China tells Sudan not to rely on its ‘veto’ for ICC move: report
September 2, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – China told Sudan it should not rely on a veto to block a possible arrest warrant for president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, according to a newspaper report.
The daily Al-Hayat newspaper quoted an unidentified Sudanese official as saying that the letter from the Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered yesterday by Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun, advised Khartoum “to deal with the ICC”.
The Chinese however promised to press European countries not to stand in the way of a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution suspending Al-Bashir’s indictment, the official said.
The ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo Ocampo announced in mid-July that he requested an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir on 10 counts of war crimes and genocide.
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.
Al-Hayat said that Beijing will conduct extensive dialogue with the French government in light of proposals made by the latter last month to defuse the ICC row which included handing over two Darfur war crimes suspects to The Hague based court.
However Sudan rejected the French initiative despite recommendation by its foreign minister Deng Alor to accept it.
“In my assessment, these proposals are good” he said. Alor also pointed out that to end the crisis; the government needs to provide certain things and they submitted specific ideas about that.
Sudanese officials expressed confidence lately that China and Russia will use their veto power to freeze Al-Bashir arrest warrant.
Yesterday the headline news of the Al-Rae’d daily newspaper, issued by the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), came under “Chinese veto awaits Ocampo”.
The UNSC cannot veto an arrest warrant issued by the ICC. Under Article 16 of the ICC Statute the UNSC only has the power to suspend ICC prosecutions through a chapter VII resolution.
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)