Sudan's Bashir could escape ICC indictment

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Article by: Reuters

Published: 17 Jul 2008

Sudan's Bashir could escape ICC indictment

Sudan's president might be able to avoid formal genocide charges if he helps bring to justice two men long wanted in connection with mass killings in Darfur, Western diplomats said on Wednesday.The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, asked the ICC on Monday to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on suspicion of masterminding crimes against humanity.

Moreno-Ocampo accused Bashir of running a campaign of genocide that killed 35,000 people outright, at least another 100,000 through a "slow death" and forced 2.5 million to flee their homes in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Sudan's U.N. envoy, China and some diplomats on the U.N. Security Council have expressed concern that a formal indictment of Bashir could have a devastating impact on the stalled peace process aimed at ending the 5-year-old conflict over Darfur.

But Western council diplomats say Bashir might be able to avoid an indictment if he would end what they see as impunity for two men the ICC indicted last year over Darfur. Khartoum has neither handed them over to the ICC nor started legal proceedings in Sudan to investigate the allegations.

"The suggestion of that has come from the chief prosecutor," a senior council diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "His mounting frustration was because of a complete lack of engagement or any response to the indictments."

He said the main allegation against Bashir was one of "command responsibility."

"His refusal to cooperate in bringing to justice those that the ICC thought were responsible for the actual killings on the ground adds force, adds evidence to the allegation of command responsibility for those killings," he said. "Now, were the situation to change, the prosecutor's attitude might change."

NO POLITICAL PRESSURE

French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said on Tuesday that it was "not too late for the Sudanese authorities to cooperate" with the ICC regarding the men it indicted last year over Darfur -- Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Haroun and former Janjaweed militia commander Ali Kushayb.

But Ripert and other diplomats made it clear that they have no intention of interfering with the ICC process, which is independent and should be free of political pressure.

Bashir and Sudanese U.N. Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem, however, have said that Khartoum has no intention of cooperating with the ICC on any level, because it, like the United States and Russia, is not a party to the court.

But council diplomats said that if the Sudanese were to initiate credible legal proceedings to investigate the allegations against Haroun and Kushayb, Moreno-Ocampo could possibly rethink his position on Bashir.

They also said there was a possibility for the council to suspend any arrest warrant against Bashir if they saw a change in Khartoum's behavior, adding that it was too early to make any decisions on this issue. An ICC ruling on Moreno-Ocampo's recommendation is not expected until October or November.

International experts say at least 200,000 people have died in Darfur and another 2.5 million left homeless. Khartoum says 10,000 have died and accuses the West of exaggerating the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.