Arab League agrees on plan to solve Sudan-ICC crisis (Roundup)

Jul 19, 2008, 20:28 GMT

Cairo - The Arab League announced Saturday that its foreign ministers in an emergency meeting agreed on a plan to defuse the crisis between Sudan and the International Criminal Court (ICC), but said details of the plan would be revealed in the next days.

Speaking after the seven-hour meeting, the league's Secretary- General Amr Mussa said that a plan had been agreed to solve the crisis that 'could be really destabilizing.'

The crisis erupted when ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the court on Monday in The Hague to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on suspicion of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Mussa said that details of the plan would be disclosed after his scheduled talks with al-Bashir on Sunday in Khartoum and consultations with the African Union, in which Sudan is a member.

'We will announce what we have agreed after the Khartoum talks on Sunday or in the next days,' Mussa told reporters.

In their meeting Saturday in the Arab League's Cairo headquarters, the foreign ministers discussed the legal and political aspects of the ICC move.

The ICC prosecutor accused al-Bashir of waging a campaign of genocide against three Darfur tribes, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands and displaced about 2.5 million people from their homes in the western Sudanese province.

The ICC is expected to rule in October or November whether to issue the warrant.

'We have three months before a decision is taken by the court. We have to move fast in consultation with the African Union and Sudan,' Mussa said.

Arab countries disagree with the ICC move and see it as 'imbalanced,' he said.

'Ocampo's decision is not balanced as it does not take into consideration violations committed by rebel movements in Darfur,' he said.

Mussa said the crisis will not be solved by screaming, chants or condemnations, in reference to the emotional rhetoric adopted by al- Bashir's regime and demonstrations that have been staged in Khartoum in response to the ICC move.

Earlier, Arab diplomats close to the foreign ministers said that the Arab League ministers were expected to call on the UN Security Council to halt the ICC move for a year, in order to give the various parties to the Darfur conflict more time to reach a solution.

It was the Security Council that referred the Darfur file to the ICC and has the power to halt the court move, the diplomats said.

The Security Council will have a role that will come in time after various moves are undertaken in consultation between the Arab League, the African Union and Sudan, Mussa said. He did not disclose the nature of those moves.