Darfur rebels hail Uganda’s stance on ICC
August 3, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – Darfur rebels welcomed statements made yesterday by the Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni.
Museveni told reporters that he does not condemn the indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor against Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir adding that Africans are the ones to blame for not investigating Darfur crimes.
Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur, leader of Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) that Museveni’s remarks “represent the true conscience of Africa”.
“This is a true African leader. We commend him for his courageous position” Al-Nur said.
The ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges in mid-July to issue arrest warrants for Al-Bashir.
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.
The African Union (AU) last month urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to suspend the probable ICC’s indictment against Al-Bashir.
Nouri Abdalla, Chief of Staff for the leader of a Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) faction led by Ahmed Abdel Shafi urged other African leaders to “President Museveni’s footsteps”.
“It is time for the AU to redirect its efforts and energy to help the ICC Prosecutor to bring Al-Bashir to justice, rather than wasting its energy in trying to block the work of Mr. Ocampo” he added.
Al-Nur slammed the AU saying that Al-Bashir “killed 3 million Africans in South Sudan, hundreds of thousands in Blue Nile and Nuba as well as Darfur all in the name of race. They even killed people in Kajbar”.
“Where is the AU dignity on these issues? Al-Bashir never claimed to be acting as an African person anyways so that the AU defends him” Al-Nur said.
Last week the Rwandan President Paul Kagame dismissed the ICC as a new form of imperialism created by the West to control the world’s poorest countries.
The court “has been put in place only for African countries, only for poor countries,” Kagame told reporters in his monthly briefing.
But Al-Nur said that anyone who stands against ICC work in Darfur “is giving the green light to Al-Bashir to continue his genocide in Darfur”.
Africa has the largest representation in the ICC with more than 30 countries parties to the court.
Abdel-Shafi’s faction expressed confidence that “justice will prevail, and Darfur victims will hear the long awaited guilty verdict of Al-Bashir”.
International experts also say more than 300,000 were killed and 2 million have been driven from their homes by the conflict in Darfur, a region that is roughly the size of France.
(ST)