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Sudan: UN and Sudan Discuss Peacekeeping, Jan Pronk Mentions ICC, HRF Calls for Envoy, NGOs Opposed Sudan's AU Presidency

17 Jan 2006

Please find below excerpts from several recent articles reporting on developments related to Sudan (as well as links to other related articles). In particular:

(1) Sudan has proposed the formation of a tripartite force including its own troops, rebel movements and the African Union (AU) to maintain peace in Darfur, the foreign ministry said Sunday. The proposal came amid growing expectations and discussions that the United Nations might send its own forces to Darfur.

(2) Jan Pronk declared Friday that efforts to bring peace to Sudan's vast Darfur region have failed and called for a robust U.N. peacekeeping force of up to 20,000 troops. Pronk also urged the ICC "to work quicker" and issue indictments against commanders or political leaders. "I understand that they have to be very thorough in order not to make mistakes but the important thing also is to make an end to impunity and set some examples," he said. "This is also an instrument to stop further atrocities."

(3) Human Rights First has called on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint a high-level envoy to help negotiate a settlement to the nearly three-year-old violence in western Sudan. Physicians for Human Rights also released a report last week which reconstructed in detail joint army-Janjaweed attacks on three widely separated villages in Darfur based on the testimony of survivors.

(4) A week before an African Union (AU) summit in Khartoum, there is controversy as to whether Sudan, which has been accused of human rights violations and is being investigated by the ICC, will chair the body.

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.

Warm Regards,
Esti T. Tambay
Information and Analysis Officer
Coalition for the International Criminal Court

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A. UN AND SUDAN DISCUSSIONS ON PEACEKEEPING IN DARFUR

1. Agence France Presse, "Sudan proposes tripartite force for Darfur" - 15 January 2006
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=qw1137323884704S355

"Sudan has proposed the formation of a tripartite force including its own troops, rebel movements and the African Union (AU) to maintain peace in Darfur, the foreign ministry said Sunday. The proposal came amid growing expectations the United Nations would send its own forces to the war-torn region of western Sudan in a bid to quell the vio-lence AU peacekeepers have failed to contain. "We have proposed at the recent AU Peace and Security Council meeting in Ad-dis Ababa the formation of a joint force," foreign ministry spokesman Jamal Mo-hamed Ibrahim told AFP. [...]

While Khartoum has sought to assert its right to choose who would be in charge of peacekeeping operations, the AU itself has warned Sudan it would be bound by any AU decision allowing a UN deployment. During a press conference Saturday, Foreign Minister Lam Akol said Sudan "would explore all alternatives" to a UN deployment. Ibrahim repeated Sunday that it was "too early to decide on whether we are going to accept any resolution on deployment of international forces". [...]

The UN Security Council has demanded prosecution before the International Criminal Court in The Hague of a reported 51 suspects, including high Sudanese government officials, identified by a UN commission of inquiry.
Rebel groups have warned they would pull out of AU-sponsored peace talks in Abuja if Sudan took the chair of the pan-African body during its January 23-24 summit in Khartoum."

Other Related Articles:
- UN News Service, "UN Weighs Options for Sudan's Darfur Region As Funds for African Union Force Run Low": http://allafrica.com/stories/200601130014.html
- Reuters, "Rice backs major U.N. role in Darfur, chides Khartoum": http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N16217539.htm
- Xinhua, "UN mulls peacekeeping involvement in Darfur from African Union": http://english.people.com.cn/200601/13/eng20060113_235235.html

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B. COMMENTS BY JAN PRONK ON ICC

1. Associated Press, Edith Lederer, "U.N. envoy calls for up to 20,000 U.N. peacekeepers to disarm militias in Sudan's Darfur region" - 14 January 2006
http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=13546

"The top U.N. envoy in Sudan declared Friday that efforts to bring peace to Sudan’s vast Darfur region have failed and called for a robust U.N. peacekeeping force of up to 20,000 troops to disarm marauding militias and provide security so over 2 million displaced people can return home. Jan Pronk said an ethnic cleansing campaign in 2003 and 2004 had been successful and a larger, more sophisticated and mobile force was needed to help end the continuing rapes and killings and stop the groups of 500 to 1,000 militia on camel and horseback that still attack villages at least once a month. [...]

Pronk also urged the International Criminal Court, which is investigating alleged war crimes in Darfur, "to work quicker" and issue indictments against commanders or political leaders.

"I understand that they have to be very thorough in order not to make mistakes but the important thing also is to make an end to impunity and set some examples," he said. "This is also an instrument to stop further atrocities." [...]

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C. HRF CALLS FOR TOP UN ENVOY IN SUDAN and PHR REPORT

1. Inter Press Service, "Rights Group Says Top UN Envoy Needed On Darfur" - 12 January 2006 http://allafrica.com/stories/200601130010.html

"With the security situation in Darfur deteriorating, a major U.S. human rights group Thursday called on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint a high-level envoy to help negotiate a settlement to the nearly three-year-old violence in western Sudan that Washington has labeled "genocide".

New York-based Human Rights First (HRF) said such an envoy should be empow-ered to negotiate with all parties involved in the conflict, including tribal leaders and the government-backed Janjaweed militias, as well as the non-Arab rebel groups and the regime that have been engaged in so far fruitless peace talks under the auspices of the African Union (AU) in Abuja, Nigeria. [...]

It also comes in the wake of the leak of a confidential report by a U.N. panel on the current situation. According to the Associated Press, which ob-tained a copy of the report, it accused both Khartoum and the rebels of blocking peace and committing, along with the Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, widespread human rights abuses, including torture, rape and murder. The report includes a list of names of individuals the panel considers responsible for the most serious abuses. The Council may impose financial and diplomatic sanctions against such individuals, who are believed to include a number of senior Sudanese government officials, under a resolution it adopted last March.

Last month, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) released an 83-page report of its own, "Entrenching Impunity", on alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. It said top Sudanese officials, including President Omar El Bashir, should be sanctioned by the Security Council and investigated by the International Criminal Court based in The Hague, Netherlands. [...]

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), a Boston-based NGO that has conducted a series of missions to Darfur and Chad, where more than 200,000 victims have taken refuge, released its own report Wednesday which reconstructed in detail joint army-Janjaweed attacks on three widely separated villages in Darfur based on the testimony of survivors. The report, "Assault on Survival: A Call for Security, Justice and Restitu-tion", demonstrates the thorough and systematic nature of those attacks and con-cludes that they violated the Genocide Convention. [...]"

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D. SUDAN CHAIR OF AU

1. Business Day (South Africa), "Sudan's bid to chair AU puts SA on the spot" - 16 January 2006 (link not available)

"With a week to go before an African Union (AU) summit in Khartoum, there is controversy as to whether Sudan, which has been accused of human rights viola-tions, will chair the body. A group of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) claim they have information that Sudan will take over the chairmanship from Nigeria and that SA is support-ing Sudan's bid, having given up on its efforts to lobby against Sudan. However, an observer of the AU said that several countries, including SA, were still trying behind the scenes to stop Sudan from assuming the post. He said the most likely outcome was that Nigeria would retain the AU chair-manship in a compromise deal.

Sudanese President Omar El-Bashir is under investigation by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for atrocities in the Darfur region. A group of 50 African NGOs have sent a letter to African leaders, including President Thabo Mbeki, warning that the election of the Sudanese president to the post would "deeply undermine and erode the credibility" of the AU. [...]

Sudan stands accused in a number of United Nations (UN) reports of ethnic cleansing and mass murder, and the UN Security Council has asked the International Criminal Court to launch prosecutions over the killings in Darfur. As well as Sudan's president, a number of his senior officials are under investigation. [...]

Other Related Articles:
- Reuters (Khartoum), "Sudan hopes to head AU but prospects uncertain":
http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L14629615
- Reuters (Johannesburg), "Sudan not fit to chair AU, rights groups say": http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16580595.htm

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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.

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