African Union says Sudan judiciary will look into Darfur crimes

September 11, 2008 (KHARTOUM) –Sudan has agreed to have its local courts investigate Darfur rights abuses, an African Union (AU) official said today.

Ramadan Al-Amamra, Commissioner of the AU Peace and Security Council quoted by Sudan official news agency (SUNA) as saying that Sudanese judiciary “will fulfill its role completely in combating impunity in relation to crimes that may have been committed in Darfur”.

Al-Amamra arrived in Khartoum on Thursday to hold talks with Sudanese officials on the developments following the move by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to indict Sudanese President Omer Hassan al-Bashir.

The ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced in mid-July that he requested an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir.

Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder and accused Al-Bashir of masterminding a campaign to get rid of the African tribes in Darfur; Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

The AU official said that Khartoum may utilize the expertise of judges and lawyers from the Arab and African countries through the AU and Arab League “if the need arises”.

Sudan has rejected some proposals of having Arab and African judges conduct proceedings on Darfur war crimes.

“Sudanese courts are capable to carry out its duties and it is open for anyone to attend” Sudanese justice minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat said in July.

He also said that the AU is working on assembling a team of African figures to conduct an inquiry in Darfur “to contribute in formulating recommendations that enhance the national reconciliation”.

Al-Amamra’s remarks may signal a change in the AU position with regards to the mandate of the proposed team from the original task of conducting a full blown investigation in Darfur.

Last month the AU commission chairman Jean Ping said that the regional organization is drawing up a list of top lawyers to investigate Darfur war crimes in response to the ICC move.

“We have decided to create a panel of eminent lawyers which would come to work in Sudan. This has been fully accepted by Sudan” Ping told Agence France Presse in an interview.

He said the lawyers would conduct a similar investigation to that of The Hague-based court in order to show “what the ICC did or did not do”.

The Commissioner of the AU Peace and Security Council also said that African countries at the UN will make a renewed push to invoke Article 16 of the ICC Statute which allows the UN Security Council (UNSC) to suspend the ICC prosecutions in any case for a period of 12 months that can be renewed indefinitely.

“We will have the opportunity to deal with our partners at the UNSC in accordance with the AU Peace and Security Council resolution to trigger Article 16 of the Rome Statute” he said.

Al-Amamra also said that “peace and security must be given a chance” warning that “door may be opened to conspiracies with potentially bad consequences”.

The AU, Arab League, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) have called for a deferral of the indictment following the ICC’s announcement in July.

Libya and South Africa sought to force a suspension in the UNAMID resolution but failed to get the required number of votes and instead accepted a watered down paragraph taking note of the AU concern on the ICC move to seek an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir.

Following that failed attempt, none of Sudan’s allies in the UNSC including China and Russia have tabled a formal resolution.

Any such resolution introduced appears to have little chances of surviving a vote in the UNSC particularly with the veto wielding members such as US, UK and France opposing it.

However countries like France have hinted that they will not stand in the way of a deferral if Sudan cooperates with the ICC by handing the two suspects wanted by the court.

Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statute, but the UNSC triggered the provisions under the Statute 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)