Sudan angered by Arab League position on ICC’s Bashir warrant
March 28, 2009 (WASHINGTON) – The foreign ministers of the 22-members Arab League appeared divided during their preparatory meeting today in the Qatari capital on the issue of the arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir issued earlier this month.
The foreign ministers were working on formulating resolutions on different Arab issues to be presented before the leaders during the summit that starts on Monday.
The closed session witnessed intense debate between the diplomats over the wording of the Arab stance on reject the ICC warrant.
The Sudanese state minister for foreign affairs Ali Karti who headed his country’s delegation to the meeting, wanted his colleagues to drop any mention on resorting to the UN Security Council (UNSC) to scrap the court’s decision.
“We want a clear rejection of the arrest warrant; trying to stop the decision [delaying it by using Rome Statue] is not what we want. The history of the Security Council and its resolutions against the country is known” sources speaking to Jordan Times quoted the minister as saying.
“It is better for us that the president gets chased by the Security Council rather than resorting to it. We do not want that,” he added.
The Sudanese official said that his country has managed to ignore all UNSC resolutions with little repercussions saying “they amounted to nothing but ink on paper”. He cited UNSC resolution 1706 which called for deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur that was later replaced with resolution 1769 to be acceptable to Khartoum.
But Arab ministers including Qatar, Djibouti and Secretary General Amr Moussa General supported lobbying the UNSC.
In the past Karti has persistently denied that Khartoum wants the UNSC to invoke Article 16 of the ICC Statute which allows the council to suspend the indictment for a period of 12-months that can be renewed indefinitely.
The Sudanese official maintained that any pursuit of Article 16 is done by Arab and African states without the involvement of his government.
But Moussa addressing Karti’s remarks at the closed session said that a “political window” should be left open to address the arrest warrant issue.
“We do not want to have emotional statements. This is a sensitive and dangerous political battle” Moussa said.
“We are all in the same boat and we have to enter this battle. Stopping the arrest warrant is the first step towards revoking it,” said Moussa, according to the sources quoted by Jordan Times.
The newspaper said that the ministers ended up diluting the first version of the resolution and call on the UNSC “to shoulder its responsibilities in realizing peace and stability in Sudan”.
Some Arab foreign ministers during the meeting also demanded that Sudan “to help them so they can be of help” and leave the door open for political and legal options to be in harmony with their demands of prosecuting Israeli leaders for abuses committed during the Gaza strip attack in January.
Diplomats told the London based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper that Karti voiced frustration and threatened that his country will withdraw from the Arab League if the latter does not take a “firm stand” on the ICC warrant against Bashir.
“If you want to stand with us you are more than welcome but if you don’t like our position we will not put extra burden on your shoulders to bear” the diplomats quoted Karti as saying.
“This is a trap that we will not accept and we reject any decision. Voiding and rejecting [ICC decision] is what is required and anything less is unacceptable” he added.
Adding to Karti’s anger that the foreign ministers refused to adopt a demand by Sudan for a “solidarity Arab summit” to be held in Khartoum in a show of support against the-Hague based court.
Surprisingly Sudan’s demand was rejected by the Qatar foreign affairs minister Hamad Bin Jasim Al-Thani who recommended that the “solidarity Arab summit” be replaced by individual visits by Arab leaders.
Qatar is considered a close ally of Sudan and has insisted to invite the embattled Sudanese president to the Arab summit despite being under pressure from unspecified countries not to do so, according to its foreign minister who met Bashir last week.
Karti left the Qatari capital back home in what was interpreted as sign of protest by Sudan by diplomats to the position of the Arab League.
However the Qatari foreign minister said that Karti returned home to consult with his leadership and will return with the Sudanese president.
It remains unclear if Bashir will attend the Arab summit but Sudanese officials have said they will not disclose his travel plans in advance for security reasons and fearing that his plane might be intercepted by foreign fighters to apprehend him.
This month the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa from the Syrian capital said that his organization as well as Qatar which will host the Arab summit next week received a cooperation request from the ICC but turned it down.
Moussa also said that this is the position of all 22 members of the Arab League.
But Jordanian officials said that they will respect their obligations under the Rome Statute as they are one of three Arab states to ratify the founding text of the ICC.
Sources at the meeting today said that Sudan demanded that Jordan, Djibouti and Comoros Island withdraw from the ICC but the three countries turned it down saying it is a “sovereign decision” that can be taken by the leaders only.
Karti reportedly pushed for a vote by the Arab foreign ministers on the withdrawal proposal but that the participants warned against such a step saying it will compromise on their positions with regard to the ICC investigations of Israeli violations in Gaza.
The Palestinian authority has deposited its acceptance of the ICC jurisdiction to allow the court to investigate in Gaza.
The ICC prosecutor said he is still analyzing the facts but he noted that the major obstacle is determining whether Gaza can be classified as a state within the definition of the international law or if it is considered part of Israel which has not ratified the Rome Statute.
(ST)