Africa urges suspension of ICC indictment process against Sudan’s Bashir
By Tesfa-alem Tekle
July 21, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) — The African Union on Monday urged the U.N. Security Council to suspend the probable International Criminal Court’s indictment against Sudanese President Omer Hassan al-Bashir over genocide charges in Darfur.
“The African Union requests the U.N. Security Council to postpone the process initiated by the ICC,” the AU council said in a statement after the meeting.
It said it had taken into account the need to avoid jeopardizing peace efforts and “the fact that in the current circumstances a prosecution may not be in the interests of victims and justice.”
The African Union’s Peace and Security Council also called for the creation of a panel of distinguished Africans to come up with recommendations on how to address issues of accountability and reconciliation raised by the conflict.
Nigerian Foreign Affairs Ojo Maduekwe told reporters that the African Union will file the demand in an effort to allow progress in slow-moving peace talks to end the five-year conflict in Darfur.
“We are asking that the ICC (International Criminal Court) indictment be deferred to give peace a chance,” Maduekwe said; adding “Our concern is the timing and how this could impact on the peace process in Sudan.”
He further warned that indictment of al-bashir could endanger the whole peace process in the country; “the whole place could turn into one huge graveyard. That could happen” Maduekwe underlined.
The Nigerian top diplomat indicated “We are asking for a delay within the rules of the Rome Statute.”
In accordance with the Roma Statue, the UN Security Council can pass a resolution to defer for a period of 12 months any investigation or prosecution by the ICC and the delay may be renewed by the council under the same conditions.
The Sudanese Justice Minister Abdel Basit Sabdarat, who attended the meeting, hailed the African position.
“Sudan does not condone impunity and we would prosecute crimes of all sorts. Sudan is not governed by the law of the jungle, it is a responsible state with an independent judicial system,” he told the AU council.
“The Sudan always opted for an African solution under the umbrella of the AU,” Sabdarat said, adding the Africa’s biggest nation “cannot be made the Achilles heels of Africa.”
The international court’s prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, accuses Bashir of orchestrating genocide that has killed 35,000 people outright, at least another 100,000 through “slow death” and forced 2.5 million from their homes.
Fighting broke out in Darfur in 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government, accusing it of discrimination. The government is accused of backing Arab militia fighters, called the janjaweed, who responded with a punishing campaign in which entire villages have been wiped out.
The U.N. estimates 300,000 people have died, directly from attacks or indirectly through starvation, and 2.5 million people have fled to refugee camps.
(ST)