UN mission in Sudan dismisses allegation on cooperation with ICC
March 1, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The spokesperson for the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) today described a media report by a pro-government daily as a “complete fabrication” that wrongly claimed the peacekeeping operation had cooperated with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
These allegation and counter-allegation precede the ICC decision on an arrest warrant for President Omer Al-Bashir to be announced this Wednesday, a move that has prompted concerns about the safety of UNMIS personnel and other Westerners in Sudan. Retaliatory attacks against foreigners by “outlaws” are possible, the Sudanese spy chief, Salah Gosh, threatened in January.
Appearing today in the newspaper Al-Raed was a story headlined “Qazi admits UNMIS provided information to the ICC about Sudan,” a reference to Special Representative Ashraf Qazi, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan and head of UNMIS.
“Qazi admitted that his mission (UNMIS) provided the ICC with information about the Sudan saying there is an agreement between the UN and the ICC providing that all the UN agencies should cooperate with the court and provide it with the necessary info,” stated Al-Raed.
Other local papers as well have regularly published reports contemplating the fate of UNMIS after the indictment. “UNMIS has issued a number of previous statements about media misrepresentation of remarks by [Qazi] on the ICC issue,” noted UNMIS.
FLAGRANT EXAMPLE OF DISINFORMATION
The UN mission called the Al-Raed report “a flagrant example of misreporting which, in the mission’s view, verges on disinformation.” It called on Al-Raed to correct the report.
“The report is a complete fabrication. The Al-Raed report is a distortion of a recently published Egyptian magazine article entitled ‘I did not provide the ICC with reports on Al-Bashir –SRSG’. UNMIS questions Al-Raed’s motive in misrepresenting the SRSG on so sensitive an issue at this particular time,” said UNMIS.
The mission added that it “has repeatedly urged media to uphold standard journalistic practices and to check with the UNMIS Spokesperson’s office when reporting on UNMIS-related matters.”
Al Raed is a new pro-National Congress Party daily newspaper launched by the end of last year.
(ST)