Russia urges UN Security Council to discuss again Sudan’s Bashir case
April 3, 2009 (MOSCOW) – The United Nations Security Council should discuss one again the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s arrest warrant for the Sudanese president and its impact on the political situation in the country, said the Mikhail Margelov, special representative of the Russian President on Sudan.
The Russian envoy told reporters after the meeting that they had discussed the outcome of the Arab League Summit held this week in Doha where the Arab leaders strongly backed the Sudanese leader and reiterated their rejection to the ICC arrest warrant in presence of President Omer Al-Bashir.
“The fact that Sudanese President has come there, stayed there for some time and safely returned home confirms Russia’s misgivings about the unrealistic character of the rulings of the International Criminal Court and about the inability to fulfil them,” Margelov said.
He again described the rulings as untimely and said it did not take into account positive changes in Sudan and the progress achieved in the dialogue between the conflicting parties in that country.
The UN Security Council discussed the ICC indictment of the Sudanese president on July 31 but failed suspend the jurisdiction of the world court as it had been requested by African and Arab countries. Britain, France and the United States said Sudan should cooperate with the court and seek seriously to end the conflict. Washington particularly stressed the need to combat impunity.
Margelov outlined the U.N. Security Council should discuss the situation in Sudan again. “It is more important today than ever before to hold detailed consultations between permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and to evaluate the situation inside and around that country,” he said.
“The worst misgivings have not come true: the rulings of the International Criminal Court have not triggered another war in Sudan,” he further said.
The Russian envoy also welcomed the appointed of a new US special envoy to Sudan who is visiting Sudan nowadays. He said planning to develop a dialogue and cooperation with Scott Gration. “It is important for us to analyze realistically the developments in Sudan. Joint work in that direction can and should become an important issue on the agenda of the ‘reset’ in Russian-American relations,” he stressed.
The ICC’s pre-trial Chamber prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo issued an arrest warrant for President Al-Bashir on crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The visiting presidential envoy Awad Al Jazz praised the Russian support to the suspension of the ICC decision. We “highly appreciates Russia’s principled stand with regard to the problems of Sudan.”
He also stressed the good economic relations with Russia and reaffirmed that that “Russian companies working in the sphere of energy, transport, agriculture and military-technical cooperation have extensive opportunities for building the relations of strategic partnership with Sudan.”
(ST)