Al Bashir visits Zimbabwe Defying ICC Warrant

By: Katie Pfefferle

Saturday, June 6, Omar Al Bashir was welcomed to Zimbabwe and visited with the Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe. Al Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The ICC has issued a warrant for his arrest. Bashir has been charged with the genocide of the ethnic African rebels in Darfur which has left approximately 300,000 dead. Bashir is visiting Zimbabwe as a part of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa summit. He was invited by the economic group's departing chair, Kenya. The economic summit is meant to address the deteriorating situation of Zimbabwe.

Bashir’s visit is a yet another defiant act against the warrant which he has denounced as an attempt by Western powers to recolonize Sudan. Bashir has made dozens of visits to African and Arab nations since the warrant was issued. Moreover, Zimbabwe is not one of the 108 nations that ratified the statute creating the ICC. Ratifying nations would be required to arrest Al Bashir. In fact, the warrant has been rejected by many African states and by the Arab League.

In the meantime Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is visiting Western nations in an attempt to end Western isolation of Zimbabwe and raise aid for his distraught country. Tsvangirai has claimed he was unaware of Bashir’s visit. Yet the visit may alienate Western states and decrease their willingness to help.

The visit also illustrates a cultural divide over the ICC. Nearly all Middle Eastern states and many African states don’t recognize the authority of the ICC. As demonstrated by this visit, the lack of recognition by some states of the ICC allows international criminals such as Bashir to go unpunished. These non-member states see the ICC as a western dominated organization. The international community needs to somehow illustrate that some crimes are universal and not subject to the criticisms of cultural relativism.