African Union (AU) summit held in Libya in July 2009 adopted a
resolution that they shall not cooperate with the ICC in executing the
warrant.
"We support the calls for the arrest of General al-Bashir and handing
him to the international justice," he further said, stressing that the
Sudanese president is continuing targeting civilians in Sudan.
The SPLM-N rebels who fight against the Sudanese army since 2011 in
the South Korodfan and Blue Nile states accuse the Sudanese army of
targeting civilians in the rebel areas as part of a scorched earth
policy.
SPLM-N spokesperson Arnu Ngutulu Lodi on Staurdfay said that the
Sudanese army bombarded several areas inhabited in the troubled South
Kordofan state.
Two Antinov and four helicopters gunship on 12 June dropped 20 bombs
into Wad-Abuk town, caused casualties among the residents.
Furthermore, they targeted cattle-keepers around the town where
several herders, and dozens of cattle were killed, Lodi said.
Human rights groups and activists called on the South African
authorities to handle the Sudanese president to the international
justice warning that allowing him to attending the summit and return
to his country will tarnish the image of the country.
“Allowing President al-Bashir into South Africa without arresting him
would be a major stain on South Africa’s reputation on promoting
justice for grave crimes,” said Elise Keppler, acting international
justice director at Human Rights Watch.
“South Africa’s legal obligations as an ICC member mean cooperating in
al-Bashir’s arrest, not in his travel plans,” Keppler further said.
(ST)
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