AFP/Sirte

A measure aiming to limit the reach of the International Criminal Court in Africa could give a reprieve to Sudan’s indicted President Omar al-Bashir, if adopted by African leaders at a summit.

A draft resolution “expresses its deep concern at the indictment” of Bashir in March over crimes against humanity and war crimes in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. It also “expresses concern on the conduct of the ICC prosecutor” and proposes to create guidelines for the prosecutor’s conduct.

“The AU member states shall not cooperate... for the arrest and surrender of African indicted personalities,” the text said.

The text is backed by Libyan leader and current AU chief Muammar Gaddafi, who has said the ICC represents a “new world terrorism”, but goes considerably further than the position of other African countries, particularly the 30 states that have signed the Rome statutes creating the court.

“This is an attempt by Libya to undercut the ICC and to give a free pass to Omar al-Bashir to traipse around Africa without worry,” said Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch.

Some countries, particularly those sympathetic to Sudan, have flatly condemned the ICC warrant, but others have expressed a more nuanced concern that the warrant could hinder peace efforts in Sudan and called for its suspension.

Some delegates at the summit in Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte said they believe the text being circulated might not be formally presented to the heads of state for consideration, to prevent a new clash in a gathering already split over Kadhafi’s push to create a powerful pan-African government.

The African Union had earlier agreed to a resolution asking the UN that the warrant be deferred for one year.

“We think that the execution of the warrant at this point in time is going to compromise several milestones in the roadmap to peace in Darfur” as well as in southern Sudan, where a 22-year civil war only ended in 2005, Ghana’s Foreign Minister Alhaji Mohamed Mumuni said.

The southern conflict has been Africa’s longest civil war, but elections are now planned in February and a historic independence referendum is due in 2011.

Under the peace deal, the south has a six-year transitional period of regional autonomy and takes part in a unity government until the 2011 referendum on self-determination.

A recent increase in ethnic clashes has raised concern about the future of the peace process in the south, and nations like Ghana say they fear that if Bashir were arrested today, his detention would leave a power vacuum that could undermine the progress already made.

The draft text also gives voice to a sentiment that the UN ignored Africa’s concerns about the warrant by not responding to the earlier AU resolution.

The UN Security Council can ask the court, via a resolution, to suspend investigations or prosecutions for 12 months, under Article 16 of the Rome Statute. The stay can be renewed.

Human rights activists argue that the court can play an essential role in providing justice to victims of conflicts around the world.

A group of Nobel laureates including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Wangari Maathai and Wole Soyinka wrote an open letter to African leaders urging them to support the ICC.

“We hope that its work will help to break the vicious circle of violence and the culture of silence in the Darfur region and in all of Sudan,” they wrote.