Sudan foreign minister to discuss ICC with Dutch counterpart
September 2, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s foreign affairs minister, Deng Alor, will fly tomorrow to the Netherlands, the host country of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to discuss the indictment of president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.
During his two-day visit, Alor will meet Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch foreign minister to discuss bilateral ties and to inform him about Sudan’s position with regard to the ICC.
Alor is expected to brief Verhagen on the efforts exerted by his government to resolve Darfur conflict and the negative impact of the ICC move against Al-Bashir, on the implementation of the north south peace deal and the settlement of Darfur crisis.
Sudanese officials have made threats that they will expel Darfur peacekeepers and aid organizations if an arrest warrant is issued for Al-Bashir.
Alor will also meet the foreign relations Committee in the Dutch parliament for the same purpose.
The Sudanese foreign minister has angered the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in the past by his statements that were considered a deviation from the official government line.
In June Alor called on the government to comply with the UN Security Council resolution on the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“I am not talking as a minister of foreign affairs. In this particular issue I’m speaking as SPLM and SPLM calls for cooperation. That’s what I said in my briefing with the ambassadors” Alor told reporters on the sidelines of a visit by the UNSC delegation to Khartoum.
The ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo Ocampo announced in mid-July that he requested an arrest warrant against Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir. Following that Sudan has been looking into ways that would allow it to avoid confrontation with the international community.
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, Arab League, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) called for invoking Article 16 which allows the UNSC to suspend the ICC prosecutions in any case for a period of 12 months that can be renewed indefinitely.
However no country on the UNSC introduced such a resolution which would face little chances of surviving a vote in the UNSC particularly with the veto wielding members such as US, UK and France opposing it.
Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statue, but the UNSC triggered 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)