China offers ‘concrete suggestions’ to Sudan over ICC row
October 26, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – Beijing provided Khartoum with advice on how to deal with a crisis resulting from the indictment of president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court (ICC), a senior Chinese official said today.
However the Chinese diplomat did not provide details on the content of the message he carried.
Guijin who toured Washington, Paris and London before arriving in Khartoum said that the ICC issue was on his agenda in his discussions with Western officials.
“I used those opportunities… to have consultations with our partners there in the West as to how could we work together to seek a kind of soft landing of the charge” he said.
“We hope the ICC indictment could have a kind of soft landing so as the political process could be continued… and the humanitarian as well as security situation there could be further improved” Liu told reporters.
But the Chinese official made no mention of sponsoring a resolution in the UN Security (UNSC) to suspend the ICC move as demanded by Sudan and a number of regional organizations.
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 the US and France made it clear that they would veto such a resolution was introduced at this point in time.
China which is Sudan’s main ally appears reluctant to unilaterally push the UNSC to consider Article 16 given objections by other council members.
Guijin said that Western nations want to see Sudan facilitating the deployment of African Union-United Nations peacekeepers in Darfur (UNAMID) and pushing for a political settlement of the crisis the war ravaged region.
The Chinese official praised Sudan cooperation with the deployment of peacekeepers and criticized Darfur rebels for boycotting peace talks.
He also said the international community must recognize steps taken by Sudan to prosecute Darfur war crimes including recent announcement that Ali Kushayb a militia leader wanted by the ICC will stand trial.
The move has been met with widespread skepticism given the fact that Sudanese officials have long claimed that Kushayb has been previously cleared of any wrongdoing in court.
UN experts estimate some 300,000 people have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes. Sudan blames the Western media for exaggerating the conflict and puts the death toll at 10,000.
(ST)