South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has revealed that his government was threatened by foreign powers with a referral to the International Criminal Court, without saying who specifically made the threat.
“Some of our international partners in peace even turned to threats and intimidations, both in public and private – sanctions, the withdrawal of aid and support, referrals to the International Criminal Court,” Kiir stated in an article published in his name in the Washington Times on Sunday.
The president did not elaborate on this to reveal whether he personally was threatened with investigation or the threat was kept vague.
According to the Rome Statute, the ICC Prosecutor may open an investigation when a situation is referred to him or her by the United Nations Security Council. This suggests that the threats against Kiir may have been by one or more members of the UN Security Council.
Writing in the Washington Times, Kiir slammed the unnamed “international partners,” saying, “The tools of democracy, prosperity and justice, now are used to bludgeon those same principles.”
“From distant capitals came demands that we shred our constitution and the safeguards for the South Sudanese enshrined within it,” he added.
Kiir stressed repeatedly in the article in the Washington Times that he objected to key elements of the peace deal that he signed in August, but that he was pressured into signing it anyway. Kiir explained that the deal “rewards insurrection” and imposes a supra-national monitoring commission “headed by a foreigner and with absolute veto power over the decisions of the government”
He questioned also the “ordered demilitarization” of the capital city Juba and state capitals, saying this is a threat to South Sudan’s territorial integrity. “Of course we… voiced our objections. We were told, however, to keep quiet,” reads the article written in Kiir’s name.
Kiir’s counterpart in Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, is wanted by the ICC on charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Bashir fled from an African Union summit unexpectedly in June when a South African court issued an arrest warrant for him, citing the ICC decision.