Sudan warned UN of serious consequences over ICC warrant – envoy
August 18, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) — Sudan has warned the United Nations of “serious consequences” for its staff and facilities if the International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir over Darfur, a U.N. envoy said on Monday.
Addressing the U.N. Security Council, Ashraf Qazi, head of the U.N. mission charged with monitoring a 2005 peace accord between Sudan’s north and south, said the mission was preparing for any such actions.
“The government has conveyed to me that the issuance of an arrest warrant against President Bashir could have serious consequences for U.N. staff and infrastructure in Sudan,” Qazi said, without specifying where the threat might come from.
“We are taking all necessary precautionary measures including strengthening our cooperation with Sudanese security institutions,” Qazi said.
On July 14, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo charged Bashir with masterminding a campaign of genocide in Darfur, western Sudan, and asked the court for the warrant. The Hague-based court has yet to issue a decision.
Khartoum has acknowledged the distinction between the ICC and the mandate of the two peacekeeping missions in Sudan, Qazi said. However he noted the Bashir government had called the ICC prosecutor’s action a political and not a legal move.
The missions in Sudan are UNMIS, a 10,000-strong U.N. force that aims to ensure the north and south comply with the 2005 peace deal that ended two decades of civil war, and UNAMID, a joint operation with the African Union in Darfur.
International experts and U.N. officials estimate at least 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in Darfur since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in 2003 accusing the central government of neglect.
ABYEI LESSONS
While UNAMID is struggling to reach its planned level of 26,000 troops and police, UNMIS came under criticism after heavy fighting between Sudan’s army and southern Sudanese forces in the disputed oil-rich town of Abyei in May.
U.S. envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson has accused the force of hiding in barracks during the fighting instead of protecting Sudanese civilians.
Qazi acknowledged mistakes but also defended the actions of UNMIS peacekeepers during the fighting, which resulted in an estimated 89 deaths, including 18 civilians.
“The fact of the matter is that there was a breakdown of local command and control. Instructions of high officials were simply ignored by local commanders,” Qazi reported, apparently referring to the Sudanese.
He conceded that an internal UNMIS review had acknowledged failure to protect U.N. agency compounds in the town.
But he said the peacekeepers sheltered and escorted more than 100 civilians during the fighting in the town, which straddles the border between northern and semi-autonomous southern Sudan.
“When two regular armies fight each other with tanks, multi-barrel rocket launchers, artillery and heavy machine guns, then, irrespective of the specific number of peacekeepers assigned to Abyei, there is no way they can actively intervene to suppress the fighting,” Qazi said.
“Moreover, UNMIS has no such mandate,” he added.
(Reuters)
YihHon Alewei
Sudan warned UN of serious consequences over ICC warrant – envoy
Actions that are going to be taken by bashir forces when his arrest warrant is put in place will increase charages against him and his government officials in Khartoum!
If bashir and his government officials have senses, Luis Moreno Ocampo is not a Sudanese and he doesn’t belong to any sect in the Sudan. The charges he has filed against brutal regimes are based on internationl law which investigate and judge on breach of humanity in any kind.
bashir and his government should be caution about this! It is something that you need not to threat your people nor the international community. It was something that already happened and any additional to existence charges which were already filed will be a disaster to omar bashir regime.
This is thing doesn’t need any hostility but cooperation with any parties or movements that are involved.
The consequences that bashir is going to face when he is arrested are going to be severe if he continues the same atrocities which are already committed in the South during the civil war, Eastern Sudan and now Darfur.
Wise thinking give you a wise move but dull thinking give you gloomy future. If bashir watch the news if he has TV in his palace or on the radio, I think he has heard the case of Charles Taylor the ex-president of Liberia and Melosevic of Bosia. This case of Darfur is very serious!
Targetting the UN infrastructure and its staff will be a different case. The attack on the UN staff is already going in Darfur and that will be counted as additional charges.
The obligations are on bashir! He has to act quickly to bring peace in Darfur and hand over the two suspects to ICC. That move may bring a little bit relief to him and his goverment! Without that! Than nothing will prevent his arrest if the arrest warrant is handed down by the ICC judges.
Think twice before you do something serious! Weigh the outcomes or consequences before taking action!
Wilson Kur Lual
Sudan warned UN of serious consequences over ICC warrant – envoy
To threat UN and others human right bodies in the country will never be the solution and will also charge you more than the 10 filed.
please, think again and again othwerwise, hell is only open window for you.
Thyinka
Bashir wants to get away with as much as he can.
All this rhetoric should be expected from Khartoum. Did anyone thought it was idiosyncratic when they called for the charging of ICC Louis Moreno Ocampo as a terrorist? This is a hold out strategy. They just want to hang in there while barking until someone comes to snatch them. Talk about a dog that has sense danger in the night and is creating an alarm for any possible rescue.
If NCP wants to fight the United Nations, they won’t have a political future in Sudan.After fooling Mujahideens of getting 72 virgins when they go to fight and die in South Sudan for “Allah”, it is time for the leaders to follow suit such that they would go and enjoy the same. It will be painful for those of them with common sense unless they believe their own folly.
The NCP better think of how to get rid of the political leadership to face justice in the Hague and let the rest of the party have some fighting chance in domestic politics in Sudan rather than being thrown into the dustbin of history.
However, being erased from the political landscape in Sudan is their just reward because they are the reincarnation of German Nazi third Reich. With “Fuhrer”, as the so called “Field Marshall Bashir.” He is everything and everyone pledge allegiance to him. His word is the law of the land. If Omar has the courage to kill himself and just vanish from the Earth,the rest will be subjected to Nuremberg-like trials at the Hague. I can’t wait to see this sudanese nightmare finally coming to it just and logical end.