South Africa court bid to arrest Sudan's Omar al-Bashir
* 10 minutes ago * From the section Africa <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/africa> President Bashir, centre, posed for a group photograph ahead of the summit A South African court has issued an interim order preventing Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir from leaving the country. It says Mr Bashir will have to stay until the court hears an application later on Sunday on whether he should be handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Mr Bashir is in Johannesburg for an African Union (AU) summit. He faces ICC war crimes and genocide charges over the Darfur conflict. The ICC has called on South Africa to arrest him. However he was welcomed by South African officials when he arrived in Johannesburg on Sunday. Media caption The ICC has issued two arrest warrants for President Bashir There are tensions between the ICC and the AU, with some on the continent accusing the court of unfairly targeting Africans. The AU has previously urged the ICC to stop proceedings against sitting leaders. The warrants against Mr Bashir <http://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/situations%20and%20cases/situations/sit uation%20icc%200205/related%20cases/icc02050109/Pages/icc02050109.aspx> , who denies the allegations, have severely restricted his overseas travel. He has, however, visited friendly states in Africa and the Middle East. AU leaders have complex issue to try to tackle, from political unrest to Islamist insurgencies Andrew Harding, BBC Southern Africa correspondent South Africa has often shied away from this sort of diplomatic headache, but this time the government has stepped straight, and deliberately, into controversy, courting Western fury by rolling out the welcome carpet for President Bashir. The South African government must, surely, have foreseen the possibility of a legal challenge. If President Bashir is allowed to return home unimpeded, South Africa's actions will be bitterly condemned internationally - if less loudly within the continent - as a blow against the credibility of the ICC. And if Sudan's president is detained, or perhaps even arrested, then Pretoria will be accused of luring a fellow African leader into a trap. Some would call that a no-win situation. But it's clear that South Africa's government has chosen to flaunt its growing antipathy towards "Western" rules, and towards a court in which so many African leaders now appear to have lost faith. The ICC has issued two arrest warrants against Mr Bashir. The court relies on member states to carry out arrests. However correspondents have said the South African government - a signatory to the treaty establishing the ICC - is unlikely to move against the Sudanese leader. The AU has previously refused to co-operate with the ICC, accusing it of bias against African leaders. African leaders have been arriving for the summit, among them Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe Human rights organisations and South Africa's main opposition party have also called for Mr Bashir's arrest. Darfur has been in conflict since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the government. The UN says more than 300,000 people have died, mostly from disease. Hundreds of villages have been attacked. More than two million people - about a third of the population - have fled their homes. Sudanese forces and allied militias are accused of oppressing black Africans in favour of Arabs. The Johannesburg summit is chaired by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who holds the rotating presidency of the AU. The official theme is Year of Women's Empowerment and Development. But the political turmoil in Burundi, crisis in South Sudan and the recent spate of xenophobic attacks in South Africa are also likely to feature heavily. EM On the 49th Parallel Thé Mulindwas Communication Group "With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy" Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi "Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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