Sudan Reacts Angrily at World Pressure
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(AP) - Sudan lashed out Thursday at an international court prosecutor over an investigation into Khartoum officials for Darfur atrocities, the latest in its increasingly defensive reactions to international humanitarian pressure.
Samani Al-Wasilla, state minister of Foreign Affairs, condemned a report by the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor as "biased and politically motivated." The prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, had said Wednesday he was opening an investigation into actions by Sudanese government officials over what he called systematic attacks on refugee camps in Darfur.
An investigation by Ocampo's office would focus on the violence against humanitarian workers and peacekeepers in Darfur, including an Oct. 29 attack on the Haskanita military base that left 10 African Union soldiers dead and 1 missing. Rebels were blamed for that attack.
Ocampo also urged the U.N. Security Council to demand that Sudan hand over acting humanitarian minister Ahmed Muhammed Harun, who was formerly in charge of security in Darfur and has been indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity.
Sudan refuses to hand over its citizens to the tribunal, based in The Hague, Netherlands.
Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman, Ali Sadiq, told The Associated Press that it was "unfair" of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to accuse Sudan of stalling on the deployment of a joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in the troubled region.
Ban on Wednesday accused the Sudanese government of "foot-dragging" on the deployment of the 26,000-member U.N.-AU force for Darfur and that this "deeply concerned and disappointed" him.
In an interview with the AP in New York, Ban said he would send high-level envoys to press Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir for a final agreement so the troops can start arriving in January and also to accept non-Africans in the force.
"It is not fair criticism," Sadiq said of Ban. "The United Nations has not issued any complaints to us" on foot-dragging in Darfur.
Sadiq insisted these were "untrue accusations" and added that the Foreign Ministry would officially respond to the criticism in a news conference Saturday.
The conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region has claimed more than 200,000 lives and uprooted 2.5 million people since ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in 2003. Critics accuse Sudan of arming the janjaweed Arab militias that have terrorized Darfur villages _ a charge Khartoum denies.
But with Ban and others busy trying to overcome al-Bashir's resistance to the U.N.-AU peacekeepers, there has been little outward international pressure on Sudan over the ICC indictment.
Al-Wasilla said Sudan was aware of the motives and objectives behind Ocampo's assessment at the United Nations, and that Khartoum would deal with it "cautiously and in a balanced manner."
"It is politically motivated, biased, based on false accusations," al-Wasilla said, claiming that most of the evidence ICC allegedly has comes from individuals who are seeking political asylum outside Sudan and whose statements are thereby "influenced by their status."
Ban said he would send envoys to Lisbon, Portugal, on Thursday to meet al-Bashir who will be attending the European Union-Africa summit this weekend, to get his sign off on the composition of the U.N.-AU force and on a host of technical and administrative issues, including permission for night flights, land for the force in several key towns, and a status of forces agreement.
At Sudan's insistence, the Security Council agreed the force should be predominantly African. But Khartoum has refused to approve the non-African units, even though 90 percent of the ground troops and 75 percent of the proposed force are from Africa.
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Associated Press Writer Alfred de Montesquiou contributed to this report from el-Fasher, Sudan.