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Darfur: Sudanese rebels "not intimidated" by sanctions; UK and French Ministers Mark Gordon and Bernard Kouchner discuss their participation in Darfur meeting; HR Council on Sudan progress report highlights lack of ICC cooperation from Sudan

24 Sept 2007

Dear all,

Please find below continued media coverage of developments related to the International Criminal Court's investigation in Darfur, Sudan.

This digest includes reports of Sudan's insistence that the number of African troops for the hybrid force to be deployed in Darfur is sufficient (in contrast to reports last week that Sudan had requested more troops); ongoing repercussions of high-level meeting on September 21 at the United Nations Secretariat in New York; the response from several Sudanese rebels indicating they are "not intimidated" by sanction talks; the release of the Human Rights Council of the UN progress report on the human rights situation in Darfur; and various analysis and opinion pieces.

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 current situations before the Court or situations under analysis. 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]

*****

I. KHARTOUM ASSURES 'AFRICAN TROOPS SUFFICIENT FOR DARFUR'

i. "Sudan says African troops sufficient for Darfur," Sudan Tribune, 22 September 2007 http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article23880

"Sudan insisted Friday that African countries have offered enough troops for a peacekeeping force in Darfur despite U.N. concerns that the mission will not be effective without specialized contributions from outside the continent...."

II. HIGH-LEVEL DARFUR MEETING ON FRIDAY AT UN SECRETARIAT IN NEW YORK

i. "Darfur rebels warned of sanctions," Al-Jazeera, 21 September 2007
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/81243B2B-112D-48D2-9F6B-84EBCCADD9E3.htm

"Darfur's rebel groups could face sanctions if they do not attend peace talks with Khartoum in Libya next month, delegates to a UN-sponsored meeting in New York have warned.

US[A] and Sudanese officials both called for sanctions against rebels who stayed away from negotiations, in a rare moment of unity following Friday's meeting....

.... Earlier on Friday the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) urged world leaders to 'break their silence' and press the Sudanese government to arrest one of its ministers for alleged war crimes.

The comments by Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor, came ahead of a high-level UN meeting on Darfur on Friday.

Moreno-Ocampo has called for the arrest of Ahmed Harun, Sudan's humanitarian affairs minister, who faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He said he was concerned that silence by world leaders 'has been understood in Khartoum as a weakening of international resolve'.

ii. "Sudan: Réunion au sommet ONU/Union africaine sur le Darfour à New York," UN News Service, 21 September 2007
http://www.un.org/apps/newsFr/storyF.asp?NewsID=14847&Cr=darfour&Cr1=soudan

Mark Gordon, UK Foreign Minister claimed during a press conference at the UN that he did raise the issue of ICC arrest warrants for Sudanese officials during the Friday meeting..

Above translation from French is unofficial and has been prepared by the CICC Secretariat.

iii. "La justice internationale oubliée des négociations sur le Darfour," Le Monde. 24 September 2007
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3212,36-958247@51-947123,0.html

French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, in a meeting with ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo admitted that he should have raised the issue of ICC arrest warrants in Sudan during the UN meeting and that he was wrong for not doing it.

Above translation from French is unofficial and has been prepared by the CICC Secretariat.

iv. "La France veut une force européenne près du Darfour," Le Monde, 24 September 2007
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3212,36-958715@51-947123,0.html

French President Sarkozy hopes to see a resolution on Darfur adopted on Tuesday. The resolution would allow EU troops to intervene in the Sudanese borders in Chad and CAR to reinforce the upcoming UN-AU force. An article from Le Monde explained that the composition of the EU force raised concerns among NGO who fear that if the force is made up of 50% French soldiers this will lead to the French troops fighting Chadian and CAR rebels. NGO's call then other EU countries such as Sweden to bring more EU soldiers to bring down the level of French troops.

Above translation from French is unofficial and has been prepared by the CICC Secretariat.

III. REBELS RESPOND TO DARFUR MEETING AT UN

i. "Sudan rebel movement spokesman says "not intimidated" by sanctions threat,"
BBC News Monitoring Middle East, 22 September 2007
http://www.hoovers.com/global/employment/company.xhtml?ID=107619

"Doha Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel Television in Arabic on 22 September leads its 0700 newscast with the following announcer-read report: 'Concluding the international meeting on Darfur in New York, a joint statement by the African Union and the United Nations has called on rebel factions to participate in talks in the Libyan capital Tripoli next month.'

...Al-Jazeera TV carried a three-minute live telephone interview with Yahya Bulad, spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement - Abd-al-Wahid Nur Wing, in London.

Asked to comment on the US threats to impose sanctions on the rebel groups, Bulad said:

'We in the Sudan Liberation Movement - Abd-al-Wahid Nur Wing have a firm position. The international forces should be deployed on the ground of Darfur in accordance with international standards. These forces should be from the United States, the NATO, and Australia. Then, the Janjaweed should be disarmed, and the acts of killing and rape should stop.'

He adds: 'Ahmad Harun [Sudanese minister of state for humanitarian affairs, charged by the International Criminal Court [ICC] of committing war crimes and crimes against mankind in Darfur] should be extradited to the ICC in the Hague. Then we can start negotiations.'...."

ii. "Sudanese Islamic opposition leader fears anarchy after elections," BBC Monitoring Middle East, 22 September 2007. Link not available

Excerpt from report by liberal Sudanese newspaper Al-Sahafah on 22 September:

"Senior Leader of the [Islamic opposition] Popular Congress Party [PCP] Al-Mahbub Abd-al-Salam has said that PCP Chairman Dr Hasan al-Turabi is considering retirement from his position in the leadership of the Islamic movement to devote himself to intellectual work. However, he said that many leaders in the party believe that [Al-Turabi] should continue until the upcoming elections are held, because of his symbolic prominence at this stage.

Al-Mahbub said in an interview published by Qatari newpaper Al-Sharq yesterday that if the [PCP] wins the expected elections, it would give most of the seats to other parties even if they are opposition or smaller [groups]. 'We all want to participate in ruling Sudan,' he added. [Passage omitted]

He also feared that 'if elections are held while the government is still in the present state, then it may rig the polls'.[Passage omitted]

Al-Mahbub also said that 'those who are now in power fear being handed over to the International Criminal Court; so they believe that their only guarantee is to remain in power'...."

IV. HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL ON SUDAN RELEASES REPORT BY GROUP OF EXPERTS

i. The Human Rights Council issued today a press release on the interim report of a Group of Experts on the human rights situation in Darfur. Some excerpts of the press release read:

"The Human Rights Council this morning opened its general debate on human rights situations that require its attention, hearing the Group of Experts on Darfur present an interim report.

(... ) In conclusion, the Group of Experts recommends that the Human Rights Council urges the Government of Sudan to continue its efforts to implement the recommendations compiled by the Group of Experts, to address impunity and ensure that all allegations of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law are duly investigated and the perpetrators are promptly brought to justice, and reiterate its call to all parties to the conflict to put an end to all acts of violence against women. ..."

Some government and NGO delegations presented their views on the progress report and mentioned the International Criminal Court and the importance of cooperation with the ICC. Some statements read:

"JOHN VON KAUFMANN (Canada) welcomed the recent progress, in particular the reinvigoration of the Darfur peace talks. (....) Canada welcomed the spirit of cooperation, but it was appalled by the recent decision by the Government to appoint an individual as co-Chair for the national commission to investigate human rights abuses in Sudan, when he had been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. The Government should cooperate with the International Criminal Court. (...)

MICHAEL TIERNEY (Ireland) said Ireland was deeply concerned about the human rights situation in Darfur. Ireland strongly urged the Government of Sudan to end the culture of impunity in Darfur, and regretted the decision to appoint Ahmed Mohammed Haroun as co-chair of the national commission to investigate human rights abuses in Sudan, wile he was wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. (...)

JANE LINDRIO ALAO, of International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, said the Government of Sudan continued to carry out indiscriminate attacks. (...) Sudan should ensure rapid deployment of the hybrid force, act against impunity, cooperate with the International Criminal Court and implement recommendations of the Special Rapporteur without delay. (...)

JULIE DE RIVERO, of Human Rights Watch, said the Council should look at concrete actions that would help to make immediate changes. These included enforcing of orders prohibiting attacks on civilians, enforcing zero tolerance policies of violence against women, stopping the use of white-painted vehicles by combatant forces, issuing a blanket waiver of legal immunities for war crimes and serious human rights violations, and ensuring full cooperation by the Government of Sudan with the International Criminal Court and with the African Union Mission in Sudan and the United Nations/African Union Mission in Sudan force. (....)

To view the full-text, please see; http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/39B1A588E318D643C12573600047A7BC?opendocument

ii. "UN team urges Sudan to punish Darfur rights violators," Reuters, 24 September 2007
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24867454.htm

"A team of United Nations investigators urged Sudan on Monday to ensure that people responsible for human rights violations in the embattled Darfur region are quickly made to face justice.

..... The 47-member Council, the report said, should call on Khartoum 'to address impunity and ensure that all allegations of violations of human rights ... are duly investigated and that the perpetrators are promptly brought to justice.'

Sudan has refused to turn over a government official and a pro-government militia leader wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur...."

See also http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070924/tpl-uk-sudan-darfur-rights-43a8d4f_1.html , Reuters South Africa http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL24867454.html and Anatolian Times http://www.anatoliantimes.com/hbr2.asp?id=&s=int&a=070924101438.b3duexuc

iii. "Serious abuse continuing in Darfur: UN rights experts," AFP, 24 September 2007
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iBcTAMd--tYQPwnG5w8wRJhZpZ0Q

"A group of UN experts monitoring Darfur said Monday that serious human rights violations appeared to be continuing in the strife-torn western Sudanese region.

... It called on Khartoum to address the issue of impunity and ensure that all perpetrators of abuses are brought to justice. The experts did not list the reported incidents.

UN human rights chief Louise Arbour issued a similar warning last week, saying that human rights violations in Darfur were still 'of the same nature and largely on the same scale.'

She also said there was little indication that the Sudanese government was willing to respond to arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court.

UN envoy Walter Kaelin, a member of the group, on Monday praised Khartoum's 'excellent cooperation' and its efforts to implement measures to stop abuse in Darfur.

But he told the 47-nation Council: 'The group reiterates that the ultimate measure of the government's implementation of the recommendations compiled by the group has to be concrete improvement in the human rights situation on the ground in Darfur.'

(....) In June the experts laid out 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 ICC.

They 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...."

VI. ANALYSIS AND OPINION

i. "UN Chief assures Darfur war criminals for their safety from ICC," Opinion by Wasil Ali to Sudan Tribune,, 24 September 2007
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article23906

"I was deeply shocked to see the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon degrading the importance of extraditing Darfur war crime suspects to a simple political matter that can be resolved through negotiations. The UN hinted in remarks to the press that the arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kushayb should be kept in the background for the time being so that peace efforts and deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur can be successful.

The message Ban Ki-Moon sent to the perpetrators of the crimes in Darfur is unprecedented in the history of the UN. The first message is that justice is a political matter that can be negotiated on a round table. The second message is that UN Security resolutions can be overruled for the purposes of achieving peace. It is also important to note that the UN top official did not mention the word 'impunity' even once when talking about Darfur since he took office.

Unlike what Mr. Ban Ki-Moon thinks, accountability is not a luxury in resolving conflicts. It serves multiple purposes; it acts as a deterrent from committing further crimes and it assures the victims that the pain inflicted on them will not go unpunished boosting their outlook to the future.

... In the case of Sudan one of the suspects, Ahmed Haroun state minister of Humanitarian affairs, was nominated to co-chair a national committee investigating human rights abuses in Darfur. The UN Secretary General did not even issue a statement of concern to this decision which clearly challenges resolution 1593 and the authority of the Security Council. Moreover the second suspect Ali Kushayb is believed to be freely roaming in Darfur and making calls through his cell phone despite Khartoum's claim that he is under arrest. Is this an acceptable situation to Ban Ki-Moon? Perhaps it is.

Moreover the UN leader has been acting as if Sudan's compliance with UN resolutions is optional. His justification for not bringing the ICC arrest warrants was to secure Sudan's cooperation with the deployment of the hybrid force and the peace process. The matter of fact is that both matters are mandatory upon the government of Sudan per UN resolutions. As one Sudanese journalist put it, Khartoum has 'celebrated' Ban Ki Moon ignoring the issue of the ICC and praised him as someone who is 'more diplomatic' than his predecessor Kofi Annan. The Sudanese government has taken his silence as a blank check to disregard resolution 1593 referring Darfur war crimes to the ICC...."

ii. "Human Rights Watch - Scrutinizing war from both sides: Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth speaks...," San Francisco Chronicle, 24 September 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/24/BA7KSAVPN.DTL

"When Kenneth Roth addresses the subject of Darfur on Tuesday in San Francisco, he'll speak as someone who has been to Sudan and interviewed not only victims there, but also those accused of fomenting the killings, rapes and continuing violence.

Roth is executive director of Human Rights Watch, a position that requires him to talk with both the orchestrators of war and its most vulnerable targets. Human Rights Watch gives voice to those targets in a way that challenges the aims and rhetoric of war generals - but Roth still meets with those generals, if only to better understand the horrors that his organization documents.

What Roth found in Sudan's capital of Khartoum in 2004 defied his expectations.

'From the outside, you'd assume that anyone who is authorizing mass murder must be a group of thugs,' Roth said in a phone interview before flying to San Francisco for his speech at the Commonwealth Club. 'But you meet them and they're refined, intelligent, worldly people.'

Not meant as a compliment, Roth's comments explain why Khartoum's leaders are afraid of efforts by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court to hold them accountable. In April, the international court issued arrest warrants for Sudan's minister of state for humanitarian affairs, Ahmad Harun, and a Sudanese militia leader, Ali Kushayb, who allegedly oversaw the shootings of 32 Darfurians.

This week, international court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is meeting U.N. ministers to push Sudan to arrest Harun and Kushayb.

'Precisely because of their worldliness and sophistication, (Sudan's leaders) do not want to spend their dying days dodging arrest warrants in the deserts of Sudan,' Roth said. 'They want to be able to take their shopping trips to Europe, and they want to be able to send their kids to be educated in the United States'..."

iii. "Curse of the Janjaweed," by Ann McFerran, The Times UK, 23 September 2007
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article2489206.ece

"Since 2003, Janjaweed bandits have been preying on the women of Darfur. Nobody knows how many they have raped, nobody knows how many pregnancies have resulted from these attacks, or how many babies have been killed by their 'disgraced' mothers. But now the women are beginning to speak out.

A s soon as she saw the two darkly clad men riding towards her on camels, their heads and faces swathed in scarves, Nafisa Mohamed knew what she must do. "I told my son and my daughter to run as fast as they could." The men were the Janjaweed, nomadic Arab bandits who have been slaughtering Darfuri men and raping women, in a military offensive engineered by the Sudanese government. Jinn is Arabic for demon and jawad means horse. Darfuri people will tell you that the Janjaweed are indeed devils on horseback. .....

Afterwards, Nafisa, full of self-loathing, ran as fast as she could back to the camp where her other children were waiting. Her greatest fear was that she'd become pregnant by a Janjaweed.

Nafisa, 30, and her children live in Kalma camp near Nyala, the capital of Southern Darfur, where the Khartoum government has been conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Arabs for the past five years. Around 300,000 have died as a result, and more than 2m have lost their homes - over a third of the population. In 2004, when Nafisa's village was destroyed by the Janjaweed, she had trekked to Kalma camp with thousands of others to escape the slaughter. ....

..... In Sudan, a child's identity is determined by the ethnicity of the father. In Darfur, the rapists have a ready-made excuse for their crimes on the battlefield: to replace the existing communities with a new generation of Arab children.

Darfur is a complex African crisis, rooted in violent ethnic and historical factors, and recently exacerbated by drought and famine. Most of Darfur's 6m people are either farmers or nomadic herders. Most farmers are African and most nomads Arab. Until recently, the two groups mixed fairly easily. Competition between the tribes tended to be economic rather than ethnic. The three main African tribes are the Fur, who are also the largest, the Zaghawa and the Masalit. Almost everyone is Muslim, speaks Arabic and has dark skin.

The recent violence also has its roots in the cultural legacy of slavery, now outlawed. Until little more than a generation ago, Darfur was Sudan's slave-trading ground. For many Arab Sudanese, Darfuri women are seen as beautiful, sexually generous and comparatively liberated. By some Arabs they are seen as fit for little more than slavery or prostitution.

..... As Gordon Brown and France's Nicolas Sarkozy unite to tackle the problems in Darfur, David Triesman says all the 'building blocks' are in place for resolution of the conflict. Those blocks include the threats of the International Criminal Court, sanctions, an arms embargo and the strengthened AU/UN hybrid force..... "

iv. "Sudanese writer slams minister's remarks on international court," BBC Monitoring Middle East, 21 September 2007
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=86739&d=18&m=9&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World

Commentary by Al-Tahir Sati entitled 'Swift justice, not procrastination' published by liberal Sudanese newspaper Al-Sahafah on 20 September:

"The government is not concerned in any way with Interpol's posting of the International Criminal Court's red bulletin in the airports of the world's capitals and the seaports for the arrest of Sudanese citizen Ali Kushayb and turning him over to the ICC in The Hague. This is what was stated by the justice minister immediately after he heard the news. In the slang of commoners, this translates to 'the ICC can fly as high as it can or ride its tallest horses, we do not give a hoot.

...The point is that Kushayb's arrest warrant does not concern the Government in the least, as the Justice Minister has said. In this, the Government stands on par with the commoners and joins in the 'this is none of our business' approach. To our mind, such a stance is inappropriate for the Government. It must not delude itself by assuming a position of irresponsibility and indifference!

The posting of the blue bulletin against citizen Ali Kushabyb concerns the Government a lot. Actually, it concerns it singularly, of all world governments. The Government must deal with the issue as something that concerns it, instead of just making meaningless statements. The Government must deal with the dossier of the case responsibly, not by indifference. The international police, Interpol, are not the police of Burkina Faso. Its red bulletin is not issued by the Congo Brazzaville fire department. Ali Kushayb is not a Comoros Island's national. The Government and especially the Justice Ministry knows all the powers and jurisdiction of Interpol. The Government and its Justice Ministry know that there is an Interpol department in our Interior Ministry that has its laws, authorities, and achievements on its record. Certainly these achievements are the result of cooperation and dealings with other countries on issues involving arrests and extradition.

It is necessary to cite all these points - known to everybody near and fear - in order to underline that Interpol is a fact of life for nations, and that it is no justice for the minister of justice to strike it off with the stroke of 'a press statement'.

... The Hague and its Interpol aside, the fact that stands out here is that the national committee formed by the Presidency of the Republic under mulana [justice] Daf'allah Al-Hadj Yusuf [Sudan's former chief Justice] has reached the conclusion that there are gross violations and excesses committed by the two sides to the war in Darfur and that these are classified as war crimes and crimes against humanity. Thus there are victims and culprits. Our national courts were set up to try the culprits, whether Kushayb or anybody else. Is it not so?"

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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 or situations under analysis. 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
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