24
Jun
The Narendra Modi government’s list of invitees for the India-Africa Summit, to be held in Delhi in October, includes Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s President and alleged perpetrator of war crimes. Bashir was recently under the International Criminal Court (ICC) scanner while attending the African Union Summit in South Africa, but India will have no hesitation in inviting the leader since it is not a member of ICC, officials said.
Bashir is being invited along with all other 53 leaders of the continent for the mega event on October 29 which the Modi government is hosting as biggest summit in Delhi since 1983 Commonwealth Summit.
India will shortly send an invitation to Bashir to attend the third edition of the India-Africa Summit, officials said.
An international warrant was issued against Bashir by ICC while he was attending the African Union Summit in Africa. He is wanted by the court for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity over the conflict in Darfur, but he managed to fly out of Pretoria last Monday despite a court order blocking his departure.
The ICC had called on South Africa, which is a signatory to the court, to detain Bashir while he was in the country for the summit, but media reports from the country alleged that the Jacob Zuma government helped Bashir in flying out.
While South Africa is a member of ICC, India has consistently opposed the Hague-based court, officials said. India abstained from voting when the statute for ICC was adopted in 1998, saying it objected to the broad definition adopted of crimes against humanity; the rights given to the UN Security Council to refer and delay investigations and bind non-states parties; and the use of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction not being explicitly criminalised. India has objected to the very creation of ICC that has been ratified so far by 123 countries. USA, Russia and China are also not members of ICC.
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/government-invites-sudans-president-omar-al-bashir-for-the-india-africa-summit/articleshow/47777633.cms