New Bashir dilemma for SA?

South Africa may be facing another dilemma surrounding a possible visit by Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.

Cape Town – South Africa may be facing another dilemma surrounding a possible visit to the country by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who is a fugitive from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

The Chinese embassy in Pretoria announced on Friday that President Jacob Zuma and Chinese President Xi Jinping had decided at a meeting earlier in the day to upgrade the sixth ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation, (Focac) scheduled for December 4-5 in South Africa, to summit level.

This has raised the possibility that Al-Bashir will again be invited to South Africa to attend the Focac summit. If he comes, the ICC will demand that South Africa, as an ICC member, arrest him. Bashir has good relations with China and was warmly greeted as “an old friend” by Xi in Beijing this week. Bashir was visiting to attend the huge military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of China’s defeat of Japan in World War 2.

Bashir also had a “warm” meeting with Zuma in Beijing on Thursday, Zuma’s office said. The two leaders committed to strengthening relations and Zuma accepted an invitation by Al-Bashir to visit Sudan again. He was last there in February this year.

Zuma was also in Beijing to watch the parade and on Friday met Xi where the two leaders decided to lift the Focac meeting to summit level, the Chinese embassy said.

“Both leaders pledged their commitments to working along with other African countries for a full success of that summit,” the embassy said in a statement.

Focac was launched in Bejing in 2000 as a forum where the Chinese government meets all African governments to discuss political, economic, and other forms of co-operation. It has since met every three years, alternatively in Beijing and in Africa, mostly at ministerial level, though with some participation by leaders. Zuma attended the last meeting in Beijing in 2012.

Al-Bashir caused a huge stir when he paid a short visit to South Africa in June to attend the African Union (AU) summit. The Southern Africa Litigation Centre, an NGO championing the rule-of-law, obtained orders from the North Gauteng High Court to the South African authorities first to detain him in South Africa and then to arrest him, as it said South Africa was obliged to do as an ICC member.

The ICC issued warrants for Bashir’s arrest in 2008 and 2009 on charges of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against the people of Sudan’s rebellious Darfur area.

But Pretoria let him leave the country before the summit ended, in alleged defiance of both court orders. The government has said it will appeal the orders on the grounds that it had a higher obligation to the AU to allow Bashir into South Africa to participate in its summit. Last week the Democratic Alliance opposition failed in an attempt in Parliament to impeach Zuma for failing to uphold the law.

The ANC called for South Africa to withdraw from the ICC as a result of its refusal to grant South Africa an indemnity to allow Bashir to attend the AU summit. It is not clear if that is the intention of the government.

The Chinese embassy, Sudanese, and South African governments were approached on Friday and asked, respectively if Bashir would be invited to the Focac summit, would he accept, and would he be allowed in.

A Chinese embassy spokeswoman said she did not have the information and would have to consult Beijing. The Sudanese embassy did not respond. A senior South African government official said: “I haven’t seen the invitation list.”

Anton du Plessis, director of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and a legal expert, said he did not think the South African government would take on the judiciary again by allowing Bashir into the country for the Focac summit.

He said he expected the legal issue of Bashir’s visit to South Africa in June would end up in the Constitutional Court which would uphold the decision of the North Gauteng High Court as it was “solid and right”.

“South Africa might be brazen but I don’t think Zuma will take on the judiciary again on this issue.”

African News Agency