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At UN, Indictment of Bashir
Denounced by S. Africa, France Says "It's Not Too Late"
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
July 16 -- The indictment of Sudan's
president for genocide dominated discussion outside the Security
Council
Wednesday morning, when the peacekeeping mission in Darfur, UNAMID, was
on the
agenda. South Africa's Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo said "we're concerned
by
the indictment," especially while "rebels run free without measures
against them."
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's own report on UNAMID notes
"child soldiers among the Justice and Equality Movement combatants in
Omdurman" and claimed that "my office is pressing for the release of
the children detained by the Government." The children have been held
for
more than two months, and it is UNICEF, if anyone, which is trying to
get them
released. In response to Inner City Press' last request, UNICEF
provided an
update about volleyballs
for the child soldiers.
Ambassador
Kumalo was asked, "What about Article sixteen" of the International
Criminal Court's Rome Statute, which provides that the Council can by
vote
request a one year suspension of ICC proceedings. "I'm
not that educated," Kumalo
joked. He pointed to Sudan's Ambassador, who had emerged from the
Security
Council, and suggested that he be asked the question.
Ambassadors of Sudan, S. Africa and UK in Khartoum
airport, pre-indictment
"Article sixteen itself is not enough," he said. He
spoke cryptically
about stopping the ICC proceeding, which he said has made Omar
Al-Bashir more
popular in Sudan, "by the Rome Stature or out of the books." How else
could it be stopped? He said he had just finished discussions with
China's
Ambassador Wang, who on July 11 told
Inner City Press that the move by ICC
prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to indict Al-Bashir is not helpful.
But
any
resolution to suspend ICC proceeding would require the vote, or at
least
abstention, of the U.S., France and UK. While
on July 15 U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad declined to comment on the
issue, French
Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said of Al-Bashir, "it is not too
late" to cooperate with the ICC, by turning over previous indictees Ali
Kushayb and Ahmad Harun. Ocampo's
charges against Bashir are not limited to non-cooperation.
Is the implicit offer to suspend substantive
charges of war crimes in exchange for turning in two underlings? This
would
turn prosecutorial strategy on its head. The assumption was that Ocampo
indicted Harun to see if he would flip on Bashir. Is Bashir now being
offered a
suspension of proceedings against him if he'll only turn in Harun? Watch
this site.
And this --
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