Egypt working to defer ICC Sudan indictment - MENA

November 11, 2008
Reuters
Original Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSLB34966._CH_.2400

CAIRO, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Egypt is working to defer any indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court on charges of orchestrating war crimes in Darfur, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said.

Khartoum has said that peace in the war-racked Darfur region in western Sudan, where non-Arab rebels took up arms in 2003, would be impossible if the U.N. Security Council does not stop the ICC from indicting Bashir.

Sudan is going through difficult circumstances, Egyptian state news agency MENA cited Aboul Gheit as saying. We are working on two tracks. One is reconciliation and the other is to delay any charges or the court taking up this matter. In July ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo accused Bashir of orchestrating genocide in the Darfur region, where international experts say ethnic and political conflict has left 200,000 dead and 2.5 million homeless since 2003.

ICC judges are not expected to make a decision on whether to indict Bashir before January. The accusations against Bashir include war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Aboul Gheit said Egypt supported Bashir and Cairo had asked the Arab League to make efforts at the United Nations and in the African Union to get the U.N. Security Council to ask the court to shelve the matter for a year.

Both the Arab League and the African Union have opposed any move by the court to indict Bashir, saying that would hurt chances for a negotiated peace. Sudan has stepped up diplomatic efforts to persuade Security Council members to use their powers to defer any indictment and launched a nationwide consultation to come up with its own solution to the conflict.

Sudanese officials have suggested that U.N.-African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, known as UNAMID, could be expelled if the judges indict Bashir who says the charges against him are fabricated. (Writing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Louise Ireland)