AU urges Bashir charges' suspension

In one of its strongest statement issued, African Union urges the Hague-based International Criminal Court to suspend its plans to indict Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with war crimes in the Darfur conflict.

The African Union has urged the Hague-based International Criminal Court to suspend its plans to indict Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with war crimes in the Darfur conflict.

This was one of the strongest statements issued as the 12th summit of the African Union came to an end here today.

Earlier, at the opening ceremony on Monday, all the speakers except UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for suspension of the indictment plans against President al-Bashir.

On Monday, it was rather strange that even as the chairman of the AU Mr Jean Ping called for lifting the indictments, the man seated close to him, Mr Ban did not say a word, but at a later press conference, Mr Ban said: “The UN is not the ICC and the ICC is not the UN.’’

The announcement made today by the Mr Ping means President al-Bashir can bank on Africa's support to fight the indictments.

President Bashir has also in the past got support from close ally China which has made clear it wants the charges lifted.

But at a press conference addressed by Mr Ping and AU chairman Muammar Gaddafi in Addis Ababa, the signs were clear that President al-Bashir has fallen out of favour with the top AU leadership.

Col Gaddafi said while answering a question about what he intended to do about Darfur now that he was chairman of the AU: “Sudan must apply the Constitutive Act of the AU and if they violate it, they will be penalised.’’

The final document issued at the end of the summit said that the AU “expresses deep concern at the indictment made by the prosecutor of the international Criminal Court (ICC) against the President of the Republic of The Sudan, H.E. Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir.’’

Mr Ping said answering a question about Hisene Habre, former Chadian President currently exiled in Senegal and wanted for trial in Belgium: “Both matters were raised. We just adopted them. The suspension we were asking for was recalled. On the question of Habre, a decision has been adopted.’’

At this stage it was not clear if the AU was maintaining its support for Bashir, but the final document made it clear that Africa would not abandon one of its sons to the mercy of the Hague-based court.

On July 14 last year, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the court to issue an arrest warrant for President al-Bashir. Sudan has rejected the ICC’s jurisdiction on the grounds it is not a signatory to the 1998 Rome Statue that set up the court.

In the past, the Arab League and the AU have asked the Security Council to suspend the case for 12 months.

The United Nations estimates that up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million uprooted in the Darfur.

Mr Ocampo claims in his indictment that President al-Bashir, who came to power in 1989, played a direct role in the deaths of 15,000 people in Darfur.