Mugabe accuses ICC of targeting Africans

Zimbabwean head and African Union chairman Robert Mugabe on Tuesday harshly criticized the International Criminal Court (ICC) after Sudan’s President evaded an international arrest order by leaving early from a meeting of Africa’s leaders in South Africa, a news agency reported.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Khartoum, Sudan, on Monday from South Africa, where the court had issued a warrant of arrest against him but after, his plane had left with him on board. Al-Bashir is wanted by the ICC for war crimes allegations linked to the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.

The African News Agency, which is based in South Africa, quoted Mugabe as saying at the late-night close of an African Union summit in Johannesburg that the ICC is not wanted in Africa.

“This is not the headquarters of the ICC; we do not want it in this region at all,” mentioned Mugabe, who is the chairman of the 54-member African Union for the next year.

South Africa is a signatory to the statute that set up the international court. But some African leaders say the court is biased by targeting African heads of state and the African Union stated that delegates to the summit in Johannesburg had immunity.

According to Mugabe, South African President Jacob Zuma said “he would not allow” police to arrest al-Bashir, the African News Agency disclosed.

A spokesman for Zuma’s office referred questions about al-Bashir to government spokeswoman Phumla Williams. Williams was not reachable on Tuesday as it was a national holiday in South Africa.

Nick Kaufman, a lawyer representing several victims in the Darfur case at the ICC, appealed to the court’s prosecutor Tuesday to ask judges for a formal “finding of non-compliance” by South Africa for failing to arrest al-Bashir and to have the incident reported to the United Nations Security Council.