Sudan’s Hardliners Vow To Battle UN On War Crimes

Sudan’s hardliners are putting out this message: We’re not going to let you prosecute our citizens on war crimes sunless you also go after the Americans.

They’re vowing to battle the UN’s efforts to send some of its citizens to a foreign court:

KHARTOUM, Sudan Apr 1, 2005 — Sudanese hard-liners vowed Friday to defy a U.N. Security Council resolution referring Darfur war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court, saying it was unfair for Sudanese suspects to face the tribunal when Americans are exempt.

Sudan opposes sending any of its citizens accused of committing war crimes during the two-year conflict in the country’s west to a foreign court, saying Sudan’s judicial system will take charge of any such prosecutions.

The U.N. resolution passed Thursday only after controversial concessions were made, including guarantees that citizens of countries not party to the ICC working in Sudan such as the United States would not be handed over to the court or any other nation’s judiciary if they committed crimes in the African country.

“We will not allow any arrest or trial of a Sudanese official, unless they will arrest the 30 million Sudanese people and try them,” Abdul Galeel Nazeer Karori, a leading Islamist and member of Sudan’s ruling National Congress party, said on state-run TV.

During a Friday mosque prayer service in Khartoum attended by President Omar el-Bashir, hundreds of people chanted “God is great” as a government-aligned Islamist legislator charged that the U.N. resolution contained “double standards.”

“No American will be tried there, but the poor and weak Sudan will be tried right or wrong, for what it did and what it didn’t do,” said Tigani Siraj, a National Congress lawmaker who led the prayers.

Bottomline: this issue is far from being resolved…