By Daniel Van Oudenaren

August 2, 2008 (WASHINGTON) — The concern of African Union (AU) countries for the safety of their peacekeepers was a significant factor in the AU decision to lobby the UN Security Council (UNSC) to suspend the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, a peacekeeping expert told the Sudan Tribune this week.

South African soldiers serving with the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur stand to attentionon July 12, 2008 (AFP)

Bashir is charged on July 14 by the ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

"The timing of the indictment is the main issue for the African Union, not the indictment per se," said Sarjoh Bah, a professor at New York University and coordinator of Global Peace Operations for the Center on International Cooperation.

Bah remarked that there is a difference between the stance of the Arab League, which condemned the ICC indictment itself, and the reaction of the AU, which has called for its suspension only.

The AU Peace and Security Council issued a communiqué on July 23 requesting that the UNSC "defer the process initiated by the ICC, taking into account the need to ensure that the ongoing peace efforts are not jeopardized..."

The request prompted diplomats to mention the AU concerns in the UNSC resolution to renew the mandate of the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), which passed on Thursday after a lengthy, contentious closed-doors session. AU members South Africa, Libya and Burkina Faso currently hold seats on the Council.

Peacekeepers in Darfur are operating under heightened security in the wake of a July 8 attack that killed seven and wounded 22. The attack involved some 200 ambushers on horses and in 40 vehicles. "The Sudanese government should understand that the attack at Um Hakibah is in no one’s best interests," the UNAMID force commander, Martin Luther Agwai wrote in the Mail and Guardian on July 21.

UNAMID faces critical equipment shortages. The mission requested 18 medium-lift tactical helicopters and has received none. Aviation expert Thomas Withington estimated in a report released Thursday that NATO and the leading UN aircraft contributing nations have about 140 uncommitted helicopters that meet the UN’s technical specifications and are available for deployment, and that the countries best placed to provide helicopters to UNAMID are India, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Italy, Romania and Spain.

The peacekeepers, tasked with protecting civilians and humanitarian workers, were unable to protect staff of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), who are withdrawing yesterday from Tawila and Shangil Tobaya in North Darfur after a series of robberies and threats.

If President al-Bashir is indicted, "all cards are on the table—their response is totally unpredictable," said Bah, referring to Sudanese leaders. "If they decide to just kick UNAMID out of Darfur I think it would be a great disaster." UNAMID is deployed on the basis of the consent of the Government of Sudan.

The Arab League said at council meeting on July 19 that the ICC has no jurisdiction in Sudanese affairs and declared solidarity with Government of Sudan. On the same day Yemen’s parliament passed a measure dismissing the accusations of the ICC prosecutor. The Arab position was a frustrating development to a Darfurian speaker at a public event in Washington, D.C. on Monday. "The Arab governments tried to cover and to keep silent," said Mohamed Yahya, the director of Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy.

"No government of Arabs, I tell you, has condemned what’s going on in Darfur since 2003 — I have to correct that — since 1993, when my village was attacked among another 50 villages, destroyed into ashes, and thousands of people were killed. And 50,000 in that day crossed the border into Chad," he added.

The ICC prosecutor is investigating only those events that occurred in the past five years.

Under Article 16 of the Rome Statute of the ICC, the UNSC may resolve to defer a prosecution for a period of 12 months, which is what the AU requested.

The United States made it clear on Thursday, however, "that this Permanent Member of the Security Council will not compromise on the issue of justice," according to Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative. Wolff would not yet go so far as to say that the US will never agree to an Article 16 suspension.

The US surprised observers by abstaining from the UNSC resolution vote. Wolff explained that "language added to the resolution would send the wrong signal to Sudanese President Bashir and undermine efforts to bring him and others to justice."

Amnesty International USA’s Sudan specialist Denise Bell told Sudan Tribune that Amnesty opposes the use of Article 16 by the Security Council, but that it was awaiting the findings of the ICC investigation before undertaking further advocacy on the issue.

Bell would not speculate as to whether activists had influenced the US abstention vote. The Sudan Tribune reported late Thursday that US special envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson was behind the decision to abstain in the vote on the UNAMID resolution.

The United States signed the Rome Statute on December 31, 2000, but Congress never ratified the treaty and President Bush withdrew from the agreement in 2002, citing ideological objections.

(ST)