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CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ
THE ICC ARREST WARRANT FOR THE SUDANESE PRESIDENT…
1. General background
After a military coup in 1989, Omar al-Bashir took power in the Republic of
Sudan and he became Sudanese President in 1993. Since then, he has been re-elected
several times, most recently in April 2015, receiving 94% of the votes. However, the
elections were boycotted by major opposition political parties.
The conflict in the western Sudanese province of Darfur relates partly to the
access to natural resources and partly to the membership to a particular ethnic group.
Affiliation plays a key role in the conflict in Darfur, mainly the affiliation with
African (inhabitants of Darfur) or Arab (central government) origins. The leading
rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality
Movement, started to stand in defiance against the central government in Khartoum.
The armed conflict broke out in Darfur in 2003. The government was not prepared
for such a situation and was not able to control the regions. For that reason, it took
advantage of the ethnic and intertribal conflicts and began to encourage the local tribes
to help the government in the fight against the rebels. The Arab tribes constituted the
Janjaweed
militia, which started to interfere in Darfur, together with the Sudanese
army. Frequent targets of their attacks were civilians belonging to African ethnic
groups, primarily the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.
The UN estimates that 300,000 thousand people have been killed and more than
two million displaced.
2. UN Security Council referral to the International Criminal Court
The International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur was established by the UN
Secretary-General pursuant to the Security Council Resolution 1564. The Commission
reported to the UN in January 2005 that there was reason to believe that crimes
against humanity and war crimes had been committed in Darfur and recommended
that the situation be referred to the ICC.
Using its authority under Art. 13 (b) of the Rome Statute, the UN Security Council
referred the situation in Darfur since 1 July 2002 to the Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) in Resolution 1593 of March 2005.
In general, by means of a Security Council resolution issued under Chapter VII
of the Charter of the United Nations, the ICC receives jurisdiction to open an
investigation in the relevant country that is not a State Party to the Rome Statute.
Therefore, although Sudan did not ratify the Rome Statute, based on the Security
Council resolution, it is legally obliged to cooperate with the ICC.