Mexico signals it will vote against freezing Bashir indictment
November 18, 2008 (THE HAGUE) —The Mexican government hinted that it will not support any UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution suspending the International Criminal Court (ICC) move against Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.
“There should be no doubt Mr. President, that that from its seat at the Security Council Mexico will strive to avoid any action that affects the court, its independence and its mandate of putting an end to impunity” Jorge Lomonaco Tonda, ambassador of Mexico in the Netherlands told the ICC assembly of state parties.
Representatives from the 108 nations that have ratified the court’s founding treaty started their annual meeting in The Hague last Friday.
“Mexico will work with the Court and with Council constructively and will give priority to dialogue and to the search of lasting solutions” the Mexican diplomat said.
The North American country will join the UNSC as a non-permanent member next January to replace Panama.
Last month the former Mexican foreign minister Jorge Castaneda wrote an op-ed warning the UNSC against invoking a deferral calling such a move as a “serious setback to the movement to end impunity for the most serious crimes”.
“It would show that indicted warlords and dictators can avoid justice by holding the Security Council hostage to threats of more violence….postponing the case against al-Bashir would seriously undercut the important principle – which has gradually been taking root worldwide – that no one is above the law” Castaneda said.
In mid-July the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced that he is seeking an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir.
Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. In early October ICC judges have officially started reviewing the case in a process that could possibly drag on to next year.
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.
But Western members of the UNSC such as US and France made it clear that they would veto such a resolution was introduced at this point in time.
A UNSC resolution requires nine votes in the affirmative with no negative votes from any of the P-5 members.
Four of the five new UNSC non-permanent members Austria, Japan, Mexico and Uganda are parties to The Hague based court which will likely make it even more difficult to obtain the required number of votes.
None of these countries, including Uganda have made any statements in support of an Article 16 resolution during the ICC meetings due to adjourn next Saturday.
However Kampala supported an African Union (AU) decision to support the suspension of the ICC investigations in Darfur to allow the peace process to move forward.
Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statute, but the UN Security Council (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.
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Mr Famous Big_Logic_Boy
Mexico signals it will vote against freezing Bashir indictment
What a good news to the ears of those who are in concern about the lives of Sudanese. I definatly agree to the ambassador of Mexico that if al bashir is gratis, then there will be more violence and this will show that ICC does not have strong power of supervising the dictators like al bashir and his counterpart criminal konye of LRA. Inaddition, no body should stand above the law, to the intention of Kampala and Museveni in particular, I suggest that, Museveni is just playing political motivation in his position of being a memeber of AU. To the arrest of al bashir, I probably imply that there will not be any threat to the peace in Dufur and South, although he keep buying his jets from russia still he will not do anything to the people of South and dufur.Imagine he talk of disarming his militia and on thesame day the attack was carry without in dufur camps, how can we believe this hypocrite dictator. Just take the move Ocampo to keep the mission of ICC as strong as possible. Don’t retard the arrest of this prosaic for long. It is now very precarious to the ribs of al bashir. China, Egypt, frence, mexico and many more have regret to support his indication, and it is actually weird to see someone depending a corpse from being buried, The World in particular is very tired of smelling the barbaric policy of al bashir in the “twin regions of African Sudanese ” durfur and South. so why do we panic about his jets or whatever.
TERRORIST TO HELL
Mr Point
The African Union, Arab League, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC)
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.
What do these people say, what do they do to help the suffering of 2 millions of people in Darfur?
Do they only care for the suffering of one lonely president?