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Peace Process, Remarks on the Possibility of US Assistance,UN experts say Sudan should be accountable on Darfur

12 June 2007

Dear all,

Please find below excerpts from media articles reporting on the peace
process, US legal adviser to the State Department John B. Bellinger III's
remarks on the possibility of U.S. assistance to the ICC in its
investigation into atrocities in the Darfur region of western Sudan and more
reports and analysis.

Please take note of the Coalition's policy on situations before the ICC
(below), which explicitly states that the CICC will not take a position on
potential or pending situations before the court. The Coalition, however,
will continue to provide the most up-to-date information about the ICC.

Regards,

Mariana Rodriguez Pareja
CICC Spanish Information Services Officer and Latin America Analyst
[email protected]

I. UN EXPERTS SAY SUDAN SHOULD BE ACCOUNTABLE ON DARFUR

"UN rights experts say Sudan should be accountable on Darfur," Agence-France
Presse reprinted in The Sudan Tribune, 11 June 2007,
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article22332

"UN human rights experts warned the Sudanese government on Monday that it
will be judged by improvements on the ground in Darfur within months and not
by its pledges to improve the situation. In a report, the group of experts
asked the UN's top human rights assembly to adopt what amounted to a draft
code of conduct Khartoum should follow immediately to halt massive
violations in the Darfur region. The experts highlighted 'the seriousness of
ongoing violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in
Darfur as well as the lack of accountability of perpetrators of such crimes.'
Their report urged Khartoum 'to implement without delay the recommendations
it committed itself to put into practice.'

The experts asked it to adopt more than 30 detailed 'recommendations' or
targets that Sudan should meet - including clear orders to stop attacks on
civilians, disarming militia, and full cooperation with the International
Criminal Court - in the short term - three months - and the mid term.

It also included indicators - such as the numbers of attacks in Darfur or
the number of people handed over to the ICC - that would allow an assessment
of progress, and a list of practical assistance or equipment Khartoum would
need to carry out the recommendations. .."

II. PEACE PROCESS

i. "Sudan's leader pledges efforts for Darfur peace," Reuters, 11 June 2007,
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1118565720070611?feedType=RSS

"Sudan's president pledged to do his best to disarm Janjaweed militia and
push for a cease-fire in turbulent Darfur but said rebel groups were an
obstacle to peace, according to a letter obtained by Reuters on Monday.

Omar Hassan al-Bashir was responding to a May 24 letter from U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saying he expected Khartoum and rebel groups
to declare a cease-fire and the Sudan government to disarm militias known as
Janjaweed, accused of rape, pillage and murder. Sudan also was to help
peacekeepers get equipment into Darfur and speed access for relief groups.

On a cease-fire, Bashir said in his letter, dated June 4, that his
government previously declared a truce but it did not stop attacks from
rebel groups that did not sign a year-old failed peace accord."

ii. "Hopes for Darfur peace force deal," BBC News, 11 June 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6742397.stm

"Sudan says a deal may be done soon over the deployment of a 20,000-strong
force in Darfur, at talks in Addis Ababa with the UN and African Union.

The AU and UN are presenting a revised peacekeeping plan in which the AU
runs day-to-day operations, while the UN is expected to have overall
control.

More than 200,000 people have died in the four-year conflict and around two
million have fled to refugee camps.

The new plan has been created to get round the objections of the Sudanese
government, which does not want a solely UN force, which it says would be
like a Western invasion of their country.

Earlier Sudan's Foreign Minister Lam Akol said that the timing was not right
for France to host an international meeting about the conflict in Darfur.

Mr Kouchner, who has pledged to make Darfur a priority, has also proposed a
humanitarian corridor linking Chad and Darfur."

III. MORE ON THE US SANCTIONS AGAINST DARFUR and REMARKS ON POSSIBLE U.S.
COOPERATION WITH THE HAGUE IN DARFUR CASE

i. "U.S. relies on Sudan despite condemning it," by Greg Miller and Josh
Meyer (Los Angeles Times), 11 June 2007,
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-ussudan11jun11,0,2877081.story?coll=la-home-center

"Sudan has secretly worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq, an
example of how the U.S. has continued to cooperate with the Sudanese regime
even while condemning its suspected role in the killing of tens of thousands
of civilians in Darfur.

President Bush has denounced the killings in Sudan's western region as
genocide and has imposed sanctions on the government in Khartoum. But some
critics say the administration has soft-pedaled the sanctions to preserve
its extensive intelligence collaboration with Sudan.

In an interview, Sudan's ambassador to the United States, John Ukec Lueth
Ukec, suggested that the sanctions could affect his country's willingness to
cooperate on intelligence matters. The steps announced by Bush include
denying 31 businesses owned by the Sudanese government access to the U.S.
financial system.

The decision to impose financial penalties "was not a good idea," Ukec said.
"It diminishes our cooperation. And it makes those who are on the extreme
side, who do not want cooperation with the United States, stronger."

ii. "Official Floats Possibility of Assistance to Hague Court," by Nora
Boustany (The Washington Post), 12 June 2007,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/11/AR2007061102347_pf.html

"In a bid to deflect world criticism of America's approach to international
law, John B. Bellinger III, the State Department legal adviser, in a speech
last week offered the possibility of U.S. assistance to the International
Criminal Court in The Hague in its investigation into atrocities in the
Darfur region of western Sudan.

In a telephone interview Monday, Bellinger confirmed that the Bush
administration was open to considering any request for help in the
investigation and prosecution of war crimes committed in western Sudan since
2003, provided the assistance did not conflict with U.S. laws or provisions
for the protection of U.S. military personnel abroad.
U.S. officials insist that this is not a reversal of past policy.
Nonetheless, court officials and human rights activists have welcomed the
remarks as evidence of a new U.S. willingness to engage in practical
collaboration with the ICC. Court officials said they will be more confident
making requests that they now know will be considered.

'If we have differences with the ICC, we share its goals of accountability
in crimes against humanity, particularly in Darfur,' he said in the
interview.

Over the past couple of years, 'we have worked hard to demonstrate that we
share the main goals and values of the Court,' Bellinger said in the speech,
disclosing to an international audience a policy that until then was the
subject of debate on Capitol Hill. 'We did not oppose the Security Council's
referral of the Darfur situation to the ICC, and have expressed our
willingness to consider assisting the ICC prosecutor's Darfur work should we
receive an appropriate request.'

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and human rights activists have pressed the U.S.
government to use its satellites to assist the ICC, which is not only
investigating the perpetrators of past crimes but also monitoring the
situation in Sudan in real time to ensure that displaced people and refugees
from Darfur are protected from further harm.
Bellinger would not go into the details of how far the offer to assist the
ICC's Darfur probe will go.

'One cannot say yes in advance to receiving a request,' he said. 'Depending
on what it is, and if it is something that we have and is in accordance with
our own laws and did not undermine our own intelligence work, we would be
prepared to say yes.'

See also, "Report: U.S. May Help International Court," United Press
International, 12 June 2007,
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/06/12/report_us_may_help_international_court/4103/

III. OPINION ARTICLE, REPORT FROM LONDON MEETING OF SUDANESE LAWYERS

i. "Hunting down war criminals: The chief prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court has the butchers of Darfur in his sights," The Times, Frances
Gibb, 12 June 2007,
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article1915186.ece

".The prosecutor, who was elected by all parties to the Rome treaty in 2003,
was referred the case by the UN Security Council. 'That's important. It
connects a peace and security system with a justice system.' Moreno Ocampo
runs the investigation himself. He has no powers to indict - the evidence
goes to a panel of ICC judges who decide if charges should be brought. After
20 months the files went to the panel in February. Both men are in Darfur:
Kushayb is thought to be in detention but with little prospect of a trial.
The prosecutor's office collected statements from some 100 witnesses after
screening 600 over 70 visits in 17 countries. More than 200,000 refugees
have fled to other countries. It was important to trace those who had fled,
the prosecutor says: 'We have a legal duty to protect witnesses and had no
chance of doing that in Darfur.'

In his update to the UN Security Council last week, Moreno Ocampo urged
every state to ensure pressure on Sudan to arrest and refer the pair to the
ICC. Meanwhile, 'indiscriminate and disproportionate' air strikes by the
Government there continue. It appears that 'parties to the conflict continue
to violate international humanitarian law. Those bearing the greatest
responsibility must be brought to justice.'
Like Iraq, Sudan is also not signed up to the ICC, but it is a member of the
UN Security Council. Moreno Ocampo is hopeful of cooperation. 'For the first
time we have the UN Security Council and the ICC working together - the
first time a new global legal system is tested. It will be a huge step - a
legal revolution.'"

ii. "Justice sought for Darfur war crimes: American lawyers meet with their
Sudanese counterparts to help prepare them for upcoming prosecutions," by
Kim Murphy (Los Angeles Times), 12 June 2007,
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-darfur12jun12,1,6265299.story?coll=la-headlines-world

"Across the conference room in the posh London hotel where Abdella was
recounting her case, there was an audible gasp - this from a roomful of
American judges, law professors and seasoned former federal prosecutors,
including Terree Bowers, a former U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, who thought
they had seen it all. But this was Darfur.

All last week, two dozen lawyers from the U.S. and Sudan huddled here in
elegant Mayfair, joining forces for an American Bar Association program that
aimed to train the African lawyers to gather witnesses and evidence for
upcoming war crimes prosecutions.

On the day the prosecutor in The Hague announced the opening of a Darfur
investigation, Osman said, 'there was a decline in the commission of crimes
for more than three or five months - because the perpetrators were panicked
that they could be held accountable. But by the time they felt there was
nobody any longer talking about justice, then the situation erupted again.
Justice can play the role of a deterrence mechanism.'

But what if the prosecutor won't file your case? What can be done about the
law in Sudan that says a man cannot be convicted of rape unless there are
four witnesses? What if, as happened to Osman, your client is sentenced to
death and you get thrown in jail for seven months for 'providing free legal
aid to persons accused of committing offenses against the state?'

'A person came to me who had been tortured, and I went to defend him. But I
had lots of problems with the police,' said Hytham Ismaiel Matar, a lawyer
from western Darfur. 'They started to fabricate a charge against me. In the
end they released me, but . after that, I felt apprehension and fear. I
couldn't continue in my work.'

The International Criminal Court can take jurisdiction in some of these
cases, ABA lawyers said, if the Sudanese lawyers can help show there is no
likelihood their nation's courts will bring suspects to trial. But first,
international lawyers must have documentary proof of how Sudan's court
system works, or doesn't...."

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CICC's policy on the referral and prosecution of situations before the ICC:

The Coalition for the ICC is not an organ of the court. The CICC is an
independent NGO movement dedicated to the establishment of the International
criminal court as a fair, effective, and independent International
organization. The Coalition will continue to provide the most up-to-date
information about the ICC and to help coordinate global Action to
effectively implement the Rome statute of the ICC. The Coalition will also
endeavor to respond to basic queries and to raise Awareness about the ICC's
trigger mechanisms and procedures, as they Develop. The Coalition as a
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and other support on investigations, or develop Partnerships with local and
other organizations in the course of their Efforts.

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2500 cm the Hague
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