Don't charge Bashir, says Mbeki

2008-07-26 22:43

Johannesburg - President Thabo Mbeki said on Saturday that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir must not be prosecuted for war crimes, for fear of upsetting the peace process in Darfur.

Mbeki said Bashir's continued presence as head of state was also required to assist Sudan's general post-civil war security.

"It is important that both of those processes should proceed and both of them require the very active participation of President Bashir," Mbeki told South African public television in an interview given on Friday in Bordeaux, France, where he had attended a European Union-South Africa summit.

"I don't know how they would do that if an International Criminal Court says here's a person who has been indicted, because they then must stop interacting with him because this is a wanted criminal, and I don't know how you then implement all of those things."

Ready to meet Bashir

Mbeki, criticised on the international stage for being soft on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe during formal mediation over the political crisis there, told SABC-TV he was ready to meet with Bashir to discuss the consequences of ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's call last week for judges to issue a warrant for Bashir's arrest.

Moreno-Ocampo accuses Bashir of instructing his forces to annihilate three non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and the use of rape to commit genocide.

A decision could take several months, but if granted it would be the first warrant issued by The Hague-based court against a sitting head of state.

A spokesperson for the South African presidency told AFP on Saturday that meetings were scheduled for the coming weeks between the South African and Sudanese governments, without specifying at which level.

In Bordeaux on Friday, the EU and South Africa jointly called on Bashir to make a "gesture" to show it had understood the prosecutor's message.

- AFP