Sudanese cabinet divided over ICC issue

March 12, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Differences among the members of the national unity government on the ICC led to postponing discussions on the issue till next week. During the council of Council of Ministers session differing points of views were expressed in the verbal reports on how to deal with the issue made by political forces forming the GoNU.

In a cabinet meeting chaired by the Second Vice-President, Ali Osman Taha, on Sunday, the Presidential Senior aide, Minni Minawi, demanded that minister Haroun be dismissed from his post and turned over to the ICC along with Kushayb. While the ministers of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement advocated cooperation with the ICC provided that the accused are tried in Khartoum by international and Sudanese judges.

The ministers of the National Congress Party, the senior government partner, led the trend for rejecting the trial of any Sudanese national outside the country.

The cabinet postponed the discussion to next week’s session. It urged the representatives of political forces to present written reports for consideration in working out a joint position by the various sides represented in the Government.

The cabinet met in the absence of President al-Bashir and his First Vice-President General Salva Kiir.

The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor on February 27, 2007 named a former Sudanese junior minister and a militia leader as suspects in war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country’s Darfur region.

Sudan has rejected the ICC’s jurisdiction in Darfur, saying it was conducting its own investigations.

More than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and 2.5 million displaced in a campaign the White House has called genocide. Fighting erupted in February 2003 when ethnic African tribesmen took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Khartoum government.

(ST)