African members of the International Criminal Court must clarify whether they will arrest Sudanese President Omar al Bashir for genocide and war crimes, the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) says.

Bashir is on the International Criminal Court's (ICC) most wanted list for orchestrating a campaign of rape, murder and torture in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region. Last month, ICC judges added three genocide counts to Bashir's charge-sheet, which is already listing seven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

African leaders were once the most passionate supporters of the permanent war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Africa is the continent with the most countries - 30 - belonging to the ICC. But ever since Bashir was indicted in 2009, African leaders are having second thoughts, concerned that the permanent war crimes tribunal is only targeting their continent.

The CICC - melding 2,500 civil society groups in 150 countries - on Wednesday rang the alarm on an African Union decision - approved on Tuesday July 27th - which condemns the warrant for Bashir and calls for its suspension.

“Al-Bashir is widely considered a fugitive from justice, especially in Africa. Rather than throw support behind crucial accountability processes in line with the Constitutive Act of the AU that commits member states to reject impunity, the Heads of State are playing a political game to show support for their colleague Bashir,” says Oby Nwankwo from the Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre, a CICC member. “African victims deserve more than this from our heads of state; indeed the African continent deserves more.”

The CICC also expressed its concern over the AU's decision to postpone the establishment of an ICC-AU Liaison Office. William Pace, CICC Convenor says such an office "would facilitate formal and structured dialogue between the court and the AU and could [...] address some of the Union's concerns about the court."

Bashir unlikely to risk arrest in Libya
Until now, only Botswana and South Africa have said they would arrest Bashir if he set foot on their territory. Stephen Lamony, CICC Africa Situations Adviser, calls "on more African states parties to the ICC to make clear their continued obligations to the Court.”

On Wednesday Bashir will fly to Libya for a two-day visit. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, a close ally to Bashir, has not signed the Rome Statute that established the ICC in July 2002 and is unlikely to arrest him. This will be Bashir's second trip abroad since the ICC widened Bashir's charge sheet to include genocide last month.

Chad, a full ICC member, hosted Bashir in July but did not arrest him, reflecting a rapprochement between the neighbours who had waged a proxy war in Darfur and eastern Chad. 

In 2000 Sudan itself signed the Rome Statute that established the ICC but had not ratified it by 2005 when the UN Security Council referred Darfur to the court's prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo. Bashir rejects the ICC charges and also refuses to hand over two other suspects - former minister of humanitarian affairs in Darfur, Ahmad Haroun and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb.