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Re: بوتسوانا تقول انها غير معنية بقرار الإتحاد الأفريقي وتقول ان القرار فرض على الدول المشاركة! (Re: Wasil Ali)
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Quote: GABORONE (AFP) July 5, 2009 -- Botswana on Sunday distanced itself from a decision by African leaders to ignore the International Criminal Court order to extradite Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir, the foreign ministry said.
"The Government of Botswana does not agree with this decision and wishes to reaffirm its position that as a State Party to the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court (ICC) it has treaty obligations to fully cooperate with the ICC in the arrest and transfer of the President of Sudan to the ICC," Foreign Minister Phandu Skelemani said in a statement.
The African Union decided on Friday at the summit held in Libya not to cooperate with a war crimes warrant against Beshir and again appealed to the United Nations to delay the case.
Botswana was represented at the summit by Vice President Lieutenant General Mompati Merafh and Skelemani.
Skelemani said he tried to make his country's stance known at the summit and had his hands up for a comment, along with many others, but the chairman of the AU chose to close the question.
"At the summit it is not everyone who spoke. We had our hands up, but one member moved that the question should be put," he said.
However Skelemani said Botswana had made its stance regarding the capture of the Sudanese president known even before the AU summit.
"Before this summit Botswana’stance was made public. We said we will hand al-Beshir over to the ICC if ever he came to our shores," Skelemani said.
The ICC was established specifically to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community by, for instance, prosecuting those suspected of committing genocide, crime against humanity and war crimes, Skelemani said
"The people of Africa and Sudan in particular have been victims of these crimes. Botswana strongly holds the view that the people of Africa, including the people of Sudan, deserve to be protected from the perpetrators of such crimes," he said.
The summit decision effectively allows Beshir to travel across Africa without fear of arrest under the warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity issued by the International Criminal Court.
The decision to ignore the ICC warrant had strong support from Libya and other repressive countries that sympathise with Sudan, but even advocates of the court have worried that arresting Beshir could create a power vaccuum in Khartoum that would hinder the country's peace process.
A 22-year conflict in southern Sudan only ended in 2005, in what had been Africa's longest civil war. Elections are now planned in February and a historic independence referendum is due in 2011. |
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