Sudan criticizes remarks by Lebanese politician on Bashir’s ICC row

March 2, 2009 (BEIRUT) — The Sudanese embassy in Beirut issued a statement criticizing remarks made by a Lebanese prominent politician in which he hailed the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecution of president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

The Lebanese parliament majority leader MP Sa’ad Al-Hariri was quoted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as saying that justice will reach Bashir as part of a growing trend in the region.

Al-Hariri was commenting as a special tribunal created to try the suspected assassins of his father veteran former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri in 2005 opened in The Hague this week.

“I think there is a great deal of wishes among those who carried out the assassinations. We saw what happened in the prosecution of Sudanese president Omer Al-Bashir” he said.

“We see Bashir facing this problem…This is the result of falling dominos. I think justice will prevail in the end” Al-Hariri added.

A statement attributed to the Sudanese ambassador to Lebanon Jamal Al-Deen Ibrahim said that “linking Al-Hariri’s trial to efforts by the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir is illogical and defies the reality of things”.

“The special tribunal [for Rafiq Al-Hariri] was requested by the Lebanese government tp help in investigation then prosecuting Al-Hariri’s assassins”.

“The ICC was forced by the UN Security Council (UNSC) through resolution 1593 in 2005 and was strongly opposed by Sudan on a governmental and popular level. It was not requested by Sudan but part of conspiracy against Sudan president, government and people”.

The Sudanese envoy took note of the Lebanese opposition to the ICC as part of the Arab League position on the matter.

Separately the external relation official Joseph Na’ma at the ‘Lebanese Forces’ party met with the Sudanese ambassador today and expressed solidarity against the ICC prosecution of Bashir.

On Wednesday the ICC judges will release their decision on a request by ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo submitted last July for an arrest warrant against Bashir accusing him masterminding a campaign to get rid of the African tribes in Darfur; Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

(ST)