KHARTOUM: The African Union will ask the United Nations to defer any proceedings for alleged Darfur war crimes against Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir, its chairman said in Khartoum on Monday.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who holds the rotating chair of the AU, met with Beshir amid rising tensions over the possibility of charges being brought by The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).
Peace and settling the humanitarian crisis in Darfur is the number one priority now, Kikwete told reporters, standing alongside Beshir.
It is on this basis that the AU supports the deferment of the indictment …
The AU is pursuing the implementation of that matter within the United Nations system.
The 15-member UN Security Council has the option of deferring for one year, renewable, any investigation or prosecution by the ICC.
Such a move would require a majority of nine votes, including the concurring votes of all five permanent members.
The leader of the AU was warmly welcomed by Beshir.
President Kikwete is on his way to (UN headquarters in) New York soon, and we believe that he is going to meet the dignitaries of the world, said Beshir, speaking in Arabic. We are hopeful … that he will support Sudan.
ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the court in July for an arrest warrant for Beshir on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
The court, charged by the Security Council in March to probe the Darfur conflict, has already issued warrants for the arrests of Sudan s humanitarian affairs minister Ahmed Haroun and militia chief Ali Kosheib.
Beshir has consistently refused to hand them over to the court.
However, Kikwete warned that those responsible must ultimately be held to account.
Justice is critical, and we do not in any way want to be perceived as sending the wrong signals of condoning impunity, the Tanzanian leader told reporters.
Justice must be done, (and) justice, as the lawyers say, must be seen to be done.
Kikwete said he was working to ensure a full deployment of the joint United Nations-African Union (UNAMID) force in Darfur, barely a third of which is so far on the ground, and appealed to Darfur rebels to return to peace talks.
We have a problem of a lack of participation with all the players in Darfur, he said. I again appeal to the rebels to take the negotiations seriously and to participate in the (peace) processes.
According to the United Nations, up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million fled their homes since the conflict erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.
The war began when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth. -AFP
