France pushes for UN vote on Sudan; US may veto

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS, March 24 (Reuters) – France is to put to a vote on Thursday a U.N. resolution referring Sudanese war crimes cases to the International Criminal Court, daring Washington to cast an embarrassing veto or accept a tribunal it opposes.

Jean-Marc de La Sablière, the Permanent Representative of France to the UN .

After weeks of haggling on a comprehensive resolution on Sudan, the U.N. Security Council has been deadlocked on where to try perpetrators of atrocities in the country’s western region of Darfur.

On Wednesday, France’s U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, introduced a draft resolution that would refer Darfur cases to the ICC, the world’s first permanent criminal court, as recommended by a U.N. panel of experts in January.

But the United States offered to create a new U.N.-African Union tribunal in Tanzania that has drawn little support, with several council members arguing that only the ICC already has investigators on staff ready to begin work.

The Bush administration objects to this court, set up in The Hague to try war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. It fears U.S. citizens could face politically motivated prosecutions.

However, a U.S. veto could send a signal to Sudan that its officials, militia leaders and rebels were safe from punishment in Darfur, where fighting is escalating, tens of thousands have been killed and some 2 million people have been herded into squalid camps.

Uncertain yet is whether nine Security Council members will vote in favor of the ICC, the minimum needed to adopt a resolution in the 15-member council. If there are not enough votes, the United States would be spared a veto.

On Wednesday, diplomats believed at least 10 countries supported the French draft. Nine council members have ratified the treaty creating the ICC — Argentina, Benin, Brazil, Britain, Denmark, France, Greece, Romania and Tanzania.

The Bush administration, in the forefront of trying to get action on Sudan, sought to break the deadlock on Tuesday by splitting its original resolution into three.

The first one, expected to be adopted on Thursday afternoon, would establish a 10,000-strong peacekeeping force to monitor a January peace accord between Khartoum and southern rebels that ended a 21-year old civil war.

The second one would call for a tough arms embargo and impose travel and an assets freeze against individuals still to be named. But China, Russia and Algeria oppose this.

The third draft offered options for future discussion on where to try cases: the ICC, the U.S.-proposed Tanzania tribunal, or an African panel for “justice and reconciliation” suggested recently by Nigeria.