AU STILL LABORING OVER DARFUR JUSTICE, BUT EXPERTS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000301 DEPT FOR AF A A/S CARTER, AF/SPG, AF/E, AF/C NSC FOR MGAVIN AND CHUDSON ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ASEC PGOV PREL KPKO SOCI AU UNSC SU SUBJECT: AU STILL LABORING OVER DARFUR JUSTICE, BUT EXPERTS SKEPTICAL KHARTOUM 00000301 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: The African Union is capable of investigating crimes in Darfur, but by supporting the ICC, the international community is endangering the pursuit of peace and justice in the troubled Sudanese region, according to the acting director of the AU Darfur portfolio and senior JMST advisor, Nakaha Stanislas. In this regard, however, the AU has yet to release the names that will comprise its high-level panel on Darfur. The latter has been chaired by Thabo Mbeki since July 2008. Its purpose is to assist the GOS with investigating crimes in Darfur. It could be that such a GOS investigation would result in Darfuris being forced to accept reconciliation at the expense of justice, as has happened elsewhere in Africa. However, an independent analyst predicted further turmoil in Sudan following an International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment, with Omar Al-Bashir following the lead of Joseph Kony. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) Speaking with Emb Khartoum poloff and US/AU DCM in Addis Ababa on February 27, Ambassador Nakaha Stanislas expressed disappointment that the ICC is proceeding with its issuance of an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, a move the AU believes is neither in the interests of justice nor peace. "This is an African problem," the Burundian official lamented, "and the AU has proposed an African solution, but it was dismissed. The AU had a plan to take care of both impunity and reconciliation, but it has not received full support from the U.S." According to Stanislas and AU political officer Kassa Meron, the AU's attempt to persuade the UN Security Council to support an Article 16 deferral of the arrest warrant would have given the AU time to organize its high-level panel to address impunity for crimes in Darfur, while at the same time not compromising the Joint Mediator's fledgling peace process. In July 2008, following ICC Prosecutor Moreno-0campo's request to the court for an indictment of and arrest warrant against Bashir, the AU's Peace and Security Council appointed South African President Thabo Mbeki to chair the Darfur panel. However, in the succeeding seven months, the AU has still not released the names of panel members. The panel intends to meet at some point in March, well after the March 4 ICC announcement, in order to examine its mandate. Stanislas predicts that the names of the panel will be made public at that time. ¶3. (SBU) According to the AU officials, their organization remains opposed to impunity for crimes committed in Darfur, but Meron said the AU must be impartial. He added that at this time it must also be sensitive to the needs of the Government of Sudan (GOS. To further this aim, the AU and the Arab League have offered to provide the GOS with a number of lawyers to assist with investigations into crimes in Darfur. They've also offered to help Sudan's underdeveloped legal system assert jurisdiction for such crimes under the "complimentarity" statute provided in Article 19 of the Rome Statute of the ICC. Stanislas acknowledged that Sudan had engaged in stalling tactics, and in his words, "counted that the AU would forget about Darfur." Meron, however, was insistent that the international community's timetable was short-sighted and could further endanger Darfur. "In the balance of peace and justice, we may lose both," she warned. ¶4. (SBU) Asked to compare the case against Bashir with other ICC cases in Africa, Stanislas hesitated: "You cannot look at other African precedents because this is a sitting head of state." In the case of war crimes, Stanislas was quick to point out that truth and reconciliation often take precedence over larger, less tangible priorities. "In Africa, reconciliation has been achieved at the expense of justice. The reality is that reconciliation is always first. You can't forget about the victims, but you also have to remember about the living." His personal opinion was that the ICC had done a good job investigating crimes in Darfur and had reminded African leaders that they cannot violate human rights on a widespread scale. Nevertheless, the ICC may go too far on March 4, causing other African nations to pull out of the treaty as a means of weakening the ICC's ability to prosecute other African leaders. Optimistic about the future in Africa, Stanislas sees institutions such as the African Court of Justice as making significant headway in the consciousness of rulers across the continent. "There is no way that Africa will stay out of the mainstream on human rights, development and justice, but we must prepare our communities properly for a certain evolution. The rest of the world should encourage Africa to go in a western direction, but should not shout, 'You are too slow!'" ¶5. (SBU) Muna Abdullah, a senior analyst with the Addis Ababa-based think-tank, Institute for Security Studies, told poloff on February 26 that in her analysis, the model Bashir will most likely emulate following the issuance of an arrest warrant against him will be that KHARTOUM 00000301 002.2 OF 002 of Joseph Kony of the Lord's Resistance Army. She noted that Kony is a leader who has survived an ICC arrest warrant through becoming more wily and elusive than before. Possibilities such as an attack on Chad through proxy forces and increased suffering in Darfur remain on the table, with Bashir using as many cards as possible to threaten the international community and pressuring it to rescind its support for the ICC. Predicting that the recent Doha negotiations will backfire on JEM, she said rebel movements will cease engaging in negotiations with Joint Mediator Bassole, seeing them only as a further step in the NCP's "rule to divide" strategy. Abdullah condemned the AU as a "sellout" to Bashir, but said it was to be expected, given that the AU is an organization set up to preserve African sovereignty. One of the few paths to peace available in Darfur is the reconstruction of traditional conflict-resolution mechanisms, a development she predicts could flourish if the international community pressed the NCP to allow Darfuris to reconcile on their own, without meddling from Khartoum. ¶6. (SBU) Dr. El Tigani Sesei, one of Darfur's premier intellectuals (to be reported septel) and now deputy director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa, criticized the AU for the role it has played in Sudan and Africa as well. "The AU has no solutions and no capacity. They messed up Darfur and Somalia." Having recently returned from the ECA conference in Libya in which Libyan President Moamar Qaddafi claimed that Israel was to blame for suffering in Darfur, Sesei said the NCP has spent handsomely to persuade AU states to side with the Bashir regime on Darfur, preserving Sudanese sovereignty in Darfur while simultaneously undermining the rights of indigenous Africans in Darfur. "If the AU succeeds in deferring the ICC arrest warrant, it will show they can do what they want because of who they are," he warned. ¶7. (SBU) Comment: By now the AU appears well-aware that it can no longer defer the ICC arrest warrant, but its steadfast and vocal support for Sudan will most likely continue as it seeks to preserve African sovereignty in the face of worldwide calls for transformative justice. The AU showed its hand when Stanislas expressed astonishment that Darfuris may actually celebrate the ICC's announcement on March 4, responding, "While it may be in their short-term interests, the AU does not believe the ICC to be in the long-term interests of Darfur." If the international community is able to engage with the regime in spite of the impending ICC warrant and secure actual improvement on the ground and changes in policies, then the warrant may well serve as a method of keeping the pressure on the GoS to resolve the crisis in Darfur. In this best-case scenario, the ICC will have served both the short and long-term interests of the people of Darfur. If, however, the international community refuses to engage, and the ICC serves to destabilize Sudan and unravel existing peace agreements while failing to provide relief for Darfur, these cynical AU officials may well be right. FERNANDEZ