United Nations Radio

Int'l Criminal Court chamber

SUGG INTRO: The Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has appealed the decision by the Court's judges not to charge Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir with genocide. Luis Moreno Ocampo says he has additional evidence to add the charge of genocide to the arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity which the Court issued in March. Diane Bailey asked Sylvana Arbia, the Court's registrar, what Mr. Ocampo expects given that many of the African countries have said they will not help arrest the Sudanese president.

ARBIA:
Not only the prosecutor but the court is expecting an enforcement of the decision of the pretrial, chamber (one), which as he issued a warrant of arrest against Al Bashir. It is important that this one, like any other one issued by the judge of the court will be enforced promptly because this is the authority of the court that need to be preserved. So the court is very, very concerned. If among the member of African union, there are status parties to the Rome statute, it is very clear that they have a precise obligation to cooperate and in this case to arrest, Mr. Al Bashir. Without that the authority of the court is an issue.

BAILEY:
Since it is so difficult to arrest Mr. Bashir in the first place, why not just be content with war crimes and crimes against humanity?

ARBIA:
We have already a warrant of arrest and this is sufficient to arrest Al Bashir. The point of the prosecutor that he wanted and it's a request to include among the charges also the genocide. You know what the terms of the decision of the pretrial chamber of the 4th March 2009. They are very clear. The say that at that stage, that means at the date of 4th March 2009, for the pretrial chamber one, there was not sufficient elements, but after that, after this date, it was possible in the decision of pretrial (term) to get more elements, and to convince the judge just for the purpose of the warrant of arrest.

BAILEY:
What about the Militia Leader, Ali Abdul Recman, and Akmed Haroun, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs? What about their warrants?

ARBIA: Unfortunately we don't have any sign of improvements the cooperation by the Sudan authorities, so there is no possibility for now to arrest these two suspects, on which is pending a warrant of arrest, again the decision of the judge.

BAILEY:
And just a final question, what do these arrest warrants mean for the people of Darfur?

ARDIA:
Means a lot. I have visited, myself, the refugees in Chad and they insist a lot that they need to return home. And they say if Al Bashir is not arrested, we can not return home. So it is very important for the people, for the communities, affected communities, but also for the international community because this crime, the alleged crime, alleged for now, are international crimes, so the entire international community is concerned.

(duration: 2'36")