Press Release: Don’t Host The International Fugitive , Arrest Bashir in Juba or meet him elsewhere
Subject: Press statement on Bashir’s planned visit to Juba
Dear all – Please find below and attached a press statement from a
coalition of South Sudanese civil society organizations, including the
Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), the South
Sudan Human Rights Society for Advocacy (SSHURSA), and the South Sudan
Law Society (SSLS), concerning Omer al-Bashir’s planned visit to Juba.
For questions or comments, please contact David K. Deng at +211 955
518 206 or kwoldit@gmail.com.
Best,
David
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DON’T HOST THE INTERNATIONAL FUGITIVE
Arrest Bashir in Juba or meet him elsewhere
17 March 2012
South Sudan should not tarnish its reputation as the world’s newest
nation by hosting the international fugitive, Omer al-Bashir, a
coalition of South Sudanese civil society organizations said today.
Bashir is scheduled to visit South Sudan in the coming weeks to try to
resolve a bitter dispute over oil, among other outstanding issues from
the 2005 peace agreement.
Earlier this week, South Sudan’s chief negotiator Pagan Amum told a
press briefing in Juba that the government has “problems to settle”
with Bashir, and that since they are not a member of the International
Criminal Court (ICC), they are under no obligation to arrest him.
“Although the government of South Sudan may not be legally obligated
to arrest Bashir, to host him in this manner sends the wrong signal to
both the international community and the survivors of his atrocities,”
said Dong Samuel Luak, secretary-general of the South Sudan Law
Society (SSLS).
Since independence on 9 July 2011, South Sudan has struggled to
establish itself as a nation committed to rule of law and
accountability in the face of endemic inter-communal violence, a
security sector that commits human rights abuses with impunity, and
massive challenges of post-conflict reconstruction. In his
independence day speech, president Salva Kiir declared his
government’s intent to ratify the core international human rights
treaties that proscribe the minimum standards by which states must
treat their citizens. Nine months after independence, the government
has not ratified any human rights treaties; nor has it laid out a
timeline for when it might do so.
South Sudanese civil society actors have voiced concerns about what
Bashir’s visit may signal given the government’s complacency about
committing itself to international human rights standards. “When
Bashir is greeted at Juba international airport with all the pomp and
circumstance of a visit by a head of state, he will have won an
important victory before he even steps off the plane,” said Edmund
Yakani, program coordinator of the Community Empowerment for Progress
Organization (CEPO). “South Sudan will join a short list of nations
that have tacitly supported Bashir’s crimes by failing to treat him as
the indicted war criminal that he is.”
Adding to the symbolic importance of the event, the announcement of
Bashir’s visit coincided with an important milestone for international
justice. On 14 March, the ICC found Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese
warlord, guilty of serious war crimes. The first ever verdict from the
ICC was hailed as “an important step forward” by UN secretary-general,
Ban Ki-moon. Proponents of international justice maintain that the
Lubanga verdict and similar verdicts from other international
tribunals demonstrate that the international justice system can be
effective at holding perpetrators of the most heinous international
crimes accountable.
“Sooner or later Bashir will have to account for the war crimes,
crimes against humanity, and genocide for which he is indicted by the
ICC,” said Boutros Biel, executive director of the South Sudan Human
Rights Society for Advocacy (SSHURSA). “The government should
demonstrate that it takes international crimes seriously by refusing
to meet Bashir in Juba and immediately moving to ratify the Rome
Statute and the core human rights treaties.”
—
David K. Deng
Research Director
South Sudan Law Society
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