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January 9, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The United States on Monday revealed that it has spoken to Libyan officials to express unhappiness over the visit made by Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir to Tripoli over the weekend.
Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on ten counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide allegedly committed in Sudan’s western region since the conflict broke out in 2003.
The Sudanese leader received backing from Arab and African countries but has still seen his travel restricted to friendly countries that could give him assurances that they will not arrest him.
Libya is not a member of the ICC and therefore has no obligation to detain Bashir. But it was the National Transitional Council (NTC), which is now in control of the country, that asked the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) earlier this year to refer the situation in Libya to the Hague tribunal in order to investigate possible crimes committed following the uprising against late leader Muammar Gaddafi.
“[W]e did raise this issue with Libyan officials. I will tell you we raised it relative late, because we learned about the visit relatively late. The Libyan Government knows our view that we oppose invitations, facilitation, or support for travel by President Bashir because he’s a subject of an ICC arrest warrant. We have a long policy of urging other nations to do the same, and obviously we have long supported efforts to bring those responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity and war crimes to justice,” the U.S. State department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters today.
“We have also said to the Libyans that we would like to see them join the international community in calling for the Government of Sudan to cooperate fully with the ICC. So this is the conversation we’re having with the Libyans,” Nuland said.
The U.S. official said that they will continue talking to Tripoli over its ties with Sudan and Bashir.
“As with many things, this is a first time as a free government they’ve had to encounter these issues, they’ve been sort of outside this statute for some time. So I think that we will continue our discussion about the appropriate way to deal with Sudan and to deal with Bashir” she said.
Bashir has disclosed following Gaddafi’s downfall that his country provided military help to the NTC during the course of the battles in Libya throughout most of this year.
During his visit last week, Bashir offered the NTC help with building a national army and integrating the rebels. He also discussed securing the borders and joint efforts to prevent smuggling of weapons that were owned by Gaddafi’s regime.
In Libya, a former NTC official suggested that receiving Bashir is more of a pragmatic decision.
“I personally agree that there is a moral obligation to arrest Bashir, but this is not the position of the Libyan government right now – they are racing against time to restore law and order and stability to the country so the considerations of the government are different… and the world should not forget that the Libyan revolution and people received considerable support from the government of Sudan in overthrowing Gaddafi,” he said.
(ST)
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