UNSC breaks deadlock over Darfur peacekeeping resolution
By Wasil Ali
July 30, 2008 (WASHINGTON) – The UN Security Council (UNSC) managed to resolve a disagreement over a resolution aimed at extending the mandate of the UN-African Union (AU)) joint force in Darfur (UNAMID).
The ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges on Monday to issue arrest warrants for Sudan’s head of state.
Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. Judges are expected to take months to study the evidence before deciding whether to order Al-Bashir’s arrest.
Initially Libya wanted the UNAMID resolution to incorporate a promise to consider invoking Article 16 of the ICC Statue regarding the authority of the UNSC to suspend its work on a case.
However during the course of the week the Libyans appeared to have secured stronger support for a UNSC in favor of taking action on the ICC issue concurrently with the UNAMID mandate extension which expires tomorrow.
Article 16 of the ICC Statue states that “no investigation or prosecution may be commenced or proceeded with under this Statute for a period of 12 months after the Security Council, in a resolution adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, has requested the Court to that effect; that request may be renewed by the Council under the same conditions.
The supporters of the Libyan proposal included China, Russia, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Vietnam and Indonesia, a UN diplomat told Sudan Tribune on Tuesday.
The French took the lead in resisting the proposed amendment to the British sponsored resolution on UMAID. The proponents of ICC deferral lacked the required 9 votes to make the amendment go through assuming none of the permanent UNSC members use the veto.
On the other hand Western UNSC members faced the dilemma of adopting a resolution on extending a UN peacekeeping mission without unanimity.
Today Reuters reported that the UNSC agreed to include wording that echoes AU concerns that ICC moves to indict Al-Bashir for war crimes could derail the fragile Darfur peace process.
Sudan’s UN Ambassador Abdel-Mahmoud Abdel-Haleem told Reuters it was an “acceptable” text for Khartoum.
However the wording appears to be more of a symbolic victory for Libya & South Africa. The resolution does not provide a timeframe for the UNSC to discuss suspending the indictment.
Moreover adopting such a resolution in the future does not appear to have the required 9 votes or the support of all veto wielding members including France & UK.
There also appears to be a legal hurdle facing an Article 16 resolution.
This week the French-Libyan born counsel Dr. Hadi Shalluf, who was the ICC appointed defense counsel for Darfur case last year, told Sudan Tribune that the UNSC can only defer the entire Darfur case and not against specific individuals.
“There is no such thing as UNSC picking who the ICC can prosecute in a case” Shalluf said.
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.
Some Western countries have hinted that for the UNSC to consider deferring Al-Bashir’s indictment they must cooperate with the ICC and hand over Haroun and Kushayb.
Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statue, but the 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)