Mbeki in Kenya for talks on Sudan’s peace process
February 8, 2010 (KHARTOUM) –The former South African president Thabo Mbeki and the head of the African Union Panel on Darfur (AUPD) met today with senior Kenyan officials to brief them on the work of his panel and garner their support.
Kenya was the host of the decisive talks that led to the birth of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended two decades of civil war between North and South Sudan in 2005.
The Daily Nation newspaper said that Kibaki promised Kenya’s commitment to ensuring peace and stability in Sudan, despite concerns over the slow implementation of the CPA.
He further stressed that CPA had remained resilient despite various challenges, and that its signatories must sustain commitment to the full and speedy implementation of its remaining aspects.
During a special AU summit in Abuja to discuss Mbeki’s report on Darfur, Kenya said that success of the CPA would send a positive and re-assuring message of peace and stability in the Sudan.
Mbeki expressed concern over the escalating intertribal and ethnic violence in South Sudan over the last year.
“[South Sudan] President Salva Kiir is concerned. People are dying. That can be avoided … it should be avoided … to save lives and for stability” Mbeki said.
He warned that the violence could affect Sudan’s first democratic elections in more than 20 years, scheduled for April this year.
On Darfur, the AUPD chair said that the plans to establish the hybrid court are going as planned expressing confidence that it will produce the desired results.
“It will inspire confidence among the people of Darfur that justice will be done,” Mbeki told journalists after a meeting with president Moi.
“The court will be made up of Sudanese judges who will be joined by judges to be appointed by the AU,” he added and noting that his team was determined to resolve the Darfur conflict before the country’s general elections that are slated for April this year.
The hybrid court was a proposal drawn up by the panel primarily to defuse the row between Sudan and the International Criminal Court (ICC) which issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.
The panel did not make a formal opinion on the indictment though it said that the ICC cannot handle all Darfur war crime perpetrators.
At a meeting between Mbeki and the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the latter told the panel that the judges had the final word on the case against Bashir and the others.
“He said the decision was with the judges and if anybody wanted to change any of those decisions or make an impact, those people would have to appear before the judges,” Mbeki explained.
Sudanese officials including Bashir have rejected the idea of the hybrid court saying it violates the country’s sovereignty but it is not clear if Mbeki has been able to overcome this hurdle.
Darfur rebels and critics accuse the AU and the panel led by Mbeki of seeking to protect Bashir from prosecution.
Last year, the former Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Maher Al-Sayed who was a member of the panel said that the AUPD’s goal “was to find a way out [to Bashir] from the dilemma of the ICC that sparked a great deal of controversy”.
“Incriminating the president is out of question and fundamentally unacceptable” the former Egyptian foreign minister said in an interview with the Egypt based Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper.
Mbeki was reportedly outraged over Maher’s statements and sent a “strongly worded letter” to the Egyptian foreign ministry protesting them.
(ST)