Sudan presidential assistant voices support to ICC role in Darfur
By Wasil Ali
November 29, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The leader of the only Darfur rebel faction to sign the Darfur peace agreement (DPA) last year, said that he is supports the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the war ravaged region.
“Any one who commits a crime should be prosecuted. It is a matter of justice” he said.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor of the ICC, will submit his semi-annual to the UN Security Council (UNSC) next week. Ocampo is expected to notify the council that Sudan is not cooperating per resolution 1593 referring the situation in Darfur to the ICC.
The judges of the ICC issued their first arrest warrants for suspects accused of war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region in early May.
The warrants were issued for Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs, and militia commander Ali Kushayb. Sudan has so far rejected handing over the two suspects.
Minawi said that despite being a member of the Sudanese government and an aide to Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, he is “on the opposite end of the spectrum” with regards of the issue of Darfur war crimes.
Sources in the SLM faction told Sudan Tribune that Al-Bashir has privately urged Minawi to support his rejection of the ICC as a member of the government, but the ex-rebel leader turned down his request.
Minawi said that prosecuting Darfur war criminals before national courts “is too late because ICC is already handling matter. The train has already left the station”.
In response to allegations by Khartoum that the ICC is an impartial body, the senior presidential assistant said that “there is simply no evidence to support discrediting the court”.
The SLM leader said he has no contacts Haroun who is also a member of Sudan’s cabinet.
In May 2006, the SLM signed the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) with the Sudanese government and its head Mini Arkou Minawi was appointed as the senior assistant of the Sudanese president in August.
Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statue, but the UN Security Council triggered the provisions under the Statue that enables it to refer situations in non-State parties to the world court if it deems that it is a threat to international peace and security.
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Udu Unagu Ugali
Sudan presidential assistant voices support to ICC role in Darfur
Mr. Assistant Minawi you have started taking position differently from that of NIF because you have realized that NIF does not want to work with you and was not intending to work with you in the beginning but rather to use you in the first place for their own good at the time they needed. Now you have accomplished their mission and they do not need you anymore and if you keep on making noise they will send you to Heaven. You should regret your decision of having sold the struggle out for new vehicles and money. People of Darfur will not forget and forgive you if you did not repent and join them in the suffering and fighting for freedom. It is not yet late to be part of the reconciliation that is currently going on in Juba and incorporate some of your ideas which you have signed in that paper with Khartoum and get unify position for Darfur people. We have had the same problem like yours where Khartoum had cheated some of our leaders though we believed they had acted in good faith for peace in the south. Thanks to their wisdom to rejoin the movement before they were all killed,but a good number of them were killed by NIF during that time. You should have learnt from us and not to give yourself like a goat, going to a sloughtering house alone. It is only by unity that you can do better and get your rights.
We are far better united in the south now than we ever were before the signing of peace, That has put Khartoum to think day and night of what to do to divide the south. It is only media that they use for keeping the world cheated that south is having problem. The problem we have is small problem that every young nation go through as they start from scratch. Sincerely speaking we are in a better shape of our lives than we ever were since the indendent of Sudan.
That is why Bashir is running up and down looking for support from the Nothern opposition that he had abandoned long time back. He wants to cheat them so as to stay in power for another 18 years. Minawi, it is time for you to say no to money and position and become a real son of the soil,indeed it will be a blessing for your people and you will be respected, otherwise you will remain a chicken shed all your life.