The visit of President Umar Al Bashir of Sudan to
Nigeria for the African Union (AU) meeting on HIV AIDS is causing uproar both
locally and in foreign countries. This is because Mr Al Bashir has an existing International
Criminal Court arrest warrant for crimes against humanity committed in the Darfur
region of Sudan still hanging on his head.
However Nigeria who is a signatory to the Rome
statute which established the ICC and set out the duties and obligations of member
states have refused to arrest and hand him over to the court for prosecution.
This decision the Nigerian government explains stems from the fact that the
Africa Union had appealed to the ICC to rescind its decision on the arrest warrant
of President Al Bashir and therefore urged African States to maintain the
status quo until a response from the Hague court is received.
Whilst some African countries like South Africa had
rejected this African Union position, others such as Nigeria has agreed and
thus allowed the Sudanese leader to visit Nigeria. There is thereof a tussle
between Nigeria’s commitments to the AU and their treaty with the ICC which one
takes precedence and as it seems, Nigeria have decided to honour its agreements
with its African countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment