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OO RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBZ RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHDU RUEHFL RUEHGI
RUEHIK RUEHJO RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHMA RUEHMR RUEHNP RUEHPA
RUEHPOD RUEHRN RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHTRO RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUCNDT #0141 0481354
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 171354Z FEB 09 ZDS
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5860
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 000141 
 
C O R R E C T E D COPY (SLUG LINE ADDED) 
 
DEPT PASS ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM SU
SUBJECT: AU/ARAB LEAGUE LOBBY UNSC FOR ICC DEFERRAL FOR 
BASHIR 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. African Union and Arab League leaders met 
informally with Security Council members on February 12 to 
press their case for deferral of the ICC case against Sudan 
President Bashir.  AU Commissioner Lamamra told Council 
members that the AU is making progress with the Government of 
Sudan on seven separate engagement tracks all of which would 
be jeopardized were the case against Bashir to go forward. 
Arab League representative Hosni assured the Council that a 
suspension would not end the ICC process and that the league 
and AU would continue complementary efforts during the 
suspension.  Five members spoke in favor of a deferral and 
Russia leaned in that direction.  Five members spoke against 
deferral and Costa Rica leaned in that direction. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Japan, holder of the Security Council presidency for 
February, hosted an "informal interative discussion" on 
February 12 between Council members and a joint delegation of 
the African Union and the Arab League.  The session was held 
in a UN basement conference room and no official record was 
kept.  Participants included Council members, AU Commissioner 
Ramdane Lamamra, Arab League representative Samir Hosni, and 
Qatar Deputy PermRep Salem Al-Shafi. 
 
¶3. (SBU) AU Commissioner Lamamra essentially delivered a 
demarche from the AU Peace and Security Council "to our 
partners in security in Africa in as official a manner as 
possible."  He explained that the AU and its partners were 
engaging the Government of Sudan along seven substantive 
tracks and suggested that progress on each track would be 
derailed if the International Criminal Court case against 
Sudan President Bashir were to proceed uninterrupted.  He 
outlined the seven tracks as (1) promotion of the North-South 
Comprehensive Peace Agreement; (2) UNAMID deployment; (3) the 
Darfur peace process; (4) humanitarian assistance; (5) 
Sudan-Chad relations; (6) Nonimpunity; and (7) democracy. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Lamamra focused his presentation on the 
"nonimpunity" track.  He said a recently announced AU panel 
to be headed by former South African President Thambo Mbeki 
will be truly independent and charged with working out a 
balance in Sudan between competing concerns about nonimpunity 
and security.  He said the AU and Arab League were ready to 
help the Parliament of Sudan amend Sudan's penal code to 
allow domestic prosecution of human rights cases in line with 
ICC standards.  Arab League representative Samir Hosni 
assured the Council that these efforts to invigorate Sudan's 
criminal judice system would continue during any suspension 
of the ICC case the Council were to order under Article 16 of 
the Rome Statute and that the efforts would not replace but 
complement an ICC prosecution. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Libya, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Uganda, and Vietnam 
joined Lamamra in expressly supporting an Article 16 deferral 
of the case against Bashir.  Russia said "the time has come 
to seriously consider a deferral."  U.S., UK, France, 
Croatia, and Austria said there was no evidence of Khartoum 
cooperation with the ICC or UN warranting a deferral of the 
case the Security Council itself had asked the ICC to 
undertake.  Costa Rica was open to considering the question 
of a deferral further but said "nothing should undermine the 
ICC or allow any individual to escape justice."  Mexico gave 
equivocal and brief comments.  The Japanese presidency told 
the press after the session that it had been a useful 
exchange of view views and that several memebers had 
expressed support for the peace talks underway in Doha. 
Rice