Sudan Tribune
September 20, 2010
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is deadlocked in its plans to visit Sudan next month as some of the permanent members insist that they will not meet with president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir during the trip.
Multiple sources at the United Nations told Sudan Tribune that the U.S., U.K. and France missions insist that they cannot meet with Bashir given his indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on ten counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and more recently genocide.
The charges relate to the seven years old conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur where the U.N. says that 300,000 have perished from violence, disease and hunger.
More than 2 million Darfuris have been displaced as a result of the conflict.
Sudan is insisting however that the UNSC must meet with Bashir for it to authorize the visit.
Ten of the fifteen UNSC members are signatories of the Rome Statute which is the founding treaty of ICC.
The council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005 under a Chapter VII resolution because Sudan is not a signatory to the Hague tribunal.
The Sudanese leader however has received backing from the African Union (AU) and the Arab League both of which have urged its members not to cooperate with the court in apprehending Bashir. The latter denies the charges and says it is a Western plot to overthrow him.
