Arab League intensifies effort to solve current Sudan-ICC problem

Sudan agrees on Moussa's plan in Khartoum

President al-Bashir: We'll never surrender any citizen for court outside Sudan

GCC rejects ICC's "double standards"

Egypt urges Security Council to act to preserve Sudan stability

President of the Republic, Field Marshal Omer Al-Bashir, has affirmed Sudan rejection to any intervention in its domestic affairs and practicing of blackmail and pressure against the Sudanese nation. This came during his meeting at the Guest House with the visiting delegation of the Arab Lawyers Union, which is headed by its Chairman, Sami Ashoor.

President Al-Bashir stressed that Sudan will never succumb, surrender or hand over any Sudanese citizen to any foreign circle.

A meeting between Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa ended without reaching a common ground on how to deal with the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor's request for an arrest warrant against the Sudanese leader.

Moussa, speaking to reporters following the two-hour-long meeting, said they have agreed to continue discussions and that he would be meeting with the vice-president and other officials.

ICC prosecutor asked the criminal court to issue an arrest warrant against Al-Bashir for committing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Moussa said the Sudanese government was in harmony with the vision he proposed. "We are talking about formulating a common vision" to tackle the ICC issue.

He said he conveyed to Al-Bashir the outcome of an extraordinary meeting of the Arab foreign ministers, held in Cairo.

Mustafa Othman Ismail, Al-Bashir's advisor, said discussions with Moussa would continue, and "we hope the vision will get clearer before the Secretary General's travel time."

In Khartoum for extensive talks, Moussa reviewed with Al-Bashir and aides a set of political and legal moves to be adopted by Khartoum and the Arab League in cooperation with the African Union (AU) that rejected the Moreno-Ocampo's charges. Moussa also met with AU-UN Joint Special Representative for Darfur Rodolphe Adada, to coordinate cooperation between the Arab, African and international organizations on realizing peace and justice in Darfur.

On the political front, the Arab and African organizations would lobby support, especially within the UN Security Council, to "procrastinate" ICC approval of its prosecutor-general's arrest demand. The statute establishing the ICC allows the UN Security Council to pass resolutions deferring for a year the investigation or prosecution of any given case. The council can also renew such resolutions. In parallel, the AU and Arab League would act to speed up political reconciliation between Khartoum and Darfur's rebels.

In the words of one Egyptian diplomat, the reconciliation process has been delayed by the "unjustified support that the Darfur rebels have been getting from certain Western quarters, which had prompted them to make unrealistic demands on wealth and power sharing with the Khartoum regime."

According to the same diplomat, the Moreno-Ocampo charges could only accentuate the "stubbornness of the Darfur rebels" and this might further block political reconciliation. "The important thing now is that the political consultations, which would be conducted in the coming few days, should send a clear message to the rebels that whatever they call for in any future negotiations has to be realistic and that the world is not supporting them right or wrong," the Egyptian diplomat added.

Within the political package supported by Al-Bashir, the Arab League in cooperation with the AU and the UN would call for a regional -- or even international -- reconciliation conference on Darfur with the aim of concluding a peace agreement. "We are asking that the ICC indictment be deferred to give peace a chance," Nigerian Foreign Affairs Ojo Maduekwe told reporters following an emergency AU meeting in Addis Ababa.

The Arab League chief Amr Moussa met with Sudan president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir and offered a plan aimed at stalling the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Darfur.

The plan, which was not disclosed, is believed to include holding national proceedings for Darfur war crimes. According to the Rome Statue the ICC will not look in a case that has been prosecuted in local courts.

The Arab League said in the resolution that Sudanese judiciary is capable of prosecuting Darfur war crime suspect and described the ICC’s prosecutor position as “unbalanced”.

Sudan official news agency (SUNA) quoted Moussa as saying that there is an acceptance from Khartoum to the plan.

However Sudan presidential adviser Mustafa Ismail told reporters that no decision has been made yet on Moussa’s plan.

The Arab League chief said he will meet with Sudan Vice President and other officials tomorrow to continue discussions on the plan.

The ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges to issue arrest warrants for Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.

Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. Judges are expected to take months to study the evidence before deciding whether to order Al-Bashir’s arrest.

Sudan dispatched a number of its envoys to Libya, Iran and Qatar seeking support against the ICC. Despite the Arab League resolution, most Arab governments maintained silence after the ICC announcement.

The Arab League has criticized 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 for Bashir to be arrested on genocide charges.

The resolution also criticized Moreno-Ocampo’s “unbalanced stance” for asking ICC judges to issue a warrant for 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 criticized 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 realized 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 materialize.

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 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, 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,” Moussa said, adding that he would take an Arab action plan to Khartoum.

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,” 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.

Sudanese minister of state for foreign affairs, Al-Samani al-Wasilah, has asserted that "Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir will call for a comprehensive national dialogue during his upcoming visit to Darfur Province and will urge the people there to close the page of the past and participate in building the homeland."

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on the sidelines of Arab League [AL] Secretary General Amr Moussa's visit to Sudan, Al-Wasilah praised the AL's role in dealing with the crisis and talked about the second stage for the solution which starts after Moussa's visit and during which a dialogue will begin with the United Nations and coordination with the African Union.

He pointed out that the Sudanese judiciary had tried all those who proved to have been involved in committing crimes in Darfur and therefore he (Al-Wasilah) believes that the Sudanese judiciary should be given the opportunity to complete its task in accordance with the conditions of the Sudanese society which is more interested in the reconciliations system and cordial solution than the judicial one. He referred to the efforts the Senegalese president is exerting at present to restore Sudanese-Chadian relations back to normal and underlined Sudan's interest and desire for this relationship that needs to be based on mutual respect and sincere intentions so as to end the clash and dispute between the two countries.

Al-Wasilah went on to say, "We are hoping that President Al-Bashir's visit to Darfur will be an incentive for action because the dialogue falls within the framework of a national vision in which all the parties participated so as to close this page, bring Darfur back to normal, and contribute to the advancement of the political and economic process in Sudan."

Regarding the Chad and Sudan dossier, the Sudanese minister of state said "action on the dossier was resumed last week through [Senegalese] President Abdullah Wade's initiative and the two sides declared they were ready to restore relations. This will take a procedural track. All in all, we are improving relations and seeking to let Sudan have balanced relations with all countries on condition that the intentions are sincere and mutual and international charters regulating relations with neighboring countries are respected."

Regarding the Darfur rebels' exploitation of the International Criminal Court's [ICC] stand to escalate against the regime in Sudan, Al-Wasilah stated, "None of these parties are expected to have a stand and change it easily but our brothers in the armed movements and factions are expected to act to close this page. We ask until when this situation in Darfur will remain.

We believe everyone is responsible -- the government, opposition, armed factions, and political parties -- because we are seeking to stop this attrition which is harming the country's stability. All must take stands which help build the homeland. I therefore appeal to them from this platform beware because no matter how deep the dispute is, only by dialogue we can get rid of all the past's negative attitudes. The negotiating table is the only way to achieve the demands." Regarding Sudan's stand on the Arab plan for resolving the crisis, he said "Sudan was part of the Arab foreign ministers' meetings and presented its view which was endorsed totally. We therefore value what was agreed on during the Arab foreign ministers' meeting."

When asked Whether or not Sudan offer more investigations and trials of defendants in Darfur cases, Al-Wasilah told Asharq Al-Awsat, "Sudan's judiciary continues the trials but these cases cannot be handled emotionally or speeded up for any purposes other than achieving justice. They might take time and it should be taken into account that such leaks that happen from time to time are the ones impeding the judicial process because they cause internal confusion in society."

Concerning the government's stand of the three-month period set by the prosecutor and the ICC, Al-Wasilah said, "We will not have any dialogue with the ICC or enter into stands with it to recognize it. The talks will be with the organizations in which we are members, that is, the regional ones which have the right under the UN Charter to manage the dossiers that achieve security, peace, and cooperation within their sphere of action."

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) fully backed procedures taken by the Sudanese government to secure peace in its Darfur district that acquire sovereignty and security in its lands.

In a press statement, GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman Al-Atiyyah stressed his disapproval regarding accusations by the International Criminal Court's (ICC) chief prosecutor against Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, ordering his apprehension for genocide in Darfur.

The Secretary General said "it is with our gratitude that we accept the noble intentions of the international judiciaries, yet at the same time we must negate any legal accusations that exceed the strict adherence of international law, presents continued double standards and regards justice and peace as two compatible principles." He expressed belief that a treaty issued by the ICC in regard, did not place any country under the obligation of its signature, complying with ICC policy that in event, does not place these countries under the ICC jurisdiction.

Only a small number of countries have signed the treaty prepared by the ICC in Rome, he added.

The ICC action was deemed a case of double standards by the GCC Secretary General, who indicated to an ICC overstepping of the fundamentals of international humanitarian law which should be imposed on all conflicts without discrimination, signifying to the continued aggression on the Palestinian people by Israeli occupation.

Al-Atiyyah emphasized that the ICC should not operate in isolation of efforts for peaceful settlements, stating that the respect of justice represents a vital assurance for a peaceful solution which in-turn pave the way to prospects of integrity and legal sovereignty.

The GCC's full support of international humanitarian legislation was also underlined by Al-Atiyyah, who asserted in equal respect, the need to move forward in reaching a ceasefire settlement, adding that any destruction of peaceful negotiations and arrangements in Darfur, would only result in a damaging position.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said it was important that Sudanese justice move ahead. "One of the important points of the Arab resolution is the call for Sudanese justice to complete its efforts to establish Sudanese justice concerning events in Darfur," Abul Gheit told journalists.

He also said it was "necessary for the UN Security Council to assume its responsibility to save stability in Sudan," suggesting a later appeal to the Security Council for it to intervene.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said the pan-Arab body is exerting all efforts in coordination with the African Union (AU) and the UN Security Council (UNSC) to politically and legally overcome Sudanese and the International Criminal Court (ICC) dispute.

The League's Chief, after an extraordinary meeting of Arab foreign ministers here, described in a joint press conference with the session's President in the League Council and Foreign Minister of Djibouti Mahmoud Ali Yusuf that the current predicament as dangerous.

"During the last couple of days the League held extensive meetings and discussions with a number of well known lawmakers on the issue, and on "how to proceed, including discussion on the political side and the role of the UNSC with such dangerous situation," Moussa said.

The Arab League Chief noted that during those meetings agreement were reached to proceed with caution and "until the Sudanese President, the African Union and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon all been notified.

For his part, Djibouti Foreign Minister Yusuf explained that there is a serious effort by the ministers to end the crisis, adding that Sudan now needs all the support it can get.

Arab Foreign Ministers concluded their meetings in the Arab League slamming the ICC's top prosecutor and dubbing the charges as unbalanced prosecution, noting that Sudan's courts should judge alleged Darfur war crimes.

In their final communiqué, the ministers asserted their support to Sudan and rejected all attempts of "politicizing principles and international justice," the statement noted.

The final communiqué further called on the importance of respecting Sudan's sovereignty, unity and to support peace and reconciliation efforts in among Sudanese factions.

The communiqué also warned against sending a negative signal to Sudanese rebel movements which might raise determination in rejecting political settlement and stability in Sudan.

The ministers stressed as well that "the mandate of Sudan's civil judiciary in achieving justice," in a resolution following crisis talks in Cairo over how to deal with ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's request for Sudanese President Al-Bashir to be arrested on genocide charges.

The resolution also criticized Moreno-Ocampo's "unbalanced stance" for asking ICC judges to issue a warrant for Al-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 have previously criticized Moreno-Ocampo's move, saying it threatens peace prospects in Darfur, while also alarming of a dangerous precedent for other leaders in the region.

The Yemeni Parliament announced solidarity of the Yemeni people with Sudan over the recent decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Saba reported.

The parliament highlighted official stance of Yemen's leaderships represented by President Ali Abdullah Saleh who rejected all accusation presented by the general prosecutor of the court against Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.

The statement of the parliament said that such accusations are illegal and intervention in the internal affairs of Sudan.

The parliament called on all Islamic and Arab parliaments as well as Arab league and Organization of Islamic Conference to announce their stance to reject such accusations and offer support for Sudan to face such pressure targeting stability and unity of Sudan.