Charges against Beshir 'risky'

2008-07-15 14:57

Khartoum - The official levelling of war crimes charges against Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Beshir has been welcomed in many quarters, but fears remain the decision can cause an escalation of violence in Darfur and more misery for millions of long-suffering displaced Darfuris.

International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday requested an arrest warrant on al-Bashir for crimes against humanity and genocide committed in Sudan's restive western province, where the United Nations said up to 300 000 people had been killed and 2.5 million displaced by five years of ethnic conflict.

The response by the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission UNAMID was to begin pulling non-essential staff out of Darfur on Tuesday amid concerns that members of the mission, already a target for deadly attacks, would come under further fire.

General Martin Luther Agwai, UNAMID Force Commander said that force protection levels and patrolling would remain the same and that peacekeepers would "continue to assist humanitarian organisations to do their job".

Govt 'harassing' UNAMID

The problem was that the force was unlikely to be able to cope should the situation escalate. UNAMID - which had less than 10 000 of the planned 26 000 military personnel in place - was already struggling to fulfil its peacekeeping role.

Sudan had continued to block the full deployment of troops through various means, including demanding only African peacekeepers.

There were also lingering suspicions that the government was harassing and even attacking UNAMID through the proxy weapon of the Arab Janjaweed militia.

Khartoum had long been accused of using the Janjaweed to commit atrocities against Darfur's black population and suppress the rebels, who took up arms against what they called decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government.

Seven peacekeepers died last week in an attack believed to have been carried out by the Janjaweed and many in UN circles thought the militia could step up raids as the government sought to punish UNAMID for the ICC's actions.

Peace process may lead to disaster

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday highlighted the fact that the ICC is an independent institution and called on Sudan to cooperate with UNAMID.

However, militiamen were not likely to bother with such distinctions, and Sudan issued a stark warning about the consequences of the possible arrest warrant.

"Our reading of this move by Moreno-Ocampo is that it will lead the peace process to a disaster," Sudan's UN Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad said at UN headquarters in New York.

He urged the UN to choose between the ICC or peace in Darfur: "You cannot have it both ways, the choice is very clear."

But UN staff on the ground were not just worried about government militia. They were worried that rebel groups, emboldened by the charges, could soon launch a series of attacks. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA