Arab League chief visits Sudan for talks on ICC row

August 11, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – The Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa will visit Khartoum soon to follow up on a plan aimed at defusing tension between Sudan and the International Criminal Court (ICC) last year.

Sudan official news agency (SUNA) quoted Moussa as saying that “it is important to remove obstacles facing resolution to crisis in Sudan”.

Moussa said that situation in Sudan requires “exercising restraint and moving collectively towards the future”.

The ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced in mid-July that he requested an arrest warrant against Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.

Following that Sudan has been looking into ways that would allow it to avoid confrontation with the international community over the ICC.

The Arab League Secretary General carried a number of proposals to Al-Bashir last month which included conducting internal trials for Darfur war crimes suspects.

Another option brought up by Moussa was for Sudan to accept an African court to look into Darfur right abuses under ICC supervision.

But the Sudanese justice minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat said his country does not accept “a regional court in Sudan or any foreign trials”.

However last week Sabdarat appointed Nimr Ibrahim Mohamed as the Darfur special prosecutor to look into rights abuses committed in war ravaged region of Darfur since 2003.

Sudan news agency (SUNA) said that the special prosecutor will report monthly on the progress of his work.

The newly appointed prosecutor also hinted that he would review a case that was brought in local courts last year against militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdel-Rahman, also know as Ali Kushayb.

However Mohamed was noncommittal on whether Kushayb who is also wanted by the ICC will actually stand trial after being previously cleared of all accusations by Sudanese authorities.

Sudan’s appointment of a special prosecutor was seen as concession that would provide leverage to the Arab League and African Union (AU) when requesting a resolution from the UN Security Council (UNSC) deferring Al-Bashir’s indictment under Article 16 of the ICC Statute.

The Sudanese government is also contemplating a national conference to look into ways to end the crisis in Darfur with the participation of all political parties.

But some political figures cautioned that establishing special courts at this time may be belated.

Sudan’s former prime minister and leader of the Umma Party Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi told the Qatar based Al-Jazeera Arabic TV that the move is “unfortunate” and “sends wrong signals to the international community”.

Also the Secretary General of Sudan’s communist party Ibrahim Nugud speaking to Al-Jazeera said that “any decision [on special courts] made that doesn’t convince rebel groups is worthless”.

The ICC Statute prevents investigation into crimes that were looked into by local judiciary under the concept of “complementarity”.

But Khartoum must prosecute all suspects wanted by the ICC for the same accusations ICC in order for the latter to lose jurisdiction over their cases.

Sudan’s penal code does not include punishment for genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. Moreover Sudanese military officials enjoy immunity from prosecution for acts committed during their course of duty.

The Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency quoted the Sudanese Media Centre (SMC), which is close to the intelligence services, as saying that the justice ministry is making arrangements to draft new legislation that would incorporate crimes listed in international law.

However it is not clear how long the process would take.

Ocampo told Sudan Tribune in an interview this week that Khartoum established special courts before but “end up investigating no one”.

Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statute, but the UNSC triggered the provisions under the Statute that enables it to refer situations in non-State parties to the world court if it deems that it is a threat to international peace and security.

(ST)