Bashir's Invitation to Copenhagen

by Michelle . · 2009-11-22 12:18:00 UTC
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Was it by some silly clerical error or a valiant attempt to defy its status as the world's second most peaceful country that Denmark invited Sudanese President/Wanted War Criminal Omar al-Bashir to the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference?

According to a Danish Foreign Ministry official, actually, the invitation was obligatory -- the summit is a UN event, and all heads of state are to be invited. Denmark, however, is also a signatory of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), meaning that if Bashir did fancy himself a trip to Europe, the country would be obliged to carry out the ICC's arrest warrant against the pariah president.

Still, the "obligation" excuse seems rather flimsy, especially after the European Union leaned hard on Turkey to rescind an invitation to Bashir to attend a summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference earlier this month. If the invitation is more along the lines of, "Sure you can come, but we'll arrest your sorry ass as soon as you step off the plane," then it behooves Denmark to make that a little more clear.

If Bashir is too smart to travel to Turkey, though, he's definitely not going to show his face in Western Europe. Ultimately, this incident amounts to bad international PR for Denmark, though in diplomatic circles, how a country chooses to balance competing "obligations" matter, even if it's just a matter of moral support.

[Photo from Wikimedia Commons: Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, president of Sudan, sits in the Plenary Hall of the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the 12th African Union Summit Feb. 2, 2009. The assembly endorsed the communique, issued by the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, to defer the process initiated by the International Criminal Court to indict Bashir. 2 February 2009.]

Michelle . has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns.
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