Bashir receives African backing in ICC row, EU calls on Chad to carry out arrest

July 22, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir received regional backing on Thursday as leaders at the summit of the Community of Sahel-Saharan states (CENSAD) meeting in Chad rejected International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants issued against him.

Bashir arrived in Ndjamena on Wednesday in defiance of the arrest warrant after receiving assurances from the Chadian government that he will not be apprehended on the territory of a country that is a member of the ICC and a signatory to its found treaty.

Bashir was indicted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur last year. This month the court added genocide to the charges, accusing him of presiding over rape, torture and murder in the remote west of Sudan.

This is the first time Bashir sets foot in a country that recognizes the court. Chadian officials said they are not obligated to arrest the Sudanese head of state and recalled the African Union resolution last year instructing its members not to cooperate with the Hague based court on Bashir’s case.
Chad at the time rejected the resolution and vowed to nab Bashir should he visits.

“Darfur continues to be a source of concern. CEN-SAD (the Community of Sahel-Saharan states) refutes all accusations against President Bashir. These accusations do not contribute to bringing peace to this part of Sudan,” said CEN-SAD chief Mohamed al-Madani al-Azhari.

“We declare our total support and our solidarity to Sudan and its people,” he added, speaking to an audience that included 13 heads of state including Bashir.
The landmark visit by Bashir ended years of bitter proxy war between the two neighbours as they both backed armed opposition groups on the other side of the border.

A day before Bashir’s trip, the Sudanese government expelled three senior Chadian opposition figures sending them to Qatar which agreed to receive them. Last May, the Chadian authorities expelled Khalil Ibrahim who leads the powerful Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

JEM is one of two rebel groups that took up arms against Sudan’s government in 2003, accusing it of neglecting the remote western region of Darfur and marginalizing its population.

The movement is dominated by the Zaghawa tribe, who live in Darfur and neighbouring Chad. Ibrahim has close family links to Chadian President Idriss Deby. JEM also helped Deby fight back two rebel attacks on N’Djamena.

JEM has suspended participation in the Qatar-hosted peace talks despite a promising start which led to signing of a framework agreement earlier this year.
The movement accused the government of breaching the temporary ceasefire agreement and attacking its positions.

At the CENSAD summit Deby called on all Darfur rebels to come to the negotiation table in Doha.

“Within its framework we must support the Doha process. As far as I am concerned, I appeal to all parties (involved in peace talks) to adhere to the Doha process in view of a fair and lasting peace settlement,” he said.

ARREST BASHIR

Today the European Union (EU) high representative for foreign affairs Baroness Catherine Ashton said that Chad must meet its obligations under the Rome Statute and arrest Bashir.

Ashton “urges Chad to respect its obligations under international law to arrest and surrender those indicted by the ICC,” her spokeswoman, Maja Kocijancic, said in a statement.

The statement described her as being “concerned” by al-Bashir’s visit and “firmly recalls” the responsibility of ICC supporter states, such as Chad, to carry out the organization’s arrest warrants.

“The most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole – genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes – must not go unpunished, and their prosecution must be ensured by measures at both domestic and international level,”.

In Washington a U.S. official denied that Chad was given a “pass” on arresting the Sudanese president but said they welcome the Chad-Sudan rapprochement.

“We recognize that there has been positive interaction in recent days and weeks between Chad and Sudan. There are – obviously going back, there have been a number of years that there have been individuals and groups that have flowed across their common border and the violence that has resulted has significantly affected people on both sides of that border” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters today.

“We still have communicated to Chad that it has responsibilities as a signatory under the Rome Statute and needs to continue to fulfil its obligations under the – to the ICC” he added.

The Associations for the Defence of Human Rights (CADH), a collective of six organisations, demanded Ndjamena seize Bashir and urged Chadians “to oppose his stay by all legal means.”

“Chad shows that it favours impunity in letting Bashir come to Ndjamena. We can’t ratify conventions and then trample them underfoot,” CADH member Maxime Naguilem told Agence France Presse (AFP).

Opposition politician Toko Manasse, president of the National Convention for Peace and Development in Chad, said that welcoming Bashir “Chad is suggesting to international opinion that it is complicit in what has happened in Darfur and in eastern Chad,” where some attacks have been blamed on Sudanese militias.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Thursday that Bashir will be brought to justice, in spite of Chad’s stance. “It is just a matter of time, he will eventually have to travel to The Hague and face justice.

“There is no victory where genocide is concerned. 2.5 million victims in Darfur are under attack. President Bashir should not be proud. He remains a fugitive suspect,” Moreno-Ocampo told AFP.

(ST)