Sudan’s President Omar Bashir attends AU summit after no arrest assurance

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir (centre) arrives for the 27th African Union summit at the Kigali International Airport in Kigali on Saturday. A recent flare-up of deadly violence in South Sudan will dominate the agenda as heads of state gather today for a key African Union summit in the Rwandan capital. [PHOTO: AFP]

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Rwanda on Saturday to attend a summit of African leaders.

Mr Bashir has defied an international warrant for his arrest after public assurances from Rwandan leaders that he would not be arrested.

The African Union (AU) summit yesterday was expected to discuss the continent’s uneasy relationship with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which some say unfairly targets Africans.

Ahead of the summit, some African countries renewed efforts to quit the ICC en masse despite the opposition of some countries like Botswana. Nigeria, Senegal and Ivory Coast have been pushing back as well in recent days.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has led growing criticism of the ICC, calling it “useless” during his inauguration in May, an event that al-Bashir attended.

Some countries want a separate African court with jurisdiction over rights abuses.

“Withdrawal from ICC is entirely within the sovereignty of a particular state,” Joseph Chilengi, an AU official, told reporters Saturday.

Al-Bashir is wanted by the ICC for alleged atrocities in the country’s Darfur region.

He should be at the ICC answering to charges that include genocide, “not persisting in this game of cat-and-mouse with the court,” Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch said Saturday night. Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said this week that Rwanda would not arrest al-Bashir.

The AU summit also will discuss South Sudan, where clashing army factions raised concerns of a return to civil war. The chaos threatens a peace deal signed last August between President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar.

ARMS EMBARGO

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon, who is attending the summit, has called for an arms embargo.

Zimbabwe’s finance minister yesterday blamed international sanctions for a cash crunch in the country. “Sanctions crippled our capacity to own our international obligations (debt payment),” Mr Chinamasa told Reuters when asked about the wage-payment delays during the African Union summit in Kigali, Rwanda, yesterday. He did not say specifically which international obligations had been affected.

“Our industry sector collapsed, the formal corporate structure collapsed and it translated itself into informal sector. So we have now a situation where revenue collection from the informal sector is not easy. We need to come up with new policies,” he added.

The crisis has forced the government to delay wages to soldiers and civil servants as President Robert Mugabe faces rare popular protests.

Western countries imposed sanctions in 2001 on Mugabe’s government over allegations of vote-rigging and human rights abuses, which he rejects, while lenders such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have frozen financial aid since Harare defaulted in 1999. Zimbabwe failed to pay the army on time for the second straight month, military sources said on Friday, and Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the sanctions were hurting the government’s ability to meet its obligations.

Anger is rising in Zimbabwe over high unemployment, corruption in government and shortages of money, which has seen people spending hours in bank queues to withdraw their money.

Without balance of payment support and foreign credit, the government is seeking to clear $1.8 billion (Sh180 billion) arrears to the IMF, African Development Bank and World Bank in a bid to unlock new funding.

The IMF said on Thursday it was still far from a financial programme with Mugabe’s government, which would need to resolve some issues before receiving any cash.