China has expressed concern over a move by a war crimes court to reconsider adding genocide charges to an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir, saying it could hurt the peace process.
Foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) said the situation in Sudan was at a “complex, sensitive and critical” stage and such a move by the International Criminal Court (ICC) could “disturb or even damage the cooperative atmosphere.”
“Concerned sides” are trying to push forward the Doha peace talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebel groups, he said in a statement released on Friday, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Sudan is due to hold elections in April and a referendum on self-determination for the south next January.
Ma said that China had expressed “deep concern” since the start of proceedings against Beshir in 2008, together with “some African and Arabic developing countries, as well as regional organizations such as the African Union and the League of Arab States,” Xinhua reported.
The African Union said on Friday the ICC’s move harmed the peace process in Sudan.
An ICC appeals chamber on Wednesday ordered a review of Beshir’s arrest warrant for alleged atrocities in the war-torn western Sudanese province of Darfur.
It directed judges to reconsider their decision to omit genocide from the warrant issued in March last year, saying they had made “an error in law.”
The ICC issued the arrest warrant for Beshir on five counts of crimes against humanity and two of war crimes committed in Darfur — its first-ever warrant for a sitting head of state.
Chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo first called for an arrest warrant to be issued against Beshir in July 2008.
China is seen as key to ending the war between the Arab government in Sudan and rebels in Darfur because it is an ally of the regime, a military supplier and an importer of Sudanese oil.
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