Sudan says ICC a threat to regional and international stability

November 28, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a threat to regional and international stability and security, a senior Sudanese official said.

Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Abdel-Mahmood Abdel-Haleem said at a lecture at New York University that the ICC “became a habitat for selective justice and European double standards”.

“Its direction is arrogant and racially biased” he added.

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.

Abdel-Haleem said that Ocampo wants to make the ICC Statute “voiding all fixed rules of International law. The losers will be these forces in the end because today is not like yesterday”.

“The people will defeat these plans and others of political conspiracy” he said.

Sudan insists it is not bound by the ICC since it is not a member of the court and contends that Al-Bashir enjoys immunity as a head of state per the Vienna convention.

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.

Abdel-Haleem accused Western powers of “using international and regional organizations serve the political objectives of the influential States”.

Khartoum is getting increasingly worried at the prospects of its president facing an ICC arrest warrant which would restrict his movements outside the country. Some observers went as far as saying that the warrant would delegitimize Al-Bashir inside Sudan.

ICC judges are still considering evidence against Al-Bashir. On November 17 they received more than 700 pages of additional information from the prosecutor in support of his application.

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.

(ST)