UNMIS dismisses statements on ICC attributed to Sudan envoy
December 25, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The United Nations in Sudan dismissed media reports attributed to the head of the mission, Ashraf Qazi as saying that the International Criminal Court would issue soon an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president.
Ashraf Qazi, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, has never predicted a date for any action by the ICC, an independent institution, UNMIS said in a statement.
Al Jazeera reported that Qazi said during a symposium held in Cairo earlier this month that The ICC would soon decide on the indictment of the Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.
The ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed ten accounts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Sudanese president last July and request an arrest warrant for him. The court is expected to issue its decision on the alleged crimes in the near future.
The spokesperson of the Sudanese ministry of foreign affairs Ali Al-Sadiq slammed today, according to the Emirates News Agency. Sadiq said the statements attributed to Qazi call for discontent and this is not the first time he speaks bout the ICC.
He also accused the ICC of working to undermining the political stability in the country.
Some 300,000 people are estimated to have been killed in Darfur as a result of direct combat, disease or malnutrition since 2003. Another 2.7 million people have been displaced because of fighting among rebels, Government forces and the allied Janjaweed militias.
(ST)