African Union urges to delay indictment of Sudan President

January 30, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) — The African Union has urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) today to suspend the indictment of Sudanese president on Darfur crimes, saying it could put at risk any effort to achieve peace in the war torn region of western Sudan.

The chairman of the African Union Commission for Peace and Security Ramtane Lamamra told reporters on Friday that African foreign ministers in meeting held here unanimously supported the delay of Al-Bashir’s indictment for one year. The AU official said the purpose of this measure is to encourage the achievement of peace in Darfur.

“There is a solidarity shown toward the president of Sudan, unanimously,” Lamamra said.

African and Arab official say the ICC move would encourage the rebel groups to reject to take part in the peace process because they think that their participation could cancel ICC efforts to achieve justice in Darfur where the repression exercised by the Sudanese government led to the death of 300000 people.

The ICC prosecutor charged the President Omer Al-Bashir on July 14, 2008 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. He requested the judges to issue an arrest warrant for him. There are high expectations that the pretrial court will take a decision in the coming weeks.

on Thursday, Jean Ping, the chairman of the AU Commission said he demanded the former president of South Africa Thabo Mbeki to head a committee to reconcile the need for justice in Darfur with the ongoing efforts to achieve peace and reconciliation.

“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 AU chief didn’t give further details about the mission of the panel or its members.

Sudan rejects the ICC jurisdiction saying it has not ratified the Rome Statute. But the UN Security Council (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)