July 21, 2008 (LONDON) — The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement-Unity regretted a decision by African Union in which they supported deferring indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.
“It was a golden opportunity for the AU to prove that it works for the African people” JEM spokesperson told Sudan Tribune today.
“Whether the indictment will be suspended or not the AU proved that it cares more about satisfying member governments at the expense of victims who were not consulted on the matter” Ahmed added.
On the other side, Mahgoub Hussein the spokesperson of the SLM-Unity said this resolution indicates the failure of the African leaders to move from dictatorship to democratic governance.
"We reject the decision adopted today by AU’s Peace and Security Council. It shows how much African leaders are involved in the protection of dictatorship and human rights violators”
The ICC’s prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges last week to issue arrest warrants for Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir.
Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. Judges are expected to take months to study the evidence before deciding whether to order Al-Bashir’s arrest.
The African Union (AU) today asked the UNSC to invoke article 16 of Rome Statue and suspend any indictment of Sudan’s head of state.
Hussein said that Darfur IDP’s are “disappointed” with the AU decision today.
“We appeal to the international community to lend its support to the ICC and the judicial process of bring perpetrators to justice” the JEM official said.
Mahgoud advised the African Union to pull out from the resolution of Darfur conflict because they demonstrated their lack of the necessary values to assume such mission.
“This resolution proves their failure to play a constructive role to resolve Darfur crisis and we call for the AU withdrawal from mediation and to leave the matter to the United Nations” the SLM Unity spokesperson said.
Sudan has not ratified the Rome Statue, but the UNSC invoked the provisions under the Statue that enables it to refer situations in non-State parties to the world court if it deems that it is a threat to international peace and security.
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