Arab League holds crisis talks on Sudan issue

Arab foreign ministers held crisis talks on Saturday on how to deal with the International Criminal Court prosecutor's bid to arrest Sudan President Omar al-Beshir for alleged genocide in Darfur.

ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday asked ICC judges to issue a warrant for Beshir's arrest on genocide charges, which, if granted, would be the first ever issued by The Hague-based court against a sitting head of state.

Some of the Arab League's 22-members have criticized the move, saying it threatens peace prospects in Darfur, while also fearing a dangerous precedent for other leaders in the region.

"The ministers will discuss the possibility of asking the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution asking for the ICC to suspend its procedures for 12 months," one Arab diplomat told AFP, requesting anonymity.

Such a suspension, which is indefinitely renewable, is necessary because the penal process against Beshir "reduces the chances of peace in Darfur," the diplomat said, before the closed-door emergency session started in Cairo.

The request would be in tandem with African efforts, after Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade on Thursday asked the ICC to freeze its prosecution for a year, citing Article 16 of the Rome Statute which created the court.

"If the prosecution of al-Beshir continues, the situation in Darfur could worsen and plunge into indescribable chaos," Wade warned.

Following a judicial committee's meeting on Wednesday with League Secretary General Amr Moussa there were two other options on the table besides asking for a suspension.

The UN Security Council could be asked to rescind its 2005 decision to refer the case of alleged war crimes in Darfur to the ICC, or Sudan could immediately start a serious process to judge those accused of crimes in Darfur, he said.

Khartoum’s rejection

Khartoum has consistently rejected the ICC's jurisdiction, saying it would try alleged war criminals in its own courts, although credible trials have so far failed to materialize.

Sudan has refused to surrender two suspects named last year in connection with war crimes in Darfur and hopes to persuade veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council to defer any ICC prosecution of Beshir.

League chief Moussa and other Arab leaders have suggested that the ICC could not prosecute Beshir because he has immunity as a head of state, but Article 27 of the Rome Treaty specifically excludes that possibility.

The ICC "shall apply equally to all persons without any distinction based on official capacity. In particular, official capacity as a head of state... shall in no case exempt a person from criminal responsibility," it says.

The Darfur conflict broke out in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum and state-backed militias.

The United Nations has said 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have been displaced. Khartoum puts the number of dead at 10,000.