Sudan accuses ICC prosecutor of seeking to escalate Darfur crisis
December 16, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government on Tuesday warned that the announcement by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, that she will freeze her office’s Darfur investigations is an attempt to escalate the issue of Sudan’s troubled western region and to seek new United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions to arrest those wanted by the court, including president Omer Hassan al-Bashir.
From the government side, Bashir, defence minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein, former state minister for interior Ahmad Haroun and Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb have been indicted by the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Darfur.
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 last week.
“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.
Bashir hailed Bensouda’s decision as a victory for his country and a sign of surrender by the ICC.
“The charges of the court was an attempt to subjugate and humiliate, but it has now lifted up its hands and surrendered,” Bashir said last week.
“The court is not a failure because the government has refused to cooperate with it, but because the Sudanese people rejected it,” he added.
On Tuesday, Sudan’s foreign minister, Ali Karti, appeared to pour cold water on Bashir’s victory lap.
In response to inquiries by the Council of States Congress on Tuesday, Karti stated that the ICC’s decision to refer Sudan to the UNSC is an attempt to escalate the crisis in Darfur.
“This is a new technique for issuing new decisions to arrest [those] whom the court were was unable to arrest,” Karti said.
Sudan’s top diplomat also accused international organizations working in Sudan of sending negative reports to the ICC and enforce accusations leveled against Khartoum.
Following the ICC warrant for him, Bashir has ordered the expulsion of nine international humanitarian agencies operating in Sudan under the pretext of its intelligence activities.
Karti stressed that political discord in Sudan paved the way for foreign organisations to invest politically and pursue their interests.
“The nature of our differences and internal issues affected the country’s relations abroad,” he said.
(ST)