Bush informs Congress of immunity for US forces in Darfur
March 27, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — US President George W. Bush submitted a certification to congress today on the immunity of US forces serving as part of the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) from prosecution.
This is the first time the US administration spoke publicly about the existence of US army members working as part of the UNAMID.
UN Security Council adopted resolution 1769 on July 31st which authorized a hybrid UN-AU force (UNAMID) consisting of 26,000 troops and police but so far it only has only 9,000 personnel.
The Sudanese government has insisted that all forces come from Africa and its president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir said he will not accept any “westerners” as part of UNAMID. Norway and Sweden were forced to withdraw their offer for an engineering unit as a result of stiff resistance from Khartoum.
The immunity of US armed forces in the memorandum is derived from resolution 1593 referring the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March 2005.
The US administration at the time fiercely resisted the referral of Darfur war crimes to ICC and threatened to veto any resolution pushing for that. Washington instead proposed a special tribunal but members of the European bloc turned down the proposal.
After intense negotiations members of the UN Security Council convinced Washington to drop its objection in return for incorporating a clause in the resolution protecting US nationals from the jurisdiction of the ICC.
The Bush administration Monday renounced its obligations as a signatory to the Rome Statute which forms the basis to the ICC in May 2002 on the grounds that it can be used for politically motivated prosecutions of U.S. troops stationed overseas.
(ST)