CORRECTION: African Union kicks off Darfur panel with vague mandate

(Correct that Mr Salah Abdallah Gosh the head of Sudanese security and intelligence services did not attend the meeting)

March 18, 2009 (ADDIS ABABA) — The African Union (AU) today inaugurated a high level panel to look into accountability issues relating to the six year conflict in the Darfur western region of Sudan.

The panel headed by former South African president Thabo Mbeki met in the Ethiopian capital with the presence of several notable African figures including Burundi’s former leader Pierre Buyoya and Nigeria’s General Abu-Salam Abu-Bakr.

The opening ceremony was attended by diverse members of the diplomatic community in Addis Ababa including the Sudanese ambassador. The sessions of the meeting were attended only by the panel members, the experts, resource persons, and UNAMID and JMST staff.

The panel’s inauguration comes two weeks after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir on seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which include murder, rape and torture.

The AU criticized the warrant and urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to invoke Article 16 of the ICC Statute that allows the council to suspend Bashir’s indictment for a period of twelve-months that can be renewed indefinitely.

However Western members of the council rejected any move to halt ICC proceedings despite visits last month by Arab and AU delegations.

The AU acting chairperson Elizabeth Tankeu accused the international community and the UNSC of lacking appropriate understanding on issues concerning Darfur and demonstrated ignorance about the ongoing peace process.

“The international community should have a better understanding the situation on the ground, which may help in seeking appropriate solutions” she said.

Mbeki told the gathering, which included representatives of the five permanent Security Council members, that the AU Charter claims primary authority over African peace and security issues.

“The African Union has taken the clear and unequivocal decision the continent must act not only to end war and violent conflict in Africa, but also to ensure that where war does anyway break out, all belligerents must know that war crimes, crimes against humanity and other abuses will be punished resolutely, and that a culture of impunity will not be permitted to take root and entrench itself” Mbeki said.

The South African leader has been one the main backers of Bashir following the announcement by the ICC prosecutor last July that he presented a case against Bashir to the judges.

It is not clear what the mandate of Mbeki’s panel would be or whether it would be conducting any investigative activities. The AU February summit said the panel would look into to reconcile the need for accountability in Darfur with opposition to calls for Sudan’s president to be prosecuted.

“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” the AU Chairman Jean Ping said last month.

The deputy Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia Akoy Bona Malwal told reporters at the time that if the panel is not satisfied with the performance of Sudanese court then a hybrid court could be setup to conduct trials.

But a few days later the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) official Mandoor Al-Mahdi said that Khartoum will not accept any foreign judges taking part in national proceedings.

Other Sudanese officials have suggested that the panel would observe local judicial proceedings.

The Sudanese Ambassador at the AU Mohi El-Deen said his government believes the panel would “do everything good for Africa and for Sudan without any interference from outsiders”.

The panel is to submit a report on its findings to the AU summit next July.

In 2004 the UNSC formed a UN commission of inquiry to look into Darfur abuses headed by former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Italian Antonio Cassese.

The commission concluded that the government did not pursue a policy of genocide in the Darfur region but that Khartoum and government-sponsored Arab militias known as the Janjaweed engaged in “widespread and systematic” abuse that may constitute crimes against humanity.

They further said that Sudanese judiciary is “is unable or unwilling” to prosecute those crimes and thus recommended referring the situation to the ICC.

The UNSC issued resolution 1593 under chapter VII in March 2005 referring the situation in Darfur to the ICC. At the time Tanzania and Benin voted in support of the resolution while Algeria abstained.

(ST)