Sudan unhappy about Uganda’s hosting of ICC review conference

May 8, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government today expressed dissatisfaction over conferences related to the International Criminal Court (ICC) being held in the continent suggesting that it is weakening political decisions taken by African leaders.

The first Review Conference on the Rome Statute, which forms the basis of the court, will be held in Kampala, Uganda from 31 May to 11 June 2010.

The Review Conference constitutes a special meeting of states parties to the ICC – distinct from the annual Assembly of States Parties (ASP) – to consider amendments to the Rome Statute and to take stock of its implementation and impact.

“Sudan is not concerned with any conferences or forums held in any country in Africa or the Third World countries on the International Criminal Court as Sudan is not a signatory to the Rome Statute,” said Ibrahim Ghandour from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) to the pro-government Sudanese Media Center (SMC) website.

“Some circles in the countries of the African continent and the third world are working on the internationalization of local issues and having it monitored through the European courts, which contributes to the weakening of political decisions and local laws limiting the exercise of its work and professionalism” the senior NCP official said.

The ICC judges last year approved an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir charging him with war crimes and crimes against humanity. They are currently reviewing whether genocide charges should be added after an appeals chamber in the tribunal said that pre-trial chamber erred in the legal standards they used in deciding to scrap it in the warrant phase.

Following the warrant issuance most African countries condemned the move and the African Union (AU) summit held in Libya last year decided that no country in the continent will cooperate in arresting Bashir even if it is legally obliged to do so under their ratification of the Rome Statute.

But later on some AU countries quietly distanced themselves from the resolution and warned Bashir not to set foot in their territories so as not to risk arrest.

Some African leaders accused the court of unfairly targeting the continent it in its investigation because all cases before the court are in Africa.

The ICC is currently handling 5 cases consisting of Uganda, Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) , Darfur and Kenya.

With the exception of Darfur all other cases have been referred voluntarily by their respective governments to the ICC for investigation. The Kenyan case was initiated by the ICC prosecutor after the government there gave the ICC a green light to do so yet declining to refer it for political reasons.

The UNSC issued resolution 1593 under chapter VII in March 2005 referring the situation in Darfur to the ICC. At the time Tanzania and Benin voted in support of the resolution while Algeria abstained.

The African continent makes up the majority of the ICC members with 30 countries ratifying the Rome Statute.

The NCP official Party urged the African signatories meeting in Kampala to review the work of the “unfair practices of the court in Africa”.

Ghandour said that that the West is implementing its agenda against African countries and their leaders through the ICC as a new form of neocolonialism noting this serves the goal of undermining the cause of national liberation advocated by some leaders of African States and allowing the court to censor them politically, economically and socially.

Sudan initially sought to have African countries withdraw from the court but the attempt failed. Later it urged these states to press for amendments to limit the ICC prosecutor’s powers and empower the UN General Assembly to defer the cases for 12 months under Article (16) of the Rome Statute.

The UN Security Council (UNSC) has brushed aside AU request to freeze Bashir’s warrant angering African countries which argued that failing to do so would jeopardize the fragile peace process in Sudan.

However both proposed amendments were dropped from the agenda of the Rome Statute Review conference to be held in Kampala next month.

(ST)