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Darfur, Part II: CICC media briefing at UN; high-level UN and AU meetings; OTP press conference at UN; NGO joint letter to SG

20 Sept 2007

Dear all,

Please find below Part II of our digest on recent developments related to the International Criminal Court's investigation in Darfur, Sudan.

This digest includes information on a CICC media briefing at the United Nations; the high level meting on Darfur that will be held at the UN headquarters and chaired by both UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and African Union's Chairperson Alpha Konare; an article reporting that more troops are needed for the deployment of the Hybrid Force in Sudan; excerpts from the press briefing with the ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, urging the international community to enforce the ICC arrest warrants and remarks from the Sudanese Ambassador to the UN; and a press release by Freedom House urging the UN Secretary General to demand "stronger response of the Sudanese government."

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,

Mariana Rodriguez Pareja

CICC Communications

[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>

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I. CICC MEDIA BRIEFING ON COOPERATION WITH THE ICC IN ITS DARFUR INVESTIGATION

On Thursday, 20 September 2007, the Coalition for the ICC sponsored a media briefing at United Nations headquarters in New York. Briefing participants included Sara Dareshori, senior counsel with Human Rights Watch, Niemat Ahmadi of the Darfuri Leaders Network and Dismas Nkunda, chair of Darfur Consortium and co-director of the International Refugee Rights Initiative. Tanya Karanasios, CICC Program Director, moderated the discussion.

To view the briefing, please see http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/?mod=darfur <http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/?mod=darfur> and scroll down to "Audio Visual resources."

Here are highlights from the briefing:

Sara Dareshori: "Khartoum put the international community to the test by appointing Harun to a committee to investigate war crimes in Darfur while Ban Ki-moon was visiting the country...for the international community to turn a blind eye to this is truly shocking....we call on governments to break the silence...."

Niemat Ahmadi: "The lack of accountability and immunity allow the criminals to continue and give them a platform to diversify their crimes...if there is accountability...there will not be massive killing, rape, displacement...and not only that, Sudan is resettling Arab communities in Sudan and increasing gender-based violence...by appointing Harun to a human rights committee, they are continuing these crimes...we appeal to the world community to make Darfur their priority and to reinforce the process of the ICC...we Darfurians say that accountability is critical to a sustainable, lasting peace..."

Dismas Nkunda: "...the African Union has a responsibility to respect the wishes of Africans and bring justice to Darfur...Africans were the first to bring cases to the Court... we believe the African Union is treating the Sudanese government with kid gloves...and we believe that's wrong and we are calling on the AU Chair to make clear the aspirations of African people who require justice and to show leadership from an African perspective....I just heard that one of the reasons why Harun has been asked to chair the committee investigating Darfur crimes because he has information that could implicate leaders higher up in the Sudanese government...the AU has the means and tools to make the Sudanese government accountable...."

II. UNITED NATIONS- AFRICAN UNION HIGH LEVEL MEETINGS AT THE UN THIS WEEK

"UN-AU high level meeting on Darfur convenes this week," Sudan Tribune, 20 September 2007,

http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article23842 <http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article23842>

"...UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that he will chair a high-level meeting on Darfur with the AU chairperson Alpha Konare at the UN Headquarters.

The meeting is expected to discuss primarily the preparations for the upcoming peace talks scheduled for 27 October in Libya and the deployment of the UN-AU hybrid operation (UNAMID).

Darfur has witnessed an escalation in fighting between the rebel groups and the government forces in the last few weeks. The UN Chief appealed to the Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir for a ceasefire commitment.

Some officials have suggested that the surge in violence could ruin the peace talks and reduce chances of a peace accord.

..... It is not clear whether the meeting will address the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants against two Sudanese officials accused of war crimes in Darfur. The UN Security Council referred the Darfur crimes to the ICC in resolution 1593 under Chapter VII back in 2005.

However world diplomats have been reluctant to bring up the issue of arrest warrants with Khartoum in order to secure its cooperation with the deployment of the hybrid force.

The UN Chief said he discussed the issue of suspected Darfur war criminals during private talks with the Sudanese president in Khartoum last week. However he gave no details and alluded that the time is not right to press Sudan on the warrants.

Ahmed Harun, one of the key suspects, and the minister of state for humanitarian affairs was appointed the co-chair of a national committee investigating human rights abuses in Darfur causing outcry among human rights groups...."

III. UN EXPERT CALLS FOR MORE OFFERS OF TROOPS FOR DARFUR

"UN calls for more offers of troops, specialist units for hybrid force in Darfur," UN News Service, 20 September 2007,

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23889&Cr=sudan&Cr1=

"The United Nations said today that it has still not received any offers for some essential units of the hybrid peacekeeping force it plans to deploy with the African Union in the war-wracked Sudanese region of Darfur.

Following a meeting with potential contributors yesterday, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) said that there have been no offers so far for the medium utility helicopter units or the medium heavy transportation companies in the force, which will be known as UNAMID.

... Ms. Montas said DPKO has received 19 firm offers for the 19 formed police units planned for UNAMID, and pledges of more than 2,500 police officers for the 3,772 individual positions.

The headquarters of UNAMID will be in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, with a series of sector headquarters and other deployment locations spread across the three states of Darfur, an arid and impoverished region nearly as large as France.

... Ahead of that [high level meeting on Darfur chaired by the Head of the UN and the Chairperson of the AU] meeting, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno-Ocampo told journalists in New York today that justice must be a priority for Darfur...."

IIII. DARFUR: AT THE UN, ICC PROSECUTOR MORENO-OCAMPO URGES THE ARREST OF WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS. SUDANESE AMBASSADOR REMARKS ON ICC'S WORK.

i. "UN urges arrest of Sudanese charged with Darfur killing," Digital Journal, 20 September 2007,

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/230863/UN_urges_arrest_of_Sudanese_charged_with_Darfur_killing <http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/230863/UN_urges_arrest_of_Sudanese_charged_with_Darfur_killing>

"Sudan's interior minister Ahmad Harun and the leader of the government-backed Janjaweed militia must be arrested in order to help next month's peace talks to end the ethnic conflict in Darfur, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (IC) said Thursday.

'We must break the silence, this week and next week, when world leaders are meeting here at the UN,' said Luis Moreno Ocampo in New York. The UN is set to hold a high governmental level meeting Friday to discuss the peace talks in Tripoli starting on October 27...."

ii. "Speak up on Darfur suspects, prosecutor tells UN," Reuters, 20 September 2007,

http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnN20403567.html <http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnN20403567.html>

"The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Thursday challenged the United Nations and its members to break their silence on two men he charged with war crimes in Darfur.

A day before Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presides over a meeting of 26 nations involved in bringing peace to Darfur, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said too little attention had been paid to his arrest warrants, an issue not on the agenda of the talks.

He charged a Sudanese official and a pro-government militia leader, but Sudan refuses to arrest them.

'I am concerned that the silence by most states and international organizations on the subject of the arrest warrants has been understood in Khartoum as a weakening of international resolve,' Moreno-Ocampo told a news conference.

'It is time to break the silence,' he said.

... Sudan has said the charges against Harun were false. But Moreno-Ocampo said Harun was responsible for forcing millions out of their homes and now is controlling security and access to food in the camps...."

iii. "Speak Up on Darfur Suspects, Prosecutor Tells UN," Javno News (Croatia), 20 September 2007,

http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=82789 <http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=82789>

".... 'As peace talks and negotiations for the deployment of the hybrid force advance, there is a resurgence of violence around the camp,' Moreno-Ocampo said. 'I have reasons to believe that it is an operation in which Ahmad Harun plays a key role.'

But Sudan's U.N. Ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, characterized Moreno-Ocampo as a man with a mission 'to destroy the peace process,' especially talks between rebels and the government scheduled for Oct. 27 in Tripoli, Libya.

'Rather than mobilizing all resources and energies to ensure the success of that meeting, he came now to New York to play the same political game assigned to him by the enemies of peace in the Sudan, which is to destabilize the country and to spoil the peace process,' the ambassador said.

... 'Mr. Ocampo is a member of the orchestra that is playing a melody that would definitely entertain some people here in this organization, but the casualty would be peace, stability and security of the country,' he said...."

iv. "ICC prosecutor presses for arrest of Darfur war crimes suspects," AFP, 20 September 2007,

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jk9AC5aT3ce57vNUzunmBPwBxknw <http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jk9AC5aT3ce57vNUzunmBPwBxknw>

"The International Criminal Court's prosecutor on Thursday urged the world community to back efforts to arrest two Sudanese officials wanted for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo made the remarks on the eve of a high-level meeting here that will bring together key players in a joint UN-African Union drive to end more than four years of bloodshed in Darfur.

'Justice in Darfur must be on the agenda (of that meeting),' he told reporters here. 'The international community has to be consistent in its support of the law'.

He said Friday's meeting must be an opportunity to remind Sudan's government of 'its responsibility to arrest' war crimes suspect Ahmed Haroun, Sudan's secretary of state for humanitarian affairs...."

v. "ICC's Ocampo On Darfur but not Uganda, Asserts Jurisdiction over U.S. But For Its Veto," Inner City Press, 20 September 2007,

http://www.innercitypress.com/icc092007.html

"Sudan should arrest its two citizens who have been indicted by the International Criminal Court, even though Sudan has not signed on to the Court's Statute of Rome and is not a member of the ICC, prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters on Thursday at the UN.

While most questions concerned how Mr. Ocampo's call for Sudanese arrests jibes with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's 'quiet diplomacy' of one-on-one meetings with president al-Bashir, Inner City Press raised two incongruities: the ICC's recent silence as UN agencies have engaged with the ICC's first set of indictees, the leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army, and the specifics of Sudan's -- and the United States' -- legal duty to execute warrants issues against their own citizens by the ICC.

On the latter, Mr. Ocampo set forth a theory under which the U.S. could be responsible to arrest and turn over an American soldier, but only if the case was referred to the ICC by the UN Security Council. Since the U.S. is a member of the Security Council, Ocampo told Inner City Press, this is not a problem for the U.S...."

III. NGOs URGE JUSTICE IN SUDAN

Press Release "Human Rights Organizations Urge UN Secretary General to Demand Stronger Response of Sudanese Government," Freedom House, 19 September 2007,

http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=70&release=555

"Freedom House, together with six of the U.S.'s most prominent human rights organizations, issued a letter today to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urging him to demand Sudan's compliance with the International Criminal Court's (ICC) ongoing investigation and issuance of arrest warrants.

In particular, the group pointed out that the current Sudanese State Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Ahmed Haroun, is wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the ICC. Shockingly, the government of Sudan recently named him as the co-chair of a committee established to investigate human rights abuses in Darfur.

'Mr. Haroun's nomination shows the government of Sudan's utter contempt for the rule of law-especially for the ICC, the very court to which the UN Security Council referred the crimes committed in Darfur,' wrote the groups in the letter. 'We ask you to call on the members of the Security Council to ensure that Sudan arrests and delivers to The Hague for trial Mr. Haroun, and strongly urge you to use your leadership publicly to ensure that the ICC and other transitional justice measures are integral to the UN's response to the crisis in the Darfur region.'

The letter was signed by representatives of Amnesty International USA, Global Rights, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, and Physicians for Human Rights, as well as Freedom House...."

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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 whole, and its secretariat, do not endorse or promote specific investigations or prosecutions or take a position on Situations before the ICC. However, individual CICC members may endorse referrals, provide legal and other support on investigations, or develop partnerships with local and other organizations in the course of their efforts.

Communications to the ICC can be sent to:

ICC

P.O. box 19519

2500 CM the Hague

The Netherlands