Sudan’s president reiterates pledge not hand over Darfur suspects to ICC

KHARTOUM, Apr 28, 2005 (Sudan Tribune) — Sudanese president and Leader of the ruling National Congress (NC) party Omar Hassan al-Bashir has reiterated his solemn pledge that no Sudanese national will ever be handed over for trial at a foreign court, the officail SUNA reported yesterday.

Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir gestures during his speech in Khartoum, Sudan, Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005, where he pledged to bring peace to the war-torn Darfur region. (AP).

“Some people think we are afraid of America, Europe and the UN; but we are not because we believe that nothing will ever touch us unless it is decreed by God Almighty,” he said.

In his address on the occasion of the Prophet Birthday at the NC General Headquarters, he went on to say “arrogant powers have tried over the past 16 years to undermine Sudan by bringing political, economic and military pressures to bear”. But, he adds, “all their past efforts have failed and that all their future efforts will also end in a failure”.

“Sudan has come out of the war with the south in a stronger economic position, to the astonishment of whole world, thanks to its reliance on God,” he added.

The president pointed out that the peace agreement with the south stipulated that the Shari’ah would be the main source of legislation in all the northern states.

And this is what the new constitution would say, he insisted.

He went on to say: work will continue until all the clauses of the peace agreement are implemented and that all the new state institutions are in place before 9 July 2005, the date by which the interim period must end.

Al-Bashir said furthermore that the government would able to resolve the Darfur problem without foreign meddling or tutelage.

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday March 31, 2005 voted to refer war crimes cases in Sudan’s Darfur region to the International Criminal Court after Washington, which opposes the tribunal, decided to abstain rather than veto the resolution.

In January a panel of U.N.-appointed investigators concluded that the ICC was the best place for trials since Sudan had shown little willingness to prosecute suspects. It has drawn up a sealed list of 51 suspects the ICC should investigate.