ICC prosecutor condemns AU support for Bashir, appeals Sudan genocide case

ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, who was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for meetings with a high level African Union panel on Darfur led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, Tuesday rejected the decision taken by the AU.

Prosecutor Ocampo believes there is sufficient evidence to prove Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir's guilt.

I wonder what the Chadian and Sudanese rebels think when they hear of such news, why should they give in to peace when it sounds like they have the ICC onside.  I wonder if they listen to a radio and, if so, what they listen to.  I wonder if anyone reading this has also listened to Sudan Radio Service (details in sidebar here on right).

From Afrik.com by Desalegn Sisay, Saturday, 11 July 2009:
Addis Ababa: ICC prosecutor condemns AU support for Bashir, appeals Sudan genocide case

Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo, who was in Addis Ababa for meetings with a high level African Union panel on Darfur led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, Tuesday rejected the decision taken by the AU. "The AU is not a signatory of the charter, but individual nations are," said Moreno Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the ICC. He added that 30 African nations have signed the court’s founding document, which obliges them to cooperate with the court.

"African leaders may make political statements but individual nations’ laws take precedence," Moreno Ocampo said. He added that he appealed the ICC’s decision not to charge Bashir with genocide because he believes the evidence is clear that the Sudanese leader mobilised his Government to exterminate three Darfuri ethnic groups.

The decision on the genocide charge was split. While the entire chamber accepted seven charges - five crimes against humanity and two war crimes - two of the judges refused the charges on genocide.

The chief prosecutor says the summit’s statement does not relieve African states who are signatories to the ICC of their obligation to arrest Bashir if he sets foot on their soil. "He tried to go to South Africa and South Africa told him, if you come here, you will be arrested. He is not traveling around," he said.

"Today, President Bashir has to be arrested on five counts. If we win this appeal in some months, President Bashir will also have to answer the charges of genocide,” the prosecutor said.