Sudan: Aid workers at risk

2008-07-22 21:31

Nairobi - International aid workers and peacekeepers in the troubled Sudan region of Darfur are at risk after the indictment against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes, his adviser said on Tuesday.

The International Criminal Court has sought an arrest warrant for Bashir for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity which rights groups have hailed but some analysts warned could derail the fragile peace process in the country.

"If there is an indictment of the president of the Sudan, how can the international community hold Sudan responsible for the protection of the many international bodies that are working in Darfur?" Bona Malwal told a news conference.

Malwal said if an arrest warrant was issued, one of the next casualties would be international peacekeeping operations in Darfur.

"There is no way we can accept that an international force that we don't command stays in Darfur with a warrant of arrest on our president," he said.

Malwal said Sudan's government may not be able to discharge its duties including allowing aid workers in.

"We will not give visas, we may even withdraw visas. If we say Darfur has become a contested territory between us and the ICC, we can only look after the security of the territory and not the security of international personnel," he said.

Invoke powers

He was speaking after meetings with Kenyan and Tanzanian officials in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

Both are members of the AU which has said it would urge the UN to invoke powers granted to it by the ICC's charter to delay any warrant for 12 months.

"We are warning the world that we will guard our interests," Malwal said. "We will make sure that our president only gets to the ICC after many Sudanese have been overcome by an external force."

Malwal said the acceptable solution to the Darfur crisis was peace negotiations.

"Once you have a political agreement in place, you can then set up tribunals to apprehend those who are responsible (for excesses in Darfur) and I daresay they would include even the president of the republic, if he is implicated," he said.

- Reuters