1. Posted on Wednesday 16 July 2008 - 07:57

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   deodatus

   deofuga@yahoo.com

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   Deodatus Mfugale, Africanews reporter in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

   African Union chairman and Tanzania president Jakaya Kikwete has requested the UN Security Council to ensure that Sudan president Omar Al- Bashir is not worried by after ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has announced his plans to indict him for genocide.

   

   Jakaya argues that Moreno’s move would hamper ongoing peace efforts in the war-torn Darfur region.
   
   Tanzaia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Bernard Membe told a press conference in Dar es Salam on Tuesday that being a signatory to ICC, the country does not condone violence and impunity but noted that indictment of Al-Bashir would be untimely and it would have serious negative consequences to the efforts of reaching a lasting solution to the Dar fur crisis.
   
   “The move by the ICC Prosecutor would complicate the security situation on the ground and would also affect the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Southern Sudan and efforts to solve Sudan-Chad crisis,” the Minister said.
   
   According to Membe, the United Nations Security Council and the African Union have been seriously engaged in finding a lasting solution to the Dar fur crisis through various means including the Inter-Sudanese Peace talks in Darfur and the agreement to deploy the UN-AU hybrid forces in Darfur.
   
   “There are now signs of commitment and compliance by President Al-Bashir,” he said, adding that Tanzania and other African countries under AU have agreed to deploy 26,000 strong United Nations (UN) and AU hybrid forces in Darfur this September.
   
   “Tanzania calls on the United Nations Security Council which has the mandate to defer ICC investigation and prosecution to stay the indictment of President Al Bashir so as to give room to the successful implementation of its Resolution (1769) allowing deployment of hybrid forces”, the Minister stressed.
   
   Speaking during the same conference, the Sudanese Ambassador to Tanzania, Abdelbagi Kabeir, said the move to arrest President Al Bashir may result into great wars and discourage the ongoing efforts to bring peace in Sudan.
   
   He also said that the arrest would result into increased wars as the country is likely to have a mushrooming leadership regime as it happened in Iraq.
   
   “How can ICC want to arrest President Al Bashir when Sudan is not a signatory to the Court?” he wondered, adding that Sudan has its own legal framework and should be left to operate accordingly.
   
   Regarding the situation in his country Ambassador said that conditions had improved compared to the past. “Evidently there is national unity now and we will soon be conducting elections,” he said.
   
   The Ambassador argued that the arrest of President Al- Bashir cold abort the elections and spread the war to other 10 neighboring countries resulting into political instability in Africa.
   
   In a statement circulated to the media on Tuesday the European Union said while it is upon the judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber to determine the steps to take in response to the request made by the Prosecutor, the EU looks upon the ICC to play its fundamental role of promoting international justice. It also stresses its call for the arrest warrants issued by the Court against Sudanese Nationals Mr. Ahmed Harun, a government minister and Mr. Ali Kushayb, military commander to be executed. The two are accused of perpetrating genocide and committing crimes against humanity in Darfur.
   
   However the EU says it is important that efforts for the search for a political solution in Darfur should continue and urges the Sudanese Government of National Unity and all parties, groups and movements in Darfur to work in the interests of the population of Sudan and the stability of the country and the region.
   “The European Union reaffirms its willingness to support the peace efforts in Darfur,” the statement reads in part.
   
   The government in Khartoum says that any such move by the ICC Prosecutor could undermine the peace process in Darfur and trigger a potential backlash.
   The move could also be a disgrace to China, Sudan’s close ally, China.
   
   Observers say Sudan is also likely to seek the support of China, Russia and the AU to help block the arrest. However the Prosecutor is said to have evidence on crimes committed in Darfur over the last five years involving almost the whole state apparatus.
   
   According to international charity organizations and experts, at least 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.5 million others have been displaced since a rebellion broke out in 2003, all of them being Black Africans.

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Reactions

1. Posted on Friday 18 July 2008 18:14

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   bhukabijumiro

   

   
   31 berichten
   Lid sinds April 2008

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   When one hears of what Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete says about the ICC to stay the indictment of Sudanese President Al Bashir one gets to ask the question: For how long should African leaders recognize the value of human life? Al Bashir has had all the time to stop the genocide in Darfur but for years, he chose not to. In the meantime, more and more people die every day. The genocide continues and Kikwete wants that to continue simply because Al Bashir is a president who takes his time while his janjaweed militiat continues raping, looting and massacring people? This is unacceptable. Human rights violations must be dealth with decisively and in a timely manner and fashion by the AU. If I had the wherewithal, I would have first expelled Sudan and Zimbabwe from the African Union and wage war to remove those two presidents by military force. After their removal, welcome the countries back into the AU.
   
   The Darfur genocide is another Rwanda genocide that is being watched by our leaders who do not care about people's lives.
   
   How effective is the African Union when leaders such as Robert Mugabe and Al Bashir kill Africans with impunity? Certainly this is not the way we Africans want the African Union government to function when it ever comes into power. We cannot stand to watch more Africans die at the hands of power hungry politicians and racist regimes like that of Al Bashir.
   
   For years now, negotiations have been going on simultaneously with the continued deaths of hundreds and thousands in Darfur. What does Kikwete and leaders like him gain by Al Bashir's being a president who not only supports but masterminds a genocide? He masterminds the genocide because he has had all the powers to stop it for years but has not. He is in command of the Sudanese Armed Forces as Commander in Chief who chooses to send helicopters into Darfur to fight and kill people. Al Bashir can still stop the genocide if he does not want the indictment. He has denied full access by the UN and the AU peace keeping forces in Sudan to function the way they should.
   
   In fact I am so disppointed in Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete's point of view and lack of understanding of the gravity of the genocide and the fierce imminent need to arrest Al Bashir.
   
   Then comes a Sudanese Minister sho speaks of Sudan not being a signatory to the ICC and gives that as a reason why Al Bashir should not be indicted by ICC. This is preposterous. It reveals the bankruptcy of some African leaders when it comes to human rights abuses. Al Bashir is a person. He is not the country we know as the Sudan, president or not. Human rights are protected by an international charter of the UN and the Sudan is part of the UNO. Countries that are not signatories to the ICC are ruled by dictators and egocentric personalities who think they are above international law and can do whatever they like. There are better minds in the world today. We shall evolve most effective channels, ways and means of how to better deal with such leaders in the future. Charles Taylor never dreamt of where he now is before he was indicted.
   
   I fully support the ICC to have him indicted, arrested and tried for genocide. If the African Union wanted to stop the genocide they would have done so already but they are a dog that barks but have no teeth to bite. The AU needs new blood- a brand of leaders that will speed up the process of creating an AU government with one President, one currency, one passport and one African National Army.
   
   In saying what I write am not thinking like a politician because am not one but am an African so conscious of the spiritual nature of life and its sacred and divine purpose. I cannot standby and watch men like Al Bashir and Mugabe kill, massacre people like that when respected leaders like Kikwete stand there and talk what tantamounts to supporting the continuation of a genocide disguised in ineffective negotiations and a weak half-mandated peace keeping force. Both the UN and the AU have to do better in Darfur. They need a stronger and effective mandate to deal with the arrest of Al Bashir and stop the genocide. This will send a message to other African leaders who still think we are in the stone age.

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