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Arusha 'pre-negotiation' peace talks; transcript of ICC Prosecutor Interview with Australian TV

07 Aug 2007

Dear all,

Please find below excerpts from media articles and statements on recent developments related to the ICC's investigation in Darfur. These include coverage of the Arusha 'pre-negotiation' peace talks; a transcript of the ICC Prosecutor's interview with Australian TV's Lateline program which coincides with a conference about the ICC organized by the Australian government; and various opinion pieces such as one by Conor Foley in The Guardian criticizing UK's former government advisor and 'ICC howler' Robin Cook.

Please also 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.

With regards,

Sasha Tenenbaum
CICC Communications
[email protected]

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I. ICC PROSECUTOR IN AUSTRALIA FOR GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED CONFERENCE ON ICC

i."Tony Jones speaks with Luis Moreno-Ocampo," Reporter Tony Jones (ABC TV-Australia Transcript), 7 August 2007, to view the approximately 16 minute interview or read the full transcript, see http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2007/08/06/1998168.htm

Excerpts from Luis Moreno-Ocampo's responses in live interview:

"...the arrest is basically the responsibility of the territorial state.
Sudan
has to arrest Harun. I don't know exactly how Sudan will do it, but this will happen. My clear idea in the destiny of Harun is a court in The Hague. He will end his life in jail.

....One of my witness is a man who was forced to see when they rape his daughter. She was an eight-years-old girl and they not just rape the daughter, they force him to see the moment. They were asking him, "Why? Why you are doing this?" So for this man, be my witness, is a privilege. He want to be a witness and that is what we are doing. We are informing the suffering of these people in evidence. That is why we have to execute his warrant.

...today there are 105 countries, Japan just access a few days ago, who are supporting this idea. It is a new idea. But the problem is this time of frame require justice. As you say, it's better if national they can do it, but if not, the International Criminal Court will do it, because it's a duty for the victims, but also it's a way to control crimes. Because you might learn, in this, in such massive crimes, at levels locals, the [inaudible] was killing people around the world, when you see the Rwanda genocide exporting to Congo, and then Congo after was a war, four million died. So my, in each of my cases the crimes cross the border. That's why we need international control of this.

...I understand the solution for this case required a comprehensive approach. It's not just justice. We need justice, but we need humanitarian help. We need security and we need peace. We need both - all of this. And I strongly believe that justice will help. Let me give you an example. There are allegations, there are reports, that in the [inaudible] conflict, Harun was involved in massive crimes, too. And there was an agreement but was no justice against Harun, that's why he's repeating the crimes, that's why - there's no contradiction between peace and justice, both work together.
Justice will help do peace in Darfur.

...I report in six months to the Security Council. My last report was in June and in June, Harun was still in operation. Sudan is not arresting Harun and send him to the court, maybe I have to go to the Security Council to report that Sudan is not coordinating with the court and then the Security Council have to provide the solutions..."

ii. "ICC issues warrants for alleged Darfur war criminals," Eleanor Hall, (ABC TV-Australia), 7 August 2007, http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/07/1999118.htm?section=world

"As Sudanese rebel groups make progress towards another peace deal for Darfur, moves to bring to justice to those accused of attacking and pursuing innocent civilians are also under way.

...[ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo]: 'The worst thing happened in Darfur. Basically there were combined attacks of land forces, air forces and militia Janjaweed going to villages and attacking everyone,' he said. 'They were not focused in any rebel activity, they just remove people from the villages.
Ahmed Harun explained that the rebels are like a fish in the water and so his policy was basically to remove the water to control the fish.' Mr Moreno-Ocampo says the crime of genocide requires specific intention: 'It's legal to enter a rebellion. What is illegal is [to] attack the civilian population,' he said.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo says Mr Kushayb and Mr Harun will be charged with different crimes.He says the prosecution has evidence that the militia leader was personally involved in the execution of 32 people. 'We have Kushayb personally involved in the gang rape of a group of women,' he said.

...The Sudanese Government continues to deny that it has any links to the Janjaweed militia, but Mr Moreno-Ocampo says he has evidence of Mr Harun delivering weapons to the militia group in his own helicopter. 'We have evidence of Harun paying the militia Janjaweed in cash,' he said. 'We have evidence of him recruiting people, so this is an integration of state apparatus and the Janjaweed militia acting together, coordinating with Harun, no doubt.'

He says the Sudanese Government has a legal responsibility to address the issue of genocide in its country. 'Sudan is a big state and they have legal responsibilities, they have to fulfill them,' he said. 'I think it's an issue of time - maybe in a few months, maybe in a few years, but in the end they will arrest Harun and will send [him] to the court.'
'For me, it's clear the destiny of Haroun will be before the judges in the court.'

He says that if the Government does not act on the issues, he will go to the Security Council. 'In the Arab world, many states understand that what we are doing is right,' he said. 'I have regularly briefed the Arab League, I've regularly briefed different Arab countries and they are consistently respecting our investigation and understanding that the law has to be applied.' 'Truth and legality have a lot of power, and I believe in this side between crime and law, justice will prevail.'"

iii. "Australia hosts Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court," Joint Media Release by Hon Alexander Downer MP, Minister For Foreign Affairs and Attorney-General, The Hon Philip Ruddock MP, 6 August 2007, http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/releases/2007/fa098_07.html

"Australia will play host to the prosecutor leading investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Africa this week.
International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will give public lectures in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne and meet with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Attorney-General.

The visit is aimed at strengthening regional engagement with the International Criminal Court....This visit, hosted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, demonstrates Australia's strong support for the International Criminal Court. Australia became a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 2002. Since then it has contributed more than
$17 million towards the operation of the Court. By working to ensure that the most egregious crimes do not go unpunished, the International Criminal Court shows that lasting international peace and security cannot be achieved without strengthening the rule of law."

II. ARUSHA 'PRE-NEGOTIATION' TALKS END

i. "Darfur rebels agree common stance for peace talks," Jean-Marc Mojon, (Agence France Presse), 6 August 2007, http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/070806192133.eydkjsye.html

"Eight Darfur rebel groups on Monday agreed on a common platform for peace negotiations with the Sudanese government that they said could start within three months.

...The talks were however shunned by two key rebel leaders, including the founding father of the Darfur rebellion, Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur.

The groups committed themselves to confidence-building measures to pave the way for final peace talks, including ensuring humanitarian access to Darfur, where the combined effect of war has left at least 200,000 dead since 2003, according to UN estimates.

The Sudanese government made no immediate comment on the rebel groups'agreement.
But the two top mediators in the talks, UN envoy Jan Eliasson and his African Union counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim, said they would travel to Khartoum for consultations with the government in coming days.

'We would want to see concrete commitment' from Khartoum to a ceasefire, Salim told reporters.

In the final statement, the rebel groups 'reiterated their readiness to respect a complete cessation of hostilities, provided that all other parties make similar commitments.' Yet neither the rebels nor the mediators were willing to reveal the details of the rebel position on power and wealth-sharing, which Sudan watchers say has been the cause of fallouts.

...A spokesman for one rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, stressed that positions had simply been harmonised but that no compromises to Khartoum had been agreed to. 'We have not given up the resistance yet. The armed struggle was imposed on us by the government of Sudan, which refuses to recognise our people's legitimate rights,'Ahmed Hussein Adam told AFP.

He also said the talks had not broached the rebels' demand that senior Sudanese regime official be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. 'The issue of accountability is of prime importance. Without it, there will be no reconciliation and no peace. We are not compromising on justice, we did not trade anything off during these talks,'
he
said.

Two key rebel players did not attend the Arusha talks, including the Paris-exiled Nur who argued that the invited factions were illegitimate and that such consultations should only take place once a ceasefire is observed.
Suleiman
Jamous, another veteran rebel seen as a useful mediator should peace talks resume, is confined to a hospital in Sudan by the government despite pleas for his release by mediators, rebels and rights activists."

ii. "Darfur's rebel groups reach deal," BBC News, 6 August 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6932625.stm

"Most of Darfur's rebel groups have agreed on a common position and want 'final'
talks with Sudan's government within two or three months. The eight factions have been in talks since Friday to end their divisions - seen as a major factor in the failure to end the four-year conflict. However, one of the key rebel leaders boycotted the meeting in Tanzania.

...BBC East Africa correspondent Karen Allen says details of the platforms are being presented in a confidential document, which will now be taken to Khartoum to set an agenda for revived peace talks.

Special UN envoy to Darfur Jan Eliasson told the BBC the agreement was an important step forward. 'One of the main problems we have had to reach negotiations has been the split and the splintering among the rebel movement,'
he said, adding that he was on his way to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, for discussions with the government.

International Crisis Group analyst Hannah Stogdon told Reuters news agency that it depended on who would represent the rebels in talks with the
government: 'If they can agree on that publicly, that is a good sign.'

Rebel leader Ahmed Hussein said the deal would 'pave the way for a meaningful and positive new political process to solve the root causes of the conflict in Darfur.'

One of the key rebel leaders, Abdul Wahid Mohammad Ahmed al-Nur, of the major faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, boycotted the talks, saying a ceasefire should be agreed before political talks.

The African Union special envoy to Darfur, Salim Ahmed Salim, told the BBC that Mr Nur should take the current opportunity to put aside his differences and join the peace process: 'We are now at the pre-negotiation level, and we hope that the negotiations will begin within the period of two months.' 'It is not seen as logical to have the government of Sudan negotiating with 10 or 15 difference factions, so we have encouraged all the participants at the Arusha meeting to... find a minimum common denominator among themselves,' he said...."

III. OPINIONS

i. "Letter to the Sudanese people," by Suleiman Jamous, (Sudan Tribune), 6 August 2007, http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article23160

[Suleiman Jamous, Humanitarian Coordinator of SLM is currently confined in the UN Military Hospital in Kadugli, southern Kordofan]

"I am writing this appeal as a Sudanese citizen, a Muslim, and a son of Darfur...The people of Darfur are crying out for a settlement that allows them to live in peace and harmony, to return to their villages and rebuild their communities. For them, everything is at stake in the meeting in Arusha. The planned negotiations with the government are much too important to be allowed to fail. Every Sudanese must support the effort to achieve a peace settlement for Darfur. Nothing less than the future of the nation of Sudan is at stake.

Along with every Sudanese I welcomed the CPA. Our brothers and sisters in the South had suffered long. At last, their fair and just demands were met. I congratulate them and hope that the fair and just demands of Darfur will also be met.

...Once there is peace in Darfur, then it is possible for all Sudanese to work together to make unity attractive. A CPA that is translated into action, in addition to peace in Darfur with democratic elections, is the best chance for the unity of Sudan....If we delay we will miss our historic moment and our chance for democracy and unity will be lost for long, if not forever. The peace process launched by the AU and UN envoys in Arusha cannot be allowed to fail. I call on all parties to clear all obstacles from the road to a sustainable and durable peace in Darfur."

ii. "Wrong on justice," Op-ed by Conor Foley, (The Guardian), 6 August 2007, http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/index.html

"The 'separation of powers' is widely recognized as a cornerstone of liberal constitutional government, so I was amazed to read David Clark arguing for the use of political prosecutions as a means of resolving the Darfur crisis.
I was even more surprised because David should be one of the best qualified people in the world to know that what he is saying is both wrong on principle and cannot actually be done in practice.

David Clark was Robin Cook's special adviser when he was foreign secretary in the first Labour government. One of the most enduring achievements of this government's 'ethical' foreign policy was to negotiate the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998.
The idea for the court arose out of the revulsion at war crimes and genocide committed during the conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda, which had already led to the establishment of ad-hoc tribunals to try suspects there.

...But a genuinely independent court means that the ICC must conduct its investigations solely on the basis of the evidence that it discovers. It is true that the UN security council can refer cases to it, but, once the prosecutor has started investigating, it becomes a criminal and not a political matter. For this reason David Clark's argument that "one option to increase direct pressure" on the Sudanese government over Darfur would be to "step up war crimes investigations against those responsible for orchestrating genocide" is simply a non-starter.

...David cites this report [UN commission inquiry documenting war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region], although I suspect that he has not read it, but then goes on to argue for something that is factually impossible. He might as well have told Gordon Brown to 'levitate over Khartoum and use his magic powers to zap the Janjaweed', although I trust that would not have got past the Guardian's subeditors. It is a shame that they have let similar howlers about the ICC through in the past.

The issue here is not an obscure point of legal theory, but a fundamental difference about how to uphold universal justice and human rights.
On the one hand there are multilateralists who want to strengthen existing institutions and argue for a system based on respect for international law. On the other hand there are unilateralists who argue that the west should act as judge, jury and executioner in deciding when to invade other countries.

...There is a sensible debate about the future of humanitarian interventions occurring at an international level, through the evolving doctrine of a 'responsibility to protect.' Unfortunately, this seems to have largely bypassed sections of British liberal-left opinion, which seem to prefer cliches and political point scoring instead. One of the least attractive features of this has been the way that opponents of the invasion of Iraq now use every opportunity at Comment is free to demand that supporters of the invasion 'publicly recant' their views. In David Clark's case, though, I would be genuinely interested to know why he has changed his mind about the ICC and what alternative he is now proposing instead."

iii. "Peacekeeping without power; Many obstacles face UN force as it begins mission in Darfur," The Editorial Page of The Calgary Herald
(Alberta) August 7, 2007 (link unavailable)

"...Many obstacles lie ahead before Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been slaughtered since 2003, returns to peace. Problems arose before the United Nations even passed the July 31 resolution in its final form, as the recalcitrant Sudanese government managed to get a number of important features excluded.

The UN force will not have the power to strip the janjaweed -- bloodthirsty Arab militias armed and supported by the Sudanese government to carry out the slaughter -- of its weapons, nor will the force be able to target any individuals wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

Most importantly, the resolution is toothless; there are no sanctions awaiting Sudan for failures to comply with the UN once the force is in place.

Where the troops will come from is another problem. Sudan insists they be African, undoubtedly because such soldiers would be ill-equipped and difficult for hard-pressed African nations to collect. Roughly 7,000 peacekeepers from the African Union have been in Darfur for two years without accomplishing much and the AU is already having trouble raising 8,000 troops to meet its commitments in Somalia.

...for countries with capable armies, there is a real risk of overstretch and domestic exhaustion with overseas military commitments.

...Getting Khartoum to co-operate with the UN force or sit in good faith at the bargaining table over Darfur is going to be a near-impossible task, and much the same goes for getting the rebels in Darfur to accept anything less than what the south got in 2005.

It is reassuring to see the United Nations (and especially China, which is investing heavily in Sudan's oil) deciding to heal the region. However, Darfur requires a large and long commitment of blood and money from the global community. It remains to be seen if the world has the will to match its fine words."

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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.

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