AU/ARAB LEAGUE LOBBY UNSC FOR ICC DEFERRAL FOR

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000141 C O R R E C T E D COPY (SLUG LINE ADDED) DEPT PASS ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM SU SUBJECT: AU/ARAB LEAGUE LOBBY UNSC FOR ICC DEFERRAL FOR BASHIR ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. African Union and Arab League leaders met informally with Security Council members on February 12 to press their case for deferral of the ICC case against Sudan President Bashir. AU Commissioner Lamamra told Council members that the AU is making progress with the Government of Sudan on seven separate engagement tracks all of which would be jeopardized were the case against Bashir to go forward. Arab League representative Hosni assured the Council that a suspension would not end the ICC process and that the league and AU would continue complementary efforts during the suspension. Five members spoke in favor of a deferral and Russia leaned in that direction. Five members spoke against deferral and Costa Rica leaned in that direction. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) Japan, holder of the Security Council presidency for February, hosted an "informal interative discussion" on February 12 between Council members and a joint delegation of the African Union and the Arab League. The session was held in a UN basement conference room and no official record was kept. Participants included Council members, AU Commissioner Ramdane Lamamra, Arab League representative Samir Hosni, and Qatar Deputy PermRep Salem Al-Shafi. ¶3. (SBU) AU Commissioner Lamamra essentially delivered a demarche from the AU Peace and Security Council "to our partners in security in Africa in as official a manner as possible." He explained that the AU and its partners were engaging the Government of Sudan along seven substantive tracks and suggested that progress on each track would be derailed if the International Criminal Court case against Sudan President Bashir were to proceed uninterrupted. He outlined the seven tracks as (1) promotion of the North-South Comprehensive Peace Agreement; (2) UNAMID deployment; (3) the Darfur peace process; (4) humanitarian assistance; (5) Sudan-Chad relations; (6) Nonimpunity; and (7) democracy. ¶4. (SBU) Lamamra focused his presentation on the "nonimpunity" track. He said a recently announced AU panel to be headed by former South African President Thambo Mbeki will be truly independent and charged with working out a balance in Sudan between competing concerns about nonimpunity and security. He said the AU and Arab League were ready to help the Parliament of Sudan amend Sudan's penal code to allow domestic prosecution of human rights cases in line with ICC standards. Arab League representative Samir Hosni assured the Council that these efforts to invigorate Sudan's criminal judice system would continue during any suspension of the ICC case the Council were to order under Article 16 of the Rome Statute and that the efforts would not replace but complement an ICC prosecution. ¶5. (SBU) Libya, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Uganda, and Vietnam joined Lamamra in expressly supporting an Article 16 deferral of the case against Bashir. Russia said "the time has come to seriously consider a deferral." U.S., UK, France, Croatia, and Austria said there was no evidence of Khartoum cooperation with the ICC or UN warranting a deferral of the case the Security Council itself had asked the ICC to undertake. Costa Rica was open to considering the question of a deferral further but said "nothing should undermine the ICC or allow any individual to escape justice." Mexico gave equivocal and brief comments. The Japanese presidency told the press after the session that it had been a useful exchange of view views and that several memebers had expressed support for the peace talks underway in Doha. Rice