Sudan protests Balkenende’s anti-Bashir comment

Sudan made a formal diplomatic protest to the Netherlands. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday summoned the Dutch ambassador over remarks made by Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende earlier this week in New York.Balkenende had objected to the August visit by President Omar Al Bashir to Kenya, a country that was under treaty obligation to arrest Bashir and hand him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Balkenende: “for the government of the Netherlands is unacceptable that people like President Bashir of Sudan, who is wanted for arrest, can move freely in a country that has joined the ICC.” He was speaking at the UN General Assembly.

In response, an official at the Sudanese Foreign Ministry submitted a “sharp-worded diplomatic protest to the Netherlands government against these statements,” according to the government-run Sudan News Agency (SUNA).

The foreign ministry’s director of the European affairs, Ambassador Phiomon Majak, said that the Netherlands stands “against the will of the African Union, the Arab League and all the justice-loving people who clearly rejected the false ICC allegations against Sudan and its leadership.”

Two ICC warrants stand against President Omar Al Bashir. The first warrant was issued in March 2009 for two counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity. The second warrant was issued in July 2010 for three counts of genocide committed against the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit ethnic groups in Darfur.