Botswana brave about al-Bashir

Last week, the African Union conducted an almost unparalleled act of collective blindness by issuing a resolution refusing to cooperate with the International Criminal Court's warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity committed against the population in Sudan's Darfur region.

Today, the Government of Botswana has condemned the resolution.

"The chair did not permit much debate on this matter and therefore we did not get an opportunity to put our opinion across," Botswana's vice president, Mompati Merafhe, said in a speech posted on the presidency website on Tuesday.

"It is our view that Africa should not try to undermine the work of the ICC simply because one head of state called Bashir has been indicted by the Court."

Speaking of indictments, the prosecutors at the ICC are in the process of appealing for a reinstatement of the three other charges against al-Bashir: charges of Genocide

In his appeal lodged on Monday, it said the prosecution had "submitted detailed evidence on the mobilisation and use of the entire Sudanese state apparatus for the purpose of destroying a substantial part of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups in the entire region of Darfur during more than six years".