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| On eve of visit, group in Senegal protests "criminal" Bush
DAKAR, July 7 (AFP) - Only hours before the arrival in Senegal of President George W. Bush, a group of some 40 intellectuals and political activists mounted a street protest denouncing the US leader, notably for his government's policies on the newly-created International Criminal Court. The protesters marched through the streets of the capital Dakar on Monday chanting "Bush is a criminal -- send Blair to the International Criminal Court," and "Wade is implicated," in reference to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade. BizVantage – When knowing counts: Business, Investing, Technology. "We are protesting against the arrival of Bush because of his failure to observe international law, his policy of hegemony and the blackmail he is exerting over the International Criminal Court," said Malick Ndiaye, an academic who organized the protest on behalf of the Senegalese Intellectuals' Action Committee (SIIC). The United States is campaigning to have its nationals made exempt from prosecution by the UN's International Criminal Court (ICC), set up to try war crimes and genocide anywhere in the world, and is threatening countries which refuse to provide such an exemption with a cut-off of aid. Bush was due in Dakar early on Tuesday at the start of an African tour that will later take him on to South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria. The demonstrators' reference to the British prime minister was over Blair's support for the US in its recent invasion and occupation of Iraq. omj/mc/ds Africa-US-Bush-Senegal-ICC-protest
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