ICC Prosecutor Updates Security Council on Darfur
President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan may be a wanted man, but his day in court could be years away.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Bashir in March 2009, charging that his government has been promoting widespread killing and rape among millions of civilians displaced by the ongoing civil war in Darfur and preventing food and medicine from reaching those civilians. Since then, Bashir has defied the warrant and remained in power in Sudan.
In a recent development, the court's prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo gave his ninth briefing on the situation in Darfur to the UN Security Council on June 5. He told the council that it is now the responsibility of the Sudanese government and states parties to the Rome Statute, the founding document of the court, to enforce the warrants against Bashir and other Sudanese leaders wanted by the court. The Security Council originally requested that the court investigate allegations of war crimes in Darfur in March 2005.
"The implementation of a judicial decision against a head of state is a process that can take time, months or years," Moreno-Ocampo said, citing the example of Charles Taylor of Liberia, who is under arrest at The Hague and undergoing trial by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. "In the end, however, they all faced justice."
Moreno-Ocampo told the council that he did not plan to open any new cases in Sudan in the next six months and that he would be increasing his judicial cooperation with regional authorities there, some of whom have been critical of the court. Yet he also told the council that he would still observe and investigate criminal activity in Sudan over the next six months.
Speaking after the briefing, Moreno-Ocampo stressed the importance of the efforts that are under way to broker a peace agreement between government and rebel groups in Sudan.
"Today we are at a crossroads," he said, "there is a chance to prevent crimes. The absolute priority is to establish a cease-fire."
African Union and Arab League-lead peace talks between the government of Sudan and the Justice and Equality Movement, one of two major insurgent groups, took place most recently in Doha, Qatar, on May 27.
In addition to representatives of the African Union and the Arab League, envoys from the permanent-five members of the Security Council and the European Union participated in the talks, according to the US State Department.
Moreno-Ocampo said that he attended the May 27 meeting at the invitation of the Qatari government and that he was encouraged by the progress he saw.
"The work of the AU-UN mediation for Darfur is crucial to ensure a comprehensive solution and security for the Darfuris now," he said. "A year ago, nobody could have dreamed that the peace process would progress so. One year ago, there was no peace process. Last week, I saw real hope and commitment."
Richard Dicker, the director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, said that the court prosecutor's statement to the Security Council that he would not be opening new cases in Sudan through the end of the year was surprising.
"One would think that a prosecutor would follow evidence where it leads," he said. "It strikes me as odd."
Human Rights Watch has called on the Security Council to press for the arrest of Bashir.
Despite Moreno-Ocampo's praise for regional diplomatic efforts, critics in African regional organizations and governments contend that the prosecutor's office has unfairly targeted African nations.
The African Union has called on the council to instruct the court to defer action on the case against Bashir for one year, an action allowed under the Rome Statute, the founding document of the court. Such a deferral would have to be renewed every year.
Speaking to reporters after the prosecutor's appearance at the council on June 5, the permanent representative of Sudan to the UN, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, reiterated his country's unwillingness to acknowledge the international court.
"We are in no way going to cooperate with this politically motivated court," Mohamad said, as Moreno-Ocampo stood next to him outside the Security Council's chambers. "This is a court of European justice, European justice that enslaved and killed millions in Africa."
Dicker said that the African Union's call for the council to defer the warrant for Bashir was "a position that reasonable people can disagree on," and observed that such a move would be acting within the rules that established the court.
The biggest obstacle, he said, was the unwillingness of the Sudanese government to cooperate with the court.
"If there's frustration in Addis," Dicker said, referring to the headquarters of the African Union, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, "they should direct that to Khartoum."
tagged with: Africa, Darfur, International Criminal Court, Omar al-Bashir, Security Council, Sudan, UNA World Bulletin, United Nations, war crimes
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