Nation Denies Pulling ICC Suspect From Meetings With UNSC

18 May 2011

Khartoum — The Sudanese government on Wednesday refuted remarks by a one of its officials in which he claimed that the governor of South Kordofan Ahmed Haroun will be pulled from the meetings with the visiting delegation of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

Haroun is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with alleged war crimes he committed in Sudan’s Western region of Darfur while he was the state minister for interior. He recently was declared the winner in South Kordofan’s gubernatorial elections amid allegations of fraud by the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) which fielded a candidate against Haroun.

The cabinet affairs minister Luka Byong, who is an SPLM figure, told the Al-Sahafa daily in an interview published today that the Sudanese foreign ministry agreed to exclude Haroun from meetings with the UNSC delegation during its visit to the disputed region of Abyei which borders South Kordofan.

But spokesperson for foreign ministry Khalid Moussa denied Byong’s assertions and emphasized that they have not received any request in this regard.

“In addition to the false claims attributed to Luka Byong such an accusation [on excluding Haroun] violates the principles of national sovereignty and the provisions of the constitution prevailing in Sudan,” Moussa said.

He stressed that Haroun is the legitimate elected governor and he must be treated as such as a respect to Sudan’s sovereignty.

Innercitypress website quoted the French ambassador Gerard Araud who is also UNSC president for the month of May as saying that “we are not going to meet him.”

The Sudanese diplomat described UNSC’s visit as a “routine” one and an opportunity for the council to see things on the ground first hand.

However, he declined to confirm the delegation’s planned visit to South Kordofan and Abyei.

“Consultations on the visit to these two areas has not been resolved” Moussa said.

Abyei’s future status is the most sensitive of a raft of issues that north and south Sudan are struggling to reach agreement on ahead of the south’s full independence, due to take place in two months time.

Deadly fighting and recriminations have flared since January, when the region had been due to vote on whether to join the north or the south, alongside a referendum in the south that delivered a landslide for secession.

Earlier this year, the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) flew Haroun to Abyei a meeting to try to reconcile feuding tribes following deadly clashes. This was done despite a legal opinion by the UN that contacts between officials of the world body and people indicted by international courts “should be limited to what is strictly required for carrying out U.N. mandated activities”.

But the UN underscored that flying Haroun was in line with that policy.

The North and South signed a security accord in South Kordofan capital city of Kadugli last January to withdraw from Abyei except the special Joint Integrated Units (JIUs) of northern and southern personnel, both army and police, alongside UN peacekeepers.

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