LI President of Honour: Zuma was obliged to arrest Al-Bashir - Hoofdinhoud
LI President of Honour Hans van Baalen MEP, who is also the Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with South Africa, together with Catherine Bearder MEP of the LibDems (UK, full member) strongly criticised President Zuma’s government for its failure to arrest the President of Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir, who is wanted by the ICC for alleged war-crimes.
“South Africa should have prevented Bashir from leaving the country,” the LI President of Honour said, while visiting the country for an inter-parliamentary meeting with South African colleagues.
“I am a lawyer and have looked into cases such as the Yugoslav tribunal, and if a country signs an international treaty, it is committed to it,” he added, commenting on the failure of the South African government to arrest the Sudanese President in accordance with its international obligations as a signatory of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Earlier the leader of the official opposition in South Africa, Mmusi Maimane MP of the Democratic Alliance (DA, LI full member),also called for a public investigation into the escape of the alleged war criminal, and the lack of respect for the rule of law of the South African government, which “had stooped to a disgraceful and cynical new low”.
The 59th Congress of Liberal International, which took place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in April 2014, “noted with great concern that African countries are withdrawing their support from the International Criminal Court (ICC).”