IGAD summit moved from Kenya as ICC demands arrest of Sudan’s Bashir

October 26, 2010 (WASHINGTON) – The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) special summit on Sudan has been moved from Nairobi to Addis Ababa in a bid to avert a diplomatic row over the attendance of Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

‘The Standard’ and “Daily Nation’ Kenya-based newspapers quoted sources as saying that the summit organizers transferred the meeting to Ethiopia to shield Bashir who faces an arrest warrant against him from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur.

Last August, Kenya came under intense criticism from Western countries and suffered rifts within its coalition government when it received Al-Bashir at the promulgation of the country’s new constitution despite being an ICC state member with obligation to arrest him. It was Bashir’s second visit to a state party after Chad since the warrants.

Kenya’s refusal to arrest Bashir, who also is charged with genocide, raised doubts about the country’s willingness to hand over suspects expected to soon be charged by the ICC for postelection violence that left more than 1,000 Kenyans dead in 2007-08.

On Monday, the court’s judges have asked Kenya “to take any necessary measure to ensure” Bashir is arrested and turned over for trial or explain “any problem which would impede or prevent” his arrest.

Should the Kenyan government not send a reply to the ICC by October 29th, “we would assume that there are no problems that would prevent them from arresting Mr. Al Bashir,” an ICC spokesman told Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW).

The request issued Monday came after prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo notified judges that al-Bashir may visit Kenya on Saturday for the IGAD summit. The last time such a meeting was held, in March, Sudan’s Vice-President Ali Osman Taha attended.

Last week, 23 pressure groups sent a letter to the Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki to protest Al-Bashir’s invite, saying that his visit would be “an insult” to the victims of Darfur conflict and make “a mockery” of Kenya’s commitment to the ICC.

“A return visit by Al-Bashir would make a mockery of Kenya’s declared commitment to the International Criminal Court, and would be an insult to victims of atrocities in Darfur and globally” said Hassan Shire Sheikh of the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Projects.

The letter stated that Kenya’s domestic law, the International Crimes Act and the Kenyan Constitution all oblige the Kenyan government to adhere to its commitment to the ICC.

“For all of these reasons” says the letter “we urge the Kenyan government to clearly affirm its commitment to cooperate with the ICC, as states such as South Africa and Botswana have done, and clarify that President al-Bashir will be arrested should he enter Kenya.”

The letter said that arresting Al-Bashir would be “an important way to show respect for victims in Darfur, along with Kenya’s commitment to accountability for crimes committed during electoral violence in Kenya.

On October 17, the Legal Officer for the Kenya chapter of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Stella Ndirangu, told Sudan Tribune that her group would seek court action to force the government to apprehend Al-Bashir should he attends the IGAD summit.

(ST)