\n A South African court on Sunday issued a temporary ban on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir leaving the country after the International Criminal Court called for him to be arrested at a summit in Johannesburg.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bashir, who is wanted over alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the Darfur conflict, mostly travels to countries that have not joined the ICC, but South Africa is a signatory of the court's statutes.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Pretoria High Court said in a statement it was \"compelling respondents to prevent President Omar Al-Bashir from the leaving the country until an order is made in this Court.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The hearing is set to take place later Sunday, the opening day of African Union summit.\n<\/p>\n
\n The ruling came after the Southern African Litigation Centre, a legal rights group, launched an urgent court application to force the authorities to arrest Bashir.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"South Africa has an obligation to arrest him,\" Johannesburg-based rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Failure to do so puts them in the same bracket as other African regimes who have no respect for human rights. It's actually a test for South Africa.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n A South African government official at the summit confirmed media reports that Bashir was at the meeting, but declined to give further details.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"There's no point denying it now,\" said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.\n<\/p>\n
\n The summit is chaired by Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who has urged African leaders to pull out of the ICC, which critics accuse of targeting Africa.\n<\/p>\n
\n The ICC said in a statement from its headquarters in The Hague that it \"calls on South Africa... to spare no effort in ensuring the execution of the arrest warrants\" against Bashir.\n<\/p>\n
\n It said South Africa diplomats had been pressed last month to arrest Bashir if he attended the summit, but that they replied they faced \"competing obligations\" over the issue.\n<\/p>\n
\n Darfur erupted into conflict in 2003 when insurgents mounted a campaign against Bashir's government, complaining their region was politically and economically marginalised.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Grave crimes' -\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict and fighting has forced some 2.5 million people to flee their homes, the United Nations says.\n<\/p>\n
\n Khartoum, however, disputes the figures, estimating the death toll at no more than 10,000.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Allowing President al-Bashir into South Africa without arresting him would be a major stain on South Africa's reputation for promoting justice for grave crimes,\" said Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"South Africa's legal obligations as an ICC member mean cooperating in al-Bashir's arrest, not in his travel plans.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The two days of discussions among the 54 member states were set to focus on the political unrest in Burundi and the migration crisis across the continent.\n<\/p>\n
\n Burundi has been plunged into instability by President Pierre Nkurunziza's push to run for a third five-year term.\n<\/p>\n
\n Violent protests have left some 40 people dead and 100,000 people have fled the country, raising peace and security concerns in the region.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mugabe and South African President Jacob Zuma are among those scheduled to speak on Sunday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Also attending is Nigeria's newly-appointed President Muhammadu Buhari, whose country is battling the onslaught of Islamist group Boko Haram.\n<\/p>\n
\n The leaders of two of Africa's other major economies, Egypt and Angola, are absent.\n<\/p>\n
\n The summit comes two months after a wave of xenophobic violence swept parts of Johannesburg and Durban as African immigrants were hunted down and attacked by gangs.\n<\/p>\n
\n At least seven people died in the unrest, which badly strained relations between South Africa and many countries in the region that complained at their citizens being attacked.\n<\/p>\n
\n The subject of xenophobia was due to be tackled in a closed session on Sunday before the opening ceremony.\n<\/p>\n
\n The session was also set to discuss migration as nearly 1,800 African and Middle Eastern migrants have died this year trying to cross the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A South African court on Sunday issued a temporary ban on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir leaving the country after the International Criminal Court called for him to be arrested at a summit in Johannesburg. Bashir, who is wanted over alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the Darfur conflict, mostly travels to countries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n