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Last Updated: Nov 2nd, 2009 - 17:32:57 |
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan said on Tuesday it was looking at how to get an arrest warrant against its president suspended or quashed -- the first sign that it might engage with the international community on the issue, not just defy it.
Any such move by the government appears at odds with statements from President Omar Hassan al-Bashir pouring scorn on the West and refusing to deal with the International Criminal Court, which alleges that he committed war crimes in Darfur.
In a sign that tension is still rising, the U.S. embassy authorised the voluntary departure of non-essential staff, partly as a rebuke to Sudan for expelling aid groups.
International experts say at least 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur, a mainly desert region in western Sudan, while Khartoum says 10,000 have died. The conflict flared when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government in 2003.
Foreign ministry spokesman Ali Al-Sadig said officials were considering referring the warrant, issued last week, to the International Court of Justice and asking allies to push for a postponement of the case in the U.N. Security Council.
"There are some ideas being discussed. Maybe in the coming three or four days, things might come out very clearly," he told Reuters. He added that officials were holding talks with China, Russia and Libya, all members of the U.N. Security Council who have spoken out against the warrant.
Some analysts say the warrant could spark more violence in Darfur, where peacekeepers and civilians have been caught in the middle of the conflict.
The International Court of Justice is a separate institution from the International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague. One of its main jobs is to settle legal disputes given to it by United Nations member states.
U.S. AUTHORISES DEPARTURES
Diplomats told Reuters last week that Britain, France and the United States, the three Western permanent members of the Security Council, might eventually be persuaded to support a deferral of the case if there was a significant improvement on the ground in Darfur and a return to serious peace talks.
Sadig said Russia and China had advised Sudan that Western states which stood firm against Khartoum ahead of the arrest warrant might be open to negotiation after the ICC's decision.
Article 16 of the ICC's statute gives the Security Council the power to delay cases.
"We are not going to campaign for an 'Article 16'," Sadig said. "But if other people campaign on our behalf, that would be a different thing."
Tension with Washington remains high, however, and the U.S. embassy in Khartoum authorised the voluntary evacuation of non-essential staff, one step away from an mandatory evacuation.
A U.S. embassy official said the U.S. move was partly a diplomatic rebuke for Sudan's expulsion of 16 aid groups following the announcement of the ICC arrest warrant last week.
An embassy message also warned U.S. citizens that protests against the warrant "may encourage violent action against Europeans and Americans."
Ahmed Haroun, Sudan's state minister for humanitarian affairs who is also wanted by the ICC, dismissed U.N. fears that Sudan would not be able to fill the gap left by the expelled aid groups, saying there was no "evidence on the ground" of this.
Haroun said his ministry and U.N. officials in Khartoum would go on a joint mission to Darfur on Wednesday to assess the humanitarian situation, and that plans were in place to move more Sudanese doctors in. Other gaps would be filled by Sudanese aid groups and remaining international organisations.
"The U.N. is not in a position to order or advise Sudan. It should just deal with the new situation," he said.
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