Sudan president labels ICC as a ‘terrorist organization’
June 10, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir reiterated today his country’s rejection of calls to hand over two Darfur war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“Most certainly we will not hand over any Sudanese citizen” he added.
The judges of the ICC issued their first arrest warrants for suspects accused of war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region a year ago.
The warrants were issued for Ahmed Haroun, state minister for humanitarian affairs, and militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdel-Rahman, also know as Ali Kushayb. Sudan has so far rejected handing over the two suspects.
This is the first time a Sudanese official uses this characterization of the ICC. The description was likely prompted by the ICC announcement of an attempt to arrest Haroun.
The ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told Sudan Tribune in an interview last week that the world court attempted to divert a plane that carried Haroun on his way to Saudi Arabia in December to perform the annual Islamic pilgrimage.
However Haroun ended up cancelling his travel plans.
Ocampo delivered his semi-annual report to the UN Security Council (UNSC) yesterday in which he provided information on his current investigations into the ongoing attacks against civilians in the war ravaged region.
The ICC prosecutor announced that he intends to charge Sudanese officials with war crimes next month.
Al-Bashir outlined the reasons for refusing to cooperate with the ICC.
“In accordance with the Naivasha agreement and the constitution we use the Islamic Shari’a law which prohibits handing over a Muslim person to a court that does not implement the Islamic law. So from a religious perspective we will not surrender anyone” he said.
“We are not party to the Rome Statue so no Sudanese cannot be tried at the ICC” he added.
Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statue, but the UN Security Council (UNSC) invoked 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.
(ST)