US will not interfere in ICC Darfur proceedings: Official

July 2, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) – The US administration has no intention of pressing the International Criminal Court (ICC) to suspend a new case that will be initiated this month against unidentified Darfur war crimes suspects, a senior US official said today.

“Let me make it absolutely clear that the United States does not believe there should be impunity. United States believes restorative justice is important in societies that gone through trauma and certainly where there has been genocide” the US special envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson told reporters at the UN headquarters today.

“I want to emphasize this; the United States does not want to impinge in any way on the ICC prosecutor’s discretion to go forward” Williamson said.

This is the first remark made by a US official on the upcoming Darfur case.

The US is not a party to the ICC and has remained hostile to it. Washington had threatened to veto resolution 1593 referring Darfur case to the ICC adopted in March 2005 but eventually bent down to domestic and international pressure and abstained from voting.

The US has recently showed signs of warming up to the court despite its long standing fears that it may be used to bring frivolous cases against its troops.

The ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is due to present evidence on a new Darfur case to the judges this month.

“The Office anticipates that it will be able to present a new application under Article 58 of the Statute to the Judges by July 2008” the prosecutor said in his report to the UN Security Council (UNSC) last month.

In his report to the UNSC, Ocampo made his harshest condemnation of Khartoum saying that he collected evidence of a “criminal plan based on the mobilization of the whole state apparatus, including the armed forces, the intelligence services, the diplomatic and public information bureaucracies, and the justice system”.

Ocampo said that his office is investigating who “is maintaining Haroun in a position to commit crimes; who is instructing him and others”.

The statements by Ocampo were taken to suggest that he is going after senior Sudanese officials.

Williamson’s predecessor, Andrew Natsios warned that upcoming indictments by the ICC pose a threat to the stability of Sudan.

“If the ICC goes ahead with the threat mentioned in the newspapers that they will indict further senior figures within the Sudanese government then we will drive the country closer to dissolution” Natsios said at a forum in the US Institute for Peace last month on Sudan.

However Williamson acknowledged that depending on names that the ICC prosecutor will charge it may make dealing with the Sudanese government more difficult.

“Obviously depending on what happens in the coming weeks it will have repercussions on what the US and other are able to do” the US envoy said.

The US official also said that Washington is preparing itself for what comes out of the new Darfur case.

“Since we don’t know what the prosecutor is going to do, all we can do is try and prepare for various contingencies but I think we will wait until the prosecutor makes his referral” Williamson said.

Williamson, who is also a law practitioner, said he has not met with Ocampo or has any knowledge of who will be indicted but suggested that prosecutors “sometimes make decisions you expect and sometimes they don’t”.

UN-AU force in Darfur

The US envoy repeated his disappointment with the UN over failure to deploy 3,600 more UN-African Union (UN) troops by end of June as requested by him in March.

“We are disappointed the UN has not been able to achieve those modest goals by the date that has been set” Williamson said.

“The progress in the first six months is absolutely unacceptable…The people of Darfur deserve better” he added.

Williamson said the US is providing money for training and equipping the African troops but that the UN “does not have the capacity to absorb them”.

However the US envoy also accused the Sudanese government of placing “impediments” in front of the peacekeeping force.

Asked about Sudan banning Lockheed Martin’s PA&E subsidiary, a US company from working in Darfur beyond July, Williamson said that Washington wants to see the “job done”.

“PA&E has experience; they were a company used by the US when we built 30 African Union camps…it would be prudent if they are allowed to continue to perform their service…There would be a substantial lag of you try and bring someone new” he said.

Washington has grown increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of deploying peacekeepers to Darfur and recently appeared to throw the blame on the UN for the delay.

The United Nations has for months been seeking six attack and 18 transport helicopters to support the force. But Williamson told UN chief last March that the UN should not be hung on the issue of helicopters needed by the Darfur force.

UNMIS mandate in Abyei

Last month Williamson accused the UN Mission in South Sudan of failing to live up to their duties during the clashes that erupted in Abyei.

“We pay a billion dollars a year for UNMIS and they didn’t leave their garrison while 52,000 lives were shattered and nearly a hundred people perished’ Williamson told reporters at the time.

“The devastation was complete…..U.N. peacekeepers and UNMIS staff in their garrison were as close as 25 feet away. Sudanese homes were burned to the ground and looting took place, despite the fact that UNMIS has a mission … to intervene to protect innocent people” he added.

But the UN special envoy for Sudan Ashraf Qazi issued a statement in response to Williamson saying that law enforcement is responsibility of the Sudanese government.

“Whenever … despite our peace keeping efforts, large-scale hostilities break out between the two parties, UNMIS has neither the capacity nor the mandate to militarily intervene or to provide law enforcement functions” Qazi said.

Today Williamson implied that the mandate of UNMIS has been clarified to the UN staff in Sudan.

“I think it has been clarified. He [Qazi] doesn’t understand what he should have done. I think it will be sorted out” Williamson said in a response to a question.

“We pay $1 billion a year paid for UNMIS. The US pays $250 million of that. The performance was lacking” he added.

The UNSC asked the United Nations in late June to investigate the actions of peacekeepers during the clashes that erupted in the oil rich region following pressure from the US.

“The Security Council requests the (U.N.) Secretary General to examine the root causes of, and the role played by, UNMIS in connection with the violence … in Abyei in May 2008, and consider what follow-up steps may be appropriate for UNMIS” the council said in a unanimously approved statement.

The ruling National Congress party (NCP) and Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed an agreement in mid-June calling for the establishment of an interim administration in Abyei and the return of the displaced population.

The region of Abyei was described by experts as “Sudan’s Kashmir”. A group of international experts demarcated the area in 2005 but Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir refused to ratify its findings.

The two sides agreed that the Hague’s Permanent Court for Arbitration will decide if the international team of experts exceeded their mandate, as Bashir has said, or not.

(ST)