As Southern Sudan takes its final steps towards separating from Khartoum and becoming an independent state, one of its immediate challenges will be how it would deal with international justice issues.

By Mohammed Abdulrahman, Juba

The three biggest neighbours of the imminent Southern Sudan state - Northern Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda – all have dealt, directly or indirectly, with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The most serious test concerns Northern Sudan, as President Omar al Bashir is the ICC’s most prominent fugitive. The court’s prosecutor has charged him with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. All countries that have ratified the Rome Statute – the court’s governing treaty – must arrest Bashir if he visits any of these states. If Southern Sudan should choose to become an ICC member, it would severely impede the new state’s dealings with its northern neighbour.

On the other hand, the independence of the South is also based on the solid support of the international community. “As a newly born state, we will have to engage with the international community and international organisations. That is also in our own interest in order to build a democratic and transparent state,” says Edward Lino from the South’s ruling party, the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement SPLM. “We will definitely consider to be a member of the ICC, or at least to sign the Rome Statute with initials for the time being.”

However, others point to complications related to the issue. Former US President Jimmy Carter, who was in Sudan during the referendum as an international observer, said last week that “an independent South Sudan might not sign up to the ICC (in order) to keep direct contact open with President Omar al Bashir.”
A question to be answered, Carter said, would be “whether the south will affiliate itself with the ICC. They may make the judgment that to heal the wounds between North and South, it is better for them to be able to deal with Bashir personally.”

Until now, Bashir has fully cooperated with all sides during the referendum and has not stood in the way of the South’s separation. However, he does have the leverage to obstruct the process at any moment, something he may do if the specter of the ICC warrants remains too close to his backyard.

Abdelmoniem Aljak, a Northern Sudanese human rights activist who fled to the South in 2008 after being arrested and tortured in Khartoum, strongly rejects rewarding Bashir: “The international community has turned a blind eye to the massive rigging of elections and legitimised the re-election of President Bashir and his ruling party (last April). I hope that the international community will not compromise international justice this time.”

Aljak adds that “all stakeholders have a genuine interest in a Southern Sudan which is peaceful, democratic, and respects human rights. I believe peace, justice and democracy are intersected and interdependent. Accomplishing one at the expense of the other is a thing I am completely against.”
Meanwhile, Uganda’s Lords Resistance Army leadership is high on the ICC’s wanted list. The LRA continues its violent attacks in South Sudan, DR Congo and the Central African Republic. Last month, the ICC named six prominent Kenyans possibly linked to mass violence after the elections in December 2007.

Lino points out, however, that the problems of the ICC in relation to Kenya and Uganda are of a different nature: “The LRA committed heinous crimes in Southern Sudan. We have offered our mediation at some point between the LRA and Kampala. Now we are not hosting the LRA, but we are hunting them. The Kenyan issue is an internal one with which we have nothing to do.”

Aljak agrees with Lino: “In Kenya and Uganda the case is more constructive engagement with the court itself, a situation which is similar to Southern Sudan in terms of engagement and talking about the future. But the NCP (Bashir’s ruling party) is completely denying that they signed the Rome statute. That, in principle, is rejecting the ICC.”

Khartoum signed the Rome Statute in 2000, but has not ratified the treaty.

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