By Mogomotsi Magome, JOHANNESBURG
South Africa
South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said Tuesday that arresting Russian President Vladimir Putin should he show up at an economic summit next month in Johannesburg would amount to a “declaration of war” by his country.
The August summit is bringing
together Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — a bloc of developing
economies known as BRICS. Officials have said that Putin wants to attend the gathering but have been
trying to persuade him to stay away to avoid the legal and diplomatic fallout
over his international arrest warrant.
Putin is the subject of a
warrant of arrest by the International Criminal Court related to alleged war
crimes during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As a signatory to the Rome Statute
that established the ICC, South Africa would be obligated to arrest Putin if he
visits the African nation.
South Africa’s biggest political
opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, has tried to compel President Cyril
Ramaphosa’s government to pledge to arrest Putin in an action before the High
Court in Pretoria.
But in a strongly worded
affidavit to the court, made public on Tuesday, Ramaphosa reiterated his past
statement that such an action against Putin could also derail any efforts to
end the war in Ukraine.
“I must highlight, for the sake of transparency, that South Africa has obvious problems with executing a request to arrest and surrender President Putin,” he said. “Russia has made it clear that arresting its sitting president would be a declaration of war.”
“It would be inconsistent with
our Constitution to risk engaging in war with Russia,” Ramaphosa added.
The dilemma on the ICC warrant
for Putin follows diplomatic tensions with the West over South Africa’s stance
on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. South Africa has consistently abstained from
voting at the United Nations to condemn Russia’s aggression, calling instead
for dialogue to end the war.
South Africa is also part of
efforts by a group of at least six African nations who recently embarked on a
peace mission to Kyiv and Moscow to meet with both Putin and Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“An arrest of President Putin
would introduce a new complication that would foreclose any peaceful solution”
to the conflict, Ramaphosa said in the affidavit, submitted last month.
Ramaphosa had insisted that
the affidavit remain confidential but the court ruled on Tuesday it can be made
public.
The South African leader had
earlier said that an announcement about Putin’s possible participation at the
Aug. 22-24 would be made soon.
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