Government has rejected demands by the International Criminal Court and a group of civil society organizations, to arrest President Omar Hassan El Bashir. Bashir is on a state visit to Uganda.
He is indicted by the ICC for war crimes in Darfur.
A foreign affairs ministry official who spoke to us on condition of anonymity said they had received the request, but the official policy on the ICC is known.
“We cannot arrest Bashir, because our government policy is that the ICC needs to be reorganized with the interest of the African people taken into account. Even if Bashir committed crimes, how about the governments of other countries, which invade other countries of the world. We have seen more crimes committed in Iraq, in Syria, in Libya and Afghanistan than we see in Africa,” the official said.
Recently President Yoweri Museveni and President John Pombe Magufuli (of Tanzania) spoke against the ICC interest in open cases in Burundi.
The ICC lacks goodwill among the governing class in Africa. Since the cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto were initiated, several African countries have sought to undermine the credibility of the court.
