EU/Darfur

The Euro­pean Union has learned of the request by the pros­e­cu­tor at the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court for arrest war­rants for three rebel group mem­bers alleged­ly respon­si­ble for the fatal attack on African Union sol­diers at Haskani­ta on 29 Sep­tem­ber 2007. It is now for the ICC Pre-Tri­al Chamber’s judges to decide on the action to be tak­en on the prosecutor’s application.

The EU wel­comes the ICC prosecutor’s efforts to seek out the per­pe­tra­tors of attacks on peace­keep­ing mis­sions and bring them to inter­na­tion­al jus­tice. It would stress that under the Rome Statute any attack on a peace­keep­ing oper­a­tion is a war crime. 

The EU would point out that the ICC plays a key role in pro­mot­ing inter­na­tion­al jus­tice and would reit­er­ate its full sup­port for the Court. The ICC’s func­tion is to con­sid­er all the crimes com­mit­ted in Dar­fur, who­ev­er the per­pe­tra­tors are, in accor­dance with Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Res­o­lu­tion 1593. The EU again calls on the Sudanese gov­ern­ment to com­bat the impuni­ty of the per­pe­tra­tors of crimes in Dar­fur and to coop­er­ate with the ICC, par­tic­u­lar­ly in order to enforce the two arrest war­rants issued by the Court for Mr Ahmad Harun and Mr Ali Kushayb, in accor­dance with the inter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions devolv­ing on Sudan under the Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil Resolution.

The EU reit­er­ates its sup­port for UNAMID, whose mem­bers are work­ing for peace in Dar­fur under par­tic­u­lar­ly dif­fi­cult con­di­tions. The EU would like to pay spe­cial trib­ute to the African sol­diers deployed in that the­atre of oper­a­tions since 2004, as part of AMIS and sub­se­quent­ly UNAMID. It hon­ours the mem­o­ry of the twelve sol­diers from the African Union force who were killed in the attack on their camp at Haskanita.

The Can­di­date Coun­tries Croa­t­ia* and the for­mer Yugoslav Repub­lic of Mace­do­nia*, the Coun­tries of the Sta­bil­i­sa­tion and Asso­ci­a­tion Process and poten­tial can­di­dates Alba­nia, Mon­tene­gro, Ser­bia, and the EFTA coun­tries Ice­land, Liecht­en­stein and Nor­way, mem­bers of the Euro­pean Eco­nom­ic Area, as well as Ukraine, the Repub­lic of Moldo­va, Arme­nia and Geor­gia align them­selves with this declaration.

* Croa­t­ia and the for­mer Yugoslav Repub­lic of Mace­do­nia con­tin­ue to be part of the Sta­bil­i­sa­tion and Asso­ci­a­tion Process. 

Source: COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION