African, Arab ministers to discuss Darfur peace and Sudan’s Bashir indictment

January 13, 2008 (DOHA) — African and Arab foreign ministers will meet on Wednesday to discuss Darfur peace process and ways to defer the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, a senior African Union official said today.

“Our meeting aims to study what’s happened in terms of contacts with the Sudanese government and armed groups and see what we can do to suspend international justice efforts to bring proceedings against President Beshir,” said Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra, the African Union Peace and Security.

Lamamra added that the issuance of an arrest warrant against the President Omer Al-Bashir would impact negatively the ongoing efforts to bring peace in the troubled western Sudan region of Darfur.

The Arab League foreign ministers on September 8 decided to establish a six-member committee co-chaired by the Qatari Prime Minister, Hamad bin Jasim, Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Jean Ping and Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa.

The panel is charged with the organization and sponsorship of peace negotiations between the Sudanese government and the rebel movements.

Committee membership includes Saudi Arabia, Libya, Algeria, Syria and Egypt in addition to a number of African countries, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal and Burkina Faso.

The ICC Judges are expected to decide within two months on the prosecutor’s application of arrest warrant for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for President Al-Bashir.

The African Union and the Arab League sought to suspend the ICC jurisdiction last July on the level of the UN Security Council but their efforts failed due to the opposition of Britain, France and the USA.

Nearly 300,000 people have died, according to the UN estimations, since the conflict began six years ago in the war torn region of Darfur. But Khartoum contests the figure and offers a far lower estimate of 10,000 dead in Darfur.

(ST)