African Union wants Mbeki to head Darfur panel
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – The African Union has asked former South African leader Thabo Mbeki to head a panel on how to reconcile the need for accountability in Darfur with opposition to calls for Sudan’s president to be prosecuted.
Jean Ping, the chairman of the AU Commission, made the announcement on Thursday at a meeting of the continent’s foreign ministers ahead of a February 1-3 AU summit in Ethiopia.
“I have written to President Mbeki to ask him to chair a high level panel to submit recommendations on how best to reconcile the fight against impunity (in Darfur) while also dealing with reconciliation and forgiveness,” Ping said.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has accused Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of orchestrating genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
The court’s judges in The Hague are expected to rule within weeks on whether to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir.
International experts say 200,000 people have died and more than 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in the remote western region since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government in 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.
Fighting has escalated there ahead of the expected decision by the ICC judges. Bashir and his top political allies have repeatedly said they will not deal with the global court, which they dismiss as part of a Western conspiracy.
Ping gave no other details about his plan for Mbeki.
Meanwhile, the United Nations and African Union mission in Darfur (UNAMID) is aiming to deploy 80 percent of its joint peacekeeping force there by March and the rest by June.
UNAMID took over from a smaller AU mission last year — but is well short of its promised strength of 26,000 troops.
Tanzania’s Bernard Membe, who heads the Executive Council of AU foreign ministers, said the success of the mission depended on getting maximum cooperation from Bashir’s government.
The AU has called for any indictment to be suspended.
“Most of us are members of the ICC, and much as most of us don’t condone atrocities, the solution that we are seeking in Darfur must seek the cooperation of the government,” he said.
“The cooperation of the government cannot come if we’ll be deploying our troops at the same time as President Bashir is indicted. It will bring a contradiction and the peace process will be brought to a halt.”
Yemeni Fisherman Killed In Sudan Yemeni Fisherman Killed In Sudan
Written By: Fuad Rajeh (YEMEN POST STAFF)
Article Date: January 19, 2009
Sources at the coastguard in the Red Sea said that a Yemeni fisherman was killed as two shells hit his boat which entered Sudan’s territorial waters.
Two shells directly struck the boat boarding four fishermen as it entered the Sudanese waters killing one of the fishermen, Hussein Ibrahim and injuring another, the sources said two of the four fishermen managed to escape unharmed.
The coastguards became aware of the incident through the three survivors.
Last week, two Yemeni fishermen were injured as their boats were shot by international forces patrolling the Indian Ocean.
Earlier last week, a French helicopter set fire at a Yemeni boat suspecting it was for pirates.
Two days later, a Russian warplane fired on a Yemeni boat as it was out of the country’s territorial waters.
The Russian helicopter also suspected the boat was for pirates as pirates have recently been active in the area.