ICC prosecutor: Al-Bashir to face justice sooner or later

May 31, 2009 (DOHA) – Luis Moreno Ocampo, who won an arrest warrant against the President of Sudan, said that Omer Al-Bashir will face justice whether sooner or later.

Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), emphasized that the ICC is a permanent institution, and therefore that the warrant will not be going away.

He will submit a report to the UN Security Council within the coming week, he told Al-Jazeera satellite TV in an interview aired Saturday. The UN Security Council had granted the ICC prosecutor jurisdiction in the case of Darfur war crimes in a resolution passed in 2005.

“By order of the arrest warrant against him, Al-Bashir should to stand before court. The (UN) Security Council referred the case to us, and I will be going to the council within the week to submit my report.”

He added, “We respect the government of Sudan, but Al-Bashir has to face the justice to explain his actions. He is desperate; he is a fugitive president. Al-Bashir’s fate will be to face justice. We are a permanent court and we can wait a couple of years.”

The prosecutor was speaking on the sideline of a legal forum in Doha in which he is participating.

However, President Al-Bashir has not balked at the arrest warrant, instead travelling extensively in defiance of Western pronouncements such as the one made on May 26 by the European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana.

The Sudanese president will attend the 13th summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) held June 6-8 in Zimbabwe.

The president’s participation in Zimbabwe will be at the level of the Heads of State and government summit, which is taking place after inter-ministerial meetings run until June 4 in the town of Victoria Falls. COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya highlighted that this year’s summit would feature the signing of the Customs Union by heads of state.

Nevertheless, the EU High Representative Solana in a statement issued from Brussels on May 26 spoke positively after meeting the representatives of the ICC, with whom he discussed the European Union’s support for the Court, including the situation generated after the issuance of the arrest warrant against the President of Sudan.

According to the statement, Solana “welcomed the very good progress made by the Court in recent years in helping to establish an international order based on the rule of law…”

“The High Representative emphasised the EU’s support for the ICC and its efforts to ensure that the most serious crimes of concern to the international community do not go unpunished. He stressed that peace and justice are not contradictory aims and that lasting peace cannot be achieved without a suitable response to calls for individuals to be held accountable for the most serious international crimes.”

However, Solana’s suggestion to the ICC officials was to engage more effectively with the African Union, which staunchly opposes the court’s move against Al-Bashir.

Sudan is not a signatory to the treaty governing the ICC and refuses to acknowledge its jurisdiction in any cases in Darfur. The world court says, on the other hand, that Sudan’s judiciary has failed to prosecute crimes of mass rape, murder, torture, pillaging, extermination, forcible transfer, and intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population.

Ocampo, who has furthermore pressed a claim that genocide is ongoing in Darfur, noted that he prefers the case to come before the court soon: “We provide protection to more than 2.5 million Muslim and African victims who were devastated by Al-Bashir, and it is, therefore, imperative that we find a solution for this issue now.”

(ST)