Arab League criticises ICC Sudan charges

• Last Updated: July 20. 2008 11:36AM UAE / July 20. 2008 7:36AM GMT

Arab foreign ministers gather in Cairo for crisis talks on how to deal with the International Criminal Court prosecutor's bid to arrest the Sudan president Omar Bashir for alleged genocide in Darfur. AFP

CAIRO // The Arab League has criticised the International Criminal Court’s “unbalanced” prosecutor for seeking the arrest of the Sudanese president Omar Bashir, saying Sudan’s courts should judge alleged Darfur war crimes.

Arab foreign ministers stressed “the mandate of Sudan’s civil judiciary in achieving justice”, in a resolution following crisis talks in Cairo over how to deal with the ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s request on Monday for Mr Bashir to be arrested on genocide charges.

The resolution also criticised Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s “unbalanced stance” for asking ICC judges to issue a warrant for Mr Bashir’s arrest, which, if granted, would be the first ever issued by The Hague-based court against a sitting head of state.

Some of the Arab League’s 22 members had previously criticised Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s move, and said it threatened peace prospects in Darfur, while also fearing a dangerous precedent for other leaders in the region.

The ministers called for trials of Darfur war crimes suspects to take place in Sudan, and vowed that “effective justice will be realised with the follow-up of the Arab League and the African Union”.

Khartoum has consistently rejected the ICC’s jurisdiction, and said it would try alleged war criminals in its own courts, although credible trials have so far failed to materialise.

Sudan has refused to surrender two suspects named last year in connection with war crimes in Darfur and hopes to persuade veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council to defer any ICC prosecution of Mr Bashir.

“We noted a lack of balance in [Moreno-Ocampo’s] report because it contains nothing about the [Darfur] rebel movements and what they’ve done,” the Arab League chief Amr Moussa told journalists following more than seven hours of talks.

However, on Thursday, Mr Moreno-Ocampo vowed to prosecute Darfur rebel commanders allegedly responsible for the killing of 10 African Union troops last year, saying the ICC had the names of the alleged perpetrators.

“Sudanese justice will have a very important role in the next stage,” Mr Moussa said, adding that he would take an Arab action plan to Khartoum today.

He refused to say what the plan was until he discussed it with Sudanese leaders.

“We will co-ordinate with the African Union and pursue contacts with the UN,” he said. “This crisis will have a considered solution.”

However, the Arab ministers made no mention of asking the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution requesting the ICC suspend its procedures for 12 months, as had been mooted.

Such a suspension, which is indefinitely renewable, would be in tandem with African efforts, after the Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade asked the ICC to freeze its prosecution for a year, citing Article 16 of the Rome Statute which created the court.

“If the prosecution of al-Bashir continues, the situation in Darfur could worsen and plunge into indescribable chaos,” Mr Wade warned.

The conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan broke out in 2003, when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum and state-backed militias.

The United Nations has said 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have been displaced. Khartoum puts the number of dead at 10,000.

The ICC is the world’s first permanent tribunal for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity,

*AFP