KHARTOUM: Sudan has agreed to hand ousted autocrat Omar Al-Bashir and others to the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur, a member of Khartoum’s ruling body said Tuesday.
The Hague-based ICC has charged Bashir and three of his former aides with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Sudan’s western region during a brutal conflict from 2003.
“Those who have been indicted by the ICC, they have to go there,” Mohamed Hassan Al-Taishay, a member of the ruling sovereign council said, without mentioning their names.
His remarks, quoted in a statement issued by the sovereign council in Khartoum, came as a government delegation met rebel groups in the South Sudanese capital of Juba.
Taishay said the talks focused on justice and reconciliation in Darfur, where the United Nations says about 300,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the conflict erupted.
Taishay said they had agreed several mechanisms for achieving peace in the region.
“First, all those who have been indicted by the ICC should appear before the ICC,” he said.
“Second, a special court be set up to investigate crimes committed in Darfur.”
The conflict in Darfur, the size of France, erupted when ethnic minority African rebels took up arms against Bashir’s then Arab-dominated government, accusing it of marginalizing the region economically and politically.
The ICC has charged Bashir with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the conflict.
It has also indicted three of his former aides, Ahmed Haroon, Abdulrahim Mohamed Hussain and Ali Kushied.
“We cannot achieve justice unless we treat the suffering of the victims because this is a truth that we can’t escape from,” Taishay said.
“In Darfur, crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed.”
Bashir has denied the charges.
Bashir was ousted by the army in a palace coup last April after months of protests against his iron-fisted rule of three decades.
He was detained following his ouster and has since been jailed on corruption charges.
Anti-Bashir protesters, residents of Darfur and rebel groups from the region have consistently demanded that the ousted ruler be handed over to the ICC.
For years before his ouster and despite the ICC indictments, Bashir had regularly visited regional countries as well as Russia and China.
Days before the protests erupted in December 2018, he visited Syria’s President Bashar Assad in Damascus, becoming the first Arab leader to do so since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.
In 2018, Bashir helped broker a tentative peace deal in South Sudan after five years of intense conflict in the world’s newest country, which won independence from Khartoum in 2011.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected US President Donald Trump’s peace plan on Tuesday during a meeting of the UN Security Council, but withheld a resolution urging the UN’s rejection of it.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the Security Council meeting saying increased instability in Yemen, Syria and Libya “underscores a need for a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has lasted far too long and which remains crucial for sustainable peace in the Middle East.”

Saying he endorses a “two-state solution,” Guterres urged Palestinians and Israelis to reach an agreement “which the international community can support.”

Nickolay Mladenov, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, gave an update on reaction to the Trump plan, noting opposition from Abbas, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Although he said the plan received support from Israel’s government, Mladenov added that the EU high representative said Trump’s plan “departs from international agreed parameters,” while African Union member states “also rejected the proposal at their recent summit.”

Abbas later addressed the Security Council, saying Trump’s plan “violates UN resolutions” and annuls the Palestinians’ right to self-determination while legitimizing illegal Israeli settlements and the illegal annexation of occupied Palestinian land.

The Palestinian leader held up a map of the US proposal for a fragmented Palestinian state and said: “It’s like a Swiss cheese really.”

Abbas urged the international community to reject “an Israeli-American pre-emptive plan in order to put an end to the question of Palestine.” 

He called for the convening of an international conference “to bring real peace between the Palestinians and Israel.”

A resolution was expected to have been introduced denouncing the plan, but that did not happen, leading observers to speculate that the Palestinians did not believe they could get past an almost certain US veto.

The failure to introduce a resolution prompted a positive reaction from the White House. A senior US official, who asked not to be identified, called the anticipated resolution “polarizing” and said “the old ways of doing things is over” at the UN.

“For the first time on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the (Security) Council was willing to think outside the conventional box and not reflexively fall back on the calcified Palestinian position, which has only allowed the failed status quo to continue,” the White House official said.

“We’re optimistic that countries are keeping an open mind with regard to our Vision for Peace, and are willing to have an honest and open discussion on it as a possible basis to restart negotiations for a realistic two-state solution,” the official added. 

“As we’ve said all along, our plan is the start of a process, not the end. We hope the Palestinians will take advantage of the opportunity to move the ball forward.”

BAGHDAD: Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr announced on Tuesday he was dissolving the “blue caps”, an organised unit of his supporters accused of deadly attacks on anti-government protests in recent days.

Al-Sadr, who has a cult-like following of several million Iraqis, had first backed the popular rallies demanding a government overhaul when they erupted in October, but has switched course multiple times in recent weeks.

He finally broke with the broader movement when he endorsed the premier-designate Mohammad Allawi, seen by protesters as too close to the elite they have railed against for months.

Since then, diehard Al-Sadr supporters wearing blue caps have raided protest camps in Baghdad and the Shiite-majority south, with eight protesters killed in the ensuing violence.

The cleric has faced growing criticism over the violence and on Tuesday, he suddenly took to Twitter.

“I announce the dissolution of the ‘blue caps,’ and I do not accept the (Sadrist) movement’s presence in and of itself at the protests, unless it is absorbed into them,” he tweeted.

In the early days of the movement, Al-Sadr supporters were seen as the most organised and well-stocked of the demonstrators but his recent tweets have infuriated activists.

After backing Allawi, he ordered the “blue caps” to help security forces reopen schools, roads and public offices shut down for months by anti-government sit-ins.

But Al-Sadr has insisted that his movement ultimately wants “reforms”.

Allawi has until March 2 to form his cabinet, and is expected to govern only until early parliamentary elections.

“We hear that there are pressures from political parties and from sects over the forming of the temporary government,” Al-Sadr tweeted on Tuesday.

“This could lead us to completely wash our hands of all of it.”

Al-Sadr already controls the largest parliamentary bloc and top ministerial positions in the current government.

But one of his senior aides said Saturday that the new prime minister must not include members of the political elite in his new cabinet.

“If Sayyed (Lord) Moqtada hears that Allawi has granted a ministry to any side, specifically the Shiite armed factions, Iraq will turn into hell for him and will topple him in just three days,” Kadhem Issawi said.

ALGIERS: An Algerian military court on Monday confirmed a 15-year jail term for the brother of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and two former intelligence chiefs convicted of conspiracy against the state, a lawyer said.

“Said Bouteflika, General (Athmane) Tartag and General (Mohamed Lamine) Mediene received 15 years in prison. The initial verdict was confirmed,” lawyer Boudjemaa Guechir told AFP.

Guechir represented the fourth defendant Louisa Hanoune, who had served as secretary general of Algeria’s left-wing Workers’ Party. Her initial sentence of 15 years was reduced to three years in prison, Guechir said.

RIYADH: The joint Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) tactical exercise titled “Arab Gulf Security 2” started yesterday in the UAE, with the participation of GCC security forces.

The drill was designed to enhance coordination, effectiveness and the exchange of experiences among interior security sectors of the participating countries to confront joint challenges and threats, and develop skills in an operation environment.

Saudi security forces prepared for the exercise at a camp in Riyadh, during which a number of scenarios were war gamed.