Djibouti refuses to arrest Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT 9 May 2011 AI Index: AFR 23/003/2011 Djibouti refuses to arrest Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir Amnesty International deeply regrets that the Djiboutian authorities failed to arrest Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir during his visit to the country to attend the inauguration ceremony of Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh to a third term in office. [...] Amnesty International recalls that the President of Sudan is the subject of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. [...] Djibouti has hereby followed the example of Kenya and Chad in 2010 of violating its obligations under international law by providing safe haven to President Al-Bashir during his visit to the country. [...] As Djibouti has been a state party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court since 2003, the national authorities are obliged to cooperate with the Court, including arresting persons it has charged. [...] It is also troubling that senior government members from both France and the United States of America reportedly attended the inauguration alongside President Al-Bashir, as the Security Council, in its referral of the situation in Sudan to the International Criminal Court in 2005, explicitly urged all states to cooperate fully with the Court.