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Sudan accepts UN-AU force; upcoming Security Council mission to Khartoum; HRW letter to Council; Khartoum's Continued Rejection of Paris Conference

14 June 2007

Dear all,

Please find below excerpts from media articles about the agreement on the deployment of joint United Nations and African Union (AU) hybrid force in Darfur, the upcoming United Nations Security Council visit to Sudan, Human Rights Watch's statement about its letter to the Security Council calling for greater pressure on the Sudanese government to ensure the protection of civilians in the region, Khartoum's continued rejection of a French initiative for a Darfur peace conference in Paris and more opinions 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. SUDAN TO OPEN BORDERS TO UN-AU HYBRID FORCE

i. "Sudan, UN reach agreement on peacekeeping plan," CBC News, 12 June 2007, http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/06/12/sudan-agreement.html

"Sudan will open its borders to a combined United Nations and African Union peacekeeping force, agreeing to the last phase of a UN plan to send troops to war-torn Darfur. In a statement issued on Tuesday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced 'positive conclusions of the high-level African Union-United Nations consultations with the government of Sudan on the hybrid operation.' His comments come on the eve of two days of meetings between the UN, AU and Sudanese government in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Ban stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire accompanied by an inclusive political process as 'essential steps toward a lasting solution to the crisis in Darfur.' Tuesday's agreement marks the final phase of a three-stage UN plan to send troops to Sudan's embattled Darfur region, where an underfunded African Union force is already on ground. Since he committed to the plan last November, Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has delayed acceptance of the first two phases and since backtracked on his approval."

ii. "Le Soudan accepte le principe de l'envoi de 19 000 "soldats de la paix" au Darfour," Le Monde, 13 June 2007, http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3212,36-922746@51-861134,0.html(in French)

Le Monde reports that Sudan at some point requested African soldiers out of fear that UN peacekeepers would arrest suspects named by the ICC. The United States rebutted this proposition. Furthermore, Sudan seems satisfied that the role of the AU has been strengthened since previous negotiations.

"...Whereas the project envisaged the constitution of a force directed officially by the AU, but controlled by the United Nations, the new project reinforces the role of the Panafrican organization....Khartoum endeavored to avoid a force that would have, in some measure, come through as a request from the Security Council, but wasactually a request from the ICC...."

iii. "Sudan accepts joint Darfur Force," BBC News, 12 June 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6745691.stm

"Sudan has agreed to a revised plan for a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force to be sent to war-torn Darfur, AU sources say.

Under the new plan, the AU will run day-to-day operations, while the UN is expected to have overall control of between 17,000 to 19,000 peacekeepers.

Earlier, Sudan's foreign minister said that Sudan would accept peacekeepers made up of non-African troops.

The current AU force of 7,000 has struggled to contain the violence.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has hailed the agreement and stressed the need for an immediate comprehensive ceasefire in the strife-torn region, AFP news agency reports, quoting a statement by UN spokeswoman Michele Montas.

But US officials remained skeptical over the deal."

II. UPCOMING SECURITY COUNCIL VISIT TO SUDAN

"Sudan denies upcoming UNSC visit to lobby for arrest of war crime suspects," BBC Monitoring Middle East / reprinted by Akhir Lahzah (Sudanese newspaper) on 11 June 2007, link unavailable

"The government has denied that the UN Security Council's visit to Sudan on 17 June was connected to putting pressure on Sudan to hand over [Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs State] Minister Ahmad Harun and Popular Defense Forces member Ali Kushayb [both accused of Darfur war crimes] to the International Criminal Court [ICC]. Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Ali Al-Sadiq explained to Akhir Lahzah that the delegation would discuss the situation in the country with President Umar Al-Bashir and Foreign Minister Dr Lam Akol Ajawin. Reliable sources told Akhir Lahzah that Interpol in Sudan has handed a warrant [of arrest] requesting the handing over of Harun and Kushayb. However, government authorities have not responded to the warrant of arrest...."

III. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH ISSUES LETTER TO SECURITY COUNCIL

i. "UN: Make Civilian Protection a Priority On Trip to Africa," Human Rights Watch letter to Security Council, 12 June 2007, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/06/12/africa16150.htm or see http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/06/12/africa16144.htm for the letter

"The United Nations Security Council must make protection of civilians its highest priority, Human Rights Watch said today. In a letter to the Security Council, Human Rights Watch called for greater pressure on the Sudanese government to ensure the immediate deployment of the full African Union-United Nations hybrid force in Darfur to help protect civilians, and also to end the government's abusive policies...."

from the letter:

"...The Special Courts on the Events in Darfur established by Sudan in 2005 to handle prosecutions domestically have only dealt with a handful of ordinary crimes, such as sheep stealing, and not the large scale attacks on civilians characterizing the conflict. In addition, the Sudanese government adds to the culture of impunity by using legislation and presidential decrees to confer amnesties upon the perpetrators and, in sexual violence cases, by actively discouraging those who would seek judicial remedies. Ethnic cleansing cannot be reversed in Darfur until widespread impunity for serious crimes ends. It is imperative that Security Council members insist that the Sudanese government immediately comply with the [ICC] arrest warrants ...."

IV. SUDAN REJECTS PARIS CONFERENCE

"Sudan reiterates rejection of Paris Conference on Darfur", Sudan Tribune, 13 June 2007, http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article22351

"The Sudanese government announced on Tuesday its refusal of the invitation to attend an international conference France proposed to host in Paris on June 25 to discuss the crisis in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.

Sudanese Foreign Ministry said .... 'In the context of its preparation for this conference, the French government has not made contacts or consultations with Sudan.'

He added that any conference on Darfur was a matter concerning Sudan, and that 'the outcome of this conference will be useless without the agreement and blessing of Sudan....'

V. OPINION AND ANALYSIS

i. "Sudan's legendary Islamist takes a moderate view," Christian Science Monitor, 13 June 2007, http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0613/p01s03-woaf.html

"'The government cannot beat the Darfur people with the gun," says [Sudan's top Islamic scholar, Hassan al-Turabi]. "If the government does not change its policies soon enough, if they don't opt for an equilibrium, based on consultation and consent, tomorrow the country may disintegrate...."

ii. "Ending "the world's hottest war," by Mathieu von Rohr (Der Spiegel as reprinted in Salon.com), 13 June 2007, http://salon.com/news/feature/2007/06/13/darfur/

"Can a citizens movement enlisting the likes of George Clooney, Angelina Jolie and Don Cheadle finally stop the genocide in Darfur? John Prendergast felt a familiar sense of outrage that morning, the same feeling of indignation that has driven him all these years and made him into the man who wants to save Darfur, the Congo, Uganda and, if possible, all of Africa. At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Darfur in April, the same government officials were at it again, making vague comments, rambling on about a 'plan B,' and debating sanctions against Sudan that the United States could impose if the country continued to reject a United Nations peacekeeping mission to Darfur. 'They simply don't get it,' Prendergast said afterward. 'We need to hit this regime now. We must stop barking if we don't bite'....Third, Prendergast wants to punish perpetrators with immediate multilateral sanctions against the Sudanese government. He believes other countries should join the United States in applying economic sanctions against Sudan and proposes freezing the responsible parties' bank accounts and imposing travel bans. He would also prohibit Sudan from doing business with international banks. Furthermore, he wants the International Criminal Court to have access to intelligence on the role of the Sudanese regime in the atrocities...."

iii. "'Oil for food' in Sudan proposed," BBC, 13 June 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6750137.stm <http://wfm-igp.net:81/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6750137.stm>

"The creation of an oil-for-food programme has been proposed as a way of ending Sudan's conflict in Darfur by South African judge Richard Goldstone.

The former war crimes prosecutor said his proposal was a peaceful means to put pressure on the Sudan government.

He said it would enable China to continue buying oil, while supporting global efforts to end Darfur's crisis... He accused the authorities in Khartoum of flouting the wishes of the United Nations Security Council and frustrating the work of the International
Criminal Court.... Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council gave its unanimous support to the report on human rights in Darfur and is expected to adopt it within a few days.

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva, where the council is currently meeting,says Sudan has said it is ready to implement some of the recommendations....Now there is a new approach, the UN's top human rights have drawn up a report which, while it acknowledges the ongoing violations taking place in Darfur, puts most weight on what Sudan must do to improve things: a set of over 30 recommendations and a strict timetable to implement them.

'We've seen time and time again that numerous condemnatory resolutions are passed and not much changes on the ground,' says Peggy Hicks of Human Rights Watch.

'The advantage of this new approach is that it provides a roadmap for future action. It sets explicit targets and gives a timetable by which those indicators should be looked at again.'

The recommendations include an immediate halt to the bombing of civilian targets, disarming the Janjaweed militia and bringing human rights violators to justice...."

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