France reiterates role for ICC in Sudan

PARIS, Feb 2, 2005 (KUNA) – France reiterated on Wednesday its view that the newly established International Criminal Court and not an “ad hoc” tribunal should examine war crimes or crimes against humanity in Sudan.

The United Nations Special Panel on the crisis in the Darfur region of Western Sudan has proposed that the ICC open a case for massive abuses of civilians, mainly by government-backed militias and principally by the “Janjaweed” group.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous

France said it supports a role for the ICC but the United States, which opposed the establishment of the court, has said it would prefer to see a special tribunal set up on the lines of those for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

But French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said those “ad hoc” bodies were set up more than ten years ago, and the situation today is different.

“A permanent jurisdiction now exists, destined precisely to find out about the situations in which the most serious human rights violations have been committed” he said.