Sudan urges UNSC to reconsider ICC Darfur referral as Bashir hails court’s “surrender”
December 13, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government has called upon the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to reconsider its resolution to refer the Darfur case to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to recognise the “significant efforts” made by Khartoum to engage in peace talks with the rebel groups in the restive region.
The Sudanese foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the reconsideration is needed in order to support efforts of peace and development in Darfur.
It stressed that Sudan adheres to its legal challenge to the ICC jurisdiction because it is not a party to the Rome Statute and because the UNSC resolution 1593 clearly contradicts the provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969.
The statement added the arrest warrant issued by the ICC against the sitting president of Sudan contravenes “existing rules of the international law and precedents of the International Court of Justice relating to the immunity of heads of states”.
It noted that the recent report of the ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensoudabefore the UNSC did not include new information to convince the international community that measures taken by her predecessor Luis Moreno-Ocampo were correct, saying the report revealed that the international community has not responded to the selective and targeting approaches of the ICC prosecution office.
“Circulating rumours on cases of mass rape in the village of Tabit in North Darfur is nothing but a blatant attempt to offer new material to the report of the prosecutor to maintain the case before the UNSC,” it added.
The foreign ministry also expressed regret that several UNSC member states drifted behind the “hate and lies” media reports spread by Radio Dabanga, saying the UNSC should have criticised that radio station particularly as the hybrid peace mission in Darfur (UNAMID) found no evidence of mass rape at Tabit.
Radio Dabanga, a radio station headquartered in the Netherlands with a team of local reporters in Darfur, was the first media outlet to report the mass rape allegations.
The statement underscored that Sudan is committed to continue to work with the peace and development partners to achieve and sustain stability, peace and development in Darfur and across the country through serious national dialogue with all political forces in the country.
The ICC prosecutor announced in her semi-annual briefing before the UNSC on Friday that she will suspend new investigations into the Darfur situation, citing the lack of UNSC support and stretched resources.
From the government side, the Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir, defence minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein, former state minister for interior Ahmed Haroun and Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb were indicted by the ICC for war crimes allegedly committed in Sudan’s western region.
According to UN estimates, at least 300,000 people have been killed since then, and another 2 million have fled their homes since the conflict erupted in 2003.
Sudan has cooperated with the court until the first arrest warrant against Kushayb and Haroun were issued in 2007.
Despite repeated non-cooperation findings referred by ICC judges to the UNSC, the council has declined to take action mainly over China’s likely move to block any resolution that would compel Sudan to cooperate.
“Given this council’s lack of foresight on what should happen in Darfur, I am left with no choice but to hibernate investigative activities in Darfur as I shift resources to other urgent cases. It should thus be clear to this Council that unless there is a change of attitude and approach to Darfur in the near future, there shall continue to be little or nothing to report to you for the foreseeable future,” the ICC prosecutor told the UNSC.
“It is becoming increasingly difficult for me to appear before you and purport to be updating you when all I am doing is repeating the same things I have said over and over again,” she added.
Bensouda stressed that a “dramatic shift” is needed in the UNSC approach to arresting Darfur suspects.
In Khartoum, the Sudanese president hailed the ICC’s “surrender” in wake of Bensouda’s decision to suspend work into the Darfur case.
“The charges of the court was an attempt to subjugate and humiliate, but it has now lifted up its hands and surrendered,” Bashir said.
“The court is not a failure because the government has refused to cooperate with it, but because the Sudanese people rejected it,” he added.
He reiterated accusations that the ICC is a politicised body that is targeting Africans.
(ST)