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Africa / African News
BY OLA AWONIYI, JULY 16 2013, 14:10
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REVOLVING DOOR: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir leaves a hotel in Abuja on Sunday. He arrived in Nigeria on Sunday for an African Union summit but left on Monday after Nigeria took flak for welcoming him. Picture: REUTERS
ABUJA - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has left Nigeria after demands for his arrest on war crimes charges, an embassy spokesman said on Tuesday, although he denied the departure was due to the controversy.
Mr Bashir had been attending an African Union (AU) health summit, which was due to end on Tuesday.
"He has left. He left in the afternoon (on Monday)," Mohammed Moiz, spokesman for the Sudanese embassy in Nigeria, told AFP. He said Mr Bashir had left due to another engagement.
The embassy spokesman said Mr Bashir, who had arrived on Sunday, had returned to Khartoum, but gave no further details on the other engagement.
Nigeria's presidency defended welcoming Mr Bashir to the country for the summit scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, despite war crimes charges against him, saying it cannot interfere in AU affairs.
The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2009 and 2010 issued two warrants against Mr Bashir for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide over the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.
Since Nigeria is a member of the ICC, it technically has a legal obligation to arrest suspects wanted by the court.
Some AU members and officials have criticised the Bashir indictments, and the body has passed a resolution calling on members not to co-operate with the warrants.
Rights activists harshly criticised Mr Bashir's visit and said they were planning to go to court to try to force Nigeria to arrest him.
Mr Bashir has previously visited ICC member states, including Chad, Djibouti and Kenya, but countries such as South Africa and Botswana have ensured he stays away.
Human Rights Watch has said the AU resolution to ignore the warrants had "no bearing on Nigeria's obligations as an ICC member".
Hosting Mr Bashir was an "affront to victims" of the Darfur conflict, Human Rights Watch's senior counsel for its International Justice Programme, Elise Keppler, said.
The court has been accused by some of unfairly targeting Africans, while others have argued the arrest warrants against Mr Bashir complicate peace efforts.
Rights activists say the vast majority of current investigations came about because the governments where the crimes were committed asked for the court's involvement, or the UN Security Council referred the situation due to the gravity of the crimes.
"How can the court be targeting if they are responding to direct requests from governments affected or the council?" Ms Keppler said.
She said "even though the claim of targeting flies in the face of the facts, it continues to have great resonance in public debate, likely due to the damaging legacy of colonialism, and it is being leveraged and manipulated to undercut efforts to give … African victims (access) to justice".
Government forces and local Arab militias were pitted against rebels drawn mainly from non-Arab populations in the conflict in the Darfur region.
In 2008, the United Nations estimated 300,000 people had died because of the conflict, but Khartoum disputes the figure.
Sapa-AFP
BY OLA AWONIYI, JULY 16 2013, 14:10
Clip this article
REVOLVING DOOR: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir leaves a hotel in Abuja on Sunday. He arrived in Nigeria on Sunday for an African Union summit but left on Monday after Nigeria took flak for welcoming him. Picture: REUTERS
ABUJA - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has left Nigeria after demands for his arrest on war crimes charges, an embassy spokesman said on Tuesday, although he denied the departure was due to the controversy.
Mr Bashir had been attending an African Union (AU) health summit, which was due to end on Tuesday.
"He has left. He left in the afternoon (on Monday)," Mohammed Moiz, spokesman for the Sudanese embassy in Nigeria, told AFP. He said Mr Bashir had left due to another engagement.
The embassy spokesman said Mr Bashir, who had arrived on Sunday, had returned to Khartoum, but gave no further details on the other engagement.
Nigeria's presidency defended welcoming Mr Bashir to the country for the summit scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, despite war crimes charges against him, saying it cannot interfere in AU affairs.
The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2009 and 2010 issued two warrants against Mr Bashir for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide over the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.
Since Nigeria is a member of the ICC, it technically has a legal obligation to arrest suspects wanted by the court.
Some AU members and officials have criticised the Bashir indictments, and the body has passed a resolution calling on members not to co-operate with the warrants.
Rights activists harshly criticised Mr Bashir's visit and said they were planning to go to court to try to force Nigeria to arrest him.
Mr Bashir has previously visited ICC member states, including Chad, Djibouti and Kenya, but countries such as South Africa and Botswana have ensured he stays away.
Human Rights Watch has said the AU resolution to ignore the warrants had "no bearing on Nigeria's obligations as an ICC member".
Hosting Mr Bashir was an "affront to victims" of the Darfur conflict, Human Rights Watch's senior counsel for its International Justice Programme, Elise Keppler, said.
The court has been accused by some of unfairly targeting Africans, while others have argued the arrest warrants against Mr Bashir complicate peace efforts.
Rights activists say the vast majority of current investigations came about because the governments where the crimes were committed asked for the court's involvement, or the UN Security Council referred the situation due to the gravity of the crimes.
"How can the court be targeting if they are responding to direct requests from governments affected or the council?" Ms Keppler said.
She said "even though the claim of targeting flies in the face of the facts, it continues to have great resonance in public debate, likely due to the damaging legacy of colonialism, and it is being leveraged and manipulated to undercut efforts to give … African victims (access) to justice".
Government forces and local Arab militias were pitted against rebels drawn mainly from non-Arab populations in the conflict in the Darfur region.
In 2008, the United Nations estimated 300,000 people had died because of the conflict, but Khartoum disputes the figure.
Sapa-AFP
