African leaders offer support to war criminal

Gerry Jackson
9 June, 2009

Africa’s biggest trade bloc has come out in full support of a leader wanted for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The just ended Comesa Summit at Victoria Falls issued a communiqué on Monday, in which nineteen regional leaders called for the suspension of the arrest warrant against the President of Sudan, Omar Hassan al- Bashir. The warrant was issued in March by the International Criminal Court and was the first ever issued against a sitting head of state. Comesa leaders called on the United Nations to press for the cancellation of the indictment.

The African member states of the International Criminal Court are also considering a mass withdrawal, to protest the war crimes indictment against Sudan's President. Observers say a complete pullout is unlikely, but many are demanding a one-year suspension of the indictment.

African heads of state originally condemned the indictment at their last summit, which also ordered member states to consider a mass withdrawal, unless African views were taken into account.

Meanwhile Zimbabwe’s Youth Forum issued a statement in support of the initiative by four journalists to challenge the legality of Media and Information Commission. They said that they ‘condemn the denial of access of these journalists to the just ended COMESA Summit at Victoria Falls, which was generally described as a gathering of dictators and criminals’.

The statement added: ‘Al-Beshir the president of Sudan under International Criminal Court warrant of arrest, felt at home in the midst of fellow dictators’.

Their statement indicated great concern about the coverage of the Summit, and how the ongoing media control in Zimbabwe helps to protect the dictators who attend such gatherings.

For the tens of thousands, and some say hundreds of thousands, who have died in Sudan’s Darfur conflict, the African leaders support for a mass murderer will be one more disappointment that they have to bear.