Omar Al-Bashir Case Suggests South African Foreign Policy Is Going Rogue

South Africa’s government allowed the Sudanese president accused of genocide and other war crimes to leave the country – thus weakening the position of the International Criminal Court. “The act of defiance by the president, Jacob Zuma … places him at the head of a growing band of African leaders who argue that the ICC, which issued arrest warrants for Bashir in 2009, is biased against Africa and has become an oppressive tool of western powers,” reports Simon Tisdall for the Guardian. “The fact that [Bashir] attended a prestigious African Union summit in a country that is a state party to the ICC, was granted de facto immunity from prosecution… is one in the eye for his tormentors, principally the Americans, who continue to sanction his regime.” Africans accuse the US of double standards, relying on the ICC for crimes in developing nation yet refusing to support the court as signatory member. The ICC struggles to address crimes in Kenya, Darfur, Ukraine, Iraq and elsewhere as developing nations insist that members, wealthy or poor, be “subject to the same level of scrutiny.” – YaleGlobal