Sudan calls on EU to drop ICC as condition for receiving aid

May 12, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government told a visiting official from the European Union (EU) that they should waive one of the requirements that is preventing Sudan from receiving aid under the Cotonou agreement.

Ali Karti, Sudan’s minister for foreign affairs, said that his country has been denied access to hundreds of millions in Euros due to its refusal to ratify the Rome Statute which is the founding text of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005 under a Chapter VII resolution after a U.N. commission of inquiry concluded that Sudan is unable and unwilling to conduct trials for those who perpetrated violence in the war ravaged region.

Since then, the ICC charged three individuals from the government side including Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir. As a result, Khartoum went and revoked its signature of the Rome Statute.

The remarks by Sudan’s top diplomat came after his meeting with European Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs in Khartoum today.

The Cotonou agreement in its original format aims at the reduction and eventual eradication of poverty while contributing to sustainable development and to the gradual integration of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) countries into the world economy.

However, 2005 amendments add the fight against impunity and promotion of criminal justice through the ICC.

“The parties shall seek to take steps towards ratifying and implementing the Rome Statute and related instruments,” the agreement reads.

Sudan has refused to sign the revised agreement by the set deadline which expired on June 30, 2009. As a result, the EU has been unable to disburse 300 million Euros pledged at the May 2008 Sudan Consortium for the period 2008-2013.

Karti said that he agreed with Piebalgs on establishing a “quality partnership” between Sudan and the EU. Piebalgs promised that the EU bloc will support Sudan in its quest for debt relief and joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) but he stressed the need to resolve the political impasse between North and South Sudan over Abyei as well as finding a solution to the Darfur conflict.

The Sudanese minister for international cooperation Galal Al-Degair revealed that the EU gave 150 million Euros that would be used for different parts of the country. The Sudanese official said he asked the EU official for moralizing ties with European investment bank.

Piebalgs also met with 2nd VP Ali Osman Taha and leader of the opposition Umma Party Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi.

(ST)