15th Jun 2015 15:51
Pretoria (Alliance News) - Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes, slipped out of South Africa on Monday, preempting a court order over an international arrest warrant and dealing a blow to a long-standing campaign to bring him to justice.
The court had ordered al-Bashir to stay in the country, but by the time it came up with a ruling on his arrest on Monday afternoon, al-Bashir was already on his way home to Sudan.
It is "of great concern to us" that al-Bashir ignored the order, said Judge Dunstan Mlambo.
The fact that South Africa "failed to take steps to arrest the president of the republic of Sudan is inconsistent with constitution of South Africa," Mlambo added.
International Criminal Court (ICC) lawyer Thokwane Moloto, who was observing the proceedings, said it was deeply disturbing that al-Bashir had been allowed to leave South Africa.
"He should never have been allowed to leave. It is a matter of law not politics," said Moloto.
South African opposition party Democratic Alliance said "government has stooped to a disgraceful and cynical new low - and demonstrated to the world that it does not believe in justice for grave international crimes."
Sudan's government said it received "strong assurances from South Africa" that it had no intention of arresting al-Bashir, who was attending an African Union summit in Johannesburg, even though a court prohibited him from leaving the country, the Sudan News Agency reported Sunday.
But by midday on Monday, television station eNCA reported a white plane with a Sudanese flag had taken off from South Africa's Waterkloof military airbase.
Shortly afterwards, the Sudanese News Agency said its government would hold a press conference at the airport of the capital, Khartoum, after Bashir landed.
The human rights group South African Litigation Centre (SALC) had filed an urgent application to the court asking that the government honour an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in 2009 on charges of war crimes and genocide related to the conflict in the Sudanese region of Darfur.
SALC lawyer Annabel Raw said although al-Bashir's departure was disappointing, the ruling was a victory for justice.
"We are deeply disappointed by the events around the court order, but we are happy about the judgment. This was a victory for the judiciary in South Africa. It shows that the judiciary is independent," said Raw.
South Africa's parliament meanwhile expressed support for al-Bashir.
The court application was "an opportunistic act only meant to pit African leaders against each other," said the chairperson of parliament's international relations committee, Siphosezwe Masango.
"If things continue this way the committee might have to advise the government to re-look at its membership of the ICC. In fact, it would be best if the entire continent follows suit," Masango said in a statement.
Global campaign movement Avaaz launched an online petition Monday morning calling on South Africa to arrest al-Bashir, which it said received almost 90.000 signatures in under three hours.
On Saturday, the Hague-based ICC urged South Africa, a member of the court, to "spare no effort in ensuring the execution of the arrest warrants."
Al-Bashir took power in a bloodless coup in 1989 and has won three elections since. In the last poll, conducted in April and boycotted by the main opposition parties, official results showed the 71-year-old winning 94% of the vote.
He heads one of Africa's most repressive regimes, accused of adopting legislation that boosted his powers, repressing demonstrations and arresting opponents.
The United Nations says 300,000 people are estimated to have been killed during the past decade in Darfur, where fighting broke out in 2003 between government forces and armed rebel groups.
The mass killings, torture and rape committed in Darfur prompted the ICC to seek the arrest of al-Bashir.
Copyright dpa