No support in UNSC for article 16 of ICC Rome statute to defer Al-Bashir''s

indictment UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 (KUNA) - There is no support among the majority of Security Council members to invoke article 16 of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Rome Statute aimed at deferring the indictment of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir on war crime charges in Darfur, an African council member told KUNA on Thursday.
"We don't have the nine votes" needed for any council draft resolution to pass in the absence of a veto, the council member said.
The ICC denied press reports earlier today that the Court's judges decided to issue an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir. But a decision is imminent. Ahmed Ben Helli, Arab League deputy Secretary-General, and Ramadan Al-Amamra, Commissioner of the AU Peace and Security Council, arrived in New York earlier this week with a mission to garner support for a UN council draft resolution that would invoke Article 16 in anticipation of the Judges' decision.
That article states that "No investigation or prosecution may be commenced or proceeded with under this Statute for a period of 12 months after the Security Council, in a resolution adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, has requested the Court to that effect. That request may be renewed by the Council under the same conditions." The joint delegation met earlier today with US envoy Susan Rice. Both sides refused to talk to the press following the over one hour-long meeting. It met earlier this week with the Arab and African groups and is continuing its contacts with various council members.
The delegation is scheduled to meet later this afternoon informally with all council members in a room in the basement. The US first objected then changed its mind and finally agreed that such a meeting takes place. It seems its mission is "doomed to failure," another council member said. Sudanese envoy Abdalmahmoud Mohamad told reporters earlier in the day that "for us this so called indictment does not exist for us, at all. Nobody will give it a damn in the country. If it has any merit, it united the whole Sudanese people around our President," adding that the judges "are very much scared to go public" with the indictment. (end) sj.ajs KUNA 122132 Feb 09NNNN