Sudan President Omar al-Bashir is fighting to maintain the sovereignty of his central African nation.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA Feb 02 2009 14:28
Sudan's President Omar el-Beshir sought backing from his peers on Monday to avoid a war-crimes trial amid complaints that African leaders appear to be the sole targets of the world court.
An African Union summit in Ethiopia is considering a text expressing "deep concern" over an arrest warrant against el-Beshir requested by the International Criminal Court's (ICC) chief prosecutor, according to a copy of the document obtained by AFP.
While insisting that the AU remains committed to fighting impunity, the text says: "Considering the delicate nature of the peace process underway in Sudan, the approval of this request risks seriously compromising those efforts."
The ICC chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, wants to try el-Beshir for alleged war crimes in the western region of Sudan, which is suffering a bloody civil war.
Denying all the charges, Khartoum has refused to cooperate with the ICC.
El-Beshir's foreign affairs adviser Mustapha Osman Ismael told AFP that he believed the summit, which wraps up on Tuesday, would back his country.
"The organisation has made a stand before by asking for a postponement" in the request for the arrest warrant, he said on the sidelines of closed-door talks at the summit.
"As they have showed solid support to Sudan in the past, we are expecting their backing to resume this time as well." The latest move against an African president has drawn concern at the summit, where some officials say it appears the ICC is only targeting African leaders.
"What emerged from the debate that we have, is that we think there is a problem with ICC targeting only Africans, as if Africa has been a place to experiment with their ideas," AU Commission chief Jean Ping told reporters.
"A judge should be impartial," he said. "The law should apply to everyone and not only the weak."
Ping said that the international community often denounces African leaders for failing to pursue justice at home, but questioned why similar action was not demanded for conflicts in Gaza, Iraq or Sri Lanka.
"We are raising this type of question because we don't want a double standard. But we are not against fighting impunity," he said.
"We have to judge our criminals ourselves. That is why we have decided to constitute a high-level panel to help ourselves to try people accused," he added, saying that the panel could be led by former South African president Thabo Mbeki.
The African Union has moved to prosecute former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre, whose government was accused of some 40 000 political killings and who now lives in exile in Senegal.
In July 2006, the African Union asked Senegal to prosecute Habre for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but he is still awaiting trial.
The AU is also concerned by "abuses of the principle of universal jurisdiction", according to another text from the executive council.
The case in point was Rose Kabuye, chief of protocol to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who was arrested in Germany on a French warrant over accusations of conspiracy to a political murder which sparked the 1994 genocide.
The bloc said negotiations are still underway with the European Union for a possible moratorium on international arrest warrants issued by EU countries, and deplored Kabuye's arrest, which it said "created a tense situation between the AU and the EU". -- Sapa-AFP
Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-02-02-sudan-seeks-to-rally-au-against-warcrimes-charges
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