Sadly, on 3rd July 2009 in Sirte Libya, the majority African States including those that have ratified the Rome Statute quickly forgot the bold steps they had taken to fight impunity by allowing themselves to be intimidated into non cooperation with the ICC in the arrest and surrender of the Omar El Bashir President of the Sudan.
The HUMAN RIGHTS NETWORK UGANDA and THE UGANDA COALITION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT are disappointed with the resolution passed by the AU heads of State which shatters the aspirations and hopes of the Darfur people and the millions of Africans who have suffered decades of violence through abuse of power with impunity.
HURINET-U and UCICC hail the Government of Botswana for standing firm and bold in the resolve to combat impunity by cooperating with the ICC.
HURINET-U and the UCICC would like to remind the Government of Uganda that she has obligations as;
1) A member of the Security Council (which Security Council passed a resolution referring the situation in Darfur, Sudan to the ICC);
2) A State party to the Rome Statute (Is presently seeking cooperation from other States to apprehend the indicted LRA Commanders);
3) A State Party that has the mandate from 108 other States to host the 2010 ICC Review Conference.
4) A State party that re-affirmed the Integrity of the Rome Statute at the AU Addis Ababa Meeting of the 30 African members of the Court between the 8th -9th June 2009
In this respect therefore, we invite and call upon the Government of Uganda as host of next year’ Review Conference on the International Criminal Court and as a member of the Security Council to unequivocally disassociate herself with the Resolution not to cooperate with ICC in the arrest and surrender of Omar Al Bashir.
We further invite the Government of Uganda to proceed and arrest Mr. Omar Al Bashir upon citing him on the Ugandan territory.
We advise the leadership of the Government of Uganda that as a situation country under investigation by the ICC, the victims of crimes perpetrated in northern Uganda, the Lord’s resistance Army (LRA), the Religious and local leaders, Civil society generally are all watching the developments in the AU resolution and if she does not speak out against the AU resolution in the same spirit as the Government of Botswana, the fight against impunity in Uganda will have been greatly undermined and there will be no moral authority to speak against any perpetrators of serious crimes of concern to the International Community.
Dated at Kampala this 18th day of July 2009
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MOHAMMED NDIFUNA, National Coordinator of HURINET-U
JOSEPH A. MANOBA, National Coordinator of UCICC
