No country has arrested and handed over the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court to face charges for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his crimes in Darfur. Will justice be found and done for the Darfur victims? This is one question that remains a mystery as Bashir remains on the run evading justice. However, will India a non state party to the Rome Statute heed the ICC’s request to arrest and hand him to court if he accepts its initiation to attend the third edition India-Africa summit Forum? The United Nations Security Council resolution 1593 urges all states, to cooperate fully with the ICC. Decides that the Government of Sudan and all other parties to the conflict in Darfur, shall cooperate fully with and provide any necessary assistance to the Court and the Prosecutor pursuant to this resolution and, while recognizing that States not party to the Rome Statute have no obligation under the Statute, urges all States and concerned regional and other international organizations to cooperate fully Read: ICC calls for arrest of Bashir at summit meeting in India The summit is scheduled to take place from October 26 to 29. Minister of State Gen. V. K. Singh and Ambassador Mr Amrit Lugun extended the invite to Bashir in Khartoum, 19, September 2015 and October 9, 2015 respectively. The first summit was held in 2008 in India, while the second was held in 2011 in Addis Ababa. The summit will focus on India’s engagement with Africa in terms of cooperation, trade, capacity building among others. President Al-Bashir has been indicted by the ICC for war crimes and genocide during the Darfur conflict of 2003 in which 300,000 people were killed. Among the charges against Mr Bashir is the funding of the pro-Arab Islamist militia, Janjaweed, accused of carrying out systematic ethnic cleansing of black non-Arab African groups who took up arms against the Bashir government. In June 2015, the South African government defied a court order issued to bar Bashir from leaving the country and then ordered his arrest, when he landed in Johannesburg to attend an African Union summit. Read:
- South Africa asks ICC for more time to explain why it did not arrest Bashir
- South Africa faces criminal charges for aiding Bashir escape
However, the government allowed President Bashir to return to Khartoum. South Africa has threatened to quit the ICC.
