Omar al-Bashir, controversial Sudanese president, who is currently on the wanted list of the International Criminal Court (ICC), is “very welcome” in Rwanda for a summit of the African Union starting this weekend, according to Louise Mushikiwabo, Rwanda’s foreign minister on Thursday, in an apparent rebuke of the ICC order.
Rwanda has “no obligation” and “no right to arrest anybody” as it has not subscribed to the treaty founding the International Criminal Court (ICC), Mushikiwabo said at a media conference.
She also dismissed out of hand an ICC request, sent to the Rwandan government two days ago, to help it arrest Bashir, calling it “a distraction”.
“We are too busy to pay attention to that kind of thing,” she said at the media conference held ahead of the gathering of the 54-nation group. The summit takes place on Sunday and Monday.
“Rwanda is the host of African leaders invited by the AU,” she said. “Unequivocally, anybody who is invited by the AU will be here in Kigali and would be very welcome, would be under the protection of this country as should be customary.”
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Bashir in 2009 and 2010 for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide over the Darfur conflict, where more than 300,000 people have died, according to the UN.
Bashir has continued to travel, including to some nations that ratified the Rome treaty setting up the ICC. In 2015, South Africa failed to implement his arrest when he attended an AU summit in Johannesburg.
In recent times, African leaders, in fact, have grown increasingly resentful of the ICC’s authority and actions, labelling the Hague-based court of imperialism and accusing it of targeting only countries on the African continent.
Mushikiwabo said there would be discussion at the AU summit in Kigali about whether the court’s African members should withdraw.
In a related development, on Tuesday, the ICC said it was referring Uganda and Djibouti to the UN Security Council after the two East African countries failed to arrest the wanted Bashir during visits in May.
