France protests to the UN over transporting of Sudanese war crime suspect
January 24, 2011 (WASHINGTON) – The French government made a formal protest to the United Nations for allowing a Sudanese official wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to board one of its planes last month earlier this month.
Diplomats at the UN told Turtle Bay blog which is part of Foreign Policy magazine that the complaint was made by Paris last week but did not provide details.
The governor of South Kordofan Ahmed Haroun was reportedly transported to the volatile region of Abyei on North-South borders to prevent further escalation of tensions in the oil-rich district.
Prosecutors at the ICC have alleged in 2007 that Haroun was the head of the
Darfur security desk and is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the region since the conflict erupted in 2003.
The ICC also charged militia leader Ali Kushayb and president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.
The UN defended its decision to move the South Kordofan governor saying it was within the authority of the world body.
“[T]he [UNMIS] Mission is mandated to provide good offices to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement parties in their efforts to resolve their differences through dialogue and negotiations, and I can tell you that the UN Mission in Sudan has been working with the parties, including local authorities, to contain any potential violence that may escalate,” U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said in his press briefing this month.
“As you know, there have been clashes in Abyei, and these clashes were actually threatening to escalate into a wider war. And so Governor Haroun was critical to bringing the Misseriya leaders in southern Kordofan to a peace meeting in Abyei to stop further clashes and killings,” he added.
The Misseriya Arab tribes people and Ngok Dinka people based in Abyei have been involved in clashes in which at least 33 people have been killed, according to the two sides. Many have linked the violence to the ongoing referendum vote being held in southern Sudan.
The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in the North and the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the South have failed to resolve their disagreement over how to allow residents of Abyei decide their fate on whether they want to join an independent Southern Sudan state or the North.
A referendum was scheduled to be held on January 9th simultaneously with that of South Sudan but a quarrel over who is eligible to vote led to an indefinite suspension of the plebiscite.
News of France’s protest will likely further infuriate Khartoum which refuses to recognize the jurisdiction of the court despite a Chapter VII resolution obliging it to cooperate.
The Sudanese foreign minister Ali Karti who visited Paris and Rome this month said that both nations have appeared to change their stances on the ICC issue and that legal delegations would be dispatched to both countries in the coming month for more in-depth discussions on the matter.
But this month the French ambassador to the United Nations Gérard Araud told reporters that his country believes that there can be no peace without justice in Darfur in keeping with the implementation of resolution 1593 which referred the situation in region to the ICC.
Furthermore, the Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini told his Sudanese counterpart that Khartoum must seek cooperation with the Hague tribunal.
(ST)