20100727
africanews
The African Union president Bingu wa Mutharika has criticized the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments against Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir. He said they were "undermining African solidarity and African peace and security." The ICC is trailing the Sudanese leader for genocide and other crimes.



According to diplomats at the AU summit in Kampala, the leaders have been urged to fashion out strategies that would help resolve the conflict in Sudan without the need to arrest al-Bashir.

After a stormy debate, which went on until 3:00am on Sunday, the delegates reportedly agreed to remove the part which instructs AU members not to cooperate with the ICC in apprehending al-Bashir.

A new resolution, however, reportedly reiterated calls freezing the arrest warrant by the UN Security Council, which had previously gone unanswered.

The draft resolution also “rejects for the moment” a request by the ICC to open an “Africa liaison office” in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the diplomats said.

Sudanese officials in Kampala, backed by the AU secretariat, have been lobbying the other nations to take a stance against the ICC on the grounds that it is a European-driven court, focusing on Africa only and turning a blind eye to atrocities elsewhere because a final AU resolution on the ICC is expected to be agreed upon by the heads of state on Tuesday.

The UN Security Council, issued resolution 1593 under chapter VII in March 2005, referring the situation in Darfur to the ICC.