Sudan: Defiant President Omar Hassan al-Bashir In Doha Ahead Of Arab Summit Monday / Sudan Leader Thanks Arab Summit For Support

Sudan: Defiant President Omar Hassan al-Bashir In Doha Ahead Of Arab Summit Monday / Sudan Leader Thanks Arab Summit For Support

(NSI News Source Info) March 30, 2009: Sudan's embattled President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is in Qatar's capital, Doha ahead of an Arab Summit scheduled to begin today despite an arrest warrant against him issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The summit, however, is expected to support President Bashir officially over the ICC-issued directive despite deep divisions in the Arab world over the indictment. Some political observers believe Qatar will not enforce the arrest warrant since it is not a signatory to the ICC charter establishing the court. The Hague-based international court issued the arrest warrant after Bashir was accused of masterminding war crimes in Darfur. Claude Salhani is the editor of the Middle East Times newspaper. He tells reporter Peter Clottey that President Bashir's presence tarnishes the significance of the Arab summit. "It is going to be an interesting meeting, especially given the fact that the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon is going to be present at this meeting. And he will attend this Monday's session in the presence of Mr. Bashir, and that is going to be an embarrassing moment for Ban Ki-moon. Other than that, I think the Arab League seems to be divided, nothing new in this sense over the issue of Bashir. Some are supporting him, others are not. What's interesting is Mubarak (Egypt's president) is not going to attend this meeting, although he had hosted Bashir a few days ago," Salhani noted. He said the motivations behind the support of Bashir over the ICC arrest warrant could be attributed to several reasons including noncooperation. "It seems that some are making a stance and some are saying like Colonel Gaddafi of Libya for example said that this is an attempt by west to re-colonize their former colonies. He has always got something interesting to say, and he called it a practice of first-world terrorism. So this is a sign of defiance, I guess. On the one hand, I think Qatar is in a peculiar situation, where as the host of this meeting, it would have been hard for them to say no to President Bashir. But on the other hand, Qatar is not a signatory. They haven't signed a charter, which obliges member states to arrest those indicted once they land on their territory. So they get off the hook that way," he said. Salhani said if an Arab League member country has not signed the charter establishing the ICC, it is under no obligation to enforce the arrest warrant against Sudan's President Bashir. "First of all they have to be signatories of the charter. I don't think all of them are. So it depends on if they have signed the declaration of the charter. Then they are obliged by international law to abide by the ruling and to arrest those indicted by the International Criminal Court. But as long as they haven't signed, it's up to the individual leader of that country to decide whether he wants to follow the international ruling or not. He is under no international obligation to do so," Salhani pointed out. He said President Bashir's presence will undermine the importance of the Arab summit in Doha. "In a way it is disadvantage that Mr. Bashir is going to be in Qatar because he is going to take away some of the spotlight on the real issues, and I'm not saying this is not important. But I'm saying for the Arab world, there are some much more urgent matters that they need to discuss and focus on rather than the presence or not of one particular man. Because the presence of President Bashir is not going to change anything in global geo-politics, whereas decisions made on the ground there can change things in the Middle East," he said. This is Bashir's fourth international trip after the ICC issued an arrest warrant against him accusing him of being the brain behind the massacre of Darfuris in the troubled Darfur region. He arrived in Qatar Sunday, after visits to neighboring Egypt, Eritrea, and Libya last week. Some in the Arab world including Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi have sharply denounced the arrest warrant, describing it as an orchestration by western countries to re-colonize the Middle East and adding that it amounts to first-world terrorism. Experts believe that up to 300-thousand people have died and 2.7 million driven from their homes in the Darfur conflict since 2003. According to the joint UN- African Union peacekeeping mission, currently around 15-thousand strong is deployed in Darfur, but its forces remain under-equipped, and it has been attacked by warring factions. The United Nations and humanitarian workers say Sudan's order to expel the 13 aid groups, including Oxfam GB and CARE International punches a giant hole in the safety net that has kept many Darfur civilians alive during six years of war in the vast, arid region of western Sudan. The ICC accuses Bashir of leading a counterinsurgency against Darfur rebels that involves rapes, killings, and other atrocities against civilians. Bashir rejects the charges and refuses to deal with the ICC. Arab and African countries are pressing the UN Security Council to defer any prosecution for at least a year, hoping to defuse the crisis. They contend that the move will worsen conditions on the ground and put in jeopardy the lives of people living in Darfur. Khartoum expelled 13 of the largest aid groups operating in Darfur as part of its defiant response to the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant. The Bashir government accuses the agencies of working closely with the ICC.

Libyan Leader Moamer Kadhafi Slams ICC As 'New Form Of World Terrorism'

Libyan Leader Moamer Kadhafi Slams ICC As 'New Form Of World Terrorism'

(NSI News Source Info) ADDIS ABABA - March 29, 2009: Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi lambasted the International Criminal Court on Sunday as representing a "new form of world terrorism" that wanted to recolonise developing countries. Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, seen here on March 11, recently elected chairman of the 53-nation African Union, said Sunday that the International Criminal Court represented a "new form of world terrorism". "It is a known fact that all Third World countries are opposing the so-called ICC," the recently elected chairman of the 53-nation African Union told a press conference at the AU headquarters here. "This is the case right now. This court is against the countries colonised in the past and they want to recolonise now. It is a practice of a new world terrorism that is not below the standard of the other terrorism." Kadhafi's condemnation followed a call by Arab foreign ministers on Saturday on the Hague-based ICC to annul its arrest warrant against Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir. "It is not fair that a head of state should be arrested," he said. "If we allow such a thing... we should also try those who killed hundreds and millions of children in Iraq and in Gaza." The ICC issued a warrant for Beshir arrest earlier this month, accusing him of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. Many African and Arab states along with key ally China have condemned the ICC move and called for the warrant to be suspended. Beshir faces five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes. He is the first sitting president to be issued with a warrant by the ICC. The AU has argued that the prosecution jeopardised peace efforts in Sudan and on March 18 chided the UN Security Council for ignoring its requests to defer the warrant. The bloc's Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said they were awaiting a decision on the issue by Arab leaders due to their start their annual summit Sunday to make a united move. "We are about to set up a high-level delegation to go to New York to lobby the UN Security Council," Lamamra said. Beshir himself has made foreign trips to Eritrea, Egypt and Libya since the March 4 ICC arrest warrant. The ICC, the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal, does not have a police force and calls on signatory states to implement warrants. None of the three countries Beshir visited are parties to the court's statute. Kadhafi is to leave Addis Ababa later Sunday for the Arab summit in Doha. It is still unclear whether Beshir will attend the two-day meeting. Beshir is the first sitting president to be issued with a warrant by the ICC. The United Nations says 300,000 people have died in the six-year-long conflict between Darfur's ethnic minority rebels and the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum, which puts the figure at only 10,000. An estimated 2.7 million people more have fled their homes.

African Leaders Talk Tough On Darfur War Crimes

African Leaders Talk Tough On Darfur War Crimes (NSI News Source Info) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - February 8, 2009: African leaders on Wednesday supported a plan to delay the execution of an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir, but asked him to take steps to end rights violations in Darfur.

The African leaders went beyond words and asked the Sudanese leader to accept a team of lawyers from the African Union (AU) and the Arab League to help bring perpetrators of the violence in Darfur and help carry out investigations there.

In this photo released by the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers parade during the fourth anniversary celebrations of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, ending more than two decades of civil war, in Malakal, southern Sudan, Friday, Jan. 9, 2009. Sudan's embattled president marked the fourth anniversary of a fragile peace between the country's north and south, promising on Friday to restore confidence in national unity even as he faces accusations by an international court for war crimes in Darfur.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki is expected to lead a panel of lawyers to investigate human rights violations in Darfur and recommend measures to be taken against the perpetrators.

African leaders made an attempt to rescue President el-Bashir from an impending arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC) but the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon distanced himself from the move.

The UN Secretary-General who attended the meeting of the African leaders, said the issuance of an arrest warrant if the ICC decides on the matter, was solely an issue that he could not interfere with and asked Sudan to fully cooperate.

The African leaders said steps must be taken to address human rights violations in Darfur and reiterated calls made by the AU that the Sudan must take concrete steps to investigate the human rights violations in Darfur and stop abuses.

African leaders were adamant on the need to have a year-long stay of the arrest warrant to allow for the setting up of an independent justice system for Darfur.

They agreed to support Sudan to set an independent system of dealing with the ab uses as a substitute for the ICC process.

"We just adopted the resolutions asking for the recall of the decision," African Union Commission Chairperson Jean Ping told a news conference at the end of the four-day meeting of the African leaders, one of the longest meetings held by the leaders to try to solve a set of issues.

The AU announced ahead of the Summit that it was taking immediate steps to seek a delay of the execution of an arrest warrant against the Sudanese leader for at least 12 months under certain parts of the ICC statute.

The delay would allow for the putting in place of a mechanism to try Darfur war crimes suspects.

"The suspension we were asking for was recalled," Ping said in a brief answer to a question on whether the African leaders considered the issue of rescuing the Sudanese leader from the ICC arrest warrant.

Ban said the Sudanese leader must cooperate with the ICC on his case and ensure the protection of the civilians, the foreign troops in Darfur and ensure the "faithful" implementation of the north-south peace accord.

The new AU Chairman Muammar Kadhafi said the Sudanese leader must fully cooperate in the search for a solution to the Darfurian crisis.

The Libyan leader said he would take over the issue of the crisis in Darfur during his chairmanship of the organization, saying the AU remained an organization whose power was mainly drawn from the "social force" that has been pushing African leaders towards political unity.

In his first warning to the Sudanese leader, Kadhafi said the Sudanese government must work to fully conform with the demands and aspirations of the AU.

"Sudan must apply the constitutive Act of the AU. If they violate it, they will be penalized," he said.

In the draft decisions taken at the Summit, the African leaders had suggested that the UN Security Council should seek a deferment of the arrest warrant to allow the Peace and Security Council of the African Union to examine the crisis in depth through the setting up of a justice panel.