Britain, France and the US are up against a united front of African and Muslim countries, backed by China and Russia, over the imminent indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Darfur.
Diplomatic sources said on Monday that a pre-trial panel of three judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague was expected to authorize an arrest warrant within the next two weeks. Bashir will be the first head of state to be charged by the ICC since it was founded in 2002.
The African Union, the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and an influential UN bloc of developing nations known as the Group of 77 and China have all backed Sudan’s calls for the ICC prosecution to be dropped, with some officials arguing that it smacks of “white man’s justice.”
They say an attempt to arrest Bashir could destabilize Sudan and endanger international aid and peacekeeping missions. An estimated 200,000 people have died and 2.7 million have been displaced since fighting erupted in Darfur in 2003.
The UN has more than 20,000 personnel in Sudan, including two peacekeeping missions, while hundreds of NGOs and aid agencies operate there.
Sudanese officials say they cannot be held responsible if the UN or foreign organizations become the focus of “public outrage” over an indictment.
Western diplomats say any decision to freeze or drop the case could destroy the credibility of the ICC and force the resignation of chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
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