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AU
says Bashir warrant pouring
"oil on fire" |
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 KHARTOUM(August
5, 2008)
- The African Union said on Monday a move by the International Criminal
Court (ICC) to indict Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for
genocide and war crimes in Darfur was pouring "oil on the fire".
Africa's top diplomat Jean Ping met Bashir and other officials in
Khartoum and urged the U.N. Security Council to suspend the ICC investigation
into the president while peace efforts continue.
"While we are trying to extinguish the fire here with our troops,
we don't understand that they chose that moment to put more oil on
the fire," Ping told reporters after meeting Bashir.
FIve years of war have brought humanitarian disaster to the western
Sudan region, and campaigners accuse the world of failing to provide
helicopters and other vital support for a struggling peacekeeping
mission there
Some 9,500 mainly African troops are already deployed in a joint U.N.-AU
Union peacekeeping effort (UNAMID), but U.N. bureaucracy and Sudanese
delays have prevented the force reaching its planned complement of
26,000 troops and police.
The U.N. Security Council renewed the peacekeepers' mandate for another
year last Thursday
Ping said of the ICC: "You are dealing with people who died;
we are also dealing with people who are still alive.
"You should take into account not only the problem of justice
but also the problem of peace -- together would be very useful."
Regional powers worry that any indictment would cause problems for
UNAMID and stall any peace process. But rights groups call the ICC
move a blow against impunity.
The ICC chief prosecutor last month asked the court for an arrest
warrant for Bashir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity,
saying his state apparatus was directly responsible for killing 35,000
people and indirectly for the deaths of at least 100,000 more in Sudan's
remote west.
The court's charter allows the Security Council to suspend any investigation
or warrant for up to 12 month.
Ping said the U.N. should do this "as soon as possible."
"We think that this decision should be examined clearly because
we are here in Africa and the troops who are here are Africans, those
who are dying are Africans," he said.
"The rest of the world should help us in understanding the problems
we are facing in the field."
Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central
government of neglect. Khartoum mobilised mostly Arab militia to quell
the revolt but they now stand accused of a widespread campaign of
terror, rape and murder.
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