Sudan denies requesting deferral of ICC warrant for Bashir

February 16, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — A Sudanese official today denied any links to a joint Arab League-African Union (AU) delegation that met with UN Security Council (UNSC) members last week to discuss deferring any charges that may be brought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Sudanese President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

Ali Karti the Sudanese state minister for foreign affairs told the pro-government Al-Rayaam that his government did not “authorize” the delegation and were not consulted.

Karti reiterated Khartoum’s position of refusing to recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC over Darfur.

The ICC judges are expected to release a decision this month in which they agree to issue an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir on an unspecified number of counts.

Last July the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo requested that the judges issue an arrest warrant for Bashir on three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder.

Ocampo accused Al-Bashir of masterminding a campaign to get rid of the African tribes in Darfur; Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

Karti accused some UNSC members of pushing for an arrest warrant so that it can be used as a “pressure tool”.

Last week the Sudanese ambassador at the UN Abdel-Mahmood Abdel-Haleem said that he passed on his government’s stance on the ICC to his American counterpart Susan Rice.

“For us this so-called indictment doesn’t exist” he said. “No one will give it a damn in the country. If it has any merit, it has united the whole Sudanese people around our president”.

Sudan has lobbied Arab states over the last few months for support in the ICC confrontation including the Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

However the Sudanese government has been privately advised by its Arab peers to deal legally with ICC.

There are two outstanding ICC arrest warrants for Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs, and militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdel-Rahman, also know as Ali Kushayb.

The Sudanese president vowed not to hand over any citizen over to the Hague.

(ST)