EU hails decision to send Sudan crimes to court

BRUSSELS, April 1 (Reuters) – The European Union on Friday hailed a United Nations decision to refer suspected war crimes in Sudan to a new International Criminal Court, calling the move a key precedent for enforcing global justice.

The decision, on which the United States abstained rather than casting a veto, was a diplomatic victory for supporters of the court, who have sought to establish its legitimacy in the teeth of fierce opposition by the Bush administration.

“Last night’s vote marks a crucial stage in the defence of human rights and respect for international law,” EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.

The agreement showed “the efficiency of transatlantic dialogue”, Solana said, referring to a deal under which European countries agreed to grant immunity from the court for U.S. personnel who serve in Sudan in return for Washington’s agreement to let the resolution pass.

Pro-government militias are blamed for killing, rape and pillaging in Sudan’s Darfur region in which at least 70,000 people are estimated to have died in a year and 1.8 million have been made homeless since fighting began in February 2003.

Diplomats said the United States was ill placed to veto sending the case to the ICC after it had itself branded the killings genocide and a U.N. commission said the perpetrators should be tried by the court.

But in an interview with Reuters in February, Solana was pessimistic about the prospects for such an accord, saying the U.N. Security Council would probably have to refer the Darfur case to an existing ad hoc tribunal trying war crimes in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.