If you’ve been following the story of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the ‘has he / hasn’t he left the country’ saga throughout the day, you can now officially get angry. That’s right, al-Bashir jetted off today in what is just another stain on the legal system in this country and the world is judging us – hard.
Let’s start from yesterday and map out just how poorly we have done then, shall we? Sunday the Northern Gauteng High Court ordered that government ensure that President Bashir not be allowed to depart our shores. The government undertook to inform all ports of entry and exit of the order, with the Waterkloof military base duly informed of the order.
Today a full bench of the same Court ordered that Bashir be detained and handed over to the ICC (International Criminal Court) to stand trial. Here’s where it gets really bad – just moments later the Court is informed that Bashir has departed SA, his plane seen jetting off from the Waterkloof military base.
Why is this such an issue? Here’s TimesLive:
“Having heard council and having read the documents, it is declared by the court, that the government’s failure to arrest Bashir is inconsistent with the Constitution,” Judge President Dunstan Mlambo said.
It was at about this point that it was confirmed that Bashir had left the country…
“It is of concern to this court that it issues orders, and things just happen,”…Mlambo said.
It isn’t an overstatement to say that South Africa has basically lifted its hind leg and pissed on the rule book, something that has not gone unnoticed by those abroad. Here’s Kenneth Roth, director of Human Rights Watch, venting on Twitter:
(The) world stood (with) South Africa to fight apartheid but it stands for impunity for mass murder of Africans…
South Africa has shamefully flouted ICC and domestic court to free man wanted for mass murder of Africans.
If you’re wondering what he is on about, do some homework into the gross human rights violations perpetuated in the Sudanese region by this man, paying close attention to the war in Darfur. If it’s numbers you want we’ll start with the 300 000 people killed and 2,5 million displaced from their homes, most of which stems from a violent coup that saw al-Bashir seize power in 1989 and use whatever means necessary to cling onto it.
Whilst the above is an oversimplification of a complicated situation we should all be very miffed by what went on within our borders today – we’ve been made to look like fools and this time the eyes of the world were pointed well and truly at us.
Not good enough, not even by a long shot.
[source:timeslive]
