Sudan plans UN lobby

2008-09-22 10:03

Sarah El Deeb

Cairo - Sudan heads to the UN this week to push a behind-the-scenes lobbying effort to avert the prosecution of the country's president on charges of genocide in Darfur.

But prospects seemed dim at a time when Sudan has shown little willingness to compromise and launched an expansive military offensive against rebels in western Darfur region.

Efforts by African countries, the tiny Gulf state of Qatar and France to solve the crisis also have not yielded tangible results.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has asked judges to issue an arrest warrant against President Omar al-Bashir on charges he carried out genocide in Darfur.

Up to 300 000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million have been chased from their homes in the region since fighting between government-backed janjaweed militia and rebels began in early 2003.

Freeze the ICC case

The court is expected to make its decision before the end of the year, and the Sudanese government has been lobbying African and Arab countries to support its attempts to evade al-Bashir's prosecution.

The AU has asked the UN Security Council to freeze the ICC case against al-Bashir, which can do so if it deems the prosecution as a threat to peace and security. While the Security Council took note of the request in July, it had said it would revisit it later.

But it appears Sudan is now shying away from asking the council to halt the case, as it becomes increasingly less likely that it would be able to avert a veto within the council.

The council initially asked the ICC to investigate the Darfur crisis and freezing the process at this point could be seen as not only undermining the court, but also emboldening the Sudanese government.

Sudan also lost one its biggest supporters in the council, South African President Thabo Mbeki, who announced on Sunday he would resign, effective as soon as a new president is chosen. He sent his foreign minister instead to the UN General Assembly meeting this week.

For now, Sudan plans to focus its attention on the General Assembly, which it will address on Tuesday.

Peace deal

Al-Bashir's spokesperson, Mahfuz Faidul, said the Sudanese delegation, headed by vice president Ali Osman Taha, will tell the assembly about Sudan's efforts to reach a peace deal in Darfur.

Sudan is ready to "go further than what most imagine if the UN and the Security Council leave us facing the ICC," he said. "It will be nothing less than ending all our agreements with the UN."

Sudan expert Alex de Waal said Khartoum has little confidence that any sort of deal to avert the prosecution will be worked out.

The current military offensive against strategic rebel targets in Darfur is a sign that Sudan's powerful security apparatus is taking "preventive measures to secure themselves," said de Waal, the author of numerous books on Sudan.

Rebel groups said the offensive was an attempt by the government to change the "balance of power on the ground".

- AP