EDITOR’S NOTE: Meles should be next.
By Patrick Worsnip
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is likely to seek the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in a new war crimes case he will open on Darfur on Monday, a senior European diplomat said on Friday.
The prosecution said on Thursday Luis Moreno-Ocampo would submit to judges “evidence on crimes committed in the whole of Darfur over the last five years” and seek to charge an individual or individuals, but gave no details.
Sudan has said any such move could undermine the peace process in Darfur and aid officials fear a potential backlash. The Darfur investigation also could embarrass China, Sudan’s close ally, weeks before the start of the Beijing Olympics.
“We don’t know anything for definite, but we know that Bashir is one of the people Moreno-Ocampo is looking at,” the senior envoy to the United Nations told Reuters.
“I would expect Bashir to be among those named by Moreno-Ocampo,” the envoy said, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The Washington Post reported that the prosecutor of the Hague-based ICC would seek an arrest warrant for Bashir, charging him with genocide and crimes against humanity, citing U.N. officials and diplomats.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, asked by reporters about a possible move against Bashir, said, “That is what we have heard,” but declined specific comment.
Publicly, the United Nations has remained tight-lipped over an issue that could pit the demands of the U.N.-backed ICC against U.N. interests in deploying a peace force in Darfur.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declined on Thursday to say who would be named or how the move might affect the struggling U.N.-African Union force. Seven soldiers of the force were killed in an attack by unidentified militia on Tuesday.
“Peace without justice cannot be sustainable,” he told reporters at the United Nations. “I will have to assess all the situations when there will be an announcement by the ICC.”
STATE APPARATUS
French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert also said he would wait until Monday, but told reporters: “If the procedure is going the way it seems it’s going to go, of course we have to be aware of the effects it could have on the ground, and we are inclined to take some contingency planning measures for the safety of everybody and I think the U.N. has to do the same.”
ICC deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, visiting Addis Ababa, said no details on indictments would be revealed until Monday.
Moreno-Ocampo said last month that Sudan’s “entire state apparatus” was involved in an organized campaign to attack civilians in Darfur and said he would present judges with evidence implicating senior Sudanese officials in July.
Asked by journalists how Khartoum might respond, Sudan’s U.N. Ambassador, Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, said, “Any action has its reaction and all options are open for us.”
ICC judges issued arrest warrants for two Sudanese suspects last year — government minister Ahmad Harun and militia commander Ali Kushayb. Khartoum has refused to hand them over.
International experts say at least 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.5 million have been displaced since a rebellion erupted in 2003. Khartoum says 10,000 people have been killed.
Only about 9,000 troops and police out of a planned 26,000 U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force have so far been deployed in Darfur.
Moreno-Ocampo’s office says he will hold a news conference on Monday when he will “summarize the evidence, the crimes and name individual(s) charged.”
Judges probably will take several weeks or months to rule on the likely application for new arrest warrants.
One option before the Security Council is to use Article 16 of the court’s statute to suspend a prosecution for a year, but the European envoy was skeptical the council would do that.
“China is reflecting on Article 16, but I think the position of most Western countries will be to support the court,” he said.
China has advised Sudan to cooperate with U.N. efforts to resolve the Darfur crisis, but has faced Western criticism as Khartoum’s biggest arms supplier and for not using its oil and investment stakes to press harder for an end to the conflict. (Additional reporting by Sue Pleming in Washington and Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa)
9 thoughts on “Int’l Criminal Court likely to seek arrest for Sudan’s Bashir”
Meles Zenawi is next he will pay for 2003 massacre 2005 election massacre, somalia and ogadenia
International criminal court is the judiciary branch of neocolonialism. It will be selectively applied on those who oppose their dominance. Melese and alike are their policemen immune from any accountability. Africa is falling under the direct military, economy and now judiciary control to the West.
Elias,
You know Meles will NEVER be accused of that by this court for he has big buddy to count on. This International Court of Jurists is a sort of a joke anyway. They are not really as independent from the US shadow of influence as they like us to believe. As long as the US stands for or against anything, it is very unlikely that something could be achieved against the will of the earthly almighty.
One: as soon as Bashir arrested we need our land back to
our farmers!
Two: we request ICC to look the Gambela and Ugadene war
criminal cases like meles and Bereket’s in Ethiopia
too!
Viva Ethiopia!!!
This international criminal court is a sham, they are being sent by the US state department to control and divide Sudan so they can take their natural resources, this is an imperial edict by the leaders of the west. Where were they when successive Ethiopian regimes were burning villages and killing people wantonly in Eritrea for 30 years? Where are they when Woyanne ethnically cleased Eritreans in Ethiopia? Where are they when Woyanne is burning villages daily and starving people in Ogaden and Somalia? Yes the Darfur tragedy is awful but at least in Darfur there are foreign troops under the guise of the defunct AU and UN to witness what goes on there, there is no international presence in Ogaden or Somalia, they are actually encouraging the fascist Woyanne regime in their genocide of the people of Ogaden and Somalia. This mission will go nowhere, it is nothing but a charade.
Do you know how many people died in Congo in the last decade alone? More than 4 millions! You haven’t heard much about it. That is for reason. The natural resources, like diamond mining is under direct control of hundreds of mercenary groups. Who cares, then how many died there. But Mugabe and Bashir are the big News…I wonder how far this naked lie of “human right issue” and double standard go. Tomorrow, once Ethiopia immersed in non-reversible civil war, Melese and his policy will be condemned by the shameless “donors”; designers of death and destruction.
The International Criminals Courts must first condemn and bring to justice the real people who are creating havoc in the world.
These people , the west, have committed serious crimes against other people.
The ICC is a tool of the west.They could not care less for the brutalized Darfurians. They are coming after Bashir because the were told by the west.
They will not go after Meles because the West won’t let them.
If anybody is going to bring Banda meles and his Banda stooges to justice it has to be Ethiopians.
We Ethiopians would not wait unill the ICC picks Meles to the Hague or so. We have to resolve our internal problems by ourselves.
Nevertheless, it is a good news for Ethiopians living and dwelling on the western territories of our ownership, specially those who lost their farm lands by secret deals or agreement of Meles and Al Bashir. Following their deal Villages were burnt. About 250,000 people are displaced from Metema to Wollega. These people are left without shelter, without meal. So these criminals should face justice by hook or crook namely; Al Bashier and Meles.
Darfur is the second Ruanda. We do not want a third Ruanda to take place in Africa further.
Even the International Red Cross has kept quiet why?
Amnesty International has also kept quiet why?
The mercenary soldiers of Woyane have sided with Sudanese and killing our people.
Woyanes will pay high price, it is a matter of time.
The genocide in gambela, in the Ogaden, in Asosa; the ethnic cleansing in Southern Ethiopia against the Amhara and mixed populace, the hatred campaign and divide ad rule system by Woyane chiefs. The transformation of power by one ethnic-Tigre chauvinists in all spheres of governmental, military, economic, business, etc. will make the situation faourable for a democratic revolution.
The Seven Tops of Woyane: Sibhat, Meles, Bereket, Seyoum, Abai Tsehai,Adisu Legese, Aba Dula will face genocide charges, war crimes and treason.
Justice will prevail
Let the prayer of our people and their tears speed up their demise.
La Lucha continúa !
According to close information of the United Nation is also reviewing to the files to sue and arrest Meles Seytanawi for genocide of the gambella region and anguk region that took place back in 2003 and 2004. The UN also have concluded that massacre of the confirmed 200 civilians death in 2005 aftermath was completed and submitted to the committee. It is very oblivious that the only country that has been an obstacle for the UN is the US while many officials of the European Union have supported the case in the UN. Hoping things would be completed soon to arrest Meles Seytanawi and end the Weyane era.