Surprising Friday News: Mbeki Panel Backs Bashir Arrest Warrants

by Michelle . · 2009-07-10 13:41:00 UTC
Topics:

UPDATED 7/11/2009: Reuters issued a correction to the article cited below, clarifying that the AU panel did NOT issue a stance on the ICC arrest warrant for Bashir. So, no surprising news at all, just more of business as usual, it seems. Many thanks to Bec Hamilton for spreading the word.

According to  Reuters, the AU panel charged with investigating prospects for peace in Darfur issued tempered support for the International Criminal Court investigations and indictments on Darfur. The panel established under the leadership of former South African President Thabo Mbeki shortly after the arrest warrants for President Omar al-Bashir were issued in March, and has spent the last few months meeting with a wide swath of stakeholders.

Mbeki told reporters:

"The consensus reached is that those charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity should appear in court and defend themselves," he said. "The warrant has been issued. There is nothing that can be done."

The statement is particularly surprising, as it comes on the heels of last week's AU resolution declaring contintental non-cooperation with the ICC on the Bashir case. Mbeki also added, however, that the panel recommends delaying the warrants while peace processes are underway.

Bec Hamilton weighed in on the news on her blog:

"If Reuters is right and the Mbeki panel has taken a different approach then the argument that the AU “had to” come out against the ICC in order to get a peace agreement in Darfur is directly challenged - the Mbeki panel is, after all, charged with looking at exactly this issue how peace and accountability can work hand in hand. Which brings us back to the key difference between those making the decisions at the AU Summit last week and those on the Mbeki panel: The former are still in power and fear the precedent of an ICC treating a sitting head of state like any other person charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The latter no longer have any such concerns."

A very interesting development, indeed, if it turns out to be what it seems --- unexpected from Mbeki, who has a shoddy trackrecord for supporting dictators, and unexpected from an official AU body, as it might be interpreted as an affront to Gaddafi's leadership.

So will the AU respect the findings and recommendations of its own expert panel?

Michelle . has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Comment of the Week 7/3/09-7/10/09
NEXT STORY:
Campaign about Apple Factories in China Gains Wide and Diverse Support

COMMENTS (2)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.