From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sat Jul 04 2009 - 05:02:40 EDT
Africa refuses to act on Sudan war crimes warrant
By Griffin Shea
04.07.009
..The summit also called on the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone
and a sea blockage on Eritrea, accused of arming the insurgents in Somalia.
SIRTE, Libya (AFP) - The African Union refused to act on an international
war crimes warrant for Sudan's president, at a summit that also yielded a
deal on the powers of a new regional Authority.
The refusal to arrest Sudan President Omar al-Beshir granted a
continent-wide reprieve to a leader accused of war crimes and crimes against
humanity in Darfur.
While the measure was backed by Libya and other nations that sympathise with
Sudan, the text also voiced Africa's frustration at the UN Security
Council's failure to consider a request to suspend the warrant for one year,
delegates said.
"They are showing to the world community that if you don't want to listen to
the continent, if you don't want to take into account our proposals... if
you don't want to listen to the continent, as usual, we also are going to
act unilaterally," the top AU official Jean Ping said.
Thirty African nations are party to the treaty that created the
International Criminal Court, but even advocates of the ICC said they sensed
a bias by the tribunal's prosecutor against Africa.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have
fled their homes since ethnic minority rebels in Darfur rose up against the
Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum in February 2003.
Sudan's government says 10,000 have been killed.
Rights activists said the AU decision ignored the plight of the victims of
the violence.
"This resolution, the result of unprecedented bullying by Libya, puts the AU
on the side of a dictator accused of mass murder rather than on the side of
his victims," said Reed Brody, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch.
"But it cannot erase the legal obligations undertaken by the 30 African
countries which have ratified the ICC treaty," he added.
The summit proved contentious from the start as Libyan leader Moamer
Kadhafi, the current AU chief hosting the summit in his hometown, extended a
surprise invitation to Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to
address the summit's opening Wednesday.
Tehran canceled the visit at the last minute without explanation, after it
became clear not all the delegates knew about or welcomed his visit.
The 24 leaders at the summit then held marathon talks Thursday night to
reach a pre-dawn deal on the powers of a new AU Authority that will be
tasked with coordinating defense, foreign relations and trade policies.
Despite relentless pressure from Kadhafi to grant the Authority broad
influence over policy, the summit left the new body toothless to act without
an explicit mandate from the member states.
Kadhafi had hoped the AU's new executive authority would mark a major step
toward his dreamed "United States of Africa," but the continent's biggest
economy South Africa, as well as top oil producers Nigeria and Angola, won
out with their insistence on a more gradual approach to integration.
"There are some small steps towards consultations and common African policy
positions, but those who want to go slowly came out ahead," said one
minister who participated in the talks.
The 53 member states still must ratify the changes, meaning the African
Union still has a long wait to see the existing AU Commission transformed
into the Authority.
The compromise settled the most contentious debate at the summit, which
largely overshadowed talks on a raft of conflicts roiling the continent,
most dramatically in Somalia, where Islamist insurgents launched an
offensive against the internationally backed government nearly two months
ago.
The African Union has 4,300 peacekeepers deployed in Somalia, its largest
force on the continent. But their role is confined largely to protecting the
president and ensuring that key sea and airports remain open.
Somalia and five of its neighbours want the AU to deploy a total of 8,000
peacekeepers, a contingent that has already been approved but not yet
manned.
Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Malawi made new offers of troops, though their
total contribution was not immediately clear, Ping said.
The summit also called on the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone
and a sea blockage on Eritrea, accused of arming the insurgents in Somalia.
Copyright C 2009 AFP.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----