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DARFUR, Part II: Government and Intergovernmental Statements; UNDPI Summary of the CICC s Press Briefing; Extensive Summary of Media Coverage Following the ICC s announcement including op-eds

06 Mar 2009

Dear all,

On March 4, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the arrest of Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, President of the Sudan, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. This is the first warrant of arrest ever issued for a sitting Head of State by the ICC.

This is the last of a two-part message on the issuance of an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Al Bashir. This message contains several government and intergovernmental statements; an UN Department of Public Information summary of the Coalition’s press briefing on 4 March; extensive summary of media coverage following the Court's announcement including op-eds.

For more information about the ICC issues a warrant of arrest for Omar Al Bashir, President of Sudan, see the Court's press release at http://www.icc- cpi.int/NR/ exeres/0EF62173- 05ED-403A- 80C8-F15EE1D25BB 3.htm

See also the Coalition for the ICC’s press release at http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/ BashirAW_ CICC_Media_ Advisory_ 4Mar_eng. Pdf

Note that the Coalition's press release is available in French and Spanish.

We encourage you to participate in our blog discussion thread on Darfur by visiting www.coalitionfortheicc.org/ blog

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 and 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.

Regards,

CICC Communications
[email protected]

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I. GOVERNMENTS AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL STATEMENTS

i. Norway, 05 Mar 2009, “Norway supports the International Criminal Court,”
http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/norway1.pdf

ii. USA, 05 Mar 2009, “Daily Press Briefing, Mr. Duguid Acting Deputy Department Spokesman”
http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/Daily_Press_Briefings.pdf

iii. China, 05 Mar 2009, “Spokesperson to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang responds to a journalist on the latest's ICC decision regarding Darfur"(in Spanish)
http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/china.pdf

iv. EU Presidency, 04 Mar 2009, “EU Presidency declaration following the ICC decision concerning the arrest warrant for President Al-Bashir,”
http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/EU_Pres_Declaration_following_the_ICC_decision_concerning_thearrest_warrant_for_President_Al_Bashir_

v. France, 04 Mar 2009, “Declaration Du Porte-Parole Du Ministere Des Affaires Etrangeres Et Europeennes, Eric Chevallier”
http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/Soudan-cpi-_FR.pdf (in French)

vi. US Gordon Duguid, Acting Deputy Department Spokesman of the State Department, Daily Briefing, 04 Mar 2009
http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/Africa.pdf

vii. US Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Statement on the ICC's decision to issue an arrest warrant for war crimes in Darfur, 04 Mar 2009
http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/kennedy.pdf

viii. UK, 04 Mar 2009, “Statement by the Foreign Secretary, the Rt Hon David Miliband MP, on ICC arrest warrant for President Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity”
http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/ICC_statement_Bashir_-_UK_4mar09.pdf

ix. USA, 04 Mar 2009, Press release by the Bureau of Public Affairs, Washington, DC- ICC Arrest Warrant Issued For Sudanese President Bashir
http://www.coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/USA_State_department_4_march_2009.pdf

x. AU, 06 March 2009, “The Chairman of the AU Commission expresses deep concerns at the decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC,” http://coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/AU_expresses_Concern_over_ICC_arrest_warrant[1].pdf

xi. AU, 05 March 2009, “Communiqué of the 175th meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council,”
http://coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/AU_PSC_press_release_on_ICC_arrest_warrant_03052009_eng.pdf

xii. Denmark, 05 March 2009, “Press Release From The Danish Minister Of Foreign Affairs On The Occasion Of The ICC`S Issuance Of An Arrest Warrant Against The Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed Al-Bashir,” http://coalitionfortheicc.org/documents/Denmark_pr_5mar09.pdf

xiii. Liberal Party of Canada (Irwin Cotler, Deputy of the Mont-Royal), 5 March 2009, http://www.plcq.ca/national_f.aspx?id=15646 (in French)

II. CICC PRESS BRIEFING

“Press Conference by NGOs on International Criminal Court’s Indictment of Sudanese President,” UN Department of Public Information, 5 March 2009, http://www.un.org//News/briefings/docs/2009/090304_HRW.doc.htm

“ ...‘For Darfuris […] this is just unbelievable,’ said North Darfur native Niemat Ahmadi at a Headquarters press conference convened by the Coalition for the International Criminal Court under the sponsorship of the Permanent Mission of Liechtenstein. Throughout the six-year conflict pitting rebels against Government forces and allied Janjaweed militia, the people of Darfur had had no avenue for justice, and President Bashir’s Government had been emboldened by its success at obstructing peace efforts and breaking every verbal agreement. ‘Worse, African leaders failed to fulfil their responsibility to their own people in Darfur, spending [years] providing a type of political cover for what was going on in Darfur,’ she said. All that had made justice and peace seem unattainable, but with the decision to charge President Bashir, Darfuris scattered around the country and region, those living in refugee camps and those in the diaspora now had renewed hope that international institutions could ensure justice.

...Joining Ms. Ahmadi at the press conference were Tanya Karansios of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court and Richard Dicker of the Human Rights Watch International Justice Programme, who said the Court’s decision was momentous not only for the people of Darfur, but more broadly for the cause of justice and ending impunity for the most serious crimes under international law, in Darfur’s case mass murder of civilians, forcible displacement of populations on the basis of ethnicity and rape as a weapon of war, among other charges set out in the indictment.
‘With the arrest warrant, the [Court] has put out a wanted poster for President Bashir,’ he continued, saying the Court had linked the President, on the basis of the Prosecutor’s evidence, to widespread and systematic crimes committed against the people of Darfur. The arrest warrant would stigmatize him and mark him as an individual accused of horrific crimes. ‘I believe this arrest warrant will mark him as an accused war criminal […] that must answer to serious charges, while having available to him options for a vigorous defence.’

In response to questions, Ms. Ahmadi stressed that justice should be the priority. Many had argued that peace should come before justice, but Darfuris believed it could only cover the wounds of years of brutality and degradation; dignity could not be restored without proper justice. What could wipe the tears of crying children? What could satisfy elders and young men who had been dehumanized? What could heal the wounds of women living with the inevitability of rape every day of their lives?
‘It is crucial for all of us to stand for justice and support the Court,’ she said, adding that Darfuris believed that whoever was responsible for heinous crimes in their homeland -- whether rebel leaders in the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) or high Government officials -- must be brought to justice. ‘We can overcome our differences as long as everyone is treated equally and no one is above the law.’

Responding to further questions about the Court’s motives and the concerns of those who saw its actions as ‘white justice’, she rejected the portrayal of the proceedings against President Bashir as ‘the West versus Arabs and Muslims’. The reality was that the people of Darfur had been ‘denied the right to live as human beings’ for years. They had been driven off their lands and forced to compromise everything they believed in just to survive. Reiterating her grave disappointment with the stance of both the African Union and the League of Arab States, she said that, in almost every instance, those regional structures had virtually ignored the people of Darfur. ‘I am ashamed.’...

On that same point, Mr. Dicker said there was no denying that the fledgling system of international justice was flawed and that, currently, the playing field was uneven. But to those who said such tribunals would never indict an American or European leader, today’s decision nevertheless showed that not even the President of a country was above the law. The work was now to correct the imperfections in the system. Those Government leaders or their surrogates who dismissed the Court as an ‘imperialist tool’ feared accountability for the very types of crimes, and ongoing impunity for their commission, with which President Bashir was charged. At the same time, the mere opposition to the Court among some people did not mean there should be no justice for the people of Darfur. ‘Where will you stand, with the victims or the accused perpetrators?’

Asked whether the African Union might review the status of its member States’ participation in the Court’s work, as had been reported, Mr. Dicker said he sensed ‘a bit of bluster’ in that reaction, and recalled that African States had shown broad support for the Court’s founding Rome Statute....

He went on to say that the Court’s Achilles heel was that it had no police force and could not execute the arrest warrant against President Bashir. Security Council resolution 1593 (2005), which had referred the situation in Darfur to the Court, called on the Government of Sudan and all parties to the Darfur conflict there to cooperate fully with the Court’s decisions. Khartoum had a legally binding obligation to arrest President Bashir, and the Council, especially those members with influence, such as China and Libya, should press it to fulfil it.

...[Richard Dicker] said that assuming the warrant for President Bashir’s arrest would somehow affect the peace process was a ‘false argument’, because there had essentially been no peace process under way owing to the lack of political will on the part of all parties to the Darfur conflict. At the same time, it was to be hoped that the indictment would marginalize President Bashir, as had happened with former Presidents Charles Taylor of Liberia and Slobodan Milošević of Serbia.

...Ms. Ahmadi added that the Court’s decision would change many things, ‘especially the mood of frustration and helplessness’. Things might not change today or tomorrow, but in the face of justice, all the Darfuri people saw hope.

III. NEWS ARTICLES

i. “Sudan leader defies arrest order on war crimes charges,” Marlise Simons and Neil MacFarquhar (IHT), March 5 2009, http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/05/africa/05sudan-cnd.php?page=2

“...The arrest warrant is likely to further complicate the debate over how to solve the crisis in Darfur…. One sign of fallout came almost immediately. The Justice and Equality Movement, a major rebel group in Darfur that signed a preliminary accord with Khartoum last month, announced that Wednesday it would now reject negotiating with Bashir's government.”

ii. “Braced for the aftershock; the worst crimes, the law and the UN Security Council,” The Economist, March 5 2009, http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13240670&fsrc=rss

“...The aftershocks of the effort to bring Mr Bashir to trial will also be felt far beyond The Hague. The [UNAMID] had already come under attack from local rebels; related arrest warrants have been requested against three rebel commanders. Reprisals against UNAMID could now follow from government-backed forces.

… Hours after the arrest warrant, several of the main Western aid agencies were told to leave the country, some within 24 hours. This was at the extreme end of the reaction people expected: a worrying sign that Darfur’s civilians may again bear the brunt of the regime’s wrath.”

iii. “Darfur: fears of crisis if aid agencies leave,” Sarah El Deeb (AP), March 6 2009, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090305/ap_on_re_af/ml_sudan_international_court

“Even before Sudan's president expelled aid groups from Darfur following an international warrant seeking his arrest, diarrhea was spreading among newcomers at one of its largest refugee camps and people waited hours in line for water.

…The picture at the Zamzam Camp grew even bleaker Thursday when no aid workers showed up, leaving residents to figure out how they would get life sustaining goods from sorghum seeds to running water and tents for the influx of new refugees.”

iv. “Informal polling finds mix of opinions on ICC among Khartoum public,” Sudan Tribune, March 6 2009, http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article30391

“...Sudan has no tradition of opinion polls to gauge a wide range of political views in any thing…However, Sudan Tribune compiled this random sample of the reactions of ordinary Sudanese to the ICC days before its announcement. It was done through causal conversation in the streets, taxis, public places and residential homes, where the name ‘Ocampo’— the chief prosecutor of the ICC — is widely recognized.”

v. “Sudanese envoy in Uganda claims Al-Bashir free to travel in region,” Daily Monitor, March 6 2009, http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/Bashir_can_travel_abroad_-_envoy_81023.shtml

“...A Sudanese representative in Uganda yesterday said the Khartoum regime had received assurances that several governments would not execute the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against President Omar Al-Bashir.”

vi. “Sudan’s Move on Aid Groups Censured,” Neil MacFarquhar and Marlise Simons (NY Times), March 6 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/world/africa/07sudan.html?_r=1&ref=world .

“In Geneva, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the closure of the aid offices would affect 4.7 million people living in Darfur.
‘To knowingly and deliberately deprive such a huge group of civilians of means to survive is a deplorable act,’ he told reporters, according to a transcript.”

vii. “On arresting a sitting president,” Raul Pangalangan (Inquirer), March 05 2009, http://archive.inquirer.net/view.php?db=1&story_id=192557

“We Filipinos may sometimes think that these legal developments are too distant and therefore irrelevant….And if Filipinos think that the al-Bashir arrest warrant is only a Hague/Africa concern, note that already Asian human rights activists are gearing up to run after the Burmese generals using the anti-al-Bashir maneuver. The long arm of international justice is getting uncomfortably close to the Philippines.
This should sober ‘those [Filipino leaders] who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent.’”

viii. “Bashir Should Be Held Accountable, Says Clinton,” David Mckeeby (America.gov), 5 March 2009, http://allafrica.com/stories/200903060002.html
“After an international court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for calm and reiterated America's commitment to peace, justice and security for Africa's largest country.
....’Governments and individuals who either conduct or condone atrocities of any kind, as we have seen year after year in Sudan, have to be held accountable,’ Clinton told reporters March 4....”

See also:

a. “Business as usual for World Vision in Sudan,” ABC News, March 6 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/06/2509064.htm

b. Beshir vows to press on with peace despite warrant,” AFP, March 6, 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/06/2509932.htm

c. “African Union tries to delay al-Bashir arrest,” ABC News, March 6 2009, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/06/2508885.htm

d. “US urges Sudan to reconsider expulsion of aid groups,” AFP, March 6 2009, http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090306/pl_afp/sudanconflictdarfuraidus

e. “UN chief urges Sudan to stop NGO expulsions,” AFP, March 6 2009, http://www.smartmoney.com/news/on/?story=ON-20090305-001098-1959

f. “Larijani dismisses ICC ruling on Sudanese President,” Islamic Republic News Agency, March 6 2009, http://www5.irna.ir/En/View/FullStory/?NewsId=384502&IdLanguage=3

g. “Juba calm subsequent to ICC decision,” Radio Miraya, March 5 2009, http://www.mirayafm.org/news/news/_200903056484/

h. “Nombre d'Etats s'opposent au mandat d'arrêt contre le président Al-Bachir, (Numerous States Oppose the Arrest Warrant against President Al-Bashir)” Stéphanie Maupas (Le Monde), March 5 2009, http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2009/03/05/soudan-nombre-d-etats-s-opposent-au-mandat-d-arret-contre-le-president-al-bachir_1163606_3212.html (in French)

IV. EDITORIALS

i. “A President, a boy and genocide,” by Nicholas D. Kristof (New York Times), http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/opinions/A_President_a_boy_and_genocide_81008.shtml

“When the International Criminal Court issued its arrest warrant for Sudan’s president on Wednesday, an 8-year-old boy named Bakit Musa would have clapped — if only he still had hands.

....Bakit became, inadvertently, one more casualty of the havoc and brutality that President Bashir has unleashed in Sudan and surrounding countries.

....One of Mr Bashir’s first actions after the arrest warrant was to undertake yet another crime against humanity: He expelled major international aid groups, including the International Rescue Committee and the Dutch section of Doctors Without Borders.

...Mr Bashir is now testing the international community, and President Obama and other world leaders must respond immediately and decisively, in conjunction with as many non-Western nations as possible.
The first step is to insist that aid groups be reinstated immediately to prevent this genocide in slow motion.
A second step could be to destroy one of Mr Bashir’s military planes with a warning that if he takes his genocide to a new level by depriving Darfuris of food and medical care, he will lose the rest of his air force.
Yet it’s also important to understand that Mr Bashir engages in a consistent pattern of destruction and slaughter, not because he is a sadistic monster, but because he is a calculating pragmatist.

...Mr Bashir assumes, not unreasonably, that he can get away with it. That culture of impunity is what the ICC arrest warrant may begin to change. It is one way of attaching costs to systematic brutality, and thus to change the calculations of pragmatists like Mr Bashir in Sudan and elsewhere.
So now President Obama and other leaders — hello, Gordon Brown, you there? — need to back up the ICC arrest warrant and push to reverse the expulsion of aid workers, while working with Arab countries like Qatar that want to help.
...President Obama could also announce that from now on, when Sudan violates the UN ban on offensive military flights in Darfur by bombing villagers, we will afterward destroy a Sudanese military aircraft on the ground in Darfur (we can do this from our base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa).
I won’t pretend that we can end all genocides. But we can attach enough costs so that it is no longer in a leader’s interests to dispatch militias to throw babies into bonfires. The ICC arrest warrant marks a wobbly step toward accountability and deterrence.
So let’s applaud the ICC’s arrest warrant, on behalf of children like Bakit who can’t.”

ii. “After Bashir, ICC should widen its scope,” Daily Monitor, March 6 2009, http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/opinions/After_Bashir_ICC_should_widen_its_scope_81007.shtml

“...It has been acknowledged that rebels, military men and politicians on other continents have committed crimes that should qualify them to be hauled before the ICC. The Hague-based court should therefore widen its scope and start to bite them too if it is to be seen to exercise fairness in the execution of its mandated role....”

iii. “Issuing warrant is one thing, arresting Bashir is another,”by Peter Mwaura, 6 March 2009, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/542662/-/4423jr/-/index.html

“It is a slap in the face for the African Union, although a bold step in the fight to end impunity. And it is an exciting breakthrough in universal jurisdiction.

The decision to issue a warrant for the arrest for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the country’s Darfur region also lays down the principle that sitting heads of state do not enjoy immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The decision shows further that African political pressure, in this particular case, does not carry any weight. Last year, the AU asked the UN Security Council, which had referred the Darfur question to ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, to defer the al-Bashir prosecution for a year....”
See also: “Queries for the ICC,” Daily Nation, March 6 2009, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Editorial/-/440804/542300/-/q3qx2jz/-/index.html

“...Leaders on the continent are nervous about the Al-Bashir indictments for selfish reasons, and in the process, neglecting the really legitimate questions.”

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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
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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
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and other organizations in the course of their efforts.

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