With an eye on the start of the African Union (AU) summit in Maputo on Thursday, Amnesty International said on Wednesday African governments should cooperate fully with the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
”African governments meeting in Maputo should state publicly their commitment to cooperate with the Special Court; failure to do so will undermine the integrity of the AU,” the civil rights group said.
The Special Court has indicted Liberian President Charles Taylor for ”bearing the greatest responsibility” for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law in Sierra Leone.
Amnesty International said Taylor was in Ghana, an AU member state, when the indictment was made public, but the Ghanaian authorities failed to arrest him and surrender him to the special court, or pursue the case under Ghana’s own legal system.
This was required under international law.
The Amnesty International media release issued on Wednesday pointed out that ”in the last few days” the Nigerian government reportedly offered asylum to Taylor in Nigeria. This implied the Nigerian authorities would not arrest him either.
The organisation had written to Ghana’s President John Kufuor and Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo expressing its dismay at their failure to cooperate with the Special Court, or fulfil their obligations under international law.
”Both countries, as a party to the Geneva Conventions, are under an obligation to bring to justice in their own courts those who have committed or ordered grave breaches of the conventions, to extradite them to another country willing and able to do so or transfer them to an international criminal court,” Amnesty International said.
”No one, regardless of their status — including a head of state — has immunity for the most serious crimes under international law.”
Amnesty International said the AU’s Constitutive Act committed all member states to cooperate to promote and ensure respect for human rights, democracy, good governance and the rule of law.
It said it was concerned that some AU members seemed to be reluctant to fulfil their legal obligations under the Act, and other international humanitarian and human rights treaties to which many AU member states were parties.
The Act would remain ”rhetoric” without action.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the UN Security Council had repeatedly expressed their support for the Special Court for Sierra Leone and called for full cooperation with the court.
”Amnesty International believes that cooperation by all member states of the AU with the Special Court, including by arresting any person indicted by the Special Court who enters their territory, will not only fulfil the will of the international community that impunity for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other grave crimes comes to an end, but will also deter further human rights abuses in Africa.” – Sapa