UPDATE-France delays UN vote on criminal court for Sudan

UNITED NATIONS, March 24 (Reuters) – France backed off from a confrontation with the United States on Thursday and said it would delay until next week a U.N. vote on a resolution referring Sudanese war crimes cases to the International Criminal Court.

Had the U.N. Security Council vote gone forward, it would have forced Washington to choose between casting an embarrassing veto of a measure to punish war crimes in Sudan’s western Darfur region or accepting a tribunal it rejects.

French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said he had agreed to the delay at the request of some delegations who needed more time to study the text. China had been the first to suggest a delay, other diplomats said.

“Some delegations, when we presented the text yesterday, called us to ask for some days to reflect on it and seek instructions” from their governments, de la Sabliere told reporters. “I will inform – this afternoon – the other members of the council the exact date of the vote which will take place next week.”

A separate Security Council vote set for later on Thursday was expected to go forward. That would be on a U.S. draft resolution authorizing a 10,000-strong peacekeeping force to monitor a January peace accord ending a separate civil war that has raged for 21 years in southern Sudan.

The council has been haggling for months over a comprehensive resolution on Sudan, but has deadlocked over where to try perpetrators of atrocities in Darfur. The issue of whether to impose sanctions on rebel and government leaders of the conflict in Darfur has also been a sticking point.

Seeking to push the war crimes issue to a conclusion, France called for a Thursday vote on its 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.

The United States has circulated a draft offering options for 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.

But the George W. Bush administration is so strongly opposed to the ICC that it has fought in recent months to prevent U.N. bodies from even mentioning the ICC on U.N. property. It says it fears U.S. citizens could face politically motivated prosecutions, while court members say there are adequate protections to prevent this.

But proponents of strong action against Darfur war crimes said they feared a U.S. veto would send a signal to Sudan that its officials, militia leaders and rebels were safe from punishment in the region, where fighting is escalating, tens of thousands have been killed and some 2 million people have been herded into squalid camps.

Prior to the delay of the French draft, it was uncertain whether at least nine of the Security Council’s 15 members would vote in favor of the ICC, the minimum needed to adopt a resolution. If there were not enough votes, the United States would have been spared a veto.

Diplomats said on Wednesday they 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.