DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) – Tanzania wants the International Criminal Court (ICC) to suspend moves to arrest Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for genocide in Darfur, its foreign affairs minister said on Monday.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday charged Bashir with masterminding a campaign of genocide in Darfur, killing 35,000 people and using rape as a weapon of war. He asked the court to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir.
“We would like ICC to suspend its decision to seek al-Bashir’s arrest for a moment until we sort out the primary problems in Darfur and southern Sudan,” Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Membe told Reuters, speaking on behalf of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete who chairs the African Union.
“We are asking ICC to re-examine its decision.”
Membe added that it was “not the right time” to seek Bashir’s arrest.
“If you arrest al-Bashir, you will create a leadership vacuum in Sudan. The outcome could be equal to that of Iraq. There would be an increase in anarchy, there would be an increase in civil war. Fighting between Chad and Sudan would increase,” he told Reuters.
A statement issued by the AU headquarters in Ethiopia said the pan-African body was holding consultations on the indictment and planned to send a top official to Khartoum.
“The commissioner for peace and security, Ambassador Ramtane Lamara, will be travelling tonight to the Sudan to meet with President Omar al-Bashir and other senior officials of the government of Sudan,” the statement said.
Reporting by Ezekiel Kamwaga; Additional reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa; Editing by Andrew Dobbie
19 thoughts on “Shameless African Union urges ICC to suspend Bashir warrant”
Well, most of the AU guys are/were at some point corrupt. So they fear for themselves if they give away Bashir. Just like Mugabe said…”Let the finger that is not corrupted point to me…..or just like Jesus said…”Let the one who thinks had not committed any sin throw the first stone”. “Neg Bene” new.
King Solomon said “There is time for every thing”. There is time for injustice and there is time for justice. alBeshir and Zenawi had their time to commit their crimes and now the time has come to pay for their crimes.
Shame on African idiot Leaders::
When is the so called African idiot Leaders Union will be calling the arrest of Meles Seytanawi one of the human cruelest person and a leader of the most anti human notorious party TPLF that has been involving in genocide killing, killing inocents and harassing million Ethiopians for the last 17 and above years. There is ongoing killing by weyane mafia group in Ethiopia as I am writing this.If Meles gets an arrest, the whole weyane party will be devastated since it is a collection of idiot TPLF trigrian and Hodam other ethnic groups that are organized them selves to cover several crimes everyday, including killing civilians and smuggling Ethiopians asset everyday.
I think we Ethiopians have a responsiblity to bring Meles and his idiot weyane members to justice, however we have to work together by minimizing the talk and attacking each other among oppositions. Lets stand together to end the weyane era from our country.
What a shame such an organization would bluff as such! when are they going to say “a spade is a spade”; there is no doubt one way or the other al Beshir butchered his own people; however, I thought Meles would make it to the Hague before al Beshir because his agazis murderers were there for everyone to see; and that includes the “mother of all democracies” US and EU. I hope the Ethiopian people will capture Meles and his stooges before ICC could snatch him.
where are Ethiopian Lawyers or professional??
why cant you prepare genocide charge Meles Zenawi ?
Ethiopian blood dont count?
we have so much evidence to use, but we are just to weak !
“If you arrest al-Bashir, you will create a leadership vacuum in Sudan….” Does this mean, there are no one Except Bashir to lead Sudan? Like, there is no one responsible enough to lead Ethiopia, God forbid if something happens to our leader.
We better say African leaders are African Kings. They are irreplacables, unquestionables. AU should be renamed ALU. African Leaders Union.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bsahier has no one to protect him from going to Hague to face criminal charges on genocide he has committed on the people of Darfur.
The Arab League and the AU may not defend him; if they do, they will be dubbed defenders of criminals and enemies of humanity. No one has ever come up to defend the notorious criminals Charles Tailor of Liberia and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia.
The only people who may try to defend the killer al-Bashir will be Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Meles Zenawi of Tigray because they know they will be next on line to go to Hague to face criminal charges.
It is, however, heart-breaking to hear Tanzania has said: ‘It was not the right time’ to arrest the murderer al-Bashir; well, is it the right time for the people of Darfur to be slaughtered like a goat every day? Why are these prostitute AU members raising their ugly voices to defend a rapist, a murderer, and a lawless Bashir while they have never said a single word to defend the defenseless people of Darfur all theses years? The AU Monkeys do not understand the International law; they think they are untouchable but enjoy life with the Ethiopian girls in Addis Ababa while the demonic al-Bashir systematically destroying the black race, arming the janjaweed Arabs and allowing them to rape, burn, and destroy any black person from Darfur just like Meles Zenawi is arming the Tigreans to kill the Amharas, the Oromos, and the other tribes.
AU, to my judgment, must be destroyed and be replaced by a democratically elected young African leaders who can understand, interpret, and practice International law and protect the interests of the people of Africa, not their owns. When a leader commits untold crimes on his own people, that leader must be condemned and punished severely without mercy; here we see the so called AU defending the criminal and giving a deaf ear to the cries and tears of the African people. We know the majority of African states are unhappy about their leaders; in fact, some of them may prefer colonialism to African leadership. What is the benefit of independence unless people have the right to exercise their freedom and share the wealth of their country equally?
The AU is sending a fact-finding mission to Khartoum, and how laughable this kind of mission is! A monkey sending a fact-finding mission to another African monkey will be a failed mission because it is trying to protect one of its criminal members, not to see al-Bashir pay compensation to the people of Darfur and bringing them back to their homes. Of course, the compensation should be in trillions, and part of it must be paid by AU for being quiet while Bashier has been slaughtering his own people. Bashir is not the only criminal person; most of the AU members are all criminals, and their head quarter in Addis Ababa is the shelter of crimes by the African thugs, such as al-Bashier, Meles Zenawi, and Robert Mugabe and others.
May the Most High deliver Africa from notorious robbers – the African leaders!
FOR EVERY BODY WHO KNOWS A LITTLE ABOUT INTERNATIONAL POLETICS, IS THIS WORLD NOT BEING GOVERNED BY DOUBLE STANDARD? WHAT MADE MELES TO BE SEEN INNOCENT AND ALBUSHIR A CRIMINAL? LET US BE LOGICAL AND STAND BESIDES THE TRUTH.
I don’t know if Bashir has done the crimes he is being accused of doing. But, my question is who is the ICJ? Don’t they normally work in cohert with Washington – the greatest mass exterminator on earth? And why isn’t Meles of Malelit indicted by the court? Do we have the same double statndard the West routinely uses against some people. That is the concern I have about this International Court of Juristis.
By the way, Foxy Wayane seems to support the Darfur rebels through some of the Southern Sudanese rebels against Sudan’s Omar Al Bashir. Those Southern sudanese rebels allied with the Wayane Mafia can be very very bad for us Ethiopians.
May be it is the usual Mr. Bush who is pushing Al Bashir to the International Criminal Court in cooperation with his TPLF local mafia. Hmm…!
Dear Getu,
I couldn’t agree more. The AU is composed of a bunch of sub-human evils. They exist to steal and terrorize the countries they rule. These people are the only cause of Africa’s misery, without exception. South Africa used to have a good leader in Mandela, but the current one is defending Mugabe. It is stunning. These so called leaders are being forced by strangers in Europe no to kill their own people. It is like a mother strangling her own helpless child to death. It is just hard to even understand. All of these brainless idiots are committed to destroying Africa beyond repair.
The African Union is the most shameful organization on this planet. It is sad to see black and moslem Darfuris get massacred by Arab-wanna-be Sudanise moslems. If the crime was committed otherwise, i.e. the Darfuris killing the Arab-wanna-be Sudanise, the coward and hypocrite Arabs would have gone after the black Africans without mercy.
The coward African Union leaders are so shameless, they have no guts to defend the Darfuris. This is the same organization that has its Union Hall only 100 meters away from the Woyanie Tigraian Palace in Addis and the Meskel square where many massacres took place but chose to support the Woyanie’s rigged election in 2005.
We are all ashamed to be Africans and part of this trash union that kisses Arab and American ass*es often.
Don’t expect anyone to do justice for you or on your behalf. What is in it for them?. Everybody does things for a reason-their selfish interest. African Union, UN or ICC and others are all controlled by the powerful and the ones bankrolling them so don’t expect them to help you out. If and when they decide to “help you” it means their interest somehow coincided with yours and even then it is meaningful.
It is only you who can actually help yourself.
What the ICC wants to do against the Sudanese bloody tyrant is the right thing. It must be universally supported.The A.U,without any dithering,needs to endorse it.Inevitably, the tyrant’s reaction as usual is a bit of threat sprinkled with a bit of blackmailing about the violation of his country’s sovereignty. We are,aren’t we,tediously familiar with that kind of reaction.Our puny dictator, Meles tried both methods when he fought against HR2003.
While he was being accused of massive violation of human rights by U.S Congress, Meles in turn accused his accusers of violation of the sovereignty of Ethiopia. He then threatened the U.S saying he could leave the hyper power for the upcoming superpower,China,if the U.S Congress could not leave him alone. Well,the Americans left him alone not because of his threats and accusations but for other reasons of their own. The bluff, both Meles and his U.S masters knew, were inconsequential.Obviously,Bashir’s bluff too is inconsequential.The ICC too can easily shrug this off. Indeed, the ICC, despite the criticism leveled against it as a legal device used by the Americans or other Westerners to promote their own interest, must swiftly move ahead and make this bloodstained criminal face the music at the Hague. This,it seems to me,is an important precedent. The legal significance of this and its future ramifications must not be lost on anyone of us. This therefore is where we need to focus on not so much on the dubious instrumentality of the institution. As regards to the question of who owns such an important instrument and how it will be used in the future in the deployment of fair, equal and universal justice, those things are not of matters of gift but of resolute fight. In other words, we will have to fight for the ever greater rectitude and uprightness of the org. while still employing it as a combative weapon despite its glaring imperfections.
Surely, the peoples’ struggle to liberate themselves by themselves can not be opposed to this.It should include it.This simply has to be one of the many fronts where the sacred battle-cry for justice and against the evil tyrants is heard.
Ofcourse Meles is a good friend of the West an AlBashir is not. That is the difference my friend. As soon as Meles falls out with the West, he will fall from power.
What about Mengestu Hailemariam?
Double standard! Why we don’t start @ home?
Mengustu’s “key shbr” what is going to be considered? Isn’t that a Crossade against humanity?
No arrest warrant for Elias?…for exposing woyannaes tyranny?
It is a pity that so many misguided Africans, particularly Ethiopian racists and their Tutsi cousins, continue to invite Western states, the United Nations, the ICC and various Western NGOs to dominate, control and humiliate the leaders of subSaharan Africa. The ICC and NGOs are dominated by Western feminists who seek to de-stabilise the traditional African family structure because it is patriarchal, and to replace it with a matriarchal structure. Such a perversion of Nature is in line with trends in the Western world itself, where males are consenting to their own emasculation, but amounts to the biggest neo-colonial project of our time. African leaders are losing their own opportunities for cultural development by signing on to international treaties that impose Western values on Africans. It is time for new leadership in Africa that rejects Western domination and asserts the cultural identities of African peoples.