Egypt expresses its wariness of the ICC indictment of Sudanese President Al-Bashir and urges a 12-month reprieve instead, writes Gamal Nkrumah The indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir for genocide and war crimes in Darfur has gotten the country's African and Arab neighbours into a bit of a tizzy. Egypt, for one, officially views the ICC indictment as ill-judged. President Hosni Mubarak met with his Sudanese counterpart in Cairo and reiterated Egyptian efforts to counter the ICC claims. The crisis is compounded by the particularly close relationship between Egypt and its southern neighbour. While careful not to explicitly back Al-Bashir, Egyptian officials have openly declared their unqualified support for the Sudanese government's position of defying the ICC. They also advocate a reprieve for the Sudanese president. The special historic ties between Egypt and Sudan make the ICC indictment of Al-Bashir grippingly topical. Presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad warned that the ICC indictment "will have dangerous consequences for Darfur, in particular, and Sudan in general." He emphasised that at this historical juncture it is vitally important to support efforts to resolve the Darfur crisis. Awwad noted that the ICC indictment smacked of "politicisation and selectivity" and advocated the delay or halting of the ICC arrest warrant for Al-Bashir, stressing that the unprecedented move would be tantamount to a Pandora's box. "We in Egypt cannot condone a decision by the ICC to indict President Al-Bashir. This is an extremely dangerous precedent with serious repercussions. There are fears that because the Sudanese president is indicted, the country would descend into chaos just like Somalia. We in Egypt cannot stand idly by and watch our close neighbour become embroiled in civil war, economic ruin and political instability," Mustafa El-Feki, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee at the People's Assembly told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Four or five million Sudanese refugees will cross the border if an international economic embargo is imposed on Sudan. Moreover, the indictment does not serve the advancement of the nascent Sudanese democracy," El-Feki added. "The international community is in danger of applying double standards. Why is the Sudanese president indicted for war crimes when the Israeli leaders are not brought to book for the atrocities they committed in Gaza? Why is the Sudanese president singled out for retribution? Why are not the Israeli leaders indicted for war crimes? This indictment is grossly unfair." The ICC indictment is widely viewed as a sinister conspiracy, with the West using Sudan as a springboard to penetrate deeply into other countries in the region, including Egypt. "I myself believe that both the Sudanese government and the armed opposition groups in Darfur committed mistakes and human rights violations. We advised the Sudanese authorities to review their heavy-handed policies in Darfur. We warned them against clampdowns, but they refused to pay attention and took it all lightly. They are now paying the price. And yet we cannot watch our brethren in Sudan suffer such indignities at the hands of the ICC. We are bound to stand by Sudan." Egyptian diplomats echo El-Feki's sentiments. "Egypt has always stood fast in supporting Sudan," Abdel-Muneim Mohamed Mabrouk, Sudan's ambassador to Egypt and the Cairo- based Arab League declared recently. El-Feki noted that Sudan was the strategic depth of Egypt and that the historical ties that bind the two countries entail Egyptian support for the Sudanese government especially in its time of need. "Egypt plans to push for a delay of at least one year to give the Al-Bashir administration sufficient time to resolve the Darfur crisis," he concluded. He added that it is a shame that at the very moment that inroads have been achieved towards advancing the Darfur peace process, the international community represented by the ICC would sabotage the peace endeavours. El-Feki's views are shared by the Egyptian public who see the whole exercise as yet another excuse for the West to interfere in the domestic affairs of a beleaguered Muslim country. "Egypt supports Sudan on the question of the ICC because it is very dangerous to the state of Sudan itself, not just to the regime of President Al-Bashir," explained Hani Raslan of Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. "Now that there is peace between the North and the South, Egypt does not want to see a return to a wider civil war engulfing the entire country to its immediate south," Raslan added.
