http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1856&ncid=723&e=1&u=/cpress/20050209/ca_pr_on_wo/un_sudan
Sudan says its courts should handle abuses, not international courts
Wed Feb 9, 4:16 AM ET
EDITH M. LEDERER
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Sudan insists its courts should prosecute
alleged perpetrators of human rights abuses in Darfur despite calls by
the United States and other Security Council members for international
trials - though they disagree where.
Sudan's first vice president, Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, told the UN
Security Council on Tuesday that the government believes it has the
will, commitment and legal expertise to prosecute those accused of
atrocities to justice.
"We are here to persuade the Security Council to see the wisdom and
the rationale in bringing those accused before trial in Sudan," Taha
told reporters afterwards. "And we strongly believe that there are no
grounds to taking suspects outside the country."
Taha's appeal came as the 15 council members wrestled over the
prosecution of Sudanese officials and militiamen accused of crimes
against humanity in Darfur, where a two-year conflict has forced over
two million people to flee their homes and left more than 70,000 dead,
mainly from disease and hunger.
Last week, a UN-appointed commission found evidence of crimes against
humanity and war crimes in Darfur, but stopped short of labelling the
crisis genocide.
It recommended that cases be presented to the International Criminal
Court and gave Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) a
sealed list of 51 alleged perpetrators, including very high-level
Sudanese officials, rebels and Janjaweed militiamen.
The United States vehemently opposes the world's first permanent war
crimes tribunal, and is pressing instead for alleged perpetrators to
be tried at a tribunal based in Arusha, Tanzania.
The U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes, Pierre-Richard Prosper,
met with the 15 council members Tuesday afternoon to explain the U.S.
proposal, council diplomats said.
Sudan's Taha argued that holding trials outside Sudan "will push
things to degenerate rather than help people to reconcile or maintain
peace."
But U.S. deputy ambassador Stuart Holliday said the United States and
other council members believe "that there needs to be strong
international involvement in the accountability process."
Asked whether there was any support for the U.S. proposal for a new
Arusha tribunal, Algeria's UN Ambassador Abdallah Baali, said, "it's
going to be incredibly difficult."
He said the issue of accountability is very controversial and could
complicate deployment of a 10,130-strong UN peacekeeping mission that
the Security Council is expected to approve to enforce last month's
peace deal that ended the country's 21-year civil war between the
north and the south.
Council members have been informally discussing elements for a new
resolution on the way forward in Sudan which is expected to include
Annan's request for a peacekeeping mission.
But members are divided on extending a UN arms Embargo to the Sudanese
government in Darfur, imposing an asset freeze and travel ban, and on
punishing those responsible for human rights abuses.
Taha and southern rebel leader John Garang, who negotiated the peace
deal, called for an immediate end to fighting and a resumption of
peace talks with the goal of reaching an agreement in 2005 to end the
Darfur conflict.
Garang said last month's agreement ending the north-south conflict
could serve as a basis to settle the conflict in Darfur. He said the
peace effort should be backed by a 30,000-strong force to stabilize
the vast western region, with 10,000 troops provided by the
government, his rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, and the African
Union.
Garang, who spent 10 years negotiating an end to the civil war and
will shortly become a vice president in a new Sudanese government,
told the Security Council the north-south agreement should also be
used to end a long low-intensity conflict in eastern Sudan which
recently flared up.
Garang said he was "encouraged" that the Jan. 9 peace agreement could
be successfully applied in both Darfur and eastern Sudan as a result
of talks he held with government leaders in the region and leaders of
all armed groups involved in both conflicts before flying to New York.
"I'm optimistic that the comprehensive peace agreement has now
considerably improved prospects for a resolution of the Darfur
conflict as well as that of eastern Sudan," he told an open council
meeting.
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