Sudan urges AU countries to walk out from ICC

(Sudan Tribune)-- African nations should reconsider an en masse withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC), a Sudanese official said today. The plea was made during a speech by the Sudanese state minister for foreign affairs Kamal Hassan Ali at the 18th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council in Addis Ababa.

Ali said that the ICC interference in Sudan hurt the political process in Darfur through politicizing justice and as a result of the conduct of its prosecutor whom he described as a ‘political activist’. To date, the Hague tribunal charged three individuals from the government side including president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, South Kordofan governor Ahmed Haroun and militia leader Ali Kushayb.

All three face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity but Bashir is also wanted for genocide in connection with claims that he orchestrated a campaign to wipe out the African tribes of Fur, Zaghawa and Masaalit in Darfur.

The AU backed Bashir and instructed its members not to cooperate with the ICC in apprehending Bashir even if they are signatories to the Rome Statute, which is the founding treaty of the ICC.

However, some countries later dissented from this resolution. The Sudanese diplomat cited the Kenyan case investigated by the court saying it demonstrated what they have warned of before. ‘You may recall that we told you that Bashir is not the target [of the ICC] but that it is the beginning of a scenario aimed at African leaders one after the other and right now you bear witness on the validity of this scenario developed by Ocampo with suspicious circles,’ Ali said in his prepared remarks.

‘This requires from us bold and courageous decisions leading to the withdrawal from this politicised court which was devoted to Africa and deliberately turned a blind eye for what happened in Iraq, Gaza and Afghanistan,’ he added.

In June 2009 a special meeting was convened in Addis Ababa for the purpose of discussing collective withdrawal from the court by the 30-plus African members.

Sudan has lobbied African countries to withdraw their ratification of the treaty as a show of solidarity while some Sudanese officials have said that they hope such action would weaken The Hague based court. But the proposal was turned down and the participants reiterated call on the UN Security Council (UNSC) to suspend the case against Bashir.

Currently, the AU summit is considering a request from Kenya to support a UNSC deferral of the case against six of its citizens named in an application by the ICC prosecutor last month. Kenya argues it needs time to pass laws meant to revamp the judiciary and appoint a new Chief Justice as required under its new constitution promulgated in August, enabling the country to establish a local court or tribunal to try the cases.

However critics claim that the Kenyan government wants to protect its top class from prosecution and that the parliament has failed twice before the ICC intervention to agree on a local tribunal. Furthermore, they said that the UNSC cannot defer ICC cases unless it decides that the situation poses a threat to international peace and security.

The AU, which said last Friday during the visit by Kenyan Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka to Addis Ababa that it was focused on combating impunity, has urged Kenya to work closely with the ICC over the trials. ‘We haven’t called for Kenya to ignore the ICC ... Kenya is in the process of setting up a judiciary which was not functioning to the confidence of the people before this constitution was put in place,’ the commission’s deputy chairman, Erastus Mwencha, told Reuters.

‘Kenya is now saying directly (it wants) to set up a system that can enable it to try those individuals, and if the ICC will give them that opportunity then they will try (them). They have given the indication that they will work with the ICC.’ Nonetheless it is expected that heads of state will endorse the Kenya’s request though countries like Botswana said they are opposed to it.

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