Arab League chief to Sudan over war crimes call

11 hours ago

KHARTOUM (AFP) — Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa was to fly to Khartoum on Sunday with a plan aimed at heading off potential charges against Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir of masterminding genocide in Darfur.

His visit comes a day after Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo agreed to seek a political solution after the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor asked for an arrest warrant to be issued against Beshir.

The Arab League ministers issued a resolution in support of Sudan, slamming ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo as "unbalanced," and saying that Sudanese courts should judge those accused of war crimes during Darfur's five-conflict.

Moreno-Ocampo last Monday asked ICC judges to issue a warrant for Beshir's arrest. If granted, it would be the first ever issued by The Hague-based court against a sitting head of state.

Moreno-Ocampo accuses Beshir personally instructing his forces to annihilate three non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and the use of rape to commit genocide.

Mussa declined to reveal details of the plan before discussing it with Sudanese officials including Beshir, but the Arab League on Saturday called for alleged Darfur war criminals to face trials in Sudan that were not a "sham."

Khartoum has consistently rejected the ICC's jurisdiction, saying it would try alleged war criminals in its own courts.

According to the ICC's statute, if credible trials of alleged war criminals are held domestically the court's own charges are dropped.

Sudan's two other ICC indictees, former secretary of state for humanitarian affairs Ahmed Harun and Janjaweed leader Ali Kosheib, were both set to face trial in Sudanese courts on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

However Kosheib's trial was indefinitely suspended in March 2007, and Harun was briefly detained by Sudanese authorities before being released last October because of lack of evidence.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said on Sunday 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.

Some of the Arab League's 22 members have criticised Moreno-Ocampo's move, saying it threatens peace prospects in Darfur, and also fearing that it sets a dangerous precedent for other leaders in the region.

They have also criticised the prosecutor's failure to charge Darfur rebels with war crimes. Many Arabs also perceive an ICC bias whereby alleged war crimes by US troops in Iraq and by Israeli forces go uninvestigated.

The UN Security Council has the power to adopt a resolution requesting that the ICC suspend its procedures for 12 months.

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.

The ICC is the world's first permanent tribunal for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.