KHARTOUM, April 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The UN Security Council resolution referring those accused of war crimes in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC) has drawn mixed reactions, with the Sudanese government denouncing it as unfair and international human rights groups hailing as historic.

Sudanese officials said the UN Security Council was undermining efforts to make peace in the western Darfur region. However, they stopped short of saying whether they would reject or accept the resolution.

“I believe it is unfair, ill-advised and narrow-minded,” state minister for foreign affairs, Najeeb al-Kheir Abdul Wahab, told Reuters Friday, April 1.

The UN Security Council late Thursday, March 31, voted 11-0 with 4 abstentions to refer a sealed list of 51 accused of crimes against humanity in Darfur to the ICC, after last-minute wrangling to allow exemptions for US citizens. The resolution is the first referral to the ICC by the council.

Abdul Wahab said the government would nevertheless study the resolution and take “appropriate action” on implementation.

Other Sudanese officials said the resolution would undermine the government’s quest for justice in Darfur through reconciliation.

Abdel-Basset Sedarat, Sudanese minister of information, told Al-Jazeera Satellite TV Friday, the resolution could threaten re-igniting the situation in Darfur after his government attempts to contain it. He said relatives and tribal leaders of those who could face trial before the ICC could seek revenge.

Sedarat added the resolution reflects a deep discrepancy, as the United States has refused to recognize the ICC at the same time it allows citizens of other countries to stand trial before it.

“Sudan is not a member of that tribunal, either,” he charged.

The vote was 11 in favor and four abstentions. In addition to the United States, abstentions came from China and Algeria, which opposed any international trials, and Brazil, a supporter of the court, which objected to exemptions the United States demanded as a contravention of ICC statutes.

France and Britain gave each other credit for negotiating Thursday’s resolution.

French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere had initiated the text but left it to his British counterpart, Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, to sponsor it because of misgivings about the US exemption.

Displaced Darfuris wait for relief aid. (Reuters)

Analysts said the resolution was too little and too late for the Security Council, which strengthened an arms embargo on the African nation and imposed a travel ban and assets freeze on those who violate a shaky ceasefire in remote Darfur.

Sudan, for the first time earlier this week, said it had arrested 15 officials from the military and security forces for crimes including rape, killing civilians and burning villages.

Human rights groups, on their parts, have described as historic the UN Security Council’s resolution, but criticised exemptions for US citizens.

Citizens for Global Solutions, a US grassroots group promoting democratic global institutions, called the referral “a historical first for international law”.

“It demonstrates that the ICC is the only legitimate international body able to deal with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity when states fail to do so,” the group said in a statement carried by Reuters.

New York-based Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International both called the move “historic”, but attacked an exemption that would bar the ICC from prosecuting US citizens or those from any other nation in Sudan that was not a party to the court.

Amnesty International’s Yvonne Terlingen said: “It creates double standards of justice, contravenes the UN Charter, the Rome Statute and other international law.”

Citizens for International Justice said an estimated 20,000 people had died in Darfur during two months of “bickering” about the referral due to US opposition to the ICC.

But the Khartoum government said the casualties do not exceed 5,000 in number, accusing external parties of seeking to provoke internal disorder in the predominantly-Muslim Sudan, which has potentially huge reserves of natural resources including oil.

The United States, which has described killings in Darfur as genocide, abstained from the referral vote after winning the exemptions and insisted it still opposed the ICC, which has yet to issue its first indictment or arrest warrant.

Based in The Hague, the ICC was established in 2002 as the first permanent global criminal court to try individuals accused of genocide, war crimes and major human rights abuses.