Sudan calls on Jordan to apologise for ICC statements to UNSC
December 22, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese foreign ministry has summoned Jordanian ambassador to Khartoum on Monday to protest against his country’s statements at a briefing given by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) before the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) this month.
In his statements, Daifallah expressed his Jordan’s support to the court and called on the UNSC to do the same. He emphasised that the ICC prosecutor must continue collecting new evidence.
“Jordan was deeply concerned about what the Prosecutor’s report said about continued serious crimes, aerial bombardments, attacks against civilians and sexual crimes,” he further said.
Bensouda had accused the UNSC of lack of foresight on what should happen in Darfur, saying her decision is the result of the council’s indifference towards her repeated demands for international cooperation with the ICC to hold account Sudanese officials including president Omer al-Bashir charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“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.
The spokesperson of Sudan’s foreign ministry, Youssef al-Kordofani, said today that his ministry summoned the Jordanian ambassador to Khartoum, Aa’id Gameel al-Dararga, and conveyed to him a strongly worded message renouncing statements of his country’s UN permanent representative.
According to Kordofani, the foreign ministry underscored that the statement of Jordan before the UNSC had echoed the same demands of the ICC prosecutor against Sudan.
“Sudan was surprised by Jordan’s statement not only because it came from a brotherly Arab country but also because it contradicted the position of the Arab and Islamic nations which categorically reject the ICC stances towards Sudan”, the statement said.
The foreign ministry emphasized that Jordan should offer an “overt and official” apology particularly as the Sudanese people have strongly denounced the unwarranted Jordanian position.
It went on to say that the Jordanian move does not conform to the brotherly and distinct ties between the two peoples and nations.
According to the statement, the Jordanian ambassador underscored his country’s keenness to maintain the brotherly and cooperative ties with Sudan, stressing there is no change in the Jordanian policy towards Khartoum.
He asserted that the statement of the Jordanian UN representative was unscripted and has not been approved by the Jordanian foreign ministry.
The ambassador further emphasised his country’s keenness to contain the situation in order to maintain the brotherly ties between the two countries.
The UNSC referred the Darfur case to the ICC under a Chapter VII resolution in 2005 since Sudan is not a state party to the court.
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.
Jordan is one of four Arab states along with Djibouti, Comoros Island and Tunisia which are members of the Hague-based court.
Despite singing off on Arab League declarations rejecting the warrants, Jordanian officials quietly stated they will honour their obligations under the ICC’s statute.
Jordan is also one of the very active states at the ICC and Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein was the first President of the ICC Assembly of States Parties from 2002-2005.
Following the first arrest warrant against Bashir in 2009, a senior Jordanian official speaking to the Kuwaiti based al-Jareeda newspaper on condition of anonymity that they cannot snub its obligations.
“We in Jordan wonder, how we would bring Israeli leaders to the ICC following the aggression on Gaza and demand non-execution of the court’s decisions?” the official asked.
At the time, the then Jordanian state minister for media and communication Nabil Al-Sharif said that his government “is committed to the international treaties and conventions it signed with international organizations and commissions”.
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 Security Council, the council has declined to take action mainly over China’s likely move to block any resolution that would compel Sudan to cooperate.
(ST)