Voorzitterschap EU roept Soedan op medewerking te verlenen aan Internationaal Strafhof (en)

COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

P/08/42

Brussels, 31 March 2008

7918/08 (Presse 86)

Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European

Union on the Anniversary of the referral of the situation

in Darfur/Sudan to the ICC

On 31 March 2005 the United Nations Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court. Under the terms of Resolution 1593 (2005) the Security Council stated that the “Government of Sudan and all other parties to the conflict in Darfur shall cooperate fully and provide any necessary assistance to the Court and the prosecutor.”

On 27 April 2007 the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Ahmed Muhammad Haroun, current minister for humanitarian affairs and for former Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as “Ali Kosheib” in connection with alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

The EU expresses its profound dismay with the Government of Sudan’s continued failure to comply with its obligations under UNSC Resolution 1593 including its refusal to arrest and surrender these men to the ICC for prosecution, much less allow the ICC to question them.

The EU reiterates that the International Criminal Court is an essential means of promoting respect for international humanitarian law and human rights, thus contributing to freedom, security, justice and the rule of law as well as contributing to the preservation of peace and the strengthening of international security. The fundamental principle contained in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is that the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole must not go unpunished. Putting an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes contributes to the prevention of such crimes.

The EU once again calls on the Government of Sudan to cooperate unconditionally with the International Criminal Court and to surrender the two individuals for whom it issued arrest warrants.

In the event of continued non-compliance with the terms of UNSC Resolution 1593, the EU will support appropriate further measures against those who bear responsibility for Sudan’s failure to cooperate with the ICC.

The Candidate Countries Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro 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.

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