Diplomatic disaster or daily life in politics? Omar al-Bashir in Malawi and nothing happens
This Thursday the Malawian government welcomed the current president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir. He attended a state summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) in Malawi.
Several international institutions and organisations for their part complained and expressed their discontent with the fact that the Malawian government welcomed al-Bashir and did not arrest him while he is under international persecution for war crimes in Darfur region in Western Soudan.
Genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes must not go unpunished and their prosecution must be ensured by measures at both domestic and international leve. (spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton)
The International Crime Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir in 2008. That warrant is the first one which was issued against a current president of a country. He for his part rejects all the reproaches and calls that warrant a conspiracy of the Western World against him and his country.
While several Human Rights organisations as Amnesty International and the European Union (EU) expressed their discontent about the Malawian government not arresting Omar al-Bashir, Malawi’s information Minister Patricia Kaliati told the BBC it was not her governments business to arrest al-Bashir who only came for a trade summit to Malawi.
According to the BBC correspondent in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe it is not a surprise that Malawi refused to arrest al-Bashir. Within the past period of time Malawi’s president Bingu wa Mutharika was not the only one criticizing the work of the ICC. They basically demand an independent African Court that is in charge of those businesses. The African Union (AU) for its part called the United Nations to suspend the arrest warrant for the office-holding president of Sudan.