South Africa: Arrest warrant for President Putin hinders BRICS summit

The headquarters of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands. Photo: Reuters

Earlier on March 17, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova on charges of "illegally deporting" Ukrainian children from "occupied areas of the country".

The Russian government strongly denies these allegations, claiming that this is aimed at evacuating children from areas shelled by the Ukrainian army, mainly in the Russian-speaking Donbass region.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the ICC's move was "unacceptable." Meanwhile, Russian Parliament Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said Russia considers "any attack on the President of the Russian Federation an act of national aggression."

Russia has not yet ratified the 1998 Rome Statute that established the ICC, and similarly the United States, China and India do not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. Meanwhile, South Africa signed the Rome Statute in 2002 and is therefore obliged to execute ICC arrest warrants as a member.

South Africa will host the 2023 BRICS summit, where leaders of the world's largest emerging economies including Russia, Brazil, India, China, etc. will meet and discuss. In that context, RT quoted South African President's spokesman Vincent Magwenya on April 12 as saying that the ICC's arrest warrant for Mr. Putin has caused a major obstacle to the event.

In fact, the South African government is well aware of the dilemma it faces regarding the arrest warrant for the Russian president. Since the ICC decision was issued, the South African presidential spokesman declined to comment in March when asked whether the Pretoria government would comply with the warrant.

As for South African President Ramaphosa, on April 11, he said he would send an envoy to Washington to clarify his "non-aligned" stance on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

South Africa and Russia have been close partners since the Soviet era. Under current South African President Ramaphosa, the country has not condemned Russia’s ongoing military campaign in Ukraine and has not imposed sanctions on Moscow. Meanwhile, its military participated in joint exercises with Russian and Chinese forces in early 2023.

South Africa has its own problems with the ICC. In 2017, the International Criminal Court condemned the country for failing to arrest former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he visited South Africa in 2015 to attend a summit of African leaders.

Following the incident, South African officials applied to withdraw from the court. However, this decision was later reversed due to a Supreme Court ruling that determined such a move was unconstitutional.

Source mekongasean

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