Amid worsening violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, a frustrated International Criminal Court prosecutor pleaded on Monday for the United Nations Security Council to take action to ensure justice “for the long-suffering victims of atrocity crimes.”
Wanted President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has traveled freely within Africa and has not yet been arrested.
The Hague-based court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President al-Bashir, who is accused of crimes including alleged genocide in the country’s western Darfur province, in March 2009.
Yet Bashir rejects the court’s authority.
“It is long overdue for you to heed the cries of the victims of rape and sexual abuse, torture, mass displacement and other inhumane suffering Darfurians continue to endure,” said ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
The United States, Britain and France have said the suffering in Darfur was at its worst level in a decade.
“Innocent civilians continue to bear the brunt of insecurity and instability, in particular as a result of what appears to be an ongoing government campaign to target them,” Bensouda said.
“The people alleged to be most responsible for these ongoing atrocities are the same people against whom warrants of arrest have already been issued,” she said.
The ICC’s Bensouda said the court had made ten referrals to the Security Council for non-compliance, including Sudan, Chad, Kenya, Djibouti, Malawi and Democratic Republic of Congo, but the 15-member council has not responded to any of the referrals.
The European Union’s (EU) Chief Diplomat, Frederica Mogherini briefed the United Nations Security Council on migrants.
The EU is considering a draft resolution that would authorise EU military intervention to curb the illicit trafficking of persons that has already cost almost 2000 lives lost at sea this year alone.
The EU indicated its first priority was to prevent further loss of lives as sea.
As the Security Council mulls the parameters of military intervention off the coast of Libya in the Mediterranean, concerns about what will happen to migrants found in illegal boats.
Chaos in Libya, which has two opposing governments and various armed militias in the country, has allowed organised networks a foothold to traffic persons off its coast.
The country’s internationally recognised government has objected to the EU proposals which include ‘the use of all necessary means to seize and dispose’ of vessels used in trafficking.
Russia has also said such proposals might go too far as the shape the military action might take remains unclear.
Britain and France are urging the UN Security Council to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, while New Zealand has begun drafting a resolution on the issue. This was prompted by the US saying it may “reassess” its position on the stalled talks.
France and New Zealand have stressed that it is imperative to act now, given that the Israeli elections are over and there is a current lull in the US before the presidential election campaign heats up.
“We have been working on a text that might serve the purpose of getting negotiations started,” said New Zealand’s UN Ambassador Jim McLay, adding that the country is ready to wait and see how the French initiative for a resolution will turn out.
France announced last month that it wanted to begin talks about drafting “parameters” for ending the conflict in the Middle East, with the hopes of bringing the US onboard, which has repeatedly sided with Israel in the past.
Meanwhile French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that police are holding a heavily-armed man suspected of planning an imminent armed attack on one or two churches in France, Reuters reports.
A 24-year-old information technology student of Muslim origin was arrested on Sunday in the southeastern 13th arrondissement of Paris after he called emergency services for treatment of a gunshot wound.
Cazeneuve said police found handguns, other weapons and bulletproof vests. France strengthened security after Islamists killed 17 people in attacks on the Charlie Hebdo office and a Jewish food shop in January.
The UN Security Council on Monday appealed for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza at a late-night emergency meeting called as fighting between Israel and Hamas entered its third week.
The 15-member Council released a statement calling for the truce to allow aid deliveries during the Muslim Eid festival marking the end of Ramadan, and as the death toll rose to more than 1,030 Palestinians.
The Council expressed “strong support” for an “immediate and unconditional humanitarian ceasefire,” allowing for urgent deliveries of aid, and urged all sides to “accept and fully implement” the truce.
The statement was put forward by Jordan with the backing of Arab countries.
In its statement, the Council voiced “grave concern regarding the deterioration in the situation as a result of the crisis related to Gaza and the loss of civilian lives and casualties.”
The Council said “civilian and humanitarian facilities, including those of the UN, must be respected and protected” following outrage over the Israeli attack on a UN-run school in Gaza this week that left 15 dead.
Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor suggested the stance taken by the Council was biased.
“Miraculously it doesn’t mention Hamas. It doesn’t mention the firing of rockets. Those things are lacking in this statement, he said.
“You don’t have to have the IQ of a rocket scientist to understand that if rockets are falling on you, you are allowed to defend yourself.”
Western powers were poised Tuesday to press their efforts for a UN resolution to rid Syria of chemical weapons, one day after a report by the world body describing a “chilling” sarin gas attack there.
United Nations experts, without assigning blame, said they had gathered “clear and convincing evidence” that surface-to-surface rockets took sarin gas into the opposition-held Damascus suburb of Ghouta on August 21.
The United States had threatened a military strike on Syria over the attack, which it said killed more than 1,400 people.
Washington said responsibility for the attack rests squarely with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
“The technical details of the UN report make clear that only the regime could have carried out this large-scale chemical weapons attack,” said Washington’s UN ambassador Samantha Power. “It defies logic to think that the opposition would have infiltrated the regime-controlled area to fire on opposition-controlled areas.”
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said there was “no doubt” that government forces were to blame, while British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the report made “abundantly clear” that the Syrian regime was behind the attack.
France and Britain will soon send a draft resolution to other Security Council members demanding a threat of sanctions if Assad does not keep to a disarmament plan and for the chemical attacks to be referred to the International Criminal Court, diplomats said.
The council, meanwhile, is expected to start negotiations this week.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria as “a war crime” as the country’s conflict again spilled into neighboring nations, with Turkey saying it had shot down a Syrian military helicopter.
Ban said the report prepared by the experts “makes for chilling reading.”
He added that the use of sarin had been proved “unequivocally and objectively” and that the Ghouta attack was “the most signficant” with chemical weapons since Saddam Hussein unleashed poison gas in Halabja, Iraq, in 1988, killing thousands.
“The environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used” in Ghouta, said the report by UN inspectors who were in Syria when the attack was staged.
The experts concluded that “chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic, also against civilians including children on a relatively large scale.”
A separate UN-mandated independent human rights inquiry announced separately on Monday that it was investigating 14 alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
Ban would not say on Monday who had carried out the attack.
“We may all have our own thoughts on this, but I would simply say that this was a grave crime and those responsible must be brought to justice as soon as possible,” Ban told reporters.
On Friday, he said Assad had “committed many crimes against humanity.”
While the United States, Britain and France all insist that the findings show Assad’s forces had used the weapons, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said after a Security Council meeting on the report that there should be more investigation into who was responsible.
Moscow has sided with Assad in blaming opposition rebels for the chemical assault.
The UN experts’ report will now become a key weapon in a Security Council battle over how much of a threat must be made against Assad to make him disarm.
The French, US and British foreign ministers called for a “strong” resolution after a meeting in Paris.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said: “If Assad fails to comply with the terms of this framework, make no mistake we are all agreed, and that includes Russia, that there will be consequences.”
Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed a plan on Saturday under which Syria’s chemical weapons would be eliminated by mid-2014.
Russia has agreed the plans must be backed by a Security Council resolution but rejects any move to include the threat of force into a UN text.
Lavrov said such threats could kill off hopes of a peace conference on the 30-month-old conflict in which more than 110,000 people, according to activists.
Kerry was due to meet Thursday to discuss the issue with his counterpart from China, which has welcomed the agreement but has sided with Russia in its resolve to veto any UN Security Council resolution against Syria.
Fighting has worsened in Syria as the diplomatic wrangling goes on and Turkey said it shot down a Syrian military helicopter on Monday after it entered Turkish airspace.
The Syrian MI-17 helicopter was detected two kilometers (1.2 miles) inside Turkish airspace and shot down by two F-16 jets five minutes later after failing to heed warnings, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters.
“It was continuously warned by our air defense,” Arinc said, adding there was no information about the fate of its crew because the helicopter fell on Syrian soil.
Arinc said Turkey has changed its military rules of engagement in response to repeated gunfire from the Syrian side. – Sapa/AFP
The United Nation Security Council (UNSC) has echoed sentiments by the UN Secretary General of strong concern for the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Opposition groups have accused the Syrian government of firing rockets with poisonous gas on residential areas early Wednesday morning, with reports claiming hundreds if not over one thousand victims. The allegations are uncorroborated but vehemently denied by the Syrian army.
The Council was briefed by the deputy Secretary General on the situation in Syria in an emergency session late Wednesday.
“There is a strong concern among council members about the allegations. There is also a general sense that there must be clarity on what happened and that the situation has to be followed carefully. All council members agreed that any use of chemical weapons by any side under any circumstances is a violation of international law,” says Council President Argentina’s Ambassador Maria Perceval at an emergency session in New York.
A UN team is on the ground to investigate earlier claims of chemical weapons usage and is now pushing to examine the site of Wednesday’s attack.
Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson called the latest attack an escalation. “We see the need to investigate this as soon as possible. This represents, no matter what the conclusions are, a serious escalation with grave humanitarian consequences and human consequences. We hope that we will be able to conduct the investigation. Dr Sellström and his team are in place in Damascus,” says Eliasson.
Syria would have to agree to any change in the team’s mandate to include additional sites. Modalities for the inspection of three earlier sites took months to iron out with the team only arriving in Damascus just this weekend.
“It is a very dramatic situation and the security situation right now does not allow such access and that is why this should also be seen in the broader perspective. We need cessation of hostilities in this particular area and in general,” he added.
The mandate of the investigators is a limited one they are merely to establish whether chemical weapons were used in Syria and not who used them.
That, the Secretary General said earlier this week, would be for member states to decide, perhaps the Security Council which has two options, to break the stalemate on Syria and agree on a course of action or engage in more of the same. But first an investigation must still take place to clarify what are to date merely accusations and denials. – SABC
The President of the United Nations General Assembly has also thrown his weight behind calls for reform of the Security Council. Serbian Vuk Jeremic met International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane in Pretoria.
Reiterating that an urgent call for change to have a more transparent and representative Security Council, the Minister says the UN body cannot mark 70 years in its current form.
“There will be no change without us, 70% of the issues that go to the Security Council for discussion are about us. So it cannot continue to be without us,” she added.
The council has five permanent members with veto powers and 10 elected non-permanent members with a two year term with no veto powers. South Africa has served two terms as a non-permanent member.
“If it does not encompass Africa then we better not have any change at all. And change is needed, otherwise the UN will slowly drift into irrelevance.”
The main challenge is to get the Security Council to agree on expanding the body. Another is for Africa to find a consensus candidate.
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