President of Sudan Omar Al Bashir
Rwanda will not arrest Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir wanted by the International Criminal court (ICC); Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Louise Mushikiwabo announced this morning in a press briefing.
The Sudanese leader is expected to attend the 27th African Union summit in Kigali Rwanda.
“President Bashir will be granted his full security as a head of state, ICC issues will be addressed by those who are concerned and I don’t think they expect him to be arrested in Rwanda,” Mushikiwabo said.
In 2007, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Bashir. The court accuses him of directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur since 2005. The unrest cost lives of more than 10,000 civilians.
Mushikiwabo told media at the ongoing African Union Summit, that African leaders respect a principle that, “none can be arrested while on duty assigned to him by his/her constituency.”
Initially, Mushikiwabo said, ICC attracted many African countries, but deviated for providing equity justice when it was driven into political matters.
“ICC lost its original mission it was established for,” she noted.
“We will apply the rules put in place by AU than ICC since there is even nowhere Rwanda aligns with ICC,” she said.
Rwanda is not signatory to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the treaty which established and now governs the ICC.
The country has always raised concerns against ICC’s impartiality and so has Africa.
Most of African countries have been petitioning the court, which, it appears, targets the continent’s leaders and closes eyes to criminals from other parts of the world.
Previous AU summits examined modalities on how they could withdraw from ICC.
