Sunday, October 13, 2013
Sudan has expressed its frustration over the failure by the
African Union Summit to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. The
summit meeting which ended on Saturday has agreed on a resolution
stating that no sitting African head of state should appear before an
international court.
The AU had discussed withdrawing from the ICC, but failed to get support.
“The
AU summit decision did not meet our aspirations of withdrawing from
this neocolonialism tool, but it’s a positive step towards the right
decision,” Sudanese foreign affairs minister Ali Karti told journalists
in Khartoum on Saturday upon the arrival of the Sudanese delegation that
participated in Addis Ababa summit.
“The
summit has delegated to demand the ICC to freeze the arrest warrant
against President Omar Bashir, but we have nothing to do with this
appeal to the ICC by the African leaders, because our declared stance is
not to cooperate with the ICC and not to deal with it,” the minister
said.
“The absence of the signatories’ countries from the meetings has weakened the movements towards the withdrawal,” he added.
ICC faces accusations from African leaders of targeting only Africans.
The
court currently has two high profile cases against Sudan’s President
Omar al-Bashir and Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, including his
deputy William Ruto.
The AU has previously called on
its members not to cooperate with the ICC, and has asked the UN Security
Council to suspend the Kenyan and Sudanese cases.
The AU has also asked the court to allow Libya to try its own citizens within its territory.