Sudan warned on Thursday that it would use
"all options" available if the International Criminal Court
(ICC) were to issue an international arrest warrant for President Omar
al-Bashir, who was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in the
ethnic war in Darfur, dpa reported.
The ICC at The Hague was scheduled to decide this month whether to issue the
arrest warrant requested by its prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo. The African Union
and Islamic leaders oppose the warrant saying it would complicate the peace
process in Sudan.
In New York, the UN Security Council discussed the situation in Sudan and the possibility that the ICC would move to seek the arrest of al-Bashir. Some council
members said the UN could find itself in a dilemma between working for peace in
Sudan and upholding justice at the same time.
Some members, including France, believe that a warrant to arrest al-Bashir
would impede the peace process in Darfur and other UN programmes in that
country, arguing that the Sudanese leader would be needed to settle the
conflicts.
"We weigh all options to deal with this situation, but I am sure that this
possible verdict ... would have no use at all and we are not concerned about it
all," said Sudan's UN Ambassador Abdalmahmoud Mohamad.
Mohamad warned of "ramifications" if the warrant were to be issued
against al-Bashir. He urged the United Nations to set peace as a priority in Sudan and "to protect its own people."
Mohamad turned against council member Jorge Urdina, Costa Rica's UN ambassador,
for demanding that peace and justice be carried out simultaneously in Darfur and criticizing other council members for saying that the issue could be a dilemma
for the UN.
"It's a false dilemma," Urdina said.
"The UN Security Council sent the case of Sudan to the ICC and it supports
peace and justice," Urdina said. "We hope that the Security Council
will be able to discuss the possible consequences of an indictment in Darfur."
Mohamad replied, "We need no lessons from people from Costa Rica. It's totally unacceptable."
Mohamad called Ocampo a "crazy prosecutor" and said the possibility
of the ICC issuing a warrant to arrest al-Bashir was a "crazy move."
France had suggested that the ICC should withhold the arrest warrant if
al-Bashir would surrender two senior Sudanese officials charged with the
killings in Darfur. The ethnic war in Darfur has killed more than 300,000
people since 2005.
Ashraf Jahangir Qazi, the UN special envoy for Sudan, told the Security Council
on Thursday that implementing the peace agreement between north and south Sudan remains "fundamental" for peace in the entire country.
"It is in this context that the impact of an ICC decision on the CPA and
the Darfur situation will need to be discussed," Qazi said.
"The purpose of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (the north-south peace
pact) is the building and keeping of peace and security in Sudan, without which no justice for its people will be possible," Qazir said.
The UN has warned that the 2005 peace agreement could unravel because several
provisions in the pact remained unimplemented, including border demarcation
between north and south Sudan and issues of disarmament and a government of
unity.
There are now about 13,000 international peacekeepers in Darfur and another
10,000 monitoring the peace agreement between Khartoum and southern Sudan.